By BONNIE J. GORDON
Los Alamos Daily Post
bjgordon@ladailypost.com
The Los Alamos County Council and the Los Alamos School Board met in joint session Monday, Feb. 28 to discuss three joint projects that are in the planning stage.
The projects, a gymnasium to be used by Los Alamos Middle School (LAMS) and the community as well, a gym or recreational facility in White Rock and building more tennis courts for both public and School District use have been discussed for approximately six years. The two entities are ready to move forward to the initial planning stages, including site selection.
The County Public Works Department gave a presentation on the three projects. Presenters were Public Works Director Juan Rael, County Engineer Eric Martinez and County Planner Sara Rhoton. All members of the Council and the School Board were present for the meeting, which was held via Zoom.
“Inflation and an increase in costs have made cost estimation difficult,” Martinez said.
The Joint Session began with a discussion of the proposed gym at LAMS.
The County received a Capital Outlay Grant of $350K for the planning and design development stage of the project, Martinez said. Initially four possible sites were identified to be evaluated. School Board Secretary Antonio Jaurigue explained that in the course of discussions at the Feb. 24 School Board meeting, the Board had identified two additional sites at either end of LAMS parking lot that they thought merited consideration.
“It takes a lot of time and expense to evaluate a site,” Martinez cautioned.
“We’d like to get it down to two sites. The grant is an important piece of this because all the work must be approved. We have to spend certain funds at certain times.”
The School Board members had a number of questions concerning how the facility would be used by the public and what features for LAMS use would be affordable, but Martinez stressed that choosing site should come first.
LAMS Principal Suzanne Lynn pointed out that it is important for the new facility to be large enough to hold the entire student body, including the proposed sixth grade academy students if that should come to pass. In addition to basketball courts, the building needs space for cheerleader practice and wrestling practice.
“I’m interested in the parking lot sites,” Councilor David Izraelevitz said. “Site 2 seems like a good possibility. We have funds, but not much land. Many community sports need adequate space … I’m supportive of moving forward.”
After the body examined drawings and descriptions of all the sites, a consensus began to take shape. The School Board and the County Council passed similar motions unanimously. They moved to support preliminary evaluation of the parking lot sites, referred to as sites 5 and 6 and a formal evaluation of site 2.
The two entities then moved to a discussion of the proposed White Rock recreational facility. Sites near the newly constructed Chamisa and Pinon Schools, which are currently in the design phase were discussed.
Rhoton said a $600K State Capital Outlay grant had been obtained for planning, design development and construction documents for the recreation facility project.
“We have an opportunity to decide the type of facility we want since we are building the two new schools from the ground up,” Interim School Superintendent Jennifer Guy said.
New recreational facilities could be built on the site of the former buildings, once they are torn down, School Board Member Ellen Specter pointed out. Architect Juan Dorado of Dekker, Perich, Sabatini Design, the firm in charge of planning the two new schools, said the preliminary construction dates are December 2022 with completion scheduled for 2025 for Chamisa and May 2023 to July 2026 for Pinon.
Izraelevitz pointed out that the Community Master Plan would be ready in April or May, along with the survey connected to it, Director of Community Services Cory Styron said.
The School District would be happy to share feedback from the White Rock community gathered during meetings on the new schools, Guy said.
Specter suggested that the current District working group might provide a vehicle to move forward with new members from the County.
“That gives us time for the survey data to come in,” Rhoton said.
The two bodies agreed to move forward in this fashion while gathering more data.
The final project on the agenda was the building of new tennis courts to provide eight courts at one location, which would give both the School District and community tennis programs the ability to host tournaments. There was a good deal of discussion of the four suggested sites.
Los Alamos High School Athletic Director Ann Stewart said her preference was the site at Overlook Park in White Rock.
Specter pointed out that students already travel there for soccer.
Izraelevitz countered that he was concerned about students driving to White Rock.
There are currently parking issues at the Urban Park site, but Councilor Melanee Hand wanted to give the site consideration, since parking could be built there.
Councilor Sean Williams disagreed.
“It’s a bad idea because of parking. Also, the County has had problems with the lights at the tennis courts disturbing residents,” he said.
Williams also said that the extra courts were not right for a residential area because of tournaments. He would not support that site under any circumstances, he said.
When it came time for public comment, Andrea Cunningham, who lives in the Mesa Meadows neighborhood behind Sullivan Field said that area should not be ruled out because of a petition to Council. There are already two tennis courts on that site.
She said the signers had bad information and things might be different than they were in 2016.
President Bob Nolan of the Los Alamos Tennis Club also weighed in.
“We prefer Urban Park or Mesa Meadows,” he said. “The lights at Urban Park are being replaced in March or April with proper lights for a tennis court, so that won’t be a problem.”
Nolan said the courts at North Mesa were not good for tennis and the site was very windy. He said White Rock was not acceptable for adult tennis.
In the end, both the School Board and the County Council passed motions to move forward with looking at Urban Park and Overlook Park as possible sites for the new courts.
The Council and School Board will gather more public comments and decide whether to include Mesa Meadows for consideration after 30 days.
Councilor Williams opposed this motion because he said he could not ever support the Urban Park site.
The meeting adjourned at 10:10 p.m.