Guest commentary: MAD update on trash bins, dog waste stations, bench reconditioning, palm trees and more

Guest commentary:

The La Jolla Maintenance Assessment District and our vendors continue to power-wash sidewalks, maintain landscaping and pick up fallen limbs and other debris from trees and provide litter control and trash collection regularly within The Village.

All trash receptacles are disinfected and lids wiped during each servicing. We also clean the pedestrian ramps at intersections one day each week.

We have painted all of The Village’s concrete trash receptacles (lids, frames and doors) and continue to perform daytime sidewalk power washing one day each week in residential areas of the district.

MAD recently installed six dog waste stations as a pilot project in The Village. Funding for these improvements was provided by a generous local donor. All are located on Prospect and Girard.

Six new dog waste stations are installed on Prospect Street and Girard Avenue in La Jolla.

(Courtesy)

Also, we now have a source of replacement materials to keep the stations well-supplied as bags are quickly used.

Please let us know what you think about these dog waste stations. With your input, Enhance La Jolla will consider future steps for this project.

Regarding trash dumpsters in The Village, we are working with the city and merchants to better manage their condition and frequency of trash pickup. These dumpsters also seem to attract dumping of unwanted larger items. We have found that a request to the city through its Get It Done app is the best way to address these incidents of illegal dumping.

We are close to approving a proposal for high-level palm tree trimming in The Village and should start this work in the next few weeks. Up to 300 palm trees may be trimmed, resulting in less debris on the sidewalks and safer pedestrian conditions throughout The Village.

MAD will soon have a subcontract in place to recondition up to 20 wood benches in The Village. This work will focus on benches along Girard, Wall and Prospect. After much delay, we should see this work start in late June.

While graffiti shows up regularly, MAD continues to work with our local volunteer and the city to quickly address problems in The Village. Our best defense is a quick response and so far we have been able to stay ahead of the curve.

Finally, we are contemplating repainting the metal railings on top of the retaining wall on Prospect between Girard and Herschel. With a good tailwind, we hope to get this work started next month.

As always, your input, comments and concerns are welcome. You can contact MAD at manager@enhancelajolla.org or (858) 444-5892 any time.

John Unbewust is district manager for the La Jolla Maintenance Assessment District, which is administered by the nonprofit Enhance La Jolla. ◆