One-Time Aid Is Sought for CSUN Repairs

In a move to jump-start Cal State Northridge’s lagging earthquake recovery, campus officials said Wednesday they are seeking an unusual one-time, federal payment of about $138 million to quickly finish remaining repairs and at lower cost.

CSUN President Blenda Wilson told Cal State trustees that the lump-sum payment would mean the completion of repairs by December 1997 at a cost of $301.2 million. But if normal bureaucratic channels are used, repairs could drag on until late 2000 and spiral to $364 million, she said.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is providing most of the recovery funds from the January 1994 earthquake, said local FEMA officials liked the idea.

“It’s a proposal we’re looking at with some interest. We feel it is an innovative proposal” that could save both time and money, said Vallee Bunting, a local FEMA spokeswoman. “But we don’t know what the ultimate decision is going to be.”

FEMA officials in Washington, D.C., will make the decision. However, Wilson said FEMA Director James Lee Witt recently indicated to her that the plan appeared to be a good idea.

The campus proposal is aimed at short-cutting practices in which FEMA typically handles repair project approvals on a one-by-one basis. Often, funding is released only after the work is complete.

After swiftly reopening the campus following the earthquake and quickly launching repairs, the CSUN recovery bogged down in the past year. At one point, FEMA and CSUN officials publicly accused each other of bearing responsibility for the delays. Both sides later said they had resolved differences.

Even so, about $30 million in major repair work has yet to begin on five large, heavily damaged buildings at the center of the campus. As a result, hundreds of temporary bungalow classrooms and a handful of large domes remain.

In the past, university officials had estimated total quake damage at about $350 million. Wilson’s original projections envisioned a five-year recovery.

Wilson said Wednesday the new $301-million estimate would be achieved through savings in two areas: eliminating rental and maintenance costs of the temporary facilities, and by reducing inflationary costs of construction work.

The campus’ proposal came during Wilson’s broader update on CSUN’s earthquake recovery to the Cal State Board of Trustees, which oversees the 22-campus, 326,000-student university system.

Cal State officials confirmed that the university system will pay for repair work that FEMA originally approved but ultimately may not reimburse because of complex government regulations. This comes as a relief to CSUN administrators, who were worried that an estimated $30 million in repair work would have to be absorbed by their campus budget.

In recapping the recovery, Wilson said 107 of the campus’ buildings were damaged in the quake. Of those, 49 buildings are completely repaired, 39 are in various stages of construction, and 19 are due to have repairs begin by this summer.

So far, CSUN has spent $160.1 million on repairs and received $162.7 million in state and federal recovery funds. Another $124.1 million in requests are under federal review. And the campus has not yet submitted another $14.4 million in requests.

Wilson said she has asked FEMA for permission to use about $40 million in funds the university received to compensate for the loss of the parking structure and University Tower Apartments for technology and other upgrades on campus instead.

“We will rebuild the campus. We will improve our campus. And we remain convinced when all this is over, Cal State Northridge will be not just back, but better,” Wilson said, repeating CSUN’s earthquake recovery motto.