Audrey Taylor of Chabin Concepts, reported to Gridley City Council members and staff regarding economic development and the focus on solar businesses for the City's Industrial Park.
Taylor explained that her company is working on 130 leads that they received following the Solar Power International Show October 13 - 16, 2008 in San Diego, attended by Governor Schwarzenegger and Lt. Governor John Garamendi. There were 420 exhibits and 20,000 attending the four day show.
"We are sifting through the leads and will follow through with many of them," Taylor said.
She mentioned that she will take care of sign-ups for the council for the December 4 Renewable Energy forum, to be held at Sierra Nevada Brewery from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mayor Fichter and City Administrator Rob Hickey have already agreed to attend.
Taylor also reported that Mary's Gone Crackers, located at the former Signature Fruit cannery, is working with the City of Yuba City, regarding the disposition of sewage from the company.
The company had previously requested that the City of Gridley allow the sewage be disposed of for 45 days in the City's sewage system, but was turned down.
Jon Clark of Butte County Association of Governments (BCAG) came to discuss Unmet Transit Needs with Council members. BCAG is the administrator of Transit Development Act (TDA) Funds which is allocated back to counties for transit, streets and roads, requiring the City to go through the Unmet Transit needs process every year.
The City of Gridley requested $226,000 in TDA funds for 2007-2008 from BCAG. An amount of $93,580 is allocated for streets and roads, $19,163 for the City's share of the B-line system operations, $850 for capital replacement for the B-Line System, $84,468 for operations of the Golden Feather Flyer ($62,495 from Local Transportation funds and $21,973 from State Transit Assistance funds).
As in the November 7, 2008 meeting held concerning Unmet Transit Needs, discussion was raised on the need for direct routes to Chico and Yuba City.
Clark explained that BCAG is currently analyzing criteria received from residents to develop a complete report of the past years information and requests, explaining that the cut-off date is December 11, 2008 for information to be submitted for this year.
Unmet transit needs can be expressed by emailing Andrea Redamonti at HYPERLINK mailto:aredamonti@gridley.ca.us aredamonti@gridley.ca.us to be included in the report.
City Administrator Rob Hickey presented Council with a Treasurers Report for the month of October, prepared by Finance Director/City Treasurer Brad Wilkie.
The report showed that the Gridley Redevelopment Agency has $2,133,491.91 in restricted funds and $9,285.756.77 in unrestricted funds for the City of Gridley.
