Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors Watch (3/9/10)

The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. today in the basement chamber at Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St., Modesto. The board is scheduled to:

• Join 13 other counties seeking federal stimulus money to extend high-speed Internet services in underserved areas. The partnership includes San Joaquin, Merced, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Madera, Mariposa, Amador, El Dorado, Fresno, Kings, Kern, Placer and Tulare counties.

• Pay $558,760 to SPX Corp., based in North Carolina, for 28 bus fare boxes. Instead of coming up with exact change for manual fare boxes, electronic boxes would allow riders to store credit on cards for use on future rides. Of the total purchase price, $458,900 would come from federal stimulus money.

• Invite companies to bid to provide natural gas to county buildings. The state Department of General Services provides natural gas to the county's Health Services Agency complex, but all other buildings contract with PG&E. Consolidating to one provider could save about $40,500 from the yearly cost of up to $530,000, a report says.

• Pay Jorge Gonzalez $20,285 for his 0.1-acre strip of land at Las Palmas and Sycamore avenues in Patterson. Crews will put in a traffic signal, widen shoulders and add turn lanes in a project costing $800,000.

• Schedule a March 20 hearing on updating the county's development fees. Officials in June expected to adjust fees, but home builders persuaded them to delay the move until after revising the county's capital projects list.

-- Garth Stapley