New Civic Center, Jobs Fair to Boost Cabazon: 'Unemployment is 35 Percent'

County officials billed the groundbreaking Tuesday on a $15.9-million civic center project in Cabazon as an affordable move that will provide needed services and facilities in a community wracked by unemployment.

The groundbreaking coincided with announcement of a Riverside County Economic Development Agency jobs fair later this year for residents of the Cabazon-Whitewater area.

"Cabazon has 35 percent unemployment, more than twice the county's rate as a whole," 5th District Supervisor Marion Ashley said Tuesday. "I've asked the EDA for a jobs fair in October or November, for residents of Cabazon and Whitewater."

The new civic center project, an upgrade and expansion of the existing James A. Venable Community Center and adjacent Cabazon Park, will include a community library, child development and counseling centers, water district administration offices, a maintenance building, a skateboard park, two lighted outdoor basketball courts, a children's playground, picnic shelters, and 144 parking spaces, Ashley said.

The project will also include road improvements on Carmen Avenue, Broadway and Irene Street, increased water delivery lines on Carmen and Irene to improve fire protection, and replacement of Southern California Edison poles and lines with underground utility service around the center, Ashley said.

The $15.9-million project cost includes construction estimates just under $12 million, Ashley said.

In 2008, the county Economic Development Agency said the project was necessary because "there is a lack of adequate community facilities such as libraries and child care centers in the Cabazon area."

The development of the project was consistent with the county Redevelopment Agency's Implementation Plan, which called for the building of community facilities and providing recreational opportunities for area residents, said Robin Zimpfer, assistant county executive officer.

The redevelopment funds for the civic center project come from taxes paid and collected in the Cabazon area, Ashley emphasized Tuesday.

Expected date of completed construction on the project is Oct. 5, 2012, Ashley said.

For more information, call the county Economic Development Agency at (951) 955-8916 and ask about the RDA's Cabazon Civic Center project.