Lake Tahoe Community College gained the support of the South Lake Tahoe City Council today in their pursuit of $55,000,000 in bond funds through Measure F. The Council voted unanimously to adopt the support resolution.
Dr. Kindred Murillo, Superintendent/President of the Lake Tahoe Community College District, was on hand at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to provide an explanation of what the bond would mean to the South Shore community and answer any questions the five council members had.
Murillo said they are hoping to leverage the bond monies and get matching funds from Sacramento to bring $107M into the college for projects such as modernization of the classrooms with technology to give students and faculty the advantage it can bring to learning (and not have them lag far behind South Tahoe High).
The bond funds would also provide a Regional Public Safety Training Center to train not only urban firemen but also EMTs and those that fight wildland fires.
“This is perfect for Tahoe,” Murillo said. “We expect to grow cloasses and have all activities in one place.” Currently many Fire Academy classes are held throughout town.
The college also wants to put in a 150 unit dorm and attract more students from outside the basin. Right now there are 23 international students enrolled at LTCC and their goal is to bring that number to 200.
Measure F will need 55% of the voters voting for it in November. For a $300,000 accessed value of a home, monthly taxes would go up about $6.80 per month. It is not a parcel tax which addresses some of the concerns of timeshare owners.
“We foresee the area from the college to Lakeview Commons to be a college corridor for students to use for recreation, eating, biking, studying and biking,” Murillo said.
The college plans on partnerships with other community entities such as the school district. They don’t want to duplicate any services and make the community’s funding work well.