The pandemic health emergency that started 151 days ago sidelined much of the positive contributions more than 70 volunteers with the Seniors Helping Area Residents and Police have been making to the quality of life day in and day out for the past 28 years.
Among them was graffiti removal.
Given many of the volunteers with the SHARP unit are considered part of high risk groups for COVID-19, the city reduced the volunteer activities.
Graffiti for the first month or so of the pandemic didn’t pop up.
Then it started appearing in large qualities including on a sound wall that had just been put in place for a new neighborhood along Atherton Drive west of Union Road.
Deputy City Manager Toni Lundgren said the city noticed the surge in graffiti and took steps to have parks and recreation crews address it.
Lundgren praised the job the crews were doing with graffiti other along with duties they are assigned.
City leaders are looking forward to the day when SHARP can again be at full force as their contributions have been significant to the quality of life in the community. As an example for the past 25 years they have stayed on top of graffiti abatement to prevent Manteca from suffering visual blight.
Lundgren encourages residents to report graffiti they may come across using the community outreach portion on the city’s website.
Better yet there’s a city app you can download to your iPhone or Android Smartphone to effectively — and instantly — communicate quality of life issues in Manteca that need addressing. The app is available for download by clicking on “residents” on the front page of the City of Manteca website at www.ci.manteca.ca.us. That will take you to the page with information regarding the app.
You can use it to report graffiti and even snap a photo of it to send. It is a quicker way to report issues that need addressing that aren’t major problems or serious crimes.
The apps have the advantage of not only providing a visual that you can do send from your smartphone but they have GPS coordinates that help track the exact location down.
The city encourages citizens to use the app to provide additional eyes to report problems ranging from potholes to even street lights that may be not functioning.
With street lights, as an example, if you filled out the government outreach form you would need to specifically describe the location and/or report the pole number. The app with GPS capability pinpoints the location when you snap a photo.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
