Plaza Restored To Safe Use – November 1, 2011
City Councilmember Mark Wheetley surveys the Plaza devastation just before Parks and Public Works employees tackled the cleanup. Photos by kWh | Eye
The following is a memorandum distributed this afternoon to City of Arcata staff and city councilmembers. – Ed.
Mr. McKinley cleans up nice.
We spent approximately 35-40 staff hours cleaning the Plaza picking up 51 bags of garbage (3000 lbs). We scoured the turf and picked up all visible glass, whippets, condoms, human excrement, etc.. We power washed the center of the Plaza and McKinley, utilized fire hoses and washed down all the sidewalks, benches and amenities. Public Works also swept the streets.
We left the site at 3:45, safe for the public. During our cleaning, we were not allowing people within the Plaza – but it is okay now. Though beaten and bruised, it is safe for the public.
Thanks
Dan Diemer, Superintendent of Parks/Facilities
The blowout begins.
City Of Arcata
You know, after all the Plaza has been through recently, it needed this anyway.
Arcata has always gotten what it deserves through it’s ridiculous acceptance of almost anything.
Don, Aracta’s tolerance is similar to most west coast cities. Can you list some specific “acceptance” issues that trouble you?
On another note, do we know how many police were at the Plaza on Halloween night? Also, Dan mentioned 35-40 hours, however that number seems a bit low considering the numbers of city staff and the hours they were there. Do we have a total $ amount yet?
40 hours. 10 bucks an hour. 400 dollars worth of cleanup. Wow, Arcata must be like the only town in the country to have a Halloween gathering in the center of town …. And 400 bucks to clean it up?! That’s outrageous! And in a college town?! Oh my goodness. I just don’t believe it. Next year we should dress all the cops in riot gear and block off the plaza!
It was actually $3,600. The real concern though is that if a fight had broken out in the drunken crowd, it might have spread and become something worse. Like one of those riots that take place when the hometown team loses a big game.