space users to safely use the trails. However, in August 2023, a city staffer stated there
would be no enforcement. So I want to thank you for listening to my three concerns and
thank you for the service that you provide to the city of Walnut Creek by serving on
the PROS commission. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing as there's no one else in the audience
tonight, we're going to move on to the consent calendar and the approval of the minutes of
regular meeting on October 7th, 2024. Can I get a motion to approve the
minutes? I move to approve the minutes of previous meeting. I second the motion.
Secretary Vickers. Yes. I'll call roll. Commissioner Pinkstaff. Yes. Commissioner
roller? Yes. Commissioner constant? Yes. Commissioner Garland? Yes. Vice chair
cook? Yes. Chair Moran? Yes. Motion carries unanimously. Okay next on the
agenda is a presentation from secretary Vickers.
Corey I think as well. Yes thank you and for the record my name is Mike Vickers
I'm public works manager for the city of Walnut Creek and tonight I will be
providing a update on the Parks and Open Space and Corey will be assisting me with the presentation.
So we're going to provide an overview of the achievements the recent achievements the ongoing
initiatives and upcoming projects and there's no this is more of a just an annual update so feel
free to ask questions and provide comments at the end. Thank you. So we're going to talk about the
parks projects, the open space projects, some future projects that we have in mind and then
some of the open space foundation projects that they've been working on for several decades.
So as many of you know, we're in the process of planning the pool and rec center out at Heather
Farm and due to these improvements we are going to be losing two of the shaded rental picnic spaces
and so we had plans to move those up a little bit further towards the tennis courts. As
you can see there, the goal is to recycle as much of those shade structures as we can.
The poles are actually about, they go about 10 feet deep, 4 foot wide, 10 feet deep, sunk
in concrete, so I don't think we'll be saving those. They'll probably be removed when the
project takes place, but the umbrella and the framing that supports the umbrella will
be able to move those and save some money there. It was interesting when I was working
with USA Shade about these structures. They said in the – oh, I can't remember – one
of the major hurricanes in Florida, they said the only thing left was their poles. So now
you know why. They're 10 feet deep. So we have plans in next summer to move those before
the project starts. Along with moving those, we also have a number of irrigation improvements
to make as well as you can imagine a lot of that grass area is going to be dug up where
the pool is going to go and so we've got some mainline challenges some potable water challenges
that will be moving along with a few other utilities.
So the playgrounds I was here two months ago with with all of you talking about the projects
that we want to improve the playgrounds at Civic Park and Walden Park. We recently discovered
that there are some grant opportunities. I believe back in October I told you I was going
to come back in December and possibly February with an update on where we are at. That process
is going to slow slightly until we can get our hands around this grant opportunity just
to make sure that we are getting every bit of funding that we can find to make sure that
these projects are as successful as possible. Court resurfacing. A couple years ago we resurfaced
the 10, now 11 tennis courts at Heather Farm. And we have heard a lot of feedback over the
last, I will say, seven or eight years about some improvements that are needed at Red Gear
and both Walden. And so, with the Commission's support from the last capital budget, there
was $800,000 set aside, and Council obviously appropriated that funding. And so we have
got the project out to bid. We plan on starting this sometime in the spring. We're going to
start it as soon as we can because we don't want it to carry too long into the summer.
And I'm not – it's project going to be run through engineering. I don't believe we're
going to do both sets of courts at the same time, but I can confirm that at a future meeting.
So as you can see here, you've got Arbalotto has the three – actually, they've got the
or I have the park names mixed up there,
so red gear should be where Arbolado is.
So the image on the left-hand side is actually red gear.
We're gonna be resurfacing all three of those courts,
and if funding allows, we're gonna be painting
the basketball court that's adjacent to it there.
You can see how kind of the center of the key area
is pretty worn out.
To the other one on the right-hand side,
which is actually Arbolado Park,
We're going to be resurfacing those three tennis courts as well as the basketball court.
The basketball court, as long as I've been here about 15 years, hasn't seen much attention.
So it's in much needed need for improvement.
And it's actually pretty heavily utilized in the evenings during the summer and also
during the summertime itself.
So looking forward to that happening.
Synthetic turf projects.
should have had both fields here because we're looking at putting synthetic turf
in both ball field one and two not just one. Those numbers are coming in as we
speak and we'll be updating will be going to Council to ask for the project
to be awarded on December 17th which is two weeks from tomorrow. The Sportsfield
Lighting Project at Tice Valley Park, that project's already been awarded.
the equipment has been ordered and we're anticipating trenching will start, we
were hoping mid-December but I think it's going to be weather-based so I
would I would you know I would suggest it's probably going to happen in January
February those fields will be out of commission we've been in close talks
with the Walnut Creek Soccer Club so they'll be out of commission for probably
a couple months while those lights go in there's there's quite a bit of trenching
And some of those trenches in the field are five or six feet deep.
And as you can imagine, I think there are 40-foot poles, maybe 50-foot poles.
They also have a pretty deep footing.
So they'll need cranes out there and those types of things.
So January, February is what I'm suggesting.
Mike, can you go back one second?
Yes, absolutely.
The pickleball courts at Tice Valley Gym, these are inside the gym, correct?
are I believe temporary yes I believe there are temporary lines inside the gym
that's correct okay and what is the status of our pickleball issue so the
pickleball issue is currently in the city managers office as they're working
through some opportunities or discussions with the neighbors and the
pickleball club. I know that there's pickleball lines in the gym. I don't
know if recreation has opened it up for a day play or not, drop-in play or not. I
can find that out and put it in the minutes or shoot out an email so people
are aware. Any other questions before I turn it over to Corey? I'm sorry I was
gonna ask you about synthetic turf project if it goes to council on the on
the 17th of December and work will start in the new year when would it be
anticipated it would be completed so assuming the project is awarded on the
17th our current construction schedule has the contract or on site sometime
between March and April with construction starting on April 1st and
can being completed by October thank you yeah good evening commissioners used a
bigger crowd, but I'm sure there's thousands watching from home.
I'm gonna update you guys on some of the projects that we have been working on
over the last few years or so. You know a lot of this job maintenance takes up a
good portion of the the workforce out there and in the spring and early summer
trail crews are our open space crews are primarily working on weed abatement
mowing our trails and our firebreaks, but outside of mowing season we're able to
work on a lot of different types of improvement projects and so I'm happy to
share with you guys some of those projects that we've been working on over
the last couple years. So interpretive signage, so I think one of the great
things about our open space is there's a lot of educational opportunities out
there, whether it's the type of wildlife that lives in the open space, the types
of plants and trees that make up the habitat, the history, there's a lot of
educational opportunities out there. A couple years ago we started designing,
actually I think these went in last year, we started the design process with a
company called Acorn and they helped us design and come up with the wording for
these signs. We provided some of the photos for them. So there's been three
new interpretive signs that have gone up recently, one at Borges Ranch, one near
the Marshall Trailhead and another at the eastern end of Indian Creek Trail.
And we are currently working on three more signs, one to go in on Indian Creek Trail,
one about kind of the geological history of Shell Ridge, and then another one on the
cattle ranching history in Shell. So we're excited to see those. They are almost done.
we'll probably get those installed sometime early spring is my guess when
those will be ready to go in and other things with these signs is we hope that
after people see them and and get to read the information on the signs that
they kind of leave with a sense of appreciation for the open space that's
that's the goal of these. Can I ask you a question on the signs? Sure. So the one
that I guess it says voices from the past is that ranching Native American
combination voices from the past so it's it's right outside of the branch house
at Borges and it it just tells you a little bit about kind of what it would
have been like at the ranch in the early 1900s so voices from the past is like
the the family the children it's a very kind of short story on there is there
any of these signs that are going to talk about the Native Americans? That
sign, the appreciation of the open space, the one in the bottom, sorry, the gift
of the open space in the top right, that one does mention the Miwok population
that was here. Can I just add one point? Yeah. So we're also working with one of
tribal groups to add some signage over in Lime Ridge as part of the golf course project.
So there's going to be two or three maybe four signs that are going to go around the
golf course and also near the trailhead but at the end of Valley Vista.
So Indian Creek Trail improvements.
This is one of my favorite trails out in the open space.
We have a trail that runs along the creek and the creek runs through it.
I mean that quite literally in several spots.
There were a number of opportunities to make improvements and we've done so with some bridges.
We've removed some culverts and added some bridges so far.
We've added three of these foot bridges out on Indian Creek Trail and overall I really
think it helps improve the habitat of the creek.
There's lots of amphibians that live and get down
into the creek bed and really rely on that and that habitat.
And so we're helping keep the waterways clear and clean
by adding these bridges.
And not only do they allow people to pass through
without getting muddy during the winter time
when the trails are wet,
they improve the overall health of the creek too.
And so we've got plans to add at least three more
of these bridges.
We're kind of been a big focus of ours, Indian Creek Trail.
a very popular trail out there a lot of a lot of hikers a lot of through traffic on that one.
And so moving on with Indian Creek Trail. This was a big project we took on fairly recently.
Was several years in the making. Kind of wanted to improve this area maybe four or five years ago.
Didn't necessarily have everything in line to be able to do it.
But we did, and as you can see, this
is what the outlet of Indian Creek Trail
looks like before you get to Indian Valley Pond
after a big rain.
So there's about 250, 270 feet of trail
that would get flooded out after big rains.
It made it pretty unpassable.
And then the outlet area where it kind of opened up
before you got to Indian Valley Pond would get flooded out.
And every year, this section of trail
would be closed down for weeks at a time,
just depending on how much rain we got.
And so there was, as you can see from the photos,
a definite need for improvements there.
And so what we did is we worked
with the Open Space Foundation.
And a big thanks to Sean McCalliff.
He donated a lot of his time to help us work
through these schematics and help plan the layout
of this project, so really appreciate his time.
But what we did, the plan was to remove sediment
from the open area in the photo on the right
and then the second photo.
So we removed soil from that area
and used that soil to elevate the trail tread,
going back to all the way where it begins the flooding.
With that trail elevation, we had to armor it to protect it.
And that involved moving lots and lots of rocks.
And we also planned on restoring the creek channel
and then adding some hardened crossings
where we had some drainages and water flowing
into the trail itself.
So this is some photos of what it looked like of staff doing this work and this work was
all done in-house with the equipment we have in the open space division and then no contractors,
all staff doing this work.
Overall it took us about three weeks working pretty much all day, four days a week or so.
And so this is kind of the process of moving all that soil out of that open area down the
trail to elevate it.
Can I start real quick?
Is that going to fill up?
These pictures are here.
Does this...
It'll fill up with water?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that's the idea.
Yeah, we dropped the...
We probably moved two to four feet, depending on the spot worth of soil from that whole
deepened it by about that much, so it's hard to tell from these photos, but
there's a definite, there's gonna be a little bit of a pond there, so it's
gonna be a little bit of a wetland, and it's gonna hold water a lot better
than it did. That water gets pushed out into Indian Valley Pond and then down
into Lakewood. Yeah, so what we did was move the trail, it's on the bottom right
photo, the trail goes off to the right, and before it had just kind of gone
straight through that area. And like I said, it was impassable. It was just, it
was a big mess in there during the wintertime. Did it pass the test last
week? There's a little bit of water in there. It's holding a little bit of
water. So we'll see. It's gonna need, we're gonna need a few big rains before we
actually see some real real progress over there. But it's cool, we're
starting to see vegetation and grow back in the, on the trail. And I think it's
It's going to look really good and I'm excited to see what it looks like after we get a bunch
of rain this year and then going into next year, I think it's going to be really nice
looking area.
So this is the armoring part of the job, the project.
We moved about 15 to 20 tons of rocks, tons of rock to line this trail.
of the rock was sourced from a local landscape company and we did source some of it from
Lime Ridge as well as part of the golf course project. They had tons of rock left over so
we were able to source some of that. Yeah, so this is what it looked like to move those
rocks down into that trail, move them with a dingo, put them in place and that turned
not really well. This is an armored crossing. This is on the fossil hill loop trail right
before you get into Indian Valley Pond. So the outlet of Indian Creek passes over the
fossil hill loop and this is that section. It's another section that would traditionally
get pretty mucky and wet after big rains and just kind of stay that way. A lot of people
would kind of skirt around it or hop.
You would see logs and stuff set out there
in the wet season.
People could kind of climb over.
So this is a way to really direct that water flow
over that section of the trail.
And then when you get to it, it's
going to be armored with rock.
So it's like a big puzzle put together.
Here's the first type of armored crossing
that we've done in the open space like this.
And there's going to be a few more areas, I think,
that we plan on doing this type of work.
But it was a very, very cool project to see through.
I'm happy with how it turned out.
Still focused on Indian Creek.
As part of this project, we went through and did
a lot of debris removal in the creek bed itself.
Staff spent probably three days clearing these log jams,
like you see in the photo.
Left is obviously before, right is after.
A lot of big oaks come down in that creek bed
and really clog things up.
So as part of this restoration of the Creek channel,
we went through and removed a lot of these blockages
and it should help things flow through there nicely.
I'll say, so keeping on the trend of water,
going back all the way to 2018,
we've had a number of desilting projects going on
in the open space, including the Bayberry area,
Joaquin and Sulfur Creek ponds.
These projects were in partnership with NRCS.
We received some funding from a grant from them
to help get these projects done.
And these projects were all contracted out.
And the Joaquin Pond is in a grazing area.
Bayberry is not part of the Bayberry project
was installing a culvert and some rock riprap
to help prevent so much sediment from being washed down
into the Bayberry Pond.
And so that was all included in the Bayberry Project.
All right, grazing updates.
So in the past year, we've had a movement away
from e-fencing for a number of reasons.
We've updated some infrastructure,
including adding some, about almost a mile worth
of waterline in Shell Ridge from Brode away
all the way down to towards Borges.
Not quite all the way to Borges.
Along that waterline, we added three troughs
and two water tanks, and this will
allow for grazing into the north side of Shell Ridge.
We haven't had grazing over there in several years.
Some other grazing updates.
We've added some new gates and a graded bike ramp,
like you see in the photo in the top right.
You can see in that photo that there's a graded bike ramp.
That's the first of its kind to go into our open space area.
We do believe it'll help out with the issue of gates
being propped open.
Traditionally, you see that happen a lot.
Mountain bikers, I don't blame them.
I wouldn't like to get off my bike either
when I'm cruising through.
So we think that adding these bike ramps
is going to be a good way to help ease the flow through there.
And we've got a couple more locations where bike ramps will
be going.
And this gate set up at the top right
was donated to the open space.
And we've also installed some new signage in our grazing areas.
And you can see the language there.
Can you explain why you're moving away from electric fences?
Yeah, so it was a big maintenance for the cattle rancher that runs the operation, had a real hard
time, difficult time keeping up with it. Staff was constantly chasing cows all over the place
when they would get out of the electrical fenced areas. So its effectiveness was debatable. Certain
times of the year when the when the ground wasn't wet the electrical
fencing didn't have that much of a charge so the animals were figuring out
that they could just brush through it and there wasn't much of a consequence
so really it became a it became a lot for staff to help out with and also for
the rancher to manage so we're we're keeping we're going to be grazing during
in the summer months only out in the open space.
So cows are gonna be in the open space
from approximately May, June,
and then typically out by end of October, early November,
just depending on the rains.
The primary reason there was a movement towards e-fencing
was because cows were causing damage
to the trail system itself,
especially during the winter time.
So there's gonna be a real effort
to make sure that doesn't happen again
and make sure that we're keeping cows off of the trails
when it's wet.
So that's why they're only gonna be out there
in the summertime.
So.
Is this, this slide is all about Shell Ridge,
but are these changes common in all of the open space?
I mean, Lime Ridge grazes.
Yeah, yeah.
So we will, it's the same deal.
We'll have, so we have two ranchers that ranch out
in the open space.
Genocchio and Desh.
Genocchio takes care of the Southern Lime Ridge area,
and then Daesh ranches and shell,
and then the north line.
So north line, same deal.
There's not going to be an electrical fencing.
There was never electrical fencing used in south line.
That was always kind of an open, grazed area.
Genocchio didn't want to have to deal
with the electrical fencing.
So it's a lot of work for the ranchers
to be able to manage it.
You don't see, I don't know of any other cases
where public agencies are using the electrical fencing.
So it was something we tried out for a bit.
And then we believe that we can manage the grazing
and the trail system and keep the trail system safe
and everybody happy out there without having
to use electrical fencing.
There were a few years there, heavy rain years there
where we had quite a bit of trail damage
that required, you know, made the trails unusable.
Was the grazing period different during those years?
Yeah, this was just before my time,
but to my understanding, there were cows out there
during the winter months that caused that damage.
Yeah, I mean, ultimately, cows on single tracks
are going to cause some damage,
there's gonna be some maintenance to it,
to the level that it was when it's wet out there.
No, you won't see that again.
I mean, you get indented hoof marks
that are, you know, three or four inches.
So we want to avoid that.
We don't want to have to spend hours and hours
as staff maintaining those areas,
especially in that clay soil
because it's pretty difficult to maintain.
So yeah, I'm pretty confident
that we can avoid that happening.
Any other grazing questions?
There's a hot topic.
All right, infrastructure improvement projects.
We've done a number of these over the years.
We average probably one to two new kiosks
over the last few years.
Several were just pretty worn down,
and the new design is more uniform.
There's space for information on both the front and the back.
That bottom right-hand photo is staff
putting the roof onto the kiosk.
So we've had new kiosks go in over the last couple of years
at Sutherland, at Marshall, at Hannah Lane.
Probably another two that I'm missing, but a lot of those.
Top right picture of a retaining wall that staff had put in.
So there's been two retaining walls, big retaining walls
that have gone in at Borges Ranch.
Pretty happy about how those turned out.
The pergola structure in the photo on the left is a project we did with the Rotary Club of
Walnut Creek, and this was done last summer. So the construction of that was, the plan was done
with the Rotary Club. They helped us build it. Staff and the Rotary Club went out there over the
course of two days and put up two new pergola structures at Sugarloaf, and that photo is a
photo of us prepping the pad. We did a nice DG pad that went down. So it's a
nice addition to the picnic area. We do a lot of picnics and campers and stuff
at Sugarloaf Open Space and it's been a big hit especially in the summertime.
They do provide a little bit of shade. They're a nice addition to the picnic area.
All right, restoration efforts. So staff has been focused on most recently
uh shutting down certain trail segments and offshoots in the quarry area in Lime Ridge
and that is the circled area in the photograph on the map there. And we've added a number of fences
to prevent basically activity on those trails. So we're really focused on on shutting these areas
down. We try to do this before we get into the rainy season because if we can keep traffic off
and people off when we get into the wet season we see some really good regrowth
and then you get a few seasons of that and we see these areas really jump back
to to what they should look like. And so that's the focus right now in terms of
restoration and closing is in the scoring area. Yeah. Would you mind
explaining a little bit more about what I mean there's people that are on bikes
that are creating these trails but could you just maybe expand on a little bit
like I know there's a history of people kind of creating rogue trails but why
that's not safe and just you know. So it's unsustainable. These
routes that people will make are not maintained and when you get a little bit
of water heading down these certain areas they just get indented and the
erosion kicks up and it just gets progressively worse over the years
especially if you don't take any action to really keep people off or shut them
down or do something to retain that soil. And so the first step is to keep people
off and keep people from using areas and we'll add erosion control walls if we
want to really retain the soil in certain areas and and do what we can to
help either plants start to re-root and regrow there and then once the plants
kind of come back in, they do a good job of retaining that soil for you.
But like I said, the first step is to keep people off.
And a lot of these routes that we're shutting down, they're not only are they not sustainable,
they're fairly unsafe too.
We've had a number of accidents out in this particular area.
So we're looking out for safety reasons and restoration purposes as well.
So going back to looking at some of the areas we had previously closed.
As you can see, the trail on the left was an area that had been opened up to the mountain
bike.
Well, not legally opened up, but it had been an area where mountain bikes would ride and
they've been riding, some people will tell you for 20, 30 years on that particular trail.
It was really tore up, so you can see what, you know, a bad, unmaintained trail will look
like after several years.
And you know, it was 20 feet wide in certain sections, maybe even larger, and big canyons
and ruts running through there.
But like I explained, if you keep people off and you allow vegetation to come back, that's
what it looks like after four years on the right.
So we're really happy with how a lot of these areas that we've focused on over the last
several years have turned out and how they look now.
It's a world difference and we're really, really happy to see the progress we've made
out there.
All right, invasive weed management.
is a big focus of staff in the summertime. Our our three main weeds that
we have been focusing on is Ditricchia. Why am I drawing a blank on the name of
this? Artichoke thistle, thank you. Ditricchia, Artichoke thistle, and then
And Jimson weed, Jimson weed is not pictured here.
Dietrichia especially spreads very rapidly.
So does the Arachuk thistle.
So we probably spend maybe one to two months out
of the summertime focusing on removing these weeds.
We had a pretty good handle on the situation,
I think over the last, really started focusing on them
over the last couple of years.
There's certain spots where they keep coming back,
but we're hoping that, you know,
but in the next few years that that workload diminishes.
Yeah, so it's been a focus of ours recently.
Cory? All by hand, sorry.
So we have been, the Dietrichia, yeah, all by hand.
we found that if you mow it or cut it down,
it'll come back.
So you really gotta pull the root systems up.
The artichoke thistle, you can spray
and then kill down into the root system.
So targeted spraying with the artichoke thistle
has seemed to work pretty well
and then pulling ditric out by hand has been our method.
Any way to use like sheep at certain times a year
to help with this?
Logistically, probably not for these.
just because they're so spread out.
And I don't know, I'd have to talk to a goat person
to see if they even would like to eat this kind of stuff.
You might just get them out there
and they'd just focus on everything else
and not eat that stuff.
I don't know, I don't have a good answer for you there,
but they need water.
And so a lot of these locations are pretty obscure
and out there and not easily reached.
so having goats or sheep out there might not work.
We're doing a pretty good job in-house.
I know that if you look at our area
compared to some other cities,
we're doing a pretty good job just over the boundary.
You can see quite a difference between lime ridge,
conquer versus lime ridge.
So we're gonna talk to them about maybe helping them out
in a little bit with the artichoke thistle
because we do get the seeds that come over from them.
They don't know the boundaries.
Okay, so trail work, my favorite time of the year,
we're just starting to get into it right now.
Over the last three or four years,
we really focused on improving the trail system
in terms of adding drainage dips.
Going back before my time,
the trail system was graded by the fire department yearly,
And there were really, there was a slight amount
of out sloping done, but never any drainage dips.
So you ended up with, you ended up with trails
with a lot of problems.
So we've turned away from that type of management
and then started just taking care of all of our trails
in house.
And we've done so with the use of some heavy equipment
and we've gone through and added a lot of drainage dips
in certain areas to really direct water off of the trail.
And these drainage dips,
they require a little bit of maintenance yearly,
but for the most part, once they're in
and you maintain them a little bit here and there,
they do a really good job diverting water off the trail
and they save you a lot of work and money in the longterm.
So that's been a big focus of ours.
There's still a few areas that we need to add some of these,
but I think it took us about two seasons
to really go through and add all the drainage dips
that we wanted to really to make an impact.
Sorry, is that just for double track,
or do you do single tracks, too?
You do drainage dips on single tracks, too.
These photos, the heavy equipment,
obviously, is only used on the double tracks, on the fire
roads.
But yeah, same type of methods are
used on single tracks, just to a smaller scale.
So we do a lot of that as well, and you in the past drainage dips and stuff have been
installed on single tracks, just never on the fire roads.
So it's just kind of traditional part of your trail work.
Drainage dips, nicks, grave reversal, stuff like that.
So recently before we get into the winter, the big winter storms, there's some prep work
We've been doing yearly in terms of adding waddles and jute netting in the the picture in the bottom, right?
Yeah, if you look close there is a jute netting
there's certain areas where
Sustainable drainage dips. They just aren't you can't take the water anywhere
It's just gonna go straight downhill and really the only thing you can do is try to slow it down and help retain that
So the best you can and so what we've a method we've used recently is added some jute netting in those areas that we know
are gonna rut. It does pretty good job of slowing the water down, keeping the
soil in place. So far I'm liking how that's turning out for us. And then the
waddle on the bottom left, we add those in certain areas also to help reinforce
some of our drainage dips, but also sort of direct that water off the trail
instead of running straight down it. So we're finding these methods to be very
helpful for us. What we want to avoid is that what you see in the photo on the
top right is those giant ruts that was from a storm that was right when we kind
of just started putting in drainage dips and hadn't really got to everything
that was that that New Year's Eve storm I think when we got like eight inches
or so of rain and you ended up with ruts like that throughout the open space so
we're trying to avoid having issues like that again and so far we've been pretty
good we'll see okay as you guys know it was the 50 year anniversary this year
we had a number of events to help commemorate that the 50 year
anniversary and get to my notes here yeah so we had the open space history
exhibit that was opened up at Shadelands. It was open from June through October and
the ladies over there did a really great job of setting that up. It was really cool to
see the history and they put information on the Rangers and it was a cool event. I'm sure
a lot of people that went and visited Shadelands during that time got to learn a little bit
about the open space. It was really cool. We also had a Borges Ranch Day back in June
as well. I think we had somewhere between 500 to 1,000 people show up at Borges Ranch
and had pony rides and 4-H was out there with their animals and having people pet them and
we even had a mechanical bull. So it was a good time. Oh yeah, and we'll be capping off
the 50-year anniversary by planting 50 oak trees out in the open space. So that's next
All right, so upcoming projects, fencing, seems like there's always some more fencing
work to be done out in the open space.
We will be extending the fossil hill split rail fencing.
There's about 400 feet of additional fencing that will go in there to really close off
access for the public in that particular restoration area.
We will be removing some damaged fencing near Ginder Gap and doing a restructuring of that
area to take away two gates down to one and that'll be in prep for cattle grazing as well
to allow for cattle grazing over there in the north side of shell ridge. And then also the
new fencing will be more wildlife friendly. Traditionally they've used the five strand barbed wire
with the new fencing the bottom and top strand will be barbless and we're looking to have scouts
or somebody willing to add some wildlife markers
so the fence is more visible, the birds and wildlife
as they're passing through.
Just ways to make our fencing a little more wildlife friendly.
Cory, is that the top right fossil hill?
Yes, sir.
And is the fence, is it going to kind of just hug the road?
I'm just curious where it is.
Yeah.
Yeah, it kind of hugs the road and just kind of lines that restoration area.
So it stops in an area where you can just skirt around it right now, and so the idea
is to kind of close it off a little bit better.
All right, more upcoming projects.
We're planning to update our maps in the near future.
There are a couple of trail segments that were identified by the trail committee as
trails that should be removed and restored including the Bronco Butte trail
segment and then also a segment of the Summit Ridge Trail so both of those
areas have been marked and closed and we are seeing a lot more a lot more plant
regrowth on those areas that have been closed especially on Bronco Butte you
can't even tell it's a trail anymore. Part of the reason for
Closing that one down as it it just led up to a dead end and folks were supposed to turn around and come back
Obviously not too many people do that when they're out in the open space
So they would just continue down to the handle lane trailhead and then the backside of that was really just steep and unsustainable
and wasn't maintained and there was a lot of ruts and so
Closing down that trail was a good good thing and then same with the summit Ridge trail
That one was was shut down and there was there was a from down from the viewpoint if you've hiked that trail
It's it's really sketchy and dangerous. So that one was really closed down for safety purposes
So updating the map to remove those trail segments from from it
And then also we're we're looking at potentially opening up to social trails that have been in existence for 20 or so plus years
very widely used by a lot of different folks one in shell Ridge and then one in the quarry area in
Lime and
We're working through the process to further evaluate and potentially open those up in the future
Alright more upcoming projects Bram Hall Pond. This was an area that was
identified
Kind of along with the the wetland improvement project along Indian Creek initially
We were thinking about doing this at the same time, but really it's a it's a little bit bigger of a project
in terms of de-silting
and so we're looking at adding in a hardened crossing where the
where the
pond outflows into Indian Creek and
We're also looking at deepening it by three or four feet in the middle
And then one or two maybe on the outskirts and just doing some some diesel thing to help this area retain water for a longer
So pretty excited about this one and it should help restore and improve that habitat quite a bit
So it's a beautiful pond when it's full and we want to keep it full for longer
All right. And lastly, so open space foundation. They're partners of ours. They have a lot of great projects out in the open space
You know their their projects are really an extension of the maintenance that we do out there
They they remove a lot of invasive species invasive plants and really helped by by planting a lot of natives out there
So really really proud to partner with them the work that they do
It should be recognized especially the rock oak bayberry deer lake
the oak restoration project and then also what we have going on around around fossil hill, so
We appreciate that the effort that they put in I think that is all that I have for you guys
Any questions? Yeah, I just wanted to add a couple things
Corey mentioned a number of our partners. I
Think they're worth mentioning again
the resource conservation district has helped with a number of these projects in terms of
Securing the permitting and also providing funding some of these projects actually require
some permitting work through Fish and Wildlife.
EQIP, which is a, if I understand it correctly,
it's a federal funding source that's contributed money
to several of these projects.
The foundation themselves have contributed
tens of thousands of dollars,
never mind all the thousands of man hours,
but the dollars really go a long ways,
including all the rock that Corey was talking about,
that 20 tons of rock they paid for, I think,
all of that rock, if not the vast majority of it.
of it. A lot of the fencing around Sutherland they paid for a lot of that
fencing. So they've just been they've been great partners and obviously we
couldn't do a lot of this work without the Park and Lou funding that is brought
in from developers. That's where the vast majority of these projects are being
funded is out of Park and Lou. So I guess with that being said I'll open up to
questions? I know we I think we have some sort of program of outreach program to
the schools related to Borges Ranch. School programs at Borges Ranch? Yeah.
Okay do we do any in the open space like on ecology or biology or anything like
that or really to focus more on the history at Borges? Our programs are the
only real one that we have actively is is the the history program of Borges
And those are the the school field trips and to update you guys on that we do
On average about two a week during the school year. So we're getting to the towards the end of that one
It quiets down in December. It'll pick back up
We start doing more programs in March. So March April May will do quite a bit and we have docents that help us lead those
tours as well and do we
Subsidize does the city subsidizes it in some way like they
So the the tours the they are $150 per class and
We we take those payments from the schools, so it's not not subsidized by the city anyway
Yeah, I was just curious. Yeah, but nothing else like in the watershed it or no
We don't you know we do
Night hikes and I will do some right. I've seen that in the wreck guy. Yeah. Yeah, but no real like ecology based
programs. The foundation, I think they touch on that kind of stuff a little bit with some
of the work that they do, but no real program like that in the open space.
Thanks.
Corey, you have a sense of usage from this year to last year, whether it's mountain biking
or hiking or just, I know you guys don't do a census or anything, but...
It's normal, I would say yeah, like compared to what times were like
just in 2020 and 2021 and
things really started to level out in 22 23 and then
Like usage they're they're busy days out there, but you know, it's not anything crazy
It's fairly average. We are
We are looking to add some trail counters out there to really get an idea of how many people are using certain trails
And so that is something that is kind of in the works right now
So get a better idea and some actual numbers to be able to share with you guys
If you mean we had that
The poppies. Yeah the issue from earlier this year if you guys
Come up with it. We kind of think we kind of left it as to we were gonna try and dial back the
The amount of poppies that are there are planted out there. Are you guys prepared for that?
Or is that more of an open space foundation thing or it's a it's a partnership. I'll let Mike speak on that one
So we met with the
Foundation the county traffic engineers city traffic engineers and the neighborhood a couple weeks ago
was our third meeting we have a
What I would say is a a pretty sound planned in place which includes a lot of signage
Adding some gates
Putting
Providing barricades for the property owners to put out in front of their property with signage
We haven't come up with the language that's gonna go on the signage just yet
We have large digital message boards that will be at the beginning of the street and at the end up by little parking lot
that's up there, informing people. We're going to try and do our best through social media
to steer people away from that particular area. In regards to the planting, they're
not planting poppies. They are planting native plants in areas that have already been prepped.
And there was some debate back and forth with that. And at the end of the day, if you don't
plant those areas and you just leave them bare, the poppy seeds will blow and grow.
And so if you plant the natives, they'll out-compete the poppies and keep that poppy population
in check, yeah. And, you know, the foundation was at the meeting. The foundation definitely
understands the challenge and is going to be looking into removing poppies that are,
you know, dense areas in certain locations.
It's one of the reasons we put the fence in
is to keep people out of the area.
We now, we have what we refer to as kind of maintenance
openings in the fence that go up to maintenance pathways
and we've closed those off, we're locking them,
Corey's working on some additional signage
to keep people out.
You know, the project started
and the focus of the project is to improve the environment.
It's not for people to come in from all over the Bay Area
to view the poppies.
It'd be great if they'd come and use the trails
and walk around and really get the real experience.
They're just, they're there for the photo shoot.
And we're, you know, we want to be sensitive
to the impact of the neighbors.
So we'll continue to work through it.
Not a question, just a comment.
I wanted to compliment Mike and the maintenance staff
and Corey and your group of Rangers
and the workers that are out there a lot,
you've accomplished a tremendous amount in 2024
and in the years leading up to that since the pandemic.
So compliments to really making progress
on a lot of things that had been planned,
but not previously done.
So that's great and keep up the work
and let us know what we can do to help.
Thank you. We appreciate it. There's a lot more work to do out there, but very happy
with the progress we made, for sure.
Can I add one thing I forgot to bring up earlier? Just a brief update on what's going on with
the Rec and Aquatic Center. I should have had that in my PowerPoint and I just left
it out. So we're making great progress with the design. We're down to identifying the
right location for drinking fountains. And so we're really got it dialed in. We're hoping
to get the project out to bid late spring, sometime in the summer. There are some challenges
with the permitting side of things. We have to deal with the Corps of Engineers, the federal
government, who then drags in the federal Fish and Wildlife, dealing with local Fish
and Wildlife and the Water Board. To secure those permits is something we are going to
be able to accomplish. Their timeline might not have the same priorities that we do in
terms of timelines. As you can imagine, they have a lot of projects coming in. In fact,
I was talking to our contact with Fish and Wildlife, and there's normally two of them
that oversee all the projects in Conchicusta County, and there's only one person. She has
dozens and dozens and dozens of projects. So it's, they're doing the best they can. We're
doing the best we can, but we're getting through it.
Hey, Mike, backtracking a bit. Indian Creek Pond, as Indian Creek flows into Indian Creek
Pond, which is right below Indian Valley School. And then from there, Indian Creek meanders
its way through a neighborhood before it dumps into Lake Lakewood.
Does the city have the right of way to walk the creek from, as it goes from, you know,
Indian Creek down into Lake Lakewood?
Because it was a big project right this year, last year, as a result of last winter, redoing
the roadway from, as Indian Creek flows under Lakewood Circle to then into Lake Lakewood,
does the city have the ability to walk that trail prior to winter to see, you know, trees
that have fallen or debris or neighbors have thrown things into that creek? Just curious.
Yeah, it's actually a project Corey took on, at least for the last couple years. I know
last year was pretty intense in terms of dragging out
a bunch of logs and debris and those things.
You wanna expand a little bit on that, please?
Yeah, so to the extent where the open space boundary ended,
once you get past Indian Valley Pond,
the creek sort of meanders in and out of private property
and city property.
So we went through there and we did a lot of clearing
debris removal just from to the point where it was very clear that we were in somebody's backyard and
and it didn't make sense to go any further without intruding onto somebody's private property.
So beyond that, I don't know what the creek bed looks like. So but we've done what we can
in the open space and those areas that kind of are borderline.
I bring this up because PG&E came through with their contracted tree removal place.
And when they cut down a tree, they send the homeowner a letter saying,
hey, your trees are near a power line.
But they don't remove the...
So they cut down the tree, the stumps and debris falls right there,
which is frequently right next to the creek, they don't remove any of it, they
just dump it and leave. And so I've already seen it because I live in
Lakewood area. So anyway, they've been, I mean PG&E has been great about, you know,
contracting with their tree company to remove this stuff or to cut down trees
that are hit power lines, but they don't get rid of what they cut down, they
just leave it there. So just a heads up FYI. Yeah, and we have drainage
ditches all around the city. And we send out somewhere close to 1,000 letters a year. We
just call them ditch letters to remind people that the winter storms are coming and that
they have certain responsibilities for those ditches. I know a lot of the people – I'm
going to get my directions mixed up. I would say just north of Indian Valley School or
actually in the county. But I'm going to check with the staff to see if we can also
send them ditch letters because at the end of the day if it builds up that far
end it's going to impact the open space and so there might be an opportunity to
at least make them aware because some of these properties are so large and they
might have a chain link fence here but not know that they have another 50 to
70 feet that crosses that creek that's actually their property and so they just
you know if you're a new resident you might not know exactly where your
property line is so we'll look into that.
So just add, we have a lot of really old residents who just don't take care of their property,
you know, either don't have the finances or the, you know, the capability of walking their
property.
So just my two cents.
Any other questions, comments?
I'll get you.
Yeah.
No, you're good.
Well, we'll call for public comment now if anybody has something to say, in regards to
What we just heard, now's your time.
Well, hold on, Barbara.
If you're gonna, you gotta come up and say, yep.
It's not us, it's the people at home.
You're on TV.
Yeah, I know thousands of people.
Yeah, I just wanted to thank Corey for the presentation.
I learned some things, right?
Not that I know everything.
And I even saw Jack the other day pulling out the turkey
over by the Valley Vista parking area.
So, I told Leslie Hunt about that.
We were all real happy, so, okay.
And then the other thing I just saw today,
that jute netting, my husband and I were going for a jog
and it's like, oh, what's this stuff?
So I think, and I just saw it in your picture.
And-
Robert, I'm gonna be the guy.
Could you-
Oh yeah, okay, sorry.
And then Fran's comment, I also noticed,
because I went over to Shell Ridge for once,
said that just Lime Ridge.
And I saw some of the new signs that you had up.
I just saw one.
I can't even tell you what location.
Somewhere by Ginder Gap.
So thanks for that.
And Fran brought up a comment about Native American signs.
And I know I saw that in the documentation
for all the changes at the golf course.
And they said it'll be in the future somewhere
where Native American signs.
But Mike mentioned something today.
So is it gonna happen soon?
Yes, how soon, I don't know.
The tribes are, I don't know how to describe it,
I would say understaffed
and have a lot of different projects going on.
But we are 100% committed
to getting the information out there.
I think that'd be great.
Cause that's always the thing I think about
when I'm up there.
You got trails called a loony trail and you know,
What about the people who lived here a long time ago?
So anyway, thank you very much.
And I enjoyed your presentation.
Thank you.
Any other further comment, questions?
Seeing none.
Thank you, Mike.
Thank you, Corey.
Thank you to your respective staffs
for all the work you guys do.
It shows and it's very much appreciated.
So let's move on.
Next on the agenda is an item for the commission
consideration of the pros commission, no staff report.
We're going to talk about city council priority setting.
We have been asked to identify some key issues that we can kick upstairs to the city over
the next two years, and so we're going to have a presentation and give our comments
on what we think.
Great.
Mike Vickers, once again, this presentation, as Chair Moran mentioned, takes place every
couple of years.
It's an opportunity for all of the commissions
to provide input to the council goal session,
which is going to kick off in February of this year.
Several of you participated in this,
I think all four of you that are closest to me
participated this about two years ago.
And as part of the staff report,
we wanted to include what the current priorities are,
and I'll just go through them quickly.
diversity, equity and inclusion, economic development
and job creation, environmental sustainability
and climate action, parks, facilities
and other infrastructure.
And lastly, is public safety and social wellness.
And I was back, as you know, most of you know,
I'm relatively new doing this.
And so I was back reviewing the presentation
that Heather gave a couple of years ago.
And three of the five current priorities
We're the same back for 22-23.
So DEI move forward, excuse me.
DEI move forward, infrastructure and facilities move forward
and so did public safety and social wellness.
And just as a reminder, I actually took some notes
on some of your comments from two years ago
and I just thought I'd share them.
It might help a little bit as part of this discussion.
Number of top goals were your park, your future,
a strong focus on the open space and its sustainability,
developing educational programs,
equity sharing of limited sources,
sorry, limited resources,
continuing environmental goals in the open space,
funding trail maintenance,
enhancing wildlife and plants,
and also public safety within the open space,
Creek restoration and lastly was in terms of any new buildings in the city
we should strongly be considering sustainable buildings and recycling
materials if buildings are being demolished so that's just view the
clicker by chance those are just some examples of what came up last year if
you look through the actual descriptions I'm not gonna read all this to you
obviously but it's also in your staff report a lot of the comments that this
commission made a couple years ago made it into these goals and so this is an
opportunity and I'd like to open it up for you guys to discuss or share some
input that we'll then track and bring back to the Commission. I think they're
meeting on February 25th which by the way is an open meeting which
everyone is welcome to attend so I'll turn that over. I'll say just a quick
note for my fellow commissioners too like we you know we our lane is parks
an open space but I don't don't be shy about city priorities that you feel
important that you want to bring to light as well. Does anybody have anything
to say? Is this these are very we're sort of drilling down into these
specific topics is that correct? We are putting our thoughts together
regarding what the city council's priorities should be for the next two
years. This is the previous two years that they've been focused on. If you agree with
these, that's fine, too. But this is these are now two years old. And the issue is what
is the City Council going to focus on next two years and what's our thoughts on that?
And I would just add, and that's why some of these have carried forward two cycles is
because there's a lot of work here. And some of these are DEI, for example, is a top priority.
And that work is probably never going to stop.
And so they want to keep reinforcing their their priorities and providing direction.
So since I'm new to the commission, I put out a request or ask next door asking the
Walnut Creek residents what their vision is for kind of in the pros jurisdiction that
purview the priorities.
they, we heard, I heard, you know, about the new aquatics and community center, that's
a big, big thing and, and, and folks are interested, engaged, wanting to know the progress, like
the timeline, when it's, the construction is going to start, when the, when it's going
to be complete. The other thing that was kind of new that they brought up is the Askewell
community gardens. And I thought that might be a good point to think about connecting
multi-generational youth that you want to create seniors.
And it could be a DIA and go as well.
And also the social wellness of our community at large.
So I just want to put that out there.
I would like to reiterate the educational one,
hence the question to Corey.
I know there's a lot of schools that really
like to have opportunities for field trips.
and I think we do have a really wonderful resource
in our open space.
And even some of the parks have features
where you could do like a creek study
or things like that with small kids.
I know when I was at the water district
and I was overseeing the watershed,
we had a very robust education program
and I'm telling you, they clamored for those field trips.
There's a limited number, so not everyone could have one,
but you know what I mean?
There was really a lot of interest in that.
And I think that it's always important to give opportunities
to kids.
And we should focus probably on the schools in Walnut Creek,
but it's kind of a regional resource,
even though it's owned and managed by the city.
So potentially opportunities to meet some
of these other goals, like the DEI goals and the sustainability
goals and things like that.
And my other point I just want to make
was we look at these in their different-colored boxes,
but so many of these really overlap and interweave,
and I hope that the city looks at them that way
when they are developing budgets for the departments
and the projects and things like that.
So I don't know, do you guys have to say,
oh, we want this project, and it meets these goals
in these different categories,
or do you show that integration
when you're sort of justifying projects?
We have, most of that is discussed with the executive team,
so I don't know exactly the conversations that they have,
but there's a reason,
it was kind of interesting when I first realized
what was going on, but the goals are for two calendar years,
as opposed to our budgets, our fiscal year.
And so they always do it just after the election.
So if there's a new council member,
he gets to weigh in on the goals.
And so the goal setting, I got the dates wrong a minute ago,
it's actually February 11th, their meeting.
And the new council member will have an opportunity
to share his input and also hear from the other commissions
along with all the other council members.
So they'll set them in February,
and then I believe they're active just before the budget
as part of the budgeting process is my understanding.
just wanted to comment about that process too.
I had the opportunity to attend the last two sessions
and I found it really good exercise
in seeing where the various council members come from
and what they're thinking
and how they go about their prioritization
for all the things that are being suggested.
So if you have the opportunity to show up for that
on the 11th, I highly recommend it.
No, I have nothing to report as of now.
I'll take a crack.
A couple of things that I think are important is
now that we have a lot of the heavy lifting done
with the infrastructure at Heather Front Park,
I think a continued focus
on other larger infrastructure projects
and getting the ball fields done,
the all weather fields, the lights at Tice Creek.
Those are all on the docket and I understand that.
But we have an opportunity, I think, to think bigger.
Two, in terms of infrastructure,
like just making sure that we're more bikeable.
And people then can get to the brand new swim
and community center and don't necessarily have to contend
with traffic on YVR, or if they do have to contend
with traffic, we can maybe figure out some ways
that traffic is not as bad with other measures in place.
And I also think a focus on our parks,
specifically the parks centered around downtown
over the next couple years in that,
because the population growth is gonna expand
in our downtown area, and I think having people
who are in multifamily units,
who don't want to get in the car to drive,
who want to go to the civic park,
to Commissioner Pinkstaff's point,
maybe something where the community garden downtown
or something like that.
And we think in terms of making people's quality of life
who live in their urban center also park friendly,
so to speak.
And then the other thing I'll point out is that
I know it's not a secret that there's an uptick
of unhoused people in some of our parks.
I know the city's doing a good job of making sure these people have a place to go if they need to but
it's something that I have heard of and I think that that's something to be vigilant about because especially as the population grows in
Our city center. We want to make sure that people
are safe whether they're just in the parks or they're
Worried about where their next meal is going to come from
Oh and more trees that would be great too
That was my other note
Anybody else yeah, I like I like your comments running
I'll play off that last one that the
Safety and parks in the Civic Center so to speak
I think it I think
Enhancement or improvement of the creek restoration or see involvement in that more active involvement
would also be an attraction for the city residents in many ways and
Those that live there live downtown and those that live elsewhere even I
Think there's an opportunity to to improve
And this kind of goes in the public safety
area, I think there's an opportunity to have new measures to
help avoid the vandalism that's going on in our parks particularly
Carving up of
plane fields and
Other things that happen and the parallel to that is carving up of the open space sometimes by
Various individuals some of them some of whom are bikers, but other things as well
So, any new measures that we could use to improve or prevent those types of activities,
and I think that's appropriate for our public safety perspective.
And there was one other thing.
This is a small point, but I did notice in the documentation we had that the conversion
to electric leaf blowers by the maintenance staff, particularly downtown but also in other
parks throughout the city as well.
And through the sustainability goal, I think we can look at the next steps.
What else can we do in terms of those things we use for maintenance equipment that could
be converted to a battery or electrical device?
I think it's noticeable in the parks when you're exercising or doing something, and
all of a sudden, the lawnmower comes flying by or whatever it is, and along with that
is usually a whole boatload of emissions and exhaust and I think we ought to start to look
at other opportunities to get those things permanently replaced by something that doesn't
cause those emissions and health issues. So those are my three cents.
As it relates to this commission and infrastructure, I'll bring up the heated pickleball topic.
I was the chair of the pickleball task force where we had half dozen meetings or so with
neighbors and the Walnut Creek Pickleball Club.
Mike had you attend a number of those meetings.
Kevin Safin was in all of those meetings.
We had lots of negotiations and subgroups that came back and reported various successes
and some knots of successful things as it relates to alternatives.
And I know the council is working, you know, through the, you said, city manager is under
his, it's in the balls in his court, so to speak.
But you know, it is a big topic and I wasn't really going to bring it up.
But we did in October, you know, Walnut Creek through our pickleball, it was Rossmore, but
we made national and international news as a result of the Rossmore pickleball incident
that occurred.
And you know, when we don't have the days that we do not have pickleball at Ruggier,
It puts pressure on all the other courts in the area,
particularly Rossmore and Lafayette and I believe Danville.
I believe they've got some things going on at Osage Park.
But these are very, you know,
we have a robust retirement community and there's a lot,
we're obviously, that's why we talk about,
we're on pros commission, right?
We talk about these things and the open space,
I mean, people wanna live here during retirement.
And it's also, it's so that pickle ball
is a very popular sport for the retired folks,
but also the working people, and now the younger folks,
the high schools have pickleball as an option
in their, as a sport for their PE classes.
So it's not going away, it's still a really growing sport.
And I know we don't have an easy solution to these problems.
We talked about Tice Valley, and it sounds like,
but it sounds like we're moving ahead
with building the lighting for the soccer field,
which means we won't be able to relocate
because we talked about relocating some of those things
and then for pickleball at Tice Valley.
Anyway, long story short, pickleball.
Any other comments?
No other comments.
We're gonna take public comment.
You wanna give it a third time as a term, Barbara?
Okay, seeing no other public comment,
I'll throw it back once more to my commissioners.
Any last thoughts on any guidance
for our city council in the next two years?
We're not going to take a motion or anything like that, so I think I saw Secretary Vickers
furiously writing down everything that we were saying.
Where are we here?
All right, moving on then, are there any commissioners' reports?
Well I am supposed to be the representative for the, our proposed commission representative
for the Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation, which takes place at 930 or 10 o'clock in
in the rec yard.
Is that what they call it, the rec yard?
Corporation yard, yep.
Corporation yard, and it's a fantastic group
of hardworking folks, given the timing of day,
it's once a month, but I was not always able
to make as many meetings as I wanted to.
Chair Moran filled in for me one Friday,
but we are looking for another representative,
and I understand we do have a commission member
who might be interested in that,
and so I will send an email to the president of the KIME,
KIME, right, and copy you
as being the new representative to...
Commission pink step, just...
You're pointing in that direction.
Yes, I'm sorry, I forgot the last name.
It was pink or green, so...
So you'll be you'll be you'll be what's it's the Wall Street open space for green staff works, too
So yes, thank you very much, and I know they'll really appreciate having you
Thank you for the opportunity
And and not to give short shrift to the Walnut Creek senior club, and it's new liaison Commissioner Garland congratulations
Any staff reports
Yes, just two quick reports. I mentioned earlier that I was
I'm going to provide a little bit more information on the tree grant, the federal tree grant
from the U.S. Forestry that we've been working on for probably about a year now.
It's not a significant amount of money, but it's definitely enough to get us moving forward
in a master plan as what our focus is.
about $100,000. Conquered made a request and got about a million dollars. So this is a
good start for us. These grants come out almost annually. So once we have an opportunity to
put this master plan together, it will be a good start for us moving forward. Go ahead.
You didn't ask for enough money in the grant.
Correct. We did not. Fran knows how this works. And I think I might have mentioned offline
that there's been a little slow in the funding due to the federal transition of the government,
so we're anticipating getting the funding sometime in the first quarter.
And that my second and last update is I forgot to put this on the consent calendar, but all
of you have a counsel and commission calendar, and I just want to let the community or anybody
who's listening know that we provided these to you, and we will add it to the minutes
so that people can get access to it in the future.
And besides that, it's also online if you're in need of it.
And that's all I had.
Okay, thank you for everyone for coming
and for those watching at home.
This adjourns the December 2nd,
2024 PROS Commission regular meeting
and we're adjourned until February 3rd, 2025.
Thank you.