Briefly

BMU facility ; hip hop put on hold
After all the hard work that Associated Students Presents put into bringing top-notch acts to its new on-campus facility, damages incurred at an Oct. 11 hip-hop show could already spell the end to certain events.

“It’s a shame,” said Ajamu Lamumba, A.S. coordinator. “Basically, we have people getting really drunk, breaking the rules … losing control of themselves and just not giving a damn.”

During the recent Pharcyde/Souls of Mischief rap concert, 700 students and 300 non-students jammed to some nice, L.A.-based hip-hop, but a grate near an entrance was damaged, as were the restroom facilities. While repair costs are still unknown, Lamumba said that no more hip-hop or hard-rock shows would be booked for the Student Center.

“It puts me in a precarious situation because I need to represent the students, but I can’t have shows getting out of control,” Lamumba said. “We got a glass house here, and we’ve already thrown too many stones.”

Gov restores some college money
Last-minute lobbying by California community college leaders has resulted in the return of some of the millions of dollars Gov. Gray Davis cut from their budgets.

“We really owe a debt of gratitude to our local legislators,” said Patrick Blythe, Butte College’s executive director of institutional advancement. “SB 735 passed with an overwhelming majority.”

The bill had asked for $98 million to be restored for instructional and unscheduled maintenance; the governor knocked it down to $32 million and OK’d a separate $14 million for construction projects. Blythe said that while Butte College has applied to get some of the $32 million, “I don’t hold out a lot of hope.” However, it will get money to construct a learning resource center, with classrooms, labs and technology.

School tests draw mixed results
This year’s Academic Performance Index results are in, and only one of Chico’s public schools—Sierra View Elementary—exceeded the state target of 800. But Cindy Kampf, director of assessment for the CUSD, said the scores are somewhat misleading in that Chico schools improved so much last year it was next to impossible for them to meet this year’s target. In fact, only 20 percent of California schools reached the 800 mark.

Fifteen of 22 schools in the CUSD met their growth targets. All but four scored higher this year; the exceptions were Bidwell Junior High, which stayed at 688, and Hooker Oak Elementary (763), McManus Elementary (607) and Pleasant Valley High School (736). The median for the state was 629

Now what, Duff Gardens?
The owner of the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Ken Grossman, has purchased the property where Fun World once stood. “It’s property that could be valuable to the brewery at some time,” said Sierra Nevada spokesman Steve Harrison. “But we have no plans for it right now.” The parcel north of the Silver Dollar Fair Grounds is adjacent to property that borders the East 20th Street brewery.

Harrison said the old water slides, buildings and such are already being torn down and cleared away for safety reasons. He said the cleanup includes “everything: Fill in the pools, get it down to safe, flat ground. It was in a pretty significant state of disrepair.”

The ill-fated amusement park was closed in 1996 because of permit problems with the city, absentee owners, maintenance lapses and overall money troubles. The county Assessor’s Office set its minimum price at $671,000 at a tax-default auction.