We welcome you to JobBank USA and hope your job hunting experience
is a pleasant one. We hope you find our resources useful.
March 16, 2007
PASADENA - Facing a $1.6 million deficit, the local Red Cross will close branches in Alhambra and Covina and lay off nine employees, chapter officials said Thursday.
It was a "difficult but necessary" move, said Ben Green, CEO of the San Gabriel Pomona Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross.
The West Valley Branch on Main Street in Alhambra will close March 30, and the East Valley Branch, on Grand Avenue in Covina, will close April 13.
The Pomona Valley Branch in Pomona will be the lone remaining full branch office.
The chapter plans to reduce full-time staff from 48 to 39. It also wants to streamline its operations by having another nonprofit agency take over the Meals-On-Wheels program in Covina, West Covina, Glendora, and Duarte.
The Pasadena branch office was shuttered Sept. 15 after being merged with the Alhambra storefront.
The chapter serves 1.8 million people in 45 communities in the San Gabriel Valley and Pomona area.
Green, the chapter's newly appointed chief executive officer, presented the closures as a means of balancing the chapter's budget, which had a $1.6 million deficit. The chapter's executive board approved the plan.
Green said the closures will clear the way for community service centers that will cost less to operate and provide the public with better access to Red Cross products and services.
The organization hopes to partner with local government in order to provide the space for the centers in the same communities as the closed branches, and will man them with only one paid employee each, as compared to numerous employees who were employed at the branches, Green said.
By using fewer employees in a rent-free location, the chapter hopes to offer the same services the branches did to the surrounding communities, but in a much more efficient manner, said Green.
"We're going to try to maximize the amount of volunteerism," said Green, which is what the Red Cross is all about.
Locations have not yet been secured for the new centers, said Green. "We still need a lot of support from the community."
"We hope this will not affect the public at all," Green said. "Our volunteer force will still be active and available to deal with house fires and disasters. We have plans to open the two service centers at the end of the month in Covina and Alhambra.
"It will not be an easy path," Green said in prepared remarks. "We are taking difficult but necessary steps to regain good financial health so we can continue to provide much-needed services to our communities."
Green appealed for community support and stressed that the Red Cross is not a government agency and does not receive government funding.
"The programs and services we provide are funded through donations of time and money from local residents and businesses," he said in a prepared statement.
This is not the first time in recent years the local Red Cross has decided to reorganize.
In 2005, the Pomona Valley Chapter and the San Gabriel Valley chapters merged, in what officials said was a move to create one of the largest Red Cross chapters in the state and as a way to provide better service at a lower cost.
At the time, Red Cross officials also said the move would help the organization get through tough fiscal times.
Correspondent Brian Day contributed to this story.
Email This Page!