Gavilan College will move its aviation program to South County
Airport in San Martin within the next 30 days, the school’s board
of trustees announced today.
Gavilan College will move its aviation program to South County Airport in San Martin within the next 30 days, the school’s board of trustees announced today.
The college is moving the program, which has called the Hollister Municipal Airport home since 1964, because Hollister leaders recently decided to raise the rent by nearly $7,000 per month, trustees said. Trustees and other college leaders made the announcement during a press conference at the Hollister airport.
The college looked at fair-market rates and the ability to grow its program over time before it made the decision to leave Hollister, trustee Deb Smith said to a small collection of people outside Gavilan’s aviation building.
“We understand the desire of the Hollister City Council to maximize return on the airport property for city residents. However, Gavilan College is unable to afford the significant rent increase,” she said.
Hollister City Council members’ earlier in the month voted to hike Gavilan College’s rent from $314.59 per month to $7,163.10. The initial lease agreement between the city and college expired in 1998, and an increase was supposed to take place at that time, but the lease hike continually had been delayed.
The college’s new renting agreement will cost the school $1,882 per month for each hangar, Smith said. The college will move into either one or two hangars at the San Martin airport, and school leaders hope to have basic operations open by September.
The college plans to send a letter to the city by Friday, describing that it expects to vacate the property within 30 days, college president Steven Kinsella said.
Airport Manager Mike Chambless only wished the college well.
“The college is obviously going to do what is best for them,” he said. “There is no hard feelings, and I wish them well.”
The college and the city went into a 20-year agreement in 1978. Since it expired, the college had been leasing on a month-to-month basis.
Over the last few years, the city and the college entered into negotiations to sign a new extended lease. In the summer of 2008, Chambless and Kinsella exchanged letters gauging the interests of the two parties.
Chambless asked that the rent be increased to $2,200 per month before Kinsella responded with an increasing offer that would start at $1,000 per month.
In Kinsella’s response letter he said the college would invest nearly $50,000 in improving the facility.
But afterward no action was taken by the city council until earlier this month, after Chambless sent a letter to members asking for an increase in rent.
After the city council agreed to increase the rent by nearly $7,000, the college decided its best option was to look elsewhere, Kinsella said. The college never re-entered into negotiations with the city after the rent was to be increased.
“I firmly believe that this change, which is obviously a reaction to circumstance and market pressure of the economy and so forth, will ensure that our program will continue for many, many decades more,” said trustee Kent Child, who represents San Benito County.
Saying good-bye to the Hollister airport won’t be an easy transition, but the change should allow the program to grow, said trustee Tom Breen, who also represents San Benito County.
“We get to move on from here to a new place we can afford and we know we are going to have quality education, and we will probably provide for more students,” Breen said. “We are one of the few that are remaining and we intend to continue to provide and to meet the needs of the aviation industry.”
The program, which currently has 10 students enrolled, could grow when it is closer to San Jose, Kinsella said.
“Because we are further north and closer to San Jose, we will be able to serve a much larger audience than we are able to attract here in Hollister,” he said.
The full program is expected to be running by January of next year, but the basic classes will be ready for the next school year, he said.
