Chico taxiway work set to start soon

I try never to miss watching a Chico City Council meeting, leaving friends and family to think I’m pretty crazy. Well, that may be true, but there’s always interesting information popping out.

That was the case when Chico developer Doug Guillon spoke to the council last week.

The whole agenda of the meeting was regarding homelessness and a local plan to counter it, so I was confused about Guillon’s presence.

However he said some interesting things.

He told the council that he has been meeting with AdventistHealth and others about turning a portion of the old Feather River Hospital in Paradise into a detox center. He didn’t go into details, which means to me it’s very early. Nevertheless, an interesting idea.

The other thing he said of interest was because of Chico’s homeless problem, a business that leases space from himis relocating a portion of the operation out of Chico.

Reached later, Guillon said he couldn’t identify the business yet, but said that a press release regarding its intentions was being prepared.

We’ll be following up on both those items.

Candy, apples

You’ve just got to appreciate tradition, especially when it’s hard won. That’s the case for Joy Lyn’s Candies, which has started production in its new facility and is planning a grand opening. It’s always good news when a ridge business impacted by the Camp Fire reopens.

Oct. 1 was the traditional opening when Pamand Bill Hartley owned the candy business, and son Glenn plans to follow suit.

The grand opening is 10 a.m. Oct. 1 at the store, 220 Pearson Road.

The Hartleys sold the store just weeks before the Camp Fire to their son and his wife. The store was lost in the fire, but the young couple found another location and ordered more equipment.

Thousands of dollars of new equipment later, work began again. The learning curve was steep, the younger Hartley admits. He knew how tomake candy on the original equipment but now there’s more bells and whistles on the new stuff.

Hartley says that he’ll have about 50 kinds of candy by the opening, although he acknowledged that’s about one third of what his parents offered.

“Every year Joy Lyn’s opened on Oct. 1, and I decided I wasn’t going to push the date back again,” Hartley told me last week.

Among the favorites that customers will find are chocolate crunch, beer brittle, licorice, chocolate butter creams, pumpkin pie truffles and chocolate pretzels.

Hartley also warns the store isn’t quit finished, but “We’re getting there.”

Don’t you love tradition? Also opening, but in a different format, is Noble Orchards, another Paradise pillar damaged by the fire. While the older buildings, barn and family houses are gone, the orchard lives on.

Apples will be available in November, and peaches are in right now but coming to the end of the season.

Good information is available from the family business Facebook page, where orders can be placed.

Find the operation at 7050 Pentz Road in Paradise from 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday through Saturday. The orchard has been around since 1921.