Community and senior centers to get new roof, HVAC system
Council approves short-term repairs
By Kara Chalmers
The city council approved spending $127,000 on short-term repairs to the Community and Senior centers on June 7. The money will specifically fund repairing the roof and the heating, ventilating and air-conditioning system, among other projects.
Part of the $127,000 will come from the city's general fund and part from this year's $166,478 Community Development Block Grant, which will fund $35,660 of the total. The CDBG is a federal grant allocated by the Housing and Community Development Act each year.
On April 5, Saratoga Recreation Director Joan Pisani presented a 13-item list of repairs to the council along with rough cost-estimates. The council approved spending a maximum $280,560 for the repairs that should no longer be postponed and asked that she return with firm costs. Council members agreed that some of the community and senior centers' short-term needs should be addressed now, since the city is far from its goal of a complete rebuilding of the civic-center complex. The sum of $280,560 has been allocated in the 2000-2001, 2001-2002 budget that the city is now in the process of finalizing.
The council hesitated to approve all 13 items on Pisani's list in April, but it did agree to handle each item in order of priority. The top two items are repairing the HVAC system, and reroofing the entire structure. The council directed staff to begin the work on each item in order and to report back as the costs are finalized.
Only one company, O.C. McDonald, entered a $19,000 bid to rezone and repair the HVAC system. The city received three bids to replace the entire Community and Senior center roof, and expects that this project will cost $60,000. The council okayed this funding.
The council also authorized spending $3,000 on painting the senior-center large-room and kitchen and the community-center large-room, reception office, dance studio, hallways and common areas. It authorized $13,000 for carpeting the hallways, common areas, offices and the stage area in the community center and the senior center. The city will spend $2,000 on window coverings in the two centers and $12,000 on work-area furniture and equipment, such as workstations, a table, chairs and file cabinets.
Some $3,200 will be spent on a new computer and printer for the front office of the community center and $8,800 for refacing cabinets in the community center's kitchen and classroom.
In a few weeks, Recreation Director Joan Pisani will come back to the council with firm estimates on more short-term fixes, including three portable classrooms, and repairs to restrooms and phone lines.
The first step in preparing for the portables is for a civil engineer to locate sewer and water lines and complete the working plans. An electrical engineer will also have to plan electrical lines. The estimated cost for this work is $6000, which the council approved on June 7.
According to City Attorney Richard Taylor, the city's park development fund cannot be used for any of the short-term repairs.
In March, an architecture firm presented ideas to the council for new community and senior centers. Council members looked at the different plans, which would house both the community and senior centers and would cost up to $7.5 million. While they said the plans were a great start, they 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.
Upon realizing the plan could take years to come to fruition, the council directed Pisani to come back with the priority list for short-term improvements to the centers that should no longer be ignored.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
