SAN MARCOS–The LL Building on the Palomar San Marcos campus, the former library, is to be remodeled into a “retention center” for students.
Palomar College officials are planning to house clubs, counseling, career-oriented assistance and student services in the LL Building. The two most important things that they are focusing on is when construction is set to start and the building’s design.
Dennis Astl, the Manager of Construction and Facilities, is in charge of the remodeling.
“I would estimate that construction would start in 24 to 28 months as we still need to select the Architect and Construction Manager, design the project, obtain the building permit and bid out the construction before we can actually break ground,” Astl said in an email interview.
“As per the Governing Board decision on Sept. 8, 2020, the total project cost allocated for the project is $37 million,” he added.
All of the money is contributing to design, inspection, furniture, fixtures, equipment, permit and construction costs.
“Prop. M funds are generated by the sale of bonds to the general public,” Astl said about where the funding was coming from out of Proposition M. This proposition was passed by voters in 2006, which funded some big projects on Palomar College’s campuses.
Astl cannot plan the LL Building on his own and is getting help from the Associated Student Government (ASG).
At 20-years-old, Student Trustee Rachel Alazar, who has been a part of the ASG for two years, is getting involved with the LL Building Project.
She and other ASG members are helping design and plan the project to become more involved.
“They are going to get involved in user groups,” Alazar said. Those user groups will consist of Student Services and the Vice President of Student Services, Dr. Vikash Lakhani.
The ASG is still working on how to plan its involvement from a student perspective. Alazar said the Executive Vice President of the ASG, Kateri Mouawad, developed a proposal for Prop. M, but it was not taken into affect.
“ASG is fairly comfortable with where we are,” Alazar said about prepping for the design work on the old library.
They are hoping to advocate for more of both student-based and non-student-based organizations to locate.
“We are hoping to live up to the promises of providing students a good place to locate in,” Alazar said.
