COLLEGE OF THE CANYONS : Study Predicts Creation of Jobs

The Santa Clarita Valley economy would receive a $62-million shot in the arm and almost 4,000 jobs would be created if College of the Canyons receives funding from Proposition 153 for the construction of new campus facilities, college officials said this week.

Proposition 153, the Higher Education Facilities Bond Act on the June 2 ballot, would fund millions of dollars in projects at the college for the first two years, college President Diane G. Van Hook said.

“We have a lot at stake in Proposition 153,” she said. “It’s thousands of jobs it would create in the local community.”

If passed, the measure would fund a $1.6-million child development center, a $6.2-million library and a $7.2-million building for the fine and applied arts, with money coming in as early as this summer.

In 1993, the college is scheduled to receive state funds for an $11.6-million performing arts complex and a $5.7-million addition to the physical education building, Van Hook said.

According to a study done for the college by Norval Wellsfry, a Sacramento City College researcher, the funds the college would receive from the ballot measure will generate the equivalent of almost 3,800 full-time jobs and create more than $62 million in long-term personal income in fiscal year 1993-94. The study said 63% of those jobs would be created by the construction projects at the college.

Wellsfry said the study measured the number of jobs the college would create, the expenditures the college would generate by paying employees and making purchases, and the amount of personal income the district would create in the community.