City Beat
Gardner Center's design gets increase in funding
Construction to begin in March of 2003, ready by '04
By Susan Wiedmann
Plans to rebuild the Gardner Community Center and upgrade the adjacent Biebrach Park in northern Willow Glen received a financial boost May 14 when the San Jose City Council unanimously increased by $70,000 the project's architectural design costs.
The council approved an amendment to the agreement with The Steinberg Group Architects calling for design plans and related services for the center project. The compensation for the work was increased from $526,680 to $596,680.
Project manager Lili Matthews said that she expects construction bids will be opened in January 2003, with groundbreaking taking place around March 2003. The current goal is to have the center, located at 520 W. Virginia St., opened by the fall of 2004.
District 3 San Jose City Councilwoman Cindy Chavez is elated over the project. "After I was first elected in 1999, I went out to different neighborhoods, and this one told me immediately 'We want a community center.' "
Although residents have the existing 6,000-square-foot Gardner Community Center on Biebrach Park, the community's needs have long outgrown that building, which will be demolished when construction begins on the new 12,000-square-foot center at the same location.
Even though space is now tight, center director Tony Torres said, it serves between 50 and 60 teenagers each day, with a total enrollment of about 350 11- to 17-year-old boys and girls. The center provides them with after-school recreation, field trips, pool tournaments and sports leagues. The center also provides workshops on topics such as anger management, conflict resolution and teen pregnancy.
By mid-June a former 100-foot by 200-foot TV room at the center will be converted into a computer room and will contain approximately 12 computers, courtesy of a collaboration with Microsoft and the San Jose Redevelopment Agency. Once the computers have been installed, seniors who come to the center will have access to the room in the mornings, with the teens coming in the afternoons.
About 30 seniors are served by the center's programs each day, many attending the center primarily for its nutrition program.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
