When Santa Paula came to the district meeting they were hoping to find some sort of partnership with district members hoping that they could aid them in their fight to bringing a community college center to the Santa Paula community.
But it seemed that nothing was settled and the city of Santa Paula would have to wait until the next time they could meet before anything could be resolved.
On Nov. 8, members from Santa Paula including Mayor Mary Ann Krause gave their case to the district on plans of making a new college campus center in the city of Santa Paula.
“The residents of the valley voted on the bond in hope that the money would be used on a college center,” said Krause. “It’s very important, the valley has a great opportunity to offer some great education.”
District officials including Handel Evans, a bond project consultant, also gave their own opinion on the subject matter as well, stating that with inflation up in the building industry it would be hard to determine anything.
“It’s hard because of the shortage of supplies and inflation occurring in the industry,” said Evans. “There is no opporotunity for us to be flexible at all.”
The money comes from the $346.3 million Measure “S” Bond, which was approved by citizens of Ventura County in March of 2002. Since the bond was approved, the costs of steel and lumber have soared making it difficult for the district. The money is designated only for the construction and rehabilitation of facilities on the three community college campuses.
Earlier in the month it was reported that the city of Santa Paula was pondering the idea of suing the district for giving up the plans for making a new campus in Santa Paula. It was reported that the city should be ready and might need to gather documents for an apparent lawsuit.
“It’s hard to determine a lawsuit especially with no actions taken yet,” said Evans. “No one ever wins in a public lawsuit; right now the money is better spent on buildings rather than lawyers.”
It is still undetermined when either side will come to some agreement, both sides are unable to give any kind of date or period of time when they believe something will occur.
