Month: January 2021

COBB AREA COUNCIL
ONLINE PUBLIC MEETING
Thursday November 19, 2020 at 6:30pm
Draft Meeting Minutes
PARTICIPATE online via ZOOM
MEETING ID NUMBER: 867 0565 0580 Passcode: 112872
or
Watch and comment via LIVESTREAM on FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/CobbAreaCouncil
CALL TO ORDER at 6:31
Roll Call: Cindy Leonard Secretary here, Cathy McCarthy Chair here, Frank Lincoln Treasurer here, Jessica Pyska Vice Chair here, Jake Strickler here, Chris Nettles here
21 people on Zoom call, around 10 people on the Facebook live site.
Approval of Agenda from 10-15-2020 motion to approve, Eliot; seconded Chris, all approve.
Minutes for 11-19-2020 motion to approve, Jessica; seconded by Eliot. All approve.
Short Announcements
Glenneth states that his clay classes are now starting. Tues and Thursdays. Reach out to him if you are interested.
Spirit of the Season helps individuals and families of Cobb, Middletown and HVL during the holiday season with food and gifts.
Sign up will be on December 1st and 2ND 4-6pm only at the Middletown office of Catholic Charities. Masks are required.
CalFresh Mass Replacement Waiver Approval–31 Counties Valerie at Catholic Charities still assisting folks over the phone, who need CalFresh and Medi-Cal benefits for the power outage food replacement.707.867.6160 o: 707.528.8712
Middletown Unified School District needs people for the Bond oversight committee. So far there are only 3 people signed up for the committee and they need 7 people for the committee to be complete. The bond passed 2 years ago and they need to have the oversight committee to spend the money.
Shawn wants to praise Mel McMurrin for all the work he has done on the CAVERN radio network. He is a calming and great moderator for this program. It is reassuring to have the radio quick notice!
The Lion’s club will be doing holiday pies and the deadline to order is coming up soon!
Treasurer’s Report- Frank
Cobb Area Council General fund: $1,656.36
Blackberry Cobbler Festival $3,316.53 (waiting for $3,000 from PGE)
Cobb Resilient: $1,456.28
Cobb Safe: $851.23
Economic Development (from Calpine): $1,300
Rebuild NorthBay (for Hub office and LakeCOAD website): $2,807.42
Science Camp 0
T-Shirt Fundraiser: $4,503.89
Wilder than Wild: $161.31
AHEAD Grant: $126,135.24
Committee Reports
Firewise Communities:
Magdelena: SSCRA just reimbursed 33 property owners a portion of their lot-clearing expenses, for a rounded total of about $34,000. (If you want to add thanks out loud: Jon and Pat Meyer gave up their place so that someone else more in need of the help can take advantage.) The total paid out so far to Cobb area residents is just under $75,000.
SSCRA has $49,000 left to cover a little over 46 acres remaining in the grant project. Everyone who is interested needs to be clear that application is not a guarantee of reimbursement. Some homeowners who registered earlier last year or this year have not been moving forward on getting the work done, and there have been additional applications. You have to apply first and go through a documentation process in order to qualify for the reimbursement. The grant expires in March 2022 or whenever the money runs out, so the homeowners who are already registered are in a kind of race to make sure they get their claims in.
Tomorrow, November 20 is the deadline for this year’s recertification of the Firewise Communities:
(Cathy McCarthy has been alerted, and I gave her the names and addresses of everyone in her Firewise Community who used the grant so she can include their work in her tally. I just don’t know if she’s completed the recertification application.)
Your group of course has already been acknowledged as recertified.
Cobb View is working on theirs — thanks to the people who stopped by the Resource Hub to get a copy of the Recording Sheet so they could throw their numbers in.
Seigler Springs is working on theirs as well.
Group 3 is making slow progress in getting organized to apply for the Firewise Communities designation. Contact Gene Yoon: gene@ginsudo.com
If you are a veteran or a family member, USAA gives a 5% discount on your insurance premiums. We heard earlier this week that Mercury Insurance will give an 18% discount, but we have been unable to confirm this. (There’s nothing mentioned on the Fire Safe Marin site, even though John Nowell announced this at the RRA meeting.)
We have also been able to get the firebreaks in Cobb that were recorded by the South Lake Fire Safe Council digitized so that we can begin to compare this data to the acres treated through the SSCRA grant and will be working with the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center to address additional properties when the CEQA clearance for their new grant is completed. That could take another few months.
Thanks to all the volunteers who have been working so tirelessly to collect all the data and to all our neighbors who have been volunteering theirs!
Cindy: firesafelake.org website is now live. Please visit and check out all the information specific to Lake County (plus we need clicks for our grant reporting!)
The Resource Hub is now open on Tues, Thurs and Fri from noon to 4:00.
Cindy would like to propose a Broom Buster event in February that would be funded through Calpine Corp. Components would include a broom clearing day and a homeowner recognition program with yard signs.
Jessica has noticed that there is more beetle killed trees this year because of the drought and warmer temperatures. The Hazardous Vegetation Ordinance covers those dead trees so keep an eye on that. Jake says that the tree workers have been spiking the trees instead of using the lifts and that makes the problem worse.
Glenneth says the Jones Creek Crossing will have another Zoom meeting next Thursday.
Cindy motions that we put out a request for proposals for upgrading the Cobb Area C
Communications Committee- Mel
Economic Development Committee
AHEAD Grant Update- Eliot
Eliot had a great meeting with the Federal Home Loan SF about getting an extension. They got a virtual tour of the Cobb Resource Hub. They said it is no problem at all to extend our deadline.
4 loans are currently out and about $25,000 is left in the pot for small business loans at 2% interest.
He is continuing with the interviews of local community members and will be reviewing these with Chris.
The broadband study has hit a bit of a roadblock with the Chico State folks, so they have put out a request for proposals.
The target is to have a first report draft for the community outreach at the beginning of 2021.
There is still $2,000.00 left for the creation of the Cobb Merchants Association.
Collaborative Marketing Initiative- Jessica states that the logo is now finished so Kim Lewis can finish up the ExploreCobbCa website. It will be full of information for locals and tourists. The Facebook page has been posting lots of photos of local shops and artists.
CAC website and mailing list- update, service, and maintenance. Call for volunteers and/or bids to update the website.
2020 Fire Season Update – Paul Duncan Calfire is down staffing their equipment and staff slowly. Burn ban will hopefully be lifted soon and then we can have residential burning. The crews are down to 2 with Konocti. 17 person crews. 3 crews at Delta camp. The numbers are decreasing so much statewide that some are closing. Bottlerock Road is a priority for the fuel reduction along the road this winter.
Jessica asks if the lack of hand crews will affect the winter work. Paul says yes, it will, but the projects will still keep going. There are several burn projects planned, but there needs some additional training to get more people educated on the practice.
Jessica asks if we could get a curtain burner. Paul Duncan said he will look into that.
Larry Allen & Co.- Neighborhood Concern: Larry says that there are many neighbors who are concerned about a high-occupancy facility in their neighborhood that is about to be approved. They are concerned about noise, traffic, devaluation of homes, septic, waste and many other possible hazards. They have called code enforcement and written complaints, but they are unsure what to do about it. They have come to the Cobb Area Council to see what they should do. Jessica states that after looking into it a little bit today, she is suggesting that they find out who the labor contractor is and they might be violating the H2A worker program. The workers are supposed to move in on January 1st. It sounds like substandard living conditions. There is mold in the lower section and they have a sub-standard septic system. It was converted from a 2 bedroom to a 4 bedroom cabin.
November 3rd Elections result in CAC vacancy in January.
Cindy suggests that we amend the bylaws to re-align the election of CAC officers to December of every year so that we can then have the Board of Supervisors appoint these folks.
Chris modifies the motion to appoint a committee to look at amending the bylaws which would then be presented to the Cobb Area Council meeting for discussion. Cathy firsts, Jessica seconds and all approve this motion.
Cobbite of the Year~ Chris, Cindy Cathy will be on the committee. Gayle Albo also said she will be on it as well
Date of Next Meeting: January 21, 2020
Adjournment at 8:06 Jessica motions, Chris seconds, all approve.