Paso Robles police and city leaders are continuing their efforts to clean the Salinas Riverbed from trash and other items.
According to Police Chief Ty Lewis, roughly 50,000 pounds of trash have been removed from the riverbed during eight different cleanups in 2021.
Chief Lewis said the cost for the trash removal has totaled more than $22,000.
Since January 1, the police department has had 800 calls related to mental health and or transient issues within the riverbed area, including drunk in public and assaults.
Police say that is a two-fold increase compared to the same time last year.
Three community action team officers are assigned to the more than 400 acres of the riverbed.
Sings have been recently posted throughout the riverbed, stating those living there must vacate and take all of their personal belongings with them. The deadline to vacate was last Friday.
This comes as Fire Chief Jonathan Stornetta declared the riverbed from the Niblick bridge north to city limits as a high fire danger area due to drought conditions and an increase in fire activity throughout the state.
In order to help prevent fires in the area, there are currently 650 goats in the riverbed grazing dry grass and other fire danger hazards.
Officials say 70% of the grazing is complete and the animals are expected to wrap up their grazing within the next two weeks.
