Firewise Meeting                                                                                                                                 May 13, 2026

LCMC Board Room

Meeting was called to order by President Alec Pennington at 10:00 a.m.

Present were Board Directors:  Alec Pennington, Gary Nelson, Paul Bogacz, Vicki Knox, Cheryl Allagree, Boyd Lusarreta, Lynne Moran, and Mike House.

Linda Breitzke was excused.

A quorum was met.

Guest Consultant Uriel Hansen joined the meeting at 11:20 a.m.

LCMC volunteers/members in attendance in person:  Ray Menard LCMC Volunteers/members in attendance via Zoom: none

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OPENING COMMENTS:  Alec will be providing email access to the Google Drive so future documents will be online (Agenda, Minutes and Financial Report).   For today’s meeting, printed documents were provided. Gary Nelson suggested that we appoint a technical person who could help the team get onto the Google Workspace and provide some admin details going forward.

Review and approve April 8, 2026, meeting minutes: 
Gary moved to approve the minutes as presented.  Paul Bogacz seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.
TREASURER’S Report:
Gary provided the Financial Report.  Expenses for the month were discussed.  The month ending Balance was $14,946.61. 
He advised that there is an annual renewal for WordPress Forms coming up.  It is $99 for an annual commitment.  After the group discussed, Alec asked Gary to renew the subscription  for one more year.  Hopefully, we will not need to renew it next year.
Boyd Lusarreta moved to approve the Financial Report.  Gary seconded and the motion passed unanimously.
OLD BUSINESS
UPDATE FROM URIEL ON WORKSPACE PROJECTS: 
Alec advised the new team regarding background on the historical electronic programs we have used.  It has continued over time to be frustrating.  Hence Uriel has been asked to create this new more user-friendly system with tracking and data management capabilities.
Uriel presented a Scope of work document to the Board.  Testing for full operations should be done in June, and she expects the system will be fully functional in July.  She has been spending upward of 40 hours monthly on this project, but she expects upon launch, maintenance going forward should be 4 to 8 hours per month.  The design plan is set for seamless integration and should be maintenance free. 
In the new program, the public inputs a request.  As it moves through the process it is marked as NEW, PENDING and COMPLETED and at each change of process a notification is sent out as appropriate.  There are workflow issues that will be developed as they are worked through. 
UPDATE OF PROCEDURES OUTLINE PROJECT:
Alec reiterated that he will be getting everyone their passwords and he is working on getting the New User Guide posted to the Website. 
Review Wildfire Preparedness Day (WPD):
Invoice has not yet been received for the plants.  Gary has contacted the vendor, and she will be mailing it as she could not provide it electronically.  Total cost is expected to be around $1,300.  This will be submitted to the grant provider, and we need to include other eligible expenses as well.  Cheryl will be working with Gary to learn the process for paying these invoices and submitting the information to the grant provider. 

Comments about the participation and the success of WPD included:
People seemed very engaged and interested in both speakers.

Two speakers seemed to be the correct number of speakers.

Suggestions included providing refreshments next year.  (Event coordinator specialist would be another good position to appoint – could do better raffle preparation, we lost money this year)

The plant sale could include music or some sort of excitement.  Be sure to include the fertilizer availability.  We ended up with excess fertilizer.

Ray advised that the Firewise event was discussed as a great community event at the CERT meeting. 

Paul advised that there were Facebook posts that were positive about the event and he will follow-up about finding interest in the community for an Event Coordinator for next years’ event (as well as other events).  We invited the Masons to bring their ice cream trailer to last year’s Disaster Preparedness Day.

Total income from that day was $292 in raffle $112 in donations. 

It was suggested that we contact ACE for possible donations. 

Need Banners for Wildfire Prevention Day and possibly other events. 

Data needs to be collected and tracked for attendance and activities at Firewise events.

There were some people who just got plants and then left.  A suggestion was made to have a STAMP or a meeting participation certificate (small card) required. 

Ray suggested that the Fire Marshall or Sheriff Spurling are always crowd favorites that the community likes to hear from.  Not as major speakers, but as participants adding their community support. 

While it was a good event, we should consider changes so that we aren’t doing the same thing every time. 

Increased Marketing!

Further General Comments included:
Gary Suggested that we need to be more fun!  Videos! 

LCMC Banner for the Annual Meeting.  Blackstar provides the banners. 

More discussions are occurring regarding connecting Firewise, CERT, and Blockwatch together.

UPDATE ON ADDRESS MARKERS AND ASSESSMENTS:
Alec advised that we are out of reflective zeros (0) for the address markers.  Paul will provide a good inventory, and we need cost comparisons for obtaining sets of the new style of reflective numbers.  We also need more stanchions.  Gary will procure zeros and stanchions. 
Property Assessment should be taught to each Firewise Board member.  We have one requested assessment on hand but not yet scheduled.
Alec has a new document from DNR regarding Firewise assessments. 
Gary advised that assessors need to give the homeowner an idea of what they can do, Alec gives information and a nice report.  Gary keeps it to one page that outlines basic things that people can do and he takes photographs. 
Paul suggested we need to have a “standard” format for completion of the assessment. 
Paul suggested we could have the new Board Directors meet at Vicki’s place to conduct an assessment with all Directors who wish to attend.  Information regarding when and where will be distributed and the project completed prior to the next meeting.
Update on Wildfire Mitigation Grant: 
Alec advised that in early April we were advised of a DNR grant application for up to $25,000 which was due in 10 days.  Linda provided an educational material printing proposal for $2,000 and Alec forwarded the application to Jesse, Alec’s contact at DNR.  Jesse advised he could simply add the printing expense it to the micro-grant that we already had so we didn’t have to compete for the $25,000 award.  Hence, we received $6,000 approved on the original microgrant in total, for which our expenses need to be submitted by June.  The DNR $25,000 Grant is tentatively proposed to come out again in July, for submission in 2027. 
Alec suggested that we could use that grant to finance a plan that Paul had created for a competition between Divisions for getting address markers distributed or assessments completed.  This would give us time to get this done in time for next year.
UPDATE ON INSURANCE ISSUES:
Lynne Moran reported that it is a work in progress.  The Standstill Fire Station is not a manned department.  Although Hoodsport is a manned station, it is too far away to make much of a difference to the majority of LCMC properties.  Ray clarified that we don’t have a fireboat.  We have a rescue boat on a trailer that we can add a water pump onto.  State Farm and Mutual of Enumclaw are the only two companies that are writing insurance in the higher fire classes in our area at this time. 
Lynne advised that no insurance companies seem to be aware of Firewise and what it does.  She is going to work up an introduction to Firewise to the insurance industry and she feels that the new State Insurance Commissioner seems to be someone who is interested in looking at options that protect communities.
Lynne suggests that there are probably extenuating circumstances on those properties that have been cancelled. 
DISCUSSION ON MOVING TO BI-MONTHLY MEETINGS:
With the new momentum the new Board Directors are experiencing, we will continue to meet monthly for now.  We can decide at each meeting whether or not there is work that can be moved forward at the next meeting.
NEW BUSINESS
BOARD MEMBERSHIP VOTE TO INSTALL NEW DIRECTORS PER FIREWISE BYLAWS:
Gary advised that review of the Bylaws necessitate a formal installation of the new Board Directors.  Paul moved to install Cheryl Allagree, Boyd Lusarreta, Lynne Moran, Mike House, and Linda Breitzke as Firewise Board Directors.  Vicki seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
Gary also advised that the Bylaws require at least 3 Directors and no more than 12.
BOARD CONFIRMATION OF CHERYL ALLAGREE AS TREASURER:
Vicki moved to elect Cheryl Allagree as Treasurer.  Paul seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
Alec advised he can complete the technical work to change the Treasurer in the system and get her to the bank to add her as a signatory for Firewise business.
BYLAW REQUIREMENT FOR SUCCESSION DEFINITION:
The Bylaws need to include a succession plan.  This came to light due to Alec being called to Jury Duty, and there not being a Vice-President to preside over the meeting.
Gary moved that the following succession plan be added to the Bylaws: President>Vice-President>Secretary>Treasurer.  Paul seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
ELECTION OF SECRETARY
Boyd nominated Vicki as Secretary.  Gary seconded and discussion about the Secretaries duties occurred. 
Officers commit to serving for two years.  The Secretary oversees minutes being recorded and posted and deals with other documents as appropriate.  Secretary also oversees annual Firewise certification renewal for the state and for the department of revenue, updates the calendar and other notifications.  Dealing with Tax documentation and filing is the responsibility of the Treasurer.   
The vote was called and Vicki was elected as Secretary unanimously.
ADJOURNMENT:
Gary moved to adjourn the meeting at 11:53.  Paul seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
The next meeting will be on June 10, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. in the LCMC Boardroom.