A Central Coast park needs extra cash to complete a years-long refurbishment and is appealing for donors.
Le Roy Park in Guadalupe received $4.1 million funding from the state in 2018, but by the time work started in 2020, costs had increased - leaving a shortfall.
The City of Guadalupe has started a Capital Campaign for the LeRoy Park and Community Center Rehabilitation project.
An extra $1,551,000 is needed to complete the project to refurbish Le Roy Park.
The intent of this project is to bring back what was once a vibrant social gathering place.
Sonia Rios-Ventura, the Community development manager at the City of Guadalupe, told KCLU about the long history the park has as the center of the community.
"Le Roy Park was donated by the Le Roy family to the community of Guadalupe in 1869, and that area became where everything happened," she said.
The park was used by many different local groups for a variety of events, from quinceañeras to Comite Civico Mexicano de Guadalupe’s annual “Fiestas Patrias” celebrating Mexican Independence Day, whose parade use to end at LeRoy Park but stopped a decade ago due to the park’s condition.
While the park has long been seen as the Boy and Girls Club (since they were the only users for a long time) it is also remembered for its community barbecues, outdoor concerts, and community dances in the gym (which will have a stage), and its annual car show.
Rios-Ventura told KCLU that in 2017, mold in the building became too bad for it to continue to be used.
In October, 2018 the City of Guadalupe was awarded a $4.5 million CDBG grant from the state's Housing and Community Development department of which $4.1 million was set aside for the renovation of LeRoy Park and Community Center.
The design process started November 11th, 2018 with a community wide meeting to discuss what the community wanted to see at LeRoy Park and was followed by 13 Amigos del LeRoy Park (Community Stakeholders) meetings where the project design was refined, taking into consideration the suggestions collected in November 2018 and the budget of the project.
In 2020, the City received an additional award for $900,000 which allowed the Community Center portion of the project to be fully funded.
On July 15, 2020 (approximately 3 years from the application date) the construction contact was awarded to Quincon inc. for a total of $4,095,036. Construction costs increased in the 3-year gap between application submittal and the first day of construction.
As a result, the $4.1 million grant plus the $900,000 supplemental funding is no longer enough to complete all the desired elements of this project.
