A press release was issued at the end of last week announcing that Chino Hills State Park was officially reopening yesterday after being closed two-and-a-half months since 90-95% of the park burned in November's Freeway Complex Fire.
Actually, judging from the cars parked at Olinda Ranch and along Carbon Canyon Road over that period, there was plenty of (free) use of the park.
At any rate, all but five trails, thse being ones with burned-out bridges, are open and one trail had a section that was affected by a mudslide by rains that shortly followed the fire. Additionally, many trail signs were destroyed, so visitors not familiar with the park are advised to be aware of the lack of signage.
In the meantime, a neighbor's father, who had the contract for the concrete work at the visitor center site next to Carbon Canyon Regional Park, told me a few weeks back that the project was being halted. Since then, I've learned that, though the visitor center work was being funded by bonds passed by voters earlier this decade, the state was shutting down many bond-funded projects given the current budget mess.
This doesn't come as a surprise; if anything, it was strange seeing the work start knowing the California's financial situation was deteriorating long before the financial crisis came to a head last September.
The above photos show the site (including two of the building and one of the new guardrail for the access road that will, someday, lead into the park) as of Friday and, presumably, it will stay that way for quite some time to come.
I know this isn't the right place to comment, but I couldn't find another more appropriate post: we have just expanded our coverage of the $40 million cleanup of Aerojet Chino Hills and invite you and you readers to check it out at http://enviroreporter.com/aerojetinvestigation.html and note a ton of new information including what the status of the facility is now. Thanks and thank you for this superb blog!
ReplyDeleteHello Michael, thanks for the update and I will amend the link I've provided on the blog. The Aerojet facility's history should be of vital interest to anyone living in or near the Canyon and a reminder of just how shortsighted the Cold War was (as a precursor to events in recent years, too.)
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