Cobb Area Council – August 18, 2017
Draft Minutes
PUBLIC MEETING
Thursday August 18, 2017, 6:00-8:00pm

Little Red Schoolhouse/Cobb Mountain Lions Club
15780 Bottle Rock Rd., Cobb, CA 95426

  • CALL TO ORDER (shut down cell phones; rules of participation)

Mtg called to order at 6:03pm                  (32 people present)

  • SHORT ANNOUNCEMENTS
  • Pat with Acme Foundation Fundraiser at Black Rock
  • Raise money for veterinary costs – doing a fundraiser – only do one per year – main fundraiser
  • Lisa Kaplan – with MAC Invite everyone to the show Witnessing at MAC – asking for submissions as well as invite everyone to come. Also inform everyone about Resilience classes for the community – supported by an Arts Grant (look on website for details)
  • Jon with Lions Club  announcing 2 events  Pine Grove doing Bingo and dance

Also Pancake Breakfast labor day

  • APPROVAL OF MINUTES from June 15, 2016   Robert Stark moved to approve

Jessica Pyska – 2nd
all in favor

  • TREASURER’S REPORT

Gary account balance $
No expenditures since last mtg

  • Supervisor update report – Rob Brown

Ron Haskins  – supervisor mtg last Tues re: issue of lack of building inspectors. Many contractors were present. Rest of BOS members beside Rob and Moke got a better understanding about the difficulties in our areas due to lack of inspectors. BOS is working on resolving the issue.
Rob – 4 inspector positions 1 became vacant, then 2 more left – only down to 1 now.
At mtg – one of the suggestions was to have contractors do inspections on other contractors’ work (which they can do) and this will help the process along. He has done basic inspections himself as well to help so inspectors can do the major inspections like finals on builds.
Some solutions – engineers can also come out and certify
For re-roof those can be done too
Remote inspection with online inspection tools/programs
Many options they are working
Assuring that it is not going to be a big hold up.
If anyone has a permit for a build, the county wants to know if the owner is ok with this temporary type of inspections
Insurance extensions – Carol Hutchingson is on the phone lobbying to get the extension. He is confident they are going to get it.
Robert Stark – question about Rainbow bridge. County is continuing to work on this – on Agenda for the 22nd. Rob Brown will look into tomorrow to see where things are at up to date. County will contribute the extensions
Ques re: cannabis agenda item. Rob Brownsaid this has been put off due to the more pressing need for building inspector issue.
Also announced Job Fair – Tues at 4pm for recruiting anyone who wants to do volunteer or paid work to help with current community development needs
After Workshop on Tues an further session, from  6-8 in the BOS chambers will be held for contractors, engineers to go over how to address the situation
Ques – from Rich Curtola about Rainbow Bridge. Clarify that county is not going to fix the bridge.
Barbara Flynn– informed that we will cover that next in the mtg.
Rich C – very concerned about county not helping out more. People are in that area that are unprotected. He doesn’t believe that the county is not fighting for us.
Barbara – asks how is county doing on gathering of money on the cleanup. Rob B reports that it going well. We extended the payment from 1 yr to 2 yrs.
Robert Stark – Asks about the county not having maintenance records to give to FEMA and so now they are not giving the county money. Rob Brown stated that FEMA never said they would give the county money for roads. So it is not an issue since they never said they would give us money for the roads.
Ques – 4 positions of inspectors how many are left? Rob stated that there is still one inspector left – Brandon  Holleran– he did inspections with him all day long
Ques – private property at rainbow bridge – that is why county can’t fix the bridge

  • PUBLIC and BOARD COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS (3 mins./individual)
  • Robert Stark – re Rainbow Bridge he working with Alta Rock Corp (who now owns Bottle Rock Power) foundation specs were given to the county with live load and capacity included. Working with David Coleman (who started the bridge project) Alta Rock stated have to go to the people who made the bridge to get all of the specs, so they can get those to the county. Zone of Benefits – county in charge of that – If we form an assessment district is the county going to do the same thing?

The county doesn’t have the money to give money to get the project started. (Discussion about the process and how dependent upon the situation how they can approach it.)
Ques about costs and offsets if assessment dist vs county paying? (Discussion)
Rob B. – everybody with the county is for the bridge. Just needing to go through the process.
Rob B. – suggests getting started with permit with fish and game immediately to get things started.
Ques – Cindy – Is friends of Cobb paying money for cost of the bridge?  Robert – yes they are paying money for it, but they will be expecting some of that back – through community events, etc. Cindy – ballpark – how much will Friends of Cobb be putting into it? Robert – $20,000.
Working with local people re: use of equipment to help move the bridge and help keep costs down.
Fire Safe Council 1st Wed at 2pm  South Lake Fire Board Room – Madeline stated that the council would like to invite CAC and any members to come to the mtg to assist with grant writing and solutions for funds to approach now. They need people that can write grants to come help them pursue grants and write the grants
Rob – Karl gave presentation at BOS mtg and said it really helped the BOS to know more about what was going on at Hobergs. Thanking Karl for his efforts in helping this process along. He said the county would not have the ability to monitor this the way that Karl has.
Barbara – ques – Did Konocti resort sell. Rob – it is in escrow. A group that looks serious about the sale (Russian group purchasing it – they even had to have translators present)

  • Short reports from CAC Committees as needed

Karl – Hobergs abatement monitoring committee
Thanking everyone on committee for efforts as well. Gave presentation to BOS – structural debris removal took place and asbestos removal. The main thing now is the soil testing – focused on heavy metals. Testing has to get completed – then any mitigation having to do with results of soil testing has to be completed before concrete and some of wood can be finished.
Got info that soil testing was complete

  • Robert – update on Cobb Area Water agreement with Hobergs development for water use. It’s in the works and they are trying to show an agreement so that Hobergs investors will see that they have water access in the future. The details are still being worked on.
  • Madeline – asked Karl for both Bertelli and Wink to get contact info so Calfire has contact info with Hobergs development mgmnt.
  • Gary – FYI firewood friend just bought from them was really good quality firewood

Ques- -others concerned about firewood being brought onto the property still.

  • Emergency preparedness report – Gary – latest Nixle report systems and how they worked during last smaller fire incidents. He noticed that Calfire alerts take a little longer than Nixle alerts due to dispatching needing to be done with Calfire.

Ron – ques for Gary – Did Nixle report ever say which direction evacuations were taking place? Gary – no it did not. People evacuating need to know which direction the fire is headed so they know how to evacuate.
Some in audience said they didn’t get it at all.

  • Fire siren update – Madeline – HVL this Sat btwn 2-3pm will be testing their sirens – they have 3 sirens. Also they are doing a big celebration on that day with fire info South lake fire and fire safe council will be there.
  • Barbara – update for Cobb. Madeline says they have marked their spots already and electricians are in the process of looking at that area next.

Hazard trees -Update on drafting letters to neighbors to take care of hazard trees. What to do if letters sent prior did not work?
Madeline Suggested – your insurance can contact their insurance and see what can be pursued from there
Gary – suggested South lake fire help create an ordinance like what was done in the Riviera
Rich Curtola – asked by several people at Pine Grove and their opportunities to have their voices heard. Multiple audience and Board members stated that any property owner or renter in the Cobb Area is welcome at our meetings. They always have been.

  • Continuing community preparation for the upcoming 2017 fire season including update on “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” brush clearing program. 

Cindy – 1st clean up day Aug 5th  – 5 residents that were needing help (elderly, disabled) they completed work on 3 of those properties. It was very rewarding! A team of 4 people helped that day.
Sept 9th next clean up day – there are 7 more residents that need help. Volunteers are needed for teams to do the work for these people on Sept 9th
Barbara suggested a sign up sheet – to place in the pub to help gather volunteers.

  • Adjourn

Jessica moves to adjourn
Cindy 2nd
Mtg adjourned at 7:27pm

2 Comments

  1. As of October 14 2017 with fires raging in Sonoma Napa etc we all want to know THE STATUS OF COBB SIRENS.

    1. We had planned to have the fire chiefs come to the meeting this month, but for obvious reasons, we need to reschedule. Hopefully, they can come to the November meeting. Stay tuned!

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