CLEARLAKE— Despite Lake County’s immense beauty it can be hard to overlook that vacant lot that collects garbage, and every neighborhood has at least one. Some areas are worse than others posing potential fire hazards and other environmental threats on top of being aesthetically unattractive. Some of these properties have been neglected for decades, leading to massive amounts of illegal dumping and cannot be fixed overnight. Recently the County has started to recognize the severity of this problem and has taken small steps in remediation with property clean ups, a tax sale for properties with tax liens, and Saturday’s “Clean Up Clearlake” event.
The city of Clearlake has long withstood this issue with many problematic vacant lots located in the area known as “The Avenues.” Tony Sarkes, a 6-year resident, explained how many dangerous elements there are stating in an email “When I moved here to my current home, the four vacant lots directly in front of me were completely trashed. A lot of garbage, but mostly hazardous vegetation. I busted it for two years on my days off, clearing the two street side lots closest to me.” Sarkes and other members of the community have taken matters into their own hands and maintained what neighboring lots they could in order to feel safer, although it is not their responsibility. Recently, Sarkes witnessed one of these vacant properties get cleared sharing, “HD Excavating filled the dump trucks (they alternated back and forth between two dump trucks) about 16 to 17 times over the course of two days.”
Trash abatement has been a recurring topic at City and County meetings over the past several weeks, with code enforcement cleaning up two properties located in Clearlake Oaks and Nice after making several requests and issuing citations. Marcus Beltramo with code enforcement said, “Education and encouragement are key to get everyone living to a higher standard, it’s a duty to yourself and to your neighbors.” These clean up jobs generally require large scale equipment like dump trucks as well as operators and laborers, adding up to over 5,000 dollars per abatement. Most if not all of these properties are in tax default and are part of the 942 parcels scheduled for auction, a total of $433,000 dollars in defaulted tax funds. The auction will be held on May 27 and owners have until May 26 to make payments and avoid the sale.
In an effort to bring the community together on this widespread issue the City of Clearlake is hosting “Clearlake Clean Up Day”. This event will take place this morning at Austin Beach with clean up starting at 8 a.m. Food and refreshments will be served. Today residents will also be able to do some spring cleaning at home by taking their old mattresses, electronics, furniture and tires to both the Clearlake and Lakeport garbage dumps free of charge. More information on this and future events can be found on the City of Clearlake’s website at https://clearlake.ca.us/and their social media
