The Cupertino Courier
News
Parks & Rec Department is looking for new planner
By Cody Kraatz
With a healthy 2007-08 budget, the Cupertino Parks and Recreation Department is reshuffling and growing its staff and planning to bring the San Jose Conservation Corps into the project to improve McClellan Ranch Park.
The department added an administrative assistant within the past few weeks and is developing a new parks planner position to manage the Stevens Creek Corridor project over the next two years.
"I want this person to handle the corridor. It's really cranking up now," said Therese Smith, director of parks and recreation. She has been writing grants to fund construction in that area, a part-time job itself, and now has to start managing the actual construction projects. Next year's budget, if approved by the city council, will include include $6.7 million for the corridor project.
An accompanying plan to redistribute job duties from a vacant job that used to oversee Blackberry Farm recreation programs was still subject to the city manager's approval.
Smith said the position could earn about $177,000 per year but is still in development and would not start full time until July 1. This requires the elimination of one recreation supervisor position, saving $124,500 per year.
This would also ensure that someone is deeply familiar with the corridor project when Smith retires as planned early next year.
"We need this position. The entire staff has reorganized its workload to make this possible because the department needs it. The planner is to be used immediately, as soon as we can get the person signed up."
At McClellan Ranch, the city is building a partnership with the conservation corps that would make the project much more affordable.
In July, the corps expects to receive $1.2 million from Prop. 84, passed last year to protect and improve water resources and natural watersheds like Stevens Creek. The corps offers high school graduation and vocational training to young people who do not graduate from high school.
"We train our young folks in all aspects of construction," said Bob Hennessey, executive director of the San Jose corps.
The organization offered to chip in $500,000 towards projects along Stevens Creek, provided the city matches that amount. The corps will have $335,000 left over for other McClellan Ranch projects in the future. With offsets from the state, the corps and a federal grant, the city will only pay $430,000 for the project, saving nearly $190,000.
Starting in late July, the corps is scheduled to start dismantling and refurbishing wood from an old barn on Santa Clara Valley Water District land in East San Jose, bringing the wood to McClellan Ranch and using the wood to rebuild a 4H barn.
The corps would help reconfigure the 4H area to allow for a more accessible 700 feet of trail on its easternmost edge. Work on the 4H barn would begin in early August, after the animals there go to market. After that, an $81,000 federal grant requires that the reconstruction of the blacksmith shop be completed by next April.
The lumber from the East San Jose barn would have cost the city about $15,000, but the corps can do the work for $6,700, Smith said.
Other plans in the Stevens Creek corridor area include upgrades to Blackberry Farm recreation facilities, a trail from McClellan Ranch to Stevens Creek Boulevard and a major realignment of the creek.
To learn more about the Stevens Creek Corridor project, visit www.cupertino.org. The San Jose Conservation Corps website is www.sjcccharterschool.org.
