Red Phone: Creek cleanup needed

“Hi Red Phone. Can you please help me find out who is responsible for cleaning up the creek between the Welburn bridge and the Church Street bridge. Right now there are shopping carts and a tree that has fallen down in there. This past winter it was damming up. The city used to clean it, but I am not sure who is responsible for it now.”

Red Phone: Dear Up A Creek Without A Shopping Cart, In this case it would be something that the city would clean up, said Todd Barreras, Gilroy operations services supervisor. He said he will have a crew remove the shopping cart and some of the larger items and do some pruning of the trees. The last time the city pruned the trees and cleaned the area was about five years ago, he said. 

Another organization that does a great job keeping our local streams clear is the Coastal Habitat Education Environment and Restoration. CHEER uses volunteers to clean our local waterways primarily so the steelhead trout can get through to spawn. 

The area you mentioned, good caller, is not an area the organization focuses on because it hasn’t had any trout there for about 50 years, said Herman Garcia, the director of CHEER.

“It doesn’t mean it isn’t important,” he said. “With the kind of rain we got, that stuff can flush into other areas. It also dumps into the Monterey Bay. All the garbage thrown into these systems winds up in Monterey Bay. That is why we clean up in fall and winter before the rains. We can’t get it all, but we try to get what we can. People don’t stop. It is a constant battle for us.”

CHEER will hold a creek cleanup day Sept. 17, focusing on the area from the Sixth Street Bridge to Olam Foods. If you are interested in volunteering, you can call 497-3037 or visit cheercentral.org.

Road bump needs fixing

“Every day when I drive on Sixth Street past the old Milias Hotel, there is a bump in the road. I was wondering with all the money they are putting into the roads and sidewalks why the bump is still there.”

Red Phone: Dear Bump In The Night, City crew took a look at this area in front of the new Milias Restaurant and were able to smooth down the area of the road where the bump was, Barreras said. Sometimes the asphalt gets pliable where it meets the concrete and forms bumps, he said. Good caller, hopefully your ride is a little smoother now.