The below was excerpted from an April 11 Mtn Democrat article:

How to reduce millions of dollars in expenses from El Dorado County’s General Fund was the topic at the April 8 county Board of Supervisors meeting, with more than a dozen county services up for reductions or removal from the budget...

 

On the Forebay project, $400,000 from Prop. 68 is allocated to go toward a restroom facility and an environmental analysis, which was done for $200,000. 

“So that’s the part that’s already been spent,” Hennike said, adding if the county doesn’t build the restroom, the grant funding already spent would have to be paid back.

Complicating the project is the ADA accessibility needed to get to the restrooms, including parking lot upgrades, which balloons that portion of the project’s cost to $1 million.

“If we took the entire $3 million (needed for) the project, if we took that whole thing away, nothing would get done out there?” District 5 Supervisor Brooke Laine asked. “Right. We just don’t have any other funding. And, unfortunately, the little pieces of funding that we’ve already gotten through Prop. 68 wouldn’t cover enough to really do any of it,” Hennike replied.

“I think we need $800,000 to get the bathroom in with ADA accessibility and the parking lot,” said Laine. District 4 Supervisor Lori Parlin agreed. “I think we really need to do that, after all of this,” she said. “And have you ever used the bathroom before at Forebay? Because I have.” “I’ve heard about it,” Laine answered. Parlin described an old wooden potty she said is kind of “scary.” “I know that we’re hard pressed for money, but gosh that’s one thing you really do need there. So maybe we can get creative somehow,” Parlin added.

Snowline Little League President Ashley Hazlett noted her organization has been footing the bill for a port-a-potty and she lamented the loss of the Forebay Park plans. “I am saddened to see that the funds that were allocated to Forebay Park are being removed in their entirety,” she shared, telling the supervisors she now has to let the children know, “The parks that they were promised, the field that they were so looking forward to seeing next year after construction was supposed to break ground on June 1 of 2025, is in fact not going to happen.”

 

Update: at the April 22 Board of Supervisors meeting, the following motion was made and passed unanimously:  Direct the following for Forebay Park for the FY 2025-26 Recommended Budget: Include $1 million in Recommended Budget for Forebay Park and direct staff to return to the Board with a plan for an initial phase of the park to include restroom, parking, options for installation of senior equipment and a dog park.