PD Editorial: Milestones and setbacks on the road to recovery

The first new homes are going up in Coffey Park, the last lot has been cleared of debris.

And a major homebuilder abruptly dropped out.

So it goes with the recovery from October’s calamitous wildfires.

Certainly, no one seriously expected a smooth, straight path to recovery - or a pattern of two steps forward, followed by one step back.

But setbacks are inevitable. Indeed, the announcement that DeNova Homes won’t offer its services to fire victims wasn’t the only unanticipated development of the past week.

As Staff Writer Kevin McCallum reported Saturday, the cash-strapped city of Santa Rosa might have to replace the water lines in a large part of fire-ravaged Fountaingrove because of benzene contamination. The cost: $20 million.

That revelation came with the city already seeking answers from Washington about how much local taxpayers must pay for the debris removal project. Will it be 10 percent of the cost or 25 percent? Will it be, based on recent estimates, $9 million or $23 million?

With the city having about $19 million in its reserves, the determination could be the difference between solvency and insolvency.

Mayor Chris Coursey called it the “biggest unknown we’re facing right now.”

Clarity won’t come before Congress acts on disaster relief for California and several other states. An $81 billion disaster aid bill passed the House on Dec. 21, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has pushed it back twice, despite calls from Gov. Jerry Brown and his Republican counterparts in Florida and Texas to stop stalling.

In a letter to congressional leaders, the governors called the legislation “critical to the recovery of our residents, businesses and local governments. Its continued delay only exacerbates ongoing uncertainty in devastated areas.”

The same could be said of DeNova Homes’ decision to withdraw from discussions with property owners in Coffey Park and other fire-damaged neighborhoods who, hoping to benefit from economies of scale, are interested in jointly hiring a contractor. It’s a promising approach, but the Concord builder said it was unable to recruit enough tradesmen for the large-scale recovery project.

“Our fear is that this is a bellwether of the way things are going to go,” said Jeff Okrepkie, the chairman of the Coffey Strong neighborhood group.

The concern isn’t unwarranted. The recovery effort in Houston after Hurricane Harvey last September has been stymied by labor shortages, as have routine building and infrastructure projects around the country.

“Right now, the largest construction companies in America are turning away hundreds of millions of dollars in work every quarter because they don’t have enough bodies on their crews,” Todd Hitt, the CEO of Kindar Capital, wrote in a post-hurricane commentary for the Washington Post that also appeared on these pages (“Why Houston won’t be rebuilt anytime soon,” Oct. 11).

The bottom line? There will be surprises and setbacks throughout the recovery process, but they must not overshadow the push for clear answers and creative ideas.