Month: April 2023

COBB AREA COUNCIL

PUBLIC MEETING

Thursday March 16, 2023 at 6:30pm

In person and Online via Zoom

Minutes (Approved 4-20-2023)

 

CALLED TO ORDER at 6:34pm

 

ROLL CALL/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

PRESENT: Cathy McCarthy, Jake Strickler, Darlene Warner, Mel McMurrin

ABSENT: Chris Nettles, Joe Schneider

 

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Motion to approve made by Darlene Warner, 2^nd by Jake Strickler. All in favor, Agenda approved.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Motion to approve made by Magdelena, 2^nd by Robert Stark. All in favor, Minutes approved.

SHORT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Glenneth Lambert – Sculpture Jam has had 3^rd Committee meeting. There will be a main event and kid’s activity. There are 2 potential sites. Need more people on the Committee. Call Glenneth at 707-296-6934 for more info.

Robert Stark – the Lion’s Club had a successful crab feed. Thanks the community for all the support. 500 pounds of crab wasn’t enough. Asked on March 5^th to open Lion’s Club/Little Red as a warming shelter. 225 Grab & Go bags were handed out. Had about 172 people come on the 1^st day. PG&E finally took the generator back after it ran continuously for 15 days.

Tom Slaight – commented about treatment at Board of Supervisors meetings, and commented on hearing of more single vehicle rollovers and falls with loss of consciousness on the scanner lately.

PUBLIC AND BOARD COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS (3 mins./individual)

Cathy McCarthy: Left something off the Agenda. There’s enough money for a new generator for the Lions Club. Will be voted on in April.

NOMINATIONS AND ELECTIONS

Nomination and Election of New Alternate to serve the term (beginning January 2023 and ending December 2023). Darlene Warner nominated Mel McMurrin. Mel present and accepted nomination. Darlene moved to approve Mel as new Alternate, Eliot 2^nd. All in favor, Mel McMurrin elected as Alternate to Cobb Area Council.

 

Treasurer’s Report – Chris (Given by Cathy McCarthy)

Charges in the past 30 days: $500 rent for The Hub; $49 for Zoom Webinar Service

$  5,415.66        General Fund

$14,589.26        Blackberry Cobbler Festival

$     624.62        Cobb Resource Hub

$  2,417.62        Emergency Preparedness Fund

$23,047.16        Operating Funds Balance

$48,082.63        Small Business Loan Fund (Originally from S.F. Home Loan Grant)

$71,129.79        Net Assets

Supervisor’s Comments- Jessica Pyska 

A huge thank you to the Lion’s Club for opening up as a warming center. There is a way for private property owners to report snow damage related to this 2^nd Federal Disaster declaration by reporting it to our OES office. Leah is the manager of our OES. You can also visit the County Facebook page and Sheriff’s page. Two CalFire grant applications were submitted this week – RCD for $5M and CLERC for $5M, all for CWPP fire mitigation projects. The Sheriff’s Department and OES is having their Hazard Mitigation meeting in Hidden Valley Lake on the 23^rd. The Lake is full! Another County Supervisor is working on creating Bylaws for all Advisory Councils around the Lake/Lake County.

Fire Season Update – Paul Duncan (Given by Battalion Chief Brian York)

With 10 days of snow, and snow down to Lake level, it was a rare time that SLFD utilized it’s SnowCAT and plow equipment to assist in plowing local roads, as County crews were limited to 3 plows and 600 miles of roads throughout the County. A thank you to PCF’s Robert Manning, Mike Hess, and Hunter Duncan at the Cobb Station. Several houses were red-tagged due to tree falls and vehicle damage. CalFire is hiring back firefighters the 1^st week of April, with peak staffing mid-May. Operation Force Multiplier will continue this Spring, the program is working.

Presentation – Terre Logsdon, Chief Climate Resiliency Officer, County of Lake

Handed out Survey, presented slide presentation regarding climate impacts on Lake County. Her position is funded by CalOES’s Jump Start Grant that was awarded last July, she was hired in December. She is the Liaison between County Departments, programs, grants, and the community; there are now 20 Climate Resiliency Officers. She will be focusing full-time over the next 5 years on the HMP. The HMP wants to see 10 projects in the County by April 5^th. Will work with CLERC to see what more we can do regarding working on evacuation routes for entire County; working with CWPP on how to do evacuation practice runs. Reviewing several funding projects. Lake Tahoe has an excellent program “Tahoe Central Initiative – The Pillars of Resilience” that she would like to use as a framework for Lake County. Each County will be getting a toolkit based on this in September of this year. The CLERC has a Hitch Observation form that can be filled out online.

Letters of Support

Harbin Hot Springs seeking a grant – Chris (Cathy) – deadline has passed, no action taken

Mountain Lions Club seeking multiple grants – Cathy was contacted by Kyle Noble asking for a Letter of Support of the Mountain Lions Club as a “Community Resiliency Center” for the purpose of applying for the available grants. Cathy asks the Board for permission to write an official letter of support. Motion made by Eliot, Magdelena 2^nd, all in favor – motion passes.

COMMITTEE REPORTS (3 minutes/individual) 

Firewise Communities – Magdelena – submitted Cobbview and Loch Lomond projects to RCD for consideration for inclusion. Loch Lomond is divided up; grants are not able to take entire number of projects. Attended the 150-year fire trends meeting and report on the Pepperwood Preserve, which focused on the Cobb Area mostly. Would like the presenter to come out here to Cobb area; Mel is a friend of presenter, and will ask.

Communications Committee – Darlene and Mel

Darlene: A lot of testing has been going on at the new “Mountain” location. There are two repeaters currently in use, “Hill” and “Mountain.” Most users are hearing really well on “Mountain.” GMRS users have had their radios reprogrammed to access the “Mountain” repeater. Some areas are not hearing “Mountain” as well as they could hear “Hill” previously. Hoping this will improve with the new Bridgecom repeater arriving towards the end of March. This will require further testing and reprogramming of radios, and hope to have it up and running by July. Check-ins have been about 30 each week. Small radios are available for sale at The Hub.

Terre Logsdon: asked about funding for the repeaters. It was mentioned the new repeater was made possible by a large and very generous donation from a private party. Terre stated there may be funding available specifically for communications and alerts. Sirens used to be in that. Terre believes the funds are within the HMP, with some funds coming from CalFire. She is putting out an email to CalFire heads with related information, having a meeting April 5^th. Darlene mentioned she has received calls that the Siren cannot be heard in the Hoberg’s area unless you’re outside. Terre will bring that up to CalFire.

Mel: Expressed excitement for how things are progressing, gave a big thank you to the Prather family, and to Precision Wireless for use of their equipment at Seigler. We need to “wake up” the 250 or so members that we already have, with only 30 or so of them checking in weekly. Talked about how we have a dual tone system, one for day-to-day use and one for emergency alert use.

Budget Committee – Chris (not present) 

Forest Health Committee– Eliot, Robert Thomas

Cobb Mountain Watershed Restoration is underway and having an event at Mandala Springs which will be in-depth education and action. Forest Stewardship Committee in April, May, June looking at 3 other sites along key tributaries managed by Siegler Springs Redevelopment Association. Brought up Robert Thomas to speak regarding the ACI (Air Curtain Incinerator). The ACI is active as of today, 1^st time in quite a while. Residential community drop-off days and place(s) needed. People from Clean Burning Company in Napa came to visit and offered pro tips on efficiency and provided demos. Other options include grinding, mulching, bio char, composting. Want ACI’s throughout the County. Need funding.

Economic Development Committee – Cathy

Cobbler Festival Committee – Cathy

Next meeting is April 6^th at 5:30pm at Cobb Mountain Pizza

Note of Thanks: Alan Hurwitz Media will no longer be providing audio/video services for CAC meetings. Cathy thanked them for their years of providing their services to CAC. Stated will need to find other audio/video provider, and there may be an option with the County.

Next Regular Meeting: Thursday, April 20, 2023

TBD: Date of Next Special Meeting to Discuss Cobb Area Council Goals, Strategy, and Budget

ADJOURNMENT: Motion made by Eliot to adjourn, 2^nd by Magdelena, all in favor, adjourned at 8:05pm