Show: Insight Station: KNCO File: 9:10.mp3 Air date: 2026-09-10 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.6 MB to 12.3 MB --- transcript --- Welcome to KNCO Insight, Nevada County Action, KNCO's local issue talk show. This is your chance to gain insight into issues affecting Nevada County. Be a part of the show. Call with your questions or comments. The number, 477-5626, that's 477-KNCO. The opinions expressed are those of the hosts and callers and do not reflect the opinions of the advertisers, staff, or ownership of Nevada County Broadcasters. Now here is your host, Tom Fitzsimmons. Okay, NCN News time, just about 9.07, it's 77 degrees, gonna be another warm day out there, so again, you know, hopefully you don't get tired of me saying this, but on these warm days, make sure you get your errands done early part of the day, and as you do your errands and think about life in your community, make sure if there's somebody you can help out, like somebody that might have some physical limitations or the like, that you can help maybe do an errand for them, that could be just running to the store if you're going there anyway, could be getting your WM cans down to the end of the driveway, or maybe if they got taken care of already, bringing them back up the driveway. For somebody that has some physical limitations, that can be kind of tough at times, could be getting the mail later on, a lot of easy things you can do, but in doing that, you could also do, like a term of welfare check, you know, just make sure that neighbor that might be older has at the very minimum a fan, trying to keep themselves cool, and if their air conditioner is working or if they're having some issues, they can tell you about it, maybe get things resolved. I will say that about WM, their drivers are very good at that, they're kind of the eyes and ears of neighborhoods as they go by, I know Lori Reddy who's joining me here from WM, she's the recycling education boss over there, but it is true, those guys are kind of the eyes and ears of the neighborhood. Absolutely, absolutely, we wouldn't be doing what we're doing if we didn't have the drivers, that's for sure. You know, it's funny, utility people like that, that's what I call them because they do different things in life, a great example of that was my mom, granted this is 3,000 miles away back in New Jersey, but my mom, when she first got sick, what finally got her to the doctor is that she fell, she was walking back from church and she fell, she fell face down. Now it was very unusual for the, there it's PSENG, public service electric and gas, they actually come there and read the meters. Right, I remember when they used to do that, yeah, I remember that. And so he came and my mom would always be nice and actually offer coffee, has done that for years and decades, right? All of a sudden she's not there. When he knocks on the door, just to do like a kind of a welfare check, make sure she's okay. So he found her? He found her? She answered the door and her face looked all beat up. Yeah, yeah. Oh, you have to get... Yes, well you know... And she goes, no, no, I'll be okay and I said, no, no, let's get your daughter, make sure your daughter knows and my sister Annie and that started her at least going to the doctor and stuff. And I just bought one of those watches for my mom because her balance is off too and they're pretty technical, you know, they're fall watches and you can also monitor, you know, where she is, her location and I put it on her and she said, well, it's not working, it's not working. And so, and this was just the other day, so I put it on my arm, I got on her bed and I fell off her bed. On purpose? On purpose. Did a headbang on her bed, yep, I did and a pretty good fall and then my husband called me because I had forgotten my phone, so Scotty called me from my house, he goes, Lori, your mom just fell. And I said, that's great, it works. It does work. It does work, yeah, it's important to have something like that. Yeah, I have that on my smart watch. Yeah, there you go. When you fall, it actually, you have like 30 seconds to clear it. Yes, exactly. To make sure you're okay, that I'm okay or I didn't fall. Right. Because this guy, you know, anybody that knows my dog Ranger jumps on me sometimes. Yeah, yeah. The dogs are tripping hazards. Yeah, my mom has the same type of thing, so, but you know, as far as, you know, elderly people, you know, and utility, you know, utility workers, I mean, we do offer that service. We do offer a walk-in service, so if you, you know, if you can't, especially the recycling, the recycling is really heavy. Yeah. It's full, so, you know, if you can't get your carts up and down your driveway, like especially in Alta Sierra. Yeah, exactly, yeah. We will offer that service. The driver will get out and he will go retrieve the carts, so, and take them back. So that is something, I think that you do need to have some sort of a medical note from the doctor, but you can bring it by our office and we will take care of that. Yeah. It's just that, I think it's the nature of the beast that, you know, people get used to doing their routes. You're married to a letter carrier. Yeah. There's another great example of those people that are on the front lines, and yes, they're driving by, but they have eyes and ears out there, so they're always kind of checking. You know, they're always looking. If somebody's not looking right, you know, they might be in front of their house and they just look disorientated and stuff, they stop and say hi and just do a quick kind of welfare check conversation. Yep. Many of our drivers have had the same routes for 10 years, you know, so they do know. I mean, that is their route. That is what they do. They do know and they understand, you know, what's going on on their streets. Yeah. All right. Do you ever have any downtime, Lori, now that I think about it? You know, I, yeah, I mean, yeah. I mean, we had a Labor Day weekend. Okay. That was pretty down, you know. Well, here's something that happened off air. As you were up at the front counter, I got done with the show and I have that little time during ABC News when I see what guests are here, or in the case of Dwayne Strasser, who's not here. Oh, yes. Excuse me, Dwayne, where are you? You were talking with Kendall, our young lady there, a Nevada Union graduate, who was part of the... The Climate Club. The Climate Club. Yes. So, yeah, Nevada Union has a group of, I'm not sure if they're sophomores or seniors or maybe they can be freshman, junior, sophomore, seniors. I'm not sure, but it's a climate club and so they are the ones that go around and make sure that the recycling is going into the right container and, you know, I'm not sure how good Nevada Union is doing with the food waste, but I do know that the kitchen is doing a great job with the food waste. Okay. So, they do have food waste carts and, you know, because they have that, you know, they do catering. Oh, yeah. They make their own... They have Miner's Diner. Miner's Diner. And they have the... Great food. Yes. And they have a culinary arts program there for CTE, Continuing Education. Right. Right. So, they do a pretty good job at diverting all of their food waste. And isn't that exciting to know that that group of kids are buying into it? I think that a lot of high schools do that. Yeah. I think a lot of high schools do that. And a lot of the elementary schools are doing it. We did an event out at Scotton School for their kindergarten class and it was a pretty big class. Yeah. We did a touch-a-truck event. We took our truck out there and the water division took their wastewater truck out there. Well, actually, it was clean water. The kids like to hang out by the garbage trucks and the big trucks. They like to see how they operate. But that school is really doing a great job of diverting their food waste. The whole school is really into it. And it's working for them. And the kids understand exactly where everything goes. I mean, they're really good. There's another group called EcoHeroes. And EcoHeroes are, I believe they're out of the Sacramento area. Yeah. It's a group of really rambunctious, jump-all-over-the-place EcoHeroes recycling. It's a whole program. Yeah. And they'll go out to a school and put on a show. Put on a show. They're almost like superheroes that do recycling. And it gets the kids dancing. It gets the kids really excited about food waste. So they had, last time they did it at Scotton, they had the methane ghost. And the methane ghost was the ghost that comes out of all the food waste. So it really, it got the kids. They understood it. They understood it. Okay. And what happens, anybody that's had little ones, when the kids get that excitement, they bring it home. Oh, absolutely. And they make sure you stay with it. Exactly. Yeah. There was an EcoHero video about the kids learning about where to put your banana peel. And then the dad eats something, like a banana, and he throws it into the garbage. And the kid said, no, no, no, no, grabs it out of the garbage, puts it in the green cart, and taught the dad what to do. Yeah. It's amazing. So, I mean, as adults and, you know, elderly, especially, we are set in our ways. Absolutely. We're set in our habits. But it's amazing how kids, once they buy into it, they'll make sure you stay on it. Exactly. Exactly. The power of the children. Yeah. All right. So we're going to take our first break. We come back. There's a whole bunch of things to talk about. Dwayne Strosser, if you're out there, I know he's a busy guy in Grass Valley. But they have, I guess, some green waste roll bins that are heading out there. Yeah. We'll talk about that. Yeah. All right. So let's take a break here. We'll be right back. I'm here with WM and Laurie Reddy, so a quick break. We'll be right back. Nicky Glaser. We don't talk about ugly people. Because no one is ugly. The stunning tour. Come on. Like, there's some people, they're ugly. I'm not saying they're a bad person. It's not their fault. I mean, it's their profession. They're different. It's not their fault. I mean, it's their parents' fault for being cousins or something, but it's not their fault. Nicky Glaser, Friday, September 25th, the venue at Thunder Valley. Tickets on sale now at ThunderValleyResort.com. Don't miss Nicky Glaser, the stunning tour. Make your happy place Grass Valley Brewing Company on East Main Street. Great beer, people, and now a full bar serving handcrafted cocktails. There's always something happening all week. Mondays are open mic night. Thursday, it's trivia or karaoke, and on the first Sunday of the month, catch Kinda Celtic Sunday Afternoons. Plus, they've got delicious traditional pub food. Stay up to date at GVBrew.com or just stop in at 141 East Main Street. Grass Valley Brew, your favorite brewery, and now cocktail spot in the heart of the gold country. 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Don't miss out on high-speed internet just because other providers can't find your road. Call Smarter Broadband today at 272-4000 or click Request New Service at SmarterBroadband.com. Smarter Broadband, internet built for rural living. Hi, KNC Newstime, 918-78 Degrees. Welcome back to KNC Insight as we have our conversation about WM in our community with Lori Reddy, Recycling Education Representative. How big a staff is under you with Recycling Education? Is it just you doing it? Well, wait a minute, there we go, that's better. Actually, there's quite a few of us. So my position is in most areas, so we have quite a few of us in the Bay Area, we have Chico, Reno, Southern California, you know, every area has recycling representatives. All right. You've been out of how many years now doing this? It's just about four. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and there's, I mean, for me, it's just me, but there's only three jurisdictions, you know, it's Nevada County, Nevada City, and Grass Valley. In Oakland, we have five or six. Yeah. In Chico, we have one, you know, representative, but it's something that most of WM, you know, we're just a hauling company, but we have contracts with all of the jurisdictions. And you know, there's certain things written into the contracts that, you know, we have to do. And, you know, one of them is education. Yeah, exactly. Right. So, you know, a lot of areas, you know, have Nevada City, you know, they have Evan, he's pretty good about educating about sustainability, but, you know, a lot of, you know, Grass Valley, Nevada City, you know, they have people that will do that for them, but I'm kind of the one that, you know, I'm written into their contract. Yes. Yeah. And that's my job. It's an interesting gig for you in that, depending on the jurisdiction, you know, it's different rules. It's all different. It's all different rules. So when we get together as a group of recycling educators, and we, you know, compare notes, we all have a lot, quite different stories about what works in what area. So, you know. All right. So what's the most rewarding thing for you? The most rewarding thing for me is to see that, you know, somebody will complain about having like an overage charge that, you know, they put too much cardboard or garbage into their big bin and, you know, and then we, you know, they'll get a fine or a fee. And if I go out and I talk to them and explain how it works and maybe offer another solution. So maybe you need another pickup during the week. Maybe one time a week is not good enough for you. Maybe you need a larger bin. And I tell you, having, giving them that solution is a lot less expensive than getting a charge for having, you know, too much into your, in your container, you know, and it's really a problem. I mean, you know, in the, you know, for Nevada County, I mean, if your bin is not closing all the way, that's not, you know, you will get a fine. You'll get a fine. Right. You'll get a fine. And so it's a wake up call. Yeah. It's like getting a parking ticket. It's a wake up call. Is there, is there like a warning first? Like, hey, this has happened. Yeah. Yeah. There is a warning, you know, and our trucks are smart trucks. They have cameras. And so we see it all, believe it or not. And you know, people think it's unfair, but when I explain to them the reasoning, they understand. You know, a lot, most of the businesses, like the restaurants have locks on their containers because if there's not a lock on the container, anybody in the world can go up there and throw their, throw their. Oh, look. Dwayne's here. Dwayne's here. Will you let Dwayne get sit down? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So anybody, you know, anybody can go up and throw a bunch of, you know, junk into the bin. You know, Circle, Circle is doing a big cleanup next week. The Circle River cleanup. Yeah. So we're, we're giving them a bunch of bins and roll off containers. Well, it's amazing what comes out of that. Oh, last year it was tires. Tires. Who puts tires in the rivers? I don't know. It is, to me, to me, it is such a filthy thing to do. Oh, it's so terrible. It's almost like a definition of, of ignorance. Well, you know, the other thing that they collect out of the, you know, closer to the rivers, like, you know, they do a pretty good river sweep are the, those vapor whippet things, you know, those, the nitrous oxide containers. Yeah. A lot of those, Dwayne will agree, a lot of those are coming out of the rivers and tires and vapes, you know, come on. And vapes. See, and I'm ignorant. I just, yeah. I don't know vape. Whippets. I don't do vape. Well, whippets, whippets, they're to make whipping cream. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Not to, you know, it's not like a human enjoyment. Yeah. It's for whipping cream. That's what you would think. Yeah. And they don't belong in a river. Yeah. But Dwayne, Dwayne Strasser is here. How are you guys? I am so sorry I'm late. Oh, it's okay. You do not have to apologize. It sounds like you were busy working. I am. He's always busy. Sweaty and icky. We, yeah, we actually got a call from Hanson Brothers. We had an opportunity to add some kind of safety factors to our city parking lot that just got repaved. So I was down clearing it, moving cars, coning it off so that we could take advantage, you know. Which parking lot? So the main city parking lot at City Hall. Yeah. We repaved a bunch of areas recently. Yeah. And then they wait a week or two until it dries and they come back in and paint. And we, we had a couple of kind of reserved spots that we needed to have painted and they called and offered to come do it. So how much pressure is on, on the staff when that stuff gets done? Because parking seems to be a premium downtown right now, just because everything's squeezed and the little reprieve we had from the bank that closed, you know, it was open for a while and of course that closed back up. It's kind of squeezed traffic parking again. It's always a challenge. And again, the, the city has always been extremely generous and especially after hours, evenings, weekends, holidays, to allow people to come into City Hall and even take the reserved spots. We have no problem with that. There are times after hours, I'll see people circling, looking for a spot to run over to bicycle pizza or something like that, you know, or go get coffee. And all of our spots are empty in front of City Hall and they assume they can't park there, even though it's six o'clock at night. And I'll literally get out and wave at them and point and then they're, they're always so thrilled. But we do have a few spots that are reserved and I work late a lot and I'll come back in after dark and the truck with all the equipment and the chainsaws and people take our reserved spots. We were just trying to mark those so we don't have to ever, I don't ever want to tow somebody. You know, my, my life at Nevada City, we hate, hate that, right? Yeah. Oh yeah. Ticket somebody, that discourages them from coming back. Yeah. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth and stuff. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. How come the City of Grass Valley does not have meters? Well, they're, what they're doing now is the kiosk. So, so I think that's kind of the new trend and, and I actually personally in Nevada City, there they're always yours. I prefer the meters. They were kind of cool. Me too. Me too. You know, 25 cents, 50 cents. Yeah. The problem is it's not, it's not, um, responsible governing because it used to cost us more to pay the staff to go out and maintain and collect the quarters out of those meters and what we actually made from them. So to me, that's lose-lose. You're ticketing people, metering people, you're actually going negative in the budget to have it monitored. So what, what, what's the purpose? Yeah. I was, I parked in Nevada City the other day and I saw Tim walking around with a dolly and a huge bucket, draining, draining the quarters out of the meters. It's been like that. Oh, that's something. So, so Tom will remember. It's been like that forever, but let's go back and think of when Burl Robinson was still city manager because he is an avid coin collector. So he used to go through those quarters. Oh my God. Yes, he would. Oh wow. In his off hours. He just spread them out. Oh, that's so funny. Yeah. Yeah. Pick out the silver ones. Think of all those rare pennies nowadays. Now they're being discontinued. All the wheat pennies. Oh wow. That's right. I have to start looking at those. Yeah. That's funny. We could tell you stories. I bet. All right. So big bins are coming to Grass Valley. These roll-off bins for the city residents. We are getting ready to work with waste management and it's, it's been done over in Nevada City like at Pioneer Park or other areas on a regular or semi-regular basis. We are getting ready to kickstart our own green waste collection program that used to be very robust when they had access out on Brunswick to the mine site, you know, to the big area now. Yes. And Mountain Enterprises bought that, so that's no longer available. County's doing their best. They do select dates throughout the year, but we need to get something more regular for our Grass Valley residents and as part of Measure B, we have the funding, so we need to start making that happen. It'll be a combination of us with our, our Measure B chipping truck and chipper coming out and chipping, taking that off site, as well as waste management contracting with them to bring in some bins and leave for whatever, you know, a few days, a couple of weeks at a time, maybe have them picked up sporadically. And we'll rotate it around, whether it's Morgan Ranch or Freeman Lane, Berryman Ranch. Oh, okay. I was just wondering about the spots. I think, I think we're going to look, we're going to do some wildfire modeling like we do now for our inspections and really target the most high priority zones and then encourage those residents to get rid of their yard, backyard waste, front yard waste, you know, whatever it might be that's flammable that, that fits within the green waste protocol and start there and give them a chance for free green waste pickup. Right. Now, how are you going to get that word out? We're not sure yet. We're looking at... Yeah, I was wondering about that. I mean, obviously... KNCO, obviously. Yeah. Sure. KNCO. We do actually, I have a contract here now. We have some spots that we'll be using. We've participated with KNCO at the fair, at Nevada County Fair, and that's part of that package. We've done it once before, I think going back to maybe Memorial Day. We had done that for... Yeah. Sounds right. When the county did their green waste pickup out of McCourtney. Right. We may do some notifications in our billings that get mailed out. We'll probably do some social media. Maybe those big roadside signs. Probably a good idea, although, again, we'll look for advice. You guys have experience doing this, so I'll give Evan a call over in Nevada City and see how it's gone for them, what they've done. But in the neighborhoods, it may be a little bit more reclusive, per se, as far as street traffic scene signs. Right, right, right. So we may do door hangers just one neighborhood at a time, a couple of hundred homes. Yeah. And I think a big part of it is just making sure the right stuff gets put in there. That's correct. Right, right. And like in Morgan Ranch, there's not really an HOA. Correct. But there is a group. There is a group that gets together. I'm meeting with them in... There you go. They're trying to form their first firewise community over there. So I think if we work proactively with these groups and pick an area that is central or neutral, then everybody within a few hundred homes, you know, kind of zone can get to that bin easily. Yeah. We'll figure it out. Yeah. Oh, no. It's going to be well received. I don't think there's any doubt about that. Oh, yeah. Definitely. Because the alternative about going out to landfill and all that stuff, even though it runs fine, it's still a big part of your day driving out there to get rid of it. It is. Yeah. I was just out there yesterday just picking up some compost containers and there were lines. Yeah. There's lines. There are lines in that scale house. So it's busy. You know. So now, question, Dwayne. So a lot of people have been asking me this lately because there used to be that chipping program. People want the chips. Are you going to let them have the chips if you're chipping certain things? So yes and no. Okay. Meaning that absolutely yes. We're already... That's one of my biggest burdens as we start chipping more and more is how do we get rid of the chips without spending tax dollars to ship it down the hill to a co-gen plant like Rio Bravo. And by doing that, we're shipping it down on a diesel-based transport truck. We're in an area that is ozone non-compliant. We don't want to add to the air pollution. Highway 49, what they're doing right now with the widening project is because we are too impacted with our traffic counts, do I really want to add more huge diesel semis going down the hill? No. So yes. But the kind of caveat, the new way of looking at it is we don't want to use chips to be spread in an area where we're simply spreading another fire fuel source. But like for example, we have given I think three truckloads so far to Variable Land Trust for their open space down off of Dog Bar, out to Sierra. But they're also responsible. They're using it for the walking paths. They're using it to put around some of their native plants that they're trying to reintroduce into that area. So they're not covering half an acre, an acre, two acres with a bunch of fire fuel. So yes, we will be looking for any and all creative and responsible options to give our chips away. Absolutely. We prefer not to burn them. Eventually, we will have to either in an air-conditioned incinerator or it will become fuel for our biomass plant when that goes in in Grass Valley next year. So we're looking at options. But yeah, we would love to donate them. We're collecting a list of people that want them. Can I tell you something about Dwayne Strauss? I took a news break here at Bottom of the Yard. He reminds me of this utility baseball player that can roll out of bed, put on his uniform and hit a good shot to the opposite field for a base hit. He just came in here, right away contributes, right? It's a good baseball metaphor. Maybe the Giants should sign me. Might be the idea. Anyway, we're going to take a news break. Weather forecast, we'll be right back. I'm Chris Gilbert with the KNCL Local News Update. Grass Valley continues to benefit from an increasing number of non-city partnerships that are slowly increasing wildfire safety. That includes with what's called the Feral Land Project Mosaic Fuels Treatment Group. The group has already completed a lot of volunteer work here. It features a dispersed collection of city-owned properties that includes forested patches, oak woodlands, grasslands, drainage corridors, wetlands, roadsides, trails, vacant parcels and parks. And at their Tuesday night meeting, the City Council gave its blessing for the group to submit an application to the Sierra Nevada Conservancy that would cover another 350 miles. But Director of Horticulture, Justin Machulis, also told the Council that they would also like to see Grass Valley be a model for other towns that want to see what responsible public land management looks like. A roadside can feed pollinators, a park can hold more water in its soil, a fuel treatment can leave behind a healthier forest, a neglected parcel can become somewhere people are proud to live next to. Taken individually, those are all small things across the city and over time they can amount to a real change in how a public landscape functions and how it feels to live here. Mosaic Fuels Treatment forms a municipal landscape mosaic to alter wildfire pathways, protect neighborhoods, improve evacuation and emergency responder access, and safeguard public infrastructure. Nevada City is also showing interest in the project. And applications are now open for this year's Nevada County Compost Connector Program. Officials say the program matches farmers and ranchers with compost they need through a rebate. Stacey Manning is the Senior Community Technician with County Solid Waste. She says it's part of the state's ongoing mandate to reduce the waste stream. It's supposed to encourage green industries. It requires the county to procure what they call recycled organic waste products, which are things like compost, mulch, it could be renewable energy sources, biochar, those types of things. And each county and city and jurisdiction in the state kind of uses different programs and we chose to use compost. Through a partnership with the group Zero Food Print, local agricultural producers can receive rebates up to $14 per ton. And Manning says there's a minimum purchase of five tons. Join us for our next local news update at the bottom of the hour. And for news and weather anytime, you can go to KNCO.com. I'm Chris Gilbert, KNCO News Talk 830. Ace is the place for the helpful hardware, folks. Fire up. Better grilling for less. Save $100 on the Weber Genesis E315 Gas Grill. Now just $7.99 at Ace. Built for dependable performance and delicious results, get yours today at your neighborhood Ace. Cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner outdoors with the Blackstone Omnivore Portable Griddle. On sale for just $249.99. Whether you're tailgating, camping, or cooking on the patio, this griddle makes every meal easy. Find yours today at B&C Ace Home and Garden Center. Hi, I'm Pat Dyer. At Utopian Stone, we believe beautiful jewelry should be as unique as the person who wears it. From custom-designed jewelry and stunning gemstones to one-of-a-kind gifts and expert repairs, craftsmanship, and personal service are still at the heart of everything we do. Today, my son, Mark, and his wife, Denise, and master jeweler, Chad, are proudly carrying that tradition forward. Stop by the corner of Pine and Broad Street in historic Nevada City. Utopian Stone, we design what we make and we make what we sell. Visit utopianstone.com. This from the KNCO B&C Ace Home and Garden Center Weather Center. Ace is the place. Here is your forecast on KNCO News Talk 830. A heat advisory in effect again today with a high temperature in the low 90s and a light easterly wind. Going to be clear overnight until low 64, sunny and not as warm on Friday with a high in the mid 80s. Clear down to 60 Friday night and then sunny on Saturday, cooler with a high in the upper 70s. For weather anytime, click on the weather center at knco.com. I'm meteorologist Dan Holiday on KNCO News Talk 830. Hi, KNCO News time, 936, 79 degrees, going to get into the low 90s, a lot like yesterday. Clouds out there, probably going to make it feel muggy. The guy that knows that is Dwayne Strausser, who has been on the job already today dealing with parking lots in Grass Valley, which a lot of people just went, what? Yeah, parking lots in Grass Valley going on. By the way, having Hanson Brothers do these projects, I love that. I love not just because they're local, but their workers are local and they take pride in what they do. I mean, there are some laws, obviously, with bidding and quotes and stuff and you have to be equitable. But going back to my days in Nevada City, we always, always, when allowed, legally promoted keeping our dollars locally with local contractors. Why would you not? Yeah. No, exactly. I mean, the way they did the work in the sidewalks outside, I know you had a part in that, outside the fairgrounds and all these improvements. Yeah, those are amazing. Yeah, they're just so much safer. Yeah. Just having a traffic flow and pedestrians. Well, so many people, especially during the fair or any event at the fairgrounds, they parked down in that mining area and, you know, down by the taco place. Yeah. And they used to come up in front of the turn onto the freeway. There was no place to walk. I know. It was crazy. No place to walk. It was crazy. You should have seen the people while that construction was going on and I was helping take all those trees down to get them out of the way and to prevent the hazardous trees from blocking the project. How many people, during construction, wandered down from Brighton Greens, the county facility up there, across the on and off ramps? Yeah. With traffic flying up and down. Flying up and down. Yeah. Were those all cedar trees? Primarily. We had quite a few pines. The cedars, luckily, most were dead, dying, diseased or presented a hazard over the, it was actually the property owner initially that approached the county, I mean city, of all those rental homes up there on the hill because those trees dominated sitting over them and they were on the bank side so the root systems weren't even in the deep soil. Yeah, they were almost falling down. So mostly cedar with a few pines. Yeah. When these parking lots get redone, since we're just talking about this and we have WM here, do you have to kind of make sure that things are done the right way so those trucks get in there? I know they try to get in there obviously early hours before business is open. Yeah, exactly. We've got our fire department trucks, we had a meeting this morning with the law enforcement and fire safety, the agency there, Buckley and all those folks, UPS, FedEx, you name it, waste management. So you've got to definitely juggle work with Spencer and our public works crew to kind of coordinate and Zach and usually we do it on Fridays because City Hall is closed on a Friday. Oh, okay. This morning just happened to be one of those short notice, take advantage of it or don't and I chose to so. Yeah, alright. Alright, well I appreciate all the work that you're doing there, Dwayne, without a doubt. I love the idea of having these bins showing up in Grass Valley and the education process, we'll work on it hard to make sure people are putting the right things in there. Because in Nevada City, we've talked about it, I've taken it upon myself because I walk my dog over there by the creek, that hey, you're putting the wrong stuff in there. Yeah, it's an issue and it's also primarily for residents, so not the landscapers. The landscapers come, they still use it and they can fill it up really fast, really fast. I think that the one in Nevada City is going to be moving to where there's a camera, you know, so that's another way to monitor it. Yeah, okay. And we will be installing game cams, it's, yeah, we just want people to do the right thing and most of our landscape companies are spot on, wonderful partners, but you get a few. Yeah, yeah. It's more convenient if you're doing landscaping in downtown Nevada City, rather than going all the way out to the transfer station, way convenient to just pop all your stuff into that Pioneer Park bin, but it's not meant for that. Yeah, see, because I'm looking at that zero zone, you know, right along the house and stuff about pulling out the stuff I have and kind of putting down like a hardscape and maybe, you know, doing something different there, you know, just looking at alternatives and stuff, but that's the thing, knowing that there's bins that are close by, maybe to dump that green waste off is a great thing. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we will give an exemption if there's somebody in that neighborhood paying to have landscaping work done and it will help save that Grass Valley resident some money on paying for the hauling. We would allow them to use a bin for that if they're right in the same block, but we've got to see that it's helping that resident. That's what this is about. This is tax dollars. Yeah. So is that how it's paid? It's like agreements with WM that Grass Valley has or is it, how does it work to get the green bins out there? I'm hiring them. Yeah. We're just going to deliver them. We're just going to come up with a program, you know, wherever, you know, the city of Grass Valley decides they want to put them, you know, we will just haul them out there and we'll see if, you know, if we need to pick them up three times a week, you know, like in Pioneer Park, it's three, four times a week, you know, we remove that bin and replace it. I mean, don't get me wrong, Tom, both Nevada City, Grass Valley and the County, we do have a lot of days built into our contracts where we get free, a lot of free effort from waste management to help us out. But this is in addition to that. So I am actually using my budget, which is specifically for wildfire fuels reduction, safety improvement to hire them to bring them out and they're extremely reasonable. So yeah. All right. So again, people are going to be pretty excited about it. Yeah. Without a doubt. Yeah. Well received. Definitely. Definitely. So hey, there's something I wanted to bring up. There is a zero waste event this Saturday. Zero waste event. Yeah. Okay. So let me guess what it is. Is it the Food X event? No, that's another one. Zero waste event. Zero waste event. Yeah. Now that one's at the Foundry. I believe that one's on September 26th. Oh, maybe you're right. I think it is the end of the month. And that's going to be an interesting one. Yeah. So no. The one that's happening this Saturday is at the Alpha Building. When was the last time you were in the Alpha Building? Inside? I don't know the last time. Inside. It's been like forever. Yeah. Probably from one of the bike races. Yeah, probably. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's been a long time ago. Yeah. What's up with that building, Dwayne? You know what? I would never. I love that building. Gary Tindall or Ken Baker, and they do so much for the community. I think it's just been a hard fit for anybody, including them, to find the right thing to go in over the years. Yeah. The last thing was what? Broad Street Furnishings? Yeah. Cost prohibitive to go in and do literally millions on a remodel, potentially. They've already done a great job externally with the new windows. I think a lot of us over the years have floated ideas to them. It's just nothing has really fit the puzzle quite right yet. Yeah. Yeah. What would you like to see? I mean, you're a Nevada City lady. What would you like to see there? I'd like to see Broad Street Furnishings go back in there. That was a great store. So a furniture store. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I bought three couches from them. Yeah. That was awesome. Roxanne? Roxanne was really good. But now we do have a pretty nice furniture store in Grass Valley, though. Yeah. Yeah. So that's nice that we have that. Yeah. West Home there. Yeah. But no, I haven't been in that building in so many years, so I'm pretty excited about it. So yeah. I heard it might be like a little performing arts venue at one point. That would be neat. Yeah. Concerts. I think there's always need for that. Yeah. Although we have some other new venues up in Whistler and Pines coming in that are world class, so we hate to water that down. Right. I mean, they talked about a conference center at the time attached to the new owners of the National, but then simultaneously then the Holbrook came up for sale and they bought both of those, so the money went away to blend the Alpha into a facility across the street from the National. So I think there are still some creative ideas out there when the funding becomes available. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's even the thing with In Concert Sierra and Crown Point Ventures. It's been the finalizing the funding, get this thing finished, it's been the toughest thing. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Money's tough. Well, anyway, so yeah, that's kind of a- Such a zero waste event. Yeah. Zero waste is kind of a tough thing to do, but- I think Michaela's driving that, right? Michaela's driving it. Yep. She is. But you know, WM is pretty good with sponsoring zero waste events, you know, like the Phoenix Open and the MLB, and it's successful. It works. It's a lot of effort. I've been waiting for the tickets for the Phoenix Open- Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. For decades. I have those in my, yeah. That's in my box. They're in my box. Yeah. I mean, that's been dangling in front of me, Dwayne, for years. Yeah. That goes back to Art Rasmussen and Steve Cameron, way back. Yeah. Yeah. I would like to go as well. I don't necessarily want to volunteer, but, you know, I do know- I'd be happy to take you back. There's my old stomping ground. I'd be totally fine. I know. I know a lot of, you know, my team has volunteered, and I've heard the stories, and, you know, it's a lot of work. Oh, yeah. I mean, they're up at, you know, they're up first thing in the morning. I mean, it's, you know, and it's cold in the morning. Oh, yeah. It's cold in the desert in the morning. It is cold in the morning, and, yeah. But I will say, the idea that that could be a zero waste event is an awesome thing, because they have millions of people. And the amount of volunteers is crazy. Yeah. It is amazing. The amount of volunteers is amazing. Tom, why don't you just volunteer to go? Volunteer, Tom. There you go. Volunteer to go. Volunteer to go. Yeah. Maybe I'll do that. Yeah. But, you know, it can happen, you know, and so we'll do our best, you know. I mean, basically, you know, just it's all about just sorting everything into the right container and just make sure you don't leave anything behind, you know. Yeah. There you go. It's not a lot of science. Okay. So, let's talk about the Alpha building. What's the event, though? What is it? It's called Zero Waste. Michaela called it Zero Waste. It's Zero Waste. So, there's a lot of vendors. There's a lot of vendors. There's going to be some speakers. They're going to do the Repair Cafe. It's going to be there for, I think, between 2 and 4. I will be there representing WM. You say Repair Cafe like I know what that is. Oh. What is Repair Cafe? Yeah. I'll be down there Saturday supporting Michaela. But you have a blender, a mixer, a toaster, something that's not working. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, if you have a blender, a mixer, a toaster, something that's not working, and with the right support, fix it. Don't go buy a new one that's made out of plastic and add to the landfill. Exactly. You know like the old-fashioned days? Somebody can fix that? Somebody can fix them. Exactly. There's a lot of people that can actually fix things in this town. And so, they are volunteering their time to fix things. I mean, so, you know. Yeah. And I'd rather fix a 1970s steel toaster than buy a new plastic one. Yeah. Exactly. Oh, no doubt about it. Yeah. Exactly. So, to me, that's the attitude is repurpose the things that are durable enough to be reused. Wow. And it happens all over. There are repair cafes all over the place. It's not just us. You know, but there are, you know, it's a common thing in many communities to have a repair cafe. So, it's, you know, it's a pop-up. It's popping up all over the place and it's going to pop up on Saturday at this Zero Waste event. Very nice. In the afternoon. Yeah. All right. So, you just show up? Just show up. Just show up. Bring your, yeah, bring your weed eater. Bring your, something that's not working. And see if these volunteers can fix it. Yeah. You know, people that know how to do that know what they're doing. Yeah. That's what I love. You know. Yeah. They usually have a great sense of what's wrong and they fix it quickly. Kind of like the SPD Saw Shop. Those guys can fix anything. I'm there daily. Yeah. There's something to be said for all this stuff. Yeah. All right. That's a great event. Yeah. So, we'll see how it works this year. And hopefully, she'll get some traffic, you know, the Zero Waste. I mean, it's right there in downtown Nevada City during the Farmer's Market. Yeah. So, I mean, it's going to be busy. It's supposed to be a beautiful weekend, too. Yeah. So, there'll probably be a lot of pop-in traffic. And I know that there's going to be a lot of, there's going to be a few local vendors selling their, you know, local products. And then there's going to be some, you know, Nevada City Rotary's going to be there. I mean, WM's going to be there. There's going to be some, you know, just some eco vendors. Do you guys also have, like, a big presence with the Draft Horse Classic going at the fairgrounds? No. You know what? We have not. Okay. I just wondered. Yeah. We have not. I mean, you know, definitely, they get bins. They get recycled bins and, you know, organics containers. But we have not been out to that event, uh-uh. Okay. No. I've been to the fairgrounds. I mean, next week is the Farm Day. Mm-hmm. Have you been to the Farm Day event? No. I mean, third graders, yeah, all the schools in the county, all the schools everywhere, yeah. No. Even the charter schools. It sounds wonderful. But I'm kind of stuck here. Yeah. You're stuck here. Exactly. But that's a neat event. So that's next week. Well, it's mostly for schools. Maybe I should send the news department out. You know, it would be an interesting one to cover. Yeah. Well, I mean, this guy. He has nothing else to do. Yeah. He's from Missouri. He's like a farm kid anyway. Yeah. There you go. You know what I'm saying? You can do some creative marketing with the word waste when it comes to draft horses. Yeah. I think it's all about the horses. Yeah. Yes. It's all about the horses. And some serious-sized road apples coming out of those horses. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, let's take our last break down here, the homestretch of our visit with Dwayne Strasser, Lori Ruddy. So a quick break. We'll be right back. Discover the stories that shaped Nevada County on History Unfolded. Hosted by Tom Fitzsimmons and myself, Mike Stewart. With special guests, the 2nd and 4th Mondays at 9 a.m. on History Unfolded. We'll be right back. Discover the stories that shaped Nevada County on History Unfolded. Hosted by Tom Fitzsimmons and myself, Mike Stewart. Discover the stories that shaped Nevada County on History Unfolded. Hosted by Tom Fitzsimmons and myself, Mike Stewart. With special guests, the 2nd and 4th Mondays at 9 a.m. Brought to you by Mowl Paint and Glass, serving Nevada County since 1949. And Smarter Broadband, local, reliable, high-speed internet. Don't miss the voices, the stories, and the history that make our community unique. Right here on KNCO News Talk 830. If you've opened your insurance renewal lately and thought, how can anyone afford this? You're not alone. Across California, homeowners and businesses are facing skyrocketing premiums, reduced coverage, and in some cases, cancellations altogether. But there's hope. Rockrow's Risk is changing the way wildfire insurance works. 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News Talk 830. And KNCO News Time. Just about 953.81 degrees on the homestretch here of our visit with WM and Lori Reddy in the house. She's educating people about recycling, about your organics, getting all this stuff taken care of, and Dwayne Strausser here from the City of Grass Valley. Of course, he's been working tirelessly in so many different capacities to try to make everybody fire safe. And again, the whole idea of these green waste roll-offs showing up in Grass Valley for residents in different neighborhoods and stuff. Do we have a timeline when that might start? Soon. Soon. Waste management is waiting on me, but I'm hoping that we'll have the program put together by the end of this month and we can move forward this fall. Yeah. All right. Soon. I was just checking with that. And I realize you didn't put an order for bins. As soon as possible. And we're past bird nesting season now, so we have a lot of kind of this little relaxed fall window before we... And again, our fire season is year-round now, as we know, but we hit the easier temps. People will be able to go out in the yard and pull their stuff out and pile it and not be in 100-degree weather. So I think the next couple months will be ideal. Yeah. Here's the thing for everybody out there, because I know we have so many new residents all the time. It's, of course, September 11th tomorrow, and it's obviously a big National Day of Remembrance, 25-year anniversary of what happened. Oh, wow. I forgot about that. Yeah, that's tomorrow. Yeah. 25 years. Okay, but September 11th locally is the 49er fire, which was the landmark event that really... The whole idea of defensible space and what could happen in homes being lost, that happened on September 11th. Did it really? That was the opening day of it. Yeah. How long ago was that? 11 through the 15th. 1988. 1988? Yeah. I don't remember that. Yeah. Yeah, it was 1988. I could put it into Niner fans. I think Dwayne might be a 49er football fan. It was the day that the Niners were playing a morning game, Sunday morning, in Atlanta against Billy White Shoes Johnson and the Falcons. They gave him a touchdown when he was stopped about a yard short. I mean, he was clearly short of the goal line, but they actually let him kind of crawl in. They called it a touchdown. There was no instant replay review, and that changed the thing about getting reviews on scoring plays. How do you remember these things? Because, believe it or not, after that game was over, I noticed there was somebody next door to where I lived off of Oak Street, Squirrel Creek Road, and my neighbor had a little do-it-yourself, not do-it-yourself, but auto repair place. Oh. And this guy was dropped off. Nobody was home next door, and so he's there looking around my property. I said, no, I guess if they're not home, I said, well, do you need a ride home? Where do you live? He goes, well, I live in Alta Sierra. And I was in a good mood because I'm not a Niner fan. Niners love it. I said, okay, I'll take you there. And so I threw my daughter in the backseat of the car. Katie, we drive over there. Well, I drop him off. I turn around, come back, and I see this plume of smoke that looked like historic pictures of Pearl Harbor. Oh, my gosh. With the plumes of smoke coming up. Yeah. I've never seen anything like it. Turned on KNCO, and I think they were just starting to get reports on this fire that broke out. And that, of course, changed the radio station here. It used to be, it wasn't news talk back then. It was music that they played on the AM side. Wow. And then all of a sudden it was news talk. After that event, they went 24-7 to cover the fire, and they decided to change the format and everything. Wow. It was a big landmark event for the town, though. So what areas burned? What would you say, Dwayne? It started. Wildwood, Deer Creek Corridor going down. Yeah. Down east of town, down towards Penn Valley. Yeah. It was actually a transient that set toilet paper on fire. As tragic as that still sounds. Yeah. Okay. It was a homeless person up there towards the ridge. Uh-huh. And it went down that Deer Creek flume and just exploded. It just was dry and incredibly strong north winds. Yeah. If you're on Newtown Road going westbound down before you hit Pleasant Valley, you can still look kind of down the hill towards the Wildwood area and see areas that have never recovered. Yeah. Never recovered. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I was in Reno this last week, and as we came into Verdi, I mean, right over that Somerset housing development, all the hills are black. Yeah. I could not believe how close that fire was in Reno. Yeah. It is. That was a scary fire. And there's not much up there. I mean, there's no trees. It's just grass. That stuff is so volatile. Yeah. The dry shrubs and grasses and with the winds up there. And the winds just, the embers go, and then all of a sudden that becomes a fire. It explodes. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, that was a big one. So that's the thing for people out there that might be new here. You know the calendar's changed to September, and you've had a couple of cool days that you think things are relaxing. No, this is kind of the heart of it right now, Dwayne, to make sure your fire's safe. It'll be getting worse if we look at past, at recent past patterns between now and December. Yeah. And our firefighting professionals are all gearing up for that. You know, the public thinks we're already in the middle of it and we've gotten past it. No, we're just getting started. Yeah. Unfortunately. Yeah, the Camp Fire, which of course destroyed Paradise, the town of Paradise, that was in early November. So this gives you a great idea that this is a corridor right now. We're still in fire season. In the middle of it. So when we talk about these green bins, take advantage of them. Yeah. Okay, when they show up to really continue to clear your property. Fill up your personal green bins. That's what I was just going to say. All the residents, pack those things full. That's what I said. This is the season to do it. Exactly. I have a good-sized green bin, and I just do those a little bit. Even if it's half full, get it out of there. It doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah. And even, you know, we're known as one of the, if not the, oldest counties per capita in the state now. So we have a lot of residents that are in the senior category that have a hard time physically going out and loading this stuff. Yeah. And the DMV report, I think it shows most recently that only 12% of all Californians own a truck. So people don't have a truck to do this on their own. Yeah. And then they can't afford $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 to hire somebody to come with a trailer and do it for them. Yeah. Yeah. And that's where I come from, WM. Yeah. Super affordable. Super affordable. Yeah. And that's where I am. I'm one of these people that, because of my health issues that I have, it's tough for me to find the energy. But I could at least do half a bin. Even on a senior discount, you can add a 96-gallon green cart for $10 a month. Well worth it. Well worth it. Duane, do you have to go back to work now? Oh, man, I'm chomping to. We both do. I need to get right back down there. Okay. Get out of here. Thanks, Tom. Duane, thank you so much for showing up. Lori, same for you here at WM. You're welcome very much. All right. We've got ABC News coming up here at the top of the hour. It's followed by Moe Howard with Swap Shop and the Shopping Show next here on KNCO News Talk 830. Music. Barg. --- end of transcript ---