OJAI VALLEY : Community Leaders Put on Trash Panel
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Seventeen community leaders are teaming up to encourage recycling and trash reduction in the Ojai Valley.
The new advisory group of ranchers, educators and service group members, among others, is unique in Ventura County, officials said. All other cities except Ojai are relying solely on trash experts to draft their state-mandated recycling plans.
“Most cities frankly don’t want to bother with citizen input until their plans are ready to be reviewed,” said Christy Madden of the county solid waste management division.
An agreement between Ojai and county officials led to the group’s formation last week as a way to address the valley’s special traits, officials said.
County waste management analyst Peter Kaiser said the group’s first job is to be “the eyes and ears of the community” in order to help draft the city’s plan by July 1. The document will chart how Ojai is to slash its trash volume by 25% by 1995 and by 50% by 2000.
The group will then review the county’s plan for its unincorporated areas. A final, integrated plan from all 10 cities and the county must reach Sacramento by July, 1994, according to a bill enacted in 1989 to address the crisis in landfill space.
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