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Politics & Government

Maintenance of Poway's Landscape Districts Is Focus of City Council Meeting

The current appearance and scheduled maintenance of some of Poway's landscape districts were hot topics at Tuesday's City Council meeting.

Conversation during Tuesday’s City Council meeting lingered on resolutions involving the establishment of assessments for the Poway Landscape District on the San Diego County property tax roll for this fiscal year.

The resolutions passed unanimously, but discussion broke out regarding Poway Landscape District 83-1, an area that encompasses Rancho Arbolitos, Twin Peaks Plaza Shopping Center and the Kentfield Estates.

According to Public Works representative Leah Browder, estimated service expenditures from a private contracting bid came back at around $260,000 for all three areas, and includes the cost of landscaping, water, power for the irrigation systems and general cleanup.

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“The bids did come in a little lower this year than it was estimated, so the good news is that for all the districts we’ll be looking to increase service levels,” Browder said. “We’re happy to be able to do (that) after a couple of tough years addressing water rate increases and things like that.”

This comes as good news to Patty Grosch, a Rancho Arbolitos resident and wife of Councilman Dave Grosch, who came before the council to discuss the deteriorating condition of the landscaping around Twin Peaks Road and Ted Williams Parkway.

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Patty Grosch said city records indicated a landscape contractor is supposed to maintain the grounds on a weekly basis, picking up trash, branches, leaves and other debris.

“This does not appear to be happening and hasn’t for quite some time,” she told the council after her husband was excused from the room, citing conflict of interest.

Patty Grosch, who walks the area with her husband at least twice a week, said they will occasionally help out to clean up the area.

“We’ll take grocery sacks with us and pick up larger pieces of trash along the way,” she said.

She also noted the scheduled watering time for that area is 8 p.m. but stated she has yet to see the irrigation system running.

The current contract stipulates the area should be watered 52 times per year—or once a week. New contract negotiations have increased that frequency to twice per week, though Browder said that they would continue to monitor the current frequency due to suspicions that was not happening on a regular basis.

“So before we go about spending more money, we’ll monitor the once-a-week and see if that achieves the result we want,” she said.

Citywide staff cutbacks were blamed as the main reason for the current state of landscaping, as the shortage of personnel has made it difficult for Public Works to properly monitor the multiple contracts engaged to maintain the various district areas.

According to Browder, there is one full-time position available for Poway’s 10 districts, which has been split into halves between two staff members. Two years ago, there were two full-time positions available.

“Therein lies the issue as well,” said Deputy Mayor Jim Cunningham. “(In) tough financial times, we cut back on our staff, and it’s a sacrifice the whole community makes.”

But if contract bids continue to come in lower than anticipated, Browder said Poway residents could begin to see an increase in service levels and a reduction in their future landscape assessments.

Other items on the agenda included the approval of a request to improve a tributary along Rattlesnake Creek between Kentfield Drive and Norwalk Street and the approval of the state’s 2010 California Building Standards Code, which will update several chapters of the Poway Municipal Code with the state mandate that went into effect Jan. 1.

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