The U.P. Trail Springs to Life. Another $300,000 of City Money to be Pumped into Life Support
After several months of radio silence, the UP Trail has finally emerged from its bureaucratic cocoon. The City Council is scheduled to vote on approving the construction contract at Tuesday’s meeting. Contradictory to Edgar Rosales promise to the Parks Commission, the City Council never approved the final plans before the bid, and never authorized a public bid, either. Just ran out of time. They’re approving the plans and specifications the same time as the contract award. How’s that for ass backery?
And the Council is being asked to “invest” another $300,000 of Fullerton money into The Lost Trail, as predicted by FFFF over the past few years. That’s now $630,000 of City dough, a sum never previously agreed to by anybody. Seriously, is anybody in charge?
The staff report casually informs us: “The City requires additional funds to complete the project due to a change in the project scope in which Park Dwelling Fund (Fund 39) has available funds.” Conveniently there is no description of the change in scope. Not a single word to justify plowing another 300 grand into this disaster. Not a single damn word. More transparency.
Speaking of costs, here’s the project budget and bid results:
Please note that the low bidder’s bid is exactly the “Engineer’s Estimate” for construction, a likelihood so remote without serious massaging that we have to wonder about KASA Construction. Also, if we toss out the low and high bids, the median bid amount is $2,286,000, $440,000 over the years-old City estimate – more cause for concern. There is a cluster of bids between $2,246,000 and $2,500,000. Even with the KASA bid.
Even with the new transfer of yet another $300,000 from the Park Dwelling Fund to cover costs that were not given the council in 2023, can anyone seriously believe it will be the last request for this?
Tellingly, no one from the City staff has ever bothered to share ongoing annual maintenance costs for this debacle, either. They don’t know and don’t care.
Who knows why The Trail to Nowhere was not included in the 2025-2026 CIP because most of it will be done (hopefully) during that fiscal year. Oh, well. There is still no explanation of why there is nothing in the CIP plan for the UP Park renovation previously promised by Jung, Whitaker, and Dunlap in August 2023, and which was supposed to precede the trail, a fact now conveniently forgotten by everybody except FFFF. 20 month ago is ancient history in Fullerton. Hindsight is 20/20.
FFFF has diligently followed the Trail of Tears since its Astroturf cheerleaders started braying about “nice things” for south Fullerton. Where will these people be when the trail is unused, unsafe and falls into the same disrepair as so much of Fullerton’s infrastructure? Not on the trail itself, of course.
If you want to see how our crack Parks Department handles landscape maintenance check out the abysmal plantings around the wood stairs in Hillcrest Park sometime.
The Trail to Nowhere begins at Highland Avenue since it doesn’t connect to Phase 1. There is no public accommodation except people walking or riding a bike on the Highland sidewalk. It dies in the virtually abandoned back corner parking lot at Independence Park where nobody wants to go. There is no connectivity to anything else. There never will be. The thing runs through an area of junkyards, used tire stores, an asphalt plant, auto repair places and a coating plant. Homeless call it home. So do the junkies.
For a quarter mile it runs alongside the Santa Fe Main Line.
FFFF has already noted the complete failure to meet the State’s milestones in the agreement. That contract called for plant establishment to be included in the October 2025 completion. That won’t happen. The bid sheet for the project includes a 90 day plant establishment requirement, meaning the landscaping would have to be done by the end of July to meet the deadline. Fortunately for the City, nobody at the State seems to care about its agreement.
Worst of all, maybe is the fact that the City minions and their Council bosses can’t seem to understand the idea of a wider, comprehensive plan for this strip of industrially zoned land and that maybe this right-of-way could have used for something useful. Their narrative is that somehow this trail all by itself will turn the area into something other than it is. That’s just moronic.
But the guiding principle here is not effectiveness, efficiency, stewardship, or even basic common sense. No, it’s about spending other people’s money and who gives a damn if it fails? Will any City staff members be around to accept their roles in this fiasco? Of course not. Will the people who wore down a weak Council into approving this mess be around to claim responsibility for their role?
Of course not. This Fullerton rolling contraption has no rear view mirror.
I hope they invite Whitaker to the ribbon cutting.
There’s an old Fullerton adage: things are never over until staff says so.
The Waste on Wilshire was a one off.
Fullerton, being Fullerton.
We’re doomed. You’re right. No one gave a shit about the waste. Not the people giving it away or the people throwing it away.
Whitaker, Jung and Dunlap are no better than the other two. Scared off by a half dozen Spanish speaker wailing about chubby ninos and arbols.
This piece of crap was on such thin ice they never put it on their agenda forecasts, right?
Hey, it’s only another $300,000 and who cares if construction is 10 months late starting? Gotta protect the investment, right?
The City Council doesn’t give a damn and if they don’t why should anybody else?
“who cares if construction is 10 months late starting”
Only people desperately trying to kill the project apparently. Crazy!
The Angriest Elf returns!
It’ll be $2.5 million of city funds before it’s over.
This thing has been a huge lie ever since Alice Loya wrote the fraudulent grant application. And it’s obvious staff has been keeping information from the Council and the public about it.
So the staff is asking to double the City expense just like that – no explanation, no apology, no nothing.
This is malfeasance, pure and simple. No one is this incompetent.
That’s it. And the two heroes of this blog – Dunlap and Jung won’t say a word, just suck it up again. it’s not their money.
They won’t even pull it from the consent calendar. Rubber stamp.
Dunlap and Jung are heroes. So is anyone who opposes Zahra. If you can do better, I’d love to hear it.
“No one is this incompetent.” Guess again, dude.
Correction: the low bid is five cents under the estimate!
Just another spot for the legal gang to do murder.
The post didn’t mention the two 2 dead guys along the Trail of Tears.
So the City’s own contribution doubled and no one cares?
The Kennedy Sisters think it already happened:
“To enhance public recreation, the Fullerton City Council has approved a significant construction contract for the much-anticipated Union Pacific Trail – Phase II Project.”
Those liars are still claiming it connects to Phase I.
I left them a nice comment. No surprise, they didn’t approve it.
Shocking!
Define nice.
Accurate.
Exactly
Typical Observer citizen reporting. Who cares about accuracy?
The sisters are AI fraudsters.
So are the City Council.
Don’t you mean the Observer “staff”? What a fing joke! “Staff”! We all know it’s you Saskia! Quit hiding behind “staff” chicken shit! You don’t have a shirt big enough to cover that fat up.
LOL. Fullerton Fakeserver.
The whole thing has been a story of lies, incompetence, more lies, ignoring the obvious, dereliction, hiding the facts, and mismanagement.
Which is it? Attachment to a pet make-work project, fear of exposure, or both?
If it gets discussed at all Zahra, Charles and Dunlap will thank staff for their hard work.
This was already settled. It’s happening, get over it.
The extra $300,000 wasn’t settled. And it’s going to keep going up. The low bid was rigged.
I’m not even a local socialist.
No you aren’t. You’re a National Socialist.
I think you’ve left off a big part of this problem, a part FFFF has addressed before.
The boohoos AND the staff AND the City Council aren’t the least bit concerned about the waste not just because it isn’t their money and no one is ever held accountable; but ALSO because these spendthrifts think the MORE they spend on something that seems to check the boxes for “underserved communities” the BETTER it is.
Give “them” something. It’s the patronizing left hard at work. The efficacy of the expenditure is irrelevant.
I agree that there are a few who may think giving token handouts to poor Hispanics is righteous, but I highly doubt that’s why this is continuing to go forward. Sometimes you are in for a pound and it’s pointless to save a penny. Bushala is a businessman. He gets it.
Save a penny? What the fuck is wrong with you. This is going to end up being a $3,000,000 waste.
This is going forward because Jung, Whitaker and Dunlap had no balls and caved in to Zahra’s little band of abuelas.
The end.
Parks are for everyone not just “underserved” people you can’t GAF about.
Then how come all the boohoo bleating was about fat little ninos and “good things” for South Fullerton, the patronizing boohoo way of saying Mexicans.
It’s a park. It’s for everyone. Go to one you’ll see all kinds of nice people.
I wouldn’t be caught dead in a Fullerton par…….oh, wait……
It would never be you.
What does that mean? I’m a distance runner I use our parks and trails a couple times a week.
You run your mouth here a couple times a week. Distance? Yeah, I guess 20 feet to the refrigerator counts as a distance.
7 miles, 2 to 3 times per week. You?
That’s a lot of flushing, John.
Go be a better Dad.
That would be a lot. For a manatee.
Tony Bushala’s thugs are always saying how he has no financial interest in the things he objects to. His properties are by the trail. He wants the city to sell him the land at bargain prices. So that’s why he doesn’t want this. Money? 3 million? Mr. Moneybags doesn’t care about us. He only cares about lining his own pockets.
You’re actually on to something there. Bushala Co. has been eyeing this property for a long time. They have a large redevelopment project they want to pursue in this area and this trail to nowhere mucks up their plans.
I was wondering when someone was finally gonna bring this up….
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2015/05/bushala-zengers-sustainable-eco-friendly-preservationist-vision-the-fullerton-rail-district/
https://fullertonraildistrict.com/
The trail to nowhere gets in the way. No wonder this blog has always been so against this project.
A blind pig found an acorn? That OJ story is ten years old!!
Do they have a large development project? Where is it? What is it?
http://www.fullertonraildistrict.com
That was news – sort of – a decade ago. Go back to sleep, Rip.
Nice nom de plume.
The only army Ahmad has are his ten fingers tightly wrapped around his pecker as he fantasizes about power and glory.
The hypocrisy of this blog is off the charts! The UP Trail needs to be looked into again! Newspaper ban? That’s already been decided! Why look into it again? Laughable!
What are you talking about? What is a newspaper ban?
What Bushala and his cronies on council are trying to do to the Fullerton Observer, the community newspaper.
Community newspaper.
LMAO
Please explain. FFFF is working on a print edition even now. Soon it will be in City Hall and the employees can read all about their own misadventures. Finally. News for the people!!
“FFFF is working on a print edition even now”
Adventures in desktop publishing. Any day now.
Yep. Any day. You won’t like it but you’ll get what you wanted.
I don’t want it. And neither does anyone else. When it doesn’t happen you won’t find out.
You called a bluff. You wanted to see the hand. Of course you didn’t bet anything. You never have anything on the line but empty chatter.
You are an angry elf/manatee.
They should call it Fullerton Pravda.
Spend the money on road repair/repaving instead. Stupid to invest in something that would be little used and has associated maintenance costs. Or get an appraisal and sell it to the highest bidder, but nobody will bid because it’s basically unusable for any commercial purpose. If Bushala is the highest bidder, so be it, but I don’t see it happening. Spending another $300K on this for *nothing* is money wasted.
100% correct. Total waste.
100% bullshit. It’s a grant, and park dwelling fees.
Not road funds.
I notice you haven’t mentioned the doubling of the Park Dwelling Fund dole. Typical. And it’s going to get bigger. A lot bigger. The low bidder is almost half a mil below the median bidder.
Stupid is how Fullerton rolls. Like the Fire Union Thugs buying council members to bring ambulance service in house.
Different buckets of money. You cannot legally spend it on “road repair.”
This was a turd when it started in Ahmad Zahra and Alice Loya’s imagination. The pressure of Latino moms with their sons and daughters in tow, speaking about how much they enjoyed being outside, got to Dunlap. Jung and Whitaker caved a little after Dunlap, and now it is back after years of no action. Staff report was prepared by a 5-year-old. Bye bye park dwelling funds. Maybe we get to see Zahra’s beard Eglith at the meeting. Makes it worth watching to see her seamlessly speak English and Spanish.
Jung and Whitaker both pussied out. That’s history. Both will be long gone in a few years when the City spends another $3 million to “rebuilt” their toy.
Sadly.