County needs to meet revenue potential to be eligible for grant
money
San Martin – It’s about to become very clear to residents of this little burg just how little control they have over their community.
To help secure federal funding to expand the South County Airport, the county will soon bid a new lease for the Lions Club Hall on Murphy Avenue. That means San Martinians must find a new spot to hold their spaghetti socials, charity events and community meetings.
“I think it would be a big loss to the people of South County. It gets used for a lot of public functions,” said Don Van Straaten, past president of the Lions Club who now serves as secretary. “We couldn’t do that if the county leases it to a private individual.”
The Lions Club has called the club home for 20 years, and until January paid the county just $1 a year to lease it. Wednesday night bingo is one of many charitable events the Lions host at the hall, and Van Straaten said the organization has raised more than $20,000 at the hall during the last year, all of which is poured into the community.
And a multitude of other non-profit groups, including the San Martin 4-H, the Pacheco Pass 4-H and the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance, use the hall for pancake breakfasts, dances and meetings.
“It’s the only place where we can have gatherings that help bring the neighborhood together and create a community identity,” SMNA President Sylvia Hamilton said. “People are giving a lot back to the community and thereby the county, and that’s a lot more important than the few bucks they can get to lease it out.”
Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage said the county has no choice but to find a tenant that can afford market-rate rent. The land is owned by the airport and the Federal Aviation Administration demands that the airport meet its revenue potential to be eligible for grant money. Without the grant money, the county will not be able to expand the airport or buy adjacent land to construct a safety zone.
“That means millions of dollars in grants we can use for the airport,” Gage said. “I understand that people are nervous about this, but this just didn’t come out of the sky. If I could do something for them, I would.”
County officials want to expand the airport because facilities in Palo Alto and San Jose have reached their capacity for small commercial traffic. The plan extends the airport’s current 3,100-foot runway to accommodate small and medium corporate jets used by commercial businesses. Runway width also will expand, from 75 to 100 feet. A two-story, 12,000-square-foot terminal building will be constructed, as well as a new maintenance building and two water storage tanks.
One hundred hangars, the most reliable source of income for the Airport Enterprise Fund, are due to open in September, about a year behind schedule, though Carl Honaker, director of county airports, said he wouldn’t “bet the farm” that the hangars will open by the new target date.
“The contractor has been going a lot slower than we hoped. We’re trying to resolve the finish date,” Honaker said. “But the contractor hasn’t been holding to the schedule so far.”
Expansion work is still years off. The preliminary engineering work and environmental reviews will be delayed because the county did not meet this year’s FAA financing deadline.
When the runaway is extended, it will go through what is now the San Martin Animal Shelter, another county agency struggling with budget issues that will be forced to relocate. It’s possible the shelter will move to the Lions Hall, a prospect cheered by Van Straaten, who said the shelter and the Lions could easily share the space.
“I think that would suit our purposes and their purposes,” Van Straaten said. “The county is in a difficult situation. It’s something we should try and work out and make work for both of us.”
