Cleanup of Inner-City Parks Demanded in Santa Ana : Safety: Broken glass, hypodermic needles and filthy toilets foul play areas, a citizens group says. But the city has just five workers for 38 parks.

A citizens group Wednesday night demanded that the city clean up “utter filth” at inner-city parks, including a sandbox with broken glass and hypodermic needles and restrooms that members said are seldom cleaned.

Members complained that children who attend programs at the Jerome Community Center are not allowed to play at Jerome Park because of gang and drug activity.

And city parks north of 17th Street are generally clean in contrast with the filth in some central city parks such as Delhi, according to a study of Santa Ana parks conducted by members of the Orange County Congregation Community Organization.

“We simply will not accept these conditions, which are not even fit for human beings,” Lynn Ruiz of St. Barbara’s Roman Catholic parish told city officials at a meeting that drew about 250 members of the citizens group. The organization consists of 18 county church congregations and has worked on anti-drug programs and other neighborhood issues.

Kindergarten teacher Marge Ouellette of St. Anne’s Roman Catholic parish said she had taken children to play in the sandbox at Memorial Park and “found a bucket full of glass, trash and hypodermic needles. I could not believe it.”

Showing slides of some of the 15 city parks studied, group leaders rated the parks “unsatisfactory” in security, maintenance and recreation programs. They demanded immediate improvements, including daily maintenance of restrooms, security lighting and new playground equipment at some parks.

However, Allen Doby, director of the city Recreation and Community Services Agency, said the city’s 38 parks are cleaned at least daily, with the busier parks cleaned twice a day.

It would be difficult to keep the restrooms clean at all times “unless there is somebody standing there waiting to clean it every time it is used,” he said.

Doby also cited costs and understaffing as the reasons park improvements cannot occur more quickly.

“We have only five park rangers and 38 parks to cover,” he said. “We cannot be everywhere.”

Just hours before the meeting, work crews applied fresh coats of yellow, red and blue paint on the long-rusty playground equipment at Delhi Park. The backboards and rims on the basketball court were also painted, and new nets were hung.

Doby said those improvements were part of routine maintenance that continues as long as money holds out. He said before the meeting that it would cost the city about $5 million to pay for all needed improvements citywide.

Doby said that a more major renovation and expansion of Delhi Park will begin within the next two years and that a $1-million face-lift of Rosita Park will be completed next year.

Neighborhood residents who visited Delhi Park before the meeting said they are not pacified by recent repairs.

“If they could do it now, why not before?” asked Flora Schoonover, who worked on the study.

The smell of fresh paint was overcome by the stench from the restrooms, which neighbors said have not been cleaned in years.

“One day I was waiting for the bus, and I had to go (to the restroom), but ooooooh no,” Catalina Munoz said. “It was terrible.”

In addition to the request for new restrooms at Delhi Park, other suggested improvements included new lighting and playground equipment at Jerome and El Salvador parks; the removal of a mattress, an old sink and other debris and restroom repairs at Rosita Park, and cleaning the sandbox at Memorial Park.