Trash troubles along popular roads in Prunedale
PRUNDALE, Calif. (KION-TV) -- Drivers may notice lots of litter throughout the stretch of castroville boulevard and dolan roads.
Sabrina Carrillo is a resident who is frustrated with the way these roads look in Prunedale.
“it just makes our town look like crap. Just garbage strewn all over both sides of the road. And no one wants to see that it's never picked up and it just keeps building and building," Carrillo said.
Carrillo argues that it has been a consistent problem for the last six years with community members taking matters into their own hands.
"It becomes a hazard when community members decide to clean it up themselves and they're on the side of the road where it's 55 miles an hour and you can't see them around the corner and it's just endangering other people," Carrillo said.
Monterey county District 2 Supervisor Glen Church has heard a number of complaints in regard to the litter issue, and is aiming to do something about it.
“The county in the last 20 or plus years has really cut back on its litter patrols. It didn't have the funds for that. And that's a part of a problem,” Church said.
There are also concerns of illegal dumping along with the litter issue.
Strides have been made to ease some of the littering like raising the fine for the first offense from $1,000 in the area to $2,000.
Another litter deterrent is being comes from the county’s litter abatement pilot program to track people who may be illegally dumping.
"You have to have something that hurts people that are going to go and abuse the things and not be concerned about their neighbors, not be concerned about the environment, not be concerned about just doing the right thing," Church said.
Carrillo still hopes something can be done to remedy the issue soon.
“I know that there's only so much that a supervisor can do in order to fix the issue. The supervisor does represent our area and therefore represents us and how we feel. And if you keep receiving complaints about it, something needs to be done," Carrillo said.
We also reached out to the Monterey County Public Works, who said the county has a litter abatement program to clean the garbage.
However, any data involving the abatement program has not been updated on their website since 2020.
