Divided council OKs child care in police station Divided council OKs child care in police station (May 05, 2004)

** Many residents persist in pushing for new center, but don't have the council votes.

By Rebecca Wallace
Almanac Staff Writer

When you're turning a police station into a child care center, it's easy to spot the parts of the building that will have to go. Like the holding cells.

"This will become the nap area," Ruben Nino, Menlo Park's director of engineering, said on an April 27 tour of the old building, gesturing at a cell.

"It should be nice and quiet," City Manager David Boesch joked.

Even though the police department moved into a new station in another part of the Civic Center in 2000, there still were rows of "Wanted" fliers thumbtacked up in one office.

"You think these guys are still at large?" Councilwoman Mickie Winkler asked.

"I think they show up in my son's garage band," Mayor Lee Duboc said.

But the mood turned serious later that evening at the council meeting, when 11 residents denounced the plan to renovate the police station, saying the council had broken its promise to build a new child care center. (No one spoke in favor of the renovation plan.)

Several said many residents had voted for the 2001 Measure T bond initiative because they expected its funds to pay for a new center. The council, though, voted last year to move ahead with the renovation rather than getting bids on the $6.15 million center.

"It just seems that your minds were made up since day one to kill this project," resident Malcolm McGinnis said.

As it did last year, the council voted 3-2 on April 27 in favor of the renovation, this time approving a new conceptual plan for the project that puts the cost around $3.6 million. An earlier, rougher, estimate had come in at $2.7 million. The older figure did not contain two current costs: $364,000 for a new modular building for some of the children, and $318,000 for renovating the station's basement.

Ms. Duboc led the charge with a long statement, saying that she had originally thought the old police building was unusable but now finds it a more cost-effective option.

"A lot of people voted for a lot of things in Measure T that they're not going to get," she said, adding that a city budget crunch ruled out other projects, such as a second gymnasium.

Ms. Duboc also said some residents don't want a new building at the Civic Center because it might not fit in. Councilwoman Mickie Winkler agreed, saying, "We're recycling a beautiful building that was built for our campus."

Using a current building would also leave the city with more flexibility to move child care to schools someday, Ms. Duboc said. Currently, many school officials say there is no room on their campuses.

Councilman Nicholas Jellins voted with Ms. Duboc and Ms. Winkler without comment.

Councilman Paul Collacchi, however, was not so reticent. He took issue with the assertion that the city's financial situation makes a new center unaffordable, pointing out that Menlo Park has a AAA bond rating and healthy budget reserves, about $27.8 million.

"We have money. In fact, we're filthy rich," he said. "One of the worst things we can do is to pretend that we don't have money."

Councilman Chuck Kinney, who joined Mr. Collacchi in voting for the new center, said he was concerned that the renovation cost estimate had increased, and wondered what new costs were ahead.

Other residents also pointed out that more than $800,000 had already been spent to design the new center.

Next steps

After design development and Planning Commission review, the renovation project is expected to go out to bid in April 2005 and be completed in May 2006, supervising engineer Art Morimoto said. It will include space for 164 children in 9,000 square feet, while the planned new 13,700-square-foot center would have served 180 kids.

Some walls in the station would be removed to open up the rooms, but opponents say the rooms are still too small for kids.

The basement, which the police department used as a firing range and still has holey targets hanging in the air, will be renovated and used for office space and storage.

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