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Day labor center expected to open in the summer
By Bill DiPaolo

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

JUPITER — As workers finish removing post-hurricane mold from inside the former LifeSong Community Church, volunteers are raising money for the day-labor center expected to open this summer in the 25-year-old building.

Jupiter paid $1.9 million last year to buy the building at the southwest corner of Military Trail and Indiantown Road. The building shares a parking lot with the municipal complex, which includes the police station, town hall and community center. The town is working out a two-year lease with Catholic Charities, a national nonprofit organization, which will pay $1 annually to operate the day-labor center.

Only workers who can prove they live in the Jupiter area and have membership cards issued by the center will be eligible to find work through the center.

The center will not be a central location for laborers in surrounding communities, said immigration and local officials. The laborers might have to pay a fee when they register with the center.

"We don't want workers coming here from other cities. We already have many workers from the Jupiter area," said Juan Silvestri, president of Corn Maya Inc., a nonprofit Hispanic outreach program that plans to have at least one full-time worker at the center.

Between 200 and 500 laborers are expected daily. Employers mostly will be able to find landscapers, carpenters and roofers at the 210 Military Trail location, which is scheduled to be open every day except Sunday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., said Silvestri.

Corn Maya Inc. plans to register employers and employees. The workers will stay inside the building, where they will fill out forms about their type of work. Corn Maya officials will match workers with employers.

Catholic Charities plans to run outreach programs, such as financial assistance, refugee services, counseling and immigration referral services. It also plans to offer other services, including:

• Training in rights of workers and tenants.

• Informing employers and employees about taxes, workers compensation, town building and residential codes and safety issues, such as bicycle safety, proper sanitation and garbage disposal.

• Counseling for workers for legal services, family counseling and substance abuse.

• Classes in the English language, computers, financial services and immigration paperwork.

Day laborers have been a festering issue in Jupiter for several years. Workers gather daily on Center Street, drawing complaints from residents.

To eliminate the familiar pre-dawn scene of workers hopping into pickups, town officials are in the process of passing an ordinance to allow police to ticket both the person waiting for work and the person who picks up the person, said Assistant Town Manager Tod Mowery. The Solicitation Ordinance was approved on first reading. The Town Council must approve the ordinance on second reading for it to become law.

The town commission looked at several sites for temporary labor center and bought the former LifeSong Church property at the busy intersection next to the municipal complex. The center should have opened last year, but the hurricanes and delays in signing the lease slowed the process, said Town Manager Andy Lukasik.

"It's much better for the day laborers to have a safe place to go than to have them in the shadows where they are robbed, beat up and exploited," said Mike Richmond, a three-year Jupiter resident who is chairman of the Friends of Jupiter Neighborhood Resource Center. The group is raising money to contribute to Catholic Charities and Corn Maya to operate the center.

The center has a kitchen to provide coffee and refreshments. Workers recently finished removing mold and repairing other damage from last year's hurricanes. The damage, and new landscaping, is costing the town about $28,000. When complete in July, the center will also be open to all Jupiter neighborhood groups, said Lukasik.

"The town did not buy the building for a permanent labor center," said Mowery. "We expect the immigration organizations will find their own location during the two-year lease. Our municipal center is busting at the seams. We need the space."

For more information, call Corn Maya Inc. at (561) 745-9199 or Catholic Charities at (561) 775-9567.