LOS ANGELES -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District, will hold a public meeting Thursday, April 9 at the Corona High School Performing Arts Center, 1154 Tenth Street, Corona, 92882, to present information and receive public input regarding preliminary plans for repainting a mural on the Prado Dam spillway.
Formal presentations will begin at 6:30 p.m. The facility will open at 5:30 p.m. for the public to visit several information stations and conduct discussions with representatives from the various public agencies that will be involved in the process. The meeting is scheduled to conclude at 9 p.m.
Col. Kim Colloton, commander of the Corps’ Los Angeles District, will host the meeting. Corona Mayor Eugene Montanez will moderate. Rep. Ken Calvert and representatives from Orange County will also speak.
The purpose of the meeting is to inform the public on the upcoming work that the Corps has planned to remove the existing paint and mural on the spillway at Prado. In addition, we want to engage the public and encourage group involvement in strategizing and incorporating public input into selecting a potential future mural on the Prado Spillway.
The Corps is organizing this meeting because it owns and operates Prado Dam in Corona for the purpose of providing flood risk management for the region. The spillway at Prado Dam served as the canvas for the iconic bicentennial mural painted by Corona High School students in 1976. Because of its visibility from the SR-91 and SR-71 freeways, the mural became an area landmark and a source of civic pride for the community.
In the intervening years weather and time degraded the mural. Portions of it were also defaced by graffiti. In September 2014, the Corps awarded a contract to safely remove both the paint used in the mural, which contains lead, and the graffiti, and to restore the spillway face to a clean concrete surface. This activity is scheduled to take place between April 27 and late July 2015.
The announcement of the mural removal has generated public interest in the Corps’ plan for the future appearance of the spillway. Because of the significance of the spillway to the community, the public meeting will be the start of ongoing efforts by the Corps to solicit input from and feedback to the public in the process.
Although the Corps has no preference regarding whether the old mural should be repainted or a new mural should be selected, the Corps understands that there is significant public interest in the appearance of the Prado Dam spillway. Public input and involvement in this process is critical to the selection of a replacement mural that represents the public interest.