Community Corner
Kensington Needs Measure L
Dear Kensington Community Neighbors,
I am supporting Measure L for Kensington. The Community Center needs improvements and the Kensington Community has few choices on how to pay for them. The Kensington Police Protection and Community Services District spent 4 years researching different options, hosting many town hall meetings, preparing community surveys, and presenting numerous public discussions at 14 different Board meetings. Our community indicated support for major improvements designed to enhance the Community Center’s use by everyone, rather than a few modest improvements that would leave the community with a Spartan cement cinderblock structure of value to only a few.
Measure L is NOT about creating a commercial venue; this building, like all public buildings will never be self supporting. Measure L is about upgrading a building that is 60 years old to provide it with amenities that it sorely lacks. The District has regularly maintained this structure for the last 60 years. However, the District needs the support of the Kensington Community to help pay for necessary improvements to allow the Community Center to continue on for another 60 years.
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The District only has firm commitments of $420,000 for this project. The cheapest option costs approximately $740,000 in 2012 dollars; however that price is expected to increase to around $850,000 by the anticipated December 2015 construction date due to rising costs, leaving the District with a $430,000 shortfall. It is impractical to obtain a bond for this shortfall. It also does not make sense to do this construction in phases; it is a public works project and each phase of construction has to be put out to public bid with work done at prevailing wages, by preparing separate, costly requests for proposals. And each new phase will require separate expensive mobilization costs.
The District cannot wait the 3-8 years it will take to accumulate the necessary additional funds and the District can never hold enough bake sales to raise the balance. And at the end of the day all the District will have is the same cement cinderblock building, perhaps with new structural steel supporting elements, a new kitchen and a new bathroom; nothing else will change.
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Please go to http://kensingtoncalifornia.org/ and click on “Learn More about the Kensington Community Center Safety Project” to see for yourself the facts behind this project. And look at http://kensingtoncalifornia.org/files/active/0/Summary_of_Costs.pdf to see how these funds will be used!
Please join with me to pass Measure L to support these vital improvements for all of us.
Thanks,
Chuck Toombs