VALLEY COLLEGE : Parking Lots in Need of Repair

Campus parking lots and private roads at Valley College have not been repaired for several years, causing Dave Ogne, the campus building and grounds administrator, to describe their general state as degenerative.

But until the Los Angeles Community College District can provide an estimated $5 million to completely replace the lots and other paved surfaces, the campus will have to make do with small patch jobs, Ogne said.

For 12 years, available maintenance funds have gone for classroom needs, he said. As a result, the parking lots have cracks in them and the pavement is covered with weeds. Ogne said that, over the years, water has seeped through the cracks, causing the dirt beneath the lots to sink and the size of the cracks to increase.

The lots’ condition recently prompted Mary Ann Breckell, vice president of administration, to send a memo to college President Mary Lee listing hazards in parking lots and on other parts of the campus.

“We are unable to address small areas in the parking lots which have developed depressions,” Breckell wrote. “Parking lots, sidewalks and other surfaces used by pedestrians have humps, holes and cracks, which are extremely hazardous at night.”

Ogne said he wouldn’t be surprised if it would take $5 million to repave all campus parking lots and private roads.

Resurfacing them, Ogne said, would not solve the problems because the cracks would return. “It looks nice for a while, but then you have the same problem,” he said.

The maintenance department only has money to do small patch jobs, which cost thousands of dollars, Ogne said.

But until the district can afford to completely replace the college’s paved surfaces, the maintenance department will have to make do with limited funds. “It’s not a pretty sight,” Ogne said.