Pocket Online presents another gallery of life in the Pocket and Greenhaven neighborhoods. These were the scenes Thursday evening July 22 along the Sacramento River levee. So if you’re into bicycling, running, boogie-boarding or swinging from a rope into the cool river, this gallery is for you. Enjoy.

Life along the Sacramento River levee

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Greenhaven and Pocket area teenagers have until Friday to submit an application to join the Sacramento Youth Commission. The Commission is looking for one member to represent Council District 7, which includes the Pocket area, and another at-large member from this area to represent young people in the city as a whole.

Commissioners will become part of the decision-making process by listening to your peers and offering advice to the City Council members on issues that affect the life of young people in Sacramento. Commissioners meet every week for an hour and a half and are paid $50 a month for their service. Commissioners serve for a two-year term.

Click here to download the application which you must turn in to the City Clerk’s Office at City Hall by 4:30pm Friday, July 16. If you have any questions, call the Youth Resource Coordinator at 916.808.8879

The Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control announced plans Monday to spray pesticide over a large part of southern Sacramento County Tuesday and Wednesday evening. The spraying is designed to kill adult mosquitoes carrying the West Nile Virus.

There has so far been no indication of infected birds or mosquitoes in the Pocket or Greenhaven neighborhoods but as previously reported Vector Control began to get concerned about the spread of the disease weeks ago. (Read the previous Pocket Online story.) “Our surveillance efforts indicate high infection rates and that aerial treatments to reduce the number of infected adult mosquitoes are necessary in order to protect public health,” District Manager David Brown said in a statement to Pocket Online.

Vector Control inspectors have found 14 dead birds and 44 mosquitoes that have tested positive for West Nile within the last few weeks. The map below shows each of the findings. The red area is the part of the county planes will fly over Tuesday and Wednesday to spray insecticide.

You can get more details and sign-up to get email notifications of mosquito spraying in our neighborhood when you click on the map or visit www.FightTheBite.net. Pocket Online will closely follow the measures taken by the Vector Control District to slow the spread of animals and insects infected with West Nile Virus and will report developments immediately.

Map Courtesy Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control

Photo Courtesy EMD

“A well is a conduit for anything on the surface to get down to the groundwater table. It’s a straight shot.” Barry Marcus is the Supervising Environmental Specialist with the Sacramento County Department of Environmental Management (EMD) and he’s concerned about innocuous looking holes in the ground all over the city. These wells, all dug before 1950, aren’t on any maps but could allow chemicals and bacteria into our drinking water supply.

EMD engineers say nearly half of the people who live in Sacramento County rely upon groundwater for their daily needs. The Pocket and Greenhaven neighborhoods were, until the 1980′s, largely farmland and Marcus says wells could be anywhere. “Typically it is a steel pipe that sticks out of the ground. Usually larger than four inches in diameter. It may or may not have a steel plate welded over the top of it.  Occasionally it’s surrounded by a concrete apron. Which could be a small circle or a square or a rectangle.”

What lies beneath?

Marcus admits inspectors with EMD haven’t yet been out to the Pocket area but they will send someone out if you want to report a possible well. Marcus says it’s important to note well heads could be partially buried.  If you know that a windmill once existed on your property chances are good the windmill powered a well. Marcus also advises, “If someone has an area in their yard that keeps sinking and they don’t really know why it keeps sinking and they keep having to put dirt in that area, it’s possible there’s a well-casing there.”

Why is EMD so worried about forgotten wells in our community? Many wells are so old, says Marcus, they may have deteriorated and now allow runoff water with bacteria, pesticides, herbicides and other pollutants to flow right into the groundwater supply. That groundwater is just under the surface for homes next to the Sacramento River levee and only five feet under the dirt in neighborhoods near the edges of the Pocket area. The water table is only up to 20 feet deep through most of our neighborhoods and about forty feet deep next to I-5.

There is another concern that Marcus recounts as he tells the story of a Land Park grandmother who found her two-year old granddaughter playing near an 18-inch wide well she didn’t know was there. The girl didn’t fall in but Marcus says she easily could have fit through the loosely covered hole. In fact, earlier this year two dogs fell into a twenty-foot well near Franklin Boulevard.

If you wonder whether a steel plate or hole in your yard might be an abandoned well you can visit www.emd.saccounty.net, call the Abandoned Well Line at 916.875.8532 or email EMD-abndwells@saccounty.net.

Mobile Food Permit

We have all likely seen the men and women standing on street corners around the Pocket and Greenhaven  neighborhoods selling baskets of delicious look strawberries. Judging by the frequency these salespeople are seen in the Pocket area, many of us have bought produce from them. Tuesday Sacramento County issued a warning about a rise in unlicensed food vendors and an easy way we can tell if the mouthwatering fruit is clean and safe.

“With the downturn in the economy, many people are looking for a way to make ends meet, and often a food cart seems like a quick and easy way to earn additional income,” says John Rogers, Environmental Division Chief for the county Department of Environmental Management (EMD) in a news release. Rogers further says you should ask anyone selling food on-the-go to see their green permit from Sacramento County. (Pictured above.) So just what does a permit from the county ensure? An EMD spokesperson says the permits verify that county inspectors have made sure it is kept at the right temperature and that those selling and preparing the food wash their hands. Rogers says “lack of a hand wash sink means unwashed hands, and unwashed hands are the leading cause of food contamination.”

This warning also applies to mobile food selling trucks. If you see a street vendor without a permit in the same location more than once, you can call EMD at 916.875.8440 or email foodprogram@saccounty.net to report it. (Editor’s note: EMD wants you to let them know the time of day and location where you see the feed seller.)

Windbridge Drive is lined with children and parents who sit in the sun for hours to watch the procession of cars, floats, horse, bicycles and fire engines make their way to Garcia Bend Park. The parade this year features veterans, scouts and plenty of politics all lead by Grand Marshall Sacramento Police K9 Officer Bandit. Once you get to the park there are plenty of booths including ‘Libraryland’ featuring games like ’Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Golf Putt’ and ‘Mr. Toad’s Tossin’ Toads.’

Enjoy the more than 6 dozen photos of the event courtesy of Pocket Online. (Send your own to editor@inourpocket.com and we’ll include them in this huge gallery.)

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It’s time to get out and celebrate our nation and each other as fellow Americans. Celebrating safely this year is more than about wearing life-jackets on the river and using fireworks that don’t explode.

Because so many people will be outdoors, particularly at the Pocket Parade, the Sacramento-Yolo Vector Control wants to make sure you and your family are wearing mosquito repellent along with your sunscreen because they have this week found dead birds and mosquitoes carrying West Nile Virus. Below is a map of the locations where West Nile infections have cropped up. Click on the map to go directly to the Vector Control ‘Fight the Bite’ website for updated infection information. In a news release Thursday, District Manager David Brown warned “Many will be enjoying the weather and taking part in family BBQ’s and watching fireworks around dusk, a time when mosquitoes are most active. We urge you to wear an effective repellent to prevent mosquito bites. All it takes is one bite from an infected mosquito to get the disease.”

According to the United States Center for Disease Control the most effective insect repellents use DEET, Picaridin, IR3535 or the plant based Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus. (Click here for all the information.) Be safe this weekend and all summer long from mosquitoes and the West Nile Virus.

Kristin Maddox, 311 Agent

Gina Knepp prides herself on efficiency. So when I tell you that her department of 17 agents and one data analyst handle an average of 1,500 phone calls every weekday during the summer months, and sometimes up to 2,000, you can tell she is serious. “We’re the gatekeeper basically. The goal is that someone should be able to call here and get quick, accurate, competent, friendly service,” Knepp explains. The 25-year veteran city employee is now 311 Division Manager and she’s adamant that the big job facing her small department is about more than answering the phones.

The City of Sacramento introduced the live 311 system in August 2008. According to a report by Oracle in January 2009, 311 reduced call times, saved the city $2.98 per call, handed the workload of 32 people with just 18 and was estimated to save city taxpayers more than $675,000 a year. (Click  here for the report. Referenced figures on pp 17-19 and 25-26.) When you ask Knepp for some idea of the big issues she and her agents hear, you’re likely not prepared for the laundry list you get back. “Think about it this way: we do everything that police and fire don’t do. Any time a city employee goes out into the community to do any work, that call comes through us. Everything garbage related. Which is our number one call. Lawn and garden piles. The cans. Potholes, streetlights. Cracked sidewalks. Everything having to do with the public right of way: alleys and curbs. Animal control. That’s the number two thing people call us about. Primarily stray animals. Abandoned homes. Vacant homes. Blight. Graffiti. Junk. Abandoned cars. We do all the park maintenance calls. And there are 215 parks.” (Contact 311 through their website.) Kristin Maddox has worked as a 311 agent for just a couple of months. “You can’t train for some of the calls that we get,” Maddox echoes Knepp. “I had a call today from a guy who was cleaning up a vacated property on a foreclosed home and he found a missile. We had to make sure it wasn’t live,” says Maddox with a matter-of-fact attitude that belies her short time as a 311 agent. Maddox is explaining the intense training to learn all city systems as she pulls up the six different windows open on her computer desktop that interface with all the city departments.

311's one room headquarters

While the savings of manpower in each department seems large on paper, the real prize from 311, claims Knepp, is the information her agents gather about the needs of Capitol City residents. “It’s not a call center,” Knepp argues. “It’s a tool for decision-makers, people who allocate budgets, to say ‘Look we really have a demand here. Because we have proof. We have data!” With a few keystrokes Knepp can pull together information from many departments and all areas of the city. Knepp believes city leaders can learn from the data her team gathers every day and use it to make better decisions about where to spend money and where to cut back. “I think data should drive our decision-making. Not which neighborhood you live in. Not who squeaks the loudest.”

Two, potentially interconnected, problems now face the 311 system. The first is one that faces every department in the city: budget cutbacks. Like many other branches of city government 311 has suffered, according to Knepp, a 55-percent reduction in their operating funds. This has cut by a third their ideal staff of 23. “Unfortunately, the scaling back in order to meet the budget reductions is something that we have to live with that unfortunately burdens our customer,” claims Knepp. The head of 311 says with a full staff of 23 the Sacramentans waited no longer than 30-seconds to get a live person on the phone. No, says Knepp, that time is more like two to two-and-a-half minutes. In fact, the wait for a live agent has become so noticeable the Neighborhood Resources Department has issued several notices to the community about a new automated system that will now let you know how long you will have to wait to speak with someone live. Neighborhood Resource Coordinator for the Pocket and Greenhaven neighborhoods Mariano Jauco say “like most other city offices, they are suffering from more work and fewer staff.  They are currently missing 7 employees. The average operator takes 2000 calls per month (on day shift).  With 6 of the 7 missing employees coming from day shift, you can see why wait times are increasing.”

Empty desks at 311

Knepp worries the increased wait time will have a deleterious effect on the success of the 311 system. “I’m afraid that the perception of the service will become degraded because of our lack of adequate staffing,” says Knepp frankly. “That’s my biggest fear now. Because the city’s having a hard time now, someone will say ‘Oh, it doesn’t work.” I ask if 311 has a champion on the city council or in the City Manager’s office where budgets are controlled. Knepp says a few city council members support 311 and that Pocket area Councilman Robbie Waters makes by-far the most use of the data generated by 311, “But a real flag-waver? I don’t think I have one.” The latter issue could make more of a difference when the city gets back to a better financial situation but Knepp is optimistic, “I am one-hundred percent positive that our city leaders will devote the resources to this program when they’re able to do so.”

Knepp seems to see this recession as an opportunity for 311. “We can’t waste this crisis. We need to look at doing things differently than we’ve ever done them before.” Knepp wants to create more self-help options on the city website and consolidate the many city computers systems to make it easier to handle cases and compile data about what city residents need. Knepp looks from her very small office to the small group of people taking calls from all over town. “I want to be the front door to the City of Sacramento. Don’t forget that this division controls our ability to speak to the city.”

As promised Michelle Heppner, Special Projects Manager with the City of Sacramento City Manager’s Office, is providing details about the proposal for a new ordinanace governing the sales of medicinal marijuana. (And the possibility of sales of recreational pot if a measure on the November ballot passes.)

As you read in our preview of a public meeting Wednesday on the issue (click here to read the full interview), Heppner says the City is trying to balance access with trying to avoid becoming “Sac-sterdam.” The slideshow below clearly defines the city’s goals, issues and options. If you have more questions or want to raise an issue, contact Heppner at mHeppner@cityofsacramento.org.

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“I know more about marijuana than I ever wanted to know, I can tell you that,” laughs Michelle Heppner, Special Projects Manager for the office of the City Manager in the City of Sacramento. Heppner, and dozens of other city staff and council members, have spent the better part of eighteen months researching regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries within the city limits. Thirty-nine such clinics exist in Sacramento right now. (The closest to our Pocket area is the Florin Wellness Center on South Land Park Drive just behind the Bel Air across I-5 but there are several delivery services and most businesses don’t publically list their address.) That number could be cut by two-thirds, or could go higher. That’s why Heppner is so keen to encourage a large number of Sacramentans to attend a public meeting Wednesday night.

Heppner says most of the regulation council members will hear about July 27 is complete. “Ultimately what it came down to,” Heppner explains, “is that there were several key concepts. There’s obviously the question of how many dispensaries we should allow. There’s the conflict of, you know, where they should be allowed to be located. You know the zoning issue. What types of conditions would be places on these types of dispensaries. You know, what type of enforcement will be done. We’ve been able to cover most of those key concepts.” The special projects managers does say there are two issues that will have to be decided by the council members themselves: a limit on the number of dispensaries and the possible creation of an area downtown where they could operate.

City staff originally recommended to council the city limit the number of dispensaries to 12. “One of our council members disagreed to the 12,” says Heppner. “We also had a lot of public testimony from these dispensaries because right now we have 39 dispensaries and obviously that would mean we would close down 27 businesses so there was concern about that.” So staff went back to the drawing board to provide council with more comprehensive options.

An issue that has the potential to create quite a bit more debate is allowing pot sales downtown. Current zoning limits marijuana sales to heavy commerical and industrial areas only which, admits Heppner “makes it difficult for the patients who use this so-called ‘medication’ to be able to get access to it if they are in these outlying areas. So Councilmember Cohn has asked us to look for a way to be able to allow these dispensaries in the downtown area.” (If you want to see the public comments this year by various members of the City Council, click here for the city archive.)

People who attend the meeting this evening will hear about proposals to carve out one area of downtown where pot sellers could set up shop if they get a special permit. “It’s kind of the same thing we do with some of the bars in the area,” Heppner explains. “Sometimes you have a bar that’s over the road from a sensitive use  area like a church or something but based on the criteria of the sensitive use, the Planning Commission may grant them a special permit for that. So the idea was to look at carving out a special area where they would be allow to located and then go through the special permits process.” (To understand the context: Special permits cost a lot more money than regular permits and applicants must personally go before the Planning Commission to argue their case, instead of simply filing an application that is sent to the revenue department.)

The final option would be to make marijuana dispensers city-wide apply, and aquire, special permits. “Because ultimately you’d get them all locating to the downtown area and it would become a little Sac-sterdam so to speak,” hypothocizes Heppner. “So the idea is to make it fair across the board for all the dispensaries, the businesses and the citizens. Why don’t we make this an open application process for special permits thereby reducing the number that would be concentrated in one area.”

All of this debate and wrangling over regulating cannibis within the City of Sacramento is happening within a much larger context. November 2 we will all vote on the California Marijuana Legalization Initiative. (Click here for the full textcourtesy of the California Secretary of State.) Though organizers of this ballot initiative claim they put pot on the ballot as fiscal measure to help raise money for the state, the ethics of condoning and even profiting from the use of a Schedule-1 drug will dominate the argument. Heppner, the City Manager’s Office and even members of the City Council are mindful of this. In fact, earlier this week Heppner presented council with a proposal to tax marijuana an additional 5%. (Forecasting potential future developments, the tax would apply to both medicinal and recreational sales.) Council will consider the tax again July 13.

For now, you have the chance to hear more about all of the proposals at the public meeting this evening, Wednesday June 23. You can attend at the Boys and Girls Club at 1117 G Street from 6pm to 8:30pm. (Here is your map!)

Pocket Online will post more material from the City Manager’s office after the meeting this evening. In the meantime, tell us what you think in our poll and comments section below.