When redevelopment hits Asbury Park in the next few years, builders will be scrambling to fill these and many more well-paying jobs, and local, minority and female tradespeople and suppliers could be well-placed to share in the rewards.

That should be welcome news for Asbury Park's large base of unemployed residents - but only if they can develop the necessary skills and business qualifications.

Asbury Park has a poverty rate of 23.3 percent and an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent, compared to 3.2 percent for Monmouth County. Our high school drop-out rate (15.7 percent) is the highest in the county, and only 44 percent of our graduates plan to attend college, compared to 82 percent for the county.

Yet, when Oceanfront Acquisitions, our beachfront redevelopment partners, began clearing and landscaping lots and demolishing abandoned buildings last fall, they were hard-pressed to find city residents to perform the work.

And the problem will only escalate as developers look for increasingly skilled laborers.

How can we ensure that city residents are better prepared for the best-paying jobs - jobs that can open the way to lucrative, life-long careers?

Two complementary efforts are currently underway in Asbury Park - one led by a local community group and one by city hall - that will hopefully help more residents share in the anticipated wealth.

As you probably know, the STARS Community Development Corporation (CDC) is a not-for-profit group dedicated to bringing redevelopment, jobs, training and services to Asbury Park's West Side.

As part of its "Subcontractor Readiness Project", the group is inviting small, minority and women-owned businesses ? contractors, subcontractors, vendors, tradespeople, and service providers ? to register for a new data base and directory that will be made available to major developers and contractors doing business in and around Asbury Park.

The group also wants to help registrants address deficiencies that might limit their business potential. For example, some prospective business owners need to apply for tax ID numbers, while others could benefit by registering under the state's vendor preference programs for minority, women and small business owners.

In addition, STARS members are registering local, unskilled residents who want to learn construction trades to increase the likelihood that they can be paired with training programs before redevelopment begins.

The STARS volunteers deserve tremendous credit. For the past several weeks they've been spreading the word through flyers, press releases, and partnerships with city hall, the Hispanic Affairs and Resource Center, the Haitian Coalition of Monmouth County, Neptune's Midtown Neighborhood Empowerment Program, Oceanfront Acquisitions, and others.

And they've spent the last three Saturdays registering job hopefuls and small business owners at sites around the city.

Do you know anyone with a small contractor or trades business who wants to work with our redevelopers, or someone who wants to be trained in a construction trade?

If so, send them to the Asbury Park City Council Chambers (Bangs Avenue at Main Street) on Saturday, May 11 between 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. for the next registration session. Residents and small business owners from Asbury Park, Neptune, Long Branch, and other Monmouth County Urban Enterprise Zones can all register.

Of course, identifying available residents and business owners is only half the battle, and that's where a second coalition comes into play.

The new Asbury Park Task Force on Education and Employment Training was formed by city hall and Brookdale Community College to identify job training opportunities for Asbury Park residents. (And, to those of you who wrote letters asking Brookdale to bring the Communiversity to Asbury Park, a sincere thank you! The task force is a direct outcome of your efforts.)

Members include Councilman John Loffredo and myself, City Manager Terrance Weldon, several city department heads, Brookdale representatives (including Vice Presidents Webster Trammell and Linda Milstein), STARS Executive Director Rev. Carl Hunter, Asbury Park school system representatives, members of local industry and training organizations, and community leaders.

Using input from them and the STARS sign-up sessions, we are working with groups like the Monmouth and Ocean AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the Monmouth County Vocational School District to identify training opportunities for local residents.

For example, the county vocational school is anticipating a grant that would place up to 200 women and minority students in pre-apprenticeship programs that can prepare them to take a union entrance test or accept a non-union job. If funded, the program will begin in September, and we need to insure that interested city residents are enrolled.

For those who aspire to union membership, more preparation is needed because most unions require skills like algebra, a high school diploma or GED, a driver's license, and the ability to pass random drug tests.

Meeting these qualifications is not always simple. For example, of the first 144 people who signed up for the STARS data bases, 23 percent did not have a diploma or GED and 59 percent did not have a driver's license.

The union apprenticeship program itself requires a major time commitment, and candidates must be prepared to work during the day while training at night, adding to child care and transportation issues. All these issues will have to be worked out on an individual basis if motivated residents want to pursue the trade union route.

Still, the county vocational school can provide lucrative non-union trades options, and our task force will also be looking into non-construction opportunities in computer skills, healthcare, retailing, technology and other growth areas.

This part of our work will require close cooperation with the city's school system and with institutions like Brookdale and Monmouth University. (And, yes, we're already establishing ties with Monmouth University, as well.)

For those seeking immediate training, the city already sponsors its own successful job training center with classes and job placement in areas such as medical billing, janitorial services, and nurse's aides. (Call Tyrone Laws at 732-643-9200 for more information.)

Of course, no one can solve Asbury Park's training and unemployment problems overnight, but the time to start is now.

And cross-community efforts like the STARS CDC and the Education and Training Task Force are our best hope for helping everyone who's willing to find a new future in the new Asbury Park.