COBB AREA COUNCIL
PUBLIC MEETING
Thursday September 19, 2024 at 6:30pm
In-Person and Online Participation Available
DRAFT MINUTES
CALLED TO ORDER at 6:39pm
Acting Chair: Darlene Warner
ROLL CALL:
Present: Chris Nettles, Darlene Warner, Jake Strickler, Joe Schneider, Mel McMurrin
Cathy McCarthy – absent for most of meeting due to Back-to-School night, present at end of meeting
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Approval of Agenda: Motion by Robert Stark, 2nd by Chris Nettles. No amendments. All in favor (5 Board members, 7 community members), Agenda approved.
Approval of Minutes: Motion by Mary Prather, 2nd by Chris Nettles. No amendments. All in favor (5 Board members, 7 community members), Minutes approved.
SHORT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mary Prather – the Lion’s Club raised $10K from the Blackberry Cobbler Festival which will be used for building improvements to the Little Red Schoolhouse/Cobb Community Center. Have been doing building renovations; the door off the main room can now be used as an exit as there are now stairs and the termite issue has been resolved. May have a new floor by next meeting. Will be having an October fest at the Lion’s Club on October 26th at 5pm. Tickets will be $20 presale, there are flyers around.
Magdalena – the Middletown Arts Center has extended its exhibition of “The Space Between” an exhibition of spiritual art from Lake County to Oct 7th. Open Thursday to Monday in the afternoons.
Ashley Strunk – the grand opening of Boston’s Steak House at Belmont Pines Golf Course will be Saturday, September 21st. Will be open 7 days a week from 4pm to 9pm. The bar, Broderick’s Off the Fairway, will be open same hours but Friday and Saturday will be open until 10pm. Beer and wine only for now until a liquor license is available.
Chris – Cobb LAPAC is having a public meeting conducted by the County on October 9th at 5:30pm. For details regarding the LAPAC zoom, visit www.lakecounty2050.org.
PUBLIC AND BOARD COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS (3 mins./individual)
Kies Winkleman – heard that Cobb roads project has been delayed due to the County not obtaining an EIR. Short discussion on status of project and possibly putting item on next month’s agenda. Provided a copy of the roads list. Jake recommended emailing DPW.
Supervisor’s Comments – Jessica Pyska
NO REPORT – Away at a 3-day conference in Rohnert Park
Fire Season Update – Paul Duncan
NO REPORT/NOT PRESENT – Darlene commented that we are still in fire season and must be vigilant and gave a reminder about maintaining Zone Zero defensible space.
Treasurer’s Report – Chris
Treasurer’s Report with Spreadsheet (2 pages) submitted to Secretary, and is attached and incorporated herewith as Attachment “A”
The Resiliency Initiative: Wildfire Evacuation and Preparedness Plan presented by John Speka, Lake Area Planning Council
Presented Resiliency Initiative: Wildfire Evacuation and Preparedness Plan. This is the community outreach phase. Regional umbrella for Lake County. This is funded by a $170K CalTrans grant. The Lake Area Planning Council consists of two County Supervisors: Bruno Sabatier and Moke Simon, two Councilmembers – one each from the City of Clearlake and the City of Lakeport, and two At-Large Members. APC is to assist local agencies in obtaining funding, partnering with CalTrans. Goal is to coordinate evacuation efforts with OES and all agencies, standardize response protocols for wildfires, and educate community members. There will be workshops on October 23rd in Clearlake and October 24th in Lakeport. There is a public online survey they are requesting to be completed. A plan will be drafted after the outreach phase and additional workshops will be held. Looking at next fall to have the draft plan ready. Robust Q&A to better understand what this initiative will do. Their flyer is attached and incorporated herewith as Attachment “B”
More information: www.lakeapc.org/projects/transportation-planning-projects/ or email John Speka at spekaj@dow-associates.com.
COMMITTEE REPORTS (3 minutes/individual)
Firewise Communities – Magdalena, Cindy, Glenneth, David, Laurie
Magdalena – Seigler Springs FireWise Community had a fire in their neighborhood and have setup a planning group to present a proposal to the neighborhood to organize themselves better. One thing learned/remembered was that every house should have a 100-foot hose, or a hose wrapping all the way around your home and have a metal rake, even if you’ve hardened your home for defensible space. Making use of the Force Multiplier program. Learned from the Boyles fire how important it is to know where your evacuation zone is in relation to other evacuation zones. Trying to arrange a tour to visit Gordon Springs, as they have a great firefighting setup. Cindy, FireWise Group 2 leader (includes Cobb Elementary, Estates, and Rainbow), has made use of South Lake Fire Safe Council/CLERC grant, will be getting some ingress/egress work done. Coming up on the 10-year anniversary of 3 fires: Rocky, Jerusalem, and Valley fires.
Several FireWise groups including Hidden Valley, South Lake Fire Safe Council, and Loch Lomond have started to talk about setting up events. The Valley Fire at the time was the 3rd largest in State history; it is now eclipsed by the Park Fire, which is 4 times as big. Encouraging people to fill out the Tree Mortality Survey. Only need 14 more people to get the project moving. www.lakecountyriskreduction.org
Communications Committee – Darlene
17 new members from Blackberry Cobbler Festival: 5 in Loch Lomond, 3 in Hannah, 5 in Boggs, 1 in Seigler, 2 in Cobb, 1 in Hobergs. We have 20 more radios available for sale. They can be purchased at Madelyn’s Mail Express in Loch Lomond. We have a 3rd repeater up and running, called the “Ridge” repeater, which is dedicated to the Loch Lomond/Seigler Springs areas, specifically if you are between Casale Road and Ridge Road (iffy/dead zone for Mountain repeater). This repeater has its own channels but does not replace the channels used on the Mountain repeater (channel 5 is still Loch Lomond, channel 7 is still Seigler). This repeater augments what is already in place. New channels available to communicate within these areas are simplex Channel 10, and for GMRS 24 (or 16). After the Doah Fire, it was clear we needed better communication in this area.
Mel – there will be a Ham test in Willits on Saturday, September 21st, and in Sonoma on the 28th. Our sister net, called Lake County North Alert Net, has been operating for several years now and also does check-ins Wednesday evening at 5:30pm, just before ours at 6pm. They are a GMRS only network with their repeater on Buckingham Peak that we call the “Konocti Repeater.” If you are already a GMRS licensed user and can reach the Konocti repeater, they are on Channel 27. Their email address is: lcnangmrs@gmail.com
Forest Health Committee – Eliot
Community Wildfire Protection Plan – received grant, working on contract and expect to be able to kick the program into gear by the end of the year. Will be coming back to CAC in November with an MOU between Seigler Springs Community Redevelopment Association and CAC for utilization of the approved matching funds. Hiring up SSCRA staff and recruiting volunteers. Will have draft of MOU for October meeting. John Green, Green’s Tree Service, saw a beetle that he didn’t recognize, the Mediterranean Oak Borer. This is new in Lake County this year, and needs to be tracked, especially looking at whether the management procedures are done properly, like disposing of wood, cleaning of tools, etc. which must be done a certain way. The Lake County Risk Reduction Authority’s YouTube channel has an excellent video on this. Report sightings to: www.theclerc.org.
Economic Development Committee – Chris
Busy doing Blackberry Cobbler Festival. Deferred to Cathy and Jennifer for report.
Blackberry Cobbler Festival – Cathy, Chris, Jennifer
Cathy: there were 100 vendors and 4,500 attendees this year. Cups are still available for sale. CalPine was again our Platinum sponsor and Sutter Health was our new platinum sponsor. Thank you to SSCRA for their partnership. Georgia Emerson won 1st Place in the Blackberry Cobbler contest. Thanked supporters, host, WestFest for grounds preparations, and approximately 100 volunteers.
Jennifer: vendors filled up within a week. Certain amount of space. Every vendor did extremely well, food vendors sold out. Chris: purpose came out of Economic Development Committee efforts to promote business in Cobb.
Chris: broke even with $25K in expenses, and $25K in funds raised. Will start 2025 festival with $15K on-hand. Sold out of old inventory. 651 transactions over 5 to 6 hours. Additional expenses this year were a refrigerated truck for beer sales, professional parking management, and traffic control. Local businesses had extremely great sales over the festival weekend. There was a 30% increase in sales over last year.
Next Meeting: October 17, 2024
Adjourned at 8:06pm
Respectfully submitted,
Secretary Warner