Should Floundering North Shore Yacht Club Get Stimulus Funds?

NORTH SHORE – The North Shore Yacht Club is not much to look at these days.The empty shell of a building was once a sportfishing resort. It’s been abandoned since a series of floods in the 1980s.

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors asked for the federal stimulus dollars to fix this place up.

“We’re converting it to a community center for the use of the people in and around North Shore area,” said Robert Field with the county’s Economic Development Agency.”It’s going to put a lot of people to work.”

RDP Contractors in Indio got the project. The county says it will employ 120 people for 14 months.

But not all are on board for the project.

“I think that’s the biggest waste of money I’ve ever heard of,” said Valley resident Gary Westfall. “Salton Sea is going to go away. There’s not enough money in your lifetime to pay to have that thing restored.”

One man we talked to who was fishing on the Salton Sea Shore believes that clean up should happen

“You think they ought to clean up the sea. It used to be Corvina, Sango, Croaker (types of fish). Now, you got Tilapia. Not sport fishing. No more.”

The local real estate office sold hundreds of lots three years ago. But few people ended up building there.

The population remains low and it’s isolated. It already has a community center. Do they need another one?

“We need something for these kids,” North Shore resident Beverly Paumier replies.”But $3 million is a bit steep.”