A community effort in Acampo

Editor: If you’ve driven down Acampo Road recently, you may have noticed something different about our little town.

Across from the post office is what I used to call the “Acampo dump.” It was a lot filled with burned and stripped-out cars, mountains of garbage, broken concrete, asphalt, along with falling trees and branches.

I contacted County Supervisor Chuck Winn’s office with immediate results. Winn’s chief of staff Denise Warmerdam got things moving in within an hour. Chris Balaji, the county’s director of public works, also made contact with me. Soon Deputy Sheriff Ron Weaver called and said the railroad company would be out the following week to start a cleanup.

Weaver stated he would work with the Sheriffs Community Car Program to remove the derelict vehicles. The railroad company cleared both sides of the tracks but was called away for another job, leaving our dump untouched.

That’s when a local resident named Louie grabbed a white bucket and went to work. Soon a number of other neighbors joined him and in no time it looked like an infantry company of eager hands working together to solve a community blight issue.

No one was asked to join the party, they just came by the scores and said, “May we help?”

I’d like to think Louie, Pat Simpfenderfer, Paul McConahey, Chuck Winn, Denise

Warmerdam, Sheriff Withrow, Ron Weaver, Chris Balaji, Mike Manna, Rick Grenz, Des Moines Family Vineyards, Postmaster Luis Castaneda, The Acampo Store, the Ochoa family, the Strongheart family, Jonathan Brauu Garcia, Romero Gallegos, Deloris Garza and many others whose names may have slipped my memory.

Thanks to all of you again for your hard work. Incidentally, Supervisor Winn has a program called Clean San Joaquin. Let’s help him out. If you see trash please pick it up. If you see someone dumping trash, take a picture of the vehicle and call the sheriff ’s department at 209468-4400. Illegal dumping is punishable by as much as a $10,000 fine and up to six months in the county jail.

We don’t have to watch our communities being turned into filthy waste dumps. Let’s help law enforcement do their jobs whenever possible. We’ll be healthier and happier for it. DUANE VRBAS

Acampo