Neighborhood cleanup set for Saturday

Caseloads for Salinas code enforcement officers have gone up in the past couple years. Now, people who have extra junk around their homes can get it rid for free this weekend.

Republic Services is teaming up with City of Salinas to hold a free waste pickup event at Northgate Park on Saturday. Each district gets a free pickup day once a year. This time, it’s in District 5, from Davis to North Main, Russell Road, almost to Rossi.

People can drop off almost everything.

“Water heaters turned in, giant televisions, mattresses, wood, random backyard furniture,” Salinas Council Member Kimbley Craig said.

But no hazmat, commercial waste or tires. People don’t have to get out of the car. It will be set up like a drive-through, where people can drive in and drop off their waste.

According to data from Salinas code enforcement, there were fewer than 770 open and closed code enforcement cases in the fiscal year that ended in 2015. Up until this past April, there were more than 1,300 open and 1,500 closed cases. Blight can happen anywhere.

“With the economic downtown we’ve had significant issues in north Salinas,” Craig said. “Primarily blighted issues, homes that have gone into foreclosure that are bank-owned, and frankly just a kind of shift in dynamic with neighborhoods. So it’s really about taking personal accountability for your environment and your space and this gives you an opportunity to sort of make your environment look a little nice, a little better and I’m sure the neighbors would appreciate that.”

Ahead of Saturday’s events, volunteers with LDS Family Services did a little cleanup at the park. The group were in town for training and decided to spend some time helping out.

They picked up litter, painted a building and park benches.

“We’ve cleared up some of the bark on the playground,” Brian Donovan, regional manager of LDS Family Services, said. “And just kind of improving everything and getting it to look a little nicer.”

Small steps to taking back the community.

“We know that having a beautiful place, having something attractive attracts people to being there,” said Ana Ambriz, Neighborhood Services Coordinator for the city of Salinas. “So it creates visibility, it decreases crime so it’s really, people taking ownership of their park, of their neighborhood.”