LUCERNE — At the Lucerne Area Town Hall meeting Thursday, residents heard updates on the future of the historic hotel building known as the Lucerne Castle, and the destination of the proceeds from its sale by the County of Lake.
In late February, the county’s $2.5 million sale of the hotel to New Paradigm College closed escrow. Leading up to that closure, the LATH submitted a resolution in January to county officials, asking for proceeds from the hotel to be put toward a long-overdue dredging and restoration of the Lucerne Harbor as well as other projects in the community of Lucerne, where the hotel is a prominent landmark.
After the $2.5 million was deposited into the county’s funds, Lake County Board of Supervisors Chair Tina Scott and other county officials indicated that the money was being set aside to be kept in stabilization reserves. Scott noted at the time that the county was “looking at other avenues” for finding the funds to undertake the harbor dredging project, which has been estimated at $250,000.
On Thursday, District 3 Supervisor E.J. Crandell, who receives input from the LATH and other advisory town halls like it in his district, addressed the public’s concerns that they might not see the proceeds they had asked for.
“We are trying to address this,” he said. “As I said before, I’m pushing for what you put before me, the resolution.”
Crandell noted that he had been meeting regularly with Lake County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson about budgeting funds for the dredging of the Lucerne Harbor in the past few weeks, and said he hoped to make room in the county’s upcoming proposed budget for that dredging.
“Hopefully with what I’m working on, with your resolution… I can present it to the board and hopefully I can get support for it,” Crandell said, stressing that he wanted to be ready before putting the resolution before the board of supervisors. “I want to have more support for (the resolution) to go ahead and bring it forward.”
Crandell said he has been in communication with county officials including Public Services Director Lars Ewing and Water Resources Director Dave Cowan to find matching funds to support paying for the dredging project.
Asked by a local resident whether he had been “sensing any kind of resistance to this proposal” to dredge the harbor using Lucerne Hotel funds, Crandell said he had not met resistance, but again highlighted the importance of preparing as much as possible before holding the resolution out for action by the board.
Having finalized its purchase of the hotel, New Paradigm College—a new higher education institution supported by social justice law nonprofit The Romero Institute—is preparing to move into the building. Former District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing, along with her fellow cofounder of the NPC, Bill Stranger, spoke Thursday on the college’s progress.
Rushing made it clear that a period of construction would need to precede the college’s move-in date. “We are entering into a building that has been abandoned for nearly two years,” she said. “So as you might imagine, there are some challenges with that.”
As a nonprofit without unusually deep pockets, NPC will not approach its improvements to the Lucerne castle all at once. “If we had a bunch of money to totally redo that building right now, it would be about $11.7 million,” she said. “That’s not how it’s going to happen.”
Rushing framed the development of NPC as a long-term process that would ideally involve the local community. Rushing noted that in addition to its plans to offer college courses at the Lucerne hotel, NPC also intends to host “community events and community gatherings…It’s our intention as a college to really have this place be a special place for all of us, one that we gather and we create together.”
Stranger’s comments also focused on the college’s need for community involvement. “We need you,” he said. “We really need your enthusiasm, your involvement and your interest, and we’re going to have to work together to make this work.”
