Santa Cruz
>> The Santa Cruz County Grand Jury released three reports Wednesday that
looked at local organic waste management efforts, the sharing of firefighting
services and the annual inspection of county jail facilities.
According to
one report, the county needs a regional agency that can run a comprehensive
organic waste composting program, which is currently in the works.
Without that
infrastructure, the grand jury said Santa Cruz County and the cities of Santa
Cruz, Capitola, Scotts Valley and Watsonville won’t comply in 2020 with AB
1826, which requires jurisdictions to create a recycling program by 2016 to
collect organic waste from large businesses.
The law is
hoped to help the state meet its goal of recycling 75 percent of all waste by
2020. The county currently recycles 71 percent. And with local landfills filled
almost to the brim, the need is even greater.
To meet the
75 percent target, the county wants to rev up recycling organic waste. Now that
its curbside garbage pickup contract is expiring in 2017, the ability to
compost food will play a role in choosing the next waste hauler. In addition to
its pilot composting program bringing waste to Marina, which the grand jury
believes isn’t a viable solution, the county Public Works Department is
exploring the infrastructure necessary to compost food commercially with local
city partners.
“One issue is that our current pilot program
depends on Marina, which is a small facility, and its expansion plans are
talked about, not fully planned,” said grand jury forewoman Sara Cordell, a
retired biochemist and computer programmer, “so as other jurisdictions also
decide that they need to compost, that will exceed its capacity.”
County
Public Works officials did not return requests for comment.
In a second
report, the grand jury found that several of the county’s 13 fire protection
agencies should share services or consolidate for a more regional approach to
firefighting and to save costs.
While the
grand jury recommends that the Aptos-La Selva and Central fire protection
districts merge, they recently passed a three-year plan to share fire
prevention services, such as a public safety specialist and a fire marshal.
“Saving
costs is a side effect,” said Central Fire Chief Jeff Maxwell. “We both had a
need for a subject matter expert.”
The report
also notes $1.5 million in upgrade needs for the Santa Cruz Regional 911
Computer Aided Dispatch system, recommended consolidation for the financially
vulnerable Branciforte Fire Protection District with Scotts Valley Fire
District and the maintaining of the separate San Lorenzo Valley districts,
which rely on volunteers.
A third
report, the 2014-2015 Jail Inspection, had no recommendations this year. Grand
jurors toured county jail facilities in August as part of their orientation and
returned for inspection visits in early 2015.
Recent grand
jury reports include unfunded pension liability and homelessness.
June
25, 2015
Santa
Cruz Sentinel
By
Samantha Clark
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