Hundreds of thousands go toward rehabilitation projects
By Daily Press staff
(Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures which appear on the upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agenda. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.) CITY HALL — More than $1 million is slated to be spent tonight by elected officials on everything from book shelves for the new library to festival lighting on Main Street.
The Santa Monica City Council is expected to approve $309,635 for book shelves at the new main library scheduled for completion in the fall of 2005. City officials put the request on the agenda early because an international shortage of steel is expected to cause a cost increase this month, according to city documents.
The design, installation, maintenance and operation of festival lighting on Main Street will cost City Hall $220,000. The Main Street Merchants Association wants to install a form of lighting manufactured in England that differs from the standard twinkle, tube or outdoor lights and is expected to last five years or longer in a marine environment.
In late 2002, the City Council approved various contracts and expenditures for what’s called the “Ocean and Main Street Sewer Rehabilitation Project,” including $250,000 that was set aside for Main Street in anticipation of business loss due to construction. The money for the lights will be taken from that fund.
City officials also are expected to approve the use of $300,000 for the Comprehensive Housing Services’ residential rehabilitation program. The funds will be used to continue to remediate lead-based paint in low-income units; continue health and safety repairs at the city-owned property at 1614 and 1616 Ocean Ave.; and continue assisting elderly households and households with a disabled family member with minor repairs.
City Hall has operated the residential rehabilitation program since 1996 to provide assistance to low-income residential property owners. At least 51 percent of the tenants qualify as low income, according to city documents.
An additional $112,000 will go toward a lease agreement to ensure space for three new communication systems housed at the Hollywood Hills antenna site and used by the Big Blue Bus. The Hollywood Hills site currently houses one transpon-der owned by the bus service, but now needs to accomodate three.
The transponders are needed by the Big Blue Bus because of a contract with Siemens VDO Corp. for the installation of an Advanced Fleet Management System. One component of the AFMS project involves the upgrade of the equipment at the Hollywood Hills site.
Another $279,500 will be used to structurally rehabilitate the roof slab at the Franklin Street Water Reservoir, which was built in the 1940s. The pavement on top of the reservoir shows signs of distress and has inadequate steel reinforcement, according to city documents.
And $54,990 will go toward the environmental assessment and remediation services at the city corporate yard through October 2004. The work includes remediation of subsurface contamination under the oversight of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
The city already has spent nearly $3 million on the project. The money is used to conduct environmental investigation and remediation services at the Santa Monica Airport, the Big Blue Bus barn and the city yards.
And finally, City Hall is expected to approve the release of $33,228 in Juvenile Accountability Block Grant (JABG) program funds to Los Angeles County. The county’s district attorney’s office will use the funds for a special projects prosecutor to manage Santa Monica juvenile cases referred to the Juvenile Offender Invention Network (JOIN) program.
The district attorney’s office created the JOIN program in 1994 to deal with minors arrested for non-violent, first time crimes that are too serious for probation, but not serious enough to be sent to the court system. The JOIN program diverts the offenders to an intervention program that holds them accountable for behavioral improvement.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 28, 2004. Read the original PDF.