Amador County – The Vicini family of Amador County last week announced the opening of their sons’ green material recycling operation on Willow Creek Road, and a regional specialist called it the first facility of this kind in Amador County. Merv Vicini said the facility will grind the natural products it gets and eventually be able to have a big enough store of materials to sell mulch, base material and wood chips to the public. The company takes natural clippings wood waste, and will also use its product to sell as fuel to a biofuel project at the former Co-Gen plant in the Buena Vista, Ione area, which burns materials for electrical generation. Merv said he and his sons were development graders by trade, but the projects lately had been slowed by the economy. He said their company, Amador Mechanical Incorporated, has done all of the projects of Bob Reeder’s Reeder Sutherland development company. The developers has 2 projects in the works around the city of Plymouth, that could build out to as many as 500 luxury homes on ¼ to 1 acre sized lots. In the meantime, the Vicini's developed a brush and tree clearing surpluses of material, which they can now turn into usable byproducts at their facility on Willow Creek Road. Merv, and sons Tony and Rick, own some machinery and they hosted the company Rayco, of Wooster, Ohio, on Tuesday (July 14th). The company showed its grinder and a tree trimmer and brush cutter. Merv said he had already purchased a grinder, and they opened 2 weeks ago as the Vicini Brothers Green Waste Recycling facility. Jill Firsh, specialist with the California Integrated Waste Management Board, attended the demonstration and was pleased with the new facility. She said Vicini Brothers’ recycling was “the first facility of this kind in Amador County.” Firsh said it will assist the county in meeting requirements of Assembly Bill 939, which says counties must divert more than 50 percent of its waste from landfills, with diversion and recycling. She said “Amador is very proactive already,” and under Jim McHargue, the Amador County Waste Department is already diverting more than 50 percent of its waste from landfills. Firch AB939 requires annual reporting by September 1st, and this year starts a new process. Vicini Brothers currently gets green waste from ACES Waste Service of Pine Grove, CALTRANS and Waste Connections of Ione. The facility, at 15850 Willow Creek Road, will also accept loads from the public. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.