Is home following rules with animals?

“Red Phone, at the intersection of West Edmundson and Sunnyside avenues on the southwest corner there is a home with a fence around the yard covered with tarps and plastic attached to the fence to prevent anyone from seeing in. There are signs that goats are for sale and it’s obvious there are other animals there as I can see several lean-tos inside the fence. It’s really an eyesore. There might even be some health violations with all those animals wandering around. Is the city aware? Is there anything that can be done?”

Red Phone: Dear Is The City Aware, Red Phone received three calls in the past few weeks about this home. In short, since the home in question is in unincorporated Santa Clara County, officials there are aware. Red Phone contacted Chris Rummel, with the Santa Clara County Dept. of Environmental Health, who said the property was investigated and the property owner was interviewed.

“The tarps on the fences around some of the animal pens are a high quality woven material designed to control dust and help the animals deal with heavy traffic and prevent unsafe foods and other items from being put through the fence by people walking by,” Rummel said. “They were recommended by animal care specialists. The animal enclosures were observed to be in a neat and orderly condition. The manure is properly removed and placed into a trailer, along with other household garbage, for disposal at a landfill on a regular basis. I did not observe any nuisance accumulations of refuse and no solid waste related violations were observed during my site visit to this property. Other county agencies including Zoning and Animal Control report that they have also received complaints about this property. They have also responded that there are no violations or areas of concern at this time.”

Rummel said he did see a pile of newspapers, phone books and junk mail dropped around a cluster of mailboxes in front of this property. These phone books, newspapers and other junk mail are apparently for five other homes in the neighborhood.

“The property owner stated he has in the past cleaned up this debris in front of his house,” Rummel said. “Our department will send a letter to each of the neighbors reminding them to pick up these deliveries, even if they do not want them. We will also remind them that they may be able to ‘opt-out’ of some of these unnecessary deliveries. I have sent a work order for County Roads crews to clean up this litter pile around the mailboxes.”

Well, there you have it, good callers. Seems everything, except for unwanted phone books, is in order.

Santa Teresa paving project delayed

“Red Phone, is Santa Teresa Boulevard from Hecker Pass to Gavilan College scheduled to be resurfaced and finished anytime soon? Is the contractor going to come back to finish the job?”

Red Phone: Dear Bumping Along, the paving is being done by Santa Clara County, which has postponed the work until the spring because of the weather, said Herbert Naraval, a civil engineer with the county Roads and Airports Department.

There are two sections of road scheduled to be paved – from Castro Valley Road to Hecker Pass and from Day Road to Watsonville Road, he said. While there hasn’t been an exact date set for work to begin, Naraval estimated that it would take five to six weeks to complete. Electronic message boards will inform drivers at least seven days before the work is scheduled to resume, he said.

“The work in the spring will include micro-surfacing and thermoplastic striping installation,” he said. “The Roads and Airports Department has installed temporary striping and pavement markers for traffic safety.”

Hope that helps, good caller.