Good evening.

I'm Jason Cook and welcome to the Monday, February 2nd, 2026 regular meeting of the Walnut Creek Park Wreck and Open Space Commission.

Start with uh roll calls.

Secretary Vickers, would you please call roll?

Yes.

Commissioner Sasser.

Here.

Commissioner Oler.

Commissioner Garland.

Here.

Vice Chair Pinkstaff.

Here.

Chair Cook.

Here.

And let the record show that uh Commissioner Conson is not but uh present tonight.

Next on the agenda is public communication.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for comment on items not on the agenda.

Under the Brown Act, the Commission cannot act on items raised during public communications, but may respond briefly to statements made or questions posed.

Request clarification or refer the item to staff.

Written comments submitted have posted to the city's website for public review and are included in the meeting record, but will not but will be will not be separately read into the record.

So this is a portion for items public comment not on the agenda.

We have a busy schedule tonight.

So is there anybody who has uh not on the agenda?

Yes, sir.

Come up and chat, two minutes.

Two minutes.

Uh hey there, folks.

Uh my name is Jared King, born and raised here in Walnut Creek, lived here my entire life.

Um, and I am here to uh voice a desire, and I think there's a need for this.

Um, a mountain bike pilot project in Lime Ridge.

Uh, most of you guys are probably aware that we tried to get a trail built in 2021, didn't really go well, but there is a large group of kids that ride and race in this area and that utilize Lime Ridge as a training ground, and the trails that they legally can ride do not necessarily serve what they need them to be.

Um, and I think Lime Ridge would be a great solution for a pilot project.

Um I would urge all of you guys to look into the success of the Briones pilot project that was been running for the last two years in Brioney's uh East Bay Regional Park District.

Um I was largely a part of getting that up and running, and I would love to help you guys get a pilot project up and running here in Walnut Creek because I think it's desperately needed.

Um I brought in a bunch of Contra Costa composite riders, these are all of our kids that race here in the area.

There's a small group of them, but the team is comprised of over 120 riders, and that's just one team.

Uh, there's teams at San Roma Valley, teams at Miramonte, teams in Oakland, and they all come over to Lime Ridge and to Walnut Creek to ride bikes, and I think we need to build them some trails.

Um, and that's my comment for y'all today.

Thank you.

Great, thank you very much.

Any other uh public comment before we okay, yes.

Good evening.

I'm Glenn McBee.

I'm the city liaison for the Walnut Creek Racket Club.

Been for many years.

Um I missed Chris's welcome party.

I wanted to come down and introduce myself and uh again get reacquainted with you guys, pump up our club a little bit.

We got one meet I want to talk about in a little bit, but just to remind the group, the crowd, Walnut Creek is a destination for a lot of things.

It is definitely for tennis.

We have over 1,200 members, active members in our public club, largest in Northern California on probably one of the smaller venues that we have centrally located at Heather Farm.

Second largest in the state, destination, as I said, for tennis players from many places because we have many teams that succeed and go on and play at nationals.

We've had I think six national champions in from seven different seasons last year that went and won at nationals.

But the one issue that I I think that you've probably heard, Chris has probably heard it already.

Our facilities are wonderful for what we have.

Our lights are an aging infrastructure issue.

They go out, they're of old technology, and when they go out, it's not just about getting a light bulb, it's a ballast that goes out, it's bulbs that are done a search nationwide.

We had three lights out on one court for three months.

Not because of lack of effort, but because of lack of supply.

So I know that um it's on the table with lifetime.

That's something they're trying to push.

I think you guys are aware of it.

I just wanted to bring it up from our perspective, our players.

LEDs are such an upgrade.

Many clubs have them.

And I think that if we can make that push, that's our number one issue.

So I just wanted to share that with you.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Other public comments not on the agenda.

Yes.

Hello, my name is Barbara Guinness.

I've been a resident of Walnut Creek since 1996.

It's the first meeting of pros this year, so happy new year to all of you.

I sent in uh couple written uh comments, and one of which I attached a couple videos of motorcycles that are being used in the open spaces now.

And also subsequently I found what I call a mountain bike or a motorcycle playground.

There were jumps, curves.

Uh uh, even a swimming hole up there.

I don't know what they use that for, but whatever.

Um, subsequently, uh city staff has disassembled the jumps and you know, taken out the the tools, the tarps and all that from that playground area, and thank them for their quick action on that.

However, I wonder, did you know the playground portion of Lime Ridge is a lime ri is the Lime Ridge Wildlife Preserve, which is more protected than other areas in the in the open spaces.

City staff is planning to convert a social trail to an official multi-use trail right below this playground area, right in the cliff area.

Um by creating a multi-use trail, city staff is officially inviting more mountain bikes and possibly even e-bikes and motorcycles to this area.

And at the end of 2023, I'm not sure if you knew this, but a mountain biker lost their life there because it can be dangerous.

In the fall of 2024, there was a big wildfire in that area.

Undetermined origin didn't come from Ignatio Valley, so probably was human involved.

Also, residents that have joined the open space are getting uh their homeowner's insurance canceled because of the high wildfire risk of living right near the open space.

So I wanted to mention that it's not uh the best interest of the taxpaying residents of Walnut Creek to open a new multi-use trail to invite even more people to allow motorcycle usage in the open spaces and um mountain bikes and e-bikes and single track trails.

Thank you for all you do to conserve and protect the open spaces.

Thank you.

Any other public comments not on the agenda?

Yes, sir.

Yeah, just a quick uh follow-up on that comment.

Um I think that some of the concerns that were raised just by the last speaker, just are you even more for the notion of an organized coordinated pilot project for the mountain bike so that they're a safe and responsible use, so that there are not people who are just trying to make their own trails and do stuff that is dangerous and not coordinated.

And so I think this is a rather than just shut it down, is an idea of like, yeah, let's try something organized, let's try something planned, let's follow the lead of what we saw out of Briones, which in my opinion has been quite successful.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Are we just there's no?

Yes.

Next.

Uh, so my name is David.

Um, I'm a coach with Conch Cost Composite, and then um also on behalf of the stewards so uh the pilot project that he was talking about over at Briones, um, we actually just surpassed 4,500 volunteer hours, and we just had a dig day this last weekend, and here's a surprising little stat as far as involvement.

It used to be mainly adults.

I would say this last participation volunteer was about 50 50, where we had kids under, you know, I call kids, but you know, under 21.

Um, so I just want to say that it it is working, and if you guys want to set a precedent for future generations, they're right here, and that's how it starts, right?

Like I was their age when I grew up here, and I used to ride these trails, and it took, don't want to age myself over 40 years before I could actually take my kids and the kids on the team trails that were legal for them to ride.

So just consider that, and these are your that's the future right there.

So thank you very much.

Sir, could you do me a favor when you get an opportunity and fill out a speaker card so we could potentially follow up?

Where's the uh they're they're at the front door there?

Sure.

All right, thank you.

Great, thank you very much.

Any other uh public comments before?

Nope.

Okay.

Uh with that before the consent calendar, uh I'd like to introduce the new arts and recreation director, Chris Farrow.

Chris, would you like to step forward and be recognized?

Not sure I prepared you for this, so kind of putting you on the spot.

Sorry.

Thanks for coming forward.

Hi, thanks for the introduction.

Uh Chris Farrow uh started December 15th, I think, in arts and recreation.

Um, excited to be here most recently with the city of Stockton, where I oversaw the San Joaquin County Library System and the City's Recreation Division, and before that with the city of Brentwood.

So I've been uh in Contra Costa County and excited to be back in Contracasta County and excited to work with you.

Awesome.

Thank you, Chris.

Welcome.

Look forward to seeing you around.

Yep, absolutely.

Well, you have been around, so all right.

Uh I'd also like to take a moment to acknowledge that tonight um is uh my last meeting as both your chair and on this commission.

Uh my term is coming to an end.

Um, and uh and and it is possibly uh Commissioner Oler's last meeting as well.

Uh his term is uh expiring, but he has submitted for uh renewal uh for perhaps a third term.

Um so I it's kind of premature to say good say goodbye.

I mean, but but your your participation is much appreciated, and we'll cross our fingers and root for you uh for the third term.

Uh I know there's a process for that, but uh you're certainly been a valuable member of the volunteer community in this the year of the volunteer.

So thank you, Ard.

Thank you.

Can I say something?

Absolutely quickly.

I have a couple thank yous very quickly.

Uh first the staff and managers of public uh works and recreation that had appeared before our committee, and all the work that your staff does to keep our parks open space uh um in first class shape all the time 24-7, and also the uh incredible range of opportunities for recreation that are here in Walnut Creek.

We draw people from all around our city to come here, and um I'm sure that uh um many people here tonight are not even walnut creek residents.

Um the other thank you is for all of the people who have come before our commission in the last eight years and talked about issues that were near and dear to their heart.

Um I'm particularly impressed when I see a number of young people like tonight.

It's not the first time we've seen um mountain bikers here.

Um lots of input from you all.

Thank you.

Uh, we've seen young people from artistic swimming come and talk to us, that's been great.

Love to hear from you.

And uh equestrian center, young riders.

So those are things that I remember um that stick out in my mind, but everybody that's here uh is someone that's here because they care about something that they want to do here in Walnut Creek, and so we thank you for coming and spending time with us, giving us your input.

And just because we don't always vote a recommendation that you want doesn't mean we didn't listen.

We did.

Thank you.

I want to take a moment to thank Chair Cook for your service.

Um Jason is a lifelong Walnut Creek resident and avid cycler.

And um your care about cycling safety in open space has really contributed to the commission's deliberation on the safety of cyclists in our open space.

So thank you for that, Jason.

Thank you very much.

It was uh it's been a uh honor to be on the uh commission here.

And uh, you know, as far as m you know, some major events we had were the pickleball task force, uh, and that was a a great group spirited uh uh conversation that continues.

Uh and uh yeah, I'm a lifelong resident just like you guys and was riding my bike in uh in Walnut Creek when I was a kid all over the place, and but we were building jumps and all kinds of cool stuff.

Before there were a lot of how there were a lot fewer houses back then, a lot fewer neighborhoods.

So I know we all have to be good neighbors and um and that's part of what being here is about is an opportunity to participate as a good neighbor and have these conversations in an open forum.

So I think and art did a fantastic job uh in summarizing a lot of that too.

So thank you very much.

All right.

I know we have a just before you move on.

Just one second.

Oh, Rector Payne, please.

Good evening, uh, Commissioners Rich Payne, uh public works director for the City of Walnut Creek.

And um I'm here tonight just to uh thank you for your service, specifically uh our uh aller and and Commissioner uh Cook.

I appreciate uh the opportunity to speak with you this evening on behalf of uh the city, the city manager's office, public works and the art arts and rec, I want to thank you for your dedication, your thoughtful um questions, and your uh steady commitment to this community.

Your perspective has helped uh strengthen pro uh projects, improve outcomes, and ensure that we are always considering the long-term stewardship of our parks and open space.

Your willingness to engage, uh collaborate with staff and keep the community at the center of every discussion has made a real lasting impact that uh kind of service does not go in unnoticed and is deeply appreciated I know from staff but also uh our citizens here.

So on behalf of uh all the folks I've mentioned, want to thank you for your time, energy and care you've given in Walnut Creek.

We are better because of your service, and we wish you the very best in your next uh adventure.

So thank you very much.

We have some uh some going away gifts.

Oh thank you.

So I'll go ahead and you guys want to come out here with a picture too.

Yeah.

Right right out here in front.

So here's uh on behalf of staff or some disturbs or open space.

And we also have some uh, Thank you all for hanging in there with us.

I know we got a lot on our agenda tonight.

Before the consent, okay.

Next on the agenda is the Cassent Consent Calendar.

Do any commissioners wish to poll any item for discussion?

Does any member of staff wish to pull an item for or staff wish to pull an item for discussion?

Okay.

I need to take role real quick.

Yes.

Sorry.

So I'm gonna take roll call real quick.

So uh Commissioner Sasser.

Here.

Commissioner Roller.

Approved.

Commissioner Garland.

Vice Chair Pinkstaff approve.

And Chair Cook approved.

So let the record show that uh the consent calendar is approved unanimously.

Thank you.

Okay, does any member of the public wish to comment on an item on the consent calendar?

Okay.

Seeing no speakers, I'll ask the commission if anyone would like to make a motion with regard to the consent calendar.

We have a motion and a second.

Would the secretary please call role?

So thank you.

I just called role.

So I'll do it again just okay.

Just so we're official.

I apologize.

Yeah.

That's what happens when you skip a meeting, you uh lose lose structure here.

So uh Commissioner Sasser.

Yes.

Commissioner Ohler, yes.

Commissioner Garland.

Yes, Vice Chair Pinkstaff.

Yes.

And Chair Cook.

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

Next on the agenda are presentations by six nonprofits as part of the year of the volunteer.

Um, I'm going to we have uh six presentations as it says, and after each presentation, which is 15 minutes long, uh, we're going to have a public comment section uh after each one of the presentations.

Um we decided decided to do that uh rather than wait till the end because we have um a few to go through and we want to make sure everybody has an opportunity to speak on them right after the speaker.

Uh so I will first up uh I'm going to invite Jim King and Meg Honey with the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation to step forward and provide their presentation.

Thank you.

Um very happy to be here to talk with you tonight.

Um I am a longtime aquatic athlete, aquatic supporter, and aquatic parent here in Walnut Creek.

I am also a board member of the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation.

And I am here to share an update on the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation and our role in supporting the development of a modern inclusive uh aquatic facility that serves the long-term needs of the Walnut Creek community.

WCAF was founded to ensure that aquatics remains a vibrant, accessible and lasting part of Walnut Creek's future.

The Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation was founded in 2015 as a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Our all volunteer board includes representatives from the community, the Walnut Creek Aquabares swim team, Walnut Creek Aquanuts Artistic Swimming Team, and the Walnut Creek Masters Swim Team.

Our mission is to promote and advance aquatic facilities and programs in Walnut Creek.

We support a full spectrum of aquatics, recreational swimming, competitive programs, fitness and wellness activities, and therapeutic aquatics.

Because water truly serves every age and ability in our community.

At its core, the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation exists to support Walnut Creek's long and proud aquatics tradition.

Our work focuses on ensuring access to safe, modern facilities, spaces that meet today's needs and tomorrow's expectations.

We focus on protecting critical programs such as swim lessons, youth and adult team programs, and community events, services that contribute directly to water safety, public health, and quality of life.

Oh, sure.

Matt, was I not doing it well enough?

Is that what you're trying to say?

Okay, I will get refocused.

Yeah.

Okay.

You did it so well we want to hear it again.

Sorry, everybody.

So I'm going backwards.

Sorry, I should go this way.

And just so you know, I have the I put the timer up here for 15 minutes.

You're not held to 15 minutes, just okay.

Should we start the internet?

Um, so uh we've invited Meg Honey with the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation to come forward and provide a presentation for this for us this evening.

Awesome, thank you.

Good evening.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak here tonight.

My name is Meg Honey.

I am a longtime aquatic athlete, aquatic supporter, and aquatic parent here in Walnut Creek.

I am a board member of the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation, and I am here to share tonight an update on our work in supporting the development of a modern inclusive aquatic facility that serves the long-term needs of the Walnut Creek community.

WCAF was founded to ensure that aquatics remains a vibrant, accessible and lasting part of Walnut Creek's future.

The Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation was founded in 2015 as a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Our all volunteer board includes representatives from the community, the Walnut Creek Aquabares Swim Team, Walnut Creek Aquanuts Artistic Swimming Team, and the Walnut Creek Masters swim team.

Our mission is to promote and advance aquatic facilities and programs in Walnut Creek.

We support a full spectrum of aquatics, recreational swimming, competitive programs, fitness and wellness activities, and therapeutic aquatics, because water truly serves every age and ability in our community.

At its core, the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation exists to support Walnut Creek's long and proud aquatics tradition.

Our work focuses on ensuring access to safe, modern swim facilities, spaces that meet today's needs and tomorrow's expectations.

We focus on protecting critical programs such as swim lessons, youth and adult team programs, and community events, services that contribute directly to water safety, public health, and quality of life.

Our progress has been built step by step.

In 2015, the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation was officially established as a 501 C3 nonprofit organization.

In 2022, the Foundation entered into a memorandum of understanding agreement with the City of Walnut Creek, and Walnut Creek voters approved Measure O, a 10-year half cent transactions and use tax to fund current and future quality of life needs.

Looking ahead, the design and construction of the new aquatic center is planned through 2027, turning years of our advocacy into a physical reality.

The foundation plays a vital role in making this project successful.

We are committed to raising $3 million dollars to support the Aquatic Center.

Beyond fundraising, we advocate for aquatics centered design, ensuring that the facility truly serves swimmers.

And most importantly, we work to make sure that the final facility reflects the diverse needs of the Walnut Creek community.

The new Heather Farm Aquatic Center will be a comprehensive state-of-the-art facility.

It will include a 50-meter competition pool and a 25-meter short course recreation pool, along with a current channel for play and exercise.

The center will also feature diving boards, shaded areas, bleachers, and welcoming spaces for lounging and relaxation, making it a place not just to swim, but to gather together.

The project represents a lasting investment in Walnut Creek.

The Aquatic Center will support swim safety and learn to swim programs, preserve competitive and artistic swimming, and expand inclusive access to aquatic recreation.

It's an investment in public health, youth development, and community connection, and a legacy that will benefit future generations.

Community engagement is central to our work.

We connect with residents through events, ongoing communications, and targeted campaigns.

These events help build awareness, strengthen partnerships, and ensure that our community knows how they can support the aquatic center.

This last year, we have hosted events for community members tabled at the Diablo Valley Farmers Market and engaged our donors via a successful Giving Tuesday campaign and through our regular news splash email updates.

We have worked closely with the Arts and Rec team to ensure that our one-page overview and information about contributing to the Aquatic Center project is in every arts and rec catalog.

Key naming opportunities have already been claimed, including the recreation pool, changing rooms, aquatics classroom, and benches.

Several significant opportunities remain available, including naming the aquatic center itself, the competition pool, diving boards, and additional benches.

To date, we have raised $900,000 from 77 donors.

A powerful demonstration of community support.

Donors who contribute $10,000 or more will be recognized as lane captains on the donor wall of the Aquatic Center with 18 lanes available for naming.

We are deeply grateful to everyone who has supported this effort financially, publicly, and behind the scenes.

I want to thank this commission for your time, your support, and your belief in the power of aquatics to strengthen our community, and we invite the entire community to learn more, get involved, and to help us bring this vision to life.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

That was fantastic.

Um now, as I mentioned earlier, we'll now open the uh the microphone up to the uh public comment uh section for specifically for the aquatic foundation.

Yes, sir, two minutes.

Yeah, greetings.

My name is Andrew Turnbull, and I was raised in Livermore, California.

In 1969, I joined the Livermore Aqua Cowboys swim team, and I swam until I was a freshman at Granada High School.

And I remember coming to Walnut Creek as a kid and swimming against the Aqua Bears.

I believe it was Lark, was it Lark Park or Larkey Park was one of them?

And I I want to applaud this organization for continuing its um commitment.

I want to welcome you to Heather Farm Park where we've been for 55 years.

I'll talk about that in a little bit.

Um, but swimming is a big deal, and swimming's been a big deal in Walnut Creek for a long time.

It's how I learned about Walnut Creek coming up here at eight years old.

And uh, I just want to say uh congratulations on the work that this nonprofit has done.

I run a nonprofit.

I that's that's not trivial, and I love the creativity they've used around their fundraising, and um on behalf of being a swimmer, and my brother actually led help lead Diablo Valley College to a state championship in swimming, uh coming from Livermore as well.

And he came to Walnut Creek in uh Pleasant Hill to swim.

So uh on behalf of all you you're lucky, keep it up, support aquatics in Walnut Creek.

Thank you for your respect and attention.

Thank you.

I thought for sure you were with the equestrian group.

I am.

Okay.

All right.

We'll see you in a little while then.

All right.

Other public comment specifically on the aquatic foundation.

Um I think she answered one of the uh questions already.

What I had was about how much money they were gonna raise, and you said three million dollars, and that's great.

I think I've seen you at the farmers market before, your group.

Uh so that's great.

Not a big swimmer, but anyway, that's great that you're doing that.

The other question I had, but maybe it's not for your group.

Do you know what the cost of the uh Heather, you know, pool complex is going to be now?

Yeah.

Does anybody have a parking rec now?

Okay.

Yeah, I so that so the phase two construction, which is the construction of the new pool, new rec center.

Uh the bids that we received, uh, which we move forward with the low bid was 51 million.

Okay.

So it's about 51 million then.

51 million, correct.

Okay.

And um uh Jason, you said there's public comments after you know everybody is speaking.

Was it I thought it was a question and answer?

Is that same thing as public comments?

Yeah, come up and ask your question.

I think yeah, okay, thanks.

And the uh the groundbreaking for the pool is on February 18th, and I believe it's 4 p.m.

Yeah, 4 p.m.

So you can if anybody wants autographs or wants a picture with us, we'll all be at the February 18th.

And you can get probably get one of a picture of Meg with Meg too.

So questions or comments uh from our commissioners.

Yep.

Um I'm just curious on your fundraising.

Are you getting a lot of corporate sponsors?

Yeah, uh these uh sorry, can yeah, do you if you don't mind, thanks, Meg.

We have had um several meetings and outreach with some major corporate sponsors, um, particularly in like the health and wellness space.

Um, and so those are ongoing.

Um, and we don't have an update yet, but it is work that is ongoing.

And um, you know, the donate the sizable uh naming opportunities have been from individuals in the community.

I have one other question.

You mentioned several times um the sort of trying to make sure the facility is um inclusive and meets the needs of um you know everyone and things like that.

Can you remind me?

It's been a while since I've seen the plan.

Are there specific elements that are geared to that or yes?

I've just a couple um that I can speak to.

Um we're really um excited about the design around the changing rooms um that are inclusive in terms of gender identity, so uh very excited, and that's a uh quite a change from the current changing situation at Clark Swim Center.

Um we are also um excited about the current channel uh element of the recreation pool and the opportunities for um like aquatherapy uh for people who might be um navigating like injuries um and then of course the uh realities around the deep and shallow elements will help us continue offering the very robust learn to swim programs, certainly for children, but we also have um several adult learn to swim programs too.

So um yeah, lots of opportunities for um inclusivity and welcoming at this new um aquatic center.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Meg for coming tonight and uh updating us on uh not only the fundraising, but uh how the Aquatics Foundation views the new facility that is about to be groundbroke.

Um I had a couple questions for you.

One was uh on the nine hundred thousand dollars um already uh is that both um received and pledged?

Yes, that is a combination of um pledges and commitment, full fully committed.

Yeah, and those pledges could be multi-year.

They are.

Um I know I was trying to keep our presentations short, but um on our website um there is detailed information about everything from pledges and how the you know how that works out over years, corporate matching, um, you know, stocks, annuities, all of those elements are are part of how we are um uh navigating our fundraising.

Sure, sure.

Um, so um I think we're all very excited about it, and we really appreciate you coming tonight and sharing your uh update with us.

And thank you, Commissioner Oler for um being with us at our farmers market table.

You are like our celebrity that showed up, so we thank you for being there and um hanging with all the people that were stopping by to talk with us.

My pleasure, of course.

Great, thank you so much.

We have one more question on the on the naming rights.

Is that a lifetime naming, right?

Like you are your name is on the bathroom for the next 50 years.

Yes, yes, and I am I'm acting, and I'm really happy that both of our changing rooms have been claimed.

So, yes, those are yes, yes.

Yeah, that's very exciting.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh next, I invite uh board president John Living Good with the Walnut Creek Soccer Club to provide a presentation on his club.

Good evening, commissioners and staff.

I'm John Living Good, president of Walnut Creek Surf Soccer Club, and I've lived here in this area my entire life.

I've been raising my family uh here in Walnut Creek for the past 13 years.

I'm here tonight representing 3,000 members who are deeply invested in the success of the city Sparks.

Professionally, I'm a partner at a big four firm specializing in governance and financial stewardship, rigor that I bring in my role as board president.

On a personal level, soccer has been my lifelong cornerstone from playing NCAA division one to USF here in San Francisco to watching my three daughters grow through our recreational and competitive programs today.

So we're we aren't just a club, we're a vital part of this cities fabric.

So we wanted to spend a few minutes here educating you all on our organization, and our mission is very simple.

It's to enrich the community by developing athletes and teaching life lessons, because soccer shaped my own character and career.

I view the pitch as a classroom for life.

And we're teaching 3,000 kids learn how to manage and handle a tough loss with grace and how to win with humility.

These are leadership and perseverance skills that will carry with them long after they hang up their cleats, whether they become a partner at a firm or a leader in our local community.

So we aren't just building players, we're building Walnut Creek's future citizens.

And we have been a community staple since 1971.

Think about that.

We have parents coaching today who played in this club when they were seven years old.

That multi-generational legacy is extremely rare.

And while our 2018 affiliation with Surf Soccer brought us world-class training curriculum and technology, our hearts remain 100% local.

We are a nonprofit driven by the families of this city, rooted in Walnut Creek.

Being an important part of the community means more than just playing games.

It means being reliable partner for the city.

And when the city has a goal for public health, health, youth engagement, or park safety, Walnut Creek Soccer Club is the first organization ready to help execute that vision.

So we have some stats in regards to what our program entails here.

And so we take soccer for all literally.

We offer a full spectrum of play from recreational for beginners, select for intermediate players, and competitive for those seeking a higher level of challenge.

This ensures that every child in Walnut Creek has a home at our club.

And I want to specifically highlight top soccer.

This is our outreach program for athletes with physical and cognitive disabilities.

It is one of the most rewarding things we do.

And it ensures that every child in our city has the right to wear a jersey, be a part of the team, and enjoy the high-quality recreational spaces that you all oversee.

And a major way that we serve Walnut Creek is through economic impact.

This is where our value to the city goes beyond the park fences.

As we all know already, Walnut Creek is a world-class destination for shopping and dining, and Walnut Creek Soccer Club acts as a major top of the funnel driver for that economy.

When we host our major tournaments, we aren't just bringing in local kids, we're hosting teams from across California and even throughout the United States.

That means hundreds of hotel room nights at the Marriott or the embassy suites.

It means hundreds of families heading to Broadway Plaza or the North Main area for lunch, in between games, and dinner at night.

And we take pride in the fact that our club's success translates directly into sales tax revenue and support for our local small business owners.

We have over 30 professional staff members, but they're also supported by over 300 volunteer coaches.

That's 300 Walnut Creek residents giving up their weekends, their weeknights to mentor kids.

That level of civic engagement is our secret sauce of the club and a testament to the volunteer spirit of our city.

And the data proves our impact.

With nearly 3,000 members and players on over a dozen local fields.

We're one of the largest customers of the city's recreational department.

And we don't just use these fields.

We help monitor them.

We help report issues.

We help ensure that they're treated with respect by the thousands of families who visit them.

And we're also very committed to investing in our club and the city and have made massive investments in infrastructure.

I'm very thrilled, all of us at the club are very thrilled that our collective capital projects in partnership with the city, the lights at Tice Valley and the Turf at Heather Farms are operation complete.

And here's some pictures to show uh the ribbon cutting that took place in December.

These aren't just soccer fields.

These are high performance public assets that allow more people to stay active for more hours of the day, year-round, regardless of the weather.

Yes, this was a win for the club, but an even bigger win for the city's infrastructure, of which the Walnut Creek Soccer Club has committed 1.5 million over the next 10 to 15 years to help offset the cost of these facilities for the city of Walnut Creek.

And here are some of the partners that we work with.

But in closing, we're extremely proud of our 50-year history and our role as a vital economic and social partner to the city of Walnut Creek.

From our rigorous financial stewardship to our success on the field, we're focused on driving this club to new levels of excellence.

Thank you for your time.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's informal.

Oh, it's informal.

It's informal.

So you can start with the commission if you'd like, or you can go to public comment.

Yeah, we'll start with commission to keep it convenient.

Questions?

Comments.

Yeah, I do have a question.

Um I've been monitoring the Facebook post about um the access to the soccer fields.

And it seems like um some Wanna Creek residents had questions about how to access the fields.

Some they show a picture with a door uh with a gates were locked, and so I don't know if it's a question to pose here or um maybe Mike, you want to answer.

Yeah, our uh arts and recreation directors gonna follow up on that question.

I'll let Chris handle that.

Hi, Chris Farrow, Arts and Director for those watching at home.

Um we are still navigating that.

So for right now, um the fields are closed.

However, we have a uh public works project where we are finalizing an area where staff can be located out there.

Um one of our concerns with just opening it up is that it wouldn't be monitored, and as was uh just mentioned in the presentation, it is a uh expensive asset that we want to take care of.

Um so we're working with public works to have a uh permanent shelter out there for staff to be located.

Um, and so in between that time, um we are looking at schedules to figure out when we could be open.

Um our first kind of pilot isn't going to just be open all the time.

We're looking at some weekend hours, some hours where uh when schools are closed, holiday breaks, things like that.

Um so it'll be a phased approach.

Um, so we are looking, we will be opening up access.

We just want to make sure that we're smart and we have the right security measures in place before doing so.

So it'll be a phased approach.

Thanks for that.

And how is that um being communicated to the Wanna Creek, the residents?

Is there like a signage there or there will be?

We're kind of figuring out the last-minute details as far as what we want the schedule to be before we post anything.

We don't want to get ahead of ourselves so that the people are just calling and saying when it will be open, we want to be able to post the full schedule.

So I would anticipate within the next couple weeks we'll have the full schedule and we'll be able to do some social media posting and also have some um signage at the site as well.

Great.

Thanks for the update.

Sure.

Other questions, comments?

I had a question for John.

Um, did the uh I always ask money questions, but uh, sorry about that.

Um, the 1.5 million you uh made reference to at the end about uh tenure commitment.

Uh was does that include the amount that you committed to for the surf uh project and uh and tice lighting as well?

Yes, that includes the lights at Tice Valley and the Turf at Heather Farms.

Okay.

Um I do have a question, a different question about the um connection to Surf Nation.

I uh can you explain a little bit uh or give us a little background on uh organization?

So we have a commitment with Surf Nation.

They are uh an organization affiliated with 53 different youth soccer organizations across the United States, and uh what it is is a it's a branding opportunity for the club to elevate its status and it provides resources for our coaches uh from an educational perspective, training, etc.

It gives our uh our staff an opportunity to gain insights from other clubs that we wouldn't have otherwise, and uh it gives us and the players an opportunity to play more so in the tournaments that they offer specifically for Surf Nation.

And so we made a conscious decision to uh uh to do business as Walnut Creek Surf.

But we are and will always be the Walnut Creek Soccer Club.

Thank you.

That's very helpful.

And thank you for coming tonight and uh explain uh your commitments to uh Walnut Creek.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, John.

I will now open it up to uh the public comment section uh for the Walnut Creek Soccer Club.

Mr.

Aller, I was gonna ask the same thing.

What is surf?

So because it does surfing, I think of surfing with water, I don't think of soccer.

So thanks for answering that.

Uh the second question I had is, and maybe this is a silly one.

People who play soccer may know, but how do you um do you pay use fees or rental fees, or do the students or the you know, people that play with the soccer clubs pay a fee to play?

Pay to play, or how how does it work?

Thank you.

Good question.

So thanks.

Thank you for that.

The the simple answer is the m the majority of our fees or revenue is garnished through the uh membership fees that we charge throughout the different programs.

And uh uh, you know, obviously those fees are used to incur the expenses that we have on an annual basis, right?

But so as an organization, uh and as a nonprofit or organization, uh, you know, we strive in um you know making sure that there's a balance in terms of what is coming in with revenue and in the you know, obviously there's a governance around the expenses um going out the door, right?

And so uh as a nonprofit, uh, you know, we've we've made a conscious effort to not uh you know to to make sure that we're we're enabling our members and not having a financial burden on them to uh ensure that the the you know the the cost of playing soccer, it's not a pay to play soccer.

Um so that's I want to be very clear.

That's that is not the motto of the Walnut Creek Soccer Club.

In fact, we have financial assistance to those that can't afford the fees that we have.

And we have scholarships as well for those that are continuing on.

Uh and so uh, you know, it's very much in fact, we just we just started a new North Star, and one of our core pillars and the heart of our club is the community and belonging pillar.

And we feel very, very strongly in the strategic goal setting for that vision in ensuring that every single player in Walnut Creek, regardless of financial um background, has a home at the club.

Yes, we rent our fields from the city of Walnut Creek.

Other public comments for John and the Walnut Creek Soccer Club.

Good evening.

My name is Shirley Rossi.

Um I have been a resident of Walnut Creek for the past 16 years.

I am a mother of two, and my daughter has been a Walnut Creek Soccer Club player for the last nine years.

And I have been a volunteer for the last nine years as a recreational coach, a select coach, a competitive team manager, a competitive treasurer, a board and non-officer, and now I currently serve as the board secretary.

Um and I just wanted to make a comment that this weekend we had our first play date, which is a tournament on the Walnut Creek Heather Farm won fields, and it was a great success from everyone within the club and from outside of the club.

All the feedback we have received has been amazing.

So thank you for the partnership of having this be a success um winter tournament because when rain comes, there is no soccer.

So it has been very exciting so far.

Sorry so far to have um play when it is raining.

So thank you for the partnership.

Thank you.

Other comments on the Walnut Creek Soccer Club?

Yes, or no.

I uh I've never seen so many people on field one as last weekend, and even tonight, I noticed there were a lot there as well.

And I just was very thankful I was not looking for a parking place anywhere nearby.

Yes, I'm a former Walnut Creek Soccer Club player myself, as are both were both my kids.

So uh thank you for continuing the tradition and all your hard work.

I know those a lot of uh a lot of hours go into making that successful, and uh it takes a whole lot of uh people and uh commend commitment from commitment from the city as well.

So very exciting.

Thank you.

All right, next up.

Uh we invite um uh Andrea Baldassi and Jackie Bird with the Walnut Creek Historical Society to provide their presentation.

Ours is uh kind of on a much lighter note, but thank you for having us.

I'm Andrea Baldacci, and I'm representing the Walnut Creek Historical Society tonight with our office manager, Jackie Bird.

First of all, I'd like to thank her because this presentation is all hers, so I'm just the messenger, so you better back me up in case I I mess up some of the fine details of the Pennaman family.

So let me get started.

Pardon me.

Do you need me to do something?

Or there we go.

So I should say uh history about me, how I can't became uh involved with the historical society as uh Brad Robenpera, he was our public information officer from Walnut Creek, he did the history tours, the third great history tours for my kids, millions of kids, generations, and when he retired in 2007, he wanted to keep his legacy going.

So he reached out to find volunteers, and I was the lucky person.

So I've been I've been volunteering uh doing the history tours since 2007, and I've served on the board on and off since 2009, and I'm currently the vice president of communications, so I'm here tonight to helpfully um share some information on the history of our museum, our house, and of course our society.

So this is uh uh current picture of our house, how it looks today.

It's uh 2660 Ignacio Valley Road, it's our museum, it houses all the uh Pennement artifacts, it houses a lot of information about our city, and it's open for tours.

So we're gonna start with a brief history of the Pennman family.

Um, it begins in 1856 when Heron Penman um first came to California from New York.

He came here, he was a 49er, he thought he was gonna make it rich with gold.

He there he is.

Sorry about that.

And this is him right there, and there he is with his wife uh Carrie, and that's how the house looked originally when they finished it in 1903.

Um, he came here, as I said, to find gold, and soon sooner than later, realized that was not going to be the case, and uh with his brother-in-law, purchased uh, it was, let's see, I think three hundred and seventy acres from Donna Juana Sanchez de Pacheco.

She was given a bunch of land here in Walner Creek and from Pancheco all the way out to Clayton as a thank you for what her husband did during the um the Mexican American War.

So he started farming and he ended up having one of the largest agriculture successful farms here in Walnut Creek, which is uh currently Shade Lands Ranch.

So he established Shade Lands Ranch.

Um construction began on the house in 1902 and it was completed early in 1903 at the cost of $7,200.

Yeah, right.

And so there he is.

This is uh, I think Matt was showing me how to do this.

You can point, oh, there they are.

Okay, there they are.

That's Carrie and Harum.

That must be Mary, her sister in the background.

So this house was originally built um by Harem because excuse me, because they were concerned Mary was uh single, she was a spinster, she would not stand inherited anything.

So they created this home essentially to be her home.

Um, and then see in 1921.

I'm sorry, I gotta go back it up here.

So Harum died, and then his wife died, Mary died, and finally, it was actually Bessie who ended up with the house.

And Bessie was born and raised at Shade Lands, and she was fortunate enough to go to uh Stanford and then Cornell, where she met her husband.

She met her husband, Albert Johnson, and they came back here to manage the the uh the house.

They managed the house um up until the 1940s, where they ended up they hired Edmund Moyer to help manage the ranch, a role he held until the ranch ceased operations in 1945.

Um at that time, Bessie passed away, and Albert established the Gospel Foundation of California.

He established a foundation to keep the farm working and to keep uh the ranch running, and uh that foundation eventually took over, and they had to start selling off portions of the property in order to maintain the farm and the land.

They sold off almost everything except for 1.5 acres, which eventually they sold to the city of Walnut Creek in 1970.

So they sold the foundation sold the house and the acreage to the city of Walnut Creek.

The city agreed to assume responsibility for the exterior of the house and the surrounding grounds.

Well, the interior, along with the artifacts, furnishings, and everything else would be managed by the Walnut Creek Women's Club, which eventually became the Walnut Creek Historical Society.

So when the Women Women's Club was running the the uh they started the restoration of the house, they called themselves fondly the shady ladies.

So this is a picture of the shady ladies, and they were responsible for going through the whole entire house, going through the attic, the basement, the closets, everything, putting organizing everything, making the displays in our museum, and in the midst of that, they came across these um sketches by Frank Lloyd Wright, and this is the sketch right here.

So Albert Johnson early on decided he wanted Frank Lloyd Wright to build him this beautiful building in Chicago, but after the depression hit, seeing he never came up with the money to finish it.

So these the plans were stored in Shadelands, which they were discovered.

And in 1988, we sold them at auction at Christie's in New York City for 244,000, which is a lot back then, and some of those funds were used to restore the house to the way it is today.

Um interesting enough, too, is the reason that they know how to restore the house is that there's over 1,500 letters found in the house that written between the sisters and the mother mothers, you know, going over all the details of what was going to be done down to like the color of the paint in the in the dining room, the blue paint, which is the color that we have today, the original colors.

So that's how we know how to put everything back together.

And this is how our house looks today.

So most of the things in it are the Pennement artifacts.

Um we do take donations of different things from Walner Creek.

We have a lot of Walnut Creek like maps and information, things like that.

If there's someone's looking for something, we have an archive called Past Perfect.

So if there's people come to our house all the time and they say, Hey, can you find the house I grew up in, or something like that?

And we can go through our archives and find things like that.

So um, this is this is our house right now.

This is how it looks today, the exterior.

That is, they found the original paint color that that maroon paint color there, and of course, this is our gazebo.

Um, quickly, the mission of our society, the mission of the Walnut Creek Historical Society is to preserve and interpret the history of Walnut Creek and our local environments to enable our community and future generations with a better understanding of the Walnut Creek's past, present, and future, and to promote and develop community involvement and community spirit.

Our museum is open, it's open Sundays and Wednesdays from one to four.

Um, this is one of our our Ted Dobbs.

He's on our board.

He is the house does and extraordinaire.

So if you're lucky enough to have him, he's amazing.

And we also do um you can do private group tours by reservation by calling the office, speaking with Jackie.

Um, and once again, I will tell you that uh if you're not familiar with our house, it's at 2660 Ignacia Valley Road, which is like on the corner of Via Monte, close to like Oak Grove Road.

It's a big turn of the century house.

You really can't miss it.

Part of our agreement with the city is um we are required to offer educational programs.

So these are pictures from our third grade history or sorry, we call it the third grade living history program, where over we have over 30 different classes from the Walnut Creek and Mount Double School uh school districts.

Um it's entirely volunteer run.

Each field trip requires about 12 volunteers, and as you can see, the kids really enjoy pretending they live they're living like in the early 1900s.

They actually have a lot of fun washing clothes, making ice cream, they're beating rugs, and they crack walnuts and all kinds of activities like that, and so they enjoy that.

They also we also provide the downtown history tours.

So these classes the the kids will come if they come in the fall to do the Living History Days, they'll come in the spring.

We'll take them downtown and do our history tours.

So we also partner with the Walnut Creek Libraries, each both um Ignacia Valley and our downtown library.

We have cases there where we do displays.

This is currently what's on display right now in the downtown library.

This is uh a history of teas, right?

It's still there.

How long will it be there?

Uh, till the end of the month.

So if it's right across the street, you can pop on in there.

It's on the second floor by the fireplace, and this is has the history of the teas or some cute little anecdotes about teas and the things like that.

And these, this um, in addition to our third grade history walks, we also offer adult walks on Saturdays.

Um, you can register online.

We also offer we partnered with the city back in 2014.

That was a centennial when we created the um the heritage walk.

So there's over a hundred stops, there's I think six different walks.

You can go around with your phone, you can call a number.

I think they send you a text back, you click on it, or and then it will give you information.

We always joke, if we we say if these third graders start having phones, we're gonna be out of a job or volunteer job.

We're gonna so um we also hold several different kinds of events, fundraisers.

Um, we have the summer market, the holiday tees.

Uh this is our car show.

We're on our fifth year of our car show.

It's become very, very popular.

Last year we had over 250 cars.

We have um great food, live music, raffles, trophies.

It's a fun-filled day.

There's Kevin Welk, he's back our mayor again.

So he he's already contacted me about giving out the mayor's choice award.

That's a favorite.

These are awards are handmade in Michigan out of car parts.

So they're really desirable.

This is a picture from our summer market.

So that's that will take place uh let's see, August 23rd.

It's always on a Sunday, and there's over like 50 different vendors, local vendors, that's joy-bound, which used to be ours, so there were some animals for adoption.

Um this is our Santa at Shea Lens.

We always do this the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Santa Claus comes, that's our first day of our teas.

It's the first day that the fair is open.

This year we had over 400 families sign up to see Santa Claus.

It's only it's like five dollars for the whole entire family.

That just covers our costs.

And this is the picture of our holiday um activities.

This is the tea.

We do, let's see.

There are what 16 days of tea.

There's two seatings per day, and then there's two champagne teas, and there's on Saturdays, two different series, it's special champagne tees.

Um over 1,200 people are served.

And let's see, we also offer it takes 75 different volunteers to put this on.

So it's very labor-intensive, and we're always looking for volunteers to help.

Each year we also host over 20 private events and weddings on our beautiful grounds.

We've hosted weddings, bar mitzvahs, fundraisers, and more.

We can host up to 2025 people outside.

Um, the rides used to really love to be in the gazebo, but as you can see, our uh grow is becoming very popular for the actual ceremonies underneath the beautiful oak tree.

This is our staff.

This is Jackie Bird, she's our museum manager.

Christine Baldsley, she is our event manager.

We have a new archivist, Samantha Chen.

She's amazing, and these are our board members.

So we're uh we're a volunteer board, but we're also a working board.

Each board member kind of has something that they focus on.

For instance, like I do the downtown history tours, some people are into the tea, some are focused on you know house dozening, and of course, we have got an amazing financial group.

We are welcoming two more board members this month, Donna Lundine and Steve Woodhead, and our historians Lee Colver.

So we're it we're really grateful for our relationship with the city of Walnut Creek, namely Mike Vickers, Public Works, and we're also the proud recipients of four grants from the Walnut Creek Civic Pride Foundation.

We've used those grants to fund the printing of our third grade walking tour booklets, our weekend adult tour book oaths and also the restoration maintenance of our um herb gardens that we use for educational purposes during our living history days.

So thank you so much for having us.

If anyone has any questions, wow, thank you very much.

Uh questions uh from either public comment or from the uh commissioners.

Or can't help myself.

Are you a 501c3?

Yes.

Thank you.

Yes.

And thanks for c thanks for coming tonight and talking about the historical society.

We bought some of our let's look at that.

Oh, fantastic.

So uh booklets in the back of the room for those uh public comments uh regard to the Walnut Creek Historical Society.

Yes.

Uh I just I just have one question for you.

You know, you mentioned educational programs, and it's basically the city that asked you to do some of those things.

Do you do anything with uh Borges Ranch or is that considered it's part of the open space for it?

Oh, okay.

So you don't do anything, but okay, thank you.

Other comments or questions for the historical society.

Thank you so very much.

It was a wonderful presentation, and I think we all feel like we need to go back and see it again.

Some great stories.

Do you know where the designs ended up the uh where are those designs today on the play right?

Okay, yeah, just curious.

Okay, next I invite uh Joan La Casey uh with the Gardens at Heather Farm Park forward to provide our next presentation.

Hi, Joan Lucese Executive Director of Heather Farm Garden Center Association, Inc., which is a mouthful.

So we are DBA, the Gardens at Heather Farm.

We are a 54-year uh partner of the city, and I'd like to take a few minutes to tell you about the history of the garden and how why our nonprofit was originally formed.

This picture was taken in 1959, and these two boys on their questionable-looking watercraft are floating on the lake in the north end of what is now Heather Farm Park.

About five years after this picture was taken.

The city bought approximately 100 acres of this property to build hot Heather Farm Park.

And they set about making a master plan, and there's a hillside underneath that oak tree that is particularly steep that they decided would not be appropriate use for parkland.

So they set that property aside for a public garden.

The only problem was the city didn't have it in their budget to pay for a botanical garden, which is very expensive to build and very expensive to maintain.

So in 1968, the director of park and recreation made a very strategic move by contacting some local members of the Diablo Men's Garden Club and solicited their help in fundraising to build the garden.

It included the Moors, Moore Dry Dock in Oakland, the Howard's Howard Terminal in Oakland, Jack Cunningham, who was a C-suite executive with PGE.

All of these people had wide spheres of influence in the community, lots of contacts, and they turned out to be very, very efficient fundraisers.

These are three of the original founders.

The gentleman on the right is Robert Cowden, and he was a nationally recognized Rosarian, and he's responsible for the design and layout and choice of the original cultivars in our rose garden.

So this group got together and they formed a mission, which was to enrich the community through beauty and environmental stewardship of the gardens and to provide education programs for adults and children and venues for social and cultural events.

They filed order articles of incorporation in December 1970, and they received 501c3 status in January of 1971.

They were had demanding full-time jobs, and they were doing all of this as volunteers on the evenings and weekends and were remarkable fundraisers.

They fundraised for 10 years, and their funding goal was one million dollars.

So these are the major funding sources of that money.

And in addition, there were thousands of small community donations.

Looking at our donor database for the 1970s, I doubt that there was anyone who lived in Walnut Creek that didn't make a gift.

It was remarkable.

New home construction was exploding during that period of time, and there wasn't yet a nursery in Walnut Creek.

So these plant sales become became very, very popular for all these people that were building homes and needed plants for their landscaping.

This is one of the plant sales.

All the plant sales were held at the community center on the patio in the back, and they would carry all these plants from the greenhouse in the corporation yard over to the community center for the sales on the weekends and then take them back.

Between January 1971 and January 1980, they raised 1.1 million dollars.

For the 70s, that was a lot of money.

So this was August 12, 1979, which was the groundbreaking for the gardens.

I had the pleasure of knowing a few of these people, and they report that they were absolutely giddy on this day.

When they first started raising money in the early 70s, they weren't sure that their million-dollar goal was going to be something they could accomplish, and not only did they accomplish it, they exceeded it, and they were really happy.

And not only did this group work tirelessly to raise this money, once the construction started, most of them actually came after working on weekends and assisted with the actual construction of the building.

And there's the oak tree that we saw in that very first picture of the boys on the lake that sits just to the west of our parking lot.

So with money in hand, they hired Harry Nakahara, who was a building architect, and Singer and Hodges, who was land who were landscape architects in Berkeley.

And they were both very well known architecture firms.

The next thing they did is they hired the CBs to come in and grade the site.

It's a very steep incline from the pond up to the top of the hills, so the site had to be heavily graded and was terraced before construction could begin.

Water and sewer lines had to be put in, and there I have to tell you there's hundreds of miles of irrigation pipe in the garden.

It's everywhere.

During grading, this is the garden is in the park, but the access is actually on march banks.

And this is looking from the construction site across the street to the greenery at the Diablo Hills golf course, and then John Muir Hospital is over to the far left, that tall white building.

And this is the view down the hill toward the community center.

So three years later, opening day, September 21st, 1983.

The building was the first thing completed, and then after that, they started on the hardscape.

The first demonstration garden built was the sensory garden, which is right at the back of our building.

This was a project that was funded by the Lions Club and by the Diablo Women's Garden Club and the Learning Pavilion, which is right there.

That's that was used in our children's education program.

This is the children's garden and the rockery, and you can see the beginnings of the gazebo in the back.

These two gentlemen who are building the gazebo are both are both volunteers and board members.

And this is when the rose garden was first laid out.

And when the roses were put in.

There are 32 different demonstration gardens.

I'm not going to go through all of them, so to save us some time, we're going to fast forward 44 years.

This was this last summer.

It features over a thousand rose bushes.

The American Horticulture Society's guidebook considers this a must-see rose garden on the West Coast.

This is the new children's garden that was put in about five years ago, which was funded by Redney Associates.

The Diablo Ascent garden features a large bronze eagle.

The three children grew up on a ranch on the site of Mount Diablo.

And when their parents passed, they made this gift to the garden and their parents' memory.

And if you sit on that bench and look toward Mount Diablo, you can actually see where they grew up.

So it was a nice gift in honor of their parents.

The garden, of course, makes this a very popular wedding venue.

It's a really important source of revenue for the gardens.

We don't charge admission, so the founders knew that for a free garden to be able to exist into the future, it had to have a revenue source.

So that's one of the first the reasons they started with the building first.

So there was a vehicle for income coming in to be able to continue to support this work.

So this is Alanis Morissette.

You can't really tell, but it happened to be pouring rain that day.

But they filmed their final episode for that season in the garden.

It was a really interesting experience.

The garden is maintained by volunteers.

So we have approximately 50 volunteers that come each week that maintain the garden, and another 25 that come twice a week that work in our greenhouse propagating plants.

And then we host 15 to 20 corporate volunteer events every year, which is a great way to get things done.

If you have 30 people showing up for three hours, you can spread a lot of mulch.

And I will say that most of our garden volunteers have been volunteering with us for more than 15 years.

In 2018, we moved our greenhouse and lath house out of the corporation yard and then and moved it on site, which has been such a blessing.

The city helped us uh with uh grade the pad for the greenhouses in return for moving our operation out of their corporation yard.

And in uh 2019, we finished the installation of the garden and we use our the uh greenhouses and we grow plants there not only to maintain the garden but to sell at plant sales.

In 2019, we completed the installation of a new community garden that provides 82 garden plots for local families to grow organic food and garden with their children.

The garden was built entirely by volunteers, the LDS helping hands, six different Boy Scout troops, several corporate volunteer groups, our board of directors, and other garden volunteers.

Education is central to our mission.

The natural science classroom program was started in 1987.

We have a staff of 20.

11 of those are teachers.

We host over a hundred and seventy-five school field trips to the gardens each year, and our teachers do classroom presentations in over a hundred and fifty schools across Contra Costa County each year.

Our reach is about 20,000 students every year.

Our homeschool program started during COVID virtually for nine students.

In 2025, we had 275 students divided into two age groups.

They come to the garden uh every other Tuesday, and it's a really fun group to watch.

We have several education collaborations.

We teach the in-classroom composting classes and summer camp classes for recycle smart.

We manage and lead the wetlands field trips to McNabney and Moran Marshes in Martinas.

We manage and lead the field trips to the Los Vicaros Reservoir and the John Muir Interpretive Center out in Brentwood.

And if you've never been there, that is really a work a trip worth taking.

It is so beautiful, especially in the spring.

And then we also manage and teach the in-classroom clean water and pollution prevention education program for Central SAN.

Well, sorry.

So anyway, we won't go any farther.

So we're really grateful to our support for the city of Walnut Creek and the support of the community.

Our fundraising continues.

I mean, we are a nonprofit and we rely on the generosity of our community for us to continue our programming.

And we would love to have you come.

If you've never been to the garden, we'd love to for you to come and take a personal tour.

And that goes for anyone here.

If you haven't been to the gardens, please come, we'd love to have you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

We may have some questions for you.

Hold on, just one.

Commissioners, uh, questions or comments.

Hi, um, I'm curious about your where you work in partnership, the educational things, kind of the last slide you had where you work with Central Spain, you work with Costa Water, etc.

So, but and you're nonprofit, but obviously they must pay you for your time or like how they do that.

It's an important income stream for us.

Okay.

And it's also a part of our mission.

Okay.

And so these are the people you said you had teachers on your among amongst your volunteers.

Are they traditionally they're paid staff?

Our teachers are paid staff.

So we have 20 paid staff, 11 of those are credentialed teachers who work in our education program.

Oh, okay.

Great.

Thank you.

Welcome.

How many weddings are you hosting a year?

We do about between 60 and 75 weddings, and then another 50 or 60 other kinds of events.

You know, um celebrations of life, corporate meetings, birthday parties.

Well, and uh, did you mention what year the photo with the two boys in the lake was it was 1959.

59.

Okay.

Uh, any other comments or questions from the commissioners?

Uh public uh comments or questions, a two-minute period.

Anyone?

Yes.

It is scheduled.

We do um and we put it on our website.

We do six to eight in the spring and another six to eight in the fall.

Any other um public comments?

Okay, great.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for the invitation.

We appreciate it.

What a treat.

All right, next we'll invite uh Jane uh Vanderwerf from the Walnut Creek Equestrian Center to come forward and provide us.

Not Jane.

Could be ratings.

Jane is in the audience and uh she's a powerhouse.

Uh, has done a great job building the board and building the equestrian center.

She recruited my wife and I.

So uh tonight I want to uh well um talk about the equestrian center of walnut creek.

I'm a family member and I think it's been pushing 10 years now, my wife and I.

And I'm the ambassador to the Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce, which we're a member of now.

Next slide.

Do I do that?

Oh, I I get it.

I didn't take training.

There we go.

Just that button.

Do I have to point?

It's refusing to play, huh?

Yeah, well, just bear with us for a second.

Yeah, no worries.

Um it seems like it's locked up here.

Can you go back to the slide deck and see if you can manually click on the next one?

There you go.

We could go with that.

So our mission is providing recreation, education, and wellness through equestrian center activities in the heart of Heather Farm Park.

Thank you.

So when I found this out from the American Horse Council, that our annual horse economy in California is 11.6 billion dollars.

However, because most of us in uh in horses are kind of siloed.

Um we don't see that.

However, this is the American Hor Horse Council's um numbers.

There's um about half a million horses in California.

Um, and the uh if you add up recreation and uh and uh um competition, it's four point five billion dollars in the state per year, and that's larger than the horse racing industry.

Uh it's it's big and and uh I'm so glad that you have Equestrian Center here in Walnut Creek as a result of it.

So this is the did you know, and uh I'm I'm going to uh go read this for you.

Heather Farm has always had a horses and horse facilities in 1921.

That's 104 years ago, the year my dad was born.

John Marchbank built a thoroughbred race uh training facility here, raising uh many champions.

He named his ranch Heather Farm after his champion stallion, Heather King in 19 uh Heather King.

And then in 1931, actor Clark Gable uh filmed uh sporting blood at Heather Farm Park.

One night we watched it and we learned about the difference between um the way people were treated in various races back then and the way they're treated now, but we were sure proud of uh knowing that horses were there in Heather Farm Park 55 years in Heather Farm Park.

We're a member of the Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce, and we're a member of the California State Horsemen's Association.

I'm gonna talk about what that means.

Next up.

Let's see.

I think there's a couple of heavy hitters in the room.

Gail, would you stand up for a minute?

It's our president, and she's on the up there, and um uh Susan uh howell Sue Howell, she's in the room over there, and Jane would have been there, but I think he was a working stiff at the time.

And um, that's yours truly, and we got the award for having been 50 years in Walnut Creek from the it's called a legacy award from the um Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce.

So we got to take lots of pictures.

Uh we're dressed pretty well that day for a bunch of horse people.

On this one, California State Horseman's Association divides its regions into I believe it's 18 regions, and if you look there in the San Francisco Bay Area, um Contra Costa and Alameda County make up region five, uh the same same region as uh East Bay Regional Parks, and uh one of the very very important clubs in the California State Horsemen's Association is Equestrian Center Walnut Creek.

You can see us flying the state flag over it.

We're very proud of the number of events that we do with the California State Horsemen's Association, including Jim Canna Horse Mastership and uh obstacle challenge, and I believe we have some other events with them.

Uh English Western, but Jim Can is really fun because you watch the kids who are uh um enjoying going really fast on the natural motorcycle that they that they get to actually that has a mind of its own.

Next up, please.

One of the joys of being part of the uh um Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce is participating and representing the Equestrian Center of Walnut Creek.

Uh I'm there along at your art and wine festival and participating, and then in the uh slide next to it where I'm holding up the tickets.

That's uh a former mayor uh Cindy Silva, and she and I were uh were handing out water that day.

It's a pleasure to be a part of uh that group because we get to know the people of Walnut Creek.

This is our um 2025 list of events.

Um you see the word CSHA there, I know it's it's it's hard to read, and that's okay.

But CSHA, that's the California State Horseman Association.

Some of these groups are uh pony clubs.

Some of these groups are equine assisted therapy.

Some of these are uh professional organizations that that bring um their uh horse their horse riders here.

Adventure day camp is a big one that happens from sick uh June to August.

So this is we're pretty proud of this.

Um, and we we raise our money from the fees that these organizations pay uh to be there.

Thanks up.

This is a couple that we're really proud of.

The um a couple of e there's equine assisted therapy, and and I want to talk about equine assisted therapy for a minute.

Horses help humans.

Uh I serve on the board of directors of the International Horsemanship Foundation, and we have a medical doctor down in uh Florida on our board.

He's a retired army colonel.

He um medical doctor who jumped out of planes with special forces as their flight surgeon.

You think he might have faced a little PTSD?

Well, he went and studied it, and he now says that for some uh cases of PTSD, um equine assistive therapy is the only modality that works.

We're watching spectacular things happen, like children with autism who haven't spoke.

45 minutes with a horse and they begin to speak to the horse.

The next thing they're notice talking to their mom and they continue to speak.

It's spectacular, and so every time the equestrian center of Walnut Creek gets to welcome one of these awesome places that is doing this kind of work, where riders um caters to the veterans.

We like to reduce that suicide rate in soldiers and veterans, and we were convinced that the horse is gonna play a major role in the mental health crisis right here in Equestrian Center of Walnut Creek.

We're welcoming those organizations at our facility.

Next you can see the young lady up in the corner.

She's going real fast.

She's a very talented young lady, a teenager.

And then down below the the young girl in the helmets, my granddaughter.

She was going really fast on that uh bouncy horse.

And then up above, you see kind of the big and the short.

That's a uh a draft horse and uh and a mini horse.

And it turns out a mini horse is a horse, unlike a pony, which is slightly different, and uh um donkeys and mules are different.

Those are both horses, but those kind of the the big and the short, and that was a spectacular photo to capture at one of our events.

We're making some beautiful progress over there.

Um that drawing up above um was a concept of um three 33 arts, which gave money to uh to put a to have this this young artist, talented artist come and um paint a mural on our um uh on our snack shack.

Uh one of the problems with having a snack shack out in the back, out where you where people don't see us very often unless they come all the way back to the school, is that that's a target for the taggers.

But it turns out the taggers tend to respect something beautiful like this, and thanks to um this organization, 333 Arts and the great work of this young lady.

There's now a uh material that goes over it so that tagging won't won't actually stick.

It's a spectacular, beautiful um uh building now.

Uh I encourage you to come out and see it.

The drawing up above was the concept, and then just to it's very busy, but you can see a map with lots of drawings.

That's a fence we're working to build, and so it shows that we're current and we're working hard on improving our facility out there, and that's going to help protect our uh wonderful um parking lot from no longer being a place where donuts are are run.

Um we are way out in the back, and we're doing what we can to uh preserve our facility.

Next up.

These are just events, people happy, people smiling.

It's one of the things that just makes it wonderful to be around horses, be around the people that are from all over.

Um I d I did I did jump miss to say that we actually have competitors who come all the way from Nevada to come to our event.

And most recently, um the C SHA Jim Canna, that's the group with the they the they like to go fast.

There was an upgrade done uh partly by a um a DHA, um, which is Diablo um Equestrian Heritage Foundation uh gave money and also money raised from our own organization.

We redid the footing, and we went from being the worst facility that uh wouldn't draw very much Jim Canna to we are now number one and um it is now the number one place for Jim C S I Jim Canna in the San Francisco Bay Area to come, or at least in the East Bay, I'll say that.

Uh California State Horseman's Association in partnership.

Next up.

This is a couple of big events.

The the one uh the lower on the uh right.

That's actually my wife, uh, former Diablo Valley College uh professor, former dean at uh Contra Costa College, and she's on the member of the board of directors.

I bought her her first horse, but she's leading that group in an obstacle challenge where she's now a senior judge in the California State Horseman Association.

We bring our horses and they get to inside of arena, um, learn how to address obstacles that are quite contrary to a half-ton bunny rabbit on a string prey animal.

Um, and we show that they can be equanimous, they can be uh calm, and they can follow our lead.

Up up above, that's a um uh a show that's that's shown.

Uh I mean uh a horse show where a lot of people are there seeing, and then um young lady Hannah Wright is presenting uh an award to a gentleman with um the local veterans.

She puts on a wonderful event.

The future.

The future of the equestrian walnut creek.

We're proud to be in Heather Farm Park.

We're proud to have been there for 55 years, and we're intending to be there for the next 55, and that young rider to be will be able to enjoy.

The Equestrian Center Walnut Creek in the heart of Heather Farm Park.

Thank you for your respect and attention.

Thank you very much.

It was that was wonderful.

Uh comments, questions from our commissioners.

Um I've been out there, I haven't don't really see many horses, so you're not having an event, but no one boards there, or did you?

Yeah, no, horses do not live there.

Um it's uh I don't know where that when that history started, but we maintain the facility for events, um, and the horses come and they go.

Um I attended a mini horse event there uh one few years ago.

Uh is angels, right?

Oh yeah.

That are angels, right?

Oh, Angels for Minis, okay.

Angels for minis, yeah.

Does she uh still host?

She does, okay.

She does a lot of rest.

Yes, and hosts uh charitable events at the equestrian center there.

Yeah, I rented a mini horse in the competition in one third place.

So good for you.

Yeah, you can go to my Instagram page and see me in the mini horse.

My daughter got a kick out of it.

Oh, that's fun.

Well, it's always good to horse around.

Yes, good one.

Walked into that.

Uh comments, uh questions, uh, uh two-minute comment portion for the uh is our president.

Oh, fantastic.

Gail Jackson.

I just wanted to make a comment about the uh adventure day camp that goes there.

And I believe I think Gene did talk to him and got the count, but they serve in the summer months.

There are about seven hundred, six to seven hundred kids that come in from Adventure Day Camp in the summer from all around here, and they get the experience of learning about horses, riding the horses.

Um it's just phenomenal.

If you go there in the summer in the morning, and that you'll see they bust kids in, they bring the horses in from uh Walnut Creek um barn.

And uh I can't think of the name of Nancy DuPont, Nancy DuPont's ranch.

Uh anyways, so these kids bring them in, and I mean they have the best time, they're having so much fun out there.

They really love it, and I mean just the impact of the summer kids, plus all the events we have.

So yeah, sorry to interrupt.

Do you do you mind coming up here if you so we can so people at home can hear you?

Yeah, thank you.

By the way, raise your hand if you're with the Equestrian Center on Walnut Creek.

Thank you.

Excuse me, I'm Sue Howell.

I do membership for the Equestrian Center of Walnut Creek.

And the adventure day camp is such a fun thing for all kinds of kids.

My both my grandchildren worked the horses fast for the adventure day camp uh during the summer when oh gosh, I think they were starting at 10, 11, 12, and with uh the minis that were there.

So their job was to show the kids how to interact with the minis, and it was such a a great character building thing for my grandchildren as well as the kids that they were teaching.

And it was just the the most fun little thing to watch.

And so now, excuse me, my granddaughter's going off to college.

So it really the horse stuff that she did through that type of thing and all the other things involved, it just made her personality so much more compassionate and giving and she's just a wonderful kid, you know, and I'm so proud of her.

And the Equestrian Center was part of that.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Other comments?

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Valerie Sterling, and I'm the leader of the Clayton Canyon Pony Club, which is the local chapter of United States Pony Club, which is like scouting, but for the horse people, horse kids.

And so I just wanted to invite you to come Saturday.

We're having our meeting at the equestrian center.

There'll be about 20 horses there and and kids sharing these horses and and now adults are part of that program too.

Uh United States Pony Club has invited not only the kids but adults to participate in the the learning and the teaching that happens with this organization.

So uh we're gonna enjoy your beautiful facilities uh this Saturday, and we have a series of these meetings set up for this year.

So I invite you.

Thank you.

We are proud of our customers.

Other comments.

I I didn't even know there was an equestrian center in uh in Heather Farm, so I'm happy to hear that.

And I'd I'd like to get a copy of your presentation if possible, because we have we're involved with horses.

Um probably answered already with the question was, do any horses, they're not uh boarded there at all.

Okay.

So historically they were, but then so I was my question was gonna be do you do trail rides, you know, up or up in like in the open spaces and things, but I guess you don't really do we do a lot of trail riding in the state horsemen association.

Can you can you respond into the microphone just so people at home can hear it?

Yeah, thank you.

Well, we do a lot of um the California State Horseman Association does a lot of trail riding.

Um we do get out on the trail just outside of the arena um for some of our events there within uh Heather Farm.

Um but most of our events are in the arena.

It's a little safer for most horses.

Horses are prey animals with their mind of their own and um but getting them out on the trail that's a very high order for a horse, and yes, we do move around outside uh they're in Heather Farm Park.

Anything else?

Yes.

The reason why I was mentioning the trails is because there are trails in the open space that are marked equestrian or pedestrian only, but they're not they're heavily used by uh mountain bikers now and uh e-bikes and all kinds of other things.

So I was just wondering about your experience if you used any of the trails, you know, what's your experience with that?

Because like you said, horses are you know, you can't have a bike come around a corner, you know, with uh with the horse because it can be very dangerous.

Um I don't mind responding to that.

Okay, and then the other thing I just wanted to mention, uh my husband and I were involved in the Rose Parade, and they had those mini therapy, yeah, mini therapy horses there.

And I guess they even take them, I think they take them into hospitals and stuff.

And I saw a mini horse up uh south southeast uh Lime Ridge.

Uh, but that's where they wanted to put the flow trail, but now it's not there, but equestrians are starting to come back because there's some equestrian, you know, right down there on I don't know, whatever's that walnut avenue or whatever.

And so then they come up, you know, by the uh golf course and then walk up into the open space.

But they're kind of staying around in that area of you know, southeast uh Lime Ridge, so they don't go where the other horse where the uh trails are that are supposed to be for the horses, but uh they don't they don't dare go there.

Okay, so I just wanted to mention these things.

Yeah.

Um the two things were um, the minis?

The minis.

And then the other one was about um trails and oh sharing the trail.

Yeah, um, which makes I want to make sure I answered because I've heard two questions.

But I do want to talk about um trails.

Uh we are the um at the top of the um pyramid when it comes to yielding.

So if you're on a trail, some people wonder why is a horse at the at the top.

I mean, did somebody just pick that?

Is that you know maybe they were there first?

Well, it turns out that when you have a I keep referring to them as a half ton buddy rabbit on a string, prey animal who for a million years has run away from predators.

It's quite a high order to be able to get a horse to be successful and be a trail horse.

Um often our demographic, our largest demographic, are women who are beyond childbearing years.

They finally have dream they've dreamed of having a horse for years, they're finally get a horse.

My wife was you know, I bought her a horse when our younger son finished high school.

Um that's our biggest demographic, and one of the things that I'd like you to consider is when we talk about sharing of the trails, um, a mountain bike flying around a corner, or someone not respecting what they have, uh, could create a lot of danger.

And that danger could be um the horse, the the person on top, or the rider, I mean the the bicyclist.

And so we want to share the trails where appropriate, we want to keep separate where appropriate.

Um but I would be happy to come back to you at any time and explain to you in more detail.

I did a 10-minute presentation before uh a walnut creek group on why the horse uh does get yielded to, um, but it's really partly because he's got a mind of his own, and um we're talking about, you know, somebody who finally got that opportunity to ride their horse, and if they're getting scared and they're not feeling protected, they're not feeling like they can go without worry, they're just not gonna go.

And to me, that's one of the saddest things that somebody who could look so forward to having that horse and going through the process and learning and getting their horse to be to a point.

Let's let's help there be places in Walnut Creek where they can ride their horses safely.

Your other question?

Did I?

No, that's why I just wondered if you use the open space trails because you know there are some that say pedestrian requests.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, and so the the thing is absolutely um maybe you don't see very many of us, and by the way, we're very proud of the fact that um horse people have learned to um they they tell us um don't leave anything behind.

The only thing we might leave behind is horse poop, and by the way, pre-animal poop is no big deal.

Uh I'm I walk through it all the time.

I probably have some on my foot now.

But you know what?

Um it's it's natural, it's just processed grass, but other than that, you really don't see us, and we we like it that way to leave the trails beautiful the way they were when we got on them.

Anything else?

No, thank you.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Thank you very much, Andrew.

Thank you.

Next uh lastly, I invite Kime Smith with the Walnut Creek Open Spouse Foundation to come forward and provide a presentation.

Okay, excellent.

Okay, and the top of the point.

Okay.

Okay.

Um, uh good evening, Chairman Cook, and uh other commissioners.

And other commissioners.

Um I'm Kime Smith, president of the Walnut Creek Foundation, and thank you for the opportunity to come here to tell you a little bit about our organization.

Um I'm sure many of you are familiar with it.

It's a 501c and uh C3, and we've been a nonprofit for the 47 years of our existence, and um we have no fundraisers.

Uh we rely on either donations uh from the public or membership uh fees from our members.

Um let's see, let's go to the next one.

Um as you all know, uh the city owns an extensive uh amount of acreage, and as a matter of fact, it puts Walnut Creek somewhere in the top 10 or 15% in the country.

Uh and Walnut Creek was the first city that had its own um ranger uh in the history of our country.

So those are a couple of things to keep in mind, so it's a pretty special place.

The stewardship uh needs to go beyond core services, and that's one of the things I'll be talking about.

Um, and the community interest uh in helping it with that stewardship, active care of the open space is very high, and you can see here's a volunteer event that happens uh quite frequently on Saturdays, more so during the the uh spring and in the fall, but there's a lot of community interest, um uh the foundation exists because there's a gap between what the city reasonably provides.

We have no qualm there, uh, but the community is eager to provide even more for the open space.

Uh there's 2700 acres, which is larger than Central Park.

So, uh does anybody have uh an idea of how many times bigger the open space is?

It's about two and a half times bigger than Central Park, so that that's pretty impressive.

And it's also larger than the coun uh the country that I listed up there, Vatican City.

Uh and this is all maintained by uh an operating staff of about six, so keep that in mind.

Okay, so uh not only is it big, but it's kind of spread out across Shell Ridge, Lime Ridge, Akalani's Ridge, and there's a small piece in Sugar Loaf.

Okay.

So what are some of the things that the Foundation does?

We coordinate the volunteers that want to work out in the open space and contribute.

We do education and outreach.

For example, you see a woman there looking at a display that we have had in one of the public libraries.

And we plan to have lectures in public libraries.

And we also do stewardship support.

In the lower left, there's a picture of the staff and the foundation volunteers working together to clear some brush from a fallen tree and make use of it to build a wildlife brush pile.

But there are clear boundaries.

The foundation owns no land.

And to offer alternatives to land use priorities policies that could cause rapid deterioration of our open space.

At the same time, our organization is committed to the encouragement of policies and projects that will enhance the Walnut Creek Open Space for the benefit of generations to come.

So what's our value to the city?

From the city's perspective, we provide a leverage so the community can help the city bridge that gap between their staff and the number of acres.

But they have an equivalent full-time staff of about 500 to take care of that.

And if you do the math, our rangers and operating staff are actually supporting almost double the number of acres per person.

We're doing about 450 compared to their 250 per person.

So that any leverage that can be provided to the city is a good thing.

And that's what we're trying to do.

In addition to supplying manpower and so forth, another good example is we're able to provide funding for projects that are often hard to prioritize in municipal budgets.

So here's a picture of the relocation of a trail in Shell Ridge.

And that rock that you see there was bought by the foundation.

So it's another positive civic partnership that the foundation and the city have been able to conduct.

To the community, it's an opportunity to give back for something that they feel they've received when they volunteer their time.

They get fresh air and exercise, and there are a lot of educational opportunities that are provided to the wider community.

So the city and and the people in the community both benefit from the foundation's work.

We have a community-led board.

We have partnerships with city staff, and we focus on practical outcomes.

We also formalize, and we're in the process of formalizing policies and procedures.

For example, the memo of understanding, and we've instituted uh the use of waivers, and so we're working hard to do what's right.

Um what are our next steps?

Well, we want to have increased volunteer engagement, and one way for us that we're considering doing is having more Saturday Saturday volunteer activities.

Right now we have activities during the week, but unfortunately there's not that many people that are either independently wealthy or retired.

So our Saturday events tend to be very popular, so we're going to try to add more of those.

We're also going to look at targeting our projects.

So we have a more strategic plan.

For example, well, right now the projects tend to be location-based.

So there's a project at Deer Lake, there's a project at Bay Berry Pond, etc.

But we're trying to think in a at a more strategic level.

So we're going to have theme themes like water for wildlife.

So we can anticipate the projects that we could initiate that would tie together for a bigger goal.

And then that way we could plan for our volunteering, the kinds of people we want to get on board to carry out some of those things.

And we wanted to do something special for them.

So we set this up with uh with one of our officers at the time, Elizabeth Hudson, and the San Ramon Valley Horseman's Association.

So we'd like to we're definitely going to have another one this year.

We hope to have more things like that where we can collaborate with other groups and have events for younger people.

So we we fund them, and it's almost like a summer job for them, but in return, um, this young woman who's an honor student at Oregon, yeah, Oregon State, she's in her senior year, and her senior thesis will sort out the results of samples that she took from all the ponds in the open space and her area's microplastics, and what this does for us is it leverages that university's equipment and laboratories and um and we learn something, so it that's a really good program, and um uh we have uh had someone uh in the uh in our membership step forward and offer to sponsor a second uh grantee.

If we wanted to do two a year, we could do two a year.

So we're looking forward to expand our the educational aspect of the foundation uh through those two kinds of things.

Um and of course, we're gonna continue uh coordination with the city in order to get access to some of these ponds.

We had you know, we had to uh make sure that the gate could be unlocked and that kind of thing and get the city's approval first before any vehicles were driven and that sort of thing.

So what what is the foundation asking for?

Well, uh not very much, it's pretty modest.

We want continued recognition as a as a partner of the city.

Um we want a continuation of the ongoing community communication with staff and uh the opportunity to uh support city priorities as well.

The city has priorities uh in the open space.

We'd like to be on board and see what we could do uh to find uh volunteers to help out, that kind of thing.

So the open space is a long-term commitment, uh it requires active care.

You can't just um uh cut all the dried grass along the perimeter and walk away for three years.

It has to be done constantly.

The trails have to be maintained constantly, so it's a long-term commitment for the city to preserve this resource, um and committee uh community stewardship strengthens that commitment because it provides the resources that the city will need to carry through.

Um so thank you for your time, and if you have any questions, um I'd be happy to questions uh for Kyle.

I have one more of a comment, I guess, but I've uh gone a few times to the Oak Project at Shell Ridge, and I'm you know, I just I love seeing those kids from Seven Hills.

I mean, they were just very enthusiastic, and you know, it wasn't like oh, I have to go do this for my school project or whatever.

You know, I mean they just they really seem to get it, and it was really kind of fun to be out there with them.

So I I really hope that you're able to continue those kind of programs like getting that harvesting that younger energy and uh because then they become long-term stewards, you know, if they have a positive experience permanently.

Absolutely, absolutely.

You know, and you're seeing them out seeing them out there with the weird tools you have to do to build a cage and you know something like that.

The really cool thing is that that one of those one of those girls is the one that spoke to the city council about the open space.

And I don't know if you've read it, but in our uh news one of our newsletters last year, uh what it gave a transcript of what she told the uh city council, and we I recruited uh someone from the um the Deer Lake Project.

We struck up a conversation and I talked him into interviewing her about her feelings about the environment and so forth.

So I really would like to see more volunteerism, not just in restoration and things like that, but some of the peripheral things and uh it was really nice to see.

So thank you for bringing that up.

I didn't put her up to that.

I I just want to echo the same sentiment and the projects that the open space foundations are putting together or coordinating really are bring our communities together.

I've been on these some of these um uh you know, weekend um the oak project and as well as learning um about the grant proposal um for this summer research project, and also the outreach at Crondolette and other schools, you know, trying to reach, you know, middle high school girls, you know, middle school and all ages, um, to develop their interests and um cultivate their love for the great outdoor the outdoors in Wanna Creek.

So really appreciate all the projects that um your foundation volunteers and thank you're working on.

The the kind of interesting thing about the Crondale involvement, it started with an experiment that we did called uh adopt a tree.

And the idea was some people don't want to join a group and be at a certain place at a certain time, but there were there were families that walked together out in the open space.

So um a woman walked up to me when we were out doing the Gary's tree farm uh out in uh North Lyme, and uh she and her her husband and her daughter agreed to participate.

So what it involved was planting planting an acorn and then taking care of it, weeding it and and watering it every every week, and the trees are now about this high.

So that was about four years ago, and she talked to one of her friends um at school who was interested in volunteering, and they were looking for the staff and faculty to come out and do some volunteer work.

So they did work for us over at uh Deer Lake, and then some of the girls came out and it kind of it kind of made a a pretty solid connection with that school, so it was pretty neat the way you know it started with that one girl, and then we ended up getting not just the faculty, but later on we got some the students also in their ecology club, so it was pretty nice.

Public comments, yes, come step right up.

Hi, Andrew Turnbull.

Um one of the reasons I wanted to speak on this is uh I'm in my 50th year of being an Eagle Scout.

Uh so I you probably won't be surprised which one was my favorite merit badge, despite the fact I was a swimmer.

That's where I learned to ride a horse was during scouting.

But one of the things that we do in scouting in order to achieve the highest rank is um community service.

This looks like a candy store of community service projects, and um I'm reconnected to uh Scouting America.

One of the most proud things that happened uh in um in 2020 was that girls are now earning Eagle Scout, and so we don't refer to them as Boy Scouts of America anymore, refer to it as Scouting America.

And I know in Alameda County where I live, when we get a chance to ask the scouts for something, I'm now calling on uh the girl troops because I love the show, how awesome they are.

And so I just see this as like nothing but opportunity.

I'm a I'm somewhat connected to the the group around here, and I would be proud to offer you any kind of connection to Scouting America because they need projects, and I think they could be really helpful to you.

Thank you.

Uh over the over the past three years, I think we've had uh about six or seven Eagle Scout projects in our open space, and we had our first female Eagle Scout candidate this year, so we're on it.

Okay, next um one of the things I wanted to talk about was the open space.

It's it's a physical and a mental release for a lot of people.

So I think it's you know, to see uh a bobcat up there to see deer, see coyote and stuff.

I think it's a really important space, and we need to be mindful of that.

And what people what I don't think was mentioned tonight was there was a bond issue in the 70s where the residents um voted on it to tax themselves to pay for open space land.

You know, we say the well, the creek owns it, yes, they do own it now, but I think we have to remember too a lot of the citizens were the ones that taxed themselves to, you know, and and we all know that, but it's I don't know that I heard it mentioned tonight.

Um another thing I in some of your looking forward slides.

One thing um I think would be great.

I know there's activities that are restoration and and that type of stuff, and in fact I do some of that.

But um like tours of the open space like Fran mentioned, you know, getting young people interested in it.

I mean, you know, I live in a community that's like, okay, people get in their cars or whatever, just take the sidewalks, but there's a whole open space up there with really cool stuff, you know, and I think we maybe we need I don't know if it's in the schools or whatever, but uh setting up some tours so kids really know what's up there and maybe educational presentations, but again, like I said, you had that in your looking forward slide.

Um another thing is the service that the Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation, the members and board members, you know, like your president and stuff.

I mean they have a wealth of information.

Uh I just wanted to say that um you you should use some of that expertise and I'm sure you do to educate the open space and public works and that type of thing about the types of things like the native plants that are up there, the rare plants and the wildlife and how important it is to uh preserve it.

Now I know there was a mountain biking group here tonight that wants to build a mountain bike, you know, have some facility in Lime Ridge and two-minute limit there.

Yeah, but Lime Ridge is really a preserve, you know, there's a preserve area and putting in.

I think the open space foundation um perhaps you can speak to uh your acceptance of uh all user groups in the open space.

Uh yes, where it's appropriate and legal.

And where there's uh at the legal speed limits.

Um yeah, of course.

Uh but to uh address the uh the use of experts uh we we do plan to have nature hikes and of course uh fossil hill is basically closed to the public now, but there are a lot of people that like to be up among the uh flowers.

So uh there's a plan in place to have docent-led uh tours of fossil hill.

So we'll let in a few people at a time and and uh show them the the diversity that's uh available to see there.

Uh there's also and and I believe that Barbara has been on the scorpion hike.

We have an annual uh hike after dark.

Um we like to schedule it the last full moon before Halloween, and uh uh we've haven't missed yet knock on uh uh we've had I think five years and we've always seen a few at least three scorpions.

So uh that's another thing that uh that we plan to keep rolling.

So fantastic.

Um I coached uh CYO cross country running team for eight years.

We had hundreds of kids through our program and all our practices were in Shell Ridge and the number of kids that uh and parents that and the difference that it made in their lives was uh of course the hardcore runners, you know, they run and they're you know, that's their thing.

But it was the kids who were not great runners that actually made the biggest difference, just learning to appreciate being in the open space and getting exercise and uh and chasing, you know, chasing butterflies and tarantulas and everything else they saw out there.

So thank you very much, Kim.

Really appreciate it.

Okay, with that.

Uh I'll ask for uh staff if there are any updates.

So I've a couple reports on a couple projects, and then we'll get into staff updates, and I believe Karen has a couple or one or two as well.

So just for the commission's sake, um, we have uh made it completely through the contracting process for the renovation of the Civic Park um playground, and we're currently scheduled uh we're targeting the April 1st start date.

Um it's about a six-week project, and so we're hoping that the new playground will be complete by mid-May, uh just in time for summer.

So um uh I'll be back here uh in front of you in April, and I'll I'll be sure and give you a further update at that time.

And then secondly, is uh just quick update on the pool and rec center project.

As Commissioner Chair Cook brought up earlier, the groundbreaking event, which all of you are invited to along with the entire community, is April 18th at 4 o'clock.

We're gonna be meeting there at the current or the existing uh recreation um center.

Uh as many of you have probably seen.

Uh we started the demo, which included the removal of 80 trees.

Uh we've also removed some shade structures out there, which uh we plan to relocate to different areas.

Um in phase one, we removed about 40 trees, so about 120 in total, and we've already planted over 100, uh well over 100, with uh with the goal of planting 200 trees to replace the 120 that have been removed.

Um the abatement of the facility uh should start here in a couple weeks.

And uh Commissioner Oler, I know that you have a grandson that likes uh construction activity.

Uh so we're hoping uh to start demolishing the building near the end of this month, and then we'll get in the excavation stage and and you know the next steps after that.

So that's my uh project update.

I'm sorry, yeah, if I if I misspoke, the events on the groundbreaking is on February 18th, yes.

Good evening, Commissioners.

Karen Haston Martin, uh recreation program manager overseeing aquatics and social services.

I'm putting on my social services hat tonight uh just to invite you out to our second annual um intellectual intellectual and developmental disabilities resource fair that will take place on March 7th from 10 to 1 at the Shade Lands Art Center.

Um it was very well attended last year.

We have more vendors uh this year, so we're excited to put that on.

And then our second event that we are hosting with a sensational seniors workshop team is the Walnut Creek Seniors Resource Fair.

It'll be held Thursday, March 12th from 9 to noon at St.

Matthew's Church in Walnut Creek.

Thank you.

Thanks, Karen.

I have uh just two uh brief updates or sorry, uh announcements.

Uh most of you probably know that we have a new um chief of police, and they are doing a meet and greet this Wednesday from 5 to 6 30 over at the Lesser Center.

Get an opportunity to go meet the the new chief.

Um the second one uh is it's based on a comment that I shared with you back in October at our last meeting where we were gonna be the plan was to be focused on a 10-year park plan, and I've received some emails from a few of you.

The decision was made to, and we may we may dive into a few of the parks um, but as a whole, uh the city's planning department is working through the update of our 2025 general plan and a deeper look into uh the commissioner's feedback on and the community's feedback along with the arts commission and and the other commissions.

They're gonna be coming, the planning department is going to be coming to this commission and having a deeper dive, deeper conversation into what the commission um recommendations would be for the next period of time, which is actually uh I think the general plan that we're focused on is a 2050 general plan.

So you'll have to put uh your thinking caps on and think for everybody for the next 25 years because we're gonna hold you to it uh each year moving forward.

So just kidding, but um there'll be a deeper dive uh in the parks uh later this year as we start moving forward with the general plan.

And the last thing uh, well, two more things uh before I turn it over for uh commissioner announcements is I wanted to just take a second to thank all of the nonprofits and speakers that came here tonight.

Um the value that you bring to the city, the partnership uh that public works and arts and rec have established with all of the uh nonprofits is exceptional.

I've been to most of the programs.

I know uh everybody here that's spoken uh spoke spoken tonight and showed up to support their groups, and the gift that you give the community is a real treasure.

So so thanks for taking the time tonight, and thank you for for all you do.

There are literally thousands of hours per year that go from uh the volunteers and these nonprofits back into the community, and it's it's really incredible.

Uh I think it was a past mayor, uh Mayor Carlson who was also a chair, commissioner chair at one time said that Walnut Creek is really truly a city of volunteers, and uh and that's what tonight was about.

We're hoping as we move forward uh for the rest of the meetings uh commission meetings this year, we'll get another one or two nonprofits to come in and be able to provide the uh the community input and and the um and the gift that you guys share tonight so that uh we have a full understanding by the end of the year of all of our partners and everything that's brought to brought to Walnut Creek.

And then lastly, I would I wanted to thank uh Commissioner Oler and Commissioner Cook for your service uh over the last several years.

Uh Art, it's been eight years with you.

Um you've always come prepared.

Uh you've always had great uh questions.

We've had a lot of great conversations and walks outside of uh outside of the commission, and I appreciate working with you.

I appreciate your friendship and uh and what you've done for the community.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mike.

Yeah, and Commissioner Cook, thank you very much.

Uh as uh ch Vice Chair uh Pink Staff mentioned, you are uh true cyclist and outdoorsman, and I know that uh we've we've talked in the last couple months, and and you really want to focus some of your efforts on uh writing safety and and just improving safety from that aspect in the community.

So thanks for all you've done, appreciate it.

Thank you, Mike.

Um you are an incredible resource for the city, and I know it sometimes is maybe a little frustrating going up against uh you know different forces, competing forces and having to navigate and negotiate uh where appropriate, but in terms of providing us information, all of us and to the best of your ability to take a an honest approach on everything you look at.

Um I speak highly to you about you, to everybody that I come in contact with and and uh thank you so much for everything you do for the city.

It's super valuable and and uh it's our staff that allow all these great things to happen in terms of the organization, and then it's the volunteers that allow these things to thrive.

Uh thank you very much.

Um do we have any uh uh commissioner updates that anyone would like to share this evening?

Uh anything else, Mike?

All right, um, and with that, I'm going to um it's my last meeting, so I'm passing the gavel over to uh Vice Chair Pink Staff, who will soon be chair pink staff.

Um, and uh I'll uh just like also like to close by recognizing my mother who's in the audience in the in the blue, and uh she's a special person and of resident of Walnut Creek since 1973 or four, right?

I think 1973.

I don't quite remember, but thank you, mother, for uh moving us to this wonderful city and allowing uh all the great stuff we've been able to be exposed to.

And what a great last meeting for me.

Just all the volunteer groups.

We should capture some of the video here and just you know, six different segments, and anybody who wants an introduction to Walnut Creek and what we have to offer, just each one of these sections was just truly amazing.

So thank you very much.

And with that, meeting a closed.

Thank you.