The San Martin Lions Club and Community Hall will likely lose
its home on Murphy Avenue as the Santa Clara County Board of
Supervisors prepares to discuss and possibly vote today on leasing
the building and property to Gavilan College’s aviation program as
a workshop.
The San Martin Lions Club and Community Hall will likely lose its home on Murphy Avenue as the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors prepares to discuss and possibly vote Tuesday on leasing the building and property to Gavilan College’s aviation program as a workshop.
The hall is supposed to be used for aviation purposes as it is on county-owned land, is funded in part by a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration and is on South County Airport property. The county also argued that renting the 6,000-square-foot meeting hall to the Lions Club was no longer economically viable.
The San Martin community was heartbroken over the county’s decision to move forward with the Gavilan lease. They said Supervisor Don Gage supported their efforts for the 27 years that the Lions Club has managed the building, which its members built brick by brick in 1982.
The club pours nearly $100,000 into San Martin, Morgan Hill and Gilroy thanks entirely to its Wednesday night bingo game, which attracts about 180 people. The center is the town’s meeting place for CalFire, the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance, and political campaigns and debates, and is rented by nonprofit groups at a low cost.
Lions Club president Robert Caballero said now Gage is turning his back on the community to turn a profit for the county, which recently settled up a $223-million deficit.
Gage said the club has known since 2004 – the year it entered a month-to-month lease from first a 10-year lease then two 5-year leases – that the day would come when the club would need to move to make room for an aviation-related use.
“I’ve helped them since 1997,” Gage said, referring to the year he took office as District 1 supervisor. “We have a $223 million deficit, we can’t just give property away.”
The county recommends leasing the property to Gavilan because it “would help the airport become more self-sustaining financially. It would also be advantageous to have a tenant that is aviation related, presents minimal community impacts and furthers the academic mission of an educational institution.”
The club signed a lease with the county in 1984 at the rate of $1 a year for 20 years. The lease was amended in 2004 to increase rent to $100 on a month-to-month basis with the understanding the county could move the club out with a 30-day notice.
The most recent fair-market appraisal of the five-acre property was $4,500 per month in February 2004. The county has arranged for an appraisal to update the figure. The club said they would pay $1,500 a month in rent – or about $1 per square foot – for the hall.
Since 1984, the club has been responsible for all maintenance, including a new roof that cost $40,000 and sprinkler system at $15,000, Caballero said Wednesday amid the buzz of the weekly bingo game.
“We’ve never asked (the county) for a cent,” Lions Club treasurer Don van Straaten added.
Gavilan has been in discussions with the county since its aviation program was booted in May from the Hollister Municipal Airport, its home since 1964. Hollister leaders decided to raise the rent there by nearly $7,000 per month.
The college looked at fair-market rates and the ability to grow its program over time before it made the decision to leave Hollister and move to the South County Airport, trustee Deb Smith said May 27.
The program, which has 10 students enrolled, could grow when it is closer to San Jose, trustees said.
The board of supervisors will need a four-fifths vote to authorize Gavilan to negotiate a lease agreement with the county. That decision is expected Tuesday. The lease will need final approval from the board, which could happen in August.
“There’s nothing down here in South County. We took a ride around town Monday and there aren’t any buildings,” van Straaten said. “(County supervisors) haven’t helped us at all (to find a new home). This is why this gets used so much.”
The club rents the building to nonprofits for $225, used mostly for cleaning fees and utilities.
“We make a lot of money – we’re not going to give it all away in paying rent,” van Straaten said. Gage said the club was offered another long-term lease in 2004 at the fair market value at that time of $4,500 a month, which they refused because it was too high for a nonprofit, they said.
The building isn’t up to code and would need so much retrofitting that it would cost the county more in repairs and updates than it would make in rent, Caballero said.
Try to put two plugs into the building’s 220-volt outlets and it blows a fuse, he said. In its recommendation, the county requires Gavilan to pay for any alterations or improvements and they must be approved by staff in advance.
The club said they researched installing a new electrical system, but PG&E assessed the underground lines and updates at $45,000.
“If it’s fair, we’ll pay it. If it’s blatantly inflated then it’s a whole other story,” Caballero said. The club and other San Martin community members are feeling scorned now because they were not offered a chance at paying rent this time around.
After 27 years in the building – cleaning, maintaining and the thousands they have injected back into the county – the club expected at least that much.
“I understand the county wanting that property to be profitable, but at whose expense? The county citizens and voters that use the facility? Or the many nonprofit organizations that use it day in and day out to try to make South County a better place to raise our families?” Swanee Edwards wrote in an e-mail to community stakeholders.
In the last two years, the club donated $25,000 to San Martin/Gwinn School, including $10,000 for a new marquee, $4,000 for backpacks and supplies for needy children, $7,000 for new fencing and $2,000 to the library, said club member Alan Black.
They have also donated thousands to Rebekah Children’s Services in Gilroy, which helps neglected children.
Gage said no one is questioning that the Lions have helped the community, but he has to look out for the county.
“I can understand their situation, but I can’t sympathize with them,” Gage said.
