Valley Gets $6.8 Million for New Health Clinic

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has agreed to take advantage of part of a $174-million budget surplus to build a new outpatient health care clinic in the San Fernando Valley.

Officials envision the family center, to be built with $6.8 million from county surplus funds, handling 30,000 outpatient visits a year, bolstering overworked facilities in the Valley. Its location has not yet been determined, but it will probably be built somewhere between Sun Valley and Reseda--areas that have growing health care needs, officials said.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said there are more than 250,000 uninsured residents in the Valley, including more than 100,000 children, and families are being forced to seek questionable medicines or treatments from botanicas or “quacks” because of a dearth of health care options.

The Valley currently has only one comprehensive county outpatient clinic, in Van Nuys.

“Health care is my No. 1 priority as a supervisor, and the Valley has been shortchanged over the years,” Yaroslavsky said. “The demographic changes in the Valley have been dramatic, the number of people that are dependent on us for health care has increased, but the county’s response has not.”

The center is the largest in a list of improvements suggested by Yaroslavsky, who represents most of the Valley. Other items approved for the Valley include:

* $183,000 for additional hearing rooms for juvenile and traffic court at the San Fernando courthouse;

* $500,000 for public restroom improvements in El Cariso Regional Park in Sylmar;

* $1 million for a Mission Canyon trailhead near Sepulveda Pass; and

* $500,000 for a pilot program at the Van Nuys courthouse to provide legal advice to those representing themselves in court.

“There’s been a lot of balancing our budget on the backs of our facilities,” Yaroslavsky said. “This surplus is an opportunity to take some money and invest it in facilities and buildings that will last 30 to 40 years.”

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents Glendale, Burbank and the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, also seized on the surplus to obtain special projects for his constituents.

After being approached by cities in his district about a lack of after-school options for children ages 13 to 18, Antonovich obtained $510,000 to spend on new programs.

Antonovich also persuaded his colleagues to approve $100,000 to boost services at the animal shelter operated in Lancaster by the county Department of Animal Care and Control. The shelter serves a sprawling 3,000-square-mile area, and its location on the west side of the Antelope Valley Freeway makes it difficult to serve Littlerock, Pearblossom and Lake Los Angeles, according to Antonovich’s office.

Antonovich also requested that $140,000 from the surplus be spent to assist the Lake Los Angeles Town Council in a community cleanup and beautification drive this fall by providing help from a county code enforcement officer.