In 2004 voters approved the Measure E bond for Gavilan Community
College to improve buildings and expand campus sites that will help
students prepare for a four-year college.
Dear Editor,
In 2004 voters approved the Measure E bond for Gavilan Community College to improve buildings and expand campus sites that will help students prepare for a four-year college.
During the renovation of the buildings at Gavilan Community College’s mail campus, sealed areas of asbestos will be exposed and will be required to be removed. A major oversight that was not placed on the ballot for the voters was the removal of asbestos that remained sealed within the walls and floors of Gavilan College’s buildings. As of now, over $203,000 of Measure E bond money has been spent on the removal of exposed asbestos for one to three buildings. With an uncertain amount of asbestos that remains on campus it is unknown of how much more is needed.
Reported at the Board of Trustees meeting on Sept. 9, 2008: Mr. Keeler (Vice President of Administrative Services) stated, “The budget had about $5.5 million and $400,000 was taken from the contingency program. This came in about $200,000 over budget. The asbestos clean-up contributed to the overage.”
In other words, the removal of asbestos was not a part of the Measure E master plan.
Other research that I have done on this matter is of the improper methods to how the cancer causing material is being removed. Unfortunately, the wind blows directly down to our Allied Health, Child Care Center, and high school buildings, as well as portables from the carcinogen contained buildings that are not 100 percent covered or encapsulated while removing such material.
Below is the danger as noted from the San Benito County Office of Education: “Asbestos is found in older vinyl floor tile, glue/mastic, roofing materials and in plaster wall and ceiling finishes. When asbestos containing materials are chipped or surfaces are disturbed, small asbestos fibers are emitted and the material is considered friable. If inhaled, asbestos fibers have been identified as a carcinogen. Consultation with a certified industrial hygienist or equivalent professional will determine if this is an acceptable procedure.”
Areas in the California Education Code state that schools can apply for money specifically for the removal of asbestos. But Gavilan continues to draw moneys for this from the already over budgeted Measure E bond.
Knowing that the money is used for something that the voters of this area did not approve of, and it being a costly oversight of our college, “What student services or facilities are going to be lost? (Staffing, furniture, child care, computers, lab hours, tutors, completion of building renovations, purchase of new properties …)” I had asked this question to our Board of Trustees this past June. They did not reply.
Measure E moneys put to work with hidden costs.
Tim Holliday, Former student trustee and former member of the Health, Grounds, Safety, and Faculties committee
Gardens ‘a bad joke from the very beginning’ – sell it and be done
Dear Editor,
That Bonfante Gardens thing has been a bad joke from the very beginning – and the guy who perpetrated it split for Branson, MO years ago (laughing all the way). Sell it and be done with it
T.D. Roberts, Gilroy
