By Linda Taaffe

City and school officials were expected to finalize a deal Monday for the construction, operation and maintenance of the two joint-use gymnasiums planned for Blach and Egan junior high schools.

Under the agreement, the city of Los Altos would lease land at each junior high campus from the Los Altos School District for 100 years. The city would own the gymnasiums, and the school districts would own the land.

The city would have exclusive use of the gyms outside of school hours. This would mean the city would have exclusive use of the gyms during summer. The agreement also could prohibit gym-use for anything other than recreational or athletic activities. The city and school district would share maintenance costs, based on their hours of use.

The Los Altos City Council did not agree to the school district’s request to fund a portion of the cost to renovate Egan’s track, unless the funds remain from the budget initially set aside for the gym projects.

The council was scheduled to approve Thompson Pacific Construction’s bid price of $2.7 million for Blach gym Monday night.

The plans to use funds from the estimated $4.5 million sale of a sewer treatment plant to pay for the project, said Assistant City Manager Starla Jerome-Robinson.