Sutter County, Yuba City work together to clean up riverfront encampments
YUBA CITY — The Sutter County Sheriff's Office is partnering with Yuba City and other agencies to get the banks of the Feather River cleaned up.
In just four days over the last two weeks, the sheriff's office and its partners have removed hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash from in and around Yuba City.
The main goal is to tackle homeless encampments along the Feather River. Some are abandoned, some are not. The sheriff's office said that the folks living there are offered services before being given an abatement notice.
"We will be doing this type of work all summer long, and largely that is fueled by feedback from citizens of the county. They want to feel safe down here, they want to use the area for recreational purposes," said Andre Licon, community response officer with the Sutter County Sheriff's Office.
Doug Libby, deputy director of development services with Yuba City, said waste along the riverbanks deters people from wanting to visit and enjoy the area.
"So hopefully this is a message to the community that the city and county are working together to actually make an improvement out here," Libby said.
With a grant from CalRecycle, Yuba City was able to contract conservation corps members from Sacramento to help out.
"We'll go to different areas in Yuba City or we'll go pick up trash off the highway," said Jasmine Barnett with the Sacramento Regional Conservation Corps.
It's been all hands on deck to haul away waste, some of it hazardous. The levee district also donated its time and heavy equipment for clean-up efforts.
"We're a small county, and Yuba City is a small city. We don't have large resources," Licon said. "But if we can divide that workload up into small bite-sized pieces where everybody takes a little bit of that work, we can achieve great things together."
