The two biggest topics on my desk currently are green waste and broadband.
If you live in Alta Sierra and neighborhoods or any elevation higher, you know personally why green waste is of great concern. The storm that ushered in the new year was devastating. I personally lost three trees with one taking a portion of my deck. Carol and I consider ourselves fortunate since we know of residents now living in hotels due to storm damage leaving their homes unlivable.
Clean-up has begun, and I’m amazed at how much has already been removed from our roadways and residences. However, we know there is a tremendous amount of debris remaining on public and private properties with an urgency of removing it before the start of our fire season. Nevada County is contracting with the Fire Safe Council to offer free storm-related green waste disposal to Nevada County residents for three extended weekends this spring. This disposal program is designed to help homeowners address the storm debris, like tree trunks and branches, on their properties in advance of fire season. The community green waste drop off events will be available from 9:00 am- 3:00 pm at 12625 Brunswick Rd, Grass Valley on the following days:
- March 11th, 12th & 13th
- March 25th, 26th & 27th
- April 8th, 9th & 10th
Grass Valley recently had a free pickup of green waste for its residents. I wish the County could offer a similar program to our residents; however, Grass Valley’s five miles of roadways and the volume of waste to be removed was minuscule compared to unincorporated Nevada County. We understand the amount of waste is considerably more than prior years, and the needs of the program are also increased.
Additionally, green waste can be dropped off at the McCourtney Road Transfer Station Wednesday through Sunday, with another option being renting a green waste dumpster of 20, 30, or 40-yard size. Collaborating with neighbors on items like a large dumpster or chipper rentals can save time and money. Residents with equipment and expertise are encouraged to support their neighbors in this important first step. We do have the option of burning, but I urge you to use extreme caution when burning. A few tips include:
- Check if it is a burn day at MyAirDistrict.com or call (530) 274-79218.
- Avoid burning on dry, windy days.
- Burn dry, dead material only, such as your down tree debris.
- Choose a safe burn site. Allow yourself 3x the height of your pile of vertical clearance.
- Keep a water source nearby and have a shovel on hand.
- Keep your neighbors happy and avoid smoke nuisance fines by burning hot and clean. Once your flame is strong, add dry pine needles, leaves, or vines, which are known to produce large amounts of smoke if burned exclusively.
- Keep piles manageable. Add additional material as your pile burns and reduce in size.
- Burn between the hours of 9:00 and 3:00 and stay with your fire and fully extinguish coals with water when done. Turn coals and ash over with a shovel, drown your pile with water and repeat several times. Return regularly over the next several days.
Stay informed on programs being offered for disposal of your green waste at www.MyNevadaCounty.com/StormRecovery.
Telecommunication continues to be a huge issue. Once the power is restored, we can expect the telecommunication services to follow shortly afterward, and in most cases, that’s exactly what happened. Unfortunately, that has not happened for everybody, and now, a month after the storm, I still have constituents that have not had their services restored. As a side note, I still have constituents who have not had their landlines restored since the River Fire. The County’s ability to assist is limited. Many years ago, through State legislation, we lost the ability to have franchised districts, which was our main control over the providers. Now we attempt to stay in close contact and hopefully nudge companies into expediting connections and repairs. At this point, the best I can do is to listen to your concerns, but often I ask that you document your issues and copy me to log your complaints. If necessary, use them when communicating with the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) and our State and Federal Legislators.
To file a complaint with the CPUC, it involves multiple steps that start as an informal complaint process, and if necessary, result in a formal complaint process. To start the process, you will need to fill out an online form/portal at the CPUC’s website at https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/consumer-support/file-a-complaint. After you click on the link, you’ll see that Step 1 is to contact the utility to try and resolve any dispute. If you have already done that, this leads to Step 2, ensuring that you have specific documentation that the CPUC needs to launch an investigation. Step 3 is to fill out the online form. Following this submittal, an analyst from CPUC will follow up with each customer who files a complaint. This is not an overnight process, so customers should be prepared that this may take some time. Step 4 results in a formal complaint process if no satisfactory resolution from filing an informal complaint has occurred. Again, copy me to log your complaints so that we can advocate on the backend for speedy action.
Our bigger issue continues to be providing adequate services to many of our residents. Despite what some of our critics will say, I believe the County has done an exceptional job moving forward with broadband projects. I think this might be an opportunity for our County IT team to write a guest editorial on what we’ve accomplished and what we hope to see from future projects.
