Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Workforce Development topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Developer proposes workforce hub and reentry support at community center
Summary
A developer and public commenters urged the board to clean and convert the idle community center into a workforce and reentry training center for youth and women leaving incarceration, offering job training in construction trades and caregiving and suggesting rental revenue to support operations.
During the public-comment period Tracy Queen, representing King Hatch Construction and Development Group, proposed using the community center as a workforce-development hub focused on trades training for youth (ages 16–24) and reentry services for women exiting the Department of Corrections. Queen said the project could provide carpentry, solar, HVAC, plumbing and electrical training, and noted the Department of Corrections would pay for transitional housing in some cases.
Multiple residents echoed the need to clean and activate the center; one speaker (Sheila Box) urged the board to send a cleaning crew and highlighted unused rooms that could host after‑school programs, barbershop rentals and workforce classrooms. Trustees asked staff to look into grant and funding records and to prepare a plan for cleaning, volunteer support and potential rental revenues.
"My name is Tracy Queen with King Hatch Construction and Development Group," Queen told the board, outlining a workforce-development plan to teach trades and provide transitional housing. "We can put the youth, age 16 to 24, to work, teaching them how to remodel and renovate these vacant properties," she said. Community members asked the board to return a cleaning and activation plan that includes volunteer support and potential grant matches.
