Fun Dome Playcenter, Oakhurst

[Dodgergirl]

Anyone have any information on this place. The website is kinda vague. I pass the location daily on my way to the Gauge, but I can't say that I've seen it...

www.fundomeyosemite.com

[Sandman]

A new entry has been added to Links and Downloads Manager

Description: Fun Dome Playcenter is located in Oakhurst, California, just 25 minutes south of Yosemite National Park. Our park boasts a wide variety of play things- so you can stay for the day or use us for a few minutes to help break up your long drive.

Fun Dome Playcenter
42912 Highway 41
Oakhurst, California 93644
PHONE: (559) 641-2211
WEB: www.fundomeyosemite.com

To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit Fun Dome Playcenter, Oakhurst (http://forums.yosemitearea.com/local_links.php?linkid=36)
The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.

[BGW]

This address is at Springwood Dr. (the road before Sky Ranch) and Hwy 41. This doesn't sound like something our County would readily approve...and may not actually exist yet even though a grand opening day is listed. Might have to leave a couple minutes early for work and check it out.

[Mysteefied]

It sounds pretty cool if it really does exist. I never saw anything in the paper about it. Hmmm.....

[BGW]

We figured out where it is but you can't see much from the road. And there is not a sign out on the Hwy. yet either.

[beautiful_mess38]

Hmmm sounds good and the prices are reasonable but I never heard anything about this. wierd :shrug:

[tocools]

It is not open yet but will be soon I am doing some work up there sat. and will let you all know what is going on when I get back home after wards

[BGW]

And...how was work yesterday??

[tocools]

Work went well thank you.


The place should be open by next weekend I met the owners and they are nice people.The place is looking great and I feel it should be a good place for people to stop off and let there kids have some fun before going on.

[LU]

Anything new with this place? Anyone know if it's open yet or been there if it is?

[BGW]

There is still no sign out by the road and nothing advertising now open or opening soon.

[Oakhurst Guy]

I drove by there yesterday and there was a big banner on the side of the house saying 'Coming Soon'. It still just looks like a house. I don't know where the attractions are or where people will park..... but I wish them luck.

[monkey]

Kind of reminds me of the place in Ahwahnee that opened many years ago and then failed. Anyone remember the name of it?

[LU]

The one that was over by where Kaiser Clinic and Sears is now, right? Can't remember the name of it. I think they failed because if I remember right the entry fees were $20 back then and you still had to pay for the extras inside the park.

[lorip]

Hi there! It's kind of cool to see there is some interest in the playcenter- my husband and I have been trying to open for going on 2 years now! Can I just say how much we loathe the county!!! We were are the tail end of completing the things we needed to do to convert the residence we purchased to the commercial playarea, when we had a break in. Actually there was no forceable entry, the sheriff is thinking it was someone who had the key and copied it or didn't return it. Anyways, they took our doors, toilets, 5 gallon jugs of primer, tools, just about anything that wasn't nailed down- pretty near wiped us out. We've still had trouble repurchasing everything we need. But we are opening- finally! We will be open for babysitting starting August 6th but the playcenter is also designed for parents to come with their children to play (similar to the Children's museum set-up but the focus is more play than educational.) There is a make-ahead-meal club forming too. I don't know how much I should put in this post since I don't want it to be advertising as I just signed that agreement to become a member, but I do want to respond to the posts. So please forgive me if I'm talking too much- I'm specifically not giving details trying not to be an ad-
I've had quite a lot of interest in the meal club, so here's pretty much how it works- families come together for a dinner party here once a month, each family prepares a meal for 40 at their home, and freezes them in containers with ingredient and reheating instruction labels we provide. The families divy them up among the other families that attend. All families get a chance for their kids to play, they socialize, and go home with 5 or 7 different frozen homemade meals (all servings of 4 in a container) from a recipe they voted for when they signed into their group. So you get to put maybe six (depends on how many families are in the group) four serving meals in your freezer and save time, money and clean up. Well let me know if there are any more questions- I know we've been promising to open for a while and it looks like the light is at the end of the looooong tunnel!

[Dodgergirl]

Thanks for the info... Please post more details, and if you want to advertise, a banner ad is always helpful... The dinners sound interesting, as does the babysitting concept. Sorry to hear of the break-in.

[beautiful_mess38]

Sounds great. I'll have to bring some friends with kids and check it out.

[LU]

Hi LoriP, nice to hear from you. Glad to hear things are moving along. I'm sure there are others out there besides me who are waiting for more info and who check your website on a regular basis hoping for an update or change since it still says the grand opening is in March.
Anyway, good look to you, and any and all info you can provide is more than welcome.

[John S]

I have three kids and we will check it out. Sorry to hear it has been a tough road. Good luck!

[lorip]

Hey thanks for the boost guys, and also a knock on the head to me about the dates on the website. Woops!! That's proof we were actually trying to open way back LAST March! I find it interesting since I made a whole bunch of changes to the website about five or six months ago, including dates, and when I rechecked now I notice they didn't get published completely. So I'll be up typing tonight trying to update as much as possible and get this thing going. Oh one thing, we will be opening on a smaller scale first, to appease the county and follow their many intensely ridiculous requirements that change from one inspector to the next. I've come this far, I'm not going to do anything to make them upset with me. Except maybe when this is all over mass produce a dart board with their department names and pictures on it and sell it back to the business owners in this community to make back the tons we've lost because of their delays!! Ha ha!

[monkey]

Any news on this lately? I see kid's toys outside, but no activity. It doesn't look open yet.

[WE Mag Publisher]

I am/was the owner of Fun Dome- we tried to get our license for going on 2 1/2 years, the last half year has been on my end since I ran out of cash to complete the list of things they took their time about telling me I had to do to open. I wasn't doing anything fancy, nothing at all complicated about my project- change a couple door sizes here, add parking there. Once they finally approved things, they sent it to an outside planning committee which took even more time. Guess they're too incompetent to do the work they take their sweet time with and get paid to do. They're probably worried about getting sued. They should be worried- if this town got together the business owners who had been treated unjustly by untimely, inconsistent directions on how to make their project work, and one county official telling them one thing will work, they spend the money to do it, and another county official saying "Who told you that? No, no, no, no!" and making the business owners eat the many expenses incurred by their errors- there could probably be a class-action suit.

*If you are an individual working for the county, I am not intentionally trying to be rude to you as an individual- I am not mad at any one in particular but FURIOUS and driven to tears over many callous, uncaring, UNMOTIVATED people who collectively make up a broken system. Where is the motivation for these employees to function in a timely manner? I'd seriously like to know what safe guards are in place so this doesn't happen to more families. So please, don't take offense if you are one of the few in the county that are trying and working hard (there were a couple in my lengthy experience) you are probably just as exasparated as I am.

Since they took so long to approve us, we had lots of brand new building supplies just sitting here (thousands of dollars worth- new doors, tools, toilets, $75 gallon buckets of primer and paint) that were stolen (darn jerk who took them was too lazy to lug away the cement bags so I still have those) I had a handyman admit to a serious amount of wrongdoing to my face and he said, and I quote, "If you take me to small claims court, there's nothing they can do- you can't prove anything." If only those Vons security cams in the aisles had audio recording....

As an example of the hold ups, once I waited four months for the county to get back to me on my license and they rejected it because I used the word "vending" and not "selling" on my application. I drove down there, at the time four hours away, and waited in the lobby with my three small children for a couple hours while no one took responsibility for the answering machine message that told me about the rejection. During that wait, the new business license person went to the back to get me a new form for a license and came back out 45 minutes later saying, "You're still here??? Oh yeah, the forms. I'll be right back." I wanted to hand her my child's dirty diaper to throw away. I had to pay to put in a new application and I had to pay four months mortgage and expenses while they didn't deal with my "vending" word infraction and of cuorse had to wait on them to review my application again. They should install those second counters that you see while you're waiting at the drive-thrus, only theirs should be in months and put on top of each county employees desk. This second application I turned in had no guarantees the wording was right even though I asked specifically for the correct wording. They were too scared to tell me what small change to make my license go through- keep in mind I wasn't the person trying to trick the county with getting past code in any way, have never complained about them to anyone that would get them "in trouble" which is what they are perpetually worried about. Why they weren't worried about doing what was right rather than following the yellow line and "protecting" their county from menacing VENDORS, I don't know. All the while I'm paying mortgage for an empty almost business building. That's just one thing- I could tell you ten things like that that happened. Yet another business (Tricia's Trends and Blends, Broken Bit, to name a couple) the county has kicked in the teeth. Over and over again.

Sorry for the venting rampage- I put off doing it since I had to smile and act like a rabbit so I didn't gain any extra attention so they would ruin my chances of opening, but now it looks like that will not happen, so I'M NOT AFRAID OF WHAT THEY CAN DO TO ME ANYMORE. They've taken so much from me and my family and our quality of life, now I am through most of the anger and can see how to live and be happy with different dreams. It just gets old telling everyone at Thanksgiving how we're still not open yet. They think I had a business that didn't work. Well, we had enough capital to start with and even sold our house to work with those... um....I have to keep this G-rated since this may be read by minors. My family and I have our health and we're grateful for that. Gotta go- bills to pay.

[Mysteefied]

WE Mag...
I am so sorry to hear about the troubles you've had trying to open a fun place for kids!
Unfortunatly I have heard this same thing from many others trying to open a good business here in Oakhurst. It's a crying shame!

I hope someone wakes up real soon and makes it clear what needs to be done in advance of people/couples/families having to lose near everything and still not be able to open.

I wish you the best of luck!