Draft Meeting Minutes-May 16, 2019
COBB AREA COUNCIL
PUBLIC MEETING
Thursday May 16, 2019,
6:00-8:00pm
Little Red Schoolhouse/Cobb Mountain Lions Club
15780 Bottle Rock Rd., Cobb, CA 95426
Draft Meeting Minutes
CALL TO ORDER (shut down cell phones; sign in please)6:02 p.m.
Roll Call Cindy Leonard, Eliot Hurwitz (Chair), Cathy McCarthy (arrived later), Gary Prather, Frank Lincoln (alternate), Jessica Pyska
32 people in attendance
Approval of Minutes from March 21, 2019 Jessica motions, seconded Magdalena
SHORT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Geothermal committee needs a Cobb resident to be on the committee. Ben has applications at the Cobb Area Water Company. There are grant applications for Cobb projects there too! Next meeting July 11
-Kelly announces: Memorial Day Weekend Lion’s Club Square-dance on Saturday night, Pancake breakfast Sunday morning
Robert Stark attended the Calpine seismic meeting on Monday. The history based on re-injection shows that in the spring there is a substantial amount of small earth movement, based on shrinkage and groundwater. The geologist that is involved in that project is incredible. There is no doubt that there is really good monitoring happening! We will be seeing derricks and other equipment because there are three drills going in.
Glenneth states that he is doing a class starting June 4th with natural building materials. Sculpture, cob, papercrete, etc. 4-5 people max in class.
Note that there is difficulty accessing the Lake County website if you are outside of the country
David and Trudy Wakefield from The Lake County Bloom newspaper are introduced by Jessica.
Loch Lomond Roadhouse is now having music every Sunday. Wednesday May 22nd will be a very good guitarist. The Loch Lomond Roadhouse Facebook is a great place for their info.
Short announcement: Jeff Lucas says thank you to the Cobb community for help with the survey work to re-do the income survey. It has been submitted and the survey part was approved. It was a big hurdle and he is grateful for our support.
Eric Sklar announced the Kokoro Resort (Avalon Hot Springs) on Big Valley Road in Middletown. This project is submitted to the County of Lake for Preapplication Development Review.
Jessica asks how will you ensure that Lake County residents can still afford to use this facility? If you show your ID then perhaps a mid-week discount for local residents. Eric states that this resort will be year round.
Rich Curtola asks what will the egress for the damaged roads? Eric says $250,000 would have to be put into the roads coming into the resort (by their resort). Also, his resort would be generating TOT tax to go to Lake County.
Eric says he is not targeting any particular age. Rooms will cost roughly $250 or so, so much less that over in Napa. There will be a cannibis component to this resort. There will be cannibis gardens on site, and the processing of this will be done at the Clearlake facility that they own.
June 5th is the preapplication meeting to decide what needs to be done next. Then a 4 month process to get through the hearing process. Spring of 2020 would be the hopeful beginning of construction.
TREASURER’S REPORT: Gary states total in bank $7073.05
-request from Cindy that we purchase a square card reader and also a cash box for the Wilder Than Wild event on June 14th. These are items that we can also use for other things (like t-shirt sales, Blackberry Cobbler event, etc). Jessica will have
PUBLIC and BOARD COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS (3 mins./individual)
-David asks for advice for getting rid of poison oak.
-Also, thank you for everyone for getting addresses to Mary Jane Montana for the Hazardous Vegetation inspections. They are finishing up Cobb and moving on to Anderson Springs this week.
Short reports from CAC Committees as needed
Firewise Community Update:
The May 4th community clean up date was really great! (Eliot project photos on screen). This was a great way to continue to build strength among our neighborhood groups.
The funds were dispersed to all of the working groups, with the remaining $140 going to purchase a Puller Bear for the Cobb Area Council.
It is now official that the California Fair Plan is giving a discount to homeowners who live in a Firewise Community. Make sure that you know what community you live in! A detailed map will be located on the California Fire Safe Council website the second week of June. The current map does not have specific details: https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/By-topic/Wildfire/Firewise-USA/Firewise-USA-Resources/Firewise-USA-sites
-Cindy states that she and Magdalena have continued to attend the county meetings regarding Disaster Preparedness and recovery. Cindy states that we are hoping to encourage the rapid growth of the Lake County Fire Safe Council so that it can help bridge the gap between what the many state, local and non-profit agencies are doing and what the local communities/homeowners (Firewise Communities especially) are doing. There is a rapid amount of grant announcements and we want to make sure that Lake County has the structure in place to capture all the grant money and utilize it efficiently.
These groups all have a role in this organization:
1) Fire Safe Councils
2) Resource Conservation Districts
3) Fire Adapted Communities
4) Firewise Communities
The public needs the Lake County Fire Safe Council as the liaison to find out about: upcoming power outages, help clearing properties, home hardening, notification systems (sirens), what do the colored ribbons on trees mean?
We hope that the Wilder Than Wild screening at the Soper Reese Theatre will help get the many groups together who are doing great things in Lake County but have not met the other groups working on the same thing. Creating synergy and helping us do more.
CalFire states that they are waiting on the Archaeology report on the Bottle Rock Road clearing project. They hope to have that in the next month so that their crews can do the clearing.
CalFire Grant: Homeowner defensible space re-imbursement. Currently there are 37 applications, another 7 that were recently received.
Supervisor’s Comments- not present
New Items:
Jessica Pyska- Economic Development, aka “What’s Up on Cobb”
-it will be on the Facebook page (the “Cobb-webb”)
T-Shirt Design Contest- 1st- Rosie Starchild, 2nd- Emma Wakefiled, 3rd- Samantha Wood.
Music nights at the Hardesters parking lot (maybe a Thursday night)
Joe at Pine Grove might have star gazing in the meadow, plus music
Solstice party June 22nd at Pine Summit Pool. Price to be announced, music, vendors, Kelsey Creek Brewery, Mandala will sponsor massage chair.
Blackberry Cobbler Festival Plans (Aug 24)
1st Annual Blackberry Cobbler Festival
August 24, 2019
Whispering Pines Resort
“What’s Up on Cobb” is a marketing and promotion group that was formed through the Cobb Area Council to support the businesses in the Cobb Area by creating synergy and a “buzz” to get people excited again to live here and visit here. Our goal is to help local businesses have at least one event this summer that will be open to the community, marketed to summer visitors, and promoted throughout the county. We have a team of volunteers that are dedicated to “bringing the fun back to the mountain” and want to help make this a summer the beginning of a new era.
A Day of Picnicking Under the Pines
Sponsored by the Cobb Area Council & “What’s Up on Cobb”
Bring your picnic blankets and enjoy a day of old fashioned fun!
1. Cobbler Contest with “celebrity” judge: Cobb School Principal David Leonard
2. Food-
Cobb oven pizza, Fairlight Ahlgren
BBQ
Blackberry cobbler, Lions Club
Blackberry lemonade, Cobb School Science Camp
Blackberry ice cream sundaes, CAC & What’s Up On Cobb
Adams Springs Golf Course Clubhouse
2. Vendors-
Local and Cobb artists (about 15)
Pottery, jewelry, Valley Fire art & furniture, blackberry jam, honey…
Style and Soul “pop-up” in the building
Kids play area
The donated foam play set
Kids craft area
Jumpy house, Cobb School Science Camp
3. Music-
Acoustic, picking music, bluegrass, Americana
Square Dancing
Lake County Clickers?
Bingo Bob leading dances on the grass (Eric could sub in… he’s a great teacher)
4. Passport Raffle
“Passport to Cobb” will be available earlier in the month, get all the stamps and enter the raffle.
Stamp ideas- Swim at Pine Grove, yoga at Mandala… a way to get people to visit every Cobb business.
Raffle prizes will be donations from vendors.
5. Garbage
CAC seeking local businesses to sponsor garbage cans
Asking So Lake Refuse to donate dumpster/cans for the event
Cobb Mt Leo’s and/or HS students in need of service hours to clean up/pick up trash while the event is underway and afterwards
6. Restroom facilities
How many toilets are already on premises?
CAC seeking local businesses to “sponsor” portable toilets.
motion to adjourn Rich Curtola, Seconded Jessica 7:43