The board of trustees of the Kern Community College District voted to increase the cost of parking permits at Bakersfield College at their Oct. 10 meeting. It was part of recommendations put forward by the former executive director of maintenance and operations, Sean James.
While part of the original recommendation included the removal of free parking at the southwest BC parking lot by the baseball field, this issue was not covered at the board meeting, and currently there is no information as to when or if this portion of the original plan will be brought before the board.
The meeting saw near unanimous support from the board. The measure passed with six of seven board members voting in favor of the changes to increase the parking permit fees from $30 to $40 for the spring and fall semesters, and from $15 to $25 for the summer semester. These changes will be implemented at the start of the spring 2014 semester.
This is part of a plan that has been in place since the fall 2012 semester, in part to help pay for the cost of repair and maintenance of BC parking lots and to battle a growing debt in the parking fund, which as of the spring 2013 semester totaled a negative balance of $130,000.
According to the KCCD agenda details, “The cost to repair the parking lots is estimated at $1,000,000.00. This fee increase is necessary to accumulate funds necessary to meet the current ongoing costs for securing and maintaining the parking lots.”