At last night’s meeting of the Yucca Valley Town Council, three new employees were introduced: Lauren Wetzel, who works at the animal shelter; David Champagne, who works in facilities maintenance; and Jared Jarome, the town’s new associate planner. Then, managing editor Tami Roleff says, the council got down to business…
Yucca Valley will receive more than $125,000 from the county for community development block grant funding, which the town council allocated for improvements to North Park. The funds will be used for the design and construction of a parking area, trail head access, public restroom, and flood mitigation.
The rules of the CDBG funds require that private and non-profit organizations provide a maintenance and operation commitment and an estimated annual maintenance and operations budget for five years; due to the higher risk of funding non-profits, the town must agree to repay the CDBG if the non-profit’s project doesn’t meet the maintenance and operation requirements. For that reason, the council encouraged the three organizations that applied for CDBG funds—the Yucca Valley Library Literacy program, Mil-Tree Veteran Project, and the Family Service Association Senior Nutrition Program—to apply for funding from Measure Y funds.
Next the council heard from members of the Yes on Measure C committee about a $55.6 million school bond. Council members learned that the average age of the 19 schools in the Morongo Unified School District is 43 years, and some schools are 70 years old. The state provides no money to school districts to build or renovate schools; the only way to provide much needed repairs and upgrades are through the sale of bonds.
The schools at the top of the priority list for repairs and renovations are Yucca Mesa Elementary, Morongo Valley Elementary, Friendly Hills Elementary, and Landers Elementary. These schools were supposed to have been renovated with funds from Measure O, but the school district had to unexpectedly use Measure O bonds to build the new Joshua Tree Elementary School when the state decreed that the old school was built too close to an earthquake fault.
Several schools have not had any renovations or modernization in 30 years: Condor Elementary, Friendly Hills Elementary, Landers Elementary, Morongo Valley Elementary, Yucca Mesa Elementary, La Contenta Middle, Black Rock High, and Yucca Valley High School.
During public comment, five residents spoke against the bond measure, saying residents could not afford another tax, while those who supported the measure said the school district could not afford the renovations and upgrades without the school bond.
Mayor Pro Tem Merl Abel said that when Yucca Valley High School students attend events at other schools, they are disheartened by how modern and better equipped the other schools are.
Council members voted to receive and file the report without making a recommendation to support or oppose the bond measure.
https://www.voteyesonmeasurec.com/
Travis Hill of Yucca Valley BMX spoke of the need for additional lighting for the track, especially in light of the fact that a big region-wide qualifying race will be held at the track in May. He said the BMX track would also like to improve its family picnic area, and get a track cover to protect the track when it rains. The council voted unanimously to allocate $15,000 to the Yucca Valley BMX track.
