The Redding Police Community Work Program has been busy clearing homeless camps around town, including many underground in the maze of storm drains that run beneath neighborhoods and business districts. Illegal campers are first given 48 hour notice to clear out, and then officers return with crews made up of people working off sentences through the county alternative custody program. Storm drains have recently been cleared behind Sportsman’s Warehouse and the areas of Hartnell Avenue, Bechelli Lane, Airpark Drive, South Street, Mountain Lakes and Lost Lane. A total of 14,300 pounds of material has been hauled away from these areas.
– Steve Gibson