Council OKs change for waste hauler
Direction for interim Housing Urgency Ordinance Exceptions Committee is delayed
The Paradise Town Council on Tuesday night approved a change in the franchise agreement with Northern Recycling and Waste Services that releases the company from having to do a fourth-year survey of its customers.
In April 2017, the agreement the town made with the company called for it to have two customer surveys within its 10-year contract.
The first one was to occur in the fourth year of the contract, and in order for the company to get a three-year extension, the customer satisfaction surveys would have to have a favorable rating from the customers at 85%.
The same applied in year seven of the agreement with the same percentage of respondents needed to get another extension.
However following the Camp Fire in 2018 not only has its customer base been severely reduced, but the company has also seen issues complicating its ability to serve the public from the fire.
So on Tuesday night, the council voted unanimously to simply remove the fourth-year survey requirement.
Councilor Steve Culleton noted that a fourth-year survey would do them no good.
And once a new hauler is chosen, as NRWS is seeking a new hauler to take over its contract, the Town Council would only benefit from the seventh year requirement, Culleton noted.
So the council voted to remove the fourth- year survey completely and will now only require a sevenyear customer survey from the trash hauler within the town, regardless of who that is.
While the council removed that part of the agreement, it did not accept a decrease from 85% to 70%.
The year seven survey conducted by the company will have to meet the 85% threshold the council initially negotiated with NRWS.
The council also at the urging of Mayor Steve Crowder removed the agenda item that would have had the council provide town staff with verbal direction and or/concurrence regarding the application standards for the new interim Housing Urgency Ordinance Exceptions Committee.
Crowder‘ s motivation was that town Councilor Greg Bolin was not present and he wanted a full council available to discuss it.
Counselor Rose Tryon attended the meeting remotely through Zoom.
The council also tentatively awarded a contract for the Community Long Term recovery plan threeyear update to Urban Design Associates.
Urban Design Associates is the company that helped the town conduct the original long- term recovery plan.
Both Culleton and Vicemayor Jody Jones expressed reservations at starting with a new when because there wasn’t enough work done to show the public — with the main topic of conversation surrounding the progress of the warning sirens that are part of the original long-term recovery plan goals.
Both Town Engineer Marc Mattox and Town Manager Kevin Phillips told the council that they are making progress in the negotiations concerning those sirens.
Jones also had an issue with the fact that the new $110,000 contract was going to be funded out of the PG&E settlement funds.
So in the end, the Town Council voted unanimously to agree to a deal with Urban Design Associates as long as the town manager and staff were able to find an alternative funding source like a grant.