
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Palisades Charter High School officials had hoped to open the Maggie Gilbert Aquatic Center to the public by July 1, but construction delays have pushed that date well into the summer. ’We are moving forward with all due haste,’ PaliHi’s Executive Director Amy Dresser-Held said. She speculated that construction could be completed as early as July 15. However, the aquatic center will need to pass an inspection by the Division of the State Architect and the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety before it can open. ’We are planning our official ribbon-cutting for English teacher Rose Gilbert’s birthday on August 2,’ PaliHi’s Operations Manager Maisha-Cole Perri said. Gilbert has donated more than $2 million and provided a $750,000 loan towards the construction of the $4.9-million aquatic center, which will be named after her late daughter. The 12-lane competitive pool and adjacent two-lane teaching pool was originally supposed to be completed by April 1. The contractor, Sarlan Builders, which is doing the job at cost, agreed to pay $2,000 of liquidated damages for every day that construction is not complete, with the exception of rain delays and other delays out of the contractor’s control, Dresser-Held said. Dresser-Held continued that the amount paid in liquidated damages will simply cover the costs the school is incurring. '[PaliHi has] to continue to pay for project management and inspection as well as some smaller change orders due to unforeseen conditions,’ she said. Dresser-Held explained that construction has been delayed because of a number of factors. For instance, the contractor had to excavate more dirt than anticipated. Since the pool is being built on fill, there were some issues with the structural slab. The water lines were also incorrectly shown on district and city plans, and the rainy weather, especially in February, contributed to the delays. PaliHi officials sold swimming passes to residents and rented pool time to aquatic groups for this summer. Perri and the newly hired aquatic director Andrew Cervantes plan to collaborate on ways to compensate those people. Cervantes, who has worked for more than 10 years with the Los Angeles County aquatics program, will begin work on June 28. The school has raised $3.13 million of the $4.9 million needed for the aquatic center, so on June 8, the board unanimously approved taking out a loan up to $1 million from Bank of the West to finish construction. The board also voted to take out a three-year loan from the bank for $354,580 as part of the refinancing of the track and field loan (originally borrowed from De Lage Landen Public Finance). Both loans will have a fixed interest rate of approximately 6.15 percent. The original $750,000 loan for the track and field improvements was secured in June 2007 and a balloon payment of $354,580 was due this year. ’When the pool loan was being looked at, the board asked to review the possibility of refinancing the balloon payment,’ said PaliHi’s Chief Business Officer Greg Wood. ‘This assists PaliHi with its cash flow by extending the terms on the balloon payment instead of making it all at once.’ Under the terms of the pool loan, PaliHi will make interest-only payments for the first six months and then principal and interest payments for the next five years, Wood said. ’At the end of the five and a half years, the remaining balance will either be paid off or refinanced,’ Wood said. ‘If the full $1 million is borrowed for the pool, the balance outstanding at the end of the five-and-a-half-year loan period will be $589,300.’ The loan will be paid for out of the general fund in 2010-11 and 2011-12, but then Wood anticipates that the school will be able to cover the payments with increased revenue from civic center permits. Community groups and organizations can purchase civic center permits to use the school’s pool, playing fields, parking lots, classrooms, meeting rooms and gym. Wood expects more money from the civic center permits because the track and field loan will be paid off and the school will build up a clientele for the pool.
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