It’s been more than a year since Santa Maria first sanctioned off portions of Buena Vista Park for a much needed $1.3 million rebuilding project that was first proposed in October 2016.
The park, which had been expected to open sometime this spring, will sit untouched by the general public until its grand reopening party, now scheduled for Aug. 11, according to a recently released city statement.
It’s the second consecutive summer that kids from surrounding neighborhoods will be left without a nearby public park to play in and the youth programs and events that often come with.
“I have a feeling the grand opening is what the parks department is most concerned about,” Santa Maria resident Virginia Souza said at an emergency Buena Vista Beautifiers meeting on June 8.
The Buena Vista Beautifiers, a few unwavering community members dedicated to maintaining the city’s oldest park, met at noon that day at the First United Methodist Church.
“If [the park] were partially opened right now it could get semi-destroyed by the time they have the grand opening,” Souza said. “So I have a feeling their target is more on their own agenda, which is the grand opening, and that it be as full of folderol as possible.”
Throughout the city’s rebuilding process, the Buena Vista Beautifiers have worked to push as much community input into the project as possible. The process, Souza said, has been extremely frustrating for her and members.
She said that many of the Beautifiers’ requests have gone ungranted and concerns unaddressed. Several members at the meeting asked who would maintain the recently planted roses, the newly installed tetherball poles, and wondered why the city wasted “precious field space” on a large, tiled entryway at the corner of West Morrison and South Pine.
But Souza said the group’s main focus now is on the project’s delay and what it means for local kids.
“It certainly looks like it’s ready to open,” Souza said at the meeting, adding that after several conversations with various officials, it sounded as though it would be impossible to partially open Buena Vista for the summer.
The recently laid sod will need 60 days to cure, Souza said she was told, and heavy machinery is still being used to install some of the park’s equipment. Local families, she said, will have to transport their children to summer programs in other parts of the city.
To address the issue, the city redesigned its Safe N’ Strong All Summer Long Program, according to Recreation and Parks Department Management Analyst Dennis Smitherman, who said the program gets young kids involved in outdoor activities each weekday from June 11 until Aug. 10.
Safe N’ Strong is typically hosted in several of Santa Maria’s 27 parks, and Buena Vista was listed as one of the hosting locations last month, according to a press release posted to the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce website on May 10.
But with Buena Vista unexpectedly closed for summer–Smitherman said a few finishing touches are still being added, including barbecue pits, picnic tables, and last minute landscaping–the parks department will offer a shuttle service to neighborhood kids still hoping to participate.
Recreation leaders started meeting kids outside Buena Vista’s Campfire Cabin each weekday at 10 a.m. on June 13, where they are shuttled to Minami Community Park for Safe N’ Strong. Parent signed permission slips are required.
Although there were no shuttle riders on June 13, Smitherman said he hopes more parents will register their children for Safe N’ Strong as word spreads. For now, Smitherman said the Recreation and Parks Department is doing its best to accomodate families living near Buena Vista Park during its closure.
“This is a huge project to gut a park all the way down to its bare bones,” Smitherman said. “A year is not uncommon for a project of this size, and this is one of our biggest parks and it’s our first park, so we really wanted to make sure we did it right the first time.”
For more information about the city’s Safe N’ Strong program or Buena Vista park, call the Recreation and Parks Department at (805) 925-0951, Ext. 2260.
Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash writes School Scene each week. Information can be sent to the Sun via mail, fax, or email at mail@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 21-28, 2018.