Flashlights shine on a woman sleeping under a picnic table in Discovery Park.
Two Sacramento County Parks Rangers warn the woman twice that she is in violation of a no-camping ordinance.
After she gathers up two trash bags of belongings and moves to another location, the rangers prepare to write her a ticket.
“We’ll issue her a citation and tell her it’s time to go, but after that, we’re not going to forcibly remove anybody from the park,” park ranger William Wetzel said.
Beginning Wednesday evening, the parks department began deploying two additional rangers along the American River Parkway, bringing the total force to four or five rangers depending on the night.
The American River Parkway bike and recreation trail got some needed sprucing up last weekend as 2,000-plus volunteers hit the trail, collecting more than 14,000 pounds of trash during the American River Parkway Foundation’s annual cleanup event.
“For 2,000 people to spend their Saturday morning helping restore probably the best civic amenity in Sacramento, that says a lot about how important this parkway is to the community,” foundation executive director Dianna Poggetto said.
The cleanup also shows that plenty of people use the parkway as a dumping ground. Materials collected included used diapers, cans and bottles, cigarette butts, rusted bicycles, clothing and fishing lines.
On Saturday, Sept. 15, about 2,500 volunteers are expected to take part in the American River Parkway Foundation’s annual Great American River Clean Up.
According to Stacy Springer, volunteer manager for the American River Parkway Foundation, which is based in Carmichael, these volunteers will spend three hours that morning cleaning up 20 site locations along the American River of trash and other debris. “And that does not even include the huge kayak and dive teams that go out and address the shoreline and deeper water channels,” she said.
Springer said it’s easy to volunteer for the Great American River Clean Up – volunteers just need to register on the Foundation’s website, www.arpf.org, and then show up on the day of the clean-up wearing closed-toe shoes and long pants, plus sunblock and hat if the day is sunny and warm.
The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office confirmed Friday night that the body of a woman found Friday morning near the American River was Linnea Lomax, who had been missing for 10 weeks.
The cause and manner of death are under investigation, but “foul play does not appear to be a factor at this point of the investigation,” according to a Coroner’s Office news release.
Lomax, 19, who grew up in Placerville, had been missing since June 26, when she left out-patient counseling at a clinic not far from where the body was found along the American River near Glenn Hall Park.
A volunteer search party looking for a missing UC Davis student found a body along the American River and notified police this morning, sparking an investigation into whether the body is that of Linnea Lomax.
Sacramento police told The Bee that the group of searchers found the body at 10:18 a.m. along the river in the vicinity of Glenn Hall Park in the River Park neighborhood near Sacramento State — not far from where Lomax walked away from a mental health appointment more than two months ago.
Police spokesman Doug Morse said at a press conference shortly after noon that the body is that of a woman and shows signs of decomposition. Authorities say the age of the woman is not yet clear and that they do not know how the woman died.
A teenager was forced at gunpoint to get naked moments before a robber shot him near the American River bike trail on Wednesday, said a Sacramento police spokesman.
The victim was shot in the lower body Wednesday afternoon during a robbery around 3 p.m.
“The suspect made the victim get undressed during the robbery,” said Doug Morse, a Sacramento police spokesman.
Morse said police are still not releasing the identity of the suspect for investigative reasons.
Morse added that investigators are still working to determine why the shooter forced the victim to undress.
Sacramento County Regional Parks rangers are gearing up for the last of the summer holiday weekends.
Folks planning to celebrate Labor Day along the American River and adjoining parkway are reminded that an alcohol ban will be in effect Saturday through Monday between Hazel and Watt avenues. John Havicon, supervising ranger, said rangers will be checking for alcohol at various access points.
The Labor Day weekend crowds along the river and parkway typically are lighter than those during the Fourth of July and Memorial Day holidays, he said.
“Labor Day is like a busy Saturday,” Havicon said, noting that school has started for most youngsters and families are involved in other activities this time of year.
River flows are scheduled to drop to 2,000 cubic feet per second beginning Friday, which means more rocks will be exposed.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation plans to dump approximately 14,000 tons of gravel into the lower American River to help improve spawning grounds for steelhead trout and Chinook salmon.
To be targeted are existing spawning habitat that consists of large rocks and fine sediment that reduces the ability for fish to construct nests and may reduce the number of eggs surviving and emerging as juvenile fish.
The first load of gravel is scheduled to be deposited in the lower American River on Monday, Sept. 10. All work is expected to be completed by Friday, Sept. 30. All work will be within the confines of the Sailor Bar Recreation Area, near Hazel Avenue and Winding Way in Fair Oaks.
Levees protecting most of the city of Sacramento and 15 other areas of the Central Valley were declared today to have failed federal maintenance criteria. As a result, they are no longer eligible for federal rebuilding funds in the event of a levee breach.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made the declaration today. It did so after concluding that a new state plan to improve Central Valley levees does not provide enough detail to ensure maintenance problems — such as erosion and intrusion by structures — will be fixed.
The affected levee systems include 40 miles of levees wrapping most of the city of Sacramento on the American and Sacramento rivers. This system of levees, known on flood-control maps as “Maintenance Area 9,” includes the south bank of the American River from about Bradshaw Road downstream to the confluence with the Sacramento River, then downstream from there nearly to Courtland.
