Next year, renting the Community Cultural Center will cost
more
Morgan Hill – Rental rates at the Community and Cultural Center will go up in January, the first rate increase since the facility opened in September 2002.
The minimum rental for the Hiram Morgan Hill room, the center’s largest event space, will grow from $580 to $640 for four hours of use. The rate for the El Toro room will stay at $540. There will also be new charges for use of the rose garden and for equipment, insurance and coffee service.
The increase will add about $45,900 a year to the city’s general fund. In the fiscal year that ended in June, the center lost $307,000.
The financial benefit of higher rates will not be felt fully until 2007 because the center has already been rented for all but five weekends in 2006.
Melissa Dile, assistant to City Manager Ed Tewes, said demand for the center supports an increase that puts it in line with other facilities in the region that host weddings, bar mitzvahs, parties and other events.
“I think it’s fair to say, based on the feedback we get from customers, that our current rates are under market,” Dile said, “For the quality of facility we have, higher rates are appropriate.”
But many nonprofit groups that use the center have complained its rates are prohibitively high.
“I can understand what the city is going through, but renting the community center is really difficult,” said Mary Ann Bruegman, of the South Valley Quilt Association. “We’re a nonprofit, and really nonprofit at that, but we’ve managed so far.”
The quilters rent the community center each September as part of the Taste of Morgan Hill festival.
She said that her group has needed loans to pay the $7,200 it costs to rent it for an entire weekend.
To make the center accessible to as many residents and community groups as possible, there are discounts. Residents get 5 percent off the regular rates. Nonprofit groups receive a 15 percent discount.
“We’ve certainly gotten that feedback from nonprofit groups over time,” Dile said. “That’s why we do have the lower rates.”
New rates at Community Center
Hiram Morgan Hill room $640 for four hours
Security deposit $500
Entire center $2,700 for one day
Rose garden $100 oer day with room rental
Coffee and tea $1 per person
Morgan Hill Community Playhouse $160 per hour
Rates at Nearby Banquet Facilities
Golden Oak restaurant $600 for four hours
Holiday Inn Express $500 flat rate
Corde Valle $45-$51 per person
