Community College Board responds to Enholm commentary on new East County college site
Dear Editor:
This letter is written in response to an editorial written by Greg Enholm appearing in your March 2013 edition.
The CCCCD Board supports the expansion of services to East Contra Costa County. After extensive review, the District purchased a 17 acre site in Brentwood to expand services to the area and the District fully intends to construct a campus on that 17-acre site when funding is available. Despite what Mr. Enholm reports in his editorial, the Governing Board has not had a discussion about also purchasing a 110-acre site and constructing a campus in Brentwood. The research we have conducted does not support such an action on the part of the District, and there is no plan for further consideration of such a project at this time.
The Board has discussed placing a District-wide facilities bond on the June 2014 ballot. Details of what projects will be identified in that bond still need to be discussed and polling conducted to determine whether the District should place such a measure on the ballot in June or November of 2014.
Sincerely yours,
Sheila Grilli, Board President
John E. Marquez, Board Vice President
I am Greg Enholm. I was elected as Ward 5 Trustee to represent East County (including most of Antioch) on the College Board in the November 2012 election. I received 27,345 votes (51%) compared with the 2 other candidates who received 21,519 (40%) and 4,850 (9%).
My top campaign priority was to work for a 110-acre community college for Far East County (see http://www.smartvoter.org/2012/11/06/ca/cc/vote/enholm_g/).
This letter from two of my fellow Trustees is just one example of how the 5-member College Board has not been aggressive in meeting the community college facilities needs in Far East County. While western Antioch residents are close to the 110-acre Los Medanos College and traffic is not as much of a problem for them, eastern Antioch residents have significant traffic problems reaching LMC all day.
At our February 2013 meeting, the Board discussed my proposal from the January 2013 meeting to have a bond on the June 2014 ballot for voters to approve or disapprove.
As the letter states, the Board has been discussing since about 2005 building a 17-acre campus to replace the heavily-used Brentwood Education and Technology Center on Sand Creek Road opened in 2001. If about $40 million can be raised (possibly with the June 2014 bond), that 17-acre campus could open about 2017 or at least 16 years after the 2001 center opened.
My hope is that the Board will recognize that waiting 16 years to replace the 2001 Brentwood Center is too long. What will happen if that 17-acre campus is just as heavily used as the 2001 Brentwood Center has been and there is a need for yet a larger facility?
I believe the Board should start planning now for a larger facility so it will not be another 16-year wait for Far East County residents to have a facility to meet their community college needs.
Clearly, these two Trustees do not agree with me. Do you?