New $3-Million Gym Sits Mostly Idle in Dispute

A new $3-million gymnasium in El Rio, just north of Oxnard, was meant to be a haven for the low-income community’s youth, but instead has remained mostly unused for weeks.

Rio School District Supt. Yolanda Benitez and Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn are at odds over what has kept the 6-month-old gym from becoming the lively youth center the community envisioned. The district and county are responsible for its operation under a 1997 joint agreement.

Benitez contends that liability concerns have prevented officials from opening the gym’s doors after school and during these first weeks of summer.

“There’s an impression that we can open it up and have people coming in and out,” Benitez said. “We can’t. We’re a small district, and one liability incident could kill us.”

But Flynn called the insurance issue an excuse, saying the county’s policy covers activities in the gym when school’s not in session. He accused Benitez of refusing to cooperate with county officials for six months.

“There’s no way you can plan if the owner of the gym doesn’t want to participate,” said Flynn, whose district includes El Rio and who was a strong advocate for the gymnasium. “She simply doesn’t want the county involved in helping the young adults of El Rio.”

The county and school district are also in dispute over which is responsible for organizing activities for youths and adults at the gym. County officials maintain that the school district was supposed to handle programming, but Benitez disagreed.

“Our job is to educate kids,” she said. “We’re not a parks and recreation agency with programs we could slap in.”

The written agreement is vague, stating only that the district will “administer” programs. No city or group, aside from the El Rio Police Activities League, has stepped forward with a program for the district to administer, Benitez said.

The result of the wrangling has been a recreation facility that has not lived up to residents’ expectations. The gym, built with money from the state, county and school district, was sold as a community center where teens and adults could go for classes, play organized sports or simply hang out.

But there has been little after-school or weekend activity at the center since it opened, and almost none since summer vacation began in mid-June. The delay has infuriated El Rio parents.

“We have a serious problem in El Rio: Our children have nothing,” said Soledad Trevino, a parent and 15-year El Rio resident who has become an advocate for more programming at the gym. “We have been waiting for this for a very, very long time.”

So far, the only group that has been allowed into the spacious facility is the Police Activities League, a membership program of the Sheriff’s Department for ages 8 to 18. About 160 kids in El Rio belong to the group, which has sports activities and field trips.

But under the school district’s policy, anyone else who wants to use the gym must show proof of $1-million liability insurance.

So far this summer, a few people have been turned away, said Tom Barber, gym supervisor.

Aside from a youth basketball league he’s coaching through the Police Activities League, there is little planned for the summer, Barber said. The insurance issue has prevented him from hosting drop-in hours for anyone not involved with the police group.

“It’s unfortunate,” Barber said. “We want to be able to welcome the whole community.”

Andy Oshita, Ventura County parks manager, said the county has made it clear the insurance is not an issue. He said the gym should have offered programs months ago, and especially now with school being out.

“What I’m confused about is why they haven’t started these programs,” he said. “The county has lived up to their part of the deal. Why can’t the community use the gym?”

School board member George Perez asked for patience, as large projects take time to get off the ground.

“Everyone is trying their best,” he said. “I think we have a good idea about where we want to go, and a good idea how get there.”

Board member Ron Mosqueda, however, said he believes the district should have planned programs long before the facility opened.

“We’ve known the gym was going to be built for the last year and a half, and staff waited until the last minute to get things going,” he said. “Now we’re here with summer vacation, and we do not have much to offer.”

For Mosqueda, who grew up in El Rio playing basketball on unpaved courts and catching buses to the Boys & Girls Club miles away in Oxnard, it’s particularly frustrating.

On Wednesday, he watched disappointedly as a few kids dribbled basketballs and played relay games.

“There are 3,000 children in the district and we have four here,” Mosqueda said. “We have this big, beautiful building, but we haven’t gotten all of the pieces to make it work.”