“Where’s My Trail to Nowhere?”

Poor, disheartened Diane Vena reminded the City Council about the Trail to Nowhere at their last meeting. Poor Diane, a liberal activist, and a member of team Jaramillo, is best known for her suspicious nomination of the phony Republican candidate, Scott Markowitz, in the 2024 4th District election.

Well, thanks, Poor Diane. It’s about time someone mentioned the Trail to Nowhere, even if in passing.
Friends will recall that the Union Pacific Trail project – funded by the State of California Department of Natural Resources – was finally approved by the City Council over a year ago. The conceptual “trail” goes from nowhere to nowhere and was going to cost $2,100,000 to build.

As usual, the idea was cooked up by City staff as a make work project, and was then vigorously supported by the Fullerton Observer Sisters and a few dozen knuckleheads taken in by the ingratiating Astroturfer, Ahmad Zahra.

Anyhow, Poor Diane believes the Trail has been deliberately put on the back burner due to the Council’s desire to first open the Union Pacific Park, more commonly referred to as the Poison Park. This is true – sort of. In August, 2023 the council majority directed City staff to drop or redeploy the grant and re-open the fenced off park. There was no timetable, and apparently no money either, since the empty park site still sits there 18 months later, even though a conceptual plan was drawn.

Poor Diane believes lack of progress on the park is deliberate – a cynical ploy to delay the Trail until the grant money time allowance runs out. This could be true, and I certainly hope it is. Fullerton did renounce the grant in August, 2023 and then backtracked after months of harassment from Zahra’s annoying claque.
The deadline in the grant agreement was October 2025 for completion of the project – including “plant estabishment.” That’s about eight months away. But there are already original milestones that have been missed. Here’s the schedule from the grant agreement:

Final plans were due last June, and construction was supposed to start last August. Has the State granted Fullerton time extensions? If so why doesn’t the public know about it? If not, why hasn’t the State demanded its money back, per the agreement? Good questions, no good answers.
If working drawings have been completed and submitted, the public hasn’t been favored with a glimpse. And you need completed construction drawings to bid a public works project, let alone build it. There’s the hitch. At this point Fullerton would have only eight months to publish plans, receive bids, get a responsive bid, sign contracts and then construct the trail, a project that would turn out to be a lot more complicated and expensive than any of the conveniently departed Parks officials could have imagined.

Why more complicated and expensive? Because of all the toxic water monitoring wells, the need for new water lines, new storm drain systems, and resolution of cross lot drainage issues – none of which are even included in the grant scope of work! It’s a pretty good guess that the cost of construction in the grant application was woefully underestimated. And nobody in City Hall ever admitted the presence of TCEs along the happy trail.

I suppose the City could get down on their knees and sing the blues to the state, asking for more time. Maybe staff already has. Or maybe, just as likely, the Department of Natural Resources and its chief, Wade Crowfoot, don’t even keep track of what happens to their money despite specific performance requirements in the grant agreement. After all, it’s not their money. Remember the $1,000,000 Core and Corridors Specific Plan, paid for by a State “sustainability” grant, that vanished into thin air?

Well, I guess we’ll have to keep an eye on this to see what’s happening. I’d hope that the Council provides an honest appraisal of the status of this hairy boondoggle, but that’s unlikely. So far nobody but FFFF has told a single truth about this fiasco.
Best known for her nomination? Mr. Peabody, how about Diane Vena is ONLY known for her phony nomination and corrupt collusion to promote a fake candidate in Fullerton’s D4 race.
Well, you got me there.
We still don’t know if was dishonesty or just stupidity. So there’s that.
So construction was supposed to start 7 months ago? Uh oh. Sacramento, we have a problem.
You are 100% right in thinking that the State doesn’t give a damn what happens to bond money. They take their cut in “management” and then it’s pissed into the wind.
And even if they did care, it’s only to protect themselves from looking bad in the first place. They were taken in by outright lies in Alice Loya’s phony application but they’ll never admit it.
Mario Marovic had milestones, too, and the City did and does nothing.
This is all Tony Bushali’s fault. He hates Fullerton.
There’s nothing about this project on the City’s bid list.
https://www.cityoffullerton.com/business/bids-rfps/-folder-216
Poor hoogerbooger gonna start a-cryin.’
Fiends for Fullerton’s Failure Vocabulary Words and Phrases
“Best known for” = not actually known for
“Cooked up by” = designed by
“Conceptual” = the
“Make work” = project
“Astroturfer” = our target who says things
“Anything in quotes” = anything in quotes, without quotes
“Poor A” = our target A
“Ingratiating” = someone who does something we don’t like for someone we don’t care about
“a pretty good guess” = our rank speculation
“boondoggle” = project we don’t want for people we don’t care about
So how come the milestones were missed, Champ?
I don’t know. But then, neither do you, so we’re even.
When’s the first newsletter coming out? I find your verbal wanderings and ruminations fascinating.
I don’t know. But they were. Your serve. The Trail is going Nowhere.
Haha. Let the boohooing begin! Wait ’til the Observer Sisters start wailing.
Boohooing = supporting a project we don’t like for people we don’t care about
Wailing = speech in opposition to our position
Wah wah wah.
Boohooing = supporting a project that won’t work supposedly for people we don’t really care about.
Boohooing = supporting every boondoggle no mater what. Then going home to feed our cats.
Next article: Where’s my Boutique Hotel?
How about WOT, Walk On Truslow? District 5 needs a safe place to chalk on asphalt too. There is a lot less traffic than on Wilshire and we can empower the poor Latino residents with micro-loans to set up taco stands in their front yards. Please Dr. Ahmed SAVE WOT!
Trail to Nowhere
Bridge to Nowhere
(Insert your project name here) to Nowhere