The Dayworkers Committee has run into a bit of a funding problem
and asked the City Council Wednesday for some temporary relief,
which the council was reluctant to give.
The Dayworkers Committee has run into a bit of a funding problem and asked the City Council Wednesday for some temporary relief, which the council was reluctant to give.
At issue is the city’s requirement that the new Dayworker Center – portables to be installed on temporarily donated private property on Depot Street at East Main Avenue – grade, pave and light its parking lot, install curbs and gutters and landscaping and pay fees, all costing more than expected, according to David Bischoff, city director of Economic Development (the planning department).
Center Director America Romero told the council that the work is too much to expect for an interim project, since it will all have to be torn out when the center moves to a permanent location in three to five years. She estimates the improvements and fees to cost $200,000 and would prefer those funds to be reserved for a permanent center.
Council balked at rewriting the municipal code because it could come back to bite them if other, future interim projects ask for the same relaxed treatment, which a future council might not want to give.
“The potential is there to make those exceptions,” said Councilman Greg Sellers. “You want a balance between not creating precedent and not passing up something that likely won’t happen again.”
City Manager Ed Tewes saw room for movement.
“Other cities do not require these things – paved parking lots, for example,” Tewes said. He was not aware, however, of exemptions to such code requirements in other cities.
Romero asked the council to allow a scaled-down version that the committee could afford.
“We are hoping to get the center open by the end of the year,” Romero said, “being that winter is coming.”
The Dayworker Committee has been working for two years or more to open a center where the casual laborers who congregate at the Main/Depot junction could get in out of the rain and receive services, including English lessons, to help them join the community.
The council in April approved a CDBG grant for $50,000 for the center. Garrett Toy, director of Business Assistance and Housing Services, said another project – the Galvan Park renovation – using CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funds was coming in under budget. Councilwoman Hedy Chang, a committee member, suggested that the extra $30,000 might be transferred to the center’s use.
Chang also said she had looked at the Dayworker Committee’s budget and found that, with donations of money, materials and labor coming in daily, the committee was actually only about $50,000 short, not the $200,000 that compliance would cost, leaving only a $20,000 gap.
“They are not that far away, with the donations to take on water, sewer and electrical on site,” Chang said.
Weston Miles Architects owns the property and is renovating the old Isaacson’s Grain Co. building into new offices. The firm will charge the center $1 a month while it occupies the Weston Miles property. The lease, Charles Weston told the council, is for three years but he is more than willing to extend it to five years. Weston said he wouldn’t care if the center found a permanent site earlier and needed to break the lease since the amount involved was so very small.
“They will already have paid me $12,” Weston said. “I’d allow that.”
Weston said he would submit plans for the center – which he is donating among other work – to the planning department complete with grading and paving included. The improvements could more easily be deleted than added later, Weston said.
Council decided to review the existing ordinance with an eye toward giving a temporary deferment. Council also wanted to see the committee’s budget for the center, which Chang alone had seen before the meeting. Sellers and Councilmen Larry Carr and Steve Tate also wanted to see a viability report to be sure the center could survive and justify the city’s money and time.
The Planning Commission will be asked to choose a member – not Weston – to help review and code adjusting.
“We’re all trying to make this work,” said Tate.
