Tag Archives: Wildomar Standing Committee on Parks

Good Idea, Bad Plan

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There is a move about town to install a “Drinking Fountain”, for dogs and humans, at the infamous Regency-Heritage Park located in the northwest side of Wildoslavia. While the idea has been batted about for a number of years the city has apparently located a willing child and sold them on doing a “Scout Project” to cause this fountain project to spring to life.

The idea is a good one and has been long sought after by dog owners, the few that use the DG covered dog park, as the summer months are rather warm in this part of the world where there is little grass to play on.

Above Picture taken in July

Even in Winter there is little grass in this neglected park

The above picture taken in December, the green outside dog park is weeds

The plan is bad plan because this park is a part of the, poorly maintained, drainage system that directs waters from several areas of Wildoslavia, namely to the south as far as Marna O’Brien Park and the hills to the Southwest of the park above the Woodmoor Tract of homes.

The red lines are the existing storm drain infrastructure, the blue line is the proposed additon. The following pictures show the areas where these enter the park

The above picture is looking southwest towards the hills above the Woodmoor Tract

The above picture is looking south towards Marna O’Brien Park, notice the wire has been lifted to facilitate the flow of water, presumably by city staff.

Above picture is looking east towards Palomar St.

The above picture is looking into the park from the Palomar pipe, notice the debris that has been there for years and still is.

In the past it has resulted in much damage being done to this park.

 

The above pictures were taken in September of 2014

This damage still happens today

Notice the engineered material that cost thousands of dollars is saturated from a December 2016 storm. The damage is so severe the swings have been removed.

Taken the day after Christmas 2016 near the drain for this Tot-Lot in Regency-Heritage Park

This poorly maintained drainage system for this park is slated for an upgrade somewhere in the future, brought to you by Riverside County Flood Control and Water  Conservation (RCFC&WCD), the upgrade is a part of the recently (January 2014) adopted Lakeland Village Master Drainage Plan

This Lakeland Village Master Drainage Plan (Lakeland Village MDP) calls for the current 10 foot wide X 18 inch deep channel through Regency-Heritage Park to be widened to 42 feet in width X 6 feet in depth. This new channel, referred to as “Open Channel A” will be capable of handling a 100-year event consisting of 1,115 cubic feet of water a second.
The city has known about this concept since they were notified by a concerned citizen more than 2 ½  years ago. Refer to

REGENCY HERITAGE PARK MORPHING INTO OPEN CHANNEL A

 

The above article was written in February of 2014

What does the city lose when this “Open Channel A” is constructed. Nobody really knows at the present time. The RCFC&WCD has a concept but no engineering has been done.

It is possible that 30 feet of the enclosed area currently called the dog park will disappear making the existing dog park smaller while at the same time making it more likely to survive as future flooding will be eliminated. It also means that whatever “Drinking Fountain” installed will lose its water source as the metered water is located on the east entrance nearest Autumn Oak Place.

That is unless the city plans for the new water pipe feeding the “Drinking Fountain” to be installed below the 6 foot depth of the future channel. Does that sound like a “Scout Project”, not many are qualified to operate a backhoe.

 

 

PLAYING WITH THE RULES

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There will be a parks subcommittee meeting this week, Wednesday January 6th at 5:00pm, where the year’s parks event calendar will be set. As there been no notice posted this meeting will be held in violation of the Brown Act.

Not sure why the city is even bothering to do this as the Rotary BBQ is a done deal even before the subcommittee meets or the city council votes.

This posted on the Rotary Club Facebook Page December 30, 2015

This posted on the Rotary Club Facebook Page December 30, 2015

Last years BBQ cost the this city a lot of money to add additional electrical capacity just for this event, maybe as there has been no independent annual audit submitted to the city council for approval as required by law (CGC 50075.3). The Measure Z Citizen Oversight committee has not met since July of last year

(Resolution 2013-38 Committee Structure Section F. 1. The Committee shall conduct at least four meetings a year)

At that meeting two members had not completed their end of the fiscal year assessment of the city parks therefore any assessment will not reach the city council until sometime after the next Oversight Committee meeting in late February.

California Government Code 50075.3. The chief fiscal officer of the levying local agency shall file a report with its governing body no later than January 1.

During the February meeting the term of 3 positions will be coming to an end. Hopefully the city council will have properly advertised for volunteers and/or the current members will reapply.
Last year the city received one applicant in the time period declared by the city council during its January meeting. One additional applicant was selected several months later without further advertisement.

As a side note.
Another blogger made mention of the sandbag events held recently in Wildomar. It was claimed that the cost was $6000 per event for a total cost of $12,000. With this bloggers mention of approximately 165 total participants this would make the cost about $2.90 per bag.
PV Maintenance made the claim at one such event that filled sandbags could be obtained by the city locally for $1.00 per bag.
ISN’T LOCAL CONTROL WONDERFUL

The link below is the text of California Government Code 50075-50077.5 which concerns special taxes.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=gov&group=50001-51000&file=50075-50077.5

FREEDOM SWING REDUX

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Swing 3

The City of Wildomar currently has a Public Works Advertised Project (Request for Proposal or RFP) to re-install the ADA swing at Marna O’Brien Park.
The last time this swing was installed in Marna O’Brien Park it was referred to as the “Freedom Swing”.
Its last appearance was for 22 days.

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Not having learn anything from past experience the City of Wildomar will once again attempt to place the ADA, Wheel Chair or Freedom Swing in one of the cities public parks
Interesting to note is unlike other RFP’s this one has no engineers “Estimated Cost”.

The first installation of this swing was removed after a Certified Playground Safety Inspection performed on October 19, 2014 (a Sunday morning) determined the swing DID NOT meet playground safety standards as called out in the Public Playground Safety Handbook Publication #325 issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. This publication has been made law in California with the codification in the Health and Safety Code section 115725-115735.

wheelchair playground summary 10-19-2014 Draft

This RFP contains no drawings, it does contain Specific Directions for the bidder in “Exhibit – A”
One such direction is to refer to manufacturer’s installation for swing support and hardware.
If one looks at the “Playground Inspection of the Wheelchair Swing” on page 8 of 13, installing this swing per the manufacturer’s instruction will lead to the same conditions, use zone D1 for one, that failed inspection previously.(D1 use zone is found on page 41 of 60 of Publication #325)
Without re-engineering this apparatus it will never meet this requirement.

The RFP does contain a photo to show the numbered points in “Exhibit A”
RFP Exhibit A1

Exhibit – A makes mention of a new 20 foot by 30 foot slap, which according to the manufacturer is too small. Only by 2 feet but the rules are not written in a foreign language.
RFP Exhibit A

The RFP can be obtained from
http://www.ebidboard.com/public/projects/index.asp?mbrguid=78F3B83E-667B-4756-AC3C-6EC28409B5A2

Use Zone 1

Installing this apparatus in a public park without constant supervision by park personnel, with its many deficiencies, is a choke away from a lawsuit.
P10-12-14_09.30[1]

This device is more suited to someones backyard and not a public park.

PARKS IN WILDOMAR THEN AND NOW

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As we enter the 3rd Fiscal Year of the Measure Z Parcel tax (having spent $633,345.00 as of May 31,2015) this is a look at where we have come.
With the most recent passage of the latest 2 year budget this city will have spent a projected 1 1/4 million dollars over a 4 year period on these 3 parks.

The focus of this article will be Regency-Heritage Park with some mention of Marna O’Brien and Windsong. In the days to follow will be a more detailed report on the other two parks.

At the main entrance off of Autumn Oak Place used by school children daily during the school year.
On December 21, 2013

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One can’t help notice the gaping hole in the fence. A year and a half later!!!

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The hole is still there only a little larger.

Right next to this spot lies a backflow device that is inspected regularly. Along with this device is another hole
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Same condition and graffito a year and a half later

P06-29-15_10.19
Graffito: a single example of graffiti.

A look at the railing over the dam in this park shows how fast rapid decay can occur because this city lacks funds to clean its storm drains
P02-03-14_14.21[1]
Notice the base of the railing where it meets the concrete. This was taken in February of 2014

A year and half later
P06-29-15_10.19(2)
P06-29-15_10.19(3)

One reason for this decay
P02-03-14_14.25[1]
Picture taken February 3, 2014 after “Great Day of Service” and before opening day.
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Looks pretty much the same all those thousands of dollars later. To date just over $80,000 has been spent of just this park alone.

P06-29-15_10.38
This post has remained broken despite over $10,000 being spent installing new fencing around the dog park.
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Opening Day April 2014

Even the Owls aren’t immuned from the elements or the neglect of the city.
P05-11-14_11.03
Look closely at the open sun-roof in May of 2014
P06-29-15_10.45
Maybe its a seasonal thing, or it was a feel good moment when this was introduced as Wildomar’s way of pest control.

Back to the dam and the seen and unseen problems it creates.
Seen
P02-28-14_08.32
Unseen
P09-17-14_14.35
What lurks in the $13,806.00 + material (BOG)
This picture was taken 1 1/2 months after new Engineered Wood Fiber was added to the Tot-Lot in haste

Not surprising as this Tot-Lot still lacks the State of California required signage with warnings about choke and burn hazards.
Our sign
P06-29-15_10.24(1)
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Front and Rear

A proper signP09-25-14_10.26[1]
Rear
P09-25-14_10.27
The two additional parks Marna O’Brien and Windsong have no such signage what so ever.

After several months past the parks opening an inspection of the Tot-Lots was completed. This identified several deficiencies, over an above the signs, which have yet to be corrected.
One is a slide which is to steep per the guidelines
P06-29-15_10.26
The graffiti (black splotches) was also called into question in that report.

Not all is bad though, after many months we noticed some improvement
P01-07-15_08.48
New trash cans to replace
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The opening day decor. Notice the missing BBQ, its still missing. This along with 2 tables that were taken to another park.
Which someone using Regency-Heritage Park noticed
P10-30-14_09.24

We also went from this
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To this
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Even though the hoop is still bent you now get the swoosh sound.
The premier park Marna O’Brien not only got new nets but also new hoops.
Regency-Heritage and Windsong Parks also got a bulletin board which might last till the end of the year.
P06-03-15_9.43
A little over three weeks later
P06-29-15_10.37
The bulletin board at Windsong is only usable on the top half as the bottom gets wet when ever the grass gets watered.
I called Marna O’Brien the premier park but it has its share of issues. Namely the Tot-Lot which went from ADA accessible to not.

P08-04-14_12.03
See the wheel chair ramp

Now you don’t
P01-14-15_09.35

This after another wonderful project brought to you by the 2 council members that have brought forward many of the additions that contain a rural flavor (on the cheap). Beware coming soon is a project to add shade covers over at least one Tot-Lot (this will be designed in house and constructed by volunteers) see pad above for one such project.

City of Wildomar 2 year budget projections found on page 232 of 491
http://www.cityofwildomar.org/uploads/files/minutes/06-24-15-cap.pdf

Found in the same agenda as above is:
City of Wildomar 4th Quarter Expenditure Status Report page 488 of 491

The Measure Z Annual Report FY 2013-14 can be found @
http://media.wix.com/ugd/28672a_0c8d622872cb4492bd14c318dd5f0d72.pdf

Rules for California Playgrounds can be found @
http://www.cprs.org/user_media/pdfs/California_Playground_Regulations.pdf

and @
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=hsc&group=115001-116000&file=115725-115735