Funding Flows to Local River Projects

Supervisor Gloria Molina announced $1.7 million in grants Wednesday for seven open-space improvement projects along the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers in eastern Los Angeles County.

In addition, the supervisor said $4.5 million more will be awarded in the near future to preservation agencies, cities and nonprofit organizations that propose other projects in her district.

All the funding is excess money from two Proposition A ballot measures, approved by voters in 1992 and 1996 for park improvements across the county.

The propositions were intended to produce $859 million--money that was raised and mostly spent. But an additional $40 million has been collected, said Curt Robertson, administrator of the county’s Regional Park and Open Space District.

With Wednesday’s announcement, Molina’s 1st District becomes the first to make use of the excess money, her office said.

The Proposition A funding is just the local contribution to a flurry of state and federal activity that has driven the vigorous river-preservation movement of the last decade.

“Those two measures have led to state and federal interest in our rivers,” said Rorie Skei, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy’s deputy director of natural resources and planning.

The funding was announced at the Rio Hondo Coastal Basin Spreading Grounds in Pico Rivera, a swath of open space next to the San Gabriel River dotted with flood control reservoirs and locked away from the public.

Molina recalled growing up nearby. She remembered trying to ride her bike along the river all the way to the ocean. But she and her friends found a chain-link fence blocking the way not far down the path.

It might be different now.

The city of Pico Rivera was one beneficiary of Wednesday’s grants. It was awarded $270,000 that will pay for a bike lane, a pedestrian walkway and a landscaped buffer zone.

“These projects are going to create what I wanted as a 10-year-old,” Molina said.

The other recipients, some getting funding for more than one project, include the city of Azusa; a group called North East Trees; and two partnerships, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and Community Residents Assn.; and the Friends of the San Gabriel River; and the Hollywood Beautification Team.

Their projects will include everything from bike lanes and equestrian paths to removal of weeds and restoration of native vegetation. The Los Angeles River has received more attention in the last few years, so some welcomed the growing focus on the San Gabriel.

“For too long the San Gabriel River has [been] the forgotten river at the edge of the county,” said Jacqueline Lambrichts,” founder of Friends of the San Gabriel River.

Added Molina: “Our mission is to make our rivers green again.”

Proposals for the upcoming funding must be received by 11 a.m. Oct. 22 at the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District, 433 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90020.