Editorial: Saving a state park one visitor at a time
Some impressive political forces are lining up to help save McGrath State Beach.
Business owners, their employees and their families can pitch in, too, to help keep one of the region’s landmarks up and running.
As many of you already know, McGrath State Beach’s future came under threat this spring due to budget cuts absorbed by California’s State Parks system. The budget cuts put the hammer to renovations that were needed to keep the park up and running.
Now a clever campaign by Oxnard civic leaders, Ventura County Supervisor John Zaragosa and Assemblymember Das Williams could add another $100,000 to help foot the bill. These politicians are rounding up votes to have McGrath State Beach named one of the top winners in the “America is Your Park” contest funded by Coca-Cola and the America’s State Parks the National Park Foundation and the National Recreation and Park Association.
Now we hate to favor one state park over another. The region plays host to some of the best recreation areas anywhere in the state, including the vaunted Hearst Castle, one of the region’s top cultural attractions.
And while we wouldn’t want to tell our readers how to vote in the competition, we think there is a case to be made for McGrath to get consideration.
Already the No. 6 vote-getter, McGrath State Beach stands at least a fair chance to finish in the money in the competition, which offers cash prizes to the top three winners. The website for voting is www.livepositively.com.
Meanwhile, a broader fundraising effort by officials from the city of Oxnard, including councilmember Bryan MacDonald, is starting to get the attention of state officials and businesses, including one of the top regional Coca-Cola executives.
We’re encourage by the fact that so many political interests have lined up behind the campaign and we hope that a successful campaign for McGrath State Beach will become a rallying cry for tourism expansion in Ventura County.
The campaign continues through Sept. 6, and we encourage readers to help make a last minute push to put McGrath State Beach in the money to get some Coca-Cola bucks.
[Editor’s note: The website for the campaign was misspelled in a previous version of this story. It is livepositively.com. The change has been made in the story above.]
