Placer County approves extension of support to chipper program

In order to extend Placer's support of the Community Chipper Program, the Placer County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a two-year agreement with the Placer County Resource District (Placer RCD) for the program Tuesday. The board approved $175,000 in funding and staffing through the Probation Department's Alternative Sentencing Program for a pilot program in August 2021. According to the staff report, the pilot was extended in February to continue operations at the developed level of service and explore additional funding. Placer RCD Executive Director Sarah Jones provided the board with an overview of the pilot program's success. Jones noted the program is now able to have four crews, with the workforce provided by the Probation Department. The waitlist has been reduced to fewer than 150 jobs, and capacity has tripled through the program, as roughly 160 jobs are completed in a month compared to 52 jobs before the pilot program. According to Jones, 900 chipping services (4,000 tons of chipped material) have been completed since the inception of the pilot program. "I also want to commend Placer County residents for getting out and doing this critical work to protect their homes and neighborhoods, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to offer this service to the residents to keep us all safe," Jones said. "We couldn't have done it without this partnership so I want to thank Placer County for your ongoing support of the chipper program." According to Placer County Management Analyst Melissa O'Neal, the agreement will allow the chipper program to continue stabilizing through consistent sources of labor and funding. The agreement will run through June 30, 2024, provide $700,000 ($350,000 per year) in funding and continue to provide a source of labor. O'Neal said the agreement can also be renewed for two one-year periods. District 2 Supervisor Robert Weygandt asked if the program completed any mapping of treated areas. Jones confirmed she has talked to RCD's graphic artist about creating a map to show areas where services have been completed, and it will be included on a new website launching for the chipper program within the next month. Board Chair and District 5 Supervisor Cindy Gustafson suggested having the GIS (Geospatial Information System) team assist with completing some data demonstrations and mapping of parcels treated that can be included on the website. "... Kind of encourage others to participate and get on the list, because we often hear, 'There's a backlog' and people just don't get around to applying but with this great success of the program, I'd like to be able to show that on mapping," Gustafson said.