What residents say had become an escape route for fleeing suspects and a thoroughfare for motorists looking to avoid traffic on the main roads is now fenced in thanks to a local volunteer group.
On Sept. 29 and 30, members of the Pleasanton North Rotary Club got their hands dirty installing a redwood fence along the back alley way of low-income senior housing community Kottinger Place.
The roughly 60 residents ages 62 and older who live in the 50-unit complex have long been wary of the alley way in back because they’ve often seen people running through there in an attempt to escape police or motorists using it as a cut through.
“The way the property is set up, we have a lot of juveniles that can walk behind the units as a shortcut from Kottinger Park on Vineyard [Avenue] over at Hopyard [Road] and sometimes we even have police chasing adult folks that way because the adults know that it’s dark back there and so they try and duck back there and cut through and end up a block away without being noticed,” said Steven Eagle, property manager for Kottinger Place. “I’ve had residents tell me of the traffic back there too.”
So it happened by chance that Eagle contacted the Rotary club to see if they could donate a wheelchair he had that he found out they would also be able to help him in the effort to get a fence put up at the senior living community.
“He had read about our club and that we raise a lot of money to send wheelchairs internationally,” said Pleasanton North Rotary Club President Esther Becker.
The 70-member club likes to volunteer for a number of local projects in any way they can, she said.
“It was fun. It was fabulous. I know it helps them out a lot,” Becker said.
On that Friday, Rotary members dug holes and installed fence posts. The next day, they put up the wood planks to make the fence complete.
“Because we’re a low-income senior housing property, we can’t always afford everything that we would like to do,” Eagle said. “It seemed to be one of those things that working together with the community group that we had some funds and a need that matched up.”
Eagle added that he’s thankful for home improvement store Lowe’s because they gave the Rotary club a discount on the lumber used for the fence.
Since the fence was installed, Eagle said the effect is apparent because there is no longer any traffic down the alley way and it’s a less desirable hideout.
“There are still ways to get behind the bungalows but now people are much more observable because they have to come into the property and get back there, and so it’s not worth it to them as a hide and seek game with the police per-say,” he said.
