By Donna Westfall – August 5, 2017 –
While many politicians will tell you they want to clean up the town when campaigning for your vote, very few actually do anything. No so with 1st District Supervisor, Roger Gitlin and 5th District Supervisor, Bob Berkowitz. Here’s Roger’s summation:
“The cleanup efforts by TAKE BITE OUT OF BLIGHT volunteers on East Hoover Street at Douglas has been successfully completed and the site has been stabilized.
I thought it would be a good idea to post a NO DUMPING Ordinance sign on the public works gate at the end of Hoover, operated by the City as a reminder of the consequences for those who are considering future dumping. I have copied this email to City Public Work Director, Eric Wier for consideration.
Thank you, Dominic Mello, Code Enforcement, for the expedient service of providing a bin. The neighborhood very much appreciate the quick action.”
Just a warning: I know Roger Gitlin means well and the story sounds wonderful.
However, should any of the cleanup crew be injured while doing the work, they are quite likely to sue both the owners of the property and Mr. Gitlin.
This type of cleanup is Extremely risky and dangerous. Overgrown brush, dirty needles, rust, Tetanus virus, and much more.
It is only a matter of time before somebody breaks a leg or worse.
God forbid anyone loses their life, but things happen and it is not that improbable.
Gitlin and the owners and even the county can be seriously sued and even prosecuted for manslaughter.
Just saying. Hate to have good intentions come to a bad ending.
(Property insurance may not cover such types of liabilities, either.)
As with any activity in life there is risk and the possibility of all of the negative outcomes you have offered, so in your world we should all give up trying to make life better for not only us as individuals, but society in general? Perhaps you are of the mind that government should be the agency that cleans up all the messes in the world? How is that working out for you? Or any one else for that matter?
You know there used to be a time when Roger’s efforts to clean up places in most communities were not fraught with all of the possible negative consequences in the current world we live. Of course sites such as the recent one, seem to have become more numerous as time goes forward. It also appears that as time moves on, government has become over whelmed by the sheer volume of these sites both from a financial standard,and a man power deficit as well.
I suppose what should be happening is that we all support the efforts of “Take a bite out of blight” and just maybe those that view Del Norte County as blighted would be less offended by visual blight, rather than obsess over what negatives might happen.
Besides, County work crews or even privately hired crews are quite likely to be facing the same list of negatives that the Blight crew would face. So the differences are not all that great.
The big question, which I have yet to hear answered, is why there so is much blight throughout Del Norte County. It is really depressing to drive around the area.
jr this is a poor town as dump fees go up and up the more crap gets dumped on our streets. I see it all over town now I used to think kellog beach was bad now its any dark road
Wesley, you are so right. Editor Fornoff never misses an opportunity to take a cheap shot at Roger and myself. I expect that if we have several clean ups like the one today, Fornoff will say we are doing a disservice to the community by taking garbage away from the homeless who will be deprived of going through the rotten garbage looking for food, therefore deliberately taking food away from the homeless. Yes, I believe he would stoop that low.
Very good! Thanks!
WTF would like to thank Supervisor Gitlin for all his efforts. It is making a difference, such as the cleanup of the Jed Smith Shopping Center- noticeable improvement.
Unfortunately, it is true that our other three Supervisors (because Bob Berkowitz has) do not appear to have organized cleanup efforts such as this one. Pity, it is needed all over the County. Case in point, a third of the old town of Smith River lies in a pile of burned down mess. Who knows what environmental waste lies in that pile, which should have been cleaned up months ago. WTF thinks that the property owners, once investigations and insurance claims were settled, should have been pressured by all legal means to get it cleaned up. If the Friends of Del Norte read this blog, maybe they could help.
We have many good citizens in this County that would get involved if an elected official reached out. I also hope at some point that Dominic can get some help towards ensuring property owners comply with County codes compliance. Violators should be fined and liens slapped on properties if necessary.
Nice work Roger. I’m pretty sure Robin Fornoff can find a negative side to this. The Triplicate never misses a chance to Roger bash.