Supervisors set hearing on Pioneertown system

SAN BERNARDINO – The Board of Supervisors Monday’s scheduled a hearing for 2 p.m. Dec. 10, on whether to levy a $75-per-acre fee on Pioneertown property owners to finance design of a new water system for the small desert community north of Yucca Valley.

The move came after the county’s Special District Department reported that in a poll it conducted, 136 property owners favored proceedings toward a new water system while only 54 were opposed.

The department said count was 17-13 against the project among those who maintain Pioneertown post office boxes, but a petition favoring it was signed by 22 of the communities 30 registered voters.

The board will consider at the Dec. 10 hearing whether to form an improvement zone covering more than a square mile of properties and whether to levy the fee to ensure payment of $48,000 of the engineering costs. The community is now only partially serviced by a deteriorated and undersized old private system, according to the department.