Dirty creek a

burden on Napa

Dear editor,

Flood warnings were out Dec. 28, 2005, as we await the possibility of Napa Creek becoming a raging torrent of water that will inundate neighboring homes and businesses. Merchants are sandbagging their store fronts. City crews are placing restriction signs, blocking off Clinton to Soscol. The forecasters are calling for heavy rains through Friday so that the perennially dirty little creek may once again become a torrential force to be reckoned with.

Napa Creek is a trash dump, an eyesore of this trying hard to be "world class city." So why not keep it clean? Can our city's leaders answer that question? Among some of the almost impossible tasks facing our city, it would seem that keeping Napa Creek clear of broken bicycles, mattresses, and junk of all sorts would be an easy task. A weekly clean-up force could do that job nicely. Folks drawn from community service obligations, volunteers, teenagers or trusted incarcerates, providing a minimum wage is offered could handle the job of keeping the creek pristine and therefore beautiful as intended, not a dump blocking natural flow and increasing the cause of the creek to overflow its banks.

I sure hope we don't have a flood. The weather person has been known to be wrong. But please, rain or shine, we need to keep that creek clean.

Craig Payne

Napa