Operation Clean Up’s a big success

A very hearty thank you to the city of Fresno, Department of Public Utilities, Solid Waste Division, Operation Clean Up supervisors and rank-and-file-employees for making their annual program such a huge success in my neighborhood! We received our hand-delivered fliers on a Saturday afternoon notifying each-and-every resident of the scheduled pickup on the following Thursday, some five days later.

One of our most elderly neighbors received this notice after his gardener had performed the residential duties for that particular Saturday and would not/could not return until the following Saturday to perform additional trimming on my neighbors two dozen plus palm trees, which were in need of their annual pruning. This neighbor, after contacting Solid Waste on Monday, was given an extension so the gardener could trim on the following Saturday and a special pickup would be performed on Monday, five days after the scheduled Operation Clean Up date.

It’s heart-warming to have a government entity adjust the rules to help out an elderly resident on a fixed income, who otherwise would have had to go to extreme expense to participate in this once-a-year, free program offered by the city of Fresno! Both this resident and the other neighbors are truly pleased with this outcome. If not regularly pruned, these trees are susceptible to harboring tree rats, which would be a menace to all.

Again, a huge thank you to all involved in this very successful process!

This story was originally published September 4, 2015 at 11:12 AM with the headline "Operation Clean Up’s a big success."