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O.C. state beaches to reduce lifeguards, restroom cleaning
October 27th, 2009, 4:42 pm · 31 Comments · posted by Pat Brennan, green living, environment editor
Budget-cutting measures will bring cuts in services to California’s state parks, including Orange County’s, state parks officials announced Tuesday. 
Big changes will begin Nov. 1, including cuts in park hours for some parks across the state. Orange County’s beach parks will see lifeguard reductions, and the number of trash cans reduced by half. Restroom and fire-ring cleaning also will be cut by half, along with trail upkeep and habitat restoration.
Education and interpretive programs will be cut 25 percent for Orange County beach parks, irrigation by the same amount.
The service cuts are part of a $14.2 million budget savings plan, announced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in September as a way to avoid closure of parks because budget problems.
The cuts are temporary, just until June 30.
“We’re talking about one-time cuts and service reductions to get us through the fiscal year,” said Ken Kramer, superintendent for the Orange Coast district. “We already raised fees dramatically. We’re hoping that will help save the park system.”
Chino Hills State Park, partly in Orange County, had been initially slated for possible closure. That park will instead see reduced hours and reduced days of operation, open 8-5 instead of 8-7 and closed Monday through Thursday.
“I’m not happy having to close at all,” said John Rowe, the former Chino Hills superintendent and now superintendent of the Lake Perris sector. “But the alternative of being closed altogether for a couple-year span — this is more beneficial than doing that.”
Partial campground closures will be imposed at San Onofre and San Clemente State Beach, while cuts in school programs were shown for all Orange County beach parks.
Some restroom closures are planned at San Onofre, Huntington State Beach, and Crystal Cove State Park. Lifeguards will be reduced to permanent staff, with cuts made in seasonal lifeguards used mainly in summer months, said state parks spokesman Roy Stearns. Cuts in trash and fire-ring services were shown for Orange County’s beach parks.
(Register photo of fire ring at Bolsa Chica State Beach by Kevin Sullivan.)
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Stop overspending in Sacramento before cutting public services.
Well that stinks for the locals of those areas. I have been living in SoCal for ten years now and lived in Newport Beach for nine years and I’ll tell you that most of the people that visit the beaches of O.C. do not give a crap about what they leave behind. A trash can would be five feet away and they would leave their trash right there in the sand. Most people of SoCal only care about themselves and do not care about anyone else. If this happens I sure the beaches will become trash dumps. The one good thing is if it only is for the winter months I am sure the locals will take care of their own. I could be wrong but just incase support THE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION.
I have watched the State squander OUR money on brand new tables and benches last year with the old ones in very good condition at Doheny, now the new ones have cracks and chips. This was a great waste of good money.
Instead of reducing services, it would be much more effective to fire some of the management that can’t control OUR money.
I am getting fed up with cuts in services when there are managers commanding large salaries and pensions for making very, very stupid decisions….
The restrooms at HB State Beach (near Brookhurst St.) couldn’t get any nastier. I trully feel for the poor guys who have to clean that toxic mess.
ridiculous!!!
Yuuuuuuk !!!
Huntington State Beach raised the parking fee to $15. $15.to park and no place to pee. Brilliant111
Just do what everyone else will be doing and do your business right there on the sand. No public toilets means the public will be using the public as a toilet.
Oh ,the smelly, messy times ahead at the beach!
I can’t imagine cutting the fact of not cleaning the bathrooms more. As it is, when I go into a bathroom at the beach, it just seems so dirty, already.. Yuck. As for parking, I used to park on the street in HB; not pay exorbitant fees for parking… Just not stay at the beach all day; get there early; stay a few hours and then leave. There are locals who need to park on the street; ones who live there. I haven’t been to HB beaches in a long time, however..
As long as we can keep making millionaires out of firefighters and other government employees, things are just fine.
Very true. Thanks!
Let’s just punish the places that actually bring in money, and subsidize the places that are just a black hole for money. Brilliant!!!
Another example of the costs of lavish compensation and benefits for firefighters, government officials, and other goverment employees.
I have a idea, lets round up the illegals and put them on chain gangs to clean the beaches and then deport them after they serve their time for coming here illegally.
You can find a whole slew of them outside U-haul and Budget truck rentals in Lake Forest!!!! Need more? Try the site in Laguna Beach, you won’t have far to transport them.
Makes perfect sense to me. Close the OC beaches and coastline to fisherman. Add 40 million dollars a year to the state budget to make sure fisherman cant fish and monitor the closed areas to see that pollution is actually the proplem. Loose the tax revenues that these guys bring to the local and state economy. And oh by the way, we are gonna let the life guards go and forget about bathroom cleaning. I’m sure all the idiots down in Laguana will be happy to pick up the tab.
Now the beach will really become a trash dump.
People in general are real pigs.
They clean the bathrooms at HB State park? WOW, everyone must have their own idea of what clean is
Punish the public for the failure of the administrators (elected officials).
Another example of our corrupt leaders leading the charge on stupid policy to insure their pensions are kept in tact by sacrificing the well being of their so called constituents.
Patricio’s comment was right on the $$.. shat on again…pardon the pun.
CUT the pay of mid to top level management and cut benefits in half for all state employees and keep the damn bathrooms clean and lifeguards on duty! simple .
These are just ploys by the government to inconvenience the general population by cutting out basic services (like toilets) so people will get fed up with budget cuts and vote for more taxes. hah. I mean really, what does it cost to maintain a public toilet at the beach??? The workers are paid squat. Yet no one addresses the REAL problems like $100k pensions for public safety at age 50 or spending $13 billion a year to care for illegal foreigners in our State! hah! Get ready for more add-on tax proposals after they wear you down with toilet closings! hah! This is not a new strategy. Been around for years.
So maybe someone will have the good sense not to spend money to enforce the “public decency” laws at San Onofre. Those people are probably the most respectful at keeping the beach trash to a minimum, and the issue isn’t worth the time or money to pursue for the rangers.
Public employees total compensation should not exceed the private sector employees total compensation for the same job. 2-4=-2, helloooo.
Life Gaurds we need. The Beach Bathrooms will never be clean no matter how much money you spend trying to keep them clean.
I was not aware anyone ever had been cleaning the public restrooms. Ever been in one? Yeah you know what I’m talkin about.
LOL right on DKK
But ya, California is a joke now. I think we are trying to set the example of how not to spend and make decisions. GO GO SACRAMENTO!
hopefully the annual fee won’t go up
Wait a sec. didn’t we hire AHNALD to fix the alleged mess that Gray Davis got us in?
Oh well, times are tough. Thats what my boss told me as he cut vacations and bonuses out of my pay plan and he drove off in his new 750Li. Suck it up was another term he used and remined us we were “lucky to have a job”.
Perhaps it is time to re-think how the money is spent on our California State Parks. One cost saving alternative would be to have professional lifeguards
welcome back former seasonal lifeguards as volunteers. They would have to re-qualify, and have a valid first aid certificate. The Surf Life Saving Association could start a re-certification program. Many former ocean lifeguards, like me would welcome the chance to participate in such a program. In economic times like these being open to new ideas is key to keeping our beaches safe. The alternative is to close, or drastically cut back on emergency services.
The California State Parks System is broken up into 20 districts. Of those only the Orange Coast (111%) and San Diego Coast (101%) districts have a positive revenue in relation to operating costs. The average of the other districts is less than 50%. San Onofre SB is in the Orange Coast district and is 3rd behind Bolsa Chica SB and Huntington SB for attendance and revenue.
So the States budget savings plan is to have partial closures and cut services to the SB parks that actually make money which in turn will reduce the number of people that attend….huh?
Recently the State parks spent over $50,000 in legal fees and numerous man hours trying to curtail the clothing optional use of the small section of beach at San Onofre trail 6 (1,000 ft compared to 3 miles of beach). The clothing optional beach brings in over 60% of the day use traffic to San Onofre (which by the way has dropped off dramatically this past year due to ongoing threats of tickets).
The state could actually increase the revenue by approving the n_de beach and charging an additional user fee, which I think most nudists would be willing to pay if it was legalized…..but don’t tell the State that!