Sonoma County Regional Parks and Marinas, with Joe Rodota, Director

Sonoma County, a diverse county of over one million acres is famed for its agriculture industry and recreation boasting a booming economy and a unique lifestyle for its citizens described by the same Luther Burbank as the chosen spot of all the earth. Sonoma County is the place

to live, work and play as we move into the 21st century. Led by the forward looking philosophy of its governing bodies. Sonoma County's 340,000 residents are a harmonious, successful blend of ethnic and economic backgrounds. We invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in

the nineties with your host Rich McGlinchey. Hello everyone. I'm glad you could join us for this edition of Sonoma County in the 90s because we're gonna be talking to a gentleman who is responsible for building one of the most outstanding park systems in any county in

the United States and that's just not my phrase that has been echoed by people on the national level and the state level. His name is joe ricotta and one of the reasons he's visiting with us now is that he plans to unfortunately kind of hang it

up this year and he's going to retire and I guess to other things in his life. But he's done such a tremendous job for Sonoma County. We thought we just had to have him back and find out what has happened with the parks lately, joe. It's

really nice to have him back here And I'm really sorry to hear that you're thinking of going off into the sunset and doing something else at the sunset. You've been with the park system Joe for how long here? Well 23 years rich started in 1967 and

here it is 1990. Yeah. And not only that when you came here, there was there was literally nothing in the way of parks. Right. No, that's true rich. In fact, I almost turned around and went back to orange county. But uh yes, in 1967 when I

came to the county, they they started the park department and there were virtually no parks. The the only areas that they had was Doran Beach which was out at bodega and they affectionately called it the door and spit. And there was nothing, there was a road

going out there and uh a bunch of chemical toilets around and that was, that was door in park and they had the Healdsburg beach which was Used on the river and but that was it. No other recreation or park facilities. Yeah, that's that's sure that's your

change to a tremendous degree. And I think maybe the way we could best explain that is uh we'll talk about most of them in a few minutes. But what part developments in new areas were opened justice last year in 1989? Well 89 was a real busy

year for park expansion rich. The ones that come to mind new areas particularly in the North County in the Windsor area where a lot of growth has occurred in the last year. Um, there were several parks that came into that area. Two big ones that are,

I think most notable one is the Shiloh Regional Park, which is a 750 acre park off of Fort Road. And um, that has been opened just recently. We're gonna have a grand opening in March coming up probably in the near future I should say. And the

other one that was added to the system in 89 was the Foot Hills Regional Park, 250 acre park up in the Windsor area and a number of community parks throughout the, the area. So it just seems like we keep keep adding the parks to the system.

Well, joe, I think one of the things that the county uh, has respect for you for having done is find money. You have had a unique facility for finding dollars that are available at the state and federal level in which we could use to acquire land

and develop these parks. And sincerely, as you, as you do plan to leave this year, I think the, the county and I'd like to speak for everybody owes you a big vote of thanks for for having brought about all these park developments, not only in santa

rosa or Healdsburg is nowhere, but everywhere. And you've really got a wide diverse group of now, one of the things that's been very successful, joe is uh, spud Point marina now is that continue to be successful. Yes, it's a tremendous success. The uh the whole fishing

industry in, in the county had been revitalized with the marinas inception. And although there was a real, I guess a porous fishing season this year, the marina still was financially successful and it is indicative of the faith that the industry has in the marina and it's

been classified as one of the finest marinas in the northern pacific southwest, if not just California. So with that kind of traction you, you know that success is imminent. Let's just stay on that for a moment. What's in the future for spud point marina? Well, the

big thing that's coming down in that area and hopefully in the near future will be a restaurant that will be located uh in the marina area. And we have just completed a feasibility study that looks very, very productive. Um, there's a lot of restaurants going on

in the area. But uh the feasibility study shows that everybody can be successful. There's only one bodega bay and it's going to attract more people and more tourists and uh, but we feel that the restaurant operation at the marina is is essential because the revenue that

will be derived from that will be used to help support the marina. I think it's important to note that the marina is self supporting. There is no tax dollars that go into the marina. It's all comes from the revenue in that facility and many people don't,

don't realize that. So the success depends on how well it does in all of these activities because it was a very expensive marina to build And we have large loans to pay, we have operating expenses and this type of thing. So, um, we think the future

is bright for today. Dobey and spread point Marina. Well, Bob Black, who is your general manager over there or your coordinator for the Marina is going to be a guest on account of the 90s later this spring. And at what time we're going to talk about

crab season and that sort of thing and I'm sure he'll give us some of the specifics, but I wanted you to give us an overview of of its success and it has been successful. Now Joe, what does 1990 offer in the way of other programs? Well,

I think 90 is going to be a same growth posture that we've had over the last several years. As I indicated, the county is growing and more people are coming in. Uh, one of the things that relates to that is that we have in the county,

what is known as a park mitigation fee and that is every time a building permit is taken out, a sum of money is paid into the park fund to allow for park development and as more people come to the county, there'll be more money for parks.

And um, Again, I illustrate the growth areas that are occurring in the Sonoma County. Uh, the Windsor area is going to grow 90 will see all of the parks that I mentioned that have been acquired developed in 1990 and used because the money is there and

uh, it will be developed so that people that living there now will enjoy those parks. Uh, the other sections of the county will also grow and some of the uh, larger parks will be expanded so that people can enjoy uh, the outdoor recreation opportunities here in

this county, you said that Windsor has got those two big parks and they're going to be developed this year. Uh, what other growth areas in the county do you expect to see some major park expansion in in this year or next? Well, in the, you know,

in the Sonoma Valley, there's uh, there's, there's all kinds of activity there, Maxwell farms regional park in Sonoma is, is just a tremendous success. The people down in that valley are overjoyed with the, with the opportunity that that offers. Um, there is um, the activities that

are going to go on in the south county, there's in the Petaluma area, there's um, parks that are going to be added in that area in, in terms of uh, Helen Putnam Park in Petaluma is, is going to be expanded in more facilities will be put

in there. Um, the Russian river area. Hopefully we'll see more public access along the river for fishermen and boating and this type of thing, I don't know if you've got the exact count joe without having your Directory, so to speak. But about how many park sites

do we have now? We started out, I know with Doran and with the beach and you must have 18 or 20. Well, yeah, there's there's, there's over almost 6000 acres of parks in our system now. And I think we have about uh 18 major regional parks.

We have eight or 10 community level parks and neighborhood parks. We have an array of special facilities like hiking trails and bicycle trails. The new one that comes to mind is the one that will be building and opening from the trail, the old railroad right away

from santa rosa to sebastopol and boat launching facilities in the county. And uh the veterans auditoriums are Operated by the park system, although they were here, you know, many years ago, they were incorporated into the park system and are used as recreation facilities. We have over

6000 events a year in those buildings throughout the county, one in almost every city that are managed by the County Parks Department. So I was just thinking of some of the major parts that we do have and that folks out there can go to Maxwell Park

over there is one of the big ones and then it's good mountain still our park. Oh yeah, that's a, that's a huge place up there like that, that's 1700 acres. Yeah. And then like you say down south to Helen Putnam Park and the regal ranch park.

And now these two you're developing in City Park is a park in Windsor named after Stillwater Cove. Now Duran was there when you started job. But it's a lot has happened there since then. Well I say it was just a barren piece of land that the

county had acquired by condemnation in 19 in the 1940s when they built the jetty out there and they just used to let people go out there when I first came to the county. The uh they allowed people to bring their trailers out and park and they

used to leave them there all summer and they just parked along the beaches there. And then unfortunately we got organized so that those things didn't occur anymore. But Spring Lake, you didn't mention Spring Lake Park, which is right in my neighborhood I guess. Yeah. You go

over there quite often. I know and that that probably has five or 600,000 people a year that use that park. That's a beautiful park, a little bit of everything hasn't water lake, the swimming lagoon, hiking, you go out there any hour of the day and you'll

see people jogging and fishing and it's a lovely walk or jog trail to goes about 2.5 miles all the way around the thing and it's, it's a, not only in its scenic splendor, but it's a darn good exercise facility. Alright, joe I think that we're going

to pause right now for a moment. Let the station bring the audience of public service announcement. Ladies and gentlemen, joe risotto, the original parks director and I will be back in just a moment. We'll talk more about the regional parks in Sonoma County. Now cows aren't

cuddly and they don't do tricks and some folks say they're as smart as bricks, but they have a job that's important to do and it's more than just make milk for you. They roam our farmlands on bovine patrol protecting Sonoma County's heart and soul. So if

you see cows out standing in their fields, pretend they're guards with badges and shields and if you really want to keep those cows is from turning into streets and houses by Sonoma County milk, butter and cheese protect the heart and soul of Sonoma County. Ask your

grocer for local farm products. Once there were a few proud men, Men of adventure, men of courage, men who knew the meaning of There still are the marines were looking for a few good men, welcome back everybody to this edition of Sonoma County in the nineties

were talking to joe radio to the regional Park Director for Sonoma County and we've talked a little bit about uh the development of the park system in the 23 years that joe has been here from two little parks, a little spit over in Dorin Beach and

Healdsburg Memorial Beach to uh, 20 or more parks, several regional parks. A lot of park facilities throughout our county. And Joe has been basically in charge and responsible for the acquisition of those sites and, and getting the funding to develop them. And the county owes Joe

I think a big vote of confidence and, and thanks because he's planning to leave the department sometime this year. Joe. One of the things I know that's been very important because you've told me this several times is the volunteer program in the parks department talk a

little bit about that. Well, you know, in the last several years rich where there has been a crunch on the available funding. We, we've looked to the volunteers of our county to help run our parks without them. Really. Uh, it couldn't be managed. We have just

thousands of hours of volunteers that come. And they do some just some simple things to very complex things. We have a gentleman that lives in Sebastian pool that opens the gate of regal park every morning at seven o'clock, 365 days a year as a volunteer. And

we have people that give talks in our parks and uh, and uh, nature study and run our visitors centers. And um, as I say, without the volunteers, we wouldn't be able to staff and manage Our parts. I think the last county awards for volunteers, we were

number two in the number of hours that volunteers were. I think the community hospital, which is a long standing type of volunteer area was number one and the parks department was number two and the total number of volunteer hours. So I personally, my hat's off to

the volunteers of our county that they really made a difference in the park system and they take it so seriously to really dedicated. Let's follow that up with this. Supposing in their audience right now there's somebody that would that would want to volunteer or involve themselves

with one of your parks, Corvettes buildings or something. How do they go about it, joe. Well, we'd love to have them number one. If they have any desire to volunteer or have any talent or things that they would like to share with our park users. All

they have to do is pick up the telephone and call the parks department at 5272041. Or come onto any park and talk to the staff of the ranger or come into the office. And And we just would be more than pleased to talk with them and

hopefully have them come and you know, work in our system. So, ladies and gentlemen, we want to remark about that right now, if you do want to partake of the park and recreations facilities and serve them in some way or other called 5272041. Right right. Yeah.

And a chance at it. Uh joe another one of the sectors that's under your control and that you mentioned earlier. There's one just about one in every town or city are the the veterans memorial buildings or auditoriums? Now, where are they all located joe if you

if you remember and and what do they offer? Well they are, they were built in almost every community right after the war, World War two uh to house veterans activities and the like and uh we have them in, we have them in santa rosa, petaluma, sebastopol,

Sonoma ca toddy, Cloverdale and Occidental. And they're used uh they're rented primarily for all kinds of activities. We have trade shows, exhibitions, dances, um coin shows, um weddings, um uh dinner's all kinds of everything that you can imagine and uh they're very heavily used. Uh the

veterans still use them. That's very important. They they conduct their their meetings and uh by law uh there's no charge for any veterans organization that that uses our building for veterans activities. Now if they have a social activity where the public invited, they have to pay

like everybody else, but that's set up by the law because of the way the buildings were built and they're a tremendous community recreation facility in all of these cities in the county that people go to for just 1000 different types of recreation and leisure time activities

joe the regional parks department. I don't know how many people are involved in your department right now. You probably know off hand, but you have divisions. I know and you have a couple of three people in charge of those divisions. Who are they? Yeah, we have

basically uh the structure of our departments, 33 major areas. Uh The biggest area is the park operations which is managed by Jim Angelo. And that has the law enforcement phase, all the rangers and the maintenance of our parks and the operation of our parks comes under

that uh day to day management division. The other division is what we call our planning and design division is headed by phillips sales and that division does all of our planning and design and construction of all our parks. We have landscape architects in that division and

and planners and engineers and that types. So they're in charge of that phase. The other division is what we call the recreation and cultural services, which is the, primarily the veterans auditoriums and the management and the scheduling of all of the auditoriums and all the athletic

facilities throughout the county. Baseball diamonds, soccer fields all come out of the recreation division. And uh and then we have, you know, minor divisions, we have our accounting division that keeps care of the money and the books and and that type of thing. So, and we

have relatively a small staff comparatively. We have 62 full time people. We have just an enormous amount of part time people throughout the year, particularly during the summertime, when the parks are used a lot. We have part time lifeguards and park AIDS and the veterans auditorium.

We have part time people that we call event AIDS that manage the, you know, the event, put up the tables and take them down and all that kind of stuff. And our volunteers and one of the category we called the non paid personnel. And uh, you

know, we talk about criminal justice and all this sort of thing. There's a benefit there in a way, we get, you know, people that work in the parks that are minor offenses in lieu of jail time, they come in and work, you know, work the time

off in this type of thing. Probation department provides a number of people and and we did a report for the board of supervisors here last year. And the equivalent Hours of all of these non paid services was the equivalent of 52 full time positions. So there's

another benefit to the taxpayers that sometimes we don't think about, uh, you know, we see the high cost of criminal justice in in jails and all this sort of thing. But here's here's one positive thing that Uh, somewhat returned back to society, if you will. And

without this, our department would need 52 full time people. So there's, you know, that's a very amazing saving Joe. You've been the director since you took over in January of 67 I believe it was. How would you like to recap the last 23 years? Oh boy.

Well, I'll tell you rich how much time we got, we got about four hours, three minutes. Let me, let me say that. It hasn't all been easy, but it's been rewarding. Um, to look back over the last 23 years. As I say, when I came to

the county. Um, I was, I guess young and foolish. Now I'm old and foolish. But some things, The thing that we, we have been able to accomplish in the 23 years is to virtually start from nothing and create a system that is going to last forever

and people will be using those facilities and enjoying them. They won't remember me probably. But I'll have some inner, uh, feeling an inner pride that when I go around the county and my, you know, old age and on a cane or in a wheelchair or something.

I can always say, well, I helped put that there And, but it wasn't easy because there was so many, uh, difficulties in over that 23 years to try to hold it together and I liked it. Yeah, Well, I want, I want to say this. I said

at the start of the program, I'll say it again, joe county of Sonoma owes you. I think a real vote of thanks because you came in as a park director, you stuck to it. You found the places that were available, you found the funds to do

it. You obtained the funds from the federal and state governments basically. I got the park started. People are enjoying them. There's a great stress reduction if you will of the people that can get out and just enjoy greenery or water or hiking or riding boating any

of these things. And it's all due to the fact that our part department and that that meant you for a long time practically by yourself. Got it started and built it and it's being left for posterity and that's gee that's about all we can ask joe.

Well I hope the good man upstairs remembers it. He will. I think you're gonna get a gold star for that. Thank you. We've been talking to joe radio to the regional parks director who is going to be leaving Sonoma County uh service sometime this year and

we wanted him to recount the things that have happened in the development of this magnificent park system. We all enjoy. My name is Rich McClancy. The program, Sonoma County in the nineties back with you next week with another member of the county government, family or related

agency. Till then. Good night, good luck, good health. Go enjoy one of our wonderful parks in Sonoma County