New Remote Offices Planned, but Many Workers on Road Again : Telecommuting: Lancaster leaders will open two centers despite waning interest after freeway repairs.

Two months after the Northridge earthquake, civic leaders hope Los Angeles employers are still willing to let road-weary commuters work in high-tech satellite offices in the Antelope Valley instead of driving downtown.

Two new remote work centers will open next month in Lancaster to encourage more telecommuting. The sites--one run by Los Angeles County, the other by the Antelope Valley Fair Board--will each offer desks, computers and telephone lines, allowing local employees to work many miles away from their corporate offices.

Telecommuting was widely discussed after the Jan. 17 earthquake damaged the freeways that an estimated 40,000 Antelope Valley residents use to get to work. Civic leaders and some employers said satellite offices could help these commuters, who were suddenly forced to drive two hours or more to their jobs.

But when short-term road repairs were finished, interest in telecommuting waned.

“Our job is to keep that interest alive, whether people are starting to fade on it or not,” said Karen Wilson, project manager for the county’s telecommuting centers.

The county’s year-old Antelope Valley Telebusiness Center, equipped with 20 workstations, quickly filled up after the quake. Others were placed on a waiting list. “But in getting back to these people, not everybody was ready or able to jump on the telecommuting bandwagon,” said Suzette Cecchini,, director of the center.

She found that many companies had no policy allowing employees to work in a satellite office. According to Cecchini, some companies said: “It’s not my problem they’re living in the Antelope Valley.”

Other employers were reluctant to let employees work away from the corporate office, without a supervisor on the premises. In such cases, Cecchini urges an employer to supervise by checking the tasks that a long-distance worker completes each day.

“What difference does it make where it gets done?” she asked.

Despite these hurdles, the county next month will open its second Antelope Valley telecommuting center, this one with 40 workstations, plus a conference room and shared equipment such as fax and copy machines.

The $200,000 center was put together with federal disaster relief funds. Computers and technical services were donated by IBM and GTE.

Located on East Avenue K-4, the new center will be filled when it opens, mainly with workers from the insurance and health care industries. Some workers will come from the older telecommuting center a few blocks away, leaving nine workstations at the original center free.

To fill them, Cecchini plans to continue contacting Los Angeles area employers, talking up the merits of telecommuting.

A few miles north, the operators of the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds are also banking on expanded interest in satellite offices. Last week, contractors were busy converting the fair’s 8,000-square-foot photography exhibit hall into yet another telecommuting center.

To set up and operate the center, the fairgrounds received a $164,000 state grant. The Antelope Valley Fair Board, which administers the grounds, contributed a similar amount, and the Lancaster Redevelopment Agency provided another $10,000.

The center is expected to open with 20 fully equipped cubicles for rent, although the building could eventually house 65 or 70 workers. The renovated building also will include a kitchenette, a conference room and expanded restrooms.

Fair officials plan to charge $350 a month, or $90 a week, per workstation, not including long-distance telephone charges. As an incentive, fair officials plan to offer six months free rent to anyone who signs a one-year lease.

“In the short term, I don’t see it as a source of revenue for the fair board,” said Charla Abbott, fair board president. “We hope it will break even in the first year. But we will offer any incentives we can to attract tenants.

“We believe that if we get them in there, the employers will see the benefits and keep them there.”

Wilson, the county’s telecommuting supervisor, does not believe the opening of two new centers will create a conflict. “I think that it’s healthy,” she said. “There are 41,000 commuters who come down the (Antelope Valley) Freeway to work in Los Angeles or the Valley, so I think there’s a need.”