CLARION c i t r u s
c o l l e g e
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 2019 | VOL LXXII ISSUE 15 tccclarion.com f/ccclarion T@ccclarion
campus center reopens late after over budget Renovated student facility reopens after delay and nearly $300,000 over budget BY ANDRE LOPEZ STAFF REPORTER
ALOPEZ@CCCLARION.COM
& VICMAN THOME STAFF REPORTER
VTHOME@CCCLARION.COM
Students and faculty gathered outside the newly remodeled Ross L. Handy Campus Center in preparation to cut the ribbon to mark the reopening of the building on May 7. As the ceremony of the Campus Center started up, Superintendent/ President Geraldine M. Perri stepped up to give a speech about it. The $3.8 million and year-long project was remodeled with open space and new rooms that are geared towards community meeting between students, clubs and resources
at Citrus. But the remodel came late, nearly three months late and just over $200 thousand dollars over the initial estimate of $3.6 million. These extra costs slowly started coming out as construction began in October of 2018. The first change order for the Campus Center was approved in October and it increased the cost $33,000. The second increase came in January with a total increase of $84,000 and that was followed by the final change order in May. That change order brought the total cost of the Campus Center to $3,8951,002.92, a total of $204,002.92 over budget. The change orders state that the increases can come from many small
things that slowly increased the costs in small increments. For example, in the second increase, there was a kink that had to be resolved with the hot and cold piping and that ran up the cost $557.92. The Clarion reached out to the architecture firm, Horizons Construction Company for comment, we were told that they were not allowed to speak to reporters and to send in our questions through email. As of time of publication, we have not heard back from them. During the opening ceremony, the tardiness of the project was not addressed nor even mentioned. Perri just dove straight into her speech, “The Ross Handy Center opened in 1964. Now 55 years later, we’re about to cut the ribbon on this newly renovated, high tech, student-focused facility.” SE E CAM PUS • PAGE 5
Andre Lopez Clarion
Onlookers rush to get inside the newly remodeled Campus Center after the ribbon cutting on May 7.
Alumni cement legacy through buying bricks Students and staff can add their name to the owl fountain through the ‘Buy a Brick’ campaign BY SAMMY FERNANDES STAFF REPORTER
SFERNANDES@CCCLARION.COM
Photo Illustraton by Vicman Thome Clarion
Norms Restaurant claims that paying 21 cents more for the Bigger Better Breakfast is better than raising all the prices on the menu by more than a dollar. The surcharge will offset cost of doing buisness in California.
Charging to stay open Norms Restaurant chain adds a 3% surcharge to offset minimum wage increases BY VICMAN THOME STAFF REPORTER
VTHOME@CCCLARION.COM
In the wake of the recent minimum wage increase that took place at the start of 2019, many California businesses have decided to add a surcharge to the customer’s purchase checks. Businesses, like the Norms Restaurant chain, do this with the claim that they are helping customers save money by keeping prices low and passing the extra minimum wage increase to the customers instead of having the company pay for
the extra cost of doing business. The Norms Restaurant in the city of West Covina, along with all the rest of the Norms Restaurant chain, is one of the businesses who added the new surcharge. The extra charge was added on Jan. 10, nine days after the wage increase went into effect on Jan. 1. This has been met with anger and pushback from the customers. In fact, while standing in line to pay the check, many customers demanded to see the manager and asked that the charge be taken off the bill.
“It’s not fair, they should advertise that cost, tell us about it. That would give us an option if we want to eat there or not,” said May Pacheco, a mad customer that was forced to pay the surcharge. Norms Restaurant does not tell customers about that surcharge until after the fact. Many people find the 3% surcharge particularly deceptive as they are not aware until after they have eaten and find the charge at the bottom of the dinner check. SE E S URCHARGE • PAGE 5
Everybody can leave their mark at Citrus College with a brick permanently placed on the Owl Fountain in the campus central region. The “Buy a Brick” campaign, sponsored by the Citrus Alumni and Friends Association, is selling bricks to raise money for scholarships and beautification projects on campus. CAFA hope to raise over $20,000 with the inscribed bricks. The original Citrus College owl that sat on top of the fountain near the library was donated by the graduating class of 1975. When the owl was destroyed in 1995, the CAFA, the Associated Students of Citrus College and the Citrus College Foundation came together to fund a new owl in 2000 to celebrate Citrus’ 85th anniversary, which cost $12,000. Alicia Nichols, Alumni Association secretary, said the buy-a-brick campaign started in the late ’90s to help fund the new owl, future scholarships and projects. Ever since, the campaign has been silently existing
in the Alumni Association. Since the campaign has not been revisited since its creation two decades ago, Nichols had to find out how this campaign had started to bring it back. “The cool thing about having a brick is it stays there on that fountain, so you’ll always kind of have a memorial on Citrus,” Nichols said. Although the foundation has always been open to sell the bricks, it lost the esteem five years ago when they were not selling new bricks anymore. That is because it was not a high priority at that time. Because of that, the Alumni Association set a deadline for June to try to sell the remaining 150 bricks. Foundation Director Christina M. Garcia said the campaign is a priority now. With 600 bricks designed as part of the fountain, over 400 bricks have already been inscribed. “It was just a quiet program that was happening, but we are revitalizing it now because we want to close it and start a new project,” Garcia said. The bricks are on the fountain, in S E E B R ICK S • PAGE 5
L.A.’s music venue season recap: softball guidE A review of the the best spots to experience live music this summer in Los Angeles PAGE 9
Owls fall to Palomar in the first round of the playoffs after strong conference play PAGE 11