By Donna Westfall – July 4, 2017 –
The broken down RV with garbage strewn around has been an eyesore for months. Nestled between the Thai House Restaurant and the Safeway shopping center, nothing seemed to work trying to get rid of it. Then, the Daily Town Hall Meeting crew discussed a new strategy. Here’s the story from Bob Berkowitz:
“It all started with a discussion at this mornings daily town hall meeting (July 3rd). Somebody said that our 4th of July visitors should not have to look at this mess. Around the table it went. Well why doesn’t the property owner clean it up? How about the city. Why won’t they do something? Ok it’s July 3rd, crunch time. Someone suggested that the ‘Take a Bite Out of Blight’ crew should do something, but the group said that there was no time to get it organized.
Ok, something has to be done and done now. As it happened three of us said we would do it. Supervisor Gitlin, Bonnie Brown and I said we’ll do it. So right now I am tired as can be, but it’s done. By the way, we got one other volunteer, Alvin who happened along on his bike and asked if he could help. Does a zebra have stripes? Of course you can help.
The reason that we bagged up the garbage instead of hauling it away is because we did not want to be accused of stealing.
There’s an old saying that ‘the squeaky wheel gets the grease.’ Well because you did the screaming, long enough, loud enough and often enough; together we moved mountains and got that old broken down RV moved to the Crescent City impound lot.
The owner of the lot says he will remove the bags of garbage out of there as soon as possible. A great big ‘thank you’ goes out to all of you facebookers and to Chief Minsal for facilitating removing this trashy RV.”
A big thank you to Supervisors for cleaning up that mess. Hopefully a priority in the future will be to step up enforcement of illegal camping laws. While this mess was in full view, there are similar and worse messes all over this county, many that aren’t easily seen.
The RV’s owner, Mr Thompson is far better off without it. Mr Thompson is a danger to himself as I witnessed first-hand a few months ago when he managed to have an explosion inside when a candle he left on his table melted and he left a gas on the floor next to it. The explosion caused a massive flame visible from outside the RV. I was about 1 city block from it at that time and heard and saw it happen.
The fire department responded, but the fire was put out by then. He insisted he was okay.
I actually don’t suspect he’ll remain alive much longer as I suspect between his mental health and his physical health, he’s slipping fast. Ironically, having this RV towed away might extend his life if his health can improve.
As for the ongoing nuisance with the RV situation, i say kudo’s to those who took the required steps to make it happen. Thank you Bob Berkowitz, Roger Gitlin, Chief Minsal, Bonnie Brown, Northcrest Towing, Alvin and Donna Westfall and anyone else who helped out. Maybe this chapter is over finally and the city can move onto it’s other issues.
That’s what I call “getting the job done”.