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City manager discusses storm water preparation 

City Manager Rachelle Rickard resized

Atascadero City Manager Rachelle Rickard.

News from the City
By City Manager Rachelle Rickard

– As I write this, the weather forecast calls for extremely warm temperatures in the North County over the next several days. Given that we’ve all grown accustomed to our hot, dry weather with hardly any rainfall to speak of, it may be hard to believe that we all need to be making preparations now for what could be a very rainy El Nino season.

The City of Atascadero is responsible for operating and managing the city’s storm water system. With one eye on the weather predictions for the upcoming winter, our staff has been very busily preparing for a wet season by clearing and cleaning drain inlets of leaves, sand, and other debris that may clog storm pipes or inlet grates; stockpiling sand and pre-filling sand bags; performing regular street sweeping of downtown streets; trimming tree branches in the city parks and grounds; testing and staging trash pumps that will be used for localized flooding of streets and other area; inspecting and maintaining storm facilities to ensure they are functioning properly; and coordinating community clean-up efforts of local creeks and rivers.

Homeowners also need to ensure that their property is protected from water damage, on-site flooding, and that they don’t create any flooding issues for neighboring properties. We are very strongly encouraging all Atascadero homeowners to prepare for the rainy season now by taking some relatively simple but very important storm water preparation action-steps, which include: clearing and checking proper operation of roof gutters and downspouts and using a downspout extension to direct water away from the house foundation, installing gutter guards or screens if debris routinely plugs gutters and downspouts, grading the yard and landscaping to slope away from house to provide drainage, checking and clearing any culverts or drain pipes under driveways or elsewhere on the homeowner’s property, removing debris from ditches and waterways to ensure unimpeded flow, trimming trees that are hanging onto or scraping against roofs, and inspecting and trimming low hanging branches that overhang roads to allow for clear passage of vehicles. While doing yard work, be sure not to blow leaves or grass into streets, ditches, ponds or other waterways, as the debris will plug inlets and pipes, increasing the risk for localized flooding.

Please beware, after a long period of drought followed by significant rainfall, many local trees, especially our numerous lovely oaks, are extremely vulnerable to breakage and falling. Keep an eye out!

It’s always important to be ready for possible storm related power outages by checking flashlight batteries and making sure to have plenty of non-perishable food and water on hand. Finally, when the rains come, if you do notice unusual flooding of streets or other storm facilities, please call local dispatch at (805) 461-5051 right away.

For comments or questions, contact me at Atascadero City Hall at 470-3400 or visit www.atascadero.org.

About the author: News Staff

News staff of the A-Town Daily News wrote and edited this article from local contributors and press releases. Scott Brennan is the publisher of this newspaper and founder of Access Publishing. Connect with him on , Twitter, LinkedIn, or follow his blog. He can be reached at scott@accesspublishing.com.

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