1ST SITE CHOICE FOR NEW SCHOOL.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

CALIFORNIA CITY - Mojave Unified School District trustees have decided to build the California City high school at the site they had first considered, despite the need for flood-control protection there.

The 65-acre site near Mendiburu Road and Hacienda Boulevard was the largest of three locales being looked at and could be improved using a city fund set up in the 1960s to pay for roads, water and sewer lines for future development.

``We are just excited to take a big step forward and continue this process,'' board member Wayne Dickerson said.

The district was prompted to look at more than one site after it found out that it could cost more than $1 million to provide flood-control protection at the Hacienda site.

That parcel is located in a 100-year flood plain, an area that the government says is likely to be inundated by a flood once every century.

The other two parcels considered were a 40-acre lot near Mendiburu and Adler Drive and 27 acres near California City Middle School.

The board voted 4-1 at Tuesday's meeting to move forward with building the high school at the Hacienda site. The dissenting vote was cast by trustee Polly Worley.

Worley said she preferred a smaller site that didn't need as much flood control work.

``I prefer a smaller site that I don't feel will cost as much in correcting the problems with the flood plain,'' Worley said. ``I don't like the idea of having a channel through the school site, which is what we will have. I think it is a safety hazard.''

A ditch runs roughly through the center of the Hacienda site, but Phelps said a fence will be erected to keep students out.

``The safety issue is a major one for everybody. We are going to have to make sure that it's not something that students have access to,'' Phelps said. ``It's not a riverbed, but if you have a big flood, water will come through that. We are going to have to mitigate that.''

Phelps added that costs associated with developing the two larger sites were comparable. ``It looks like with everything they need to do, including the land estimate, the costs are about the same,'' Phelps said.

California City officials have told the school district that a $70 million fund set up in the 1960s to pay for roads, water and sewer lines for future development could be tapped to help improve the Hacienda site.

That site is adjacent to a once-proposed 500-home tract that was never built but is part of the city's subdivision improvement fund.

Start of construction on the high school is probably 1 1/2 years away, district officials have said.

The district is nine months to a year away from starting construction on an elementary school in California City.

The schools will be financed by a $16 million bond measure approved in march by California City voters.