In May, the Los Gatos Town Council decided it was going to use $2.9 million of the money Washington gave it to make it through the pandemic toward various capital projects.
And on Tuesday, Los Gatos’ elected officials (minus Vice Mayor Maria Ristow, who was absent) began figuring out where these American Rescue Plan Act funds should go.
Staff suggested not putting the money toward filling gaps on projects with only a little bit of money available to them so far, or toward ones not yet underway.
In her inaugural presentation to Council, Director of Parks and Public Works Nicolle Burnham said adding extra projects could be challenging for staff to juggle at this time.
Instead, she recommended having money ready to go for projects that could soon have money secured through grant applications in order to get shovels in the ground as soon as possible.
Typically, Los Gatos would need to pay contractors upfront, and the grant money would be used to backstop this later, she said.
“This is all great news,” she said. “At some point along the line we need to go into construction.”
Mayor Rob Rennie made the motion to accept staff’s suggestions, which were:
• East Main Street Crosswalk Improvements ($300,000)
• Downtown Restroom Feasibility Study/Design ($25,000)
• Rehabilitate Automatic Gates – 41 Miles Avenue ($25,000)
• Termite Abatement at Water Tower – 41 Miles Avenue ($25,000)
• Civic Center Plumbing Repair – 110 E. Main Street ($40,000)
• HVAC Improvements – Police Operations Building ($25,000)
• Engineering Counter Modifications – 41 Miles Avenue ($40,000)
• Unanticipated Repairs ($100,000)
Throughout the course of the discussion Rennie also warmed to Councilmember Matthew Hudes’ suggestion that they put more money into the community garden project.
Hudes had suggested that this would relate to “equity and economic recovery.”
“It does seem to me that that would be something of value that is related to an underserved population in town who can’t afford a garden, because they may not be an owner of a single-family home that has a garden,” he said.
Town Engineer WooJae Kim said much of the $50,000 the Town had previously put into the community garden project had already been spent doing soil analysis. The $500,000 total estimate was a ballpark number; it might cost around $100,000 to do the design work for gardens, he added.
So, when Rennie made his motion, he tacked on $100,000 to put toward just such a communal horticulture space.
That meant the remaining ARPA funds allocated for capital projects would be $2,220,000.
Councilmember Mary Badame said as a downtown business owner, she understands the value of having a public restroom, given the number of times people come into her establishment looking to use a restroom.
“I don’t think that’s fair for the businesses,” she said, referring to the janitorial burden this places on local companies.
Rennie said he hopes homeless people don’t end up living in the toilet areas—if they end up getting built.
He said he wouldn’t want to “waste money” on something that ended up being a “disgusting” place that resulted in “constant complaints.”
Staff said there are technological solutions that can deter unsheltered residents from utilizing the restroom in this manner.
Rennie had also suggested taking the Main Street upgrades off the list, noting traffic moves quite slowly along this route and that students coming from the high school are more traffic-savvy than elementary students in other areas.
But Badame pushed for the upgrades, saying high schoolers and the alcohol-consuming bar and restaurant patrons who travel across Main Street tend to take greater risks than people elsewhere.
So, in the end Rennie didn’t eliminate this from his motion, and it was approved unanimously.
The three automatic gates at the Parks and Public Works Corporation Yard are in bad shape and need to be replaced with safety equipment such as “sensor bars, receivers, transmitters, photo eyes and new electronic loops in pavement,” according to the staff report.
Also included in the list of projects moving forward is plumbing work at the Civic Center. That’s because officials found leaks from joints and pinholes in several places.
“Ceiling tiles are starting to become wet and deteriorating,” staff reported. “These failed pipe joints and pinholes are due to the age of the mechanical infrastructure of the building. The piping is wrapped in insulation that contains asbestos. To access the piping for repair will require proper hazardous material abatement.”
