Show: Insight Station: KNCO File: 10:8.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-08 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. And KNCO Newstime, just about 907, 72 degrees outside, beautiful blue skies. It has been very warm, it's going to continue to be, well, hot, really, when we get around to the afternoon hours. It got that way yesterday, it kind of started out nice, but the sun does its work starting about now. So if you have to run errands, get them done. Keep the pets at home, if you can do that, and an errand to maybe check on your neighbors, you know the neighbors that might need some help. I always think about that with Thursdays, especially, because in my neighborhood, that's when WM's picking up our cans and stuff. And so doing an errand for your neighbor could be as easy as taking their cans down to the edge of the roadway there, maybe bringing them back up later on in the day, things like that. We talk about that a lot with some of those areas that have like a million cans at the end of a road, and it is a mass site for WM to pick up and all that stuff. That's one of the things we'll talk about today, as you know, it's usually a Lori Ready day. Okay, Lori Ready dominates the airwaves the second Thursday of the month, and she is up in Truckee. Now, it could be for fun and merriment, but Alex is here from WM. Alex, I understand it's a working day up there, and it has to do with the environment or something, right? Yes, so Lori and our Public Sector Manager, Rachel Haynes, who I think has also been on this show before. Yeah. They are up at the Nevada County Sustainability Summit in Truckee. So meeting with other sustainable companies and local jurisdictions, you know, to talk sustainability and, you know, what we can really all do collectively to help our environment. See, Alex Ozleski, what's your official title up there at WM? The Grand Poobah, right? I'm the District Manager, so here in Nevada County, I oversee not only our collection side of things, where you put your garbage cans out on the curb each service day, but also the transfer station over off McCourtney Road as well. You're in charge of that too? Yep. Oh boy. You know what? That has been running fine. Do you get good reviews on it still, or do you hear them, or does the county hear them? I think both us and the county collectively hear them, and I know that there's still, you know, opportunities to improve, but with the new facilities we have over there now, with the new public receiving area, the new scales, I know it's greatly improved the customer experience at the transfer station. And on WM's side, we're just continuing to look at ways to keep those improvements rolling and just continuously improve over there. I will say this about having two guys here, because Evan's here from Nevada City, and you're like a regular, frequent flyer here, Evan. At this point. Yeah, at this point. The men rule today. I don't get to say that much, but you guys are all here. Is it kind of a weird thing, though, you know, I think about the relationship between City of Grass Valley and WM. It seems like a good relationship. Is it weird being here, though, with the people that are here? No, you know, and I'd say, you know, since Alex has been in the position, he's been really responsive to any time we have a concern, and somehow I've kind of become a point person for some garbage and waste management concerns of the city at points. So I have his direct phone number, and he gets phone calls frequently from us. But he's very responsive, which is great. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I do love WM is so involved in the environment. A lot of people don't look at them that way. They just look at them as the guys that kind of just drop a trash can and knock it over. Seems like people just want to complain about WM. I feel just the opposite, because when I was a little kid, I wanted to be a garbage man. I wanted to run the truck. I wanted to do all that stuff. Am I too old to do that at this point? No, never. Never? Never. Why am I not buying that, Alex? Okay, it might be too old for me. But it is a great occupation, right? There's a lot of great benefits that go on to working at WM. Yeah. No, 100%. I mean, we're definitely an employee-first company. That's one of the big things that we try to establish with our culture early on. When we bring new people on board, when new managers like myself, I've been at the site up here, I was telling Evan before we came on air, for about a year and a half now. It's just really establishing that employee-first culture and showing that we do care for our employees. We want to make sure that they're taken care of and give them, ultimately, the resources to succeed in their current role and then, eventually, maybe have the opportunity to progress their career into a new opportunity. Yeah. Of course, these guys run hand-in-hand for what you're trying to accomplish there, Evan, as far as having a place where fire safety's improving in the city of Nevada City and things are being taken care of as far as dropping off the green waste, getting it out of there and stuff. How's it going over at Pioneer Park? Alex and I, that's probably our number one conversation piece, is talking about the bid in Pioneer Park. Is it good or bad? If we're talking, it's usually because there's some issue, so it's typically bad. I will say, for the past month or two, not to jinx it, it's been pretty good. I was going to add, I haven't received a phone call from Evan regarding Pioneer Park, at least, I'd say since maybe June or July, so it has been pretty quiet. Ultimately, that service is for the community in Nevada City and for them to have a resource to drop off their yard waste, their green waste, for fire safety, defensible space, all of those things that we talk with the city about all the time. I think it truly is being used by the community now, compared to what it was previously when I would receive weekly or monthly phone calls from Evan and we'd game plan and come up with solutions. Yeah, because of the commercial people. Commercial use and just overfilling it, you know, WM can't pick it up if it's past the brim, so we put out a big sign recently, which I think helps. I think it does help. Do not overfill, because if it does, ultimately, if it was regularly overfull, we would have to remove the bid, which we don't want to do. We don't want to do that. Well, this is how, you know, we love Pioneer Park, Evan, to tell you the truth. It's beautiful. It's in Grass Valley, but I take my dog over there and he enjoys the creek, he enjoys playing ball out there in the field, which is really nice. And those bins, if I see a commercial guy starting to unload there, I actually walk over there and just say, hey, this is like for residents, you know? I do feel, I think I've mentioned it before, but I feel very fortunate for the community of Nevada City, because we do have a lot of watchdogs that will let me know if certain companies have been using it or if it is nearing the overflow mark and things along those lines, which is really nice to see. All right. Is there a number to call that's on the bin? You know, I don't know if we have a phone number on it. I don't know if there's one there. Most people have my phone number, and it's available online, so there's always a way to reach out. But if I go there and I see it kind of getting to the top, I can do the same thing, right? When I'm walking my dog, just give WM a call and say, hey, I'm over here. Yeah, exactly. And our phone number is on the side of the bin, so you can call our phone number, you know, for yourself or if anybody in the community, they have anybody on our team's phone number, whether it's myself, it's Lori, it's Rachel, it's one of our other managers, feel free to give one of us a call too, and we can make sure that gets addressed and work in partnership with the city. All right. Definitely. One more thing about Pioneer Park. Yes. Children's Festival. This weekend. This Saturday. This Saturday is a big-time thing. So if you're in that area, one, hopefully you're attending the event, but two, it might be a little congested. Now, see, Evan, you have, maybe it's because of your curly hair and stuff, you almost look like you could be, except from the Robin Hood days, this is like a... Interesting. Yeah, it's like a medieval renaissance type affair for kids. I don't usually get that one. I usually get like Will Ferrell or some other, you know, famous people with curly hair. It goes hand-in-hand when you think about it. He could just put on a costume, you could be the same way. Are you going to be up there at the festival? I will not be at the Children's Festival, unfortunately, but I do only hear good things about this event, and I really want to attend, but I don't have kids, so I feel like it might be a little weird, but maybe one day. No, no, it is a wonderful thing, and I did talk to Judy Mosley, who helps put it on, the other day, and if you want to help, it's thechildrensfestival.com, I think is the website. It might be .org, but thechildrensfestival.com, I think, is the website, and they need help actually tearing it down on Sunday and getting the castle put away. We've got to be careful, because on Sunday, we have a half-marathon coming through town, the Champion Mine half-marathon. Yeah. Busy weekend in Nevada City. It seems like every week is a busy week in Nevada City lately. Yeah. That's kind of how we roll. All right, and when those things roll out, do you guys work hand-in-hand with WM, then, if we need extra bins, extra things like that, when events happen? They typically, in those situations, work directly with the non-profit or the Chamber of Commerce to really hash out where the bins go or what's needed, which I know they're also really good about being responsive about and organizing with those partners. Yeah. That's why I'm excited that you're up there in the Truckee area today talking about the environment and needs, because it seems like you guys, your goal is to have zero-impact events throughout the state and throughout the country, if possible. Yeah, no. That is correct. Ultimately, the goal that not only WM, but I think the state in general, our local jurisdictions are pushing towards is a zero-waste initiative, and admittedly, that is a big mountain to climb. But it's just important for events like today in Truckee for community members, organizations to get together and just have discussions on what we can do to continue progressing towards that goal. All right. All right. We're going to have to take our first break. Going to do that right now, as, yes, it is guys' day here on our WM visit here on KNCO's Insight Show. So a quick break. Hey, Nevada County. I'm Lucas Mijares. And I'm Jesse Etlin. We're the founders of Zion Capital right here in your backyard. And if you've listened to Dave Ramsey, you know how important it is to have someone you can trust. That's why we're your local SmartVestor pros. Lucas was named one of eight finalists for Advisor of the Year by Investment News, and has been featured in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. And Jesse's been voted Best Financial Advisor in Nevada County four years in a row. We're back by four years in a row. We're back by four years in a row. We're back by four years in a row. We're back by four years in a row. We're back by four years in a row. We're back by four years in a row. We're back by four years in a row. We're back by four years in a row. Hello, Nevada County. I'm Heidi Wingo, Executive Director of Foothills Compassionate Care. For the last 46 years, Hospice of the Foothills has been a trusted provider of compassionate end-of-life care. As our community has grown and their needs have evolved, we too have grown to include other services. Foothills Compassionate Care is now the umbrella under which Hospice of the Foothills, Sierra Community Palliative Care, Foothills Gift and Thrift, and our other programs reside. While the heart of our care is still hospice, we offer palliative care, bereavement support, caregiver resources, community education, and other services that guide you during life's most challenging chapters. As this region's only non-profit hospice provider, we are very proud to place our community at the heart of all we do. We couldn't be more grateful to have the support of donors, volunteers, staff, and community partners as we continue to bring high-quality care to western Nevada County. Call us at 530-272-5739 or visit foothills-cares.org to learn how we can be there to help you live your best life every step of the way. Dad, have you seen how outdated our window treatments are? Yeah, we definitely need to do something about that. What are you thinking? I was checking out Budget Blinds of Grass Valley. They've got so many options. Blinds, shades, shutters, you name it. Sounds good. I wonder if they offer cordless options for safety. They do. They're all about keeping it safe, especially for younger kids and pets. That's important. And where are they located? Right on 310 Colfax Avenue. Plus, they do free in-home consultations. Can't beat that convenience. Perfect. Let's give them a call at 530-274-1122 and set something up. Explore a variety of stylish options, including child-safe and cordless solutions. Upgrade your home with Budget Blinds of Grass Valley, located at 310 Colfax Avenue. Or call them at 530-274-1122 to set up your free in-home consultation today. Transforming your windows, transforming your home. Why is my lawn still drinking like it's July? Good question. Even when it's still hot outside, it's a good time to check your water use. Check your irrigation timer, look for leaks, broken sprinkler heads, and don't forget to check faucets and toilets for leaks around the house. A small leak may not seem like much, but over time, those drops add up. Take a few minutes to make sure you're using water wisely. Nevada Irrigation District, serving our community since 1921. Alright, KNC Newstime 920, 73 degrees. Welcome back to KNC Insight. For this Thursday morning, we've got Evan McClendon. He's over in Nevada City. He's keeping everybody fire safe. He loves to come onto your property and say, move that, fix that. No, he doesn't do that. It's just the opposite. As a matter of fact, he's one of the most caring people around in a very small but tough area to work in, I would say, Evan, because people really love their plants, they love their shrubs and all that stuff they have going, but we have to kind of work in a fire-safe environment at this point, huh? Definitely, and I said it kind of with the Pioneer Park conversation, but I feel fortunate because Nevada City folks really do care. They care. At the end of the day, they're passionate and they care, which I would much rather have than people that just don't care and have no interest at all. So it's nice when people actually ask those questions and want to spend more time diving into the specifics because you can make those changes and you can really walk them through best practices and things along those lines. And as people kind of figure out what to do and what not to do, I imagine there's examples of what can be done that looks really nice in some of the properties, right? Yeah, definitely, absolutely. I've seen some really good properties, even on our main thoroughways like West Broad, that have made beautiful landscaping with hardscaping between and creating pathways between vegetation and things along those lines, with an old Victorian, right? So it can definitely be done, but it does take some thoughtfulness and some effort and some education. Yeah, Alex Zaleski here from WM as well. With you guys working together, it's kind of interesting because green waste has always been a big thing. Once we embraced it as a state, hopefully we're doing well in Nevada County. But it's different in Nevada City, right? We're leaning green. Yeah. And as far as collection services go? Yeah. So Nevada City, they do have differing collection services for green waste than Nevada County and the City of Grass Valley. As most of the community, I hope, by now is aware, Nevada County and Grass Valley, they have an organics program that is picked up curbside. Nevada City, in partnership with them, they opted to go with a different option, which is clean green pickup. So essentially the difference is your organic waste, you can put your branches, your yard clippings, and your food waste into that. In Nevada City's program with the clean green waste, the yard clippings, the branches, everything's fine, but no food waste is allowed to go into that waste stream. No food waste. Okay. Food waste shows in just regular garbage, I guess, right? Yes, in Nevada City, that is correct, yeah. All right. Is there thoughts about getting compostable stuff? Oh, absolutely. Yes. There's been a couple differing ideas of how we might approach that. Luckily, on the commercial side, a lot of our restaurants already have it down, and they're already working with local farmers and pig farms where they're bringing it for a second life, right, and getting more nutrients out of it. That's what I understand. Which is really great. Like buckets and picking them up and taking them out. And on the residential side, I think a lot of people do that on their own scale for their own gardening and composting purposes, but we're definitely looking at city initiatives where we can help support a larger scale residential program, whether that's certain devices or community composting areas where people can bring their food waste and things along those lines. So still kind of figuring it out, but it's really neat because Nevada City folks are really great, and I think naturally a lot of people are already treating their food waste in their garden, which is really neat to see. Yeah. And one more thing to add, too, to clarify because Evan brought up a good point. The Clean Green, that is a residential program in Nevada City. Commercial businesses in Nevada City do have the option to have organic service, so that is incorporated for them as well. And to Evan's point, I know we've had multiple discussions with the city as WM on pilot programs and different things that we can do to enhance food waste participation in the city. Yeah. I will say Nevada City, it had kind of a weird thing. I don't know if contracts weren't finalized for a while and stuff, right? Commercials, they were getting away with kind of great pricing, if any pricing. Oh, that's what Lori has mentioned a couple times, I think. Yeah. Yeah, and now they're coming up to snuff. Yeah, so now they're actually getting charged, and they should be, obviously. It only makes sense to charge for the services and stuff. But that's all ironed out, I guess, right? I haven't really heard of any big issues. Right. I think it's gotten a lot better. And I think there's state regulators that also have been part of our consulting process and WM agreements and things like that. And I got to walk around town with them and do kind of their audit of sorts. And I was kind of at awe of how many restaurants are already dealing with their food waste in such natural ways. Like I said, bringing it to farms and things along those lines. Yeah, that's awesome. Is that just by other restauranteurs talking to how they're doing and handling those things? Yeah, and I think we kind of have an ethos in Nevada City of being sustainable and doing the right thing. And a lot of our restaurants really lean into that. So I think that's just been occurring naturally. And I don't know if this is a fair question for you, Alex. But just because the stuff ends up at the landfill and the like, is it meeting expectations as far as green waste go? What we're getting into the green waste pile and getting eventually to compost down the hill? Yeah, so I would say that it is definitely improving. We are seeing less contamination in our green waste. And another thing, too, is that we've seen increased participation. This is more of an overarching between all three municipalities in the area, between Grass Valley, the county, and Nevada City. But we have seen year-to-date compared to 2025, when a lot of these programs went into action, to October 8th today in 2026. We've seen an increase in participation where more tons of material in regards to green waste is getting properly put in that green waste channel. So then it can go be composted down the road. All right. Is everything running well? Because you kind of hinted that there might be some things that have to get ironed out at the landfill area. I mean, what improvements do you see that could happen out there? Yeah, I think there might not be necessarily specific improvements at the transfer station. I think it is just that facility, the new facility. I know that it was completed near the end of 2024. I think we're still just realizing better ways to do things. Like with anything new, you learn as you go. So I'm really happy with the progress that we've made at that facility. But I'm of the mindset that there's always something you can do better and to have an open mind on what you can improve on. So I think that's the biggest thing for us right now is figuring out what works best for us and working with the county at that facility. And how can we ultimately make it better, not only to meet diversion goals and things along those lines, but also just for our many customers that come into that facility. So they have a quality experience each time they come to the transfer station. Are Wednesdays still the toughest day to be out there? Wednesdays and Sundays are the two busiest days. It's the first day we're open to the public for the week and the last day we're open to the public for the week. Evan, you were going to say something. Yeah, talking about the transfer station and waste disposal and its fire prevention month. Good point. No batteries in the trash. A frequent thing that they will get halted on and have to stop all operations for is hazardous fire that occurs from batteries in the trash. That's a great point, Evan. And I think it's also a good reminder as we quickly, I can't believe we're almost there, progress towards holiday season. A lot of those Christmas presents have batteries, proper channels to dispose of the batteries. So we do have free battery drop-off for household batteries and lithium batteries for all Nevada County residents, including Nevada City and Grass Valley residents at our household hazardous waste facility at the transfer station. And then for our customers that have curbside service, household batteries. So think AA, AAA, DEC batteries. If you put those in a Ziploc bag on top of your recycle cart, our driver will pick those up for you. So that's a great shout out, Evan, for battery prevention month and holiday seasons when we see a lot of uptick in battery-related incidents because all those Christmas presents. Well, we've had fires at the landfill. I mean, that's what's kind of funny, right? I mean, you're going to figure, oh, everything's going to be safe out there. And all of a sudden there's smoke and something breaks out. Yeah, and we had one, I believe it was two weeks ago, where it was a battery-powered device. You know, I don't know if I heard about that one. It was a small one that fortunately we got under control quickly. Most of them are small, and our team does a great job of spotting them, getting them put out, et cetera. But pretty much every single small fire that we have, which we don't have too many, but we have one every couple of months, I'd say, is a result of a battery-powered device or a battery in some sense. Alex, you're very calm. You know, once every couple of months. I thought you were going to say a couple of years. Once every couple of months, that's often enough. It's improved. For a while there near the end of 2025, it was almost a weekly occurrence. And were they usually in back of trucks before they got out there and stuff? That's what I worry about. We have had a couple like that, but most of the ones that we do see are once the material gets to the transfer station and those piles start getting moved around as we're loading trucks to send them off to their ultimate destination, that's when we'll see those fires happen. And like I said, it's gotten better, but it still is a problem that we see to where once every couple of months, I probably sold it a little short. It's probably every month or so we'll have one small battery fire out at the transfer station. All right. So if people right now, you're thinking about making a run, but actually more than that, I know there's a laziness of people just throwing stuff in their trash can going, okay. It's in a bag. It's in a hefty bag, and it's their problem now. That's not a good attitude when it comes to batteries at all. No. Like I mentioned, we have our resources for the community to dispose of them properly, whether it's to the curbside for the household or for some of the larger batteries, you can take them to the transfer station. But batteries are very dangerous, especially in our industry here at WM to where, you know, there are instances where if it catches fire in the back of the truck, it not only puts a risk for that truck, that driver is put at risk, but depending on where it happens, other members of the community could be at risk as well. And it all starts with putting a battery in your trash where it's not supposed to be. And I hate to ask this, how much do those trucks cost? I mean, because they're absolutely beasts. You know, it's kind of fun for me when I come to work here about five in the morning. That's when they're coming to start routes and stuff. And it's like an army coming down the freeway and stuff, which is pretty cool looking. But I'm sure they're very pricey. They're expensive. It depends on the truck. I honestly would have to go with my fleet manager to get an exact number. But they're pricey. They're pricey. It's over a couple hundred thousand dollars, at least, depending on the kind of truck. Yeah. All right. That's not cheap. All right. Evan, good catch on that. Hey, like I said, it's fire prevention month, and batteries are a big topic, especially lithium-ion batteries. It's almost like you're the fire risk manager. Something along those lines. Maybe for the county, the way he's pitching it right now. Anyway, Evan's here in the house along with Alex. We're going to take our news break here at the bottom of the hour. We're also going to get a weather forecast, though it's going to be hot. We'll be right back. I'm Chris Gilbert with the KNCL local news update. Nevada County continues to inch closer to finally siting its first commercial cannabis dispensary in a narrowly defined, unincorporated location. After a two-hour proceeding at its Tuesday meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved the so-called request for applicants and an application scorecard. The dispensary will eventually open on the North San Juan Ridge or in Soda Springs. Since the meeting was in Truckee, most of the public comments were in support of Soda Springs. Daniel Wexler lives near there and was also a member of the Donner Summit Municipal Action Council. He praised what he felt was a careful, multi-year process that included numerous public meetings. I want to thank Supervisor Bullock and the rest of the board for the tremendous outreach they've already done on this issue. I think it's by far and away the most communication I've seen on any of these issues. I really like that these emotional issues, as one of the supervisors mentioned, really get the community together and involved in the county government process, and the communication there I think is very healthy. The staff memo says applicants are required to submit information demonstrating their organizational qualifications, ownership and financial interests, operational capabilities, security measures, labor and employment practices, and neighborhood compatibility, and community engagement strategies. The board has directed staff to release the request for applicants for a minimum 30-day period. And Empire Mine State Park officials are hoping a lot of people with links to the mine will be on hand for the 50th anniversary observance on Saturday. State Park interpreter Gene Ryan says many local residents are descended from the miners that work there or other mines incorporated into the Empire Mine operations over its 106-year history. You know, maybe historic photos or ephemera to bring the miners that worked here to life. You know, we have all these pictures showing big groups of miners, but to put a name and a life history to the people who worked here, I really want to capture that while we still can. Ryan says an oral history recording station will be available at the park to record stories that have been passed down through the generations, and donations are welcome. And that's going to be happening on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. And to reach Ryan for more info, call 686-7110. Join us for our next local news update at the bottom of the hour. And for news and weather anytime, go to knco.com. I'm Chris Gilbert, KNCO News Talk 830. For over 40 years, United Way of Nevada County has worked to support the people of this community. Hi, I'm Louise Reed, Executive Director of United Way of Nevada County. Currently, 13% of our neighbors live below the poverty line. Our priority is to work toward a day in which all the residents of Nevada County are able to meet their basic needs, such as food, clothing, disaster preparedness, and access to health care. Learn how you can help. Volunteer or donate at uwnc.org. Ace is the place with the helpful hardware, folks. Need a hand with your next painting project? Your neighbors at BNC Ace Home and Garden Center are always ready to go that extra mile to help. Right now, you'll save $5 on a gallon of Benjamin Moore, Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines, Clark & Kensington, or Royal Paint when you buy a color sample. Once you've chosen your paint, their experts will make sure you have the primer, applicators, and other supplies you need to get the job done. So, you only have to make one trip. BNC Ace Home and Garden Center. This from the KNCO BNC 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 today. Sunny and warm near 90 for the high with a light easterly wind. It'll be clear overnight, Charlo and the low 60s. Sunny and dry weather ahead Friday with a high 87. Friday night, mostly clear. Our low upper 50s and sunny, much cooler Saturday with a high in the upper 60s. For weather anytime, click on the Weather Center at KNCO.com. I'm Meteorologist Dan Holiday on KNCO News Talk 830. Alright, KNCO News Time 937. 75 degrees, yeah, it's going to step up to 90. That's for sure the way it's looking right now. So, again, get those errands done early, keep the pets at home, and, yeah, make it a good day out there. Cool off by next week. Nobody likes that more than Evan over at Nevada City. It gets pretty warm out there. WM drivers don't mind it if it cools off as well because they're busy hopping in and out of trucks. And I love the drivers there because they're kind of the eyes and ears of our neighborhood when they come on by. So, today's the day they're doing my route at home. So, the thing is, Evan, I know you have to take off early. You talked about a couple of events coming on, including the Children's Festival. You've got a half marathon going through town and stuff. But, I mean, are there a whole bunch of things starting lining up? Because, before you know it, the holidays are here. There's always things going on in Nevada City, that's for sure. So, yes, like you mentioned, Children's Festival this Saturday, half marathon that Sunday, and I believe the Heart of Gold gravel race, which comes through downtown, is the following weekend. Wow, that sounds soon. Okay. Yes, and on top of that, we have our regular city business, city council meetings on October 14th is a pretty important one for water and wastewater rate increases. That's the time for the public hearing and some presentations from staff and council talking about what is intended with those rate increases. And it's also the deadline, I believe, that's the deadline, for formal petitions and things along those lines. So, a lot of information on our website about that. I always recommend folks check that out. I don't want anybody to be surprised from that. And our council has been very thoughtful in their approach, and we've had some community workshops already about it. But, you know, that's kind of the last-ditch meeting there to air your opinions, concerns, questions, and things along those lines. Get involved. That's what those meetings are for, really. Yes, absolutely. So, besides that, we have, I think, November 1st or 2nd week, an active transportation workshop talking about active transportation, walking, biking, trails, things along those lines for the city and planning initiatives around that. So, those are the biggest ticket items I can think of, but definitely follow along our city website, NevadaCityCA.gov, for our calendar and see everything that's going on, because there's always something. Right. You know, I was wondering, did the city council or the powers that be give you metrics that they hope you can hit as fire risk guy to get X amount of property safe and stuff? There's a lot of metrics. And I would encourage folks, on October 26th, to come out to our Fire Safety Advisory Committee, which I'm the staff liaison for, where we'll talk about some of those metrics. Thank you for bringing it up, because we actually have five vacancies on that committee right now because it's their end of term for a lot of the members that's been on there. So, we're really encouraging folks to apply to be on that committee. We expanded it to our sphere of influence just last year. So, it's a little bit increased eligibility for folks in the community. But that's really the time we meet now every other month, typically the fourth Thursday, which the 26th of October is, and go over fire prevention initiatives. Their plan, they have a plan that was created with our community wildfire protection plan and the council's strategic initiatives. So, that's really what hashes out goals and objectives for kind of a very tight timeframe, like a year or two years out. All right. Do you guys have any things that maybe it's incorporating WM? You know, I see the claw that comes out in Sacramento when the leaves fall. I want a claw. All right. I want a claw. Oh, you want a claw. So, you don't have a claw right now. I don't have a claw. All right. Would WM have a claw? Do you guys have a claw? We do not right now either. But, you know, it's something that we could work with the city on. And we have done some really neat localized events where we will work with a fire-wise community to have WM bins out in the neighborhoods. And then our fuels crew will basically provide like an expedited curbside service where we can have larger branches and larger material and bring it to those roll-offs. So, we've done that two years now in a row. And it's been really successful. There's something about the convenience of just bringing your brush to the sidewalk. Yeah. So, that's definitely helpful. It was in the spring, but we will have one coming up in the spring of 27. We have our annual Nevada City Cleanup Day where residents of Nevada City can bring their green waste to that event free of charge that WM and the county put on in partnership. And there are other green waste events that we have out at the transfer station in the spring months as well just to really promote that fire safety and prepare for fire season. Yeah. All right. Any metrics that you'd like to meet? I mean, those that are out there? So, it's actually quite impressive. I was just preparing the staff report for that committee meeting. And we should be about halfway, maybe three-fourths of the way to accomplishing at least the vegetation and fuels goals that we had laid out for this year. Okay. So, we will reevaluate that and make new goals and set those. My goal is basically by 2029 when Measure C is back on the ballot and we're lined up for it is we'll have accomplished about 90-95% of our goals in our CWPP, our Community Wildfire Protection Plan. Wow. Well, that's excellent. That's the goal. Get within 5%. Wow. That'd be awesome. I will say some of the tree removal has been remarkable. You know, I saw some being taken down a little bit ago outside the Northridge because I was in a talk show there for lunchtime. Oh, really? Working on the town and they were, you know, working there and they had totally organized. I mean, it was kind of a narrow lot, but they were getting that stuff out there, kept traffic moving. Pretty impressive. Yeah. It's always the goal. Least impacts as possible. Yeah. All right. If people want to find more, that meeting on the 26th is the best thing. For fire safety initiatives, that's the Fire Safety Advisory Committee. And like I said, we meet every other month now. And if people want to apply, reach out to me directly. Go to our website. It's in our newsflash, so it's right there on the homepage. And the little application, which is one page, is on there. And reach out and let me know if you have questions. But, yeah, definitely excited to get new applicants for that committee and get things moving even more. All right. This probably doesn't have anything to do necessarily with you because it's not necessarily a fire risk. It's more like a recycling thing. When I go to events in Grass Valley, their trash cans are pathetic, okay, if you don't mind me saying. They look nice. They really have nice little logos on them. And it seems like, oh, if I go on the right side, this is where cans. I forget what it is. Cans and garbage, whatever. Maybe it's a 3P thing. And you look inside, it's just one can going in there and stuff. Do you guys have separate recycling things in Nevada City, do you know, and stuff? I think our street trash cans do not. I was just wondering. Yeah. So is that something they would work with you guys? Or is that something they have to get from commercial suppliers and stuff, those type of things? I mean, we're happy to work with, you know, Nevada City or Grass Valley, whoever it is, to help with that to provide a better service. I mean, for one example, with the county, but out at the fair this year, the county was able to utilize three stream trash, recycle organics cans out at the fairgrounds. And then we helped empty those and service those for them. So that's definitely something that we can work with our local municipalities on to get that taken care of. I've heard the street trash cans are a beast to get the separation down correctly. And the contamination is significant. So I think that's been a big hurdle that is universal probably between the two cities in our street trash cans. You know, it's kind of funny, though. This is what's interesting about California. I didn't grow up here, but, man, I've embraced the culture. Because now if I have something that should be recycled, if I can't find the darn thing, I'm the nut that puts it in my back pocket because I'll throw it at home. There you go. I love it. You know what I mean? I mean, that's what we should do. I've stuffed my pockets with trash before. You know what I mean? Yeah, I've been there. And then I kind of grumble, just go, why the heck? You know, I walked the Fowler Center recently just trying to throw out. We were there for a turkey drive last year. And so we all had little bottles of water and stuff. You know, this turkey, I put on a turkey costume. It's not pretty. That's pretty neat. My giblets don't do well. Are you doing it again this year? You're supposed to be. Yeah, I think so. I'll look forward to it. We'll see. That might be a reason for me to show up. Oh, yeah. You got that right. But the same thing. It's like I'm looking around going, why the heck can we not have a recycling thing here? You know, or a trash can. It's just like, it's a tough thing. So, you know, that's one thing that municipalities somehow have to work together and stuff. But that's not your gig being the fire guy. I'm always there to help, though. Always want the best. Before I let you go, is it as rewarding a job as you hoped it would be? Oh, yeah. No, definitely. I think so. You know, there's definitely other positions that I could have gone for and thought about. But I feel very fortunate that I have a community that really supports everything we're doing. And like I've said a couple times, they really care and they're passionate. And I have a great team that really helps us be successful across the board. Well, Alex would agree with me. You're a real nice guy, Evan. Thank you. You know, you're kind of mild matter and all that stuff. And I said, well, they might eat him up alive, Alex, when I first heard it. Because, you know, they tell people you might have to kind of get that, they call it the zero zone next to your house and stuff and get things kind of cleared away and stuff. What I tell people is I taught seventh grade for one year. And if you can teach seventh grade for one year, you can do anything. That's my belief. Yeah, my daughter's an eighth grade teacher. I feel your pain and her pain, too. 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But what you really need to say is something that could actually help. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. When you get a local State Farm agent, they can help make it easy and help you choose the coverage you need. Plus, they're available online, over the phone, or even in person. I'm so into this. Call State Farm Agent Mike Bratton in Grass Valley at 530-273-0521. All right, KNC Newstime, 949.77 degrees. Down to homestretch here of KNC Windsight. Again, Alex Zaleski here. He's in charge of WM here. He's our district manager. Is that the right term? That is correct. All right. That means you're Lori Reddy's boss? Technically, yeah. Technically, Rachel Haynes, our public sector manager, is her boss. But, yeah, we can say that if we want for today. We'll say it. She's up in Truckee, and we wish them safe travels up there. They're doing an environmental type of meeting up there, right? Yes, they are. Sustainability summit. And that's like a bottom line thing. It seems like you guys are really committed to that stuff. I notice on the side of trucks, there's kind of green energy trucks and things like that. That's something that WM has embraced for years now. Yeah. It's one of our core values as a company, as an organization, is just that sustainability. And what we can do to not only be more sustainable as a company, but make our communities more sustainable, and ultimately make the environment we live in a better place for the future generations. All right. How are you doing staffing-wise? You know, post-COVID, staffing got to be a little bit crazy and stuff for everything, it seemed like, including WM. I remember with the old supervisors. So how are we doing now? We're doing good. We did have some issues over the summer where we were short some drivers. Is that because they're on vacations and stuff and trying to get people in? That made the problem a little bit worse. But it was mainly we just lost some people, unfortunately, around late spring, early summer. But I am happy to say that we have filled all those positions now. We have a lot of new drivers on the road. And I know that there were some, you know, service issues during that time period. So I do appreciate all the communities we serve being patient with us during that time and understanding. But I'd say as we head into the fall and winter months, we have a good group of drivers that, you know, I'm excited about. And I think, you know, they're really going to provide that quality service for our customers. All right. As we get closer to the holidays, because you kind of brought them up in the whole idea of batteries and important things like that, they don't get thrown in the trash. Oh, my goodness. Thinking of fires just drives me crazy over stuff like that. But also there's things that shouldn't be necessarily recycled when we get to holiday time. Because a lot of people think, well, I could throw my Christmas lights. I could do my foil wrapping paper. But that's not really paper. It goes someplace else like in regular trash, right? Mm-hmm. That is correct, yes. All right. Is there a good listing like on site, you know, like on your website about what can and can't happen during the holidays? What gets recycled and what gets thrown out? So we do have a listing on our site of recyclable items. But I think that's a great idea of holiday-themed stuff. So I'll take that back to our team to see if, you know, some of those common things we see during the holiday season so we can help educate our community on what is and what isn't recyclable. All right. How's life at the top of the place, though? You know, I mean, is it everything you thought it would be? Is it tougher than you thought it would be? So, hey, I don't like to phrase top of the place. We're all one team here in Nevada County. Sure. And we do a great job. I'm watching the baseball playoffs where there is a manager. They take a lot of the grief. True, true. And you are right. As a sports fan, there are some managers that have made some interesting decisions in the past week. Haven't they? Yeah. But, no, so I got up here in March of 25. So I've been up in Nevada County working for WEM for about a little over a year and a half now. And, you know, it really has been a great experience. It was a new career path for me. And I really enjoy working with, you know, our team, our drivers, our employees over at the transfer station. I enjoy connecting with people like Evan from our community and many others from different jurisdictions and just, you know, local residents. So I think that's the favorite part of my job is just connecting with people and getting to know them and understanding how we can help them. All right. One thing I've always wondered, as I share with my listeners, we come in five in the morning here before the morning show starts, and I see that line of drivers. That's literally, I think, when they're coming out. It must be from up there in Loma Rica. Have you been part of those starts of the day? And what's it like, the atmosphere there, when these guys are ready to get on the road? So I do go to those. I'll admit I'm not up at 430 in the morning every day, but I try to make it to, you know, a handful a month. And it is a good experience. I mean, it's our initial contact we make with the drivers to where we can have a topic, whether it's safety, customer service, et cetera, that we can talk to them about. You can connect with them. And it really is a well-oiled machine. You know, getting 20, 25 garbage trucks out at the same time may seem like a daunting task. It seems that way, yeah. But we do have the process down pretty good. Sure, there's hiccups from time to time with flat tire or whatever it may be that needs to get fixed, but it's a well-oiled machine getting those drivers out. And I commend them for getting up that early every day to service our community. All right, yeah, and I just have always wondered, do they meet together and talk about things that they've seen on routes or things that have been happening too that might help out another driver and stuff? Yeah, so they definitely work together. We have some maybe more veteran drivers that will help out some of our newer guys. And we do have a – we call it our morning huddle, but we have a meeting every morning. Morning huddle, okay. That's, you know, a few minutes that our opening manager may have a couple topics to bring up. If a driver saw something, they'll bring it up. And it's just kind of a collaborative group setting where we can, you know, talk about what to expect for the day and, you know, what we can do to make each other better. They have any crazy stories they come back with like bears and animals and weird things like that? Yes, and I probably haven't heard some of them. But, yeah, and especially as we get into the winter months here, I've – fortunately, last winter was my first winter here, and we only really had one bad snow week. But I've heard the snowmageddon stories and all that stuff. So there's – it's definitely fun to talk to some of our more veteran drivers who have been here 20, 30 years of some of the things they've seen out on route. Yeah, exactly. Now, since we're talking about weather maybe eventually changing here because it's been summer for so long, it's going to be raining soon, and, yes, it could turn white and stuff. When drivers are delayed, and say it is kind of those semi-snowmageddon type of things when that happens, your car is just going to get picked up. Is it important to let the business know or you guys know that it hasn't been picked up? So we know. So we have a full process in place, and we communicate with Nevada County, Nevada City, Grass Valley if there is a weather event that prevents us from servicing customers. There is a dial-out process to where if the customer can't be serviced due to weather, they will receive a phone call letting them know, basically, here's what we're going to try again. But with weather, we know how it can change. But ultimately, we're aware of everybody that we cannot get to because of weather. And for each and every one of those customers, whether it's a residential customer, a roll-off customer, a commercial customer, we have a plan in place to get them serviced. All right. What's the biggest complaint you think you get from people? Oh, that's a tough one, putting me on the spot here. I have people kind of – they don't call the show, but then all of a sudden they'll call in and say, you know what you should have said. It's like, well, you don't always call in. They might say, well, they're always leaving the cans knocked over or things like that. I'd say the biggest complaint that we're receiving right now is community stops, which I know is an item. Right. Those are the massive amount of cans, like 30 cans all next to each other. Yeah, so those are set up to where, yeah, it's 20, 30 cans where if – in our rural community, there's sometimes roads that are challenging for us to access and a big garbage truck. So that's why we have those. So just for everybody who may be listening, that is something that we're working on and we're working on in partnership with the county on ways we can alleviate some of the pain that's caused by those and maybe minimize some of those community stops. So it's definitely something we're aware of and we're working on. It may take a little bit of time, but we're working on a solution to get that fixed. What's the worst thing that happens with it? Is that people can't get their cans out there or they're not getting brought back to their property or what? The biggest thing we see is they're not getting brought back to the property. So the expectation is that within 24 hours, if your can being serviced, it gets brought back to your property. But a lot of the issues we see, it's not brought back to the property and then people are dumping in somebody else's can when they shouldn't be and it opens up a can of orange. You mentioned bears. Animal messes come from those community stops because they're in the more rural areas of our community. Absolutely. Yep. Yeah, I see that going up Idaho-Maryland Road. There's a couple of big ones in there and stuff. That's almost like a neighborhood association, ideally, to get together and go, Hey, you know what? We need to figure out a way if somebody can help get those things out and back. Maybe that's the way to do it. Yeah, I think neighbors talking to neighbors definitely can help. But there are things that I can't go into too much detail on because they're still in progress that both WM and the county are working on together to help with that issue. And the county does seem like they want to work with WM because you guys are involved with so many things at the Root Center and collection sites. Yeah, we definitely have a very good relationship. We work well together. And ultimately, the way I look at it, we're partners and we're in it together. Alex, great job today. Great seeing you. And you look totally relaxed. I mean, being on top of WM is not the easiest thing, but congrats on you. I did okay for the backup on the radio show, too, so I'll take it. Yeah. Tell Lori she's been replaced. All right. We'll probably see her next month. All the best, Alex. Thank you. All right. Again, WM, check out their websites as well. There's always some events that they're getting involved with. All right. We've got ABC News coming up at the top of the hour. It's followed by Swap Shop and the Shopping Show, up next here with Moe Howard on KNCO News Talk at 830. All right. --- end of transcript ---