Council Approves Short-Term Fixes For Community, Senior Centers
HVAC repairs and a new roof at top of priority list
Streit questions portables
By Kara Chalmers
The City Council at its April 5 meeting gave the approval to proceed with a few short-term repairs to the city's community and senior centers. Interim city manager William Norton is talking to architectural firms about master plan proposals for replanning and rebuilding Saratoga's entire civic complex, which would include the two centers.
Since the city is far from a concrete plan for this larger vision, council members agreed that some of the community and senior centers' short-term needs should be addressed now.
On March 21, Anderson Brulé Architects presented ideas to the council for new community and senior centers. When council members saw the three different plans, which would house both facilities with costs up to $7.5 million, they said the presentation was a great start. They were still not satisfied, and directed staff to explore what it would take, both financially and physically, to completely overhaul the area from the Civic Theater on Fruitvale Avenue to the corporation yard off Allendale Avenue.
Realizing the plan could take years to come to fruition, the council directed recreation director Joan Pisani to return with a priority list of short-term repairs and improvements to the community and senior centers that cannot be ignored.
Joan Pisani presented a 13-item priority list to the council on April 5, and said that the items on it came directly from a needs assessment report on the two centers that Anderson Brulé prepared in January 1999, for several facilities improvements.
"If we do these changes, we can get five years out of it [the facility] during construction," Pisani said, noting that even two years would be too long to wait for some of the improvements.
Although the council was hesitant to approve all 13 items, some of which involved portable buildings, members did agree to tackle each item in order of priority on Pisani's list. The top items include, in order of priority, repairing the heating, ventilating and air-conditioning system, reroofing the entire structure, enlarging the customer counter area and office space, installing a portable building for the preschool and converting the old one to a conference room, and laying down new carpet.
The cost estimates for the items on the list were based on best guesses, according to the staff report Pisani prepared, since she could not get firm estimates from contractors and vendors on short notice. Of the top five priorities, the new roof would cost the most, at $60,000, with the HVAC modifications second at $40,000.
The council directed staff to begin the work on each item in order and to report back as the costs are finalized. Once the final master planning for the entire civic area gets underway, the city could always halt work on the list, council members said.
Councilman Nick Streit noted that he was concerned about the three portable buildings on city property, as the 13-item list recommended. He was concerned that once portables are installed, people might become complacent about building a new community center.
"I think it's important that we don't go far on this list," he said, adding that it is his goal to make sure the new community center is built within the next two and a half years. He said he would support the top five items.
Ann Waltonsmith thought the opposite, that unsightly temporary portables might push the council to get on with its master planning more quickly.
In 1996, the council appointed a task force to find out what citizens' priorities are for spending the city's park development fund--money allocated to buy or renovate parks or parks buildings. The council found that a community center renovation and expansion was the top priority of citizens.
Anderson Brulé Architects put together the 1999 needs-assessment report for the existing community center, and reported on three options: a $733,115 minimal renovation, a remodel and expansion costing more than $1.3 million and a $4.4 million rebuild. None of these plans included the senior center.
Since then, the council narrowed its focus to only a complete rebuild, and the senior center put its own renovation plans on hold so that it could be part of the larger plan which includes the community center.
Norton said the council would discuss master planning of the civic area, but no date has been set.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
