Yuk yuk yuk
Here’s a problem that makes us squeamish just to write about. Rats.
A caller says that six months ago she and her husband spotted a rat running along the top of their fence. Then another. Then another. They even had a rat run into their house through the dog door. “It was an absolute nightmare,” she said.
They called Darrell Wong of the county Environmental Health Department. The helpful Mr. Wong came to the house and looked around, and found a neighbor with a huge mess in the yard. He told the folks that they had to clean it up or face a citation. And that was that.
But recently they spotted another rat. Not only that, the caller says she was waiting in the drive-thru at San Benito Bank the other day and saw two rats run across the driveway in front of her car and into the bushes.
“What is going on in our town with these rats?” she wants to know.
Mr. Wong said that the winter rains and warm weather had caused a spike in the rat population because an increase in the food supply, but that in recent weeks he hadn’t had any more reports. Still, the closer you live to the countryside, he said, the bigger the problem. He strongly recommended that people not leave food outside for their pets – not even water dishes.
“We’re in an area that’s got critters,” he said. “We can’t get rid of them, but we can try to control them.”
But the real responsible agent is the city code enforcement office, where we spoke with Mike Chambless. He promised to give our caller a call, and is probably inspecting the area as you read this.
Dangerous Corner at Highland & Sunnyslope
A caller draws our attention to the corner of Sunnyslope and Highland, which she says is a very dangerous place.
The problem is that stop signs only hold traffic from Highland. However, if you are headed north and attempting to turn onto Sunnyslope, visibility is blocked by cars parking right up to the corner.
The caller would like to know why there aren’t stop signs for Sunnyslope traffic, or alternatively, why the curb isn’t painted red for some distance to give Highland traffic better visibility before venturing into the intersection.
Matt Kelley, an engineer for the public works department, calls this a “sight distance problem.”
He was unfamiliar with the circumstances at this particular corner, but promised to personally take a look. The likely remedy will not be to put up a stop sign on Sunnyslope and slow traffic, however. For one thing, putting up a new stop sign is a more complicated process involving traffic studies. Painting the curb red to improve visibility, however, is very doable, and Mr. Kelley promises to see to that if the site warrants it.
