Tag Archives: Tot-Lot

IF THE PO-POS DON’T SHOW THE COUNCIL MUST GO

There has been recent ridicule of a community member for e-mailing the City Council of Wildomar in the early morning hours after a recent incident at one of our parks during which security in the form of private or law enforcement was severely lacking.
Doing a quick check of the progress on the safety enhancement of our Tot-Lots this is what I found on Saturday morning August 23rd at 9:00 in the AM at the very park in question.

Hiding under the Tot-Lot structure is a secret lair.

Containing all the goodies a child should have to entertain themselves

WHAT IS THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

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Many months ago it was announced that a young citizen in furtherance of their scouting life would be allowed once again to donate a project to the City of Wildomar that is supposed to enhance the parks for all of its citizens using donated materials and volunteer hours.
This project has been called “The Freedom Swing” and is the donation of a wheelchair accessible swing for those children unable to leave their wheelchair and enjoy swinging with the rest of the children.
On the surface this would appear a fine project that would benefit a small but important group of citizens. But due to a lack of foresight by city council members and a lack of homework by staff this project like ones before it is turning into a taxpayer nightmare with cost estimates to the taxpayer of between $10,900.00 and $28,750.00.
This project at first scheduled to be placed in the cities premier park, Marna O’Brien, on August 23rd is still without a home. The city staff is madly scrambling to locate a suitable location that will fulfil all of the goals of inclusion and safety that are required when a city installs equipment in its parks, most especially its Tot-Lots which entertain the youngest members of our community.
On Monday August 25th, two days after its initial placement date, the City of Wildomar Standing Committee for Parks will hold a meeting to determine a final resting place for this project along with an estimate of how many thousands of taxpayer dollars this project is going to cost to bring to completion.
At this meeting which will determine where and how much, city officials are already making plans (once again) for the celebration of its placement at a park that may not be finished in time, cost effective nor its final home.
Talk about the cart before the horse, this is a common theme in Wildomar. Let’s make a promise and then figure out how to fulfill it no matter what it cost the taxpayer.

PROGRESS IS BEING MADE ???

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While making my weekly visit to the 3 parks of Wildomar one can see some progress being made. The part-time parks employee has been more visible this week walking the parks removing trash strewn about and picking up after the scofflaws that continue to allow their animals to deposit waste along the way. That and the Swisher Sweet containers scattered about.

Madness for sure.

With the help of an industrious volunteer the city employee has resuscitated 8 of the 9 field drains by performing a atherectomy and removing essentially 100% occlusion before the rainy season.

Before Cleaning

After removing 10 pounds of dirt and trash.

One field drain still needs to be opened, but the city employee needs to borrow tools from the cemetery district to perform this task. The part-time worker has been observed hosing off gazebos and picnic tables without the benefit of a automatic shut off nozzle, he doesn’t even have one of those. Hopefully before the rainy season starts the city will pop for the necessary fossil filters that should have been replace long ago and the parking lot drains along with the “bioswale” drains can be looked after as specified by the BMP in the WQMP.
Speaking of bioswales.

What a bioswale should look like

Wildomar’s idea of a bioswale

Parking lot drain in serious need of attention. May take heavy equipment to straighten out top so filter can be removed

An item specified in the WQMP for Marna O’Brien Park and touted all over Riverside County but rarely implemented.

This one is located in an HOA where a former Planning Director is on the Board.

Typical Wildomar Drain, no markings whatsoever

Another item specified in the WQMP is the posting of Santa Margarita and Santa Ana Watershed Information on a bulletin board.

Not much information here

BMP in WQMP
(That translates into Best Management Practice in Water Quality Management Plan for which the County of Riverside escaped thousand of dollars in fines from the Regional Water Board by implementing, almost a year after completing the park. This document was supposed to be completed before construction even got started.)

The city employee has also been attempting to maintain the previously ignored Tot-Lots for which the citizens still await a Certified Playground Safety Inspection which has not been done to my knowledge. Despite the lack of inspection there is progress being made in this area. One can’t help notice the newly added surfacing material that has made the Tot-Lots look complete rather than a giant void as before.

Seriously lacking surfacing material to cushion a fall. Also uneven.

This lack of material led to numerous exposed hazards.

Today it is much better with an even surface and hazards properly covered

Numerous other hazards were taken care of when additional surfacing material (Engineered Wood Fiber) was added

Two week ago at the beginning of August. 113 days after the parks opened to the public

What it looks today after bitching to the city council

The beginning of August. Just waiting to remove a toe

What it looks like today.

Some hardware has been replaced where previously missing, thanks to a generous donation from Coast Recreation in Costa Mesa when their representative happened to be in the area and stopped by.

What it looked like the beginning of August. Missing several pieces of hardware

Two weeks later with hardware replaced.

City employee is waiting on a gel material to see if these windows to the world can be cleaned up, if not lets hope the city will replace them.

Much still needs to be done in the way of a written maintenance schedule for which the city will more than likely have to pay for a replacement, seems Riverside County EDA claims to have turn over these schedules along with post construction drawings of the parks to the City of Wildomar when the city took the parks from the county in July of 2009 , the city claims not to have these schedule and drawings.
It is most important from a risk management point of view that a written check sheet be used to document the maintenance ensuring that no step is left out and the process is done on a regular basis and documented. This type of check-off sheet/log has not been observed when the maintenance process is being performed.

We should a similar type form, checked off, signed an kept in a book for each park in the maintenance room.

The city also needs to pony up the money to replace certain elements of the Tot-Lots, like the viewing windows and bubble that are so worn one thinks there vision is going south, or the one that’s been broken for eons. The talking tube at Regency Heritage that is missing along with fixing the periscope and mirrors and chimes at Windsong.