FILLMORE : City Pledges Funds to Start Youth Club

Fillmore will give $50,000 to help launch a Boys & Girls Club in the city if the group’s organizers can raise an equal amount in donations.

The City Council voted this week to use redevelopment money to support the club, which Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies have been trying to start for more than a year.

If organizers succeed in matching the city’s grant, the Boys & Girls Club would have the $100,000 needed to operate for two years, officials said. After that period, the club would be eligible for funding from the United Way, they said.

The group has raised $15,000 so far, and plans a golfing fund-raiser later this summer that officials hope will raise another $15,000, said Lt. Dick Furnell, Fillmore’s acting chief of police.

Officials said a lack of operating funds has presented a bigger problem than finding a place to run the Boys & Girls Club. The Ventura County Sheriff’s office has offered a portable building to house the club temporarily. The City Council has offered to place the structure on city property.

“This club is not going to reach the hardened gang members,” City Councilman Mike McMahan said. “I see it helping kids before they fall into that rut, by giving them some education and activities.”