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The Dog Park is currently being rehabbed as part of an Eagle Scout project by Mike Ames. The dog toys have been taken to the back lot at the cemetery for storage and cleaning while the ground awaits grading.
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| You can see posts sticking out of the ground where some of the toys are anchored. |
The rest of Heritage Park is still in the process of restoration as you can see by the image below. It's going to take some serious man hours to bring this park back to life... but after being closed since 2011, and that it is subject to periodic flooding, that is to be expected.
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| Heritage Park doubles as part of the flood control system, and you can see that it still needs some attention after the heavy rains from last month. |
I drove past Marna O'Brien Park and it will be Hydro-seeded tomorrow.
There is another Eagle Scout Project going on at Marna O'Brien Park. Riley Olson is installing tiles, that were painted by the community as part of a parks fundraiser, onto an interior wall in the snack bar.
There is a fundraiser for both Eagle Scout projects. It'll be at Stadium Pizza on Wednesday March 19th. Both Ames and Olson will be there between 5:30pm and 7:00pm discussing the projects. If you have questions, and would like to help out while enjoying some pizza, come on down. The fund raiser is throughout the day, and you can participate by mentioning the Eagle Scout fundraiser and purchasing regular items (no coupons or delivery - they have to stay in business too ya know).
I'm following both of the Eagle Scout projects and plan on posting a blog about them once they are completed.
Over at Windsong Park, you can see that it has been Hydro-seeded and now it's time to let the grass grow back in. If ask Google about Hydro-seed, it tells you: The grass should begin to come up in 5 to 7 days depending on soil temperatures and moisture. Your lawn should be ready to mow in 3 to 4 weeks.
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So, if you are good at math, and feel pretty comfortable reading a calender, you can see that the time between today and the parks grand reopening is pretty short.
It's a fair question to ask: Is there enough time for the grass to grow in between now and then?
If I were a betting man, I'd have to say that there isn't enough time for the grass to be ready for regular play. I'm confident that if the grass isn't ready for use by the time of the reopening, that the city officials, and city staff, will not open the grassy areas prematurely. It's been too long getting to this point to rush things now.
The grand opening will still take place, along with the egg hunt, on April 12th as planned, but I've heard that the egg hunt will likely be moved from the grassy area to the playground area.
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Let me remind those that may not be up on why the parks were closed in the first place. It happened before we were a city. It happened on Riverside County's watch. I'm not going to get into ancient history, about Ortega Trails, just the part where a group of citizens challenged a $28 tax to fund the parks.
They obviously made some point that resonated with the judge in the case, because upon appeal he/she sided with them. It really only came down to the wording, because we are paying the same figure of $28 today. Just with the added bonus of three parks that have needed resurrecting from the dead... again.
To make whatever inane point they had in mind, our parks have been closed since 2011, and to what end? We are STILL paying the same $28... and the galling part is that they like to stylize themselves as "Community Activists".... and I guess that Michael Vick was a Pitbull activist too.
Now if the parks open a bit late, to allow the grass to grow in, just remember why the parks were closed in the first place. As the remnants of that group, and its loyalists, carp anew at any imperfection they can possibly point a finger at.
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Joseph - you may not wish to go over ancient history probably because the first time the parks in this community were closed it was because the citizens voted to defund the park district. The second time the parks were closed, the decision to overturn the park tax was made by a three judge panel in the appellate court ruling on a case filed by one individual, not a group (sorry but nobody can blame the Grande Dame of Wildomar for this one). The city at that time chose to close the parks entirely in an effort to pass a Community Facilities District "Measure D" which the voters turned down (funny how that happens when there is more than one vote required to form a Mello Roos District). It wasn't until the City of Wildomar spent large sums of taxpayer money to educate its citizens that "Measure Z" was passed with no annual increase and an oversight committee.
ReplyDeleteKenny Mayes
I'm sure there were plenty of things that the early council would like to have back, just like I'm guessing Ralph Branca would like that pitch back that Bobby Thompson go over the left field wall back in 1951 too.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMa5eZE5ilE
That said, the lone plaintiff had his cheering section, and that group is what I was referring to.
I'm not a fan of CFDs or Mello Roos. Not many of us like increased taxes, but if they must come, I want them honest an in my face. Not given a cute name and slid past us.
My beef against those that wanted the original park tax repealed, which there were a ton of them (the later vote tallies prove that out) is that they didn't care how their shortsightedness was going to harm our community as a whole. So I do tend to go with the paint roller (broad brush) on subjects like this, when a two inch brush may be a better choice.
Joseph didn't mention anyone by name, and it's well known that there is a large contingent of people that agreed with the guy. As for Measure D being a different kind of tax, and they should have done a Measure Z tax to begin with, none of that would have mattered had our parks not been shuttered in the first place. and someone who actively campaigning against Z, and was one of the names in the voter pamphlet arguing against the tax, well that is tantamount to wanting the parks to remain closed. of course courts rule on things all the time-like when the court ruled in favor of districts but i remember the spin put on that one....sheila
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