Cardenas Pursuing Senior Center Funds

Because Gov. Pete Wilson eliminated $800,000 for construction of a senior citizens center at Las Palmas Park from his state budget at the eleventh hour, Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) is exploring ways to obtain other funding.

Cardenas wants to write a separate appropriations bill to fund the project in such a way that it overrides the governor’s decision earlier this month, an aide said.

“The governor was pretty brutal,” said Cardenas aide John Griffin on Friday. “Basically, regarding the $800,000 . . . Wilson used his blue pen and cut it out.”

Cardenas had requested the money to help fund the proposed $1.6-million senior citizens activity center, which, if built, would complement a $1.4-million youth activity center scheduled to open in April. The park is at Lashburn and Hollister streets.

Plans for the youth center call for computers, counseling rooms and outdoor classrooms. The proposal for the senior center includes an arts and crafts area and a lounge.

If San Fernando does receive $800,000 from the state for the senior center from a new bill, planners would still have to find the other half of the funding, which they said would probably come from a combination of grants and city funds earmarked for community development.

Though his funding request for the senior center failed, Cardenas succeeded in securing $4.8 million from the state for expansion of Mission College in Sylmar, Griffin said.