CDC considers moving to Northside Center office
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

The City Development Corp. of El Campo may need to start saving up packing boxes as it ponders moving into the Northside Education Center.

Monday directors discussed possibly moving the agency, which currently shares space with the El Campo Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture in a city-owned building at Washington and East Jackson streets. It costs the CDC an average of $682 per month for its share of utilities.

In August, Northside Board Pres- ident Gordon Sorrell asked the CDC to let Executive Director Chandra Spenrath take calls and handle business after Northside Executive Director Irene Barr stepped down Sept. 1.

The distance-learning center, opened on the refurbished grounds of the original El Campo High School at 707 Fahrenthold, is home to several adult education programs.

The CDC gives $30,000 per year to the center to help workers obtain good jobs, hone their office and customer service skills, and brush up on computer programs.

The CDC and the Northside have complimentary missions, Sorrell said, one creating jobs, the other training workers. At this time, they simply need someone to ensure the doors are open at the facility while it hunts a new executive director, he said.

"We're very pleased with the participation we've had with the CDC," Sorrell told directors Monday. "Our goal is to serve the community even better than we are now."

CDC Director Bobby Perez said he sees the missions of the two entities as "tied together," while Director J.J. Croix said "they're separate, but they're definitely related."

There would be no cost to CDC once it moves into Northside, Sorrell said, adding Spenrath would not be running daily operations of the center.

"If there's a down side to it, I would like for someone to point it out to me," he said.

After discussing how a move would work, the board asked its attorney, Ronny Collins, to draft a six-month agreement between Northside and the CDC.

The CDC would continue to pay its share of bills to the Chamber for the duration of that arrangement.

The CDC board tabled the issue of moving, but will look at it again once Collins works up an agreement.

Two other matters on the CDC board's agenda were related to the Northside situation. One was the center's annual request for funding, which was approved unanimously.

The other was a request by the Chamber for the CDC to assume some of the costs of remodeling going on at Chamber headquarters. The exterior of the building has already been repainted, but upgrades are planned for the boardroom, which was used regularly by both the CDC and the Chamber.

Directors expressed regret at the timing of the request, which had been planned before Northside approached the CDC and asked it to move to that site.

Directors decided to table the Chamber's request for some share of the estimated remodeling costs of between $7,700 and $8,800 until it makes a firm decision on moving to Northside.