At its Oct. 6 special meeting, the San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) Board of Directors discussed the relocation of the district’s office following its lease not being renewed.
The district’s offices are currently located at 46 Eaton Drive.
SJWCD board president Candace Jones explained that the district’s landlords contacted her with a notice of nonrenewal on Oct. 1.
Jones stated that the landlords, who operate another business that is located in the building, indicated that they had no objection to the SJWCD as tenants, but that they recently secured funding to expand their business and now needed more room.
She added that the district’s lease is currently expired, meaning that its offices were the easiest place for the landlords to secure additional space by removing the district as tenants.
Jones indicated that the landlords provided 60-day notice, with the SJWCD being asked to leave by Dec. 5.
She stated that she asked if the district could have until the end of the year to prevent it having to move its office over Thanksgiving week, but the landlords did not respond to this request.
She commented that the district should have a strategy to leave by the middle or end of November by either looking for a new space immediately or placing the items in its office in storage and looking for a new office later.
SJWCD board members Charles Riehm and Rob Hagberg commented that the district could hold its meetings at a variety of locations in the community.
SJWCD board member Joe Tedder volunteered to present office space options to the board at its Oct. 20 meeting, noting that he and SJWCD Executive Assistant Sally High have already been looking at alternative office spaces and there appear to be locations available.
He added that these alternative spaces could potentially be cheaper than the district’s current location.
Jones commented that this would be a good opportunity to “clean out the closet” and “be rid of things we don’t need.”
josh@pagosasun.com
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