Felled trees, mud encroachment into playgrounds, broken roads, splintered and strewn branches, and a collapsed embankment.

These are only some remnants of the vast array of damages inflicted by the winter storms on San Luis Obispo County's parks and recreation system.

Parks and Recreation Department Director Tanya Richardson presented a brief picture of the destruction to the SLO County Board of Supervisors at the Oct. 17 meeting. She included an account of the Lopez Lake sewer treatment center.

"We had a landslide that went into the evaporation ponds," Richardson said at the meeting. "So, initially we had to take trucks coming in ... taking the debris out of the evaporation ponds and depositing it elsewhere. That took a significant amount of time and money to get that completely cleaned up."

Starting Jan. 9, historic atmospheric rivers brought a deluge of rain and storm conditions that battered 16 locations under the purview of the Parks and Recreation Department. By late March, the county had received 47.6 inches of rain in the Cal Poly area alone—the second highest amount in 152 years, according to Richardson—and two federal disaster declarations.

Along with the Lopez Lake recreational area, the list of damaged places in Parks and Rec's care include Santa Margarita Lake and its surroundings, El Chorro Regional Park, the Coastal Dunes RV Park, coastal accessways in Cambria and Cayucos, Dairy Creek Golf Course, and community parks across the county.

Of those 16 total, 13 require debris cleaning, three locations need emergency repairs, and two locations need permanent repairs.

The initial price tag for repairs jumped from $2.5 million to $3.5 million. Now, Parks and Rec is hoping for cost reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) across four disaster response categories. The department anticipates a 75 to 100 percent reimbursement from FEMA and an additional 18.2 percent remuneration from the California Office of Emergency Services.

But Parks and Rec staff are taking variable factors relating to storm damage into account and are assuming they'll actually receive a conservative 66 percent reimbursement from FEMA.

Further, department staff compelled the Board of Supervisors to green-light a much-needed employee position called the limited-term parks operation coordinator who can help manage the FEMA process and obtain cost quotes, invoices, and design plans.

Fifth District Supervisor Debbie Arnold said at the meeting that several county departments are scrambling to fix the storm damages in their jurisdictions through FEMA. She wondered if it was more efficient to appoint an existing staff member who works for the county to serve all the different departments' needs.

County Auditor and Controller Jim Hamilton stressed the need for the new employee at Parks and Rec. He said the request to approve the position aligns with how the county has addressed FEMA projects in the past.

"That's having a project lead out in the department, and auditor-controller is kind of in the background in a support role," he said. "We're really not positioned operationally to be the lead for those efforts."

Unlike the Public Works Department that has a lead employee embedded to streamline FEMA projects, Parks and Rec is lacking, Hamilton added. Both he and Richardson told the supervisors that current employees are stretched thin.

"The FEMA claiming process is so extended, and we're shuffling duties as best as we can," Hamilton said. "This is not like a typical grant reimbursement program where there is a short-term effort. This is tending to go on and on."

Public Works Director John Diodati echoed Hamilton, citing a 30 percent vacancy in project managers and a 15 percent vacancy in engineers.

"We have very few people doing a lot of work right now," Diodati said. "Finance staff have taken a lot of the burden with FEMA reimbursement. I think it's necessary for Parks to have some additional resources to help them with reimbursement."

The Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution to add the necessary Parks and Rec position and approved a funding plan of an almost $1.4 million budget adjustment to fund repairs and the new employee.

First District Supervisor John Peschong concluded the meeting by acknowledging Parks and Rec's efforts but not before mentioning a blight in his district.

"Our damage in Templeton is not necessarily storm damage, it's vandalism, but I appreciate your team being out there on the front lines helping to fix those things," he said. Δ