Valleywide : The Party’s Over, and the Cleanup Begins

While most San Fernando Valley residents trudged back to their jobs Wednesday, dozens of other workers faced the unenviable task of cleaning up after Fourth of July celebrations.

Tens of thousands of people attended holiday festivities in the Valley, generating mounds of used paper plates, plastic ware and soda cans--not all of which made it into trash cans.

Nearly as traditional as the holiday itself, fifth of July mop-up activities were visible Wednesday morning at Cal State Northridge, Hansen Dam Park, Recreation Park in San Fernando and other sites of fireworks shows the night before.

Six CSUN employees and two athletic department staff members spent Wednesday morning removing debris that somehow missed the 50 additional trash bins placed at the college’s stadium for the fireworks program witnessed by about 8,500 people.

“It’s all part of the program,” said Paul Bubb, CSUN’s associate athletic director.

“Except for light debris, it was all done by about 11 a.m.”

A similar cleanup effort took place at Hansen Dam Park, where Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon hosted the park’s first Independence Day fireworks display in 15 years.

“Our hats go off to the rec and parks department,” said Arturo Gonzalez, a spokesman for Alarcon. “They really did a great job. There were so many people in attendance, there was quite a bit of garbage.”

About 5,000 people were expected for the free event. More than 10,000 showed up, wolfing down 3,000 complimentary hot dogs and soft drinks.

Crews at San Fernando Recreation Park cleaned up after about 8,500 Fourth of July celebrants, just in time for the 69th Annual Fiesta Celebration to be sponsored by the San Fernando Chamber of Commerce on Saturday and Sunday.

More than 30,000 people are expected to attend the event, which will include music, food and carnival rides.

“It took a lot of work to clean up the field,” said Ed Montan, director of recreation and community services. “The maintenance crews started out there at 7 a.m.”

“We get to do it again this weekend.”