Following is a letter sent Dec. 15, 1997 to Marvin Yee of S.F. Recreation and Park Department.

Refer: Visitacion Valley Playground Renovation.

I am writing to say that the community residents that attended Visitacion Valley Task Force meetings and a lot of other community meetings are very supportive in the efforts of the Friends of Visitacion Valley Parks to revitalize and improve the neighborhood parks

The Campbell/Rutland mini-park has needed to be improved for many years. Great care must be used when designing the revitalized mini-park to insure that all the areas within the park can be observed from the streets and sidewalks. Hedges and bushes should be maintained to under two feet and trees should have branches trimmed to a height over 6 to 8 feet. A sunscreen awning over the picnic tables should provide shade to avoid the use of bushes or hedges as shade. Security lighting should be installed.

The Visitacion Valley Playground has also received community support for improvement and revitalization. The consensus  of the Task Force, the community and the neighbors that live near the park was that public safety would be the prime design factor. Vandalism. drug dealing, alcohol related problems, and people in the park creating disturbances after dark and after 10 p.m. were extremely dangerous problems for the community and residents that lived near the park. The life threatening activities that took place in and around the park led to the closure and abandonment of the park.

Community suggestions to achieve maximum public safety are:

(1) the police officers that patrol the area should participate in the design of the security lighting and the landscape design to insure good visibility within the entire park.

(2) The staff of Park and Recreation should work with the police department to insure safety within the park.

(3) An extra room should be provided within the new clubhouse for a police drop-in office. The room should be large enough to accommodate a desk, some chairs, a telephone, water cooler, and a file cabinet. The patrol officers would have keys so they could use the office any time, day or night. This would add to random time surveillance. A bicycle rack would also be installed.

(4) Security lighting would be installed around the clubhouse and the children's play area. The Task Force would try to get a pilot program to install a remote surveillance television camera with a monitor hook-up at the Williams Street police station.

(5) A Park and Recreation staff person would be on-site full time and for extended hours during the summer; this would provide a more secure atmosphere.

(6) Drug Free Zone and This Park is Closed from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. signs would be posted on the perimeter fences.

(7) The Park and Recreation Department should make a combined effort with all of the community organizations to try to use a portion of the satellite organizations' sports and after school programs to insure greater use of the park. This would also increase the amount of adult supervision within the park.

Our committee will submit more information as we receive it.

Thank you for your time,
Ralph Oroquita

A Lettter to Our Community About the Beacon Center

By now, you may have heard:

The California State Legislature has enacted a new law concerning individuals and entities who provide services in the public
schools. We have heard this new tougher law was passed just after a case where a custodian in a school in California was charged with murdering a student.

The new law requires that anyone who has more than limited contact (defined as "one-time and/or accidental encounters with
District students while performing certain services under an agreement with the District") must be fingerprinted and have a
criminal record check. "Limited contact" definition also includes "one day performances conducted before a group of students, and construction work performed during non-school hours or on a portion of campus physically separated from students." Further, it states that any individual having more than limited contact "must not have been arrested or convicted of any serious or violent felonies, as defined by the California Penal Code."

We must ask all those individuals and community based organizations working with Valley youth through the Visitacion
Valley Community Beacon to submit fingerprints and receive a background clearance as soon as possible. We are in the process of complying with this law right now, but meanwhile we are working to get clarification and will be finding out more about this new law and its effect on our employees and programs.

This new regulation may be problematic for community organizations such as ours for many reasons. Some of the most
effective influences on kids have been persons who have learned their lessons "the hard way" and now wish to share their
experiences with youth to help them make better, more healthy life choices.

It is possible for a person to obtain "(1) a certificate of rehabilitation and pardon obtained pursuant to the Penal Code or
(2) proof to the sentencing court that at least one year's rehabilitation for school employment purposes has taken place
after a conviction of a serious felony, which is not also a violent felony." It is not yet clear exactly by what process one
can achieve this, except that it is done through the court.

We all agree, however, that we all have the best interests of the students at heart, and so does the School District and the State
Legislature. How the matter will be finally resolved is yet to be seen. We'll try to keep our community informed of our progress in finding the solutions to this dilemma.

Julie Kavanagh
Lead Agency Director
For VVC Beacon