Email from WFPA –

Whew! The Chip and Haul pile is gone. Well almost, but it’s now just a
matter of some clean up that the county equipment couldn’t handle. Like a
root ball someone added to the pile and some rock and dirt laden material
some commercial contractor left us.

As anyone who has been by the Fire Station knows, this process was extended
by what we are calling the Perfect Storm effect. We depend on Yavapai
County for the equipment to load and grind up the pile. This year the
Crooks Fire disrupted EVERYTHING. The equipment was not available, the
county could not get employees to run the equipment (most likely a hangover
from the Covid and a national issue as well). The pile this year was Huge.
You all were participating as never before, then the Crooks Fire hit.
Despite being evacuated for a week, the pile grew like everyone had just
woke up to the fire danger.

A couple of things have happened.

We had the Annual Meeting (held as instructed in the Bylaws on the Memorial
Day Saturday). Parking was an issue, but we worked through it.

Access to the garbage bins was restricted. Best Pick could not empty the
containers, but people kept leaving their garbage. Not the least result of
that action is a bear finding the smorgasbord and becoming a nuisance.

Our cameras there were missing. As a result, we could not see what was
happening.

All our programs are a volunteer effort. Everything left on the ground must
be picked up by someone else.

Both the Chip and Haul are for the benefits of you, our membership. We just
had someone leave garbage in the roll off designated for the chips from the
Grinder. If we leave garbage at the designated dump site for the chips, we
will lose that free site. We are $20,000.00 in for that program this year
and that only includes the dumping costs. If we have to pay for the dump
site, we might not be able to continue the program.

We have referred that issue to the Yavapai County Sheriff for prosecution.
We have done this a couple of times and will continue that practice when we
find obvious violations of the agreement (or someone dumping without an
agreement. Our agreement limits the allowable items to household garbage.
No construction debris and no debris from contractors). The cameras we had
are missing and will be replaced to help us slow this problem down.

We appreciate everyone’s patience through all this. There were plenty of
people involved keeping things cleaned up as best we could. We do ask that
if the garbage bins are full, please don’t leave yours anyway. We
understand it’s difficult. The scheduled pickups are Monday and Friday
mornings. Make plans to wait until after the dumpsters are emptied before
taking yours down there. We work with Best Pick to add dumpsters or
additional pickups if the volume gets out of control, but these were
extraordinary circumstances.

The Perfect Storm.

Bill Loughrige
President
WFPA