Jobs Agency Gets $1-Million Grant : Cleanup: Federal funds for flood relief are awarded to a county nonprofit organization that helps put the poor to work.

State and local officials already beginning the process of trying to clean up tons of debris on county beaches got a potential new source of help Wednesday in the form of a $1-million grant to a county jobs agency.

The federal Department of Labor grant for flood relief was awarded to the Job Training Policy Council of Ventura County, a nonprofit corporation that helps put poor people to work.

“Cool,” said Steve Treanor, district superintendent for the state Department of Parks and Recreation. “Anytime we have an offer of assistance, we’re very interested.”

Treanor is responsible for organizing the cleanup of state beaches throughout Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties that were littered with rocks, branches and driftwood following the January storms.

The hardest-hit state beaches locally include McGrath State Beach near Oxnard and San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura, Treanor said.

State parks officials already have received about $115,000 in federal emergency funds to help offset cleanup costs at the two beaches, Treanor said. But clearing the debris will not begin for several more weeks.

“We’re in the process of developing some scenarios to deal with (the debris),” Treanor said. “In the past we’ve done everything from haul it away to burn it on site.”

The city of Ventura, which is responsible for the beach north of the Ventura Pier and the Ventura River bottom, has contracted with the county Probation Department to provide work-release inmates to do initial cleanup.

Those workers have been scouring the river bottom and beaches for days, sifting through the piles of debris and hauling off any sharp objects, metal and other dangerous material.

But city Parks Department officials said Wednesday they will apply to the jobs council for some of the grant money.

“This sounds like a good deal for us,” parks supervisor Terry Murphy said. “It would be a real benefit to the city to offset the cost of cleaning up after the flood.

“We need the labor,” she said. “There’s a lot of work to be done by hand. I could probably use a minimum of 30 folks down there.”

Meanwhile, city and state officials are inviting anyone who wants free firewood to show up at two sites along San Buenaventura State Beach later this month.

The public can chop firewood from the mounds of debris on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 25 and 26, between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., after receiving a permit from officials on scene. Interested people should show up at the pier parking lot or the beach entrance off San Pedro Street to receive permission.

“We got a lot of calls,” Murphy said. “This way, we’re doing a service for the community to get some firewood, and it will also reduce our costs.”

Parks Manager William Byerts estimated the cleanup costs for the city beaches at about $100,000. The city plans to apply for federal funds to help pay the cost, but has not yet done so.

“We’ll still have to do something else with what remains because it’s about twice as much as we had after the ’92 flood,” Byerts said. “We’re still looking at all the options, including hauling it off, recycling it or whether there’s any potential for enclosed burns.”

Portions of the $1-million grant also are being offered to local nonprofit groups and other job providers, said Roberto De La Selva, planning manager for the jobs council.

“It’s not only flood repair and rehabilitation, it’s also for prevention,” De La Selva said. “The money is there. It’s just a matter of agencies being willing to take the extra time to do the work.”

Nacho Pina, who directs the local California Conservation Corps office, said he plans to apply for funds to put more crews to work.

“We won’t get any funding out of it, but we would be able to put another crew on line that we don’t have any funding for,” Pina said. “We would take 10 to 15 people and go out and do brush removal or beach cleanup.”

Another agency that is applying for the grant money is the American Red Cross, which has been overwhelmed by a continuing series of disasters to strike Ventura County.

“One of the big things we have to do is get readjusted from our flood relief,” said Brian Bolton, executive director of the local American Red Cross chapter.

Bolton said he needs up to seven people to process paperwork and restock supplies in a number of Red Cross storage units.

“It’s critical,” he said. “We need to be ready for the next disaster.”

De La Selva said there may be more federal money available for flood-relief and prevention projects. “We can get up to $3.5 million, so long as we can justify the need for it,” he said.

“That would employ a minimum of 260 people, maybe more.”