The following updates were provided by Riverside County District 1 Supervisor Kevin Jeffries. District 1 encompasses the cities of Canyon Lake, Wildomar, Lake Elsinore, most of the City of Riverside, and several unincorporated communities.
By Kevin Jeffries
Trash Challenges
Many of our waste haulers in Riverside County have been or are facing serious labor shortages, including truck drivers and even some call center staff. Our office has received numerous complaints over many months about trash cans and dumpsters not being picked up on time, sometimes delayed for over two weeks.
I was recently told that the labor crunch is easing just a little bit and that at least the home pick-up service “should” be back on track. Apparently, staffing for the commercial-type dumpsters and large item pick-up is still hit and miss with challenges and delays remaining, at least until new hires can be found.
Charging Challenges
With the (unelected) California Air Resources Board and the (unelected) South Coast Air Quality Management District looking for ways to clean up California air, new hard-hitting rules are rolling out for trucks, trains, cars, ports and ships, etc. If it moves, it’s being regulated and reformed to reduce air pollution.
Our county board of supervisors does not get to vote on these new regulations or when they take effect, we just have to be ready. With roughly 23,000 employees who drive to and from work, and a very large fleet of county passenger vehicles, emergency vehicles, and heavy equipment (backhoes, graders, dozers, etc.), your county government has its work cut out to prepare for this large-scale conversion.
Some employees have already been switching over to electric vehicles (EVs) and the county vehicle fleet has already begun acquiring EVs, but we will need to accelerate that transition and add charging stations across the county. The county will also have to look at the needs of the motoring public and the electric charging infrastructure they will need. This is going to be a massive (and expensive?) infrastructure undertaking to accomplish, should the state stick to its time frame mandates.
My guess is that the county undertaking may pale in comparison to the infrastructure buildup that the power companies will have to take on in order to deliver enough electrons to charge all those vehicles. The Press-Enterprise recently reported that the state of California needs to add over 85,000 charging stations per year (costing an estimated $3 billion by 2035). The next issue will be the cost to generate all those electrons so that we do not have blackouts.
Spay and Neuter Challenges
A rigorous spay and neuter program can take a big bite out of the number of abandoned, stray, and feral dogs and cats out on our streets and filling up our animal shelters. We incentivize pet owners to do this by offering significant discounts on licenses for altered versus unaltered pets.
Our office has also prioritized discretionary funding to provide mobile spay and neuter services (“The Neuter Scooter”) at no cost (and vaccinations) to residents in some of our poorest communities, but lately, the demand for these services has overwhelmed the supply of veterinarians to perform them, and Animal Services has had to keep their mobile surgery unit on site just to catch up with their own backlog of 800-1000 animals.
They have recently hired a fourth veterinarian and are still trying to hire more surgeons to help, but this shortage of vets is not limited to our county DAS, it is nationwide, with even private veterinarians scheduling spay and neuter surgeries three to six months out, and local clinics overwhelmed with demand for services.
Why is there such a shortage? One major reason is the shortage of veterinarians in the US. Believe it or not, there are only two vet schools in California and only 29 in the entire country!
As a result, it is about four times harder to gain admission to vet school than it is to medical school or law school, and the number of new vets keeps falling behind the number of pet owners. Makes me wonder if instead of pursuing a new law school, UC Riverside should consider a School of Veterinary Medicine? That said, Animal Services hopes to catch up on their immediate backlog soon and have the “Neuter Scooter” back in our district as soon as November.
Community Clean-Ups
The First District has several unincorporated communities that will be hosting resident clean-up: Woodcrest on October 1st, Meadowbrook/Good Hope on October 22, and Mead Valley on November 19.
These free events are opportunities for local residents to clean up or clean out the garage or yard and self-haul the trash to the local drop-off site. This is also a great time for residents, church groups, and other local, civic-minded organizations to chip in with volunteers and trucks to help clean up our own neighborhoods and roadside trash. For more information, give the First District office a call at 951-955-1010.
