178 Business View - May 2015
projects and the approval of private development as it
impacts the city right-of-way and city property.
The division is also responsible, too, for the citywide
clean water program.
City Engineer Thomas Ruark is one of five engineers
on the municipal payroll, working in conjunction with
a staff of roughly 52 that’s tasked with keeping city
grounds and roads in functioning order.
“We’re fortunate,” he said. “Our pavement index is at
81, which is the second-highest in Alameda County,
and a pavement index of greater than 80 is consid-
ered good. We put in about $1.5 million to $2 million
of capital every year into our streets – either through
overlays or slurries (a semiliquid mixture, typically of
fine particles of manure, cement or coal suspended
in water) – and we just finished, with the help of some
federal grants, seismic upgrading to all our bridge
structures.
“So all our bridges have very minor cosmetic repairs, if
anything, which need to be done to them.”
Evanoff’s tasks are intimately linked to those of the
Union City’s Economic & Community Development De-
partment, whose endeavors are to attract investors
with a City commitment to facilitate rapid entitlement.
The City can offer excellent transit connections via
BART and regional bus service. Future job centers will
have easy access to freeways, three regional airports,
the Port of Oakland, Stanford University and University
of California Berkeley.
That drumbeat, he said, has resonated well with po-
tential job creators looking to establish roots.
“We talk about the transit connections and the walk-
ability and the presence of startups in Union City that
have chosen to locate their new business in Union City
because it is close to BART and it is close to Silicon
Valley and San Francisco and the other major cities,”
he said. “So this is a place where you can operate a
viable business and still easily connect with the rest of
region. With traffic congestion in the Silicon Valley and
the San Francisco Bay Area increasing daily, locating
jobs within a short walk to BART is a logical choice.
With the recovery in full swing, the City is focused on
marketing this incredible opportunity to developers,
major employers and others interested bringing the vi-
INFRASTRUCTURE
