CHICO — Between the banks of Lindo Channel and the Roses and Ivy Elder Care Facility, crew members with Chico Public Works Operations and Maintenance got to work Wednesday morning picking up tents, tarps, trash, and other items during an anti-camping ordinance enforcement.

One crew member, who did not disclose his name, held up a jar of eight hypodermic needles to an Enterprise-Record reporter.

“Clean up is a challenge; nobody likes to do it,” said James Erven, operations and maintenance supervisor for Chico Public Works. “We go to the same places all the time, and it’s hard on morale having to go back out and clean up the same the same mess, the same places after the same people.”

By 8 a.m. Monday, no people camping were present in the area around Manzanita Court. Crew members drove wheel loaders into the Lindo Channel greenway, between neighboring buildings and the water.

Directly behind the elder care facility, crew members traversed steep banks along the channel and hand picked trash.

“Can’t we fit a loader back here?” one crew member said out loud.

The enforcement was planned for 76 people and 32 vacant camps counted on Feb. 2 along of Lindo Channel from the Manzanita Avenue Bridge to Montego Way.

Chico Public Works began work to remove camps on Monday after the city’s Homeless Outreach and Engagement Team assessed people for appropriate shelter following the Warren v. Chico settlement agreement.

As work went on in the morning, crew members joked around about leaving early.

“I think James said we can leave at noon,” one person said.