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::: COMMUNITY NEWS
Weather has halted the ball field construction at Stonehouse Park, seen in mid-December. Parks Committee approves bridge mitigation measures Published Monday, January 3, 2005 The process of building a pedestrian/cart bridge to connect the North and South moved forward last week when the Parks Committee voted to approve and carry out the mitigation measures identified in the environmental document for the project. The Rancho Murieta Association board of directors approved the measures the week before. On Tuesday, the Community Services District will take a crucial step in the bridge project when the board of directors meets to exercise its authority as the lead agency. The board is holding a special meeting at 6 p.m. at the CSD Building to consider accepting the environmental document -- a mitigated negative declaration -- and approving the bridge. If
the project is approved, the environmental document will be used
in obtaining permits from government entities that have authority
over the project.
The bridge is a Parks Committee project. Once completed, it becomes the property of the RMA. RMA General Manager Greg Vorster serves as the project manager. The bridge is being built with $1.5 million of developer funds to fulfill a county-imposed obligation required of the South developer. The Parks Committee contracted with Viking Construction, a bridge-building company owned by resident Randy Jenco, to build the bridge by the end of this year. Rain delays ball field construction RMA General Manager Greg Vorster told the Parks Committee that rain has played havoc with the schedule for the construction of a new ball field at Stonehouse Park. The project was put on a fast track after RMA Director Mike Martel approached the Parks Committee last October as a member of a volunteer group that offered to donate labor, materials, and a $7,500 contribution from Summerfest for the ball field. Martel said the project was timed to take advantage of a few months of downtime contractors experience towards the end of the year. A week after Martel made the proposal, the Parks Committee approved spending up to $30,000 from the Parks Fund for the ball field. Martel has estimated the value of the volunteer group’s donations for the project at about $90,000. Vorster said work on the field waited until soccer season ended so play wouldn’t be interrupted. Then the rains came. Progress to date consists of some grading work started by the volunteers and the completion of a new concrete slab by the RMA Maintenance Department. The slab is for the covered patio that will be relocated as part of the project. Committee discusses parks master plan The proposal for a new ball field at Stonehouse Park prompted members of the Parks Committee to take a closer look at the master plan for the community’s parks. The new field is the third of four fields planned for Stonehouse in the parks matrix. Committee member Pamela Haines suggested that it may be time to reevaluate the matrix with a view to getting more member input on what’s planned for each of the parks. The committee discussed how this could be accomplished equitably, but didn’t decide on a course of action. RMA General Manager Greg Vorster and CSD General Manager Ed Crouse pointed out that there’s uncertainty at the present time about how much money will be available to fund the projects and when the money will become available. Since the Parks Fund is made up of contributions from developers and RMA members that are calculated on a per-unit basis, funding depends on what’s developed and when. Developers who sign the Parks Agreement pay about $2,000 per unit and the RMA makes a matching contribution of about $600 from member dues. The rates are tied to an index and adjusted yearly. Until it’s determined how many units will be developed and a timetable emerges, funding will continue to be a guess. Although the five voting members of the Parks Committee include two members of the development community, only CSD representative Dick Taylor and the two RMA representatives, Donni Quinlan and Haines, were present at the December meeting. Representatives of North developer Murieta Holdings and South developer Reynen & Bardis have not attended the committee meetings in recent months.
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