The federal government is doling out $3 million to Santa Clara
County for road improvements, juvenile detention reform and crime
lab equipment, officials said.
The federal government is doling out $3 million to Santa Clara County for road improvements, juvenile detention reform and crime lab equipment, officials said.
The funding is part of the $555 billion Omnibus Appropriations Bill approved by Congress and signed by President Bush last month, and comes at a time when the county is facing a projected $154.8 million budget deficit for next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
“Federal funding continues to be extremely necessary to maintain many of our important county programs,” Supervisor Pete McHugh, chair of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, said in a statement.
The county is receiving funding for six of the nine projects it requested, the release stated. Among them is $364,000 for a new Evening Reporting Center for at-risk youth in Gilroy. The highest percentage of youth with violations of probation live in San Jose, with the second highest number in South County, according to the release.
The ERC provides afternoon and evening supervision to youth on probation and provides transportation to and from the center, homework tutoring, organized recreation, creative arts, cultural activities, and life skills development.
“Establishing an Evening Reporting Center in Gilroy will better serve at-risk youth in South County and, as studies show, youth diverted to community-based treatment programs return to Juvenile Court less frequently and succeed more often in changing their lives,” said Supervisor Blanca Alvarado, chair of the Public Safety and Justice Committee.
The county will also receive $250,000 in funding to update the Santa Clara County Annex to the Association of Bay Area Governments Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, which outlines strategies in the event of a disaster.
The county’s crime lab will receive $1.27 million for new equipment “that will improve turn around time of drug and toxicology cases, and save investigation time through DNA analysis,” according to the statement.
Road improvements were also part of the federal funding, including $500,000 each for adding Central Expressway Auxiliary Lanes and repairing the San Tomas Expressway Box Culvert. The federal earmark will provide $100,000 to help with the preservation and restoration of the historic Casa Grande at the County’s Almaden Quicksilver Park.
