County nature centers, beaches at three lakes closed Mondays due to budget cuts

The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that county nature centers, including the Whittier Narrows Nature Center, and county-controlled beaches at three area lakes will be closed on Mondays due to a seven-percent budget cut for parks.

The Natural Area park will still be open to the public on Mondays.

Hugo Maldonado, the county's chief lake lifeguard, told the Times that, rather than eliminate any of the 225 lake lifeguard positions, officials reduced their hours by 20 percent.

"This is an unprecedented downturn in our economy and it's resulted in a significant decline in revenue for the county of Los Angeles," Maldonado said.

I remember some years ago, during another serious recession, when the county's response was to make significant cuts in services.

The clearest sign to me of those earlier cuts was the fact that my local branch of the county library system was open only one day per week. I don't remember how long that went on, but I remember it feeling like a long time.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I think the current combination of budget and service cuts, tax increases and water rate increases casts serious doubt on the claim that no entry or parking fees would be charged at the San Gabriel River Discovery Center because the costs "would be fully supported by the Authority."

When other areas of Whittier Narrows charge for parking and county museums charge admission fees, visitors to a discovery center-dominated Natural Area shouldn't be surprised if they end up having to pay for what today the public enjoys for free.