Nova Services Plans Industrial Park Site

Nova Services, a non-profit job training and placement agency, is planning an $850,000 project that will give it a new home on 2.5 acres in the Spokane Industrial Park.

Nova currently serves disabled and disadvantaged clients in a leased 12,000-square-foot building near the entrance of the industrial park. The building, with its uphill ramp and narrow doorways, hallways and bathrooms, has proven inconvenient to some of those clients, said Nova executive director Linda Brennan. The new facility, which Nova will own, will be designed to meet the access needs of the disabled.

Nova’s new building will be located on Marietta Avenue at the north end of the industrial park, Brennan said.

It will be 3,000-square-feet larger than the building Nova presently occupies, allowing the agency to double its space for subcontracted packaging work and mechanical and electrical assembly work. Currently, lack of space has forced Nova to run two shifts to accommodate the disabled clients and businesses interested in this type of work.

Nova has begun a fund-raising campaign to help pay for the project. It also has applied for grant money from private foundations.

Brennan plans to begin construction by August and to move in by the end of the year.

The larger building will provide Nova with more visibility and room to serve more clients, Brennan said. Besides working with ongoing clients, Nova has placed 72 people in new jobs since its current fiscal year began last June, she said.

Nova offers on- and off-site employment opportunities for the disabled. It also has started setting up volunteer work experience projects for those on welfare.

The agency has applied for a contract with the Employment Securities Department to monitor and support welfare recipients during their first year of paid employment. It also seeks to provide job placement services for those on welfare.

, DataTimes