By Peter Day
Senior Reporter
LUCERNE VALLEY — What began with frustration turned into relief for a local equestrian group that sought, and received, solutions to recently raised use fees and over-watering of their arena.
The solutions were offered to the 70-year-old riding club, E.T.I. Corral #70, by Reese Troublefield, general manager of County Service Area 29. CSA 29 manages the county-owned Keesee Arena at Midway Park.
"We can put the fee back down to $25 per event if you guys will prep the arena," Troublefield said during the monthly meeting of the Lucerne Valley-Johnson Valley Municipal Advisory Council on Jan. 21.
Troublefield extended the olive branch after Michele Holden, who serves as president of the riding group, shared the group's frustrations and concerns. The group had been charged $25 per gymkhana event to use the arena, but last year CSA 29 quadrupled the fee to $100 per event.
"It costs about $283," Troublefield said of the maintenance costs. "What we did with the $100 charge was to try to get closer."
But that increase has been a severe hardship on the small group, Holden said.
"We want to see if we can get the fees lowered down because it absolutely put us almost negative by the time we had the riders, by the time we paid out the $100."
The other issue that was resolved during the meeting was an ongoing issue with over-watering and flooding part of the arena during the prepping of the facility.
"We need to get that fixed," she said. "What they are doing now with water is wasting more water than we're using. That water is running right out the back gate."
Troublefield, who manages several county recreation programs including those in Bear Bear and Joshua Tree, explained that CSA 29 renovated the arena about six years ago.
"The arena was hard-packed. Not safe. The main issue was water."
So Troublefield's staff applied for, and received, a Community Development Block Grant to install a water irrigation system. The park district also put new sand into the arena.
"That works very well," he said.
After looking at photographs of arena over-watering that were brought in by Holden, Troublefield quickly agreed and said the sprinklers need to be reoriented.
"This needs to be fixed. No argument. This is a waste of water."
Troublefield said that if E.T.I. Corral #70 would fully take over the arena preparation duties that it would eliminate the need for park district staff to spend the man-hours on the duties.
"I think we can solve that tonight," Troublefield said. "If you guys want to do that, we can do that."