Town Crier Staff Wrier
Neighbors living near the back of the Covington School site might expect to hear the sounds of morning bells when the campus reopens as an elementary school in fall 2001 - but not from maintenance trucks backing in and out of the property.
The proposed relocation of the Los Altos School District's maintenance yard has generated enough neighborhood opposition to prompt more talks between the district and the city of Los Altos about sharing the city's municipal service center on Fremont Road. The district's yard is currently at the front of the Covington site; its proposed relocation would move it to a portion of the 5-acre mini-park at the back of the school property near Rosita Avenue
Earlier this year, the joint board-city council subcommittee rejected the idea of combining the school district and the city maintenance yards, saying there wasn't enough room on the site for both functions.
Superintendent Marge Gratiot said she sent a letter to the city Nov. 18 asking the city to revisit previous discussions regarding leasing a portion of its yard to the district. She said the district could be interested in moving some or all of its functions to the city yard and share some space, such as Dumpsters and bins for tanbark.
"I thought the discussions with the city were closed and that they felt there was not enough room at the municipal service center to meet both their needs and our needs," she said. "However, since then, we have heard from Covington neighbors that their conversations with the city indicated that some arrangement might still be possible."
The maintenance yard proposed for the back of the Covington site would cover about one acre and include a metal shed-like workshop, five trucks for maintenance and gardening, one small truck for the maintenance supervisor, one garbage bin, storage bins and a recycling bin.
Neighbors have packed the district office board meetings over the past month to complain about the potential traffic and noise the maintenance yard could generate along Rosita Avenue. Neighbors urged the district to investigate different alternatives for the relocation of the maintenance yard, adding that the yard is inappropriate for a school site.
"I think the traffic will be very intrusive ... the back up beepers, clanging of metal," said one neighbor during the regular board meeting Nov. 15.
Gratiot said operating a maintenance yard is "hard to do silently." She said the district schedules big deliveries during the summer when school is out of session and contracts out for several services in order to lessen traffic and noise during the school year.
District officials said the cost of leasing a portion of the city's yard could be covered by leasing the newly vacated space at Covington to a user more compatible with the school. Gratiot said the district is not interested in trading or selling its mini-park to the city at this time.
Bruce Bane, public works director for Los Altos, said the city had received the district's letter, but discussions had not yet resumed.