Redwoods Community College District
Meeting of the Facilities Planning Committee
Eureka Campus Lakeview Room
Approved Minutes
Monday, August 31, 2009 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Present: Ruth Bettenhausen, David Holper, Michael Bailey, Melissa Green, Ray
Kingsbury, Mike Mendoza, Maggie White, Paul Agpawa, David Maki (on phone),
Stephen McCollum and Anita Janis (on phone)
Other Present: Jeff Marsee
1. New Business
A. Review next steps in prioritizing & costing facilities improvements
Jeff spoke to the committee regarding the need to quantify the cost of executing the
Facility Master Plan (FMPC). It needs to be prioritized, annualized, and include anticipated project costs. The facility review for this fiscal year will include the Eureka campus, the two Centers, as well as all sites within the District. The work must be cross referenced with the Educational Master Plan (EMP) and Full Time Equivalent Students
(FTES) must be vetted. a. The three primary sites have been estimated by Ruth and Fred Sturner. b. There is $10.5 to $12.5 million left of Measure Q money and we need to prioritize the spending. c. The existing Student Union will cost $3.5 to $4.5 million to renovate. Part of the work could include converting a portion of it to a Culinary Institute.
We need to look at the cost of this renovation with and without the
Culinary Institute. The work will include seismic retrofit and kitchen retrofit.
We saved $10-$10.5 million not demolishing the building. d. The President would like to leave the southern portion of the Old Library building for possible faculty offices. If this portion is determined to be salvageable after geotechnical evaluation then the architect will design office space. Before tearing down the Old Library he would like to save the interior redwood and some beams to be used in the new buildings. The
District has hired an architectural firm for the work, and has hired a firm for the environmental CEQA process including Costal Commission review. e. There are three options relative to the Old Library. Option 1 is to tear down the Old Library; Option 2 is to re-use the redwood and the beams. Option
3 is to save the south side for future use. There are 22 fewer faculty offices in the new academic building, use south side for offices? f. Another facility option to consider is to seismically stabilize the existing
Administration and Forum buildings. The Facilities Master Planning
Committee (FMPCC) has previously agreed this would be a good idea.
This work will cost $2-$3.5 million. The Bookstore could move to the
Forum building. We could change the existing Bookstore to a student lounge or culinary kitchen. Fred Sturner is working on budgets for this work. g. The committee needs to look at potential state and local project funding, out to the year 2020. h. At the Del Norte campus, the FMPC should look at moving into the wooded area with new buildings. There are infrastructure needs to look at, such as sewer and utilities for this move. Moving would create a new entrance off Washington Blvd, with a drive through to the existing

buildings. We expended $3.5 million in the modernization of the campus, but we need to consider renovating the existing wet labs. i. At the Mendocino campus, the FMPC to look at the infrastructure; moving the Fine Woodworking program to the main campus; and renovating the science lab. State funding has been requested to move the FWW to the main campus. j. The President requested that the FMPC expand FMPC scope to include review of facility needs for sites; Arcata, McKinleyville, Hoopa, Eureka, and any future sites where there are service needs as determined by FTE trends. k. The President spoke regarding the potential new Garberville site. The student FTE penetration rate is 2.2 per 1000. The state average is 6 plus per 1000. When does it become viable to move into an area? You look at such factors as penetration rates and the 20 minute drive rule. When does it become feasible to own verses rent? l. The President asked that the FMPC develop a model to assess the need for new sites. He recommended that we ask Ahn Fielding for the model that she used for the McKinleyville and Garberville sites.
Jeff told the FMPC that a possible future consideration is that the Jefferson School in
Eureka is for sale. We could use it for a vocational site or culinary institute. It has 10 to 12 classrooms. It could possibly replace the Eureka Downtown site, which costs the District $150,000 a year in rent. Jefferson school has an asking price of
$750,000 to $1 million.
Dave Holper asked how much over FTE cap we are. Jeff stated that expected FTES is 1,000 above funded cap, and this year and next FTE growth is unfunded by the
State.
Michael Bailey asked how the expansion of distance education affects the FTE growth and the Centers. Jeff answered that they are related somewhat. He stated that 100% of the revenues received from out of state and out of country students, is kept by the District.
Maggie stated we’re one of the few colleges expecting growth. Ruth stated many are. Dave Holper stated we’ve closed Garberville before. If a future bond doesn’t pass we may have to close it again.
Jeff said we just did a bond interest survey for the three counties but we will need the FMPC prioritization and costing model before going out for new bonds. The survey showed a bond would pass. It was supported by 74% in Mendocino, 65% in
Del Norte, and 54-55% in Humboldt. He asked the FMPC to address deferred maintenance for existing buildings such as HVAC, infrastructure and seismic issues with the dorms. We need to know what to ask for if we go out for a new bond issue.
We could do a bond measure for Mendocino in June and November for Del Norte and Humboldt. We will have to justify for the community what we need in terms of new facilities and what we need to maintain existing facilities facilities.
Maggie asked if deferred maintenance will only be funded by bond money. Ruth said yes. The state was giving us $100,000 a year but it is no longer in the budget.
Maggie asked if the new buildings are funded. Yes they are. The Student Services,
Administration, Theater building (SATT) is scheduled to bid around January 2010.

The President said that the District may have to seek bonds from each county instead of one bond issue for all three counties as was done in the past.
Maggie asked if we have looked at the interest for a Garberville site. Jeff answered that he has worked with local Superintendent of Schools. There are 165 students from the Garberville area attending C/R. We get the same number of students from
Rio Del and Fortuna. The Garberville site has been appraised at $300,000. It was listed at $775,000, and the building sit on one of three acres. Jeff offered $100,000, and received a counter offer of $200,000. He will take that offer to the Board of
Trustees at the September meeting. It will cost $1 million to renovate, but this includes the purchase price. If CR were to sell in the future, the Garberville District
Superintendent wants a buy back clause; and if they were to buy back, CR would get the purchase price back. Jeff has hired John Ash Group Architects to work on the Garberville renovation as well as the Student Union kitchen renovation and the demolition or partial renovation of the Old Library.
Maggie noted that teaching yoga on forty year old carpet is not good.
Ray asked the President: Do we cost and prioritize? Jeff listed the projects again with rough costs.
Dave Holper asked if we looked at cost to demo the Old Library. Jeff said yes,
$250,000.
David Maki said based on current students using new sites; do we look at downsizing Eureka? Jeff said you could but, we need to look at the penetration rates, when do we max out here? How many new students could we get? Vo Tech is maxed out except diesel.
David asked, what about dorms at Mendocino, Del Norte, and Eureka? Jeff answered; currently Mendocino can’t justify dorms with current FTES.
Dave Holper said during the phone banking for Measure Q we talked about retrofitting this campus.
Stephen stated that Del Norte started at the Fairgrounds in 1983, and the campus was purchased after we demonstrated an established student population. Why don’t we do this in Garberville? Jeff said we have an opportunity to purchase a building and it’s cost effective. The area has demonstrated a need, and it makes more economic sense to purchase and renovate. It would take $250,000 to $300,000 out of operational funds to rent a facility. Stephen said we’ve developed an EMP, and the FMPC follows the original EMP. He stated that the EMP never mentioned
Garberville. Jeff said the EMP references McKinleyville, Arcata, and rural areas. The
EMP didn’t mention Arcata Instructional Site, Eureka Downtown, or Hoopa, but they are viable locations.
David Maki asked if we own the Hoopa site. Jeff answered that we lease this site.
Dave Holper asked about the time slot for the committee meetings on Monday from
2:30 to 4:30. Ruth said there will be a number of meetings, two in September, two in
October, and one in November. We need to keep to the timeline this fall so that we can prioritize the existing projects and estimate costs by December.

Ruth re-capped where we are regarding state projects, money, time, bond measure, deferred maintenance, and renovation. Ruth talked about projects listing, priority, costing, and modeling.
Dave Holper said we need to look at the list as outlined by the President.
Ruth talked about the meeting schedule, hopefully every two weeks.
Dave Holper asked how we communicate to student and the community. Maybe on an information kiosk? Ray said we need feedback from the architects, Nichols,
Melburg and Rossetto, and John Ash Group. Ruth stated that the FMPC will review building projects on an on going basis, and do year to year planning review.
Anita asked how deferred maintenance affects the priorities and issues at Del
Norte? Is there a deferred maintenance list? Ruth said we will review the deferred maintenance list at the next meeting.
Melissa asked about program review and maintaining facilities. Ruth said we will look at safety and code compliance for deferred maintenance prioritization. Ruth stated that typically the percentage of funding being budgeted annually for deferred maintenance should be 2% of operational budget.
Dave Holper called to adjourn. The next meeting is September 16. We will meet at noon, or alternate times could be 11:30, 12:30, or 2:00.