Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Wish for Clearwater: Job Corps campus

No one wants a competition to develop between St. Petersburg and Clearwater for a $25-million Job Corps training facility. However, if the proposal falls through in St. Petersburg, what a plum the program could be for the Jack Russell Stadium site in Clearwater.

Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard got the idea of offering the Jack Russell site as a potential backup to the St. Petersburg Dome Industrial District. It was a creative idea, and information about the Jack Russell site already has been forwarded to the U.S. Labor Department for review so Clearwater will be positioned to step in quickly if the opportunity arises.

Two years ago the federal government awarded $25-million to Pinellas for a Job Corps campus, where at-risk youths from 16 to 24 years old get intensive job training and apply their new skills by working in the area. A couple of early proposed sites fell through before St. Petersburg offered up 16 vacant acres in the Midtown area.

However, St. Petersburg also put out a request for proposals from developers who could bring jobs, not just job training, to that city-owned site. The deadline recently passed for those proposals to be submitted, and city officials say they expect to make a decision about what to do with the property within the next few weeks. If the land is sold to a private developer rather than the federal government, Clearwater is positioned to step up.

Clearwater has struggled to figure out the best use for the old stadium property since a new stadium was built on U.S. 19 to house the Philadelphia Phillies spring training squad. The 16-acre property in North Greenwood still has the stadium on it, but that likely would be torn down by a future user.

Last year a city selection committee turned thumbs down on two proposals to use the site. One offered a mix of townhomes and rental apartments. Clearwater, indeed all of Pinellas, needs affordable housing, but Greenwood residents were concerned about concentrating more low-income housing in an area already heavy with it.

The other proposal called for business offices and perhaps a few classrooms for St. Petersburg College.

Neither project offered what surveys showed the North Greenwood community most wanted there: retail stores and good-paying jobs. The local NAACP didn't like either proposal, and the City Council eventually turned both bidders away, hoping for something better in the future.

A Job Corps campus would not offer retail or immediate jobs, either. However, it would make full and productive use of the stadium site and offer much-needed benefits for area young people who have struggled to find jobs after high school and don't have college on their radar screen. Job Corps training offers a better future to young people who participate.

[Last modified June 23, 2005, 00:46:08]