Our view: One of the first questions many newcomers to the fast-growing community of Wildomar often have is why the area's parks are padlocked, with weeds and trash choking the once-verdant fields and playgrounds. Why do we have to take our kids to Murrieta or Lake Elsinore to play Little League or soccer, they ask?

The answer is rooted in history and a defunct organization called the "Ortega Trails Recreation and Park District." But the solution has likely landed in most residents' mailboxes.

Earlier this month, ballots went out in the mail to property owners, asking them if they are willing to pony up $45 a year to reopen three parks and build a fourth. It's a deal they can't -- or shouldn't -- refuse.

The Ortega Trails district left a bad taste in the community's mouth, with accusations of mismanagement so rampant that in 1999 residents overwhelmingly rejected a $25-a-year fee that would have kept the parks open, and the next year Ortega disbanded. Six years later, the leaders of the Wildomar Parks Formation Committee hope residents are ready to put that behind them and reinvest in their community.

As deals go, this is a good one: If voters approve it, the county will pitch in $6 million to refurbish the three existing parks -- Marna O'Brien, Windsong and Heritage -- and build the fourth one at Susan Drive and La Estrella Street. If voters reject the deal, that money will go elsewhere and be lost forever.

Marna O'Brien and the new, yet unnamed, park would both become sports parks with baseball and soccer fields, meaning local kids could stop having to travel to play sports, and their parents would save the nonresident fees they now have to pay to play in Murrieta and Lake Elsinore parks.

What's more, there will be no new equivalent of the Ortega Trails district; the county Economic Development Agency will handle the money, which will pay for maintenance and security -- including regular patrols -- of all four parks. If and when Wildomar becomes a city, the new city government would take over the task.

The term "no-brainer" is overused these days, but this really is one. For less than a dollar a week, residents can see three eyesores turned back into the community recreation spots they once were. Residents need to mail their ballots in to the county by Aug. 29, and we hope they mark them "yes."