Camp cleanup planned, expedited by arrest
A cleanup of a homeless camp on Ninth Street between Hazel and Chestnut streets still has unanswered questions.
CHICO >> A cleanup of a homeless camp July 13 on Ninth Street between Hazel and Chestnut streets still has unanswered questions.
When word broke that a cleanup was taking place by Chico's Public Works Department following a recent appearance of the county at the same location, questions were raised if Butte County and the city were both working together to some degree. More questions came considering the city is still under preliminary injunction barring any anti-camping ordinances by the order of Judge Morrison England.
Butte County District 4 Supervisor Tod Kimmelshue said on Wednesday the timing of both the city and county being at the site was a coincidence.
“We got a call from a constituent as to there being all kinds of trash down in Little Chico Creek,” Kimmelshue, who was at the area July 12, said. “We said, ‘OK, we're gonna check into this and see what we could do but none of us contacted the city of Chico.'”
Speaking with this newspaper Wednesday, city manager Mark Orme revealed the cleanup was a result of an arrest made by the Chico Police Department.
“They asked that individual, ‘OK, all of this stuff here — is this your belongings or is it just trash? That person identified the trash at the site,” Orme said.
Chico's Public Works Director Erik Gustafson said Monday the cleanup had been scheduled, but was expedited when they received word from the Chico Police Department that an arrest had been made at the site.
“The area had been identified for some time because of the significant amount of trash and debris that was at that location in the greenway, on the creek bank, and then in the creek itself,” said Gustafson. “Police Department had communications with the individual and they were able to determine what was personal belongings and what was trash. At that point, that's when they contacted us and said, ‘Hey at this point it's going to be unoccupied, we've identified what is trash versus what is personal belongings. Can public works respond?'”
Gustafson said that during the cleanup, public works removed 10 cubic yards of debris from the site that had been identified by the arrested individual as trash.
Due to the current legal restrictions, Gustafson also indicated that public works is being careful with what it removes.
“We're taking every precaution as possible due to the temporary restraining order,” he said. “We're not doing any sort of anticamping enforcement right now, but if there's areas that are completely impacted by trash and the trash has been identified by the occupants as trash, that's fantastic.”
On Monday, the area still had a large tent set up and trash covers the creek bank.