MARK WAITE / PVT Diane Lake, interim director of the Pahrump JobConnect Center, talks to chamber members during the monthly luncheon at the new Great Basin College addition. Advertisement

Nevada JobConnect will move from the modular building on the Calvada Eye to the new Great Basin College addition on Basin Avenue March 20 and expects to set up shop in its new offices March 23, Interim Director Diane Lake said Monday.

Agencies that receive federal Workforce Investment Act funding will join JobConnect in the move. They include the Nevada Department of Employment and Training Rehabilitation (DETR), vocational rehabilitation, Nevada Partners, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and Nevada Rural Housing, Lake said.

Other agencies, like the Nye Communities Coalition and the state welfare office, are being recruited to set up space in the two college classrooms converted into offices, she said.

Nye County elected not to renew a lease agreement with JobConnect at the Calvada Eye location effective March 31. The county wants to consolidate various offices as a cost-cutting move, not having to pay rent at various offices around town.

The JobConnect offices won't affect the college, which offers classes in the addition mostly from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. according to Bill Verbeck, director of the local campus.

Eventually, by July 1, Great Basin College hopes to take over as the local sponsor of the Pahrump JobConnect program.

John Ball, executive director of the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board, which is now running JobConnect, said they're talking about renting space for $1 per square foot, or $3,600 per month, in preliminary discussions.

"Community colleges are natural partners in the workforce training system as are business groups like the chamber of commerce, so it's a natural," Ball said by telephone from Las Vegas. "Great Basin obviously has both the management infrastructure and management accountability and job training and expertise that is going to be a huge advantage to our program."

At the monthly chamber of commerce luncheon Monday, Verbeck said community services like JobConnect will enable Great Basin College to break out of what Verbeck called a "one-dimensional" approach to education, which relies on a lot of interactive video classes to serve about 600 students working toward associate and baccalaureate degrees. He said those students taking instruction by interactive video would have to transfer credits to the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas or move to a dorm in Elko where Great Basin College has the technology and the laboratories.

Verbeck also referred to federal economic stimulus money that will flow through workforce training programs, with a priority in Nye County on green energy, health care and other emerging industries.

"The budget -- and I'm going to generalize -- it is somewhere between $8 million and $18 million, and these are federal flow-through dollars that are going to assist us through this recession, through the crisis, through everything that's going on," Verbeck said.

The words "one stop" were used often since JobConnect first was set up on the Calvada Eye. Verbeck used those words again.

"Our umbrella of services at the college is much bigger than JobConnect. JobConnect is allowing us to start to enter that true one stop if you will, a one stop in this community where literally anyone in this community can gain direct access to whatever services they demand or need, and we want to be a major player in that one-stop scenario."

Verbeck said Great Basin College officials found out while working on a training program for the federal detention center planned by Corrections Corporation of America they had a lot in common with JobConnect.

"We partnered on a half-million-dollar grant that is going to provide aid to our locals literally for 183 jobs. Now whether CCA will hire all those people, we don't know," Verbeck said. "We teamed up, and I think very effectively, and when the detention center gets in here you'll see us equally very, very effective in training our locals for jobs ranging from $14 to the upper end of $36. Those are the RN nurses."

Besides the private detention center, Lake said, "We want to work with Great Basin College on board with us, pretty much developing any kind of training for any of those employers. It's going to make it that much easier."

Tonya Brum, from Nathan Adelson Hospice, suggested more nurse training at the chamber luncheon. Verbeck said there's a challenge in Pahrump, finding the instructors and the clinical setting for RN training.

Car dealer Tom Saitta said automotive repair is a huge opportunity for youths looking for good-paying jobs.

"One of our problems in the automotive business, and I still own a large dealership in Las Vegas as I do this one in Pahrump, is finding qualified people," Saitta said. "As this town grows, I have every intention of building another dealership here and expanding the one that we have. So there's going to be future jobs and high quality jobs for your youth."

Verbeck said Great Basin College years ago shut down an automotive program. But he said a general automotive program could be expanded with internships.

Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Lucy Ivins said the merger will be a "huge" undertaking.

The chamber partnership with Great Basin College will allow the Pahrump JobConnect to serve rural areas like Tonopah, Beatty and Amargosa Valley, she said.