Lights out at Concord dog park

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. See e-mail exchange between myself and Concord City Manager Dan Keen concerning status of the lights at the Paw Patch Dog Park located within Newhall Park. According to City’s Engineer Department, Concord has spent $15K+, or more than a third on repairs as the original budget Council approved for the project, and the lights still don’t work.

—–Original Message—–
From: Bill Gram-Reefer
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 10:43 AM
To: Keen, Dan
Subject: Concord Dog Park

Dan,

It is my understanding that the Lights at the Dog Park in Newhall Park have never really worked due to numerous (I hear 3-4) incidents of thievery of copper cabling.

Now the City is going to put rocks over the access to keep out thieves?

I’d like to know how much the City of Concord has spent remediating this problem past the initial $40K for original install?

Residents are also more than curious concerning why the lights at the Bocce courts are not vandalized in a similar way. Is there some more secure design there? ~ BGR

City Manager Responds

Bill -

Yes, your information is correct about the dog park lights — we have had multiple (I believe 3) incidents where the copper wire has beenstripped from those lights. In the last instance, we had placed very large boulders over the access plates, and the thieves proceeded to break up and/or move the rocks out of the way and steal the wire. So we’re back to square one at this point, researching other solutions.

I’ll get back to you on an estimate for remediation of the theft. Also, I’ll ask why the bocce courts haven’t experienced the same theft — that’s a good question.

Dan

Concord Engineering adds:

Bill,

We have had 3 incidents of electrical copper wire theft at the Newhall
Park Dog Lights. The first incident occurred before the completion of
the Dog Park Lighting Project, which means that the contractor paid for
the replacement of the copper wire per the terms of the City’s
construction contract with the contractor. The other two incidents
occurred after the completion of the project (after July 27, 2009). The
combined copper wire replacement cost to the City for these two
incidents is about $15,000.

With regards to the Bocce courts lights not experiencing theft, we
believe that the proximity of the Bocce courts to the street coupled
with the more intense type of lights likely discourage theft activity.
Unlike the Bocce courts, the Dog Park is located in the middle of
Newhall Park and is farther from the street.

Alex Pascual PE, Director/City Engineer
Public Works
1455 Gasoline Alley, MS/45
Concord, CA 94519
Tel. (925) 671-3231
Fax (925) 680-1660
alex@ci.concord.ca.us