4c) Discussion and Possible Action Including Acceptance of the Parks Operational Update; Possible Direction to the General Services Agency (GSA) to Continue Collaboration with Stakeholders Related to Ongoing Programs and Operations of Various Parks; and Possible Direction to Staff to Continue Meeting with the County's Parks Ad Hoc on Various Options Associated with the County's Parks Systems as Described in the Attached Parks Profile Matrix
(Sponsor: General Services Agency)
I am writing on behalf of a community group called “Fix Bower Park,” which was formed by South Coast taxpayers, community leaders, and local residents five months ago to advocate for an end to nearly 30 years of neglect of Mendocino County’s Bower Park in Gualala. Our mission statement is: “To repair, improve and sustain Bower Park to create a safe place for people of all ages and abilities to engage in social and physical activity, in an effort to support overall, social, physical, mental and emotional health. It's time to finally fix Bower Park."
We would very much like the County to focus on responsibly expending the current $2.2M Specified Grant from the State of California to make improvements to Bower Park, while the funding is available through 2026, rather than getting sidetracked by concession and leasing plans for the parks system.
We have offered our support and collaboration to the General Services Agency in formulating a detailed budget and plan to fulfill the $2.2 million dollar Specified Grant, and are awaiting a date to meet with GSA staff and Supervisor Williams as soon as possible. In an extensive process including several open community meetings, consultation with Assemblymember Jim Wood’s office, the Gualala Municipal Advisory Council (GMAC), and others, we’ve developed a consensus list of priorities for Bower Park. We note that our community’s consensus priorities are more recent than the County Parks Needs Assessment Report published by the Mendocino County Cultural Services Agency in February 2020.
These priorities include removal of approximately 160 hazardous and dead trees, including many trees with numbered metal tags affixed by County’s past contracting with arborists, that are close to the baseball field, path, ball courts, and play areas. We also feel that restoration of a Bower Park caretaker who lives locally is a high priority, given the vandalism and trash blowing that has taken place in Bower Park since the death of our local caretaker in 2020. We would like to see the collapsed spillway obstructing the path around the pond, dilapidated playground equipment, fallen fencing around the pond, and neglected baseball field facility, highly prioritized for repairs and upgrades. Finally, we are concerned that past contractors have charged the County exorbitant fees for traveling to Gualala, even to complete menial tasks such as taking garbage cans to the curb, and been unaccountable for work actually performed in Bower Park, and would like to see that change with this Grant spending.
We note happily, that many of our community’s priorities for Bower Park match the three phases that GSA has shared with us in their vision for the $2.2 Million Specified Grant, and also match the “Identified Critical Needs” and “Park Improvements Bond” projects in the “23-0852 - Mendocino County Parks Profile Matrix,” attached to this agenda item. Specifically, these shared priorities are “Grills, New Road, Pathway, Culverts, Drains, Spillway repair, Hazardous Trees from 22-23 Storms Annual Fire Fuel Mitigation.”
However, there are several potentially expensive and not as urgent projects on the Matrix and in the GSA’s three phases that do not match the community’s top priorities. These include “Remodel/Construction of Restroom Faculties (typo) at Bower Park, Renovation of Tennis Courts, Resurface Basketball Courts, Resurface Tennis Courts, Electrical Repair, Replace water piping, Resurface parking lot.”
Understanding that the Specified Grant must be expended by 2026, we feel strongly that the County must prioritize the most urgent and highest-value repairs to Bower Park. We request engagement with County decisionmakers during the Grant period, to ensure that your priorities are aligned with the community’s wishes, and that this State funding is used efficiently and wisely.
We also urge you not to hastily or overzealously pursue selling Bower Park, before the grant is expended.
Bower Park is distinct and important in this underserved part of Mendocino County, compared to the other parks in the system. Not only is it the second-largest park in the system, it is literally the only free public outdoor space for several thousand residents and many tourists, who generate revenue for the County revenue, for a 60 mile radius on the Southern Mendocino Coast. The South Coast community has been living with an unusable park for many years because of the County’s “deferred maintenance,” and we look forward to changing that, together.
Thank you, Sincerely,
Rachele Huennekens Hayward, on behalf of Fix Bower Park
I am writing on behalf of a community group called “Fix Bower Park,” which was formed by South Coast taxpayers, community leaders, and local residents five months ago to advocate for an end to nearly 30 years of neglect of Mendocino County’s Bower Park in Gualala. Our mission statement is: “To repair, improve and sustain Bower Park to create a safe place for people of all ages and abilities to engage in social and physical activity, in an effort to support overall, social, physical, mental and emotional health. It's time to finally fix Bower Park."
We would very much like the County to focus on responsibly expending the current $2.2M Specified Grant from the State of California to make improvements to Bower Park, while the funding is available through 2026, rather than getting sidetracked by concession and leasing plans for the parks system.
We have offered our support and collaboration to the General Services Agency in formulating a detailed budget and plan to fulfill the $2.2 million dollar Specified Grant, and are awaiting a date to meet with GSA staff and Supervisor Williams as soon as possible. In an extensive process including several open community meetings, consultation with Assemblymember Jim Wood’s office, the Gualala Municipal Advisory Council (GMAC), and others, we’ve developed a consensus list of priorities for Bower Park. We note that our community’s consensus priorities are more recent than the County Parks Needs Assessment Report published by the Mendocino County Cultural Services Agency in February 2020.
These priorities include removal of approximately 160 hazardous and dead trees, including many trees with numbered metal tags affixed by County’s past contracting with arborists, that are close to the baseball field, path, ball courts, and play areas. We also feel that restoration of a Bower Park caretaker who lives locally is a high priority, given the vandalism and trash blowing that has taken place in Bower Park since the death of our local caretaker in 2020. We would like to see the collapsed spillway obstructing the path around the pond, dilapidated playground equipment, fallen fencing around the pond, and neglected baseball field facility, highly prioritized for repairs and upgrades. Finally, we are concerned that past contractors have charged the County exorbitant fees for traveling to Gualala, even to complete menial tasks such as taking garbage cans to the curb, and been unaccountable for work actually performed in Bower Park, and would like to see that change with this Grant spending.
We note happily, that many of our community’s priorities for Bower Park match the three phases that GSA has shared with us in their vision for the $2.2 Million Specified Grant, and also match the “Identified Critical Needs” and “Park Improvements Bond” projects in the “23-0852 - Mendocino County Parks Profile Matrix,” attached to this agenda item. Specifically, these shared priorities are “Grills, New Road, Pathway, Culverts, Drains, Spillway repair, Hazardous Trees from 22-23 Storms Annual Fire Fuel Mitigation.”
However, there are several potentially expensive and not as urgent projects on the Matrix and in the GSA’s three phases that do not match the community’s top priorities. These include “Remodel/Construction of Restroom Faculties (typo) at Bower Park, Renovation of Tennis Courts, Resurface Basketball Courts, Resurface Tennis Courts, Electrical Repair, Replace water piping, Resurface parking lot.”
Understanding that the Specified Grant must be expended by 2026, we feel strongly that the County must prioritize the most urgent and highest-value repairs to Bower Park. We request engagement with County decisionmakers during the Grant period, to ensure that your priorities are aligned with the community’s wishes, and that this State funding is used efficiently and wisely.
We also urge you not to hastily or overzealously pursue selling Bower Park, before the grant is expended.
Bower Park is distinct and important in this underserved part of Mendocino County, compared to the other parks in the system. Not only is it the second-largest park in the system, it is literally the only free public outdoor space for several thousand residents and many tourists, who generate revenue for the County revenue, for a 60 mile radius on the Southern Mendocino Coast. The South Coast community has been living with an unusable park for many years because of the County’s “deferred maintenance,” and we look forward to changing that, together.
Thank you, Sincerely,
Rachele Huennekens Hayward, on behalf of Fix Bower Park