PARADISE — The U.S. Department of Commerce announced Monday that it will invest more than $7.4 million through its Economic Development Administration into the communities of Paradise and Santa Rosa, following the Tubbs and Camp fires of 2017-2018.
The town of Paradise will receive a $300,000 grant to recruit and hire a Disaster Recovery Manager. The manager will lead recovery and emergency management planning, and the grant will be matched with $75,000 in local investment.
Sonoma County Community College District will receive $7.1 million to help construct the North Bay Regional Construction and Building Trades Employment Training Center, on the Santa Rosa Junior College Petaluma campus. That grant will also be matched — with $1 million — in local investment.
“Ensuring that communities have the trained workforce and adequate planning in place to support business growth and resilience is a major focus of the Trump administration,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a press release. “The new trades and skills training center in Santa Rosa will help fill openings in local construction and trades positions affected by the Sonoma fires, and the disaster recovery manager in Paradise will assist the region in coordinating disaster and emergency management.”
The projects are funded under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, when Congress appropriated $600 million to the Economic Development Administration for disaster relief and recovery as a result of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria; wildfires; and other natural disasters.
The Economic Development Administration is an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce that makes investments in economically-distressed communities, in the hope of creating jobs for U.S. workers, promoting American innovation and accelerating long-term economic growth.
“(The Economic Development Administration) plays an important role in catalyzing local strategies to help areas prepare for and recover from natural disasters,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fleming in the same press release.
“There is a tremendous need for skilled construction and trade workers in wildfire-impacted Sonoma County, and increased economic resilience through preventative disaster planning will greatly benefit Butte County,” Fleming said. “Both investments create and maintain employment opportunities for California’s workforce.”
