Midyear budget adjustments provide $8,149 for Clemmens Lane Park

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has quarterly budget adjustments, and the adjustments approved, May 21, added $8,149 for the improvements to Clemmens Lane Park. The supervisors’ 5-0 vote transferred that amount from the county's general fund to cover the costs of an Americans with Disabilities Act access plan and special masonry inspections.

Various factors normally cause the county to have more money than budgeted following the end of a fiscal quarter including staff turnover, which creates both vacancies and replacements at lower salaries; lighter caseloads and completed projects for which budgeted contingencies are not spent. The county had a balance of $158.2 million in the general fund and $222.0 million in all funds after the third quarter of fiscal year 2018-2019.

Clemmens Lane Park opened in 2009 and encompasses 0.56 acres. Its initial improvements were a small soccer field, a sand volleyball court, a picnic area with barbecues and a children’s playground with shade sails. The county’s Department of Parks and Recreation monitored usage of the park and determined that a restroom and additional soccer space was needed while deeming the volleyball court to be underutilized by the community.

When the board of supervisors approved the county’s 2017-2018 Community Development Block Grant funding plan in April 2017 the supervisors included $257,083 for the design and construction of a synthetic turf soccer field and a restroom at Clemmens Lane Park. The federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development made the project subject to National Environmental Protection Act review, so $7,083 of that amount was earmarked for environmental review.

A May 2018 board of supervisors action authorized the advertisement for bid and subsequent award of a contract to convert the volleyball court into a synthetic turf soccer field, to replace a disturbed plant bed with the restroom and to install vertical cushion panels on the existing perimeter fencing surrounding the soccer field.

During the permitting process the county was required to develop an Americans with Disabilities Act access plan and to contract for special masonry inspections. The additional $8,149 of appropriations was needed so that the project whose cost was increased to $258,149 could be fully funded.

The Department of Parks and Recreation expects the Clemmens Lane Park improvements to be complete this summer.

The midyear adjustments also allocated $746,325 to the San Diego County Regional Fire Authority for two water tenders. The county and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection have an “assistance by hire” program which involves Cal Fire reimbursing the county for SDCRFA resources used to combat wildfires in state responsibility areas, and money from that program was used to provide the funding for the water tenders.

The money allows the county’s Department of Purchasing and Contracting to procure water tenders from the manufacturer, although the anticipated delivery time following an order is between six and eight months. The county fire department has a fleet replacement plan and when an existing water tender is on the verge of meriting replacement the new water tenders will replace the aging ones. The SDCRFA stations its water tenders based on the most likely anticipated needs.