Kudos to our City Public Works Department again!

Pacifica Tribune/Letters to the Editor, 3/24/16,  "Public Works to rescue" by Frank Reardon

Love our heritage trees, but....

"On Friday afternoon, March 11, a 110-year-old Cypress tree fell on our home in Vallemar, causing major damage. My three siblings and I were raised there and we, as a family, have been there since 1952. It has been rented for the past two years by a young couple who love the area and the home itself.  Emotions ran high as we were notified of the incident and the destruction. After confirming no one was hurt (or worse) and we were only dealing with the loss of our family home, we began planning on how to deal with the situation once we got to the house.  How were we going to deal with the devastation and all that goes with the cleanup of a massive tree, power outages? The magnitude of the situation was overwhelming. 

We arrived to find the City of Pacifica there and in complete control. As we parked our vehicles and began approaching the home in disbelief of what we were seeing we were met by Ray Biagini with the Public Works Department. He assured us that he was going to be overseeing everything at the site and we were in good hands. He was respectful, competent, and again in complete control. They began at 2 p.m. on Friday and did not stop running the chain saws, and crane, until 4 a.m. Saturday morning. 

I wish I had the names of everyone that was there that day for us, but I don’t.  We as a family were absolutely amazed at the level of professionalism we received from the City and Ray’s department. Thank you to Pacifica Public Works for making a devastating situation a homerun for disaster response. Other Bay Area cities would do well to take a page from your playbook."

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Related, news article.  NBC Bay Area/Staff/Pete Suratos, 3/11/16, "Large trees fall onto homes in Pacifica, Oakland Hills." "Crews late Friday are working to remove large trees that fell onto homes in Pacifica and in the Oakland Hills. Police in Pacifica said a huge tree fell on a house at 191 Winona Avenue, near Reina Del Mar, sometime between 2 and 3 p.m. Officials said strong gusts in the area caused the tree to topple over. No was inside the home when the tree fell and no injuries were reported, officials said."

Reference, City.  City of Pacifica Public Works Department. "The mission of the Pacifica Department of Public Works is: to provide maintenance and repair of the city's infrastructure in an efficient and cost-effective manner while providing a high level of customer service and a safe work environment for city employees; to maintain parks, play fields and medians throughout the city; to keep streets and trails clean and well-maintained; to provide a tree program and clean beaches for all to enjoy; to establish programs for the improvement of existing facilities; and to provide various city departments with safe and reliable means of transportation, facilities and equipment use."    Note photograph from the related NBC Bay Area article.

Posted by Kathy Meeh