State Money Awarded for Long-Sought El Rio Gym

Within the next two years, the schoolchildren of this neighborhood will finally get a community gymnasium--a place to shoot hoops, complete homework and even receive a medical checkup--thanks to state funding awarded Wednesday.

The $827,000 awarded to the Rio School District brings funding for the gymnasium and community center to more than $2.6 million. What’s more, it brings a dream closer to reality after more than two decades of effort.

Aside from a sliver-sized park across from a saloon, the gym would be the only recreation option other than aging school playgrounds available to the 11,000 residents of this tightknit, working-class unincorporated community north of Oxnard.

“The community has been working for this for years, raising funds, hosting enchilada dinners and making speeches before foundations,” said Rio Supt. Yolanda Benitez. “Building this gym will be a dream come true.

“In Ventura and so many other communities, we have parks and this and that,” she continued. “People don’t realize when you don’t have a gym or a park what that does to a community. Now, after years of struggling--saying our kids deserve this--we have finally made it.”

Building the gym at Rio del Valle junior high on Rose Avenue has been a community endeavor.

First proposed in the 1970s, the gym project languished for years after a bond for its construction was defeated in 1974. The concept wasn’t resurrected until about five years ago, when Oxnard’s La Colonia neighborhood scraped together the money to build its own gym. Seeing another low-income neighborhood reach its goal, El Rio officials were reinvigorated.

The bulk of the funding for the $2.8-million gym is coming from the Rio district, the county government and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. Fund-raisers, foundation grants, community development grants and in-kind service donations will make up the rest.

Ground should be broken for the gym in June, with the facility scheduled to open either in time for graduation in 2000 or for the start of school that fall.

It appeared that the final state dollars would be secured in August 1997, when officials conducted a funding lottery, but the El Rio project missed the cutoff by three slots.

“This is a marvelous day,” said County Supervisor John Flynn, who has long pushed for the gym’s construction. “This is much more than just a gym, although a gym is quite something itself. It’s a community activities facility.

“We’ve spent hours, days, weeks and years trying to beg for money for this, including begging the state. . . . This is something special for the community of El Rio and Nyeland Acres. This is big time.”

More than 16,000 square feet in all, the gym will include basketball and racquetball courts, a snack bar, locker rooms and showers. It will be used for junior high physical education and other activities during school hours. After school, the doors will be open to youth groups, athletic leagues, and for citizenship classes, a tutoring center and possibly a medical clinic.

Rio del Valle seventh-grader Charlene Valdivia said the gym would offer young people more places to hang out, play sports and do homework.

“Some kids do hang out after school playing basketball in the street or playing football in the street,” said 12-year-old Charlene. “I usually see that and see people hanging around doing nothing. This would be a big change. Students would have something to do instead of doing nothing.”

Furthering its community policing efforts, the Sheriff’s Department will operate a substation at the gym, where residents can drop in and file reports. Sheriff’s Capt. Kenton W. Rainey said deputies hope to establish police athletics league programs and continue other efforts to keep students out of trouble in this gang-prone area of the county.

“This offers kids alternatives, gives them something to do,” Rainey said. “The research tells us that the more kids are idle, the more problems or trouble they can get into, no matter what their socioeconomic situation. . . . If we’re able to deter even one kid from crime, we could save a million dollars in incarceration over their lifetime. This is a real cheap investment into safety.”

Rio del Valle eighth-grader Brandon Chackel said that students who now don’t join organized sports, play in the school band or take part in club activities lack alternatives after school.

“The gym would mean a lot to El Rio,” said Brandon, 14. “Kids would have more places to hang out than in the streets. A lot of kids don’t have places to go and they’re out on the streets doing drugs or with the gangs. . . . Having the gym would help them out.”