Will Gibson Ranch Be Closed Permanently?
by Keith Weber
President of the Antelope-Highlands Chamber of Commerce & Acting Chairperson for The Friends of Gibson Ranch
Since that phone call in 2004 from longtime community activist Merrie O’Brien, I have been an active advocate for saving Gibson Ranch. The six years since then have been a wild rollercoaster ride slowing to this snapshot-in-time in the biggest disaster yet.
We have many fine, trusted local parks districts that have judiciously guarded their first responsibility, which is to maintain an optimum level of access to each park within their trust and thereby providing maximum community access to those valued parks. Those districts include Sunrise Recreation & Park District for the Antelope area, North Highlands Recreation and Parks District for the North Highlands and McClellan area, and the Rio Linda Elverta Park District for the Rio Linda & Elverta area.
Gibson Ranch falls outside the jurisdiction of all of those successful districts. This should certainly never have been a problem...but it is. It is a big problem.
Gibson Ranch is part of Sacramento County’s regional parks system. For community members in the northern portion of Sacramento County, Gibson represents 150 years of this area’s history...literally. It should be open daily to community members... which it currently is not.
The sad part of the recent story is that Sacramento Regional Parks has been responsible for closing nearly every usable public asset contained within the boundaries of this priceless historic place. The list is heartbreaking! The original Gibson residence is gone. The Lake House is gone. The Ranch House and the Bunk Houses are both closed to community use. The one-of-a-kind Swimming Hole (a sandy beach chlorinated pool) is closed. The park itself is now closed to community members, except for the very temporary weekend opening (the remaining “open” days are thanks to the subsidizing help of the Rio Linda Elverta Park District).
In spite of a six-year outpouring of support from community members including both the Antelope-Highlands Chamber, the Rio Linda Elverta Chamber, the Rio Linda Lions Club, the Foothill Highlands Rotary Club, local Boy Scout and Girl Scout organizations, VFW Post 4647, many local businesses, and thousands of concerned individual community members... Regional Parks has now forced out the last of those valued assets with the shutout of L&M Concessions.
So... the end of a community effort shoulder to shoulder with a mom & daughter small business gets the boot (literally) from Sacramento County. The saddest part of the story from our community’s point of view... is that there is absolutely no logical common sense reason for this move on the part of Regional Parks except to protect a couple of union-represented county employees.
Union protection, to a point is fine... but not at the expense of the primary function of Regional Parks (like any other park district)... to provide access to the very parks that rightfully belong to community members (taxpayers). Unions don’t own our park system... or do they?
The other “force out” provision is the punitive form of new contracts that the County is literally forcing on the backs of small businesses. When your only option for continuing to provide a service or a space for the County is to “sign away” your rights... then the County has gone too far. When the entire burden of a contract is on the back of a business and the County relieves itself of ALL responsibility, the workable balance is gone.
At this junction, L&M Concessions is THE expert in the horse boarding and equestrian facility. The county has no expert and no track record in this area.
With L&M forced out with these ridiculous terms and total absence of common sense on the part of County Regional Parts, Regional Parks has decided to start completely over. They have elected to throw away a two-decade relationship and attempt to grab for any “straws” they can piece together to limp into 2011. Their plan is now to put the entire park “out to bid.”
From this ill-conceived plan there is only... and I do mean only one logical bidder in this process. Former Congressman Doug Ose and a group of concerned and well-prepared folks are a part of this small handful of contenders to gain access... to bring Gibson Ranch back to its former greatness.
I am fully convinced that Mr. Ose has the track record (which County Regional Parks most assuredly does not), the financial ability, the forward-thinking and creativeness to not only bring back the assets that the community has been denied in their own park, but also to grow the facility into the shining example that will bring pride and that the community deserves.
We need Doug Ose and his group. He plans to bring back L&M Concessions to handle what they have done best for the last two decades... the Equestrian Center and Ranch Operations and Horse Boarding. Then, from that solid foundation, within a few short months and years, the countless other opportunities will gradually make their way to the park hopefully providing not only a first-class facility, but a world-class facility. This is simply way beyond the ability of the County’s Regional Parks System now... and probably for many years into the future. The community deserves access to Gibson now!
I urge all community members to write each member of the Board of Supervisors and urge them to support the best plan for our community’s Gibson Ranch Park... and support Doug Ose’s Group effort.
Our real solution is before us... but individual community members must step up to the plate and voice their opinion.
Community members can contact me and get the latest updates at www.CommerceAndCommunity.com as well.