City receives abundant bids for Legacy Park construction
The city on Friday received 14 bids for the construction of Legacy Park, City Manager Jim Thorsen said Monday in a telephone interview. A contract for construction services will potentially be arranged for city council’s Aug. 10 meeting.
The lowest bid was $6.3 million, and the highest was “a little over $10 million,” Thorsen said.
The city on Friday also received bids for the construction management portion of the project.
Located on 15 acres off Pacific Coast Highway and Webb Way in the Civic Center area, Legacy Park is estimated to cost $15.6 million, a little more than a third of which has already been raised in public donations and grants. The city plans to apply for federal stimulus monies to fill in the funding gaps, as well as potential bonds.
Despite the progression of the park plan, a lawsuit over its environmental impact report filed earlier this year by environmental group Santa Monica Baykeeper is still pending.
Thorsen said he is unsure what effect the lawsuit will have on the future development of Legacy Park, but said it is “going forward to contracting the project and developing a park to clean stormwater, which everyone so desperately needs.”
Escrow closes on city’s $15 million MPAC purchase
Escrow on the city’s June 19 $15 million purchase of the Malibu Performing Arts Center closed Friday. The city has since requested proposals for design and architectural services for the center, which is to become the new city hall.
The city’s offer for the MPAC property was accepted last month during Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Malibu, which owned the building, filed bankruptcy late last year.
The city council plans to move from its current location at the Miramar building on Stewart Ranch Road, where they pay an annual rent of more than $800,000, to the new city hall “as soon as possible,” after hiring an architectural space planner to refurbish the MPAC building, City Councilmember Jefferson Wagner said in a telephone interview last month.
Malibu residents to reduce water use or face surcharges
Following three consecutive years of drought, Waterworks District No. 29 is receiving 15 percent less water from suppliers, requiring that Malibu, Topanga and Marina del Rey customers cut down on water use, according to a July 21 press release from the district.
This urgent measure comes on the heels of Gov. Schwarzenegger declaring a drought state of emergency in February, and an April decision by Southern California’s largest water supplier, Metropolitan Water District (Metropolitan), to implement mandatory water conservation restrictions. As a buyer in Metropolitan’s supply chain, the district will be forced to pass surcharges for excessive water use onto its own customers.
The cutbacks will require customers to use 85 percent or less of the district-wide average amount of water used during 2004-2006 or face surcharges. The surcharges will be twice the normal rate for water use 15 percent more than the target, and three times the normal rate for excessive water used beyond that. Residents already using less than the average will see no surcharges to their water bills. These cutback requests were outlined to each customer in a letter sent in June.
“This will be a wake up call for those who haven’t thought much about their water use,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. “Customers must adopt simple, but necessary, steps to conserve water so that we will see significant savings by the end of the summer.”
More information can be obtained online at LACWaterworks.org.
School district hires new special ed head
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District last week confirmed the appointment of Seattle native Sara Woolverton as the new director of its special education department.
Woolverton, whose contract as the special education director for the Everett Public Schools in Washington had expired at the end of June, replaced former director Ruth Valadez, who resigned in February after more than two years on the job to take on the same position at Lynwood Unified School District.
The special education department is still in rebuilding mode after being hit by accusations that officials fostered a hostile environment during negotiation sessions for their children’s education plans, slamming the practice of including confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements between the district and certain families. Parents were concerned that those agreements were not being included in the students’ records.
The district has taken steps to restore trust with parents during the past few years, including holding public forums and creating task forces that deal specifically with ways in which improvements can be made.
Woolverton began her career in 1984 as a special educator in Seattle Public Schools where she was responsible for both general and special education in an inner city, self-contained K-3 classroom. About five years later, she became the special educator for Edmonds School District, working on Individualized Education Plans, which outline the services that students receive during the school year.
She holds a master’s degree in special education and doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from the University of Washington, where she was also an instructor and educational researcher. In 2000, Woolverton returned to the Seattle Public Schools as the principal intern for an alternative elementary program, moving on a year later to become the special education program supervisor for the same district and later manager. In 2006, she became one of several special education directors for Everett Public Schools.
-Olivia Damavandi