BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — A resident who lives near the end of the Westside Parkway says since the completion of the Westide Parkway, an area near the end of it on the west side of Bakersfield has become a dumping ground.
- Jeremy Rowell reported the dumping issue just south of Stockdale Highway near Highway 58 to the Bakersfield City Council.
- Following Rowell's comments, City Assistant Manager Gary Hallen stated they will investigate who owns the property.
- According to Rowell, he reached out to the City to see if they would be able to put an end to the problem. Rowell says city staff redirected him to CalTrans, but Rowell received no responses from CalTrans staff.
- A spokesperson for CalTrans says they do not own the property and a spokesperson for the City of Bakersfield said they were researching the situation.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The completion of the westside parkway was incredible for drivers, now there's a way to get from one side of town to the other in about 15 minutes, but now the empty space left over has created an eye sore, I'm Sam Hoyle, your neighborhood reporter. As this space remains empty, it's become a dumping ground.
"People are now just dumping construction debris, beds, all kinds of stuff, and you never saw it before when this was just Stockdale Highway, there was never any dumping, no no trash or anything."
Rowell, whose family has lived in the area for five generations, felt compelled to speak up to the city council about the issue.
"I don't feel like it should be my problem to police the area and kick people off and jeopardize my safety, my family's safety. I believe if it was a anybody in the city that left their property like this, code compliance would be finding them to make them clean up the property. So I'm just seeking a little bit of help to find out where I can go to get this property cleaned up," said Rowell at the most recent Bakersfield City Council meeting.
"I went to the city's website, submitted a report, and then code compliance contacted me and said they can't do anything because they think it's managed by Caltrans, that I should reach out to Caltrans. So I reached out to Caltrans. I've called and I've emailed and I have not got any response back from Caltrans at all."
We reached out to Caltrans, and a spokesperson said according to their records, they do not own the property where the dumping is occurring. We also reached out to the city late last week and were put in touch with a spokesperson who said they were researching the situation, but unable to provide comment by news time.
However, for Rowell, he hopes that something happens to prevent stuff like this from happening again.
"If they were able to clean up the trash that's out here, clean up the mounds of dirt that encourages other people to dump and just take care of the property, like all of us, take care of our property. That's the ultimate goal."
It is worth noting that at that meeting Assistant City Manager Gary Hallen said they would be investigating who owns the property. In Bakersfield, I'm Sam Hoyle, your neighborhood reporter.
Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:
