California State Parks’ Director Ruth Coleman announced Monday that the Department has now signed an agreement for keeping Henry W. Coe State Park open to the public for the next three years.
State Parks and the Coe Park Preservation Fund, the private citizens group from the San Jose and Silicon Valley area formed to help the park, have agreed that CPPF will donate funds for the maintenance and operation of the park to keep it open and operating from July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2015. In the agreement, all operations and maintenance of Coe State Park will be performed by State Parks’ staff.
The principal donor for the Coe Park Preservation Fund is J. Daniel McCranie, the chairman of the board of directors of ON Semiconductor Corporation and part owner of Ladera Grill in Morgan Hill. McCranie has nearly 40 years of operating experience in technology related industries, to include being the Board Director for Cypress Semiconductor Corporation and Board Director of Freescale Semiconductor.
“Henry W. Coe State Park is a local treasure, a beautiful, wild place that’s readily available to all of us in Silicon Valley, “said McCranie. “We need this park to remain open, particularly during these stress-filled days. All of us at the Coe Park Preservation Fund are both grateful and excited that Director Coleman has embraced this creative remedy to the current state park budget issues.”
“We hope other Californians will follow the lead of Daniel McCranie and the CPPF to save our natural and cultural treasures,” said Director Coleman. “These citizens represent the best of California and should inspire us all. We at State Parks are exceedingly grateful for this assistance and look forward to continuing our mission to preserve these special places forever.”
Read our story about a local’s effort to save the park.
“It was heart wrenching to us and to millions of people that our State Park system was going through this painful process of closing parks,” said Ann Briggs, President and Board Chair of the Coe Park Preservation Fund. “This park is especially important to our group and we felt that we had to be good citizens and find a way to make a difference.”
The terms of the agreement will include the parties’ agreement that CPPF will provide funding to State Parks for two full-time permanent State Park Peace Officers (one park ranger and one supervising ranger), one full-time permanent park maintenance worker and two full-time seasonal park aides to be assigned to and perform duties at Coe State Park from July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2015. Outside of this funding, CPPF shall have no administrative responsibility to operate Coe State Park. State Parks will ensure that this funding shall only be used to support Coe State Park and shall ensure that revenue collected at Coe State Park is returned to Coe State Park for its operation and maintenance.
What you can do to help!
If you would like to help support this huge, remote, and magnificent State Park, visit the Coe Park Preservation Fund website at www.coeparkfund.org.
About Henry Coe State Park
Henry W. Coe State Park is the largest State park in Northern California with more than 87,000 acres of wild open space. There is year-round enjoyment by hikers, mountain bikers, backpackers, picnickers and those seeking the quiet escape that only nature can provide. Coe Park is the wilderness next door for more than six million people in the San Francisco Bay Area. The park is located in the Diablo Range, south of Mount Hamilton. It is a place of rugged hills that often plunge nearly a quarter mile from the ridge tops to the canyons below.
About Coe Park Preservation Fund (CPPF)
The Coe Park Preservation Fund brings together corporations, foundations, and individuals dedicated to preserving Henry W. Coe State Park, and ensuring that it remains open and accessible to all in perpetuity. To fulfill the mission, they have successfully obtained sponsorships from corporations, conservation-minded foundations and concerned individuals assuring that the basic financial needs of Henry W. Coe State Park – park staff salaries and basic maintenance – will be supported for a minimum of three years. Now, their objective is to create an endowment fund to assure that Henry W. Coe State Park can be kept open in perpetuity – immune from future economic fluctuations, assuring continuous public access.
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