Firewise Meeting October 9, 2024
LCMC Board Room
Zoom meeting was called to order at 10:05am by President Alec Pennington
Present were board members: Alec Pennington, Gary Nelson, Dave Peterson, Kathy Stafford, and Dennis Wicks.
Debbie Reamy joined as a Zoom community attendee.
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The minutes of the September 11, 2024, meeting were discussed and were approved with a motion by Gary and a second by Dave.
Treasurer Report – Gary Nelson.
The Treasurer’s Report has been published separately.
Dennis motioned the report be approved with a second from Kathy, motion passed unanimously.
Stump Dump
Gary had previously distributed a spreadsheet of those community members dropping off materials. Dennis questioned the spreadsheet saying he thought there was a column indicating the participants had an address marker. Gary said there may be some confusion in how the question was asked leading to inaccurate data. Alec said we needed to come up with a better way to ask the question.
A discussion continued between Alec and Gary questioning the tracking of the volunteer hours accumulated stuffing the go bags, do those hours apply to the stump dump?
It was also suggested that we need to have a better way of tracking community members making multiple drop-offs.
Address Markers
Alec reported there had been a couple of requests for new markers and they had either already been installed or were in the works.
Shed Update
Dave reported the shed still has some trim to be painted and Alec reported it was 90 to 95% complete.
The discussion turned to some 1/8th or 1/4th round trim to glue around the edge of the facia board and where to find the scalloped trim everyone has seen (at The Home Depot?).
While weather permitting, Dave will continue painting and Alec said the weather this coming weekend is forecast to be warm and sunny. It was suggested we meet at the shed Saturday morning and work on finishing it up. Gregg suggested we all keep in the back of our minds ongoing weather permitting work parties on the weekends with a standing 10:00-3:00 time commitment to wrap it all up.
Realty Sign
Various formats for the primary sign were discussed and again, Gary will follow up on the pricing including temporary canvas overlays for relative community messaging.
Address Markers For Businesses
Discussion ensued between Gregg, Dave and Alec about local merchants, and which might be interested in one.
Dennis is conflicted with this. He originally brought it up thinking a marker right at the front of the store would bring attention to Firewise. But that’s not consistent with placing them in the right-of-way as an aid to the fire department.
Grants
Gregg was previously tasked with exploring Grant options that may be available to us. He indicated the IRA passed by the Biden Administration had included large sums available to wildfire prevention and reduction efforts but to date these funds have not been allocated by states for any specific programs or availability.
Gregg agreed he would keep watch on these funds as to when they may become available to us.
We had previously been discussing the possibility of grants to individual lot owners for the fire wise proofing of their properties and our involvement in spreading the word on their availability. Jesse Duval has hinted in discussion with Alec that something along these lines may be coming.
Website Hosting
Dave had previously sent email to Gary and Alec indicating we were reaching our storage limit on the website, suggesting we either had to remove stuff or purchase more drive space. Discussion was had as to what we are storing and if any of it could be deleted or archived elsewhere. It was determined we are keeping all of the previous minutes on the web storage and that we could reduce this to just the previous 12 months. Older copies of the minutes would be kept on the Firewise drive on Google workspace.
Dave suggested memory and backup options were discussed as something we might want to look into.
Gregg brought forward the need for a separate portable hard drive as a prudent and more secure storage solution. Discussion included who is going to keep and manage the drive. No action items were set at this time.
GMRS/FRS RADIOS (General Mobile Radio Service/ Family Radio Service
Alec reported he has tried to initiate a discussion with Bob Burbridge (Mason County’s Department of Emergency Services). Bob indicated DEM and Hoodsport Fire are working together to determine needs and requirements for CERT before moving forward.
As Chief Sexton has various evacuation zones (fire stations, driving range, clubhouse, dog park, etc.) Dennis suggested a Firewise expenditure for a GMRS radio at these locations. Alec suggested since these radios require a license and CERT is trying to re-establish itself at Lake Cushman, and the money was specifically donated to be used for CERT and emergency communications that we should work with CERT to reach the best solution before spending this money. Since Firewise does not currently have any callout status in the event of an emergency and CERT specifically does, Alec believes CERT would be the appropriate respondent that could make use of the radios, and as we are looking at multiple evacuation zones that may be activated at the same time, we made need want to try and place multiple radios with CERT. Further, it has been discussed previously and brought up by Gary again today, Firewise should let DEM, Hoodsport Fire and Lake Cushman CERT know we have this money available and let these organizations decide how it can best be spent. As CERT is currently in a state of “flux”, discussion was tabled for now.
Status of Vice President and Secretary Positions
With a motion from Alec and a second from Dave, Dennis has two positions.
Firewise Community Wildfire Risk Assessment
Noting this has gone from once in fourteen years to now an every five years requirement, it is due this year in addition to the annual renewal report. Alec will complete and submit our reports.
Stump Dump Thank You Notes:
Dennis suggested Kathy send out thank you notes to the stump dump participants that donated money as well to the volunteers that participated.
The discussion turned to our possibly having a requirement to provide a letter acknowledging the donation with a copy retained by us. Gary expressed concern about lengthening the check in process at the stump dump event. Gary’s concern is very valid, perhaps we can work on a pre-registration form available on our website?
Volunteer Fire Department
Dennis brought up the dependence we all have on the volunteer fire department we have here at Lake Cushman. A group of people we all know so little about. Perhaps we can think of hosting a holiday meet and great happy hour or something.
Alec moved we table this until some future date, Gary seconded, and the motion passed.
With a motion from Dave and a second from Gary, the meeting was adjourned at 12:15.
Next regular meeting will November 13th at 10 am in LCMC boardroom.
ACTION ITEMS
All of us:
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Gary:
Line 55