1) As the continued development of Sacramento State begins to bring new housing online, the news is good for the Parkway as it will increase traffic there, which helps decrease the problems with illegal camping and crime.
This recent article from the Sacramento Business Journal (requires subscription) gives a hint of what is to come.
An excerpt.
“Part of Sacramento State’s effort to become more of a residential campus, the 123,000-square-foot recreation portion will have free weights, exercise machines, an indoor track, racquetball courts, basketball courts and a climbing wall. The 28,000-square-foot health and wellness portion will have an urgent care center, a pharmacy, dental services and health-education rooms.
“General contractor McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. is already on board, and completion is slated for the summer of 2010. The university got McCarthy involved before architects Hornberger+Worstell finished the drawings in order to help fix costs and keep the project on budget, Richardson said. When about 40 subcontractor bids went out in July, Sacramento State kept a list of options ready to cut costs, such as not finishing out all the racquetball courts right away.
“As it turns out, the sub bids came in under our budget, so we are able to finish those as part of the project,” Richardson said.
“The health and wellness center dovetails with the Broad Athletic Facility completed earlier this year. The $11 million Broad project replaced the old Hornet field house.
A place to call home
“Also part of the residential scene is a new dorm started last year and expected to be ready by next summer for the start of the 2009 school year.
“Instead of the traditional separate dorm rooms, the new building has suites of two to five bedrooms and two bathrooms. Each suite has shared kitchen space with microwave ovens and refrigerators.
“The first new dorm since 1990, it will add 608 beds to the campus, expanding the current capacity by more than half. The school also leases lofts off campus at 65th Street and Folsom Boulevard for student housing.
“The four-story building will encompass 209,000 square feet and cost a projected $61.6 million. In addition to the apartment-style dorms, it also will have retail food areas and several areas for studying and meetings.”
2) In the same issue of the Sacramento Business Journal (subscription required) is an interview with the new executive director of the American River Parkway Foundation, focusing on the volunteer issue.
An excerpt.
“Dianna Aguilar likes her job. She thinks the American River Parkway “is the most beautiful parkway in the country,” and the job she gets paid to do is to make it even more beautiful…
“You say there’s disagreement over whether volunteers should be cleaning up the parkway. What’s that about?
“We have been using volunteers to clean up the parkway for 25 years. On Sept. 20, we had about 1,362 people, all volunteers, working on 23 sites on the parkway clean-up project, including three creeks that flow into the parkway. Sponsors for the project included Raley’s, the California Coastal Commission, Whole Foods, SMUD, The River Park Homeowners Association, the East Sacramento Homeowners Association, the Buffalo Chips Running Club and Crystal Geyser Water.
“We put the trash we pick up in piles, and the county picks it up. We have to weigh it (this year there were 20,000 pounds), and within two hours we have to fill out lengthy forms for the California Coastal Commission reporting how much glass, how much metal, how much of other various ingredients we pick up.
“It’s not all garbage. There’s eye glasses, keys, tires and some stuff you don’t want to know about.
“So where’s the problem?
“Current state law requires people working on public projects to be paid the prevailing wage. Cleaning the parkway is a public project, and under the law, we would have to pay the people cleaning it up. There is also legislation exempting certain categories of public works projects, such as our annual cleanup. But the exemption will expire Dec. 31 of this year unless Gov. Schwarzenegger signs legislation extending the exemption for another three years. What that means is, unless the exemption is extended, come Jan. 1 we will have to start paying our volunteers, or not pay them and risk getting fined by the state.
“Basically, there are two union organizations lobbying to block the extension, the California Federation of Labor and the American Association of County and Municipal Employees. For us, putting the words “volunteers” and “public lands” together means people picking up trash, pulling out invasive plants and planting oak trees to develop a new canopy.”
