Palmdale, LA County now included
The Lancaster City Council has approved an amended and restated Joint Powers Agreement for the Antelope Valley Fair Authority that will see the addition of the City of Palmdale and Los Angeles County to the agreement.
In July 2011, Lancaster and the 50th District Agricultural Association entered into a Joint Powers Agreement to form the AV Fair Authority.
The amended agreement, approved at the June 27 City Council meeting, comes on the heels of a joint press conference on June 22 to announce the receipt by the City of Lancaster and the AV Fair Authority of a $20 million state grant to serve as seed money for the Multi-Agency Regional Resiliency Center planned to be built at the Antelope Valley Fair and Event Center. The $100 million project includes an emergency operations center and a culinary community kitchen.
The MARRC is intended to serve as a large-scale emergency evacuation center for Lancaster, Palmdale and the unincorporated areas. It will be able to house about 1,000 evacuees with about 40 square feet per person plus circulation.
“The City of Palmdale earmarked $2.5 million toward the MARRC and has committed another $10 million over the next several years,” Councilman Richard Loa said at the June 22 event.
According to the amended and restated agreement, the AV Fair Authority shall be administered by an eight-member board of directors. One member shall be designated by the state senator for the district (21st District currently) in which the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds are located; one member shall be designated by the state assembly member for the district (34th District) in which the fairgrounds are located; two members shall be designated by the mayor of Lancaster, with concurrence of the City Council; and one member shall be a member of the 50th District Agricultural Association Board of Directors, designated by the board and serve as a liaison between the board for the authority and the board for the association.
The other three members will be a member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Antelope Valley Fair Inc., designated by the mayor of Lancaster; one member designated by the mayor of Palmdale, with concurrence of the City Council; and one member designated by the Los Angeles County supervisor for the district in which the fairgrounds are located, which in this case is the 5th Supervisorial District.
