COBB — Structural issues include pest control, damage siding, exterior paint and flooring replacement needed, exterior drainage to be repaired, and the front entrance, which has no landing at the top, not complying with ADA regulations
The community center at Little Red School House, in Cobb, has been struggling with serious structural issues. Now, it is facing the challenge of raising funds to fix several problems, such as pest control, damage siding, exterior paint and flooring replacement, exterior drainage that needs to be repaired, and the front entrance, which has no landing at the top, not complying with Americans Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations.
Little Red community services include the Donation Center after the Valley Fire, blood drive, polling place for elections, alcoholics and narcotics anonymous, food distribution, workshops, workgroups, events and meetings. There are 10 Mountain Lions clubs in Lake County, and three have a building: Kelseyville, Middletown and Cobb. Cobb center was built in 1853 and operated as a school house until 1971. Then, it was deeded to the Mountain Lions Club with the condition that it could only be used as a community center. In 1977, the club built the hall, the bar and kitchen portion of the building. “The original mission of the Lions is to feed the hungry ones”, reminded the Lions Club Secretary, Kelly Stuckey.
“I want the community to know how much danger we are in of closing permanently before there is nothing more we can do about it,” said the incoming president of Mountain Lions for Lake County, Kyle Noble, who has been a member for 5 years now. “Now it’s the time to be looking into grant funding and to try to move forward with a plan to figure out how we are going to stay open. Lately, we’ve done a lot, but the most crucial need for our community center to stay open is for food distribution and, with the COVID crisis, we increased from serving 24 families per month to 96 per month. Without a facility and refrigeration, we wouldn’t be part of the Gleaners network. Lion Kelly and Lion John Meyer are Gleaners. We pull food from there for twice a month distribution.”
The financial challenges include property tax bill of $2,072 that is unpaid, and $1,500 owed to a lion for heat/air conditioning. With current available funds of $257 and no steady source of income, it is evidently impossible to get all bills covered. “The Lions Club has been raising about $20,000 a year to pay for the utilities and taxes. It hasn’t been enough for improvements and maintenance”, noted Noble. Only for the pest control problem, the cost is about $20,000.
“What the community can do to help us is to share the information about our dire need to refurbish this facility. You can join us by becoming a lion, but also participate without joining. We have a lot of people who are helping us with our food giveaways who are not lions. We so appreciate that help. You don’t have to be a lion in order to volunteer with us,” said the incoming president. “We would welcome people that are experts in construction to join us in forming a committee to plan renovations. Basically, with our limited number of lions and our limited skill level with this, having a community based committee serving the community center is the only way I can think of to bring in more people to help us. I don’t want to be the president that closes the community center and ends this operation. I would rather be the president that leads us to a complete refurbishment and renovation of the facilities to make it a beautiful center for future generations of Cobb people to call home as a community center.”
Jessica Pyska, a candidate for Lake County District 5 supervisor, is engaged on helping to raise funds: “My suggestion, when they brought the need for funding to the Cobb Area Council to do these repairs and maintenance, was to apply to become a historic monument in the state of California. What we need to do is to get a letter of support from the board of supervisors, asking for their support.”
"danger" - Google News
June 06, 2020 at 08:05PM
https://ift.tt/2XCvlh8
The Cobb Community Center is in danger of shutting down - Lake County Record-Bee
"danger" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bVUlF0
https://ift.tt/3f9EULr
No comments:
Post a Comment