First time I posted picture was on July 15, 2014 the day the California State Water Resources Control Board approved an emergency regulation to ensure increased conservation efforts and reduce outdoor urban water use. These regulation allow the imposition of fines up to $500.00 per day for violations.
Since then almost weekly I have taken pictures of the City of Wildomar wasting water at Marna O’Brien Park. To their credit the waste is being reduced a little but far too much is going where it shouldn’t, the fines are set to take effect on August 1st. Sidewalks and parking lots do not grow.
Its more than just a little bit of water.
July 21st, 1 week after the first picture.
Got to the park a little late. This is about 1/2 hour after the water shut off.
Sprinkler still broke.
July 25th, 11 days after the first picture and 9 days after tell the groundskeeper.
Getting a little better, this is on the 28th
Not sure who picked the sprinklers, but.
This is on the July 28th.
Better since broken sprinkler fixed but still needs work.
Watering everything but something growing.
Not a single plant in this area.
Except shrums.
This occurs 3 times a week. All that water to grow dirt.
All that water and one still can’t get a drink from the water statue, or
If you have a long tongue you can try this one.
This whole issue of safety and wasted water at our parks stems from NOT having the recent parks restoration work put out to bid and selecting a qualified, professional contractor to do the work. Had that been done, many mistakes, errors and unnecessary expenses would have been avoided. The work would have been done to the current county, state and federal standards, and the promise of a professional, certified inspection of the work would have brought these problems to light and allowed them to be corrected prior to the parks being reopened. Now we are faced with a huge amount of remedial work to set things right – work that will waste more of the taxpayers money.
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Concerned citizens need to ask why this was not done? The simple answer is that the reopening of the parks was again burdened with being used for purely political reasons, rather than being approached in a business-like manner. One more time the current city council members and their staff failed follow existing, readily available standards and guidelines in executing a city major project. As a clearly defined government agency, Wildomar needs to be managed in accordance with sound government “best business practices” rather than being run like a poorly organized 501(C)3 charity.
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The defects associated with the Tot Lots and their equipment are obviously not the only problems with our parks. The cost of all this wasted water and the need to retrofit the water distribution systems represents more wasted money due to unprofessional planning. Now is the time to correct these things and the underlying poor city management that allowed them to slip through the cracks. Let’s get busy and make the needed repairs, and put an effective parks management plan in place so that we can avoid future waste and difficulties. After all, that is what we were promised running up to the passing of Measure “Z”.