Post Camp Fire, we as a community knew recovery was the only way forward. After months of public input from Paradise residents, the Town Council was asked to adopt a formal “Community Vision.” At a Special Town Council meeting on Tuesday evening, June 25, 2019, the Long Term Recovery Plan was officially set in motion.

Today, this plan is the blueprint for all the ways we look forward to rebuilding our Town as the very best it can be: a safer, welcoming, stronger, better, and greener Paradise.

At the heart of this recovery is what is known as infrastructure: 

These are the buildings and services that support the operations of our Town and serve as the foundation for a thriving community. Infrastructure can generally be organized into two types: 

1. Hard infrastructure: roads, Emergency Warning System, building materials, housing, water supply, waste management and sewers, street lights

2. Soft infrastructure: healthcare system, education and school system, government functions, IT services like internet and cellphone services, administrative operations, law enforcement, banks

An important component to infrastructure is the “behind the scenes” work it takes to make them happen. These include: planning, organizing, researching, funding, and building – with several steps in between. 

Here’s an example:

Repairing our roads with more exit points is one of the most important things in our Tier 1 Recovery Projects. This project involves several steps that take time: applying for funding, working with engineers to create the most strategic plan, the installation of sewer, underground utilities and internet services, completion of tree removal, and many other items on the checklist before road work can begin.

The same applies for many other top priorities, such as a sewer system, Walkable Downtown, and the Interconnected Path System. Different behind-the-scenes requirements for infrastructure means priorities will all be completed at different rates at varying time tables.

Since the adoption of the Long Term Recovery Plan, we can already celebrate initial results of this infrastructure in the rebuilt homes, funding for our Emergency Warning System, and beginning stages of the underground power lines.

One of the best things about building fresh infrastructure is it gives us the ability to reimagine Paradise the way we as a Town want it to be and support many people and businesses returning to the Ridge in the coming years.