A whale of a bill
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
Thursday, June 14th, 2007 at 10:29 am in Contra Costa politics.
Now that a dead, 20-foot gray whale that washed upon on the Richmond shoreline earlier this month has been successfully towed out to sea, Contra Costa County is looking for someone to pay the $20,000 disposal bill.
But Contra Costa Animal Services won’t get any help from county Assessor Gus Kramer.
An animal services staffer has asked Kramer to produce a list of all the Richmond shoreline property owners for purposes of determining who ought to pay for removing the smelly carcass.
“I told them no,” Kramer said. “It’s stupid. Are we going to charge people for a deer that dies on the road near their house? If they want the data, they can come in and sit down in front of a computer and do it themselves.”
With 350,000 parcels in the county, that will take a whale of a long time.
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June 17th, 2007 at 9:42 am
I have already promised the local residents, as noted in an earlier news story on this issue, that local residents will NOT be paying the bill to have the whale towed. The County will be exploring a cost share with the Federal Government and the City of Richmond.