Update #15
Visited all of the parks and Welch field today Tuesday, January 21,2014. Observed a crew working at Heritage Regency Park hard at work removing sediment deposited out of the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) drainage system emanating from Marna O'Brien Park, Bryant Street, Palomar St. and the hills above Grand Ave west of the park, seems senseless until the waters entering this system are properly maintained thereby preventing sediment and trash from entering. Also noted that the clearing work done at the exit end of Heritage Parks drainage ended at the property line which until continued all the way to Corydon will cause the park to retain copious amounts of water, creating a lake on the south end thereby flooding the "dog park". All the other parks are in pretty much the same condition as before, with the exception of a little bark spread out amongst various planters which needs to be fine tuned as the bark is smothering the plants. Once again the city is going to promise dates to re-open the parks but will probably fail to do so as much work still needs to be done. Welch Field what can I say, other than someone picking up the trash, looks like it has for a long while. These fields were supposed to open before the parks closed for rehab but probably won't open until after the parks do.
Update #14
Attended the "Bark in the Park" event this Saturday, January 11. I was not surprised to see a small number of volunteers, about 40 at Marna O'Brien Park and I understand a little less at Windsong Park, so between 60-80 people total. Quite a bit was accomplished none the less. Upon arriving the first thing one noticed was the condition of the plants, with the dry weather and the lack of water many of the plants will be hard pressed to survive. I have upload one additional picture of "My adopted area".
Apparently the special interest groups have known about this event for sometime but many of us only learned about it this week, once again the city has done a poor job of updating the citizens about what's going on. There are still no date certain as to when any portion of the parks will open.
Oh by the way there is apparently going to be a Parks Subcommittee meeting on Tuesday, January 21 at 6:30 pm at City Hall (Its going to be a busy week as the Measure Oversight Committee is supposed to meet on Thursday night of the same week). On the agenda for the subcommittee meeting is do we want a Parks Commission (this item is supposed to be on the upcoming City Council agenda) and whether or not to keep the fence up at Windsong Park after it gets reopened, along with plans for parks activities even though there is no opening date.
Update #13
Swung by the three parks and Welch Field today to see what was going on in preparation for "Bark in Park" day on Saturday January 11 from 8 am-12 pm. Progress is being made slowly but surely. Will take pictures Saturday while I am there for the next update.
Update # 12 (Just a short visit)
Stopped by all three parks and the ball fields about 1:30 pm Friday afternoon, January 3, 2014 to see if any progress is being made and to check on my adopted area. All I could do is look through locked gates to see if it could use some water, and it could. Apparently the only one working on this fine afternoon was Monsanto.
Update #11 (Visited the Three Parks)
Kind of like the three bears, hibernating along with any workers. No one was at any of the parks. The work that was started last Friday at Heritage has progressed no further. Have added two new pictures of Marna O'Brien, one was taken by an inspector from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Diego Region on October 31, 2008 and attached to a violation letter, the other was taken by me at the same location on December 26, 2013. All I can say is "Local Control" is utterly fantastic.
Update #10 (Heritage Bayou)
Spent the afternoon wandering what many call the swamp. I can see why. I have posted some pictures, but this park will require a whole new blog. The history is that convoluted.
Update #9 (Added pictures of Welch Field)
The former Little League fields for which $22,000 was budgeted for 2013-2014 and $25,000 for 2014-2015 and were to be opened for "General Public Use" on October 31, 2013 prior to the City of Wildomar Parks being closed for renovation, rehabilitation, modification are shown in the pictures as having received the same attention as the parks, virtually none. For all the talk about how city parks are it appears to be nothing more than talk. Started taking pictures of Heritage Bayou today and will put them up tomorrow after I get some more close ups. Instead of painting tiles after eating this morning just maybe people should of been out pulling weeds.
Update #8
I got into Heritage Bayou today. There is a crew that started working on the drainage channels on the west side of the park, its looking like they will clear out some serious impediments to water flow that have been there a number of years based on the size of the growth. Unfortunately it looks like they will only clear it out as far as the park boundary. This will in my opinion be a temporary fix to one of dozens of problems with this park. The weeds are doing quite well with the rains of late. Time for the city spray the dickens out it, end of the year stock tip, run out an by Monsanto. I was busy talking my ear off with another concerned citizens and didn't take any pictures, but I will go back and take some tomorrow, also check up on the progress of today by the crew. It would also be nice if the city took down the GDS signs, reminds me of campaign signs that remain in place for months after an election, usually by the loser.
Update #7
Got into the park today and was able to soak in the plants properly. Tomorrow will do final raking of area and wait around for some bark. Might just take it from the Tot Lot as they will be replacing what is in there with new and more than likely throwing what is there away. Waste not want not.
Had a number of people stop and ask when park was going to open, could not tell them anything.
Update #6 (Park closed no one home)
Have decided to return to my original intent and maintain one 20ft. x 20ft. area. As soon as I can access the park, when someone unlocks the gate, I will water in the plants that I have moved (maybe I should check with a professional to make sure newly planted plants require watering) and keep an eye on it, keeping it naturally weed free (No thank you Monsanto). When bark becomes available I will take care of that. During the year when ever I drive by I will do so with a smile on my face knowing that people walking to the park will be able to do so without having to avoid the plants growing into the sidewalk or looking at butchered plants. If anyone is interested there is available another 20ft x 20ft area already weed free in need of a caretaker.
Udate #5 (New Photo Added)
The new photo shows the Wildomar Parks Rehabilitation Plan 2013-2014 that was presented at the August 4, 2013 Parks Subcommittee meeting, this is for all those that claim to know what the plan was. I say was because almost none of the goals with dates have been achieved. I would like to provide the link for the agenda of that meeting but the City of Wildomar removed it from their website shortly after the meeting because it also contained the plant list.
Update # 4 (Two of Three parks)
Added pictures of Marna and Windsong parks, Heritage is inaccessible so no pictures of the orphan park. It wasn't hard to take pictures of a lot of work being needed as almost no area is ready go. Pictures of the work I have been doing will be added as soon as I have finished, which may take awhile as no bark is available, if someone has some festuca glauca a dozen or so would be a nice addition to the area.
Update # 3 (Things change)
Despite all of the vitriolic and vociferous comments below the updates will continue.
Received a call Friday morning and was informed that some plants will be allowed to be moved and others planted when found missing. Also smaller areas would be allowed to be finished before the whole area is completed.
I will be taking some pictures this weekend of all three parks, primarily to embarrass those that think parks sprout out of the heavens, I will show the current state of the parks that many hope to be open soon, all on the taxpayers dime without any community involvement.
UPDATE #2 (Possibly the last one)
showed up this morning ready to move some of the plants that were incorrectly placed during the "DAY" and finish leveling the chosen area (20 ft. x 30 ft.), lay mulch down and this would have equaled one completed area. Word came from on high that no plants were to be moved and no mulch would be laid before the complete strip some (200+ feet x 20 ft.)was finished. Sorry that's not what I signed up for, at a couple of hours a day it would take a couple of months to prep that whole section and then it would be time to start weeding all over again.
UPDATE #1
Been working at Marna O’Brien Park for 2 days now and what an eye opener. Not in a good way either. This park has no pizzazz, pop, creativity, signature. It looks like a commercial business planting scheme, boring.
First day I picked an area next to one of the entrances which is planted with Red Yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora), there are 35 plants in this area and as you can see from the picture , 6 inches from the sidewalk for a plant that will spread 2-4 feet or 3-5 feet depending on the source of information just don’t cut it because they will have to cut it back along the sidewalk as it spreads, making them horticultural butchers (sorry about the picture, not really a camera guy). Other than this plant in this area there will be nothing but bark, boring. They could have interspersed some Festuca glauca (Blue Fescue) to break up the monotony.
Another observation is apparently the way the area was prepped was to spray an herbicide, yuck, and then rototiller everything under. The problem with this is the time between spraying and tilling was to short a time, as the stolons from the grass are still alive and growing quite well, having removed a fair amount of this matter. That along with having to uncover 90% of the sprinkler heads that were buried under a couple of inches of dirt, straightening out several that were leaning 10-15 degrees, pulling dirt away from the borders so when the bark is laid there is something to contain it, things are progressing.
Hopefully someone with some authority will allow me to move some of the existing plants away from the walkway at least.
Starting Monday morning at 9:00 am, I will be at Marna O’Brien Park were I will “Unofficially Adopt” a strip of planter to maintain. For a couple of hours each day I will pull weeds, plant what is required by the parks planting plan and mulch under the supervision of Daniel Torres and Kirk Schrader with the blessing of Wildomar’s City Manager Gary Nordquist.
I am asking any able bodied citizen that wishes to participate, to stop by the cemetery between the hours of 7:00 am and 3:00 pm and fill out a “volunteer waiver” and let Kirk or Daniel know which park you wish to work in, bring your own hand tools, pick a spot and start pulling weeds.
Donate what ever time you can, 1 hour, 2 hours for as many days as you wish so we can whip these parks in shape to open.
