Santa Ana : Creative City Employee Surprised by Council

Ron Ono, who has been instrumental in designing three award-winning parks in Santa Ana, was surprised Monday night when the City Council presented him with a commemorative tile in a special unannounced ceremony at City Hall.

In making the award, Mayor Daniel E. Griset noted Ono’s “extraordinary commitment and unique contribution” to Santa Ana. Commemorative tile awards are usually reserved for long-term employees’ retirements, but Ono’s contributions to the city have been so outstanding that the break from tradition was justified, officials said.

In 1981, Ono’s design for Centennial Regional Park prompted an Award of Excellence for Design from the California Parks and Recreation Society. Two years later, Santa Ana received the society’s Environmental Award for Birch Park, the city’s oldest, which Ono had redesigned.

The society has been making awards for the past 10 years.

Last month, the society declared Carl Thornton Park the best designed neighborhood park in California. Named for Santa Ana’s first city manager, who died in 1981, the 30-acre park features a two-acre lake stocked with fish. The lake acts as a temporary water retention basin with controlled drainage into nearby storm drains.

Ono also administers state and federal grants and has personally helped design all of Santa Ana’s park improvements since 1980. In addition, he is responsible for the design of many of the signs in the city’s parks and in and around the Civic Center.

A graduate of Cal Poly Pomona with a degree in landscape architecture, Ono belongs to the American Society of Landscape Architects. He began working for Santa Ana in October, 1969, and is employed by the Cultural, Recreation and Community Services Agency.