The County of San Bernardino has torpedoed and sunk a grassroots effort by improverished residents of the High Desert to improve their economic circumstance.

    Citizens from the community of Newberry Springs banned together in early January to file for a federally announced Promise Zone grant.  This grant offers up to 10-years of federal assistance to communities meeting poverty guidelines; and opens the door to federal opportunities.

    The small community of 2,600 residents, that is scattered-about 25 miles east of Barstow, soon had other communities joining.  The community formed the Newberry Springs Economic Development Association (NSEDA) that had partners stretching from Hinkley on the west side, through Barstow to Needles.

    To the south of Barstow, the community of Lucerne Valley joined.  To the south of Needles, the Chemehuevi Indian Reservation joined.  Together, a 200-mile corridor was linked together in a collaborative effort to seek economic improvement through the obtainment of a Promise Zone grant.

    Due to the diversification, high proverty rates, the powerful collaboration between the communities, and the strong support by numerous local organizations, the partnership felt that they held a winning grant proposal that they named the Desert Trails Promise Zone - San Bernardino County.

    The Desert Trails Promise Zone was supported by the county's First District Supervisor Robert Lovingood, and the Third District Supervisor, James Ramos.

    Promise Zones are Obama Administration generated grants given by the federal government to areas of high poverty.  The grants do not provide any direct funding, but Promise Zone designees receive:

    The targeted broad Goals for the Desert Trails Promise Zone were going to:

    Agencies that review the applications and participate in assisting Promise Zones include:

    Rather than supporting the Desert Trails Promise Zone, a necessity of the application, the county's Chief Executive Officer, Gregory Devereaux, decided to solely support another application for a Promise Zone being submitted by the City of San Bernardino.

The county's choice Promise Zone, self-servingly includes many county facilities near the county's Administration Center.

    The City of San Bernardino had previously submitted a similar unsuccessful Promise Zone application during an earlier 2014 submission period.  The county apparently believes that the city's current reapplication has been strengthened by the nationwide sympathy arising from the terriorist attack within the city on December 2, 2015 that killed 14 and seriously injured 22.

    Some of the government and business interests named in the Memorandum of Understanding between the city and county as the Leadership Council for Implementation of the city's proposed Promise Zone includes:

• County of San Bernardino (Greg Devereaux, CEO) • City of San Bernardino • San Bernardino City Unified School District • Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino • Loma Linda University • California State University, San Bernardino • San Bernardino Valley College • Inland Valley Development Agency • Technical Employment Training • Institute for Public Strategies • Dignity Health, St. Bernardine Medical Center • Neighborhood Housing Services of the Inland Empire • The Waterman Gardens Partnership of CORE,    Hope through Housing, and The Clancy Company

    The High Desert's Desert Trails Promise Zone consortium of small cities and communities like Needles, Barstow, Hinkley, Newberry Springs, Lucerne Valley, the Chemehuevi Indian Reservation, et cetera, don't have the political muscle of the above list.

    Those supporting the City of San Bernardino's application claim that through the city's previous failure, the city was first-in-line and has priority.  But it is the stronger political might of the urban area that has again dominated. 

    Those supporting the city's application do not want the risk of their grant being subjected to competitive merit as the national competition would not likely give two grants to a single county.  Therefore, they have prevailed upon the county's CEO to pull-the-plug on the Desert Trails Promise Zone.

    The county is believed by some residents to be continuing a pattern of discriminatory neglect in its servicing of the rural and improverished communities of the county.  The overriding message is that the county is too big to manage and the county needs to be split; as there will always be conflicts-of-interests between the vast differing regions.

    Devereaux's judgment will be tested later this Spring when the new Promise Zones are announced.
 
 

Desert Trails Promise Zone Opportunity

Newberry Springs again comes up empty handed.