Month: October 2017

COBB AREA COUNCIL
PUBLIC MEETING
Thursday October 19, 2017, 6:00-8:00pm
Little Red Schoolhouse/Cobb Mountain Lions Club
15780 Bottle Rock Rd., Cobb, CA 95426
MINUTES
PRESENT: Cindy Leonard (Alternate), Jessica Pyska, Eliot Hurwitz (Chair), Barbara Flynn
22 people in attendance
Chair called the meeting to order at 6:05PM
Agenda
• CALL TO ORDER (shut down cell phones; rules of participation)
• SHORT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Jon- Lion’s club announcements: kitchen is now available for rentals, Event Facility – Little Red Schoolhouse available for rental. $300 for up to four hours, $500 full day, additional $150 includes kitchen. 120 people maximum indoors. Call or email for booking, 707-881-3037 or mountainlionsclub@gmail.com. Free use of Community Center for charity events. Call us if you need the Mountain Lions to help you.
Monthly bingo starts tomorrow night, Friday October 20 6:00. Food available, bar open. It will be the Third Friday of every month.
Wednesday November 1, the Lake County Gleaners are having a food giveaway 8:00-10:00, then 5:30-6:30 for community members who are in need of food. This will continue for the first Wednesday of every month.
• APPROVAL OF MINUTES from September, 2017 Motion, Barbara, Seconded Ron Haskett
• TREASURER’S REPORT Gary says there are no new changes. $2283.27 current balance from $3,000 original grant.
Nominees to fill the empty Secretary seat on the Cobb Area Council.
-Cindy Leonard is nominated to fill the seat, all in favor
-Ron Haskett and Cathy McCarthy nominated to fill the alternate position for the Cobb Area Council
Ron is currently on the rebuilding committee and is really driven to help continue the rebuilding of the Cobb homes. He would be covering an important role for the council
Cathy is a teacher and wants to see improved communication for our community. She also want to help support the Lion’s Club center.
Show of hands to elect Ron to our council. 14 for Ron, 8 for Cathy.
Ron is elected to be the new alternate member for the CAC.
• PUBLIC and BOARD COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS (3 mins./individual)
Joan Moss brought a DVD with the recording of the Lake County Board of Supervisors meeting that was held October 3, 2017. We listened to the portion related to the Abatement of Hobergs. Scott Schellenger said he is about 7 days for the permit to remove the lead contaminated soil and take it to S. California. They will then be complete with the county clean up requirements.
They will then begin grinding concrete to use for road base.
Rob Brown brought up there were two returned checks and will this affect clean up? Scott said he does not know about the financial details.
What are the erosion control measures being done?
They will be controlling the water that runs across their property so it avoids becoming contaminated. They want to maintain the swales for water runoff.
The target date for clean up completion was October 15, assuming they got their permit.
Ron states that the foundation concrete that is ground for road base should not have absorbed toxins since that type of concrete is more dense than other types of concrete. So it should be safe as a road base.
Joan stated that she was reassured by Scott’s report to the Board of Supervisors.
Items from Magdalena:
(1) If you know of anyone affected by the Sulfur Fire, please let them know a Local Assistance Center (LAC) has opened up at the Clearlake Senior Center on Bowers Street (go out Old Hwy 53 past Safeway). The hours are 9-7pm through Saturday, and may be extended. Many of you may remember from the other fires that these one-stop shops of Federal, State, County, and nonprofit agencies were very useful in replacing personal documents, getting drinking water, food, and debris cleanup tools and other disaster help.
(2) Also, Seigler Springs Community Redevelopment Association (SSCRA) – the only 501c3 helping individual survivors with long-term recovery that is based in Cobb – has a booth at the LAC. SSCRA has partnered with SHARE, the Shared Housing and Resource Exchange to offer temporary housing help. Last weekend alone, 600 home providers from the area and all over the country responded to the call for disaster housing — whether rooms, apartments, or even whole houses. We also need more local providers in Napa, Sonoma, and Lake Counties. SSCRA and SHARE will vet the renters. Interested homeowners and renters can contact us at (707) 809-5505.
we could be looking for shared housing help as far away as Vallejo and Colusa County as well.
• Short reports from CAC Committees as needed
Emergency Preparedness:
South Lake County Fire announcement from Madelyn Martinelli:
They were presented with an agreement from Geysers Power Company (Calpine) for the siren on the Socrates Mine Road, which will be for the Anderson Springs community. The agreement is for 10 years. If there is an impact on their business or disruptions on the property, SLCF would be liable for $1500 per month and to reimburse them for any damages. They would like 1 million insurance for the siren. Access would be limited from 6:30 to 9:30 at night, no holidays. So the council refused this agreement and countered with a new proposal from Mike Wink. Currently we are waiting for a response from Calpine.
All the sirens will be installed at the same time, so a proposal to look for a new location was suggested.
Twin Pines bought one siren, Calpine funded others. The wiring has been done, we are waiting for the last location so we can install all together.
Hidden Valley residents all had an assessment to pay for their sirens. They have been installed and were found to not be loud enough. They are looking into how it can be improved.
Robert Stark’s notes from Facebook:
October 14 at 11:01am ·
For the record, the emergency sirens for Cobb were approved in December of 2016 with funding from the Cobb Community Investment Fund Committee (Calpine). The entire project is under the control of the South Lake County Fire Protection District exclusively.
Hidden Valley was the first of the three locations to install and test them (beginning this September), the results of that testing have yet to be made available to the general public as it does take time to assess their effectiveness.
The siren on top of Cobb Station was removed years and years ago, as with the advent of pagers and later paid staff, there was no need to call in the volunteers by its use. It was tested daily at 12-noon, which became an annoyance to neighbors of the station, and that was that.
The old siren may be up in the attic of the station, but it isn’t something you can just slap in on a moment’s notice. So here we are in a situation where it might yet serve a purpose, but is not available, although recent events may serve as a call to action.
Other items related to emergency preparedness:
Mel: there are many layers of things we need to keep on top of:
-Ham radio operators
-land lines (so ATT does not eliminate land lines) perhaps one land line per neighborhood
-Cathy says we should look at Crescent City as an example. They have an emergency evacuation plan, sirens, cell communications, meeting points and the community practices the plan. We could look at them as a resource.
-We should work hard to get every resident to sign up for NIXLE alerts
PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS
• General Discussion of current issues
a company is coming to Lake County to make compacted soil building blocks, if there is positive community response. They will be in Middletown next week. They say they are fire resistant and good for building fire safe homes and businesses.
• Rainbow Bridge status
Jessica has a report from Robert, who is out of town:
The bridge will be owned by the water company, and received $200,000 block grant. The water company will have ownership and do the maintenance of the bridge. A water company line will be running under the bridge.
The bridge will be removed and replaced by next summer. They will be working with Jeff Lucas and the Cobb Water District consolidation.
• Authorize payment for annual website costs Domaine is $15 and $12.95 for privacy.
Post office is $52
Motion by Glenneth that we approve all expenses. Kathleen seconded, all approved.
Meeting adjourned at 7:13.

COBB AREA COUNCIL
PUBLIC MEETING
Thursday September 21, 2017, 6:00-8:00pm
Little Red Schoolhouse/Cobb Mountain Lions Club
15780 Bottle Rock Rd., Cobb, CA 95426
MINUTES
PRESENT: Cindy Leonard (Alternate), Jessyca Lytle, Gary Prather, Jessica Pyska, Eliot Hurwitz (Chair)
13 people in attendance
 
Chair called the meeting to order at 6PM
• SHORT ANNOUNCEMENTS
General:
Eliot H. – spoke with Byron Turner – in next month should see process of updating Cobb Area Plan kick into high gear
Lions Club Announcements:
Kyle – Crab feed Oct 14^th fresh Alaskan crab with raviolis. Hired a DJ for dancing. Funds will be used to support Little Red
Oct 4^th–  Lions doing food give away, donated by Gleaners 8-10am. Need 24 families to start regular food drive. Every 1^st Wed of month – no forms to fill out to receive. Different program from Hunger Task Force; they will connect.
Oct 20^th – and every 3^rd Friday of the month at 7pm Lions will do family Bingo night. Food concessions as well. Like the Lions on Facebook to get updates of information.
• APPROVAL OF MINUTES from August 18, 2016
1 correction to minutes from Richard Curtola, “county” should read “county supervisor”
Motion to approve: Robert Stark
2^nd – Richard Curtola
• TREASURER’S REPORT
Total: $2,283.27
1 check written for cables to use for mtgs
1 check intended for web domain
• PUBLIC and BOARD COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS (3 mins./individual)
Jessyca – Stepped down from CAC – thanked everyone for being a part of creating, organizing, and running CAC in first year. Wished CAC well in future projects, etc. Cindy Leonard, Alternate, will take Lytle’s position on the council board.
Cindy – Asked Robert Stark to update on Rainbow Rd Bridge
Robert – Fish and Game permit submitted. $5,000 pd by Friends of Cobb Mtn.
1^st thing to repair is broken beam.
Next goal- determine how new and old bridge are affixed
County owns current bridge – Robert will ask the county to just give the bridge to Friends of Cobb and/or the water dist. So then we can just do what is needed with old bridge and replace it with a new one.
Friends of Cobb may just buy a new bridge to replace at this point if it is the easiest?
• SHORT REPORTS from CAC Committees as needed
Mitigation Committee –
Karl Parker: Hobergs update. Showed slides of before and after from a year ago, including aerials, to today and discussed progress. Cleanup recently slowed again because manager had property in Florida affected by Hurricane Irma.
<Get report from Karl…>
Eliot Hurwitz: Attended Lake County Fire protection mtg. We were encouraged to look at areas up here that could be set up for fire-wise communities. Fire season is not over yet…
Gary Prather: Last year, they didn’t lift burn ban until over 20 inches of rain. Very conservative last year.
Question: Fire siren updates?
Answer: Do not know.
Jessyca L. suggested that next mtg we have Calfire officials come to mtg to give updates on fire siren’s for Cobb area.

• Also to give information about what grant funding will be available in the future for fuel reduction, chipping programs, education programs, etc. since the fire prevention fee will not be in place for many years now.

Beverly Hill:  Heard at a BOS meeting that five fire chiefs for Lake county want to move their emergency dispatch to St Helena??
Gary – Sirens were turned off because they were old and responders were relying more and more on beepers for emergency calls. The problem has always been how to tell people what the siren alarm means and get word about where and what to avoid. Moving dispatch to St. Helenea is an ongoing discussion because the chief feels that adding Lake Co to that dispatch area might be an overload on that dispatch. St. Helena would be carrying 6 counties for dispatch then. Nothing has been changed.
Magdalena Valderrama: Reminder re: CodeRed alert system – handles more local system, closer than Nixle system
• SUPERVISOR’S COMMENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS
Rob Brown not in attendance – no new news
Nancy Kaymen – Building department here, unofficially. Invited by Kyle Noble to come and give an update on status review. Department is now caught up on building inspections. She was recently hired away from another county and happened to already live in the Cobb community. Just posted advertisement to hire a 3^rd building inspector. Rob no longer out doing inspections. County hired three local retired contractors who are doing inspections too. Department just interviewed for Plan Checker position. Acknowledges it’s less expensive for the county and the individual to do the plan checking in-house. Further questions, call her at 263-2382.
• PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS
Andy Nestor:  Update on Lake County Broadband Solutions, a new broadband service for the Cobb Area with high speed wireless internet to Cobb and all Lake County.
Introduced Terre Logsdon as their new Chief Operating Officer.
Started planning phases 5 yrs ago.
Just completed fiber work to the Seigler Mountain tower. Circuits will be turned on and live at the tower as of this coming Monday.
Building 1^st link up to the office at the old Work Rite building in Kelseyville; then raise a few more antennas that will be aimed into Cobb area.
Will start serving Cobb estimated in end of October – beginning of November
Go to:  lake county broadband solutions.com  (temp website)
Put name and address in and that will let them know that you are interested in seeing if you can get service at your address; will soon start marketing, but this will give them an idea of the service concentrations needed
Services provided residentially have no caps. You can stream movies, etc.
Once initial tower site and office site are linked they will be moving out and expanding from there.
In the future they will be tied into state OES networks.
Also will have weather stations to track weather and air quality locally on their towers and network as well
Q: Where are the tower locations?
A: Towers and relay points will be on private property, via lease agreements with the property owners. Maximum 12-15 feet tall.
A: Antennas are like home wifi router antennas. They are small like having a satellite dish, but smaller. The technology is “terrestrial point to point”, i.e., allows uploads speeds to be much higher and consistent because there is no time lag going up to and back from a satellite. The system will be able to keep and maintain that speed and not fluctuate. Also no data caps. Good for businesses and residences.
Q: Cost estimates?

• Income qualified – approx. $26 per mo. Have to qualify for Calfresh.  20 mbps download 5 mbps upload — still way better than what people are getting now
• Regular residential – approx.. install $149  $52 per month  40 mbps down 20 mbps up
• No contract  (buy your own equipment – no monthly fee)

Ques – Robert Stark gave card for water district to give access to their tanks and towers for use.
Q: Are you a privately funded company
A: Yes…privately owned and operated. Owned by all of the people in Lake County (co-op)
If any questions go to the website and send an email.
• SUGGESTIONS FOR NEXT MEETING
None
• ADJOURN
Motion to adjourn – Gary Prather
2^nd – Jessyca L.
Meeting adjourned 7:07 pm