Councilwoman
Schipske Brings Volunteers to Sweep Down Gutters Because Residents
Worried Standing
Water Might Breed Mosquitoes Carrying West Nile Virus
Long Beach, CA – September 5, 2013 – Councilwoman Gerrie
Schipske and a group of volunteers are heading for El Dorado Park Estates this
morning to sweep down gutters on Marna, Claremore and Ring streets because of
resident concerns that standing water in the gutter may be a breeding ground for
mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus.
“Even though the temperature has run into the high 90
degrees these past few weeks and gutters should be bone dry, residents on these
streets are concerned that run off from sprinklers is pooling in their gutters
and may be a breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying West Nile Virus,” explains
Schipske, who has responded to several complaints via email and letter and
urged residents to stop allowing water to run into the street until funding can
be allocated to replace the curbs, to cut tree roots and to replace asphalt.
“Fixing Marna Avenue was estimated by Public Works as
costing $375,000,” Schipske notes. “Each councilmember was only allotted
$500,000 and so I asked the residents at a series of public meetings to prioritize
where to spend the funds in the district. Several block locations were selected
ahead of Marna Avenue – Fanwood, Lees, Keynote and Lanai and were repaired.
There are many other locations on the list as well and as funds become
available, they will be fixed.”
Schipske has held numerous meetings with the Public Works
department on how best to deal with the standing water problems in her
district. For several years she was able to convince the Water Department to
use its vacuum truck to suck up standing water after heavy rains. “They stopped
doing that because they sold their truck.”
“Public Works is looking at the possibility of installing
French/trench drains in several locations to remove the standing water as a
less expensive option,” says Schipske, adding that she is making sure Vector
Control sprays the area for mosquitoes even though it is unlikely that the
water in the gutter allows breeding.
“I was faced with a tremendous backlog of unrepaired
infrastructure when I took office seven years ago,” Schipske points out. “Once
funding became available, we began an aggressive program to go through
neighborhoods and repair sidewalks, curbs and streets and trim trees. We have
made remarkable progress but more needs to be done.” Schipske has posted all
repairs on her city website: www.lbdistrict5.com.
Schipske’s volunteers are taking a “break” from cleaning
up the alleys in the 5th District to tackle the standing water
issue. The alley clean up was started several summers ago and focuses on
removing debris, dumped items and overgrown weeds.