Darleene Barrientos
If city officials can afford it, the playgrounds and fields of eight
local schools can be transformed into parks and recreational
facilities the rest of the public can enjoy.
If the city can dig up $9.7 million, more trees, more seating and
newer playground equipment can be installed at Dunsmore, Fremont,
Mark Keppel, Franklin, R.D. White, Marshall and Muir elementary
schools, and Wilson, Toll and Roosevelt Middle schools.
"I'm impressed with what the staff has accomplished since the last
meeting. I think you're right on target," City Councilman Frank
Quintero said at a special meeting between city and public school
officials Tuesday, referring to the city and school district's last
meeting several months ago.
"Even at $9.7 million, even if it escalates to $10.7 million --
it's the deal of a lifetime."
But even with all the plans for the extra trees, synthetic turf
sports fields, fencing and shade canopies, the City Council asked
city officials to study whether building a pool, particularly at
Roosevelt Middle School, would be possible.
When Pacific Park was torn down, the city lost its only public
pool facility in south Glendale.
"I don't see additional pools being created," Councilman Gus Gomez
said. "It seems to me that having lost a pool at Pacific Park,
Roosevelt seems to be a natural. I think the city needs a water
facility that can be used year round."
But space constraints at Roosevelt Middle don't allow for a pool,
City Manager Jim Starbird said.
"It's not as if aquatics was not on our mind, but we needed to
prioritize," he said.
With the success of the city's first joint-use project, the
Edison-Pacific Park Project, which includes an elementary school, a
library and a park, the district and the city have drawn up plans for
what they hope to see at each of the eight campuses chosen. Other
joint-use projects, like Cerritos School Park, are scheduled to begin
construction in April while plans for Fremont and Franklin elementary
schools are in progress.
Lina Harper, Glendale Unified School District's board clerk, also
asked whether Columbus Elementary School was not going to be included
as a future mixed-use facility with the city.
The costs of buying neighboring homes to expand and rebuild
Columbus as a mixed-use facility would have been prohibitive because
of high property prices in the area, Starbird said.
But a few of the council members felt that money could be found,
through grants, from legislators or from other funding sources.
