Maintenance of the Silver Lake Reservoirs Pathway, an issue of primary importance to the Silver Lake Reservoirs Conservancy, has gained some key support in recent weeks.

The Conservancy has learned that the offices of City Council members Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge have contracted with the Los Angeles Conservation Corps to provide regular maintenance of the path and landscaping for one year. Conservation Corps crew members, composed of trained at-risk teens, are now coming every other Friday to perform light maintenance on the Armstrong Avenue segment of the path and adjacent landscaping, as well as cruising around the entire reservoir path to pick up trash and dead tree limbs and pull a few weeds. The Corps has also started a survey of the irrigation problems in the landscaping along the Armstrong “up and over” to determine what repairs are needed to the system and how they can be completed. Plans to plant new landscaping along this section of the path are also being considered.

Cost of the maintenance contract is $20,000 for the year and is being shared equally in the first year by the two council offices whose territories include the Silver Lake and Ivanhoe reservoirs and the popular walking path surrounding them. Funding for additional maintenance is far from certain and the council offices are making no promises that their funding of the program will continue.

From 2007 through mid-2009, the Silver Lake Reservoirs Conservancy spearheaded regular community weeding and clean-up workdays along the path. Volunteers, called Path Pals, met once or twice per month to weed the landscaping along the Armstrong “up and over” and tend to the trees along West Silver Lake Drive. More than 200 volunteers became “Path Pals” during the program’s lifespan showing the community interest in path maintenance.

Pointing to the success of the Path Pals program, the council offices have wondered if similar neighborhood-wide volunteer efforts, either with labor or cash, could be the key to a more permanent maintenance program for the reservoir path.

Tags: Armstrong Avenue, Conservation Corps, Eric Garcetti, Path Pals, Tom LaBonge