One-stop job center closing down

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Thursday, May 15, 2003 | 9:21 a.m.

A one-stop shop that helps people find jobs and was showcased only months ago to members of Congress is closing down and its services will be moved to three other offices around the valley.

The office, part of the statewide network called JobConnect, grouped 17 public and private agencies under one roof and provided the unemployed with help ranging from training and referrals to free faxes.

Opened in November 2000, the office saw the number of monthly visits go from about 1,700 to about 2,300 since last fall, said Leslie Salomon, coordinator for the center.

It was the only office in the network to offer so many services in one place. It was so innovative that state officials gave Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., and Rep. John A. Boehner, R- Ohio, the chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, a tour of the office during a February visit.

But the Community College of Southern Nevada, owner of the office on Las Verdes Street near Sahara Avenue and Valley View Boulevard, needs the space for classrooms, and ended the leasing arrangement Wednesday. Starting today, the services will be spread to other JobConnect offices in Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas.

Officials at the Nevada Workforce Investment Board, which oversees the JobConnect network, saw the move as positive.

"We don't see it as shutting down an office, but expanding services to three other offices throughout the valley," said Richard Blue, board manager.

The idea, said Blue, is to transform all three into one-stop shops, with a variety of services in one place, expanding beyond job searches to such services as financial aid for classes and computers for making resumes. The expansion, which will take a few months, will cost $141,000 in federal funds, he said.

"The next time members of Congress visit us, we hope to show them all three, where in 2003 we only had one," he said.

On Wednesday, the Las Verdes office was filled with more boxes than people. Five job seekers used computers to look for positions or make resumes.

Nina L. Smith, who recently completed her studies as a medical administrative assistant, has been coming to the office in her car from West Charleston Boulevard and Cimarron Road since January, looking at ads and sending out resumes by fax.

She said getting to the Las Vegas office on South Maryland Parkway, south of Desert Inn Road, would take about 15 minutes longer. The Las Vegas office will receive most of the agencies and equipment from the Las Verdes office.

"It's a shame it has to close down,"said a woman sitting across from Smith who would only give her name as Louise.

She said the increased time and distance would be a hardship and was also worried that the busier South Maryland office "will be overcrowded, with more people and less computers."

"When you're dealing with people who are unemployed, they aren't very happy to begin with," she said. "I just hope we can be treated with respect at the new office."

Kelly Karch, manager for the JobConnect office on South Maryland Parkway, said the addition of three new staff members and 16 computers will help handle any increase in people seeking work at what is already the state's busiest office for the unemployed.

The office currently helps an average of about 6,000 people a month with a total staff of 19 and 10 computers for job seekers, Karch said.

He said he welcomes the addition of the other private and public agencies such as Job Corps and the Economic Opportunity Board to his office.

"This is going to be a one-stop on steroids," he said. "It will have all the things at the current office but bigger and better."

The South Maryland office manager said he will also be open an additional hour each day in anticipation of increase in clients.

"Some people will have to travel a little farther to get here," Karch said.

"But they will find their way."