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DESCRIPTION:Parks and rec advisory panel to discuss its future\nStaff Report\nArticle 
 Launched: 08/06/2007 07:48:11 PM PDT from 
 http://www.marinij.com/marin\n\nThe Novato Parks and Recreation Advisory 
 Commission will discuss plans to continue its work in a new Recreation, 
 Cultural and Community Services Commission once the present commission is 
 disbanded.\n\nThe meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Margaret Todd 
 Senior Center at 1560 Hill Road.\n\nFor more information, call 
 899-8900.\n\nCity of Novato - Athletics\nThe Novato Parks, Recreation & 
 Community Services Department sponsors an adult athletic program that 
 stresses high participation, recreation and 
 ...\nwww.ci.novato.ca.us/sports/athletics.cfm - 86k - Cached - \n\nNovato 
 envisions creating its own 'Golden Gate Park'\nRob Rogers\nArticle 
 Launched: 08/03/2006 01:14:00 AM PDT\n\nClick photo to enlarge\nTHINKING 
 BIG: Larry Dito, director of parks, recreation and community services in 
 Novato, walks...\n\nNovato officials are revisiting the city's 20-year-old 
 plans to create what could become the county's largest municipal 
 park.\n\nSince 1969, city officials have debated what to do with O'Hair 
 Park, 150 acres of woods and meadows between San Marin High School and 
 Stafford Lake Park. The potential is enormous: the city's 1986 master plan 
 calls for athletic fields, an equestrian center, an indoor pool and even an 
 amphitheater at the site.\n\n"This could be Novato's Golden Gate Park," 
 said Larry Dito, city director of parks, recreation and community services. 
 "And yet there's a lot of new people in town who don't know what we have 
 here."\n\nBut while the park is immense, the cost of developing it could be 
 just as huge. The city's Parks and Recreation Commission estimates it would 
 cost $25 million just to prepare the site for improvements.\n\nWith a 
 cash-strapped City Council considering $138 million in capital projects - 
 including a new City Hall and recreational facilities for Hamilton - many 
 wonder whether O'Hair Park will ever become anything more than a 
 dream.\n\n"This is a tremendous resource that we have, and it's being 
 underutilized," said Marilyn Sweeney, a park and 
 recreation\nAdvertisement\nClick Here!\ncommissioner. "Within one location, 
 it could meet all the (recreational) needs of Novato. But if we want to 
 make long-range plans for the park, we need to start now."\n\nSituated at 
 the western edge of Novato, O'Hair Park encompasses the Morningstar Farms 
 equestrian ranch, the popular Dogbone Meadows dog park and a segment of the 
 Bay Ridge Trail. Indian artifacts up to 3,000 years old have been found 
 along the segment of Novato Creek that flows through the park, and a barn 
 where members of the Grateful Dead played and recorded once stood in its 
 meadows.\n\nThe city began buying the former ranch lands from the O'Hair 
 and Fuchs families in 1969, finally completing the purchase in 1985. City 
 officials had originally envisioned O'Hair as a kind of amusement park, 
 with merry-go-rounds and slides.\n\nBy 1976, however, planners decided to 
 keep most of the park in its natural state for use by day camps, hikers, 
 bikers and horseback riders. Only the northeast corner of the park (where 
 Morningstar Farms now stands) would receive extensive development, becoming 
 baseball and soccer fields and tennis courts.\n\nThe city formalized those 
 ideas in its 1986 master plan for O'Hair, which recommended partnerships 
 with other civic organizations to help pay for the costly improvements. For 
 example, city officials suggested an alliance with the school district to 
 build a pool that could be used by park visitors and by San Marin High 
 School.\n\n"I think it's a great idea," said San Marin swim coach Jim 
 Larson. "There are virtually no public pools in Marin that the general 
 public can use without a membership."\n\nOther organizations, such as 
 athletic or theater groups, could obtain long-term leases from the city to 
 build and operate properties at the park. Three successive horse ranches 
 have followed this plan, providing the city with 9 percent of their income 
 while occupying 23 acres of O'Hair. The most recent tenant, Morningstar 
 Farms, is in the third year of a five-year lease with the city.\n\n"We've 
 had a very good relationship with the city all along," said Kevin Byars, 
 one of the ranch's owners.\n\nMorningstar provides riding lessons, training 
 and summer riding camps for young people throughout the county. While the 
 city's master plan calls for the relocation of the farm to the southwest 
 corner of the park, city officials have indicated they're open to the 
 possibility of keeping the facility where it is.\n\n"We understand that the 
 city has to do what it has to do, though ideally we'd like to stay where we 
 are," Byars said. "Certainly, we'd like to be involved with the city in 
 some way, shape or form in what it decides to do with the site."\n\nA move 
 to the park appeals to Colleen Hicks, executive director of the Marin 
 Museum of the American Indian. The 1986 plan calls for the museum to move 
 to a new community center at the park, which would also include function 
 rooms and a parks department headquarters.\n\n"Where we are now is on a 
 village site, which has a powerful effect on the 60,000 children who come 
 here every year," Hicks said. "But there's a village site there, too, and 
 there's a lot more space."\n\nYet others have questioned whether additional 
 facilities at O'Hair would be worth the city's investment.\n\n"With 
 amphitheaters at Dominican college and at Hamilton, do we need a third in 
 Marin?" asked Jeffrey Trotter, executive director of Shakespeare at 
 Stinson.\n\nDuring the past two decades, Novato added both Dogbone Meadows 
 and the 2.92-mile Reuben Kaehler Trail to the park. Otherwise, O'Hair has 
 remained virtually untouched, its groves of coast live oak, big leaf maple 
 and California buckeye rarely visited by local hikers.\n\nPark and 
 recreation commissioners hope to change that. The commission plans to 
 present a plan for expanding O'Hair's trails to the City Council next 
 year.\n\n"We'd like the city to do a minimal development of the park," said 
 John Reuscher, chairman of the Novato Parks and Recreation Commission. "We 
 could build up the hiking paths and biking paths that could connect the 
 park to county property, and draw community attention to the park."\n\nBut 
 those efforts could be hampered by the park's location. While O'Hair could 
 provide countless activities for children, most of Novato's young families 
 live in Hamilton, at the opposite end of the city. The park will be 
 competing for funds with popular projects such as the Hamilton pool, a new 
 Hamilton gymnasium and a Hamilton museum.\n\nDirector Dito believes it's 
 still possible.\n\n"We don't look at providing facilities for Hamilton and 
 other facilities for Novato," Dito said. "We provide community facilities 
 for the entire city. If this park was in the middle of town - if we had a 
 hundred acres at the intersection of DeLong and Diablo - I'd be very happy. 
 We don't. But we do own this property.\n\n"The city has a lot of needs," he 
 added. "This park could go a long way toward satisfying them."\n\nRead more 
 Novato stories at the IJ's Novato page.\n\nContact Rob Rogers via e-mail at 
 rrogers@marinij.com\n\nNovato parks panel proposes facilities fee 
 hike\nMarin Independent-Journal, CA - Jul 16, 2007\n"The changes we're 
 proposing are modest," said Kathy Kormos, deputy director of the Parks, 
 Recreation and Community Service Department. ...\nCouncil considers raising 
 fees for city facilities\nNovato Advance, CA - Jul 25, 2007\nAt its July 11 
 meeting, the Novato Parks and Recreation Commission voted to restructure 
 and raise facility fees and to simplify the fee schedule for users. 
 ...\nMarin briefs: Mill Valley's Pont leads strong group of Marin 
 ...\nMarin Independent-Journal, CA - Jul 31, 2007\n11 at Stone Tree Golf 
 Club in Novato. Proceeds will benefit the Belvedere-Tiburon Recreation 
 Department. Information, call 435-4355.\nMONDAY MIDDAY NEWS ROUNDUP\nCBS 5, 
 CA - Jul 16, 2007\nAnimal Care and Control and the San Francisco Recreation 
 and Parks Department were on hand to monitor and oversee the procedure. The 
 executions were carried ...\n\nSimilar pages\n[PDF]\nNovato Parks, 
 Recreation and Community Services Department Time ...\nFile Format: 
 PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML\nNovato Parks, Recreation and Community 
 Services Department Time Sheet. Due in office by Noon the Friday before 
 Payday. Day. M onth/Date. Hours Worked 
 ...\nci.novato.ca.us/prcs/Forms/PTtimesheet.PDF - Similar pages\n[ More 
 results from ci.novato.ca.us ]\nNovato Advance: Web update: Dito, longtime 
 director of city Parks ...\nLarry Dito, the director of Novato's Parks, 
 Recreation & Community Services Department for the past 28 years, will step 
 down at the end of this year. 
 ...\nwww.novatoadvance.com/articles/2007/06/29/news/news05.txt - 26k - 
 Cached - Similar pages\n\nNovato Parks, Recreation and Community 
 ...\nPlease contact the Novato Parks, Recreation and Community Services 
 Department for further information, 415-899-8200. Total park acreage: 9.94. 
 ...\n5thclass.novatoprcs.org/econnect/Facilities/FacilitiesSearchResult.asp?PrevPage=What 
 - 226k - Cached - Similar pages\nMarin Independent Journal - Novato parks 
 panel proposes facilities ...\nThe Novato Parks and Recreation Commission 
 is recommending rental fee ... the parks department review its rental fees, 
 which have not changed in seven years 
 ...\nwww.marinij.com/ci_6392140?source=most_viewed - 56k - Cached - Similar 
 pages\nInvitation to Join CPRS\nCity of Novato Parks, Rec. & Comm. Svcs. 
 City of Oakland Office of Parks & Recreation ... City of Pico Rivera Parks 
 and Recreation Department ...\nwww.cprs.org/about-agencies.htm - 13k - 
 Cached - Similar pages\n\n	add put up by\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/08/18439491.php
SUMMARY:Novato Parks/Rec. advisory panel to discuss future{Recreation, Cultural, Community}
LOCATION:Margaret Todd Senior Center at 1560 Hill Road.\n\nMeeting length a guess 
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/08/18439491.php
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