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Youth Lot
Update (January/February 2005)
By Dede Smullen
Thanks to the neighborhood
support and City staff's hard work the Youth Lot is
proceeding on schedule and will be opening in late March or
conservatively in early April. We will be planning a
community planting day to fulfill the terms of our CAP grant
as soon as the contractor has vacated the site. After this
we are considering a "Grand Opening/Community Picnic" to
celebrate our hard work as soon as the weather permits.
Almaden Winery Park Youth Lot Update: We’re almost
there!
By Amy
Paschal
After
three busy years of fundraisers and meetings, construction
of a Youth Lot in Almaden Winery Park is in sight! Here is
how the schedule lays out:
Activity Due
Date Status
Begin
Construction Plan 2/17/04 Done
Construction Plan 50% Complete 4/15/04
Done
Construction Plan Complete 5/28/04
Done
Advertise
to Contractors 6/9/2004
Done
Bid
Opening 7/1/2004
Done
Bid
Awarded 8/3/2004
Done
Begin
Construction 10/4/2004
Done
Youth Lot
Open! 3/11/2005
Completed!
On
April 28, 2004, the Youth Lot Committee met with members of
the City of San Jose Parks, Recreation, & Neighborhood
Services department to view the progress of the youth lot
plan. This is the construction plan that will be distributed
by the parks department to contractors wishing to bid on the
project. How exciting to see all our hard work in print!
Yes, neighbors, this really is going to happen!! See the
diagram below for the construction plans given to us at this
meeting. The major elements in the play lot include a play
structure, a tire swing and a climbing web. The
construction plans will soon be complete and the process of
contractor bid and selection will begin. In the April
meeting, we also learned that the final estimate of the
youth lot, based on construction plans, is $320,000. As
predicted, our current funding of $300,000 (which includes
$50,000 raised your neighborhood!) does not quite cover the
bill. In creating the construction plan, the city pulled out
the landscaped area surrounding the youth lot into what they
call an add-alternate plan. The add-alternate, which
includes purchase and installation of both plants and
irrigation, is estimated at $20,000. The base plan includes
the ground preparation for the landscaping area and the
sleeves required for the irrigation system.
At our
request, the city will break the addalternate into two
plans. Add-alternate one will be the irrigation, estimated
at $16,000. Addalternate two will be the planting, estimated
at $4000. The add-alternate plans can be added to the youth
lot project if our neighborhood can come up with the money
to cover them. Additional funds raised by us must be
delivered to the city by June 30, 2004 — before the plans go
out to bid. As you hopefully know, we are now in the midst
of our final fundraiser for the youth lot. We are
selling inscribed granite pavers which will be installed on
the walkway from the main park to the youth lot. We are also
continuing to sell park bench plaques. We need to sell 47
more pavers to complete both add-alternate plans. The sale
of 22 more pavers would cover the irrigation add-alternate.
Please
support our neighborhood park and our community by
participating in this final fundraiser.
Donations
are also accepted. Please make donation checks out to ‘LM –
Almaden Winery Youth Lot Fund’ and send to Amy Paschal,
1519 Chaumont Drive.
All donations are tax-deductible due to our partnership with
Las Madres Neighborhood Playgroups, Inc.
Another Potential Source of Funding
The Youth
Lot Committee has also applied for a Community Action &
Pride (CAP) Grant through the City of San Jose Parks,
Recreation & Neighborhood Services department. The award of
a CAP grant could pay for the landscaping add-alternate if
our neighborhood supplies the labor (a requirement of the
grant) and could possibly pay for paver inscriptions,
freeing up more fundraising money to be used on the
irrigation add-alternate. Due to the grant restrictions, a
CAP grant could not be used on the irrigation
add-alternate since a contractor is required for
installation. The grant application was sent in on June 1,
2004 and we will hear if we were granted funds by June 30,
2004.
Almaden Winery Park Youth Lot Update
By Amy Paschal
(originally
for the Spring 2004 Las Madres Newsletter)
Almaden Winery Park is a small neighborhood park with a tot
play lot (ages 2-5) but no youth play lot (ages 6-12). Moms
from the surrounding neighborhood saw their little ones
quickly losing interest in the tot lot (of course long
before they turned five!) and saw the little ones’ play
disrupted by older children looking for a place to play as
well. If only there was a youth lot! The neighborhood moms,
including two members from Almaden 99, Clarice Simmons and
Amy Paschal, decided to take action and make their vision of
a youth lot become a reality. From this vision, the Las
Madres Almaden Winery Youth Lot Fund, a joint venture
between Las Madres Neighborhood Playgroups and the Almaden
Winery Neighborhood Association, was born.
That was in 2001. Since then, many fundraisers have been
held including last spring’s Casablanca Casino Night bash
and last summer’s garage sale. Through these efforts, the
Fund members met their initial fundraising goal of $50,000
last fall. This achievement was met with a generous 3x match
of $150,000 from San Jose District 10 Councilmember Pat
Dando! With this funding available, planning began! In
conjunction with the City of San Jose Parks and Recreation
Department, a rough design was chosen by the neighborhood
last fall and creation of construction plans is about to
begin.
However, based on the planning to date, the Fund is short
somewhere between 10K and 35K, depending upon final plan
specifications and final estimates developed as part of the
construction plans. So we are making a final fundraising
push!
As part of this effort, we are pleased to make available
personalized natural granite pavers to be placed near the
youth lot. The pavers are 8”x8” unpolished natural granite
in various shades of grey. They are the same type of pavers,
(a.k.a. donor bricks) that were sold as part of the Jake Eby
Fund and installed in front of Jake’s Play Lot.
Please help make this dream a reality! Your support is
greatly appreciated. |
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