Port Hueneme to Seek Ideas on Future of Wright Center

The City Council voted 4 to 1 Wednesday night to seek bids from three consultants in an effort to address the problems of the dormant Dorill B. Wright Cultural Center.

The City Council expanded the focus of the examination to include plans that may link the Wright Center to the operation of the Oxnard Civic Auditorium. The bids will also include an estimate of the cost to raze the building and replace it with a community park.

The three firms invited to submit proposals are the Pacific Group of Belmont, AMS Planning and Research near Santa Rosa and KL Associates of Oxnard.

Port Hueneme has allocated $5,000 for the initial steps of the examination.

The Oxnard facility is about double the size of the Wright Center, which has been closed since May, 1993, when Port Hueneme’s fiscal problems led to the elimination of art subsidies.

Although the request for proposals covered only the Wright Center, the Council modified it after Tom Figg, director of community development, introduced the issue of the Oxnard facility. Figg said the issue had come up in conversation between Oxnard City Manager Tom Frutchey and Port Hueneme City Manager Richard Velthoen.

A consultant should be contracted by Thanksgiving, he said, and a complete report may be in as soon as March.

Figg said the addition of the Oxnard facility could make the analysis more difficult, because each facility has unique, although somewhat similar, problems.