Board OKs allocation of prior fiscal year funds for Sheriff’s project
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) - The Board of Supervisors today approved disbursing roughly $3.3 million to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department in support of a "modernization project'' that will entail a makeover of the Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center in Riverside.
In a 5-0 vote without comment, the board authorized release of the funds, consisting of unspent allocations from the sheriff's budget at the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year.
The Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center Modernization Project has been in the planning stage for the last year, after the board hired Riverside-based Griffin Swinerton LLC to conduct a "needs assessment'' to identify the best way to move forward with making upgrades and modifications to the 400-acre campus.
The consulting firm has engaged sheriff's personnel, Cal Fire, the Riverside Community College District, Department of Code Enforcement, California Highway Patrol and other local, state and federal entities to gain insights.
The training center hosts agencies within and outside the county.
When the proposed redo of the site was initially brought before the board in January 2024, then-Supervisor Kevin Jeffries pointed out that the campus remained largely composed of trailers and some "stick-built" buildings that serve as classrooms and other components of the grounds. He said the vision for the facility was quite different when it opened in the 1990s on land that the U.S. Department of Defense turned over for civilian use after March Air Force Base was converted to March Air Reserve Base.
A timetable for the modernization project has not been published.
