Milken Campus Services Relocated

Most programs offered at the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus have been relocated to a former warehouse near Warner Center while earthquake damage at the permanent location is repaired.

The 20,000-square-foot temporary site on Independence Avenue in Woodland Hills will be used until repairs are completed, said Earl Greinetz, president of the San Fernando Valley Alliance of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles. The campus is operated by the alliance.

Most of the damage caused by the earthquake was due to ruptured water and sprinkler lines indoors, Greinetz said, and the West Hills campus may be reopened as soon as late this year.

Even before the earthquake, the 6-year-old campus had been scheduled to close this spring for several months for roof repairs and seismic reinforcement, Greinetz said.

“We had begun the relocation process, starting with the children’s services,” Greinetz said. “Then the earthquake hit and we had no choice but to relocate right away.”

The roof and other structural repairs were deemed necessary by a team of private engineers last December.

“There were deficiencies in the construction of the buildings,” said Robert Powell of the engineering firm Powell, Mika & Associates. “They weren’t built according to the plans and would have come under the hazardous building (designation).”

As programs such as the West Valley Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Vocational Service and the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles were forced to scramble to a new location, the umbrella group linking them also underwent a major reorganization--along with a name change, Greinetz said.

The San Fernando Valley Alliance of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, formerly the San Fernando Valley Region of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, gained control over its own budget and administration, becoming semiautonomous from the rest of the council.

“When we were a ‘region’ of the larger council, we had to spend money in the way we were told,” Greinetz said. “This is a step toward solving our problems of needing more responsibility.”