COSTA MESA Council votes to extend Job...

COSTA MESA

Council votes to extend Job Center closing date

The City Council voted early Wednesday to keep the Job Center open

three months past the June 30 closing date that was set last month.

Residents filled the council chambers Tuesday night and gave hours

of testimony both for and against the center, which opened in 1988 on

Placentia Avenue as a place for day laborers to connect with

employers.

While the Job Center remains open, business leaders and community

activists will search for other locations, new sources of funding and

other ways to run the center to take it off the city’s books. Council

members have said the Job Center does not fit in with plans to bring

more residential development to the Westside and that employment

assistance is best handled by the private sector.

* The council also approved a 10-year, $300,000, naming-rights

agreement with skateboard clothing company Volcom for the city’s

skate park. The park, now under construction, will be called the

Volcom Skate Park of Costa Mesa. Volcom, a Costa Mesa-based company,

will place its logo several places in the park, will hold events

there two weekends a year and will get various other benefits from

the deal.

This summer the council will hear about other opportunities for

corporate sponsorship of city facilities. The Volcom agreement is the

first of its kind and will essentially pay for skate park operations.