The Lucia Mar Unified School District is still interested in becoming the new owner of the Oceano Community Center, but how the district would fund the purchase hasn't been decided.

During a closed session this week, the district's board of trustees directed staff to continue negotiating a sale agreement for the property with the nonprofit Oceano Community Center Inc. that owns the facility.

Lucia Mar was approached in March by the Community Center's board of directors to see if the district was interested in purchasing the facility and assuming a $1.7 million loan for the project.

OCCI has run out of money to keep making the $13,000 monthly mortgage payments for the Community Center, and is looking for someone to take over the facility and its debt so the bank doesn't foreclose on the property.

The Community Center opened its doors in June 2006, despite concerns by some Oceano residents that the debt incurred to build the facility was too much to take on, without a means to pay back the financing.

The first phase of the center's construction cost about $2.6 million and was mostly funded with federal Community Development Block Grants. The second phase - construction of a kitchen, gymnasium and administrative offices - was funded through a $1.8 million construction loan financed through Coast National Bank.

Lucia Mar recently made an undisclosed offer on the more than 15,000-square-foot building that sits at Wilmar and 19th streets, which has been countered by the Community Center's board, according to district staff.

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If Lucia Mar buys the Community Center, it also would have to spend $65,000 to rekey the facility's locks and add building alarms and security cameras. An additional $25,000 would also be needed to install a computer lab at the facility.

However, the district has received offers from anonymous donors willing to help Lucia Mar with deferred maintenance at the multi-use facility to keep its doors open.

“There's no money signed on the dotted line,” Mary Stark, Lucia Mar's deputy superintendent/business services, told the board, “but we have two donors willing to commit to make this happen.”

The district hasn't identified a funding source for a possible purchase of the Community Center, but Stark is recommending financing the purchase, if approved, through the California School Boards Association's Flex Fund.

The FlexFund Program allows school districts, community colleges and county offices of education to finance their real property, equipment and facility needs up to $5 million with a lease/purchase agreement, according to CSBA's Web site.

August 16, 2008