Conservation Corps Gets Vow of Help : Environment: Supervisors Flynn and Lacey want to see contracts offered to keep the Camarillo office running.

Ventura County officials said Friday they plan to rally financial support from government officials and private companies to prevent the closure of the California Conservation Corps Camarillo district office.

The corps recently announced that the state budget crisis will force the closure of its Camarillo office along with six other branch offices scattered throughout the state. The corps provides minimum wage jobs for young adults who clear hiking trails, plant trees and perform other environmental chores.

“We’re going to help them survive,” said Supervisor John K. Flynn. “It’s an excellent program. It’s a program we want to keep.”

At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Flynn said he and Supervisor Susan K. Lacey will propose that the county try to assemble a group of local governments, water districts and private companies that could offer contracts to keep the corps’ program running in the county.

“For one thing,” Flynn said, “we could have the fire district contract with them to do weed abatement.”

Terri Kirby, a corps staff member at the Camarillo office, said workers have been informed that the office will close July 31.

Kirby, who has been offered a transfer, said she hopes that the community will help keep the Camarillo office open.

“I’ve lived here all my life, I’d like to stay,” Kirby said. “But we’ve already reduced our staff. People have already left.” The corps’ professional staff has shrunk from 19 to 11, she said, as some employees have moved out of fear of imminent layoffs.

The Camarillo office also employs about 45 youthful corps members who do everything from planting trees to clearing streams and building hiking trails, Kirby said. Corps members also help with disaster relief efforts during floods and earthquakes, she said.

The majority of county corps members live in a dormitory at Camarillo State Hospital and contribute a small amount of their monthly wages for room and board. Other corps members work in a separate non-residential program that works directly with the Oxnard Parks Department.

The California Conservation Corps is entirely supported by state dollars, said Suzanne Levitsky, spokeswoman in the corps’ Sacramento office. Levitsky said the corps expects its $16-million annual budget to be cut in half this year during the Legislature’s struggle with the state budget deficit.

Levitsky said the corps operates 16 offices statewide and that seven have been slated for closure at the end of next week. Most of the Camarillo office’s remaining 11 staff members will be eligible for transfers, she said.

“We hope that there won’t be any layoffs, but we don’t know,” Levitsky said. “We’re waiting to see what happens with the state budget.”

She said the corps hopes to keep some staff and work crews in Ventura County with Flynn’s proposed program to supplement state funding.

“The community support has been tremendous,” she said. “People are really very supportive and we don’t want to leave.”

The California Conservation Corps, the largest such organization in the country, was founded in 1976. A branch office opened in the county in 1978.

The corps’ rigorous one-year program has been applauded for giving young adults a chance to escape from gang influences and for offering direction toward future careers in landscaping and other fields.

“Our motto is ‘hard work, low pay, miserable conditions and more. . .,’ ” Levitsky said. “This year, it’s probably more true than ever.”