Orie Young, seven-years-old, smiled, revealing
a missing front tooth, and pointed a paint-smeared finger at the Bolinas
Lagoon. Out there, he said, past the gulls, past the shallows —
that was where he spotted the Nudibranchs sliding upside down beneath
the water’s surface last summer. Young remembers crossing the street
to the Bolinas Marine Lab, his camp headquarters, to have a classroom
discussion about the majestic purple sea slugs.
"They have spines and taste really bad,"
he said. Young studied marine biology alongside about 90 campers at
Bolinas-Stinson summer camp, a month-long program he’s been attending
"pretty much since I was born." But this summer Young and
his friends won’t be using the lab.
After unfavorable safety assessments, the College
of Marin, which owns the lab and leases it to the camp, has closed it
until a task force can investigate and make recommendations to the Board
of Trustees about whether to renovate the lab using about three million
dollars of a 249.5 million dollar bond that passed in 2004 -- or sell
it.
On Saturday afternoon while the ardent campers decorated
"We Love the Lab" banners and placards with markers, glitter
and crayons, about 40 more students, professors and Bolinas residents
demonstrated their lab loyalty by cheering on Joe Mueller, one very
pissed-off marine science professor.
‘I don’t trust them’
"They’re not being transparent and
I don’t trust them. They’ve been starving this place for the
past 20 years," Mueller announced over a microphone, lambasting
the College of Marin administrators for neglecting the lab and then
closing it after the safety assessments revealed its rundown state.
Mueller has taught in the Bolinas lab since 1989, but was forced to
move to the Kentfield campus this year. Over the past four years, his
spring semester marine science classes have averaged 17.5 students.
Several other classes use the lab on fieldtrips, but even Mueller would
like to see the space better utilized. "Can you imagine if they
were helping us make this place what it should be?" he said. "We
could have this place filled all year."
During his time at the marine lab, Mueller’s
requests for maintenance have been ignored. The heating system broke
ten years ago, Mueller said, and stayed that way. Mold accumulated to
the point where the Stinson-Bolinas summer camp was in danger of being
cancelled last year. But in the end, parents rallied and the college
hired mold eradicators. The parents all signed camper safety waivers
and no one was injured.
Dilapidation?
A stroll through the marine lab revealed no alarming
dilapidation or danger, but the assessments tell a different story.
Located 1,080 feet from the San Andreas Fault, the site is "potentially
subject to very high ground accelerations and potential surface fault
rupture," according to the structural assessment conducted by Degenkolb
Engineers. The findings require the college to improve the structural
integrity of the building, which is only the first of the repairs that
would be necessary for the building to meet state safety standards for
an educational facility.
Jake Skaer of Swinerton Management and Consulting
has been overseeing the building evaluations for the past six months.
He said seismic retrofit for the walls, destructive discovery for the
mold and an abatement for the disturbed asbestos were only a few aspects
of the modernization that would cost roughly three million dollars.
Grandfathered?
Skaer said a central issue is that California
law will not allow a large-scale renovation of a school within 50 feet
of an earthquake fault, and the San Andreas Fault runs through the Bolinas
lagoon. The building was grandfathered in in 1964, but if the costs
of renovation exceed 50 percent of the value of the property, then it
will be considered a new construction, according to the Division of
State Architect. Becuause the buildings are not worth more than six
million dollars, COM would need to keep the renovation closer to a million
dollars or do it over several stages for the lab to remain grandfathered.
Skaer presented the findings to the Board of Trustees in October, and
they opted to create a task force.
"They’re holding off until they can get
a better read of the master plan," Skaer said. The master plan
involves an assessment of all COM properties, including the Bolinas
Marine Lab, Kentfield and Indian River campuses. During a period of
decreased enrollment, and while some are questioning whether the college’s
accreditation will be renewed in 2007, the board is deciding how to
handle the $249.5 million it received through a bond measure which passed
last year.
A gem
Trustee Barbara Dolan is hoping that the task
force, which will consist of COM representatives, community members
and non-profit workers, can come up with a "more positive,"
solution than Swinerton consultants have. By that, she means keeping
the lab around and involving more of the community and students. "We
don’t have the full story," she said. "We need to work
within what we have." Dolan recognizes that the lab is a gem, particularly
in its prime spot on the lagoon, where hands-on learning happens constantly
and sometimes even by accident.
A local fisherman approached protesters at the Bolinas
dock on Saturday with a blue beach pale cradled under one arm. He held
it up so Mueller, in mid-rant, could examine the contents. Mueller stopped
and stared.
"Oh my gosh," he whispered slowly. "That’s
a Pismo clam. That’s tivela. This is a clam that lives down in
San Luiso Bispo and is a sign of global warming. These guys weren’t
here 10 years ago!"
Mueller reached into the bucket and picked up the
taupe clam, wide as a Frisbee and thick as a hamburger. He displayed
it to impressed onlookers, who moved in closer. The panicked clam spat
salt water two feet in the air, delighting all but those who were sprayed.
"This kind of thing would never happen at Kentfield,"
Mueller said. "Here you have the tides and you’re tasting
that salt air. A place like this fosters the ability to change people’s
lives."