GARDEN GROVE : New Vector Control District Office to Open

The Orange County Vector Control District’s new office building and laboratory, which faced an uncertain future in the weeks following the county’s Dec. 6 bankruptcy filing, is all but completed and should be open for business by the fall.

The one-story building at Haster Street and Garden Grove Boulevard in Garden Grove will house state-of-the-art laboratory facilities where various biologists, microbiologists and researchers will work.

An old Vector Control District building was demolished to make way for the new $900,000 structure, which is next to the district’s headquarters on Garden Grove Boulevard.

Gilbert L. Challet, the district manager, said the new building will provide more space and better facilities. Construction has been completed and workers should finish installation of cabinets, flooring and other items within the next few weeks.

After the county filed for bankruptcy protection last year, some officials wondered when the building would be completed. The Vector Control District had about $2 million frozen in the county’s collapsed investment pool.

As part of the settlement with pool participants, the county has so far returned 80% of the district’s investments. Challet said the district had the money to complete the building and continue to do battle against rodents, insects and other organisms that transmit diseases.

Vector control recently completed a mosquito abatement program in the Bolsa Chica marsh area of Huntington Beach and is set to fight Africanized honeybees if they enter Orange County.