The San Diego County Board of Supervisors awarded a Neighborhood Reinvestment Program grant for the Helix High School baseball facilities and two grants for activities on the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds.
The supervisors’ 5-0 vote July 23 allocated $170,000 to Helix Charter High School, $150,000 to the El Capitan Stadium Association, which owns and maintains the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds, and $90,000 to the Grossmont Union High School District for an El Capitan High School program which will occur on the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds.
The Neighborhood Reinvestment Program is intended to provide grants to non-profit organizations for the furtherance of public purposes at the regional and community levels.
In addition to non-profit organizations, county supervisors can also fund schools and fire departments, and supervisors can also use money from their budgets to supplement other county funding for specific county projects such as parks, roads and libraries.
Each county supervisor recommends the allocation of his or her Neighborhood Reinvestment Program funds, although those allocations must be approved by a majority of the board.
Each Board of Supervisors member has an annual $2,000,000 Neighborhood Reinvestment Program budget, and Supervisor Dianne Jacob recommended the funding for Helix High School and the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds from her District Two budget.
Helix High School opened in 1951 and had a 2018-19 enrollment of 2,428 students. The Neighborhood Reinvestment Program grant will fund the purchase of athletic equipment and the construction of a new restroom facility at the baseball field.
The El Capitan Stadium Association obtained its name because its original purpose was to raise money for seating at El Capitan High School’s stadium. The ECSA raised money for the project by founding the Lakeside Rodeo in 1964. After the stadium improvements were funded the Lakeside Rodeo continued and proceeds are now used for the youth of Lakeside including El Capitan High School, Lakeside’s two middle schools, the town’s elementary schools, and extracurricular youth organizations. The Neighborhood Reinvestment Program grant will provide funding to replace the skybox above the north bleachers and will also help fund cinder block restrooms.
The non-profit East County Farm to Table organization was created to help El Capitan High School agricultural science students market their locally-grown products.
East County Farm to Table will be partnering with the El Capitan Stadium Association to establish a Lakeside Farmers’ Market at the rodeo grounds. The Lakeside Farmers’ Market would include student-grown crops and a student-operated cut and wrap facility which would be inspected by the United States Department of Agriculture.
On May 21 the Board of Supervisors approved a $164,250 Neighborhood Reinvestment Program grant for a mobile processing unit which would allow the students to learn how to process meat at a USDA-inspected facility and would also allow them to learn various careers associated with meat processing. The July 23 grant will help fund the purchase and retrofit of a semi-trailer which will be converted into a cut and wrap unit with the necessary equipment to cut, wrap, prepare and process meats.
