Supervisors approve community center appropriations, contract bid

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors established an additional $25,000 of appropriations for the Fallbrook Community Center renovations and also authorized the contract bid and award process for construction of the improvements.

The supervisors’ 5-0 vote April 18 also found the work to be categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act as minor alterations to an existing public facility.

“We have a variety of improvements at Fallbrook Community Center to make it more user-friendly for our customers,” said Renee Bahl, the director of the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation.

The existing building has three classrooms, a 3,200 square foot multi-purpose room, a commercial kitchen, an office, a lounge, restrooms, and storage rooms. The park area currently includes recreational facilities and parking. The Fallbrook Community Center was initially constructed in 1980 with revenue from Community Development Block Grant funds provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and from Park Land Dedication Ordinance (PLDO) funds paid by developers to fund park facilities in the development’s community. The community center offers an assortment of recreational and program activities to citizens of various ages.

Major improvements to the interior of the building are needed to modernize its appearance and ensure a safe and pleasant environment for the users. The renovations will update the men’s and women’s restrooms and increase their size, add an exterior door and access to the pre-school room, replace the existing single-door entry to the kitchen with double doors, provide parking stalls compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and provide access from the parking lot to the east entry of the building.

The additional $25,000 in appropriations, derived from PLDO funds, allows for the replacement and updating of lighting fixtures which are currently outdated and in need of repair. That project was initiated as a separate project from the remodel and was originally intended to be funded by County Service Area No. 81 appropriations. Since the cost of the lighting project would exceed the available Fiscal Year 2006-07 CSA No. 81 funding, PLDO appropriations were used instead.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors acts as the governing board of CSA No. 81, which covers parks in Rainbow and De Luz as well as Fallbrook, but CSA No. 81 has a local advisory board which on January 18 recommended using $25,000 of PLDO funding to replace the interior lights. In February 2006 the CSA No. 81 advisory board had recommended the use of $100,000 of PLDO funds for the remodeling work, and during the 2006 CDBG process the supervisors slated $170,435 of the Federal funds for the renovations. A 2004 CDBG grant provided $60,000 for the design of the remodel, and existing budgeted funds not including the lighting segment total $292,225.

The construction contract itself has a $240,000 estimate, and the remaining $52,225 will be used for final construction document preparation, inspection services, resident engineering, and administration costs. Management and operation of the community center is funded by CSA No. 81 allocations and provided by the Department of Parks and Recreation.

The remodel portion is expected to begin in June 2007 and be complete by August 2007. The lighting project is expected to be complete by the June 30 end of the current fiscal year.