Loan deal to bring track, field into 21st century

District, city close to settling on $1.8-million loan for artificial turf and all-weather track at Glendale High School. GLENDALE CITY HALL -- The city will loan $1.8 million to the Glendale Unified School District for the installation of new artificial turf and an all-weather track at Glendale High School, a project slated to be completed within a year.

The Glendale Redevelopment Agency and the Board of Education went over the final details of the loan agreement at their respective meetings on Tuesday.

Under the loan deal, scheduled to be approved by the Glendale Board of Education on Dec. 13, money that the district would have received over the next 20 years from the city's Central Project Redevelopment Area would instead be loaned up front in one lump sum. The $1.8 million wouldbe used to replace the high school's aging Moyse Field, a project that is expected to be completed before the start of next year's football season.

The district was slated to get the money from the city under Senate Bill 211, which allows redevelopment agencies to extend the period of time under which they could incur debt, and therefore continue to contract out for projects. In exchange for the time extension, the law requires agencies to share some of the tax increments they receive from redevelopment areas with local public entities, including school districts.

The loan will be structured so that the district's repayments to the Redevelopment Agency, including a 4% annual interest charge, would be covered entirely with the income the district receives from its share of redevelopment money, Director of Development Services Philip Lanzafame said.

"Paying back the loan will not affect [the district's] cash flow," Lanzafame said.

In addition, the loan agreement contains no prepayment penalty, board President Mary Boger said.

"So if the district should find itself with extra money, however unlikely that is, we could pay off the loan early and receive the rest of the tax increment," she said.

Modernizing the school's athletic field is a good use for the money, Boger added.

"More and more schools throughout the state are installing artificial turf and for our kids to have comparable classrooms, because after all our fields are also our classrooms, we need to address this issue," Boger said.

Keeping up with field upgrades at schools throughout the area is just one of the reasons to spend the money on Moyse Field, board member Chuck Sambar said.