1. $2,400,000 for the City of Morro Bay - Bonita Fire Station
2. $5,000,000 for San Luis Obispo County- Arroyo Grande Watershed Action Plan
3. $1,350,000 for the City of Santa Maria - Real Time Information Center
4. $3,000,000 for the Ventura Sheriff - Aviation Equipment Technology Project
Agriculture
City of Morro Bay - Bonita Fire Station Project
Amount Requested: $2,400,000
Project Location: 460 Bonita Street, Morro Bay, CA 93442
Description: The funding would be used to redevelop a long unstaffed fire station into a modern, two story living quarters facility. The facility would be designed for a three-person company with three bedrooms and two baths and would be expected to provide over 30 years of service. The project is an appropriate use of taxpayer funds because the station would greatly reduce response times to North
Morro Bay potentially by 50% as well as improve overall levels of service to the entire community.
Click here for the signed certification letter affirming the federal nexus of the project and stating the Member has no financial interest in the project.
San Luis Obispo County- Arroyo Grande Watershed Action Plan Project
Amount Requested: $5,000,000
Project Location: 1055 Monterey Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93408
Description: The funding would be used for a project to address flood risk, habitat conservation, and water quality challenges across the Arroyo Grande Creek watershed. The project is an appropriate use of taxpayer funds because the watershed includes flood-prone communities, agricultural lands, critical infrastructure, and habitat for federally listed threatened and endangered species. Sedimentation, channel modifications, and altered hydrology have increased flood risk, degraded habitat and impacted water quality. This project will address these concerns and will help attain endangered species goals.
Click here for the signed certification letter affirming the federal nexus of the project and stating the Member has no financial interest in the project.
Commerce, Justice, Science
Ventura County Sheriff's Office - Aviation Technology Equipment
Amount of Request: $3,000,000
Project Location: 800 S. Victoria Ave., Ventura, CA 93003
Description: The funding would go towards the purchase of various aviation equipment including the purchase of 2 new aviation cameras, one to be added to Ventura County Sheriff's patrol helicopter and one to their primary search and rescue helicopter. Additionally, this money would allow the Department to upgrade their avionics in one of their aging Bell Huey rescue aircraft as well as pay for the cost of either a replacement hoist or future overhauls of current hoists which are used in rescues of injured individuals.
The Ventura County Aviation Unit is the sole aviation unit in the county and handles all law enforcement, rescue, medivac, and firefighting. The purchase and upgrade of the equipment would better prepare the unit for all of these missions including the ability to locate missing or injured persons as well as better real-time fire mapping in wildland fires. This county resource not only benefits the citizens of Ventura County but as a regional resource under state mutual aid it has the ability to positively affect those throughout the state.
This project is an appropriate use of taxpayer funds because it will directly benefit public safety through more effective and efficient police services as well as assisting in the providing the ability to more quickly locate and rescue missing and/or injured individuals. As a regional aviation asset this will also assist in mutual aid responses in neighboring regions.
Click here for the signed certification letter affirming the federal nexus of the project and stating the Member has no financial interest in the project.
City of Santa Maria Real-Time Information Center (RTIC) with an integrated Drone as a First Responder (DFR) Program Project
Total Request: $1,350,000
Project Location: 110 E. Cook Street, Santa Maria, CA 93454.
Description: The funding would be used to establish a Real-Time Information Center (RTIC) with an integrated Drone as a First Responder (DFR) program within the Santa Maria Police Department. The Department serves a population of more than 110,000 residents with 114 sworn officers and 60 professional personnel — staffing levels essentially unchanged since the late 1990s despite decades of population and business growth. Specialized units including the Traffic Bureau, Gang Suppression Team, Narcotic Suppression Team, and Community Services Unit all operate below the staffing levels they maintained a quarter century ago.
The City has already invested in over 140 public safety cameras citywide and operates an effective Records Management System and Automated License Plate Reader network — but these assets remain siloed. The RTIC will fill that gap by integrating existing camera feeds, CAD, ALPR data, and body camera footage into a unified real-time operational platform. The integrated DFR component will add five drone platforms capable of deploying automatically from fixed docking stations upon dispatch, arriving on scene in approximately 90 seconds — compared to the current 3-to-4-minute average officer response time. Drone operators will monitor 911 calls in real time, enabling aerial deployment before officers are formally dispatched. Upon arrival, operators can verify the nature of an incident, relay situational awareness to ground units, support de-escalation through onboard speakers, and cancel unnecessary officer response to redirect resources to higher-priority calls.
Federal investment in Santa Maria's RTIC and DFR program is justified because it delivers a force-multiplying public safety upgrade at a fraction of what comparable investments have cost elsewhere — and in a community where the need is documented, the groundwork is already laid, and the fiscal capacity to act independently does not exist.
The City has already invested in over 140 public safety cameras, an ALPR network, and a Records Management System. The federal request does not build from scratch — it activates infrastructure already in place by providing the integration platform and DFR capability needed to make those assets operationally useful in real time. That is an efficient use of taxpayer dollars by definition.
Click here for the signed certification letter affirming the federal nexus of the project and stating the Member has no financial interest in the project.
