Firewise Meeting March 13, 2024
LCMC Board Room
Attendees:
Alec Pennington – President, Gregg Dahmen – Vice President, …………………….. Gary Nelson – Treasurer, Dennis Wicks – Secretary, ………………………………….. Ray Menard – Lake Cushman Fire Department Liaison, ………………………………. Dave Peterson – Historian/Navigator. ………………………………………………………. Guest – Rebecca Holbrook – Storage Shed Construction Project Lead ………Guest – Kathy Stafford – resident, volunteer
Action Items:
Alec – Lines 317, 413, 440
Gary – Lines 301
Greg – None
Ray – Lines 258, 424, 437
Dennis – None
Dave – Lines 434, 448, 449
Unassigned – 392 _________________________________________________________________________
Alec called the meeting to order at 10:00am and a quorum was present. A video recording of the meeting is available on the shared Google Firewise workspace.
Dennis got lucky, Gary motioned the February meeting minutes be approved, Ray seconded, and the motion passed.
Treasurer Report – Gary Nelson.
Gary began his February month end financial report saying that because of recent activity, February’s month-end is not at all reflective of the current condition as $12,000 has been removed from the checking account. But at February’s month end:
- Checking had a balance of: $13,176.12
- Savings had a balance of: $ 3,989.36
Total: $17,165.48
Savings funds have since been invested into three CDs at Heritage Bank which offers three terms, 3, 4 and 5-month maturity dates. Because of the anticipated cost of our storage shed, an executive decision was made by Alec and Gary to not put $4,000 into each CD but rather only $3,500 with the remaining $1,500 put into a savings account at Heritage. Ray suggested we make a motion to formally approve all of this. Alec asked for said motion and Ray then made a motion to accept the transactions, Gary seconded, and the motion carried.
Dennis questioned how the grant worked and Alec advised it stays with the state as we do all the work first, complete the project and then submit all the receipts for reimbursement.
Gregg said we should spend more than the grant’s $4,000 to ensure we get every dime out of it. Both Alec and Gary stated their agreement.
Gary passed around some more Heritage Bank forms for signature. Ray, having just gone through his wife’s identity theft adventure, expressed his objection to having to provide all his personal information as he’d actually have little or no involvement with Heritage bank. Wait until he sees what the CIA and artificial intelligence do with his identity having who knows how many different email addresses.
General Business:
Maggie’s resignation was discussed, Alec will share the volunteer hours spreadsheet with Dennis with the suggestion it be included in our anticipated database.
The annual report with the Secretary of State has been filed and Alec believes he has successfully removed Maggie from everything.
Gary completed and filed the tax report.
Gregg asked about the NFPA Firewise report and Alec said that gets done in the September, October and November timeframe and Alec has already completed it. It includes volunteer hours and an action plan.
Scribes Note: At this point Dave Peterson joined the meeting.
Alec will complete and file the NFPA annual report in October
Scribes Note: At this point Rebecca joined the meeting.
Ray motioned to approve the report, Gary seconded, a vote was taken, and the motion passed.
Storage Shed:
Alec moved to assign Rebecca Holbrook as the project lead for the construction of the storage shed and allow her to select her crew with a project meeting to follow. Kathy seconded the motion and Dennis questioned it leading to a discussion. Gregg said that first he’d like to hear a report on Rebecca and Ray’s trip to the fire station. Gary said that should be discussed later. Dennis suggested we have her as the Construction Project Lead and have a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) for the financial part.
He didn’t think Rebecca should have to wait for our next month’s meeting if she needed funds for the project nor should our treasurer as her husband just use the debit card and advance her funds. But she shouldn’t have to face delays waiting for money. He suggested a committee that could quickly respond by agreeing to reimburse expenditure, preferably with an email chain that could be retained as a record. Alec agreed but said we should have a special meeting within a couple of weeks just to discuss the shed. Gregg suggested having the meeting within the next week considering the speed with which the project is moving.
Dennis questioned if our bylaws allowed us to have special finance people. Alec said the bylaws allowed us to set up committees and define roles. We could have an administrative person as we did with Maggie as well as “a financial person to ride herd on the project”.
Gary said we need to finish the vote on the motion on the table (line 90). The vote was taken with Gary abstaining and the motion passed.
Kathy asked if the grant was the same one as the woodchipper. She and Alec had a discussion and it turned out the chipper grant was an example used in the instructions for the grant we applied for.
Gregg said we need to set the first construction meeting now and not let time slip away.
Gary motioned we have a meeting on Wednesday March 20th at 10:00 at the firehouse:
- To decide on a shed design,
- Write out a comprehensive materials list, and
- Establish a timeline with the goal of completing it by the end of May.
Alec seconded and discussion began.
Gregg pointed out that the grant had a completion date of June 15th. Gary stated his proposed date gave us a two-week buffer.
Alec asked if he had a location in mind as the LCMC meeting room was booked.
Alec said we could look into the library and Rebecca said St. Germans was always open but Alec said there was a conflict. Gregg asked “what about the fire station” Alec said the LCMC meeting room was available on Tuesday the 21st but Gary said he wouldn’t be able to make that. Ray said he was also out the 21st. Dennis reiterated what about the firehouse, Ray checked, concerned we’d have to do the whole deposit stuff. Ray called Karen Thomas at the firehouse to see if we could reserve the space for 10:00am – 12:00pm, March 20, 2024.
Alec said they hadn’t talked about that with him when he reserved it for our Firewise Preparedness Day. Dennis said that’s in May, and we were going to rebuild all our booth materials. Gary and Gregg both said that’s an agenda item for later in the meeting. Alec said we also have an Arts and Crafts Festival. Dennis said, “we need more people”.
Discussion returned to the Grant with Gregg pointing out that if you can’t find anyone to give a grant to you lose all that money and may not be able to get it in subsequent years. Dennis asked if it was okay to start inundating Gary with all his suggestions and ideas, Gary replied “sure”. Gregg stated planning and scoping was always the first meeting you have on a project. Then you worry about mobilization and getting materials to the job. Cathy asked if it was easier to buy a kit from Home Depot and said she had one of those that we could look at. Gary said that would be discussed at the committee meeting. Alec said we were specifically trying to do this as a demonstration project using Firewise materials and building concepts.
Gary mentioned that if we picked a day and time and there were one or two of us that couldn’t come, we could at least get a good start on that planning if we at least had Rebecca and Alec and Ray, the three crucial people. Dennis asked if it didn’t need to be a quorum and Gary responded it would be a sub-committee and that we may need a motion. Alec said that if we did set up a sub-committee, they would have the option to make decisions/motions and not have to bring everything back to the full membership at a monthly meeting.
Gregg asked that as far as the financial transactions we were just going to let them use the debit card. Gary said that would be discussed at the proposed meeting.
Dennis asked if Rebecca would consider sharing her email address. She did.
Still waiting for Ray to return from checking on the availability of the firehouse for our construction planning session, the meeting kind of stalled out. Members started suggesting other locations, St. Germain’s church and even their personal residences.
Ray returned saying we’re good having our meeting at the firehouse. With the motion still on the table (line 122), Alec called for the vote, and it passed unanimously.
Alec asked if we wanted to set up a committee today or wait until next week. Gregg advised time is of the essence. Gary said he believed we needed to set up a sub-committee before we could actually hold a meeting.
At this point Rebecca left the meeting.
Dennis made a motion to form a committee, Gary seconded, and Allec called for discussion. Who’s on it? How many people?
Gary again suggested we at least had Rebecca and Alec and Ray, as the most important people to have there. Gregg asked if we could just leave it open and say have up to ten people on it? Gary asked if a committee didn’t have to have the president or vice president on it and Alec responded it needed at least one of the board members.
Gregg asked if it was a committee or sub-committee, and Alec said it was a committee.
Dennis asked if he should be on it to record minutes, Ray jokingly said he should just make it as complicated as possible. Alec said that could be decided at the meeting.
Alec called for the vote all ayes with no nays; the motion carried. Ray asked what we were voting on? Alec responded saying it was about forming the committee of Ray, himself, and Rebecca. Ray asked what their mission was. Gary responded with their mission is to decide on a shed design, write out a comprehensive materials list and establish a timeline with a goal of completing it by the end of May. Ray said that’s all not going to happen at one meeting. Both Alec and Gary responded, Gary saying no, maybe not and Alec saying this meeting was a starting meeting to set the reporting structure so money could flow. Gary said the meeting would be the defining meeting of how things would go from there.
Wildfire Preparedness Day:
Alec asked if Randy Collins had agreed to be a speaker, Ray replied that he had given him a “very soft yes” and Alec reported Chief Sexton had also given “very soft yes” and Ray said and Burbridge the same. Alec said something about Jessie Duval but both Alec and Ray were talking at the same time and Dennis was unable to accurately record the conversations regardless of having two ears.
Ray said one of the speakers asked what he wanted him to talk about and Ray replied “you’re the chief, talk about whatever you want to talk about”. Alec said he had offered a suggestion but had not heard back. The discussion turned to the Paradise, California and how Lake Cushman is not like Paradise.
Scribes Note: Ray has put on an excellent slideshow presentation on this comparing the Lake Cushman and surrounding area’s forest to that of Paradise and I’m sure there must be a recording of it somewhere.
Ray said part of the chief’s consternation in the past has been Firewise’s push about evacuation which the chief is against and is one of the reasons Ray has been assigned as our liaison. Alec said evacuation was one of the topics Bill Sostritch liked to talk about. Ray pointed out that half the deaths in the Paradise fire were those trying to evacuate.
Gary asked what Paradise was all about and Ray said that until the recent fire in Lahaina, it was the worst fire disaster in history. Paradise had a very well-rehearsed, well-practiced evacuation route, but people got backed up in their cars and were overcome by the fire.
Ray said the message he and the chief were talking about, although it is hard to do the planning, was that they don’t want you to evacuate, they want you to get to a safe place and those were two different things.
Alec brought the conversation back to the question; do we have any speakers lined up? Ray responded that no we did not, nor hard responses. Gary asked if they had told Ray when they could let him know and Ray replied they had not.
Ray said he was talking to Randy Collins and that he wanted him to talk about the revised building codes. It’s an unpopular politically sensitive issue and he may not want to talk about it. Gary asked if we knew when the new codes were taking effect and Alec replied it was already a done deal.
Gary asked if we could have a list of the new codes so that Rebecca could have them for the shed design, Ray will email them. Ray said they were very similar to the things we talk about when we go out for Firewise inspections.
NFPA Representative:
Alec said our NFPA representative Jennifer Cole will be leaving us March 18th and Jessie Devall will be taking over for her.
Gary brought it back to the Wildfire Preparedness Day with a motion that we set a date and time for our meeting when we work on our materials suggesting Wednesday March 27th at 10:00
Gregg asked if we could just go ahead and schedule from now until the end of May a weekly construction meeting. Gary asked if we needed more than one meeting to get those things together; Gregg replied yes.
Alec said we should leave the planning of additional shed design meetings to that committee to decide at their first meeting. Alec asked if the committee had the authority to do that. Gary asked if we could get a second on his motion, Gregg asked if he wanted to amend it to his version. Alec said we had a motion (line 266) on the floor for working on the Wildfire Preparedness Day materials we should vote down or up and then Gregg could make a separate motion. Dennis seconded and the motion carried. Alec said he bought four new poster boards and a package of glue sticks and that he had a lot of printed material to use. He also said he made blocks for the posters to stand up in.
Evacuation Bags:
Gary passed around the evacuation bag and a picture of one with our logo on it. Gregg said it would be nice with a hard bottom. Dennis asked if there was a backpack option and Gary said they were very expensive. Dennis asked what we were doing with these, are we giving them away? Alec said we were, that they were a promotional item getting our name out there. Cathy said we could also get pens with our name on them. We then talked about window decals and bumper stickers. Gary showed what the bumper stickers would look like and we discussed the size of the window decals and that both were easy to peel off. Gary showed us our new apron.
Alec moved that we have a pause on the bags for now and Gary seconded. Dennis asked if we’re putting a pause on something we were going to hand out around the first of May. Alec just reiterated how much we have going on. Gary said we could go with the pause and discuss it at our next meeting as there would still be time to receive them. Alec amended the motion to have Gary get pricing for our next meeting. Gary seconded the amended motion, we voted, and it carried unanimously.
Dennis asked if we wanted to order more t-shirts and it was thought we should all show up at our events in one of our green t-shirts although Gary Said Dennis could show up just wearing an apron. Dennis said how scary he thought that’d be, Dave agreed because we want people to show up at the next one. Dennis suggested that we could do one of those calendars; Gregg suggested a Sports Illustrated layout.
Chipper Day:
Kathy had some tree work done and she asked the guy about having a chipper day. He charges $1,500 a day less any chips he doesn’t have to haul away. Alec thought that was an idea worth looking into that we could pay for, but we would need a place to do it. Cathy said they use a lot of chips at the dog park. Alec said he was going to talk to Jessie about using the stump dump with the caveat all the chips would be hauled away although pointing out Jessie had an attitude about it.
Scribes Note: Would the gazebo area and the disc golf course be other sites in need of chips?
Cathy suggested we get another micro-grant for this as the example used for the grant application was for a chipper day. Alec said there were specific deadlines in the grant process and that we may have already missed the application date’s deadline. Alec said we could also look at doing this sometime in the summer when we might have more bandwidth.
Ray said we had a lot of DNR land around here and wondered if they might be interested in this project. Ray was greatly concerned with the amount of chips this may involve, that if the guy ended up needing eight dump trucks to haul them all away he’ll never come back again. Cathy said the guy was Jason Stymack and that he’s done it once before. Dave said that with the normal stump dump day participation he’d never get through it all in on day (Isn’t our stump dump day a two day event?).
Dave brought up that when Firewise used to do it we’d rent a chipper and drive it around to people’s houses and do it there, on-site. The problem with that is we don’t have enough bodies to do it. Dennis commented on how easy and sweet that was for him, they left the amount of chips he wanted and hauled away the rest.
Alec brought up that Firewise is not insured for anything if something goes wrong. Ray again suggested that as DNR had a stake in wildfire prevention and had so much land around here they might be interested in this project.
Arts and Crafts Day (Saturday May 18th):
Do we want to put up a table and who will man it? Alec said, “We really need to figure out how to get more people involved”. Dennis asked about the previous ice cream social events and the discussion really deteriorated with there being NO interest from anyone in getting involved with ice cream.
Gary suggested that if we wanted ice cream that we just invite someone with an ice cream truck to show up saying they’d make a bunch of money. Dennis said like at the open house for our new storage shed.
Back to the Storage Shed:
Ray wanted to share photos of various storage sheds he had on his laptop that he had shared with Rebecca the previous day. The sheds were kits that came with a materials list that could be compared with the new building codes and our fire wise practices:
Fire resistant decking, flashing on the joists under the decking. Noncombustible soffits with metal 1/8th inch screening, tempered glass windows, fire resistant siding, what’s the substrate, a chimney space to show how it’s supposed to be flashed and have a spark arrestor, maybe adding a dormer to show how the seams are to be flashed.
Discussion turned to size and location. Gary said he had talked with the chief and was given some potential areas.
Dave said that if we were looking at kits or plans, we should be careful of the spacing of the studs as a lot of times they’re 24 inches on center and the dimensions of the lumber is 2X3’s and not 2X4’s and that we big time, needed to consider the snow load. Ray said we had a bunch of collapses three years ago on brand new structures.
Back to size, Alec said plywood comes in 8 and 12-foot lengths and using those dimensions would save cuts. Ray said we may be able to get some samples or donations as it’s a demonstration project. Gary suggested 8X8 which seemed to make a lot of sense but then Dave brought up the raffle stuff and how much space that took up. We talked about putting shelves and hooks in it. Gregg suggested 8X12, Alec said that would allow for future expansion. Gregg moved that we go with an 8X12 shed, Gary(?) seconded. Discussion turned to windows; decorative or functional? Dave suggested a 36-inch steel door.
There was then a lot of back-and-forth discussion between Ray and Gary with Ray wanting design answers now and Gary wanting to put them off until the following construction committee meeting.
Dave again suggested a 36-inch steel door that we could secure with a deadbolt. He said it didn’t have to be new and we might be able to find one at Habitat For Humanity. Gary questioned whether we needed to get a permit from LCMC.
Dennis pointed out that there was still a motion on the floor (line 402) for an 8X12 foot size. The vote was taken and carried with no one opposed.
Alec as Ray if he was thinking about buying a kit or using them as a basis. Ray said they don’t know yet. Cathy said she had an 8X12 size shed on her property we could look at for a better understanding of the size.
Dennis stated he thought it should have a wet bar. Gary immediately seconded. Gregg said “and a stage for the dancing girls” and it was decided that was the deck.
Ray asked for Who’s Rebecca’s email address to send her the new building codes the state has pushed out.
That completed everything on the agenda and Alec asked if anyone had anything else to bring up.
Dennis said that Dave had mentioned a fire extinguisher guy that had previously come to our Wildfire Preparedness Day. Dave said that was actually the ice cream social. Alec said that’s another idea; to perhaps get someone to come in and do a demonstration.
Ray floated the thought that we do not hold the Branch Ranch even and if people complained we respond with our needing more people as a recruitment idea. Dennis said maybe you can’t bring your debris to Branch Ranch unless you join. But we’re not a member organization.
Dave asked if anything was going on with our Facebook page and Ray said he occasionally posted things there. Dennis suggested putting Chief Sexton’s smoke detector inspection program on it. Ray said that was a Red Cross program. Ray said he could share the fire department information and links on the page.
Gary asked how things were going with the plan for LCMC to put out notification each month about our meeting, it’s not happening. Gary said that when that message is put out it should include our web and Facebook page.
Dave had a suggestion that we also look at what information LCMC passes on to new people that purchase up here about Firewise. Alec said we could probably come up with a document for them. Gary asked who is going to follow up on that and Dave said he would send Lisa an email.
Dave asked what we found out about the volunteer list. Ray said they’re not going to give it to us, “privacy laws”. Ray said he would talk with Wendy again. Gary clarified thatwe wanted to see if LCMC would send out something to that volunteer list mentioning “why don’t you consider Firewise and here’s how to do it”. Alec will talk with Lisa and see if they can make it happen.
Gary asked about Firewise Preparedness Day being held at the fire station; he envisioned it being held outdoors at some place like the golf course. Dave explained it was held indoors as there was all the audiovisual equipment for the speakers and that we do still have inclement weather here at the beginning of May.
Discussion turned to inviting other organizations. Dave will get a hold of Susan Stokes for the animal rescue stuff. Dave will also contact Block Watch. The Booster Club is dead and gone. Ray said the sheriff’s office usually comes up.
Alec said the sheriff gave a real good talk at a dinner event he had attended in Lilliwaup but it had nothing to do with anything Firewise related.
Alec brought up the greenbelt and the limitations about what we’re allowed to do and how bad they’re shape is. Ray said we can work with Public Works on some of that stuff but the liability issue Alec had brought up concerned him. Dave said that Tacoma Power and LCC want control of the greenbelt. Ray said that LCC is holding up on a new forest plan. He said the real issue is that LCC wants the money from the marketable trees we would cut, that it’s all just about money.
Alec called for a motion to adjourn, and Dennis said no asking about the line numbers on the approved minutes, should they be removed? As there were no changes or amendments to the minutes they will stay with the line numbers.
Dennis then expressed concern about evacuation planning and the evacuation signs we have pointing to the only road out of here. He said we need what Gregg was saying about safe places, and that we should map each division with directions to the lake or the golf course or here’s the way to stay off the damn road that could be a death trap. Ray said fire and rental units is a national concern. He brought up all the safety items with which a hotel must comply compared to the almost none for a short term rental. Ray said the county is addressing short term rentals and we shouldn’t get out ahead of them.
Dave made a motion the meeting be adjourned, Gary seconded, the vote was taken and at 12:15 the meeting was successfully adjourned as Rey didn’t again spill his coffee all over Dennis.
Next meeting will be April 10th at 10 am in LCMC boardroom.