Stanislaus County Supervisors' Watch

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Stanislaus County supervisors Tuesday unanimously:

• Accepted a $157,400 federal stimulus grant that might enable the reopening of senior nutrition centers in Riverbank, Salida, Ceres, Denair, Keyes and Knights Ferry. The money also should buy an additional 25,000 meals to be delivered to low-income seniors. County officials will reserve some of the funding to subsidize jobs for three low-income seniors.

• Agreed to seek a use permit to establish a garbage transfer station at the former Geer Road landfill. Residents in the county's northeast area will find it more convenient to drop off loads, which would be sorted and transferred to the garbage-burning plant or landfill on the county's West Side. Modesto, which owns half of the Geer Road landfill, would have to sign off on the idea.

• Decided to lower this year's spending to maintain the former Geer Road landfill, from $625,000 to $225,000. The landfill became full and closed in 1990 after 20 years of burying waste. Since then, the county has "overfunded" maintenance by $9.8 million, state officials say. Reducing the annual payment will continue to add $800,000 per year to the county's balance because of interest earnings, according to a county report.

• Agreed to pay psychiatrist Charles Edwards as much as $75,000 per year for the next two years, "budget permitting," for clinical services. The county has paid Edwards $1.5 million over the past seven years.

• Accepted a $33,160 state gang reduction grant to train 10 probation officers in "aggression replacement training" for juvenile inmates.

• Supported a valleywide effort to establish a medical school at the University of California at Merced by 2015. Plans have been scaled back because of the recession, though officials hope to create a pre-med program next year and a branch of UC Davis' medical school at UC Merced by 2012. "UC Merced is one of the basic foundations to resolving challenges we have in the valley," Supervisor Dick Monteith said.

-- Garth Stapley