Egan encourages Parrish to get briefed by city manager on the current details of planned truck stop

Susanville City Councilmember Patrick Parrish, speaking as a citizen and not as a member of the city council, said he wanted to share more information with the public about a plan to build a truck stop in our area, and he urged the city and the county to cooperate to get it done. He even suggested city and county officials could just meet in a big room and settle whatever conflicts exist between the two governmental agencies that are slowing the project.

But responding to Parrish’s comments, Lassen County Administrative Officer Richard Egan cautioned both city and county officials against entering into public conversations on the subject. He said the Local Area Formation Commission was the correct venue for those discussions. He also suggested if Parrish wanted to learn the up-to-date details or more information about the project, he should meet with City Manager Dan Newton and obtain a briefing on its current status.

Parrish introduced himself to the board members, and said, “I just want to talk to y’all about the Love’s gas station. I’m not necessarily too familiar with all the money and details yet for one of my next projects. I was thinking, let’s all try to work together for the city and the county. I don’t think it should be a long, drawn-out process. This current city council is a lot different from the previous, so I would like to extend my hand so we can all just possibly – both councils get together in a big room and settle this, and we can just move forward. When I’m talking to people in town, they’re saying what’s up, what’s going on, why is this taking so long, is this an ego battle or what is it?

“So, I’d like to give people some information on what we’re going to do, how we’re going to try to do this and move forward with it … ”

Parrish said he would be happy to meet one-one-one with the supervisors.

Board chair and District 4 Supervisor Aaron Albaugh said he didn’t know what Parrish was talking about, so he asked County Administrative Officer Richard Egan for more information.

Egan said there is “a reportedly proposed truck stop” on county owned property that is within the city’s sphere of influence.

“I’ve discussed (it) with your city manager on several occasions,” Egan said, addressing Parrish’s comments. “There’s an intent to annex that portion of the county into the city as part of this project. I would caution the board, and the council for that matter, about engaging in discussions about that outside the LAFCo process, which is the proper process for this project to engage in.

“The way the LAFCo process works is either the city or the county would propose or apply for an annexation, and that sets in motion several issues, including a tax sharing agreement … I would recommend you talk to your city manager about that process. I understand that it’s very near the application stage, but I don’t believe LAFCo has received an application yet. I would just encourage you to talk to your city manager about that and get briefed on the current details.”

District 1 Supervisor Chris Gallagher, who sits on the LAFCo board (made up of members of the board of supervisors, the city council and a public member), said LAFCo has not received an application yet.

“I’m glad you mentioned that,” Parrish said. “I think this is a situation where the county and the city can work a little bit better together, if someone is saying I don’t know anything about that. But, this is kind of how I work. I’m not here representing the city council. I’m representing myself, so, I’d just like to extend a hand and talk to each one of you if I can about any issues that you have and how we can work together to get things moving forward.”

Parrish said he would share his phone number with the supervisors.

“We can talk and go from there and really work together so there’s no animosity or ‘they’re over there’ and ‘we’re over here’ because the people of this county and the people of this city don’t care,” Parrish said. “They just don’t care. They all think we’re all just one. That’s really what it is … “