A day doesn’t go by without someone unceremoniously discarding major appliances, furniture, and mattresses along city streets.

That is on top of trash left illegally next to commercial dumpsters — or in the case of the few that don’t have locks — into the bins.

As such, the are getting rid of their junk on someone else’s dime and creating an eyesore at the same time.

Then there is the litter — tossed half eaten food, food wrappers, bottles, and other debris.

And then there are the illegal homeless encampment clean ups.

Most seem to think the trash dumped and tossed all around town is primarily the work of the homeless.

Far from it.

They are part of the problem.

But they are not the main reason why the city — through various efforts — collects on average of 80 to 150  large garbage bags of trash a day from city right-of-way.

The city significantly picked up its efforts to stay atop trash five years ago.

The City Council making cleaning up Manteca one of its top five priorities in 2020 led to city management to securing Manteca Property Services in July of 2023 to augment city crews that were being overwhelmed with trash that they couldn’t stay on top of along with other duties.

Parks, solid waste, and public works crews are involved in the city effort to get trash off the street as is the Manteca Police Department’s community resource officers.

The police officers assigned to Manteca’s efforts to address homeless issues conduct monthly sweeps of illegal homeless encampments.

That is on top of the city entering into a contract with Caltrans allowing Manteca to clear up homeless encampments along the 120 Bypass and Highway 99 corridors.

“It’s more of an intense effort now than I ever remember in the 19 years I’ve been with the city,” said City Manager Toni Lundgren.

That effort even includes monthly pressure washing of downtown sidewalks as well as paver crosswalks.

Before Manteca Property Services was contracted to do the work, the decorative crosswalk pavers installed in the downtown district to beautify the area in 2004 went 16 years without being cleaned.

As a result, many were dingy to the point they were close to being undistinguishable for the street asphalt.

 The ongoing clean-up effort is citywide with a heavier emphasis on downtown, Library Park, alleys, and other public settings.

Citizens can report garbage, junk and debris issues to the city of Manteca’s government outreach via app or the web site, calling the non-emergency Manteca Police line at 209-456-8101, or submit a customer service request to Caltrans District 10 at Csr.dot.ca.gov.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com