By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
7-25-2009

A long-term lease for the City Park in Bishop, one that would open doors to grant money for the city, seems no more a reality now for Bishop officials than it was 20 years ago when the idea first got off the ground.
The current lease between Bishop and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power demands that city services conducted on the 50-acre plot, including improvements, must pass through a  lengthy review and approval process at the local and Los Angeles level.
For example, the popular skateboard park, which was paid for entirely with city funds, took 18 months to go through the DWP approval process.
City Administrator Rick Pucci stated in a report he will present to the Bishop City Council at its next meeting  that the skate park project nearly failed due to the approval delay, “and certainly would have if outside funding had been needed.”

The long-term lease from LADWP for the Bishop City Park has been more than 20 years in the making, but the complicated approval process has left the City of Bishop no closer to reaching a deal now than it was before. Photo by Mike Bodine

Bishop met with DWP  in September 2008 to set up a time line for the process of obtaining a long-term lease, but it has gone nowhere from there.
Pucci stated that the delay in approval “seems to be part of the process itself and not employee or agency disregard.”
Nevertheless, because of the delay, Bishop missed a $5 million grant application deadline in March, with a deadline for another grant coming in August.
Without the long-term lease, outside funding is not possible for the city to realize its Master Plan for the park that includes the addition of a community center to the 50-acre property, among other dreams and aspirations for what has been called the city’s centerpiece.
The Bishop City Council will hear an update on the progress of the lease negotiations between Bishop and the DWP from Pucci at its next regular meeting, 7:30 p.m., Monday, July 27, among several other agenda items.