It’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it.
In this case, it was the responsibility
of those with the garbage who rolled up their sleeves. Sacramento County Sheriff Deputies, Code Enforcement and public agencies joined together with residents for a Neighborhood Clean Up to sweep the streets.
On September 27, dumpsters lined Stephen Drive, Poplar Boulevard and inside the Sante Fe Market parking lot in North Highlands for those who would have otherwise faced hefty fines. Junker cars, beat up appliances and garbage that would otherwise have been a waste of space and a public nuisance were safely taken care of at no cost.
“It was a big hit,” says senior code enforcement officer Jose Mendez.
“We had a lot of people come out to the site. For example, one 85-year-old gentleman thanked us for helping remove the junk around his house that he had been meaning to get rid of. He told us he wasn’t able to move it and that he didn’t have the help – so it was good to see that we could help him out”.
Some just needed to be shown the right direction. Before Saturday code enforcement crews assessed more than 500 code violations. They then sent letters out alerting offenders to the free event offering it as a solution to what would have been hundreds of dollars in fines and possible court or jail time.
The alerts also pointed out the fact that putting the trash on the street in piles would be against the law. If it were dumped illegally – fines started at over 200 dollars and went up to $1000 plus jail time. The goal was that renters and homeowners would take action.
“It’s not like waste management, where you just put it in piles on the street. We wanted community participation - we wanted them to come to us as we empower them to do something in their neighborhood to make it look better”, says Mendez.
Without the need for appointments, the event got people to drive by and walk up to the three locations where they had 25 bins on standby. Wood, metals and general “rubbish” that couldn’t fit in a standard trash can or dumpster was excepted. Sponsors like Pick n’ Pull towed away cars for free and the Salvation Army received donations. Crews with the county also cut back overgrown brush and weeds that contributed to property that had become an eyesore.
This is the second of two clean-ups this year to show pride in property and to eliminate blight. Over the summer the same staff worked in an area south of Highway 50 near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, towing away more than 2,000 tons of junk and recycling 12 tons. County workers said it wouldn’t have been possible either time without the help of volunteers from non profits, local churches and students.
Horacio Viveros, a senior at Sacramento State, came to our side of town with ten members of his fraternity Nu Alpha Kappa, Inc. Community service is one of their main tenants; they had so much success during the first clean up in the Oak Park area with county crews that they decided to commit their time again.
“Everyone felt good about it. It was like “wow, we made that much of a difference – we made an impact. People were so nice to us”.