Minutes- December 21, 2017

 
COBB AREA COUNCIL
PUBLIC MEETING
Thursday December 21, 2017, 6:00-8:00pm
Little Red Schoolhouse/Cobb Mountain Lions Club
15780 Bottle Rock Rd., Cobb, CA 95426
full agenda packet available at www.cobbareacouncil.org
PRESENT: Cindy Leonard, Ron Hasket, Gary Prather, Jessica Pyska, Eliot Hurwitz (Chair)
23 people in attendance
CALL TO ORDER 6:03(shut down cell phones; rules of participation)
SHORT ANNOUNCEMENTS
-Jon Lion’s Club 2:00-4:00 December 25 Christmas community dinner provided by Lion’s Club with cookie decorating for kids and caroling.
-The Lion’s club also provides food for the community the first Wednesday each month
APPROVAL OF MINUTES from November 16, 2017
Motion to approve: Gary Prather
2nd – Kathleen Hasket
TREASURER’S REPORT, Gary Prather. Current balance $2,203.32 (no change)
PUBLIC and BOARD COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS (3 mins./individual)
-Ron Hasket wants to clarify that he did not want his words from the CAC meeting last month to be mis-construed that he thinks that the first responders are inadequate or that they are not doing their job. He has the utmost respect for the fire fighters. He meant that people are needing to step up and take responsibility for yourself, not solely rely on someone else to take care of us. Gary Prather agreed. Rob Brown added that we need to be pro-active and make an effort to get security cameras and other measures to protect our property. This will eliminate some of the unnecessary law enforcement visits. (clearing gutters of pine needles and other fire safe prevention measures)
Rob Brown said that a lot of people stay behind during fires for various reasons, but it is not a criminal activity. They cannot force you to leave if you are on your own property.
Kathleen Hasket brought up the article in the Lake County News that District Attorney Don Anderson will not be pressing charges for the people who caused the Valley Fire. Eliot brought up that they were not being malicious in setting the fire.
Lake County Hazard mitigation committee report: Joan Moss
Purpose:
-increase community outreach
-improve community’s
-increase wildfire resilience
Goal: get public input and to write a grant to get funding from FEMA for a County Hazard Mitigation plan
Cecilia Nelson from Habitat for Humanity is here to ask if we could put a link for the application on the CAC website. There is a grant money available for low income folks age 62 or older that need help for a home repair.
-Her home and one other are the two that are being built on Cobb by Habitat for Humanity
Rob Brown: 70 or so applications have been approved for CalHome project, and they are still looking for more people to apply (including renters)
Hope City is still continuing to build. All the money raised by them for Valley Fire must be used specifically for Valley Fire. (cannot be used in Santa Rosa, for example)
Cathy asked Rob Brown if the county might re-look at hazard mitigation for all the dead trees that are still standing. Jessica said she is especially concerned about the trees right along HWY 175 where the owner refused for PGE to remove the trees. They are really a danger. Karl Parker said he emailed photos of those trees to Lars Ewing a year ago with no action.
Short reports from CAC Committees as needed
-Karl Parker report on Hobergs Resort: The never-ending story.
Last month we reported that Ray Raminski had signed that the cleanup goals had been met. And the official letter was sent on December 15 of this month. Karl reads official letter. Wood waste must be continued to be cleaned up. Monitor erosion control.
Concrete processing continues, volume of wood continues to decrease. Cal works grant ended, but they hope to get a new grant to help with labor costs.
A request was made to please do everything possible to improve the look of Hobergs for the public. They have tidied up cars.
Hobergs did not receive help from the CalRecycle program, so they have had a great financial burden. Roughly their expenses $400,000 for Hazmat workers, $78,000 for testing, $75,000 dump fees, $489,000 equipment costs. Cal works grant helped with cleanup labor only.
Eliot suggested that Karl might state to Hoberg’s that they could be involved with the updating of the Cobb Area Plan. Karl said he will let them know.
Rob Brown thanked Karl Parker for all the time and effort put into his Hoberg’s reports for the Cobb Area Council
PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS
Water and Fire –Eliot wants to continue the discussion of what our community can do to for fire prevention, continuing the Neighbors Helping Neighbors program or the FireWise program. Ron agreed that we could have a few people to do some training to be able to go door to door to give people suggestions to make their home fire safe. We could identify a few trainers, like Gary, others. A video presentation with law enforcement as well as fire responders present. Jessica pointed out that one of the biggest problems is the absentee property owners who are not here to cut tall grass, clean property.
Taking the time to prepare for next year’s fire season
-Ron, Gary and Eliot will work on a program to make a community presentation on possibly Thursday March 1st at Cobb School multi-purpose room. Show a video, talk about house-to-house visits.
Rainbow Bridge update by Robert Stark:
-There is no more bridge, thanks to Ken Gifford, Steve Moore, Ben Murphy. Bailey bridge came out in 6 hours. Don Prather helped with the disassembling of the bridge in another 6 hours. Fish and wildlife insisted the old bridge also come out. That was a more difficult project with the i-beams to cut out. Then the abutments also had to come out because they dropped. All was dug out behind abutments, 26 tons of rip rap was stacked by Steve, the east side abutment had two pieces of rebar to be removed. The previous bridge must not have had a Fish and Game permit, so there was much work to do to bring it up to appropriate standards. From now, it is up to Cobb Area Water District and the County to take the next steps.
The grant money should arrive to the water district in April or so, and the hope is that the bridge would be completed by the end of summer 2018. Thanks to Rob Brown with assistance with the acquisition of the block grant. Robert Stark has agreed to help Ben to find the bridge builder contractor. Abutments must be on hard ground and not in the creek. If we can get the original Bailey bridge signed off on by and engineer, then we will use it.
CORRECTION- Robert Stark-
1. Rainbow Bridge, there was only one 6-hour period to remove the Bailey Bridge.
2. The abutments were not removed, remained in place and leaned back after digging out behind them.
3. Strike the “Previous Bridge” sentence.
Water system consolidation: flyer has been prepared by Cindy Leonard with names of representatives to contact. Please let us know if you would like your name printed as a supporter
Robert says the application is submitted, the County is working hard to help with the consolidation. We are now only short about $3 million for the project (out of about $20 million). This is record time for a project of this size for a consolidation! The State of California Water Resources Board is very committed and behind this project and is spending a lot of money to push this project forward.
The goal is that each customer will pay $50 a month rate, eventually after the entire process is finished.
Meeting adjourned at 7:37 Robert motion to adjourn, seconded by Gary.