For many Ben Lomond residents, it’s hard to talk about Ben Lomond Park without reminiscing about the days when, every summer, the river that runs through it was dammed up to create a swimming hole right in the heart of downtown. The park has been without a dam for about a decade, though, and residents now use the park sparingly.
“It’s not being used anymore, because there’s nothing to use,” said county parks planner Bob Olson, producing nods of agreement at a community meeting earlier this week.
With not quite two months left to apply for part of a state grant for Ben Lomond Park, Santa Cruz County Parks Department officials had their first community meeting this week to learn what locals want.
The $184 million grant, available for improvements to some California parks, is part of the $5.4 billion Proposition 84 approved in 2006. The bond would pay to improve drinking water, beef up flood control, improve parks and protect natural resources.
On Tuesday, Jan. 12, about 25 local residents joined Joe Schultz, the parks director, and planners Bob Olson and Cristina James in a discussion aimed at getting a sense of what enhancements the park on Mill Street needs to make it the popular place it once was.
But a dam isn’t the answer, at least when it comes to the grant application due March 1.
Olson urged, “If there’s a want to get the dam up, please do it separately.”
About half of the meeting’s attendees said they were disappointed to hear the county will not take on the dam project with the grant application.
But, as Olson and James explained, including in the application a plan to rebuild the dam, with an accompanying fish ladder and a myriad of environmental complications, would hurt the county’s chance of winning the money. They estimate that an environmental review of the river area, which be needed before the March 1 grant application deadline, would take about two years.
With applicants across the state vying for grants between $100,000 and $5 million, the Ben Lomond Park improvement plan must have simple, realistic goals that are competitive with other proposals.
That means submitting a plan to make Ben Lomond Park a place people can go to have fun and feel safe.
Today, park visitors tend to avoid the area at night (because of poor lighting), and they generally don’t use the space for picnics or barbecues (no tables, no pits).
Pickup basketball, however, is growing in popularity for a group of college students and their friends, because the park does have a concrete foundation and basketball hoops.
“Once basketball games started happening, I became attached,” said Darby Brown-Kuhn, a 19-year-old Felton resident and Cabrillo College student, who went to the park meeting with a few friends.
Basketball aside, residents know more must be done to create a park for everyone. The first step may be winning a piece of the Proposition 84 grant money.
As director Shultz said, “We’re going in with the attitude that we’re going to win this thing.”
