City Allocates $170,000 More for Building of CYO Center : Services: Council receives assurances that construction of the long-delayed project will begin immediately. It will include day laborer hiring and child care facilities.

Assured that construction will begin this summer, the City Council on Tuesday allocated $170,000 more in federal money to build a new Catholic Youth Organization social services center in south Glendale.

The center, to be open within a year, will include a hiring and training program for day laborers, although significantly scaled down from a similar program abandoned three years ago, CYO officials said.

The new program will limit job-seekers to 25 to 50 local residents, probably on a first-come, first-served basis, officials said. Neighbors earlier complained that the proliferation of laborers who flocked to the center from outlying areas disrupted businesses, intimidated clients and caused traffic congestion.

The allotment brings to $589,000 the federal grant money set aside by the city to build a multiuse center to replace the old CYO building at 4322 San Fernando Road. The old center, operated since 1951, was closed last October because it was overcrowded and in poor condition.

A new 6,000-square-foot building, expected to be completed by July, 1993, will allow for expanded child care services, counseling and training programs for teen-agers, classes for parents of troubled youths, and social services for the poor, as well as the day laborer program.

Council members two weeks ago balked at granting more money for the project, which has been stalled for five years by federal regulations, environmental and safety problems, and rising construction costs. Obstacles have been cleared and demolition of the old building could begin within a month, said Madalyn Blake, city director of community development and housing.

“We are certainly anxious to get this project under way,” said Greg Fitzgerald, youth services director for Catholic Charities of Los Angeles Inc., which operates seven community service centers.

The additional money was approved 4 to 1, with Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg against. Bremberg said she has grown weary of repeated delays and cost increases in the project. She also said she is “not at all comfortable” with using taxpayer money to support the CYO program, even though the center will be built and operated as a non-sectarian corporation separate from the Roman Catholic Church, as required under federal rules of separation of church and state.

The Glendale facility will provide social services for about 2,000 families, mostly low- and moderate-income residents of the south Glendale area, Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said the restrictions on the hiring center will eliminate problems like those in the 1988 CYO day laborer program, when more than 100 workers from throughout Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley arrived each day to compete for odd jobs offered by contractors.

The program was halted in 1989 after enrollment in the CYO child care program dwindled because parents were afraid to leave their children when large numbers of workers were milling about the premises.

“It didn’t work the other way, so we are going to have to take a more businesslike approach,” Fitzgerald said. “We hate to be turning people away; it’s not our nature . . . but it was pretty chaotic.”

The new building will have separate facilities--including meeting rooms and restrooms--for children, classrooms, social programs and the day laborer center.

Marilyne Wiechmann, co-owner of a cement contracting business near the CYO center, urged officials to exert tight controls over the day laborer hiring program.

She said unemployed workers frequently mill about the neighborhood, harassing employees and clients. Reopening the center next year “may draw more day laborers than we already have there,” she said.

City Atty. Scott Howard said his staff is researching ways to curtail the number of job-seekers who congregate at hiring sites, not only near the CYO but also at other pickup locations in Glendale, such as the corner of Broadway and Jackson Street downtown.

Howard said the situation presents a “troubling clash” between the rights of laborers waiting on public sidewalks and business people who feel harassed by their presence. He said he expects to complete a report on recommendations within a few weeks.

City Manager David Ramsay told council members Tuesday that a solution will require cooperative efforts among businesses, employers, workers and service organizations. “I don’t think any one agency can resolve it,” he said.