Groundbreaking ends long wait for park

After a long wait, green grass, benches and playgrounds are coming to empty lots in the Wheeler Ranch subdivision of Plumas Lake.

Crews began work this week on the first of three parks in the neighborhood, with two more scheduled to be built over the next few months.

"I've got a 2-year-old here, so she'll be ecstatic," said Dolli Myers, 27, who lives around the corner from where the first park will have a groundbreaking ceremony today at Links Parkway and Wheeler Ranch Drive. "When we moved in, we didn't realize there wasn't a park."

Such a realization probably came to many homeowners in the 5-year-old subdivision, which had its parks delayed when the original builder went bankrupt and trustees for the bankruptcy held onto the deeds for the parks-to-be properties.

An agreement to pay $2.7 million in fees collected from homeowners in exchange for the deeds, which Olivehurst Public Utility District directors approved last summer, cleared the way for the parks.

The first, the 2.29-acre Leila Smith Memorial Park, will be built by the end of the summer. The park is named for an Olivehurst resident of a half-century ago who was instrumental in getting the town's first post office, school, library and utilities established.

OPUD General Manager Tim Shaw said the district will probably soon begin accepting bids for building the other two parks, one a 1.25-acre park and the other a larger, 5-acre park in the subdivision's northwest corner.

If the same company builds those parks as is building Leila Smith, Shaw said, that could result in cost savings for the district. Each park costs about $400,000 per acre, he said.

"The goal is to have all three parks done this year, but weather is a factor," Shaw said, explaining laws related to runoff don't allow much construction activity after Oct. 1.

"A great deal of effort went into bringing it to fruition," Shaw said of getting the parks built. "We're very happy to start this construction."

As he mowed his lawn at his home near the park site, Ryan Batalia, 24, said he was unaware of the trials and travails that preceded construction getting under way.

With a 4-year-old, he said, a nearby park is a must.

"We'll be there a couple times a week," he said.