10 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY april 25-may 1, 2024 www.montereycountyweekly.com news A BMX pump track and skate park has been on the radar of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors since 2017. On April 16, the board approved moving the project to the Salinas Regional Soccer Complex from an original proposed location, on Laurel Drive near Carr Lake. “There is only one other skatepark in a city of 160,000—a city with a very young population,” said County Supervisor Luis Alejo, who represents Salinas. The concept features a 1.7-acre skate and bike park. The bike trails will go through the existing landscapes and trees. The skate park will have two 4,000-square-foot areas: a flow area where skaters can practice their tricks on bumps and bowled surfaces, and a street area geared toward all skill levels. In 2021, the county, along with the City of Salinas, Blue Zones Project and the Salinas Regional Sports Authority applied for funding from the California Department of Parks and Recreation Regional Park Program via Proposition 68, but the project wasn’t selected. County staff and the Sports Authority revised the idea in 2023 and worked on a plan to integrate it into the soccer complex. The park will be visible from the road, with access to bathrooms, parking and an existing multiuse trail system. The project has a price tag of $3 million, still unfunded. The sports complex has grass soccer fields, walking paths and exercise stations. It’s in the process of diversifying to also include areas for beach volleyball and a basketball court. “It’s becoming really a community hub, and a mental health and wellness [facility],” says Jonathan De Anda, the soccer complex’s manager. Skate Trick A pump track and skate park concept in Salinas inches forward after years of dreaming. By Celia Jiménez Joanne Kelly loved her New Monterey home. “It was magnificent,” she says. But the circular staircase worried her children. So in 2014, she put together $364,000 to buy into what was then called Forest Hill Manor, a retirement community in Pacific Grove with different levels of care, from independent living to assisted living to skilled nursing beds. The idea was that if she ever needed more care, she was already in a place where she could get it. Now, a decade later, Kelly is 86 and still independent, but the living is not so good. She and other members of the residents association have a long list of grievances from food quality to too few nurses on staff. Their concerns were corroborated in a newly released report by Dr. Terry E. Hill for the Office of the California Attorney General in March, who found a series of cost-cutting measures while fees went up. Hill, a neutral third-party monitor, was assigned by the AG to examine two retirement communities: Forest Hill Manor, since renamed as Pacific Grove Senior Living, and Lake Park in Oakland. Both had been previously owned by nonprofit California-Nevada Methodist Homes, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2021. In California, the transfer of nonprofit-owned health care facilities to for-profit owners requires review by the Attorney General. In this case, the buyer was San Diego-based Pacifica Senior Living, which owns nearly 100 locations, including Park Lane in Monterey. Attorney General Rob Bonta approved the sale for $34 million in 2022 with a slew of conditions attached, noting that “Pacifica’s rate of citations was significantly higher than the average rate for all residential care facilities for the elderly in California.” (Pacifica did not respond to requests for comment.) Conditions included the business side—paying off debt and honoring existing residents’ contracts, for example—and safety measures. Hill’s report enumerates many issues of noncompliance at both the P.G. and Oakland communities. He found failures to honor resident contracts. For example, one woman was instructed to hire her own private caregiver if she wished to stay in her assisted living unit— despite a guarantee that she could receive needed skilled nursing care. (Her adult son moved her to a different facility.) Hill found a lack of emergency lighting, and “antiquated electrical, plumbing and heating systems.” He reported on declining food quality and reductions in activities. He determined that staff cuts led to safety issues and contractual violations. He reported on a two-monthlong heating failure in some units this winter, solved by distributing space heaters. “Pacifica doesn’t give a damn about seniors. We are the last thing on their mind,” says 90-year-old Rochelle Rutledge, a resident who was without heat from January-March. Bob Sadler, 80, and his wife, Sharon, moved into a fourth-floor apartment with a magnificent bay view two years ago, and hope to spend the rest of their lives here. “It is an absolutely magnificent place,” Sadler says. “But our basic health and safety is not assured here, at all.” Rutledge remains hopeful about change: “I just want it to be a happy place again,” she says. “It was.” From left: Joanne Kelly, Rochelle Rutledge and Bob Sadler are active in the Pacific Grove Senior Living residents association, a 501(c)(7) organization. Aging in Place Attorney General report on P.G. Senior Living shows residents what they already knew: Change is needed. By Sara Rubin A conceptual drawing for a skate park at the Salinas Regional Soccer Complex, a new location for a concept previously planned on county land on Laurel Drive to be leased to the City of Salinas. “Pacifica doesn’t give a damn about seniors.” Daniel Dreifuss Courtesy of Monterey County
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