Hiddenbrooke Park Can Happen With Your Help

The Hiddenbrooke Community Association held an open meeting together with the regular monthly Board meeting on October 8,2009. Those present heard a presentation from Curt Johannson of Triad and Nicole Byrd Executive Director of the Solano Land Trust about our current effort to get the park back on track.

You may recall that we have been working for many years on a joint school/park project to be located in the Orchards on a site dedicated by Triad.

That project has come to a halt because of problems in the federal regulatory process because of additional mitgation required for the "red legged frog". In addition, the Vallejo Charter School which was supposed to occupy the site has been relocated to a "permanent site" in Vallejo and very few of the children attending the school are from Hiddenbrooke.

The School district is also having money problems and is in the process of closing down multiple schools and the chance of opening a new school at the same time is not practical.

Our association therefore is proposing to swap the school and park locations and put the park in front (closest to the orchards) and leave the school site in the back for further development (if and when the financial picture and the demand change).

This undertaking requires the agreement of multiple agencies -- VUSD,GVRD,the Tri-Cities Board, the Solano Land Trust, the City of Vallejo and the various state and federal regulatory agencies.

There is $1.5M in trust in the City of Vallejo for this project and with Curt's ability to weed out the unnecessary, there is enough to build the park. Maintenance of the park will be by GVRD and they will provide the same level of maintenance for this park as they do for all parks in the City of Vallejo. If that is not going to be good enough for what we desire then we will have to become inventive as to how we are going to pay for any additional levels of maintenance.In any case it is too early to get into this issue at this time.

What we need from you.

Please contact me jimlibien@comcast.net and let me know that you want this park and will attend public meetings to show your support for the park.That is very important to the agencies that have to consider this item. When we go to City Council we are going to want at least 50 Hiddenbrooke residents to attend.

In this day and age of serious financial problems for every agency, if we are not proactive and push for this park, the officials will eventually find a way to take our $1.5M and use it for another purpose.

Can we count on you to help?

Jim Libien, HCA President