Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : City to Hire 15 Displaced Workers for Quake Repair : Labor: The young adults will be provided through the CCC for the six-month Santa Clarita program, which starts in September.

Young adults displaced from jobs because of the Northridge earthquake will get a chance to work on local rebuilding projects while saving the city money, thanks to an emergency federal grant.

The Santa Clarita City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to hire 15 people through the California Conservation Corps to pick up debris and perform other repair work, said John Danielson, parks and recreation superintendent for the city. The CCC has about 85 people performing similar work in the San Fernando Valley, using a $2.2-million grant to fund the Northridge Earthquake Recovery Program.

Officials said a crew from the San Fernando Valley has been doing some repairs here since last month. But Danielson said the city plans to hire local residents for its six-month program, which begins in September.

“Our long-term hope is to have a permanent CCC office, with a strong emphasis on job skills,” he added. “The city feels very strongly that once they have finished their six-month cycle knowing not just how to push a broom, but (they) have another skill, such as recycling or building a wall.”

The full-time workers will receive $7 an hour, compared to $4.25 an hour normally paid to CCC recruits, Danielson said.

The supervised crew will help remove tons of debris on streets and yards that could clog storm drains if left until winter storms wash it away, he said. Damaged sidewalks and curbs also need repair, and massive piles of concrete from wrecked roads and bridges need to be sorted into recyclable and disposable piles.

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A permanent CCC office would assign eligible workers hired by government agencies or private companies to various general labor tasks, Danielson said.

Recruits will be provided through the CCC, which obtains its information through the federal Employment and Development Department, said Juan Salazar, program administrator for the earthquake recovery program.

Workers must be between 18 and 26 years old and cannot be on probation or parole, Salazar said. He said applicants must have been unemployed for 15 of the past 26 weeks, or permanently displaced because of circumstances such as factory closure.