Tired of the trash on Fresno’s freeways? There’s a new plan to fix that
Fresno Mayor Lee Brand on Thursday announced a pilot program with Caltrans and the Measure C tax board to get Fresno’s freeways cleaned up.
The city and the Fresno County Transportation Authority each are contributing $100,000 and the California Department of Transportation is contributing $200,000 for a daily cleanup program along highways 41, 99, 168 and 180 in Fresno.
The pilot program is the first announcement of more to come as part of the mayor’s “Keep Fresno Beautiful” initiative he launched last month. The council on Thursday unanimously approved the contract for the pilot program.
Brand said trash on the side of freeways is one of the top complaints the city receives. In the past, the city and other organizations have done targeted litter abatement efforts, but the new program will be a consistent effort to be more effective.
“This is a big step in the right direction,” he said.
The program will fund four to eight people who would clean up the freeways full time, including trash removal and light weeding.
Fresno City Council members this week highlighted the issue and blasted Caltrans for not doing its job.
During Thursday’s City Council meeting, Councilmember Garry Bredefeld noted that other cities like Oakland, Los Angeles and San Jose have nice landscaping and art-adorned walls along their freeways, while Fresno’s are blighted with trash and homeless encampments.
“My constituents are sick of this. They’re sick of the inaction.…We all need to be sick of it, and we need to do something about it,” he said. “If we don’t solve that problem, we all have failed our constituents.”
The council said Caltrans and the tax authority should be responsible for maintaining the highways, and councilmembers expressed their intent to hold those agencies accountable even if it meant litigation.
Bredefeld and council members Miguel Arias and Esmeralda Soria said they plan to meet with Caltrans on Aug. 1 to address the problem.