How YOU Can Help Save the Shadow Cliffs Water Slides

By Chuck Bierdeman

It's not too late...  

We have all had this experience:  You read in the news, or hear from a friend, that something has gone away and you think to yourself, "When did that happen? And why?" And you wish that you had known in advance so that you could do something about it...  

This is what happened to me.  And, I suspect, many of you too.  

The of The Rapids Water Slides at was like that for me.  I just happened to catch the news and after some "Googling," discovered that the East Bay Regional Parks District was meeting to review options for closing down the slides. 

Thank goodness some caring individuals were able to speak up at the March 15 East Bay Parks operations meeting. Director Ayn Weiskamp says that her constituents have consistently said they value the slides and that she wants to hear what the Pleasanton community has to say at an April Pleasanton Parks and Recreation meeting scheduled as a public meeting on the topic.

That meeting will take place at 7 p.m. April 16, in the Pleasanton City Council chamber, 200 Old Bernal Ave.

So now is our chance -  if we are going to stop this from happening, we need to clearly let the parks department know that we want to save the slides.  

Lets face it. If they go away, they will never come back and our community will lose a wonderful, family-friendly place to go cool down in the summer.  

What can you do? You can:  

• Attend the Pleasanton Parks and Rec meeting on April 16
• Sign my online petition and tell why you want to keep the slides open (www.saveshadowcliffswaterslides.com)
• Email your friends and suggest they do one or both of the above
• Write a comment in the Pleasanton Patch, underneath this article.
• Call and/or email the parks and rec department

We know that we can have an impact on local issues if we simply speak up.  Now's your chance.  

It's not too late...but there isn't much time. Speak now.

What do you think? Tell us in the comments.

Chuck Bierdeman and his wife and two daughters are residents of the Vintage Hills neighborhood. Chuck works in Mountain View at a major technology company where he is involved with driving customer experience improvements.