Last year, Sheriff's Lieutenant Bryan Lane (Retired) and City Manager Konrad Bolowich, along with Grand Terrace Cars & Coffee members (GT C&C), began the renovations required to convert a building at the City Hall complex into a Sheriff's Substation. This year, a shower conversion has been completed, which may sound like a simple undertaking, but there were complications and twists and turns to navigate, resulting in a project that took more than one hundred hours to complete over a fourteen-day period. Fortunately, the project team was more than up to the challenges encountered along the way. There is still important work to be done, as an adequate budget and staffing for this location will be required to earn the designation as an "official" Substation by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office.
While currently working on infrastructure and looking to the future, we are reminded of the past. Some of you may remember seeing the slide below during a presentation by Sheriff's Lieutenant Doug Wolfe (Retired) at a community dinner on August 24, 2017, at the Azure Hills SDA Church. Pre-2010 staffing versus current staffing reflects budget cuts the City needed to make during some difficult years after 2010.
The 2017 event was “standing room only," and Lieutenant Wolfe's presentation generated a great deal of interest among residents to seek community-based solutions to increase sheriff staffing. Although a lot has changed in Grand Terrace since 2017, the need to increase law enforcement coverage continues. A new Traffic Study commissioned two years ago shows that approximately 14,500 vehicles pass through Grand Terrace daily, which supports the need for additional law enforcement.
GT C&C, City Manager Bolowich, and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department are forever grateful to the following individuals and businesses, whose generous contributions to the shower conversion were key to keeping the Substation project on track.
Mike Simon, GT Cars & Coffee member and owner of Quality First Plumbing & Air Conditioning, covered plumbing parts and labor, as well as splitting the cost of the Navien NPN 160 Tankless Water Heater and Moen shower parts with Victor at Hajoca. Mike also stepped up to cover the cost of the glass shower door.
GT C&C member, John Alonzo, and his family, worked through their connections to arrange for the participation of Will Marroquin, owner, Will Power Electrical, and Patricio Lopez, owner, Maestro Tile Installations, in this project. As the result of John and Alma Alonzo's negotiations, Will donated the electrical work for the thermostat and controls, and Patricio heavily discounted his labor costs and covered some of the materials to tile the shower room.
The City of Grand Terrace funded the labor to complete the tile work. City Manager Bolowich donated his time and construction expertise, even working on the 4th of July to frame in the shower!
Dave Hutchison, owner, Hutchison Drywall, donated the labor and materials to make repairs where a vanity was removed from the original bathroom.
Long time resident, Dave LeForge, donated his time and the materials to install the glass shower door provided by Mike Simon of Quality Plumbing & Air Conditioning.
Gary Young, owner of Deep Steam Carpet Cleaning, covered the cost to refresh the carpet after the construction was completed.
Several GT C&C members are owed special thanks for their contributions to this project. Marcelo Toledo, John Alonzo and family, Ed and Becky Giroux, Stephanie Weber, Margie Miller and GT City News Group, and Johan and Donna Gallo made cash donations for the shower conversion, the bathroom floor replacement, and new accessories. Johan installed most of the accessories in the shower room and bathroom.
Once the Grand Terrace Cars & Coffee group finished the shower conversion, it became clear that the Substation bathroom needed work. Thanks to Margie Miller and the GT City News Group for the donation that covered a substantial portion of the cost to retile the bathroom and to Patricio and Maestro Tile Installations for providing the labor and materials at a deep discount to complete the job. City Manager Bolowich’ s team refreshed the paint.
And, finally, thank you to Johan Gallo and John Alonzo from GT C&C, who donated their time to manage the project from start to finish, over a fourteen-day period and one hundred hours, with the assistance of City Manager Konrad Bolowich and City Maintenance staff.
So far this year, expenses related to the Sheriff's Substation project, which include the shower conversion, retiling the bathroom, additional accessories, and carpet cleaning total fourteen thousand, one hundred and nine dollars ($14,109), mostly covered by donations. When added to last year's renovation donations of nine thousand and sixteen dollars ($9,016), the amount of contributions total twenty-three thousand, one hundred and twenty-five dollars ($23,125). Subtracting the City's contribution of four thousand, four hundred dollars ($4,400), brings the amount obtained through donations to eighteen thousand, seven hundred and twenty-five dollars ($18,725).
Now that GT C&C has finished the final phase of the Sheriff's Substation project, it is in the hands of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. In a joint effort, the City will collaborate with the SBCSD to review the City’s budget and determine adequate staffing levels and resources for a Substation. Mayor Hussey, the City Council, and City staff share the vision of building for the future to meet the needs of the residents and community.
Johan Gallo, the founder of Grand Terrace Cars & Coffee expressed that he is very thankful to the group's members and business partners who can always be counted on to generously support important projects that serve Grand Terrace. From its beginnings, the vision of GT C&C has been to give back to the community.
Mike Simon worked on the drain conversion with TW. TW worked on the main water valve that needed replacement. Mike & Johnny installed the tankless heater.
Will Marroquin, wired the thermostat controls. New gas supply line and water lines to heater. Cement around drain; all new pipes are wrapped.
City Manager Bolowich completed the framing on 4th of July Weekend! Backer board needed to be installed before tiling could begin.
Patricio Lopez, owner, Maestro Tile Installations, and his son Leonardo, tiled the shower, the shower room floor, and the bathroom floor.
Dave Hutchison completed the drywall work where the vanity was removed, making it ready for painting and installing accessories.
Dave LeForge, a friend of GT C&C, volunteered his craftsmanship skills to install the glass shower door donated by Mike Simon of Quality First Plumbing & A/C.
Once construction was finished, another friend of GT C&C, Gary Young, owner, Deep Steam Carpet Cleaning, donated his work to refresh and clean the carpet.
The Grand Terrace Cars & Coffee Group has finished the final phase of the Grand Terrace Sheriff’s Substation project. Once the shower conversion was complete, we knew that bathroom needed some work. Thanks to the donation from Margie Miller and the GT City News Group, we were able to cover a substantial portion of the cost to retile the bathroom. Thanks also to Patricio and Maestro Tile Installations for offering to provide the labor and material at a deep discount to complete the job. The retiling and some additional items were covered by donations noted above from Grand Terrace Cars & Coffee members. City Manager Bolowich had his team refresh the paint. All of the donated work for our Sheriff Substation, brings us closer to it becoming an official Substation for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
We want to acknowledge John & Alma Alonzo from Grand Terrace Cars & Coffee for all the work they did negotiating the donations, and discounted pricing for the tile work, donations for the electrical on the tankless water heater and covering some miscellaneous costs for the project.
John Alonzo and Johan Gallo from Grand Terrace Cars & Coffee managed the entire project from start to finish with the help of City Manager, Konrad Bolowich and City Maintenance Staff.