Friends
of state park to organize Saturday
Friends of Palomar Mountain State Park
will hold their organizational meeting Saturday, Feb. 4,
11:30 a.m. at the Palomar Mountain Community Center,
21610 Crestline Rd., (next to the fire station).
The meeting will be held in conjunction
with the regularly scheduled Palomar Mountain Planning Organization
meeting at 10 a.m., which is open to the community.
Rick Barclay chairman of the Friends and
Michael Walsh, vice chairman, will give an update on the
process of working with the State Parks Dept. to reach an
agreement to keep Palomar State Park open. The park is one
of 70 parks slated for closure due to budget cuts. Campgrounds
are closed already and the park is open for day use only.
Full closure will take place this July 1.
According to Barclay, “The primary
objective of the meeting is to reach out to the broader
community of interested parties to identify additional volunteers,
gather and exchange ideas, and begin to form the organization
and map out strategies and responsibilities as we work together
to keep our park open and operating.”
This is the first of several meetings the
group plans to hold in the next few months. People who want
to join the effort can indicate interest by visiting www.palomarsp.org/friends/survey.htm.
One of the main activities of the group
is raising money to keep the park alive. “Meeting
our initial funding objective will send a strong message
of strength and commitment to the Parks Department, that
we can and will do our very best to keep the park open!”
said Barclay. You will find pledge forms at www.palomarsp.org/friends/pledge_form.htm
The group is only $9,000 away from reaching
its first year pledge target of $60,000, says Barclay.
“We kicked off the pledge drive just
two weeks ago, but there’ve been a couple of special
developments. First, we got a super generous $30,000 matching
pledge challenge from a couple in Rancho Santa Fe, Bob and
Marion Wilson. If we can raise $30,000 in pledges and donations,
they’ll match it.
“Second, we've reaped an excellent
outpouring of support from other fans all over southern
California and beyond... New York, Hawaii, we even have
a couple of pledges from Selkirk, Scotland. That's how popular
this jewel of a park is. So far, we’ve raised $21,000
in pledges and donations. That means all we have to do is
raise $9,000 more and we’ll meet the $30,000 pledge
challenge. So as it stands now, we can turn $9,000 into
$60,000—I defy anyone to show me a better deal,”
he says.
Last month the Friends submitted a proposal
to the Parks Dept. in Sacramento with this offer: If Sacramento
keeps the park open, the Friends will cover the gap between
revenue and operating costs.
“The park brings in a goodly amount
of money... just not quite enough to break even," says
Barclay. “It would be shame to close the park just
because of a near miss.” The park would continue to
be operated by regular park staff. “We’re not
aiming to run the park; we just want to support it financially
so that it can continue to be operated by professionals.”
The $60,000 will keep the park open and
help pay for deferred maintenance and repairs that have
been neglected because of budget cutbacks over the years.
So far Sacramento hasn’t given the
Friends an answer, says Barclay, “but they have asked
questions and at least no one is saying ‘no,’
so I take that as a positive sign. Our first year target
of $60,000 could change, depending on the agreement we eventually
work out with Sacramento.”
People won’t be asked to actually
donate until they do reach an agreement. Right now they
are just asking for pledges of support.
Friends of Palomar Mountain State Park
is currently operating as a division of CRSPIA, the non-profit
501(c)(3) charitable association that has been supporting
Cuyamaca Rancho State Park since the 1970s and Palomar Mountain
State Park since the 1980s. However, all donations to Friends
of Palomar will go to Palomar exclusively.
