After a recent neighborhood meeting, and a lot of behind-the-scenes planning, the Merced City Council on Tuesday night was presented with an update on the future General Vang Pao Park — expected to be the only one of its kind in America to honor the late leader of the Hmong American community.
Leaders were also briefed on the ongoing Bear Creek Restoration Project and current design efforts underway to protect the waterway’s banks from deterioration and the city from disastrous flood events.
The Vang Pao Park Master Plan is truly impressive, and undoubtedly will create a special gathering space for community residents at the location along Freemark Avenue near Cardella Road in north Merced.
Phase 1 of the project will include an “all-inclusive” playground named after the late Aletha June, and supported by a First 5 Merced County Safe Play Initiative Grant. June was a local resident who lived with physical disabilities, as well as the granddaughter of Floyd Schelby, the former Merced County Superintendent of Schools, and the namesake of the Special Education school in Livingston.
The playground design accommodates people living with special needs and has been influenced by input from the Challenged Family Resource Center in Merced, as well as young students in the local school district. It will include dedicated play areas for ages 2-5 and 5-13. Of note, a wide, extended, on-grade slide for both kids and adults will be incorporated into sloped terrain in the playground area.
Phase 1 also includes an inspirational monument to General Vang Pao at the end of a slope that faces an existing flood basin on the west end of the park. It will include history about the general, as well as include elements of Hmong culture. A seating area will provide sunset views toward the west.
Merced has more than 40 parks, but this one will be the only one named after a member of the Hmong community. Vang Pao is known for leading thousands of Hmong guerrillas in the covert, CIA-backed campaign against the communists in Laos during the so-called “Secret War.” However, Vang is also credited for breaking down barriers and paving the way for Hmong people to find freedom, prosperity and success all over the world. This included efforts right here in Merced where the general helped create the nonprofit organization — Lao Family Community, Inc. — to help Southeast Asian refugees find jobs, receive education assistance and vocational training, and learn American culture while maintaining their family roots. Vang died in 2011.
Surrounding the monument will be terraced rice field landscaping, interpretive panels and other natural elements that represent the Hmong community.
Other Phase 1 amenities include a parking area off Freemark Avenue, some looping trails that connect to existing ones, a picnic pavilion, and a park sign at the corner of Cardella and Freemark.
Typically a “neighborhood” park such as this (as opposed to a “community park”) would not include restroom facilities, but the city is leaving a restroom option open as future funding is allowed, and in consideration of the expected use of the park as an attractive gathering space.
More public meetings on the plans are expected with the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission, and revisions are expected to come back to the City Council in March. City officials will develop cost estimates, and they hope construction bids will go out in late summer, with a contract to be awarded in the fall. Construction is expected to start in December, and be completed in the Spring of 2026.
“We are looking forward to the grand opening,” said Mayor Matthew Serratto. “And after that, we got a couple more Bellevue Ranch vacant park sites to be worked on.”
Creek Restoration
The Bear Creek Restoration project was launched in 2022, supported by $6 million in funding secured by former State Assemblymember Adam Gray.
However, the plans were only intensified after the disastrous flooding at the start of 2023 that caused significant damage to residential neighborhoods and commercial areas. The creek has overflowed its banks multiple times over the past 20 years.
Huge boulders were brought in to help with temporary repairs of the banks after the events of early 2023, but the creek today remains in need of permanent solutions.
The scope includes a 6-mile-long portion of the creek from McKee Road to 16th Street. Restoration will include removing invasive plant overgrowth, trash, and other pollution to improve the habitat for local plants and animals, and the surveying and repair of embankments.
Dokken Engineering was awarded a contract last spring to help the city with permit and design issues. On Tuesday night, company officials gave city leaders an update on their progress so far.
The group has targeted eight “erosion repair” zones for the following areas along the creek’s embankment:
- W.N. Bear Creek at Glen Ave.
- E.N. Bear Creek at N. Parsons Ave.
- W. N. Bear Creek at W & 23rd St.
- W.N. Bear Creek at W Street to west of R St.
- North side of the 25th St. pedestrian bridge
- A stretch near the Applegate Zoo
- Glen Avenue
- Oleander Avenue
These locations are partially concurrent with locations for FEMA-funded repairs.
Completed work so far has included geotechnical investigations, topographic surveys, biological field surveys and species database searches. The Dokken team is still working on a draft geotechnical report, further environmental studies and preliminary designs.
Once completed, they expect to finalize designs and permitting and begin construction.
Despite a significant number of permits that need to be approved, Dokken representatives say they hope to begin construction next year.
A community open house is planned for later this spring to present designs for review and to receive feedback from residents. Officials say communication with the public is of the utmost importance in this endeavor that is surrounded by amenities including bike and pedestrian paths, Applegate Park, and a variety of neighborhoods.
Councilman Daron Dupont noted that the scope of work did not include an area farther downstream along Bear Creek, toward 16th Street, near the Shadowbrook neighborhood, that was severely flooded in 2023.
A city official said that area was not included in the Bear Creek Restoration Project along with the review of initial creek damage after the most recent flood; however, it is targeted for possible FEMA funds to build a protective flood wall.
Dokken representatives told city leaders the repair work on the creek will take into consideration activity by transient and homeless populations that damage the integrity of the creek’s banks.