MOORPARK : Dispute Over Sale of Gym to Club Settled

A temporary cease-fire between Moorpark city and school district officials over the fate of a downtown school site will allow the Moorpark Boys & Girls Club to move into a new home soon.

The city and school district concluded negotiations Monday for the city to help finance the club’s purchase of a gymnasium at 280 Casey Road from the school district, City Councilman Roy Talley said. Unless a snag occurs in the closing of escrow, the club should move into its new location, on the campus currently used by Moorpark Community School, within the next few weeks.

City and school officials were able to reach this agreement for helping the Boys & Girls Club despite their ongoing legal battle over another part of the Casey Road site.

The school district first agreed to sell the gym to the Boys & Girls Club about a year ago, district Supt. Thomas G. Duffy said. After the club’s first source of financing dried up, the city offered to funnel a $50,000 grant from federal block grant funds, plus a $50,000 loan, toward the club’s $150,000 down payment on the $579,350 purchase, Talley said. Kavlico Corp. donated the remaining $50,000 to the club.

But a snag arose when city officials began to worry that, by helping with the financing, they could be damaging their own chances in a lawsuit that stems in part from a dispute over the site’s market value, Talley said.

City officials worried that, by helping with the financing, they were implying that they agreed with the school district’s appraisal of the entire site.

City and school officials smoothed over this bump in the negotiations by agreeing to keep the sale of the gym separate from their dispute over the athletic fields.