Lakeport City Council gets update on Carnegie Library project
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council got an update last week on the efforts to upgrade the city’s historic Carnegie Library.
At the Oct. 17 meeting, Community Development Director Kevin Ingram gave the council the latest on the project.
The goal is to make the building accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires the addition of a lift, or an elevator, to the building.
Other aspects of the work would include ADA-compliant bathrooms, replacement of the failing upstairs ceiling, lighting upgrades and improvements to the south entry to provide ADA-compliant building access, according to Ingram’s report.
In July, staff had told the council that it had only received one bid for the entire project – and that bid was well over the budgeted amount – so they had gone back out to bid. Staff had asked the council to reject that single bid, which it did, as Lake County News has reported.
Staff then went back out to get more bids, breaking the project down into more pieces, as in its outreach to companies there had been concern about the lift having discouraged bids, Ingram said.
City Engineer Paul Curren identified four firms that had a contract with a national company for installation of its lifts. However, Ingram said they received no bids on the project.
Ingram said city staffers are now reaching out to companies individually to ask about their concerns on the project.
The city has received a Community Development Block Grant 2014 to fund the project, with the deadline upcoming, he said.
As a result, Ingram said the city has filed a request for an extension on the grant and has gotten a verbal response that it should be approved.
“There is work moving forward,” he said.
While the project so far hasn’t gone how the city has wanted it to, Ingram said they want to move forward with working out the issues so they can get the much-needed elevator.
Meanwhile, they’re working on a bid request for the remaining parts of the project, Ingram said.
If the city gets an extension on the Community Development Block Grant funding, Ingram said the city can still finish the project in a timely fashion.
He said there are just a handful of these types of lifts or elevators countywide.
Wilda Shock, who chairs the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee – which has been involved with the studies to upgrade the building – pointed out that the 100th anniversary of the building’s completion is coming up in February 2018.
She said a local contractor had installed a lift at a property owned by the Habematolel Pomo in Upper Lake, encouraging the city to look into that company.
Also on Oct. 17, at the start of the meeting, Clearlake City Manager Greg Folsom and acting Clearlake Police Chief Tim Celli were on hand to offer their personal thanks to city officials for their assistance during the Sulphur fire, which burned 168 structures – all but two of them in Clearlake – and more than 2,200 acres in both Clearlake and Clearlake Oaks.
Folsom, who took over as Clearlake’s city manager two and a half years ago, has seen during his tenure all of the county’s major wildland fires – Rocky, Jerusalem, Valley, Clayton and Sulphur.
“The city of Lakeport has always been there,” he said, adding that he can always count on getting a call from Lakeport City Manager Margaret Silveira to check on them.
“You guys have really been there for us all the time, as has the county and the sheriff's office,” said Folsom.
He added that it’s important for the local jurisdictions to stick together, and said they are happy to assist if Lakeport ever needs them.
Mayor Stacey Mattina thanked Folsom for his work.
Celli also thanked city staff for their help. He said that at 1 a.m. Monday, Oct. 9, he got the call about the fire and the need to evacuate.
Altogether, there were between 4,000 and 5,000 people evacuated, Celli said. Folsom himself was among the evacuees.
Celli said he called for mutual aid from Lakeport Police and got it, and offered his thanks both as a Clearlake city resident and as acting police chief.
“You're welcome. Our hearts go out to you guys,” Mattina said.
“We have a great partnership with Clearlake,” said Silveira. She said Clearlake has been willing to help Lakeport, with Clearlake Police officers coming to assist when needed.
In other business, the council unanimously adopted a resolution to approve financing by the California Municipal Finance Authority for the Martin Street Apartments Affordable Housing Project, located 1255 Martin St.
The council also authorized the issuance of the 2017 obligations and the corresponding refunding of the prior bonds; approved Silveira entering into a service agreement with Network Innovations Inc. for the purchase and installation of a new phone system and authorize the recommended budget adjustment, and adopted a resolution establishing an ad hoc advisory committee for the selection of the members of its committees and commissions with terms expiring in 2017.
Also during the meeting, Police Chief Brad Rasmussen reported that his department was doing tests on surveillance cameras, and that the police department had recently received 2,000 new subscribers to its Nixle emergency and public information alerts.
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