RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - The Rancho Cordova City Council met on February 7 over Zoom to discuss a wide array of topics, including the advancement toward making Rancho Cordova a fiber city and the upcoming solid waste rate adjustment in July of this year.

“We are really pleased to announce that SiFi is on the verge of breaking ground on the city-wide fiber optic network installation,” Rancho Cordova public works director Albert Stricker said. “When SiFi first approached the city of Rancho Cordova, they were looking for an agency to partner with that could move nimbly and be forward thinking and they found that in the City of Rancho Cordova.”

This continues on an agreement signed in June of 2020 with positives of the project being more reliable internet to support economic development, help close the digital divide and give consumers more choices for internet. It is a projected timetable of six to seven months for the first phase of development to go live for this option.

“I think we have learned a huge lesson about the lack of connectivity in the older communities in the last couple of years of the pandemic and distance learning,” Mayor Donald Terry said.

The last major item of the meeting was to adopt the resolution for approving residential solid waste rate adjustments for implementation of the state mandated residential food waste collection and recycle program. The program, which starts in July of this year, will have a 21.5% increase this year followed by 3% rate increases on July 1 of 2023 and 2024.

Following public comment against the program and the announcement that 544 protests were submitted (9,790 was needed to overturn), the resolution was passed.

New city employees announced were Arlene Granadosin-Jones, Senior Planner; Heather Cook, Code Enforcement Officer I; Andrew Thomas, Code Enforcement Officer I; and Kristy Acuna, Animal Services Officer I.