Job Corps director promises action

Date: 2/11/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



CHICOPEE Michael Riley, the center director for the Westover Jobs Corps Center, told Reminder Publications he has taken action in response to concerns about Job Corps students in Fairview neighborhoods.

Residents raised issues at the community meeting on Feb. 2. Among the complaints were students walking through residential areas and using inappropriate language, Riley said.

Riley said the trouble was caused by "a small percentage" of the students who attend the federally funded vocational training program.

He said that he is "100 percent behind the community and I believe their concerns are legitimate."

Job Corps security will now patrol the area around the center on an hourly basis, he said, and students will not be allowed to pass through Preston Place and James and Johnson streets.

Riley conducted an all-center meeting on Feb. 6 at which he told students there would be restrictions to where they could congregate off-campus and there was a new curfew of 8 p.m. The no-drinking rule would be strictly enforced, Riley added.

Students who break the rules appear before a behavioral review panel and risk losing their scholarship to the program, he added.

Students must adhere to a business model with standards for appearance and behaviors such as use of a cell phone and smoking, Riley said.

Riley compared the center to a university and explained if the students are producing what they should be doing academically, they are restricted to the campus.

There are 550 students at the center and Riley said there were 11 off-center incidences last year ranging from illegal drinking to shoplifting and fighting.

"Compared to other schools, we do pretty good," he said.

He has a meeting scheduled on Feb. 12 with Mayor Michael Bissonnette, members of the Board of Aldermen and police officials.