Mike DeWald (@mike_dewald)
Listen to the Full Interview Audio with US Assistant Secretary of Commerce Dr. John Fleming
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced this morning that the Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding $7.4 million within the state of California to support disaster-related workforce training and emergency management efforts. The EDA grants will be matched with $1.075 million in local investment. $7.1 million of this will be invested in the Sonoma County Community College District to help construct the North Bay Regional Construction and Building Trades Employment Training Center on the Santa Rosa Junior College Petaluma campus. The EDA grant will be matched with $1 million in local investment.
The purpose of the Training Center will be to bolster the local construction workforce to support further rebuilding following 2017’s Tubbs Fire. The announcement was made Monday morning at SRJC by US Assistant Secretary of Commerce Dr. John Fleming, along with North Bay Congressional Representatives Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman. Dr. Fleming told KSRO that while the shortage of construction workers is a nationwide issue, its effects are felt even more in Sonoma County following fires in 2017 and 2019.
“Our focus is purely on building a workforce, creating good jobs, and incentivizing the private sector to invest its dollars,” said Fleming, “it removes some of the obstacles necessary for the private sector to invest.”