Save Flood Park

This Wednesday MP Parks Depart. Considering Ownership of Flood Park

Menlo Park Parks and Rec Commission to Meet this Wednesday Night About Future of Flood Park 

Nov 16th @ 6:30 PM in the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center (Oak Room) in Burgess Park

This Wednesday, the Menlo Park Parks Commission will meet to review the staff report about the city of Menlo Park taking ownership of Flood Park. This commission will formulate a recommendation to provide to the city council about whether the city should take ownership of Flood Park.

Please come to the commission meeting this Wednesday evening if you feel strongly that the future of Flood Park would be most secure and useful as a Menlo Park City Park!! Wear green to show your support. 

You can speak during the time slot for this agenda item. There will be a staff member providing cards to fill out if you would like to speak. Please do speak to make sure that our voices are heard - and within the spirit of our efforts please be brief and positive with your comments! 

Wednesday’s agenda is here http://service.govdelivery.com/docs/CAMENLO/CAMENLO_58/CAMENLO_58_20111117_070000_en.pdf

And you can send emails to MP Parks Commission members to express your opinion. Their email addresses are published here http://www.menlopark.org/commissions/com_parks.html

Someone just volunteered to bring cookies for those who can come. Yum! We look forward to them!

Party Flood Park on Saturday Nov 12th

Come to Friends of Flood Park’s “Party in the Park” celebrating the [temporary] re-opening of Flood Park on Saturday November 12 from 12:00 - 3:00.

There will be food trucks, live music, and a scavenger hunt.  Fun for the whole family!

Friends of Flood is hosting the party to say THANK YOU to all of our wonderful Save Flood Park supporters.  Your tireless efforts are largely responsible for the Park’s re-opening.  Come celebrate your success!!

Thanks to Everyone Who Came Out to the Nov Work Party!

Thanks to all the neighbors and friends who came out to the work party last Saturday November 5th. Thanks to your hard work, our park will be ready for the pending re-opening on Saturday Nov 12th.

Flood Park (Temporary) Reopening Work Party

Join us this Saturday, September 24 from 9am - 1pm at Flood Park.

We will dig, plant, weed, snack and chat with Flood Park supporters as we work to get the park looking great for its (temporary) reopening day this fall.  

The county will provide materials and direction, and we’ll provide coffee and doughnuts.  

Planning to attend?  Please do RSVP to volunteer@savefloodpark.org so we have an accurate count for the county…and for the snacks!

City to begin negotiations with County

Annother milestone - Tuesday night the City of Menlo Park approved the city manager to begin formal discussions with San Mateo County about the possible acquisition of Flood Park! 

This means that the city will begin to assess the feasability and cost of acquiring and maintaining the park, beginning in June of 2012 when county funding will end.  We hope that the city council will be voting on a proposition to acquire the park sometime this summer.  

Thanks to everyone whose support helped acheive this.  Your voices are being heard!  To email the city council and let them know your thoughts about the city aquiring the park, send an email to city.council@menlopark.org.   

The County is proposing to temporarily re-open Flood Park until June 2012

Congratulations everyone! Your efforts to re-open the park are paying off. We’ve reached a MAJOR milestone - the County is proposing to temporarily re-open Flood Park until June 2012. 

The following was published in the Examiner: 
“Funding for Flood Park in Menlo Park was partially restored so the park will be able to operate until June 2012 — but after that, it will need to find an additional funding source, Saco said.” 

What this is: 
The county would like to re-open Flood Park after the SFPUC water pipe work is complete until June 2012. 

What this is not: 
- This is not definite. 
The county board of supervisors needs to vote on this recommendation 
Let’s go to their vote and ask them to vote yes! 
- This is not a long-term fix. 
The county is still sticking to it’s decision that it cannot manage Flood Park in the long-term. They are currently in negotiations with the city of Menlo Park over a transfer of ownership. 
The city is still far from convinced, so please continue to write to the city council and come to their meetings to show your support for the park! 

In fact Flood Park is on the city council agenda this Tues 6/14. If you have time, please attend wearing green to show your support for the park. 

The meeting is Tuesday,6/14 at 7:00 p.m. at the City Council Chambers located at 701 Laurel Street. 
If you can go, please write to volunteer@savefloodpark.org and let us know that you can attend.

Please sign the Save Flood Park petition →

We have created a petition to save Flood Park. Please read, sign, and forward to your friends and contacts. Thanks! 

Note: After you sign the petition you may be prompted to donate to ipetition. This step is absolutely not necessary and the money does not go to Flood Park, it goes to the petition website company. 

Flood Park - Park Map →

Want to get to know Flood Park a little better, but can’t because it’s closed?

Here is a map of the current park facilities.

What You Can Do

What You Can Do

1. Write to the County Board of Supervisors and the Menlo Park City Council (contact info below)

Ask them to:

• Re-open Flood park and keep it open
• If the County cannot afford to maintain Flood Park, then the City should take over management of the park in a way that is fiscally responsible and accountable to the neighborhood needs.

Feel free to use this email template

2. LIKE our Facebook page to get news and updates related to the park’s closure. 

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City and County Contact Info

(keep in mind that emails to the city council, and possibly the county are made public, with email address removed)

County Board of Supervisors
Carole Groom
cgroom@co.sanmateo.ca.us

Don Horsley
dhorsley@co.sanmateo.ca.us

Rose Jacobs Gibson
rosejg@co.sanmateo.ca.us

Adrienne J. Tissier
atissier@co.sanmateo.ca.us

County Parks Commission 
parkscommission@co.sanmateo.ca.us

Menlo Park City Council

To email the whole city council:
city.council@menlopark.org 

Mayor Richard Cline
racline@menlopark.org

Mayor Pro Tem Kirsten Keith
kkeith@menlopark.org

Council Member Andrew M. Cohen
amcohen@menlopark.org

Council Member Kelly Fergusson
kjfergusson@menlopark.org

Council Member Peter I. Ohtaki 
piohtaki@menlopark.org

Menlo Park City Manager

City Manager Glen Rojas 

grojas@menlopark.org

Assistant City Manager Starla Jerome-Robinson

sljeromerobinson@menlopark.org

Flood Park Closure - Background

In a March 17th meeting, the San Mateo County parks Commission decided to recommend the indefinite closure of Flood Park as a cost savings measure. The final vote by the County Board of Supervisors is scheduled for June 1.

The city of Menlo Park has expressed interest in taking over management of the park. However it is not clear where all of the city council members stand on the issue.

The community is concerned about losing the park and about crime related to a boarded up park.