Asbury Park Westside Community Center could get help from carpenters union

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ASBURY PARK – The Westside Community Center used to be a hub that helped produce everything this city needed, from musicians, laborers, nurses and doctors to ministers, athletes and actors. Now the site could soon become a center that produces carpenters, union work and opportunity.

Felicia Simmons, a resident since birth and chair of the Westside Community Center Renovation Association, has renovated the historic building and is currently in talks to involve the carpenters’ union to complete the renovation and establish a local job center that will provide more opportunities.

“We should have a presence in the community, perhaps as a recruitment center or an education center,” said Anthony Abrantes, assistant executive secretary and treasurer of the Eastern Atlantic State Regional Council of Carpenters. “If people in the community, young people who are just out of high school or middle school, are interested in understanding what construction is or what union membership looks like, then we want to be there to have those conversations.”

The council represents approximately 43,000 union carpenters in New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Washington, DC, Virginia and West Virginia.

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“I’m thinking long term about building something in the community center where we can prepare people for the construction industry through a pre-apprenticeship,” Abrantes said. “We already have an apprenticeship program, whether it’s Edison or Hammonton, so we don’t need to reinvent the wheel there.”

Last year, the Asbury Park School District began working with the city, local unions and the Asbury Park Housing Authority to implement a vocational training curriculum for high school students. All city projects costing $5 million or more will use union labor and/or hire predominantly local residents at a union wage after the City Council approves a pre-employment agreement.

“First, we need to make sure that any obstacles that could prevent the construction of the Westside Community Center are overcome, together with the carpenters’ union and Felicia (Simmons). That seems to be the biggest challenge, and together, hopefully, we can overcome those challenges,” Abrantes said.

The Westside Community Center has long been a gathering place and familiar place for residents of Asbury Park and Neptune. The residential portion of the center belonged to the first practicing black physician in Asbury Park, William J. Parks, who donated his home to the community in 1942. The fitness area was built later.

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Over the next few decades, the Westside Community Center offered job training, a drum and bugle corps, drill teams, Boy Scout groups, Bible studies, after-school programs, tutoring, daycare, dance, community talent shows, and eventually computer classes.

Simmons became president of the Westside Community Center in the summer of 2022 while running unsuccessfully for mayor of Asbury Park. Simmons said she was told the first phase of the building’s restoration would cost an estimated $300,000, including a new roof and floors.

“Phase one is essentially opening up the main building/administration building to the public so that people feel comfortable going in and doing all the volunteer work that is necessary through the local unions to get it up and running and updated,” Abrantes said.

All work required to complete the renovations will be done on a volunteer basis. Admittedly, relying on unpaid volunteers will delay the timeline for reopening the community center and training new qualified carpenters.

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Finding someone to pay for the material costs remains a challenge. “I think once we start the prep work and construction, the ground floor will be finished pretty quickly,” Abrantes said. “The gym itself will obviously need to be updated and waterproofed, as it currently has no roof.”

As soon as the gym gets a roof, the open floor plan concept can be used for teaching purposes.

“I think that’s when you’ll start learning soft skills, so non-power tool training where people can get into a pre-apprenticeship program and learn the business,” Abrantes said. “I think once that happens, you’ll see an influx of people coming right out of Asbury Park.”

He added that he hoped they would join the carpenters’ union after the program, but “if they want to go into another profession, then let them do that, but at least the opportunity was there.”

Simmons said there is always a need for people who can build, “and that has historically been our community’s mission.”

“Our community needs access,” she said. “With the historic African-American community, the black/brown community and the union, we’re in a great position right now to build something lasting and impactful.”

Charles Daye is the metropolitan reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: [email protected]

Asbury Park Westside Community Center could get help from carpenters union

ByJasper

Five minutes reading time

By Jasper

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