Cayucos Vets Hall renovation gets a big boost — and construction could begin this year
A boost in a state grant has vaulted the Cayucos Veterans Memorial Hall renovation project to the brink of full funding, according to San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Bruce Gibson.
On Sept. 7, Gibson told told the Cayucos Advisory Council about a recent windfall that appears to have taken the fundraising efforts nearly over the top.
In an effort to raise the money, the county had applied for a different state grant of $2.5 million, but he said officials were informed Sept. 2, “that we got zero out of the grant.”
Then the county learned that the state Natural Resources Agency had boosted its allocation to the project to $4.3 million, adding a new $2.5 million to the initial $1.9 million grant. The addition is from the agency’s Cultural, Community, and Natural Resources Grant, Gibson’s legislative assistant, Blake Fixler, said.
In June, Gibson had said county officials had hoped they could convince the agency to boost the grant. But getting it was a long shot, so they applied for a second state grant.
He said the expanded grant “puts us within $530,000 of fully budgeting the project, including the extra $1 million Sen. (John) Laird got put into the state’s budget trailer bills” in July.
The complete project was estimated to cost $9.5 million, Gibson said then, including research, studies, designs and other work already done and paid for by the county, plus $5.4 million for demolition work and rebuilding. The latter figure was according to bids received in June but which have been held in limbo until the county could find the money to pay for the work.
Without the expanded grant and other funding confirmed since, there had been a $4 million to $5 million shortfall.
Furthermore, Gibson added that “between that (larger) grant, community donations, my community project funds of $50,000 that I’m delighted to add, and an amount yet to be determined by the Cayucos Alliance (Visitor Alliance of Cayucos), we’ll have enough to do the project.”
He said the project’s go-ahead efforts will culminate in a board item Oct. 4 approving the expanded grant, then another vote in November about selling bonds (for this project and a couple of other projects, including the sheriff’s dispatch center and a probation building).
“If all goes as expected with the board (votes),” he said, “we’ll be able to award the contract and start construction by the end of the year. We’re unbelievably grateful for this (larger grant).“ He added that “(Sen.) Laird did outstanding work on the floor of the Senate and behind the scenes” to secure the $1 million for the project.
Greg Bettencourt of Cayucos, who’s among those spearheading the local fundraising efforts, lauded those donors, too.
“Bruce has done a herculean job,” Bettencourt said. “But it’s important (to recognize) folks who have contributed to fundraising, the $500,000-plus funds we’ve raised, which are key to funding that last part of the project. People of Cayucos have once again stepped up,” as they did in donating toward repairing and upgrading the Cayucos Pier in 2015.
Jim Dantona, who chairs the Cayucos Advisory Council’s Land Use Committee, said he’d worked with Laird on the future of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and knows that Gibson “did great work behind the scenes” to get the vets hall funding together.
He told the supervisor that the expanded grant was a result of “the hard work you did to leverage that. Thank you, sir, that was an incredible lift and incredible news for the community.”
Various council members said they plan to rally the troops to be at the Board of Supervisors meetings to urge approval.
In June 2020, the state fire marshal red-tagged the building, declaring that it was unsafe for use as the community center, which, for decades, is the role it played in Cayucos.
In July, Laird defined the $1 million he’d gotten from the state budget as being necessary for “badly needed renovations for a historic community center in order to maintain operations of the facility for community use.”
The project’s funding includes nearly $4.3 million state Natural Resources Agency grant from Proposition 68 funds, plus $1 million from the state budgeting process.
There’s also a $3.5 million internal loan that county supervisors approved in November, which would be repaid through the bond, as well as a $300,000 grant from the California Coastal Conservancy, more than $500,000 in community donations and $50,000 in community project funds.
That doesn’t take into account whatever the Cayucos Alliance puts into the pot.
This story was originally published September 10, 2022 at 11:00 AM.
