COOPERATION PAYS AGENCIES TRIPLE BANG FOR BUCK.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

CANYON COUNTRY - Construction dust covers the boards, but that doesn't stop Jim Ventress from shooting a phantom hoop as he bounces lightly across the gym floor.

Never mind the grown-up attire of vest, tie and suit pants; he's as excited as a 10-year-old anticipating the opening of the soon-to-be finished 27,000-square-foot Santa Clarita Valley Boys & Girls Club facility in Canyon Country on the Sierra Vista Junior High School campus.

The formal opening is scheduled for September, but he expects the shouts of kids at play to start echoing in the halls in about a month.

As the club's chief professional officer, Ventress has seen it grow and change by leaps and bounds. When he assumed the helm in 1985, the club was spread out in five satellite locations - Emblem, Skyblue and Newhall elementary schools, Sierra Vista Junior High and part of the community park building in Val Verde.

Ground was broken on the $6.2 million clubhouse in February 2002 and is scheduled to be substantially completed at the end of June. This project is unusual not only for its scope, but also for its backers: the William S. Hart Union High School District, whose campuses include Sierra Vista, as well as the Santa Clarita city government and the club. Officials of all three have cooperated and also have worked out an intricate shared-use schedule.

The club's first partnership with city government was through a joint- powers agreement in 1992 for development of the Newhall Avenue building that houses both the club and the city aquatic center. Seeing that successful cooperation, the school board was an eager participant when expanding the Canyon Country facility was proposed a few years ago.

Santa Clarita Parks Director Rick Gould participated in the National Boys & Girls Club conference on a panel with club representatives and National Parks and Recreation Association members. Together, they created a guidebook to help clubs across the country build the kinds of relationships Santa Clarita citizens take for granted.

``It's very clear to me that we're successful because, like the club says, it's kids first,'' Gould said. ``It's apparent that we have a successful partnership in this valley. The Boys & Girls Club makes an attempt to get members of the community on their board of directors who make a difference. The city's philosophy is that if we can reach the kids now, we won't have to pay for it later. This is a community that provides a good outlook for kids.''

Mike Otavka, director of facilities for the Hart district, explained that, during school hours, Sierra Vista students will be able to use classrooms in the new building - two of them state-of-the-art science labs - as well as 35-station computer room, an arts-crafts room and the gymnasium. The art and computer centers, as well as the gym, will be open to club members after school and in the evenings.

City recreation officials will add the gymnasium to the list of indoor basketball courts available to the public on the weekends, much like those at the club in Newhall and at area high schools.

Ventress noted that the Amateur Athletic Foundation also put up $63,000 for the special floor. Asked whose logo will be used, Ventress smiled.

``That's a really good question,'' he said. ``We might just put Sierra Vista down there, since we're on school property. But that's still in discussion.''

There will be a scanner for membership cards at the club's main entrance. The Sierra Vista facility will be the first in the local system with bar-coded cards for members to use for identification and equipment check-out.

Behind the main desk, the activity center - a cavernous anteroom with building supplies still scattered about - will soon be filled with ping-pong, foosball and pool tables, video games that include a Dance Dance Revolution machine, and tables and couches for quiet board games and conversation.

``It is so important that we have something like this on this side of town,'' Ventress said emphatically. ``With the amount of kids who can come right over from school or who are within walking distance, it gives us a chance to reach out to them.''

The current Sierra Vista club, run out of a 2,900-square-foot building at Pleasantdale Street and Whites Canyon Road since 1981, is now affectionately referred to as ``left field'' as it will soon be torn down to complete the school's softball diamond, which will be lighted at night for parks-recreation. Ventress mentioned that the old clubhouse would fit inside the new activity center.

``When I arrived in 1985, Sierra Vista was the new club,'' Ventress said. ``I used to bring people out to show off the building.'' The current roster at the Sierra Vista club lists 150 members. That number is expected to swell to 1,500 in no time.

In a computer lab, dozens of outlets sit ready for the 35 computers that will fill the counter tops. The teen center, which will house a big-screen TV and disc jockey console, offers 2,000 square feet of socializing space for teen club members. The Keystone Club, which has a small room at the club's Newhall center, will move its central operations to the Sierra Vista site.

The neighborhood already is enjoying the benefits of having the club on the school grounds. Teachers at Sierra Vista were welcomed back this school year with a 208-space level parking lot. A three-way stop sign at Stillmore Street and Camp Plenty Road, engineered to slow traffic around the campus, was installed at the beginning of the school year, and lights on the softball field will provide an additional level of security for the campus.

The club's money for the project came from grants and active fund raising by the club's board of directors. An annual auction has garnered more than $300,000 each year for the last three years. A foundation has been established to ensure that the high-quality service offered by the club will continue into the future.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Jim Ventress, chief professional officer of the Santa Clarita Valley Boys & Girls Club, looks at the vaulted ceiling of the new clubhouse.

(2 -- color) Landscaping will come later at the new building that will triple as a school facility, after-school clubhouse and weekend city recreation center in Canyon Country.

(3) A full-size basketball court is being built on the Sierra Vista Junior High campus as a cooperative venture of the school district, city government and Boys & Girls Club.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer