OXNARD : Council Cuts Rent for Day-Care Center

The Oxnard City Council voted Tuesday to reduce the rent it charges a financially troubled day-care provider, averting the facility’s imminent closure and allowing it to continue operating with no interruption in service.

Gary Davis, the city’s parks and recreation director, said the rent reduction helps both the city and the New Beginnings Christian Center, which operates the day-care facility.

“Day-care service will not be disrupted at the South Oxnard Center,” Davis said. “And New Beginnings does a good job.”

Under terms of the compromise proposal, the New Beginnings Day Care Center will pay the city $4,000 each month, $1,000 less than the rate charged when the day-care facility opened at the city-owned South Oxnard Center in September, 1990.

In exchange, the New Beginnings Christian Center agreed to pay the city $16,200 in overdue rent immediately. The center will also pay an additional $32,400 in back rent within 90 days and take over part of the center’s maintenance needs.

The agreement ended a financial crisis for New Beginnings, which provides day care to 70 children in the 5,000-square-foot day-care center.

Officials at the Oxnard-based New Beginnings Center Church, which operates the day-care center, had told city officials that they could not remain open if they had to continue paying $5,000 a month in rent.

The church had asked the city to consider cutting its rent in half, but the council said two weeks ago that a reduction of that size would amount to a subsidy.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Lonnie G. McCowan, the pastor of New Beginnings, said the church planned to expand services at the child-care facility, offering weeknight and weekend care.