Minutes July 20, 2004

Board Members in Attendance: John Bauer, Chuck Carroll, Clint Kearns, John Aziz, Susan Crew

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.

Agency Reports
Tom Strong, San Bernardino Code Enforcement reported that NRCS block projects are making good progress. His office will also continue to assist residents with the removal of slash from felled trees.

He said work on the Wrightwood projects should begin next week at the latest. All property owners have been contacted. All but one have responded. When questions as to when new projects would be announced, Tom responded that Wrightwood would not be included until Phase 6 (currently NRCS program is in Phase 4).

Clint Kearns sent an email to John Hatcher to set a meeting to define the large private parcels that require treatment. John has not responded. Peter Brierty, Fire Marshall, will assist in setting up a meeting.

Edison is nearly complete with the removal of dead trees around wires. It was brought up that the felled trees are still not being treated with Sporax.

Residents requiring grant assistance to remove trees may contact Shawna Bryson at code enforcement. Grants are based on income, however Peter said “Let’s not worry about that, let’s get the trees removed.

Evacuation Map
The MAST (Mountain Area Safety Taskforce) Emergency Routes printed a batch of 500 Evacuation maps for the WWFSC to review. One side displays evacuation routes and the other contains a survival checklist, phone numbers for Fire Update and General Information, as well as emergency alert radio stations.

Dead Tree and Brush Removal – Highway 2
John Bauer expressed his thanks to John Aziz, Clint Kearns, and all others who assisted CDF with the removal of dead tress along Highway 2.

Clint asked how can we get Cal Trans to take care of the brush along the highway? Steve Faris said CDF could probably assist Cal Trans with this as well.

Disaster Preparedness Group
Phil Vondra and Mary Watson spoke about their efforts to mobilize the Tri-Community on disaster preparedness. They have nearly completed their Community Disaster Preparedness Plan. They are looking at methods to elicit support and have approached area churches. This is working well. The churches have been responsive. They plan to hold a Community Fair this fall to help build awareness and participation. They have a very small group of volunteers and urgently need funding and assistance. They asked if the WWFSC could review their Community Plan. They wish to share information that will help both organizations.

Phil and Mary said the focus of the group is to have a plan that will help residents prepare to be self-sufficient for 7–10 days—the estimated gap between a disaster and when services are expected to be restored. This includes shelter, food, etc. The prime concern is to prepare in the event of a major earthquake.

Wayne Bennett, Station 101, said the reality is that an earthquake is inevitable and there are plans to train residents in first aid. Additional discussion occurred on the general lack of participation on the part of residents. Renee Groese said that in her experience, turn out is low in all communities except when there is a disaster.

Phil commented that “the soft approach” does not work and residents are more likely to mobilize if frightened.

Fuel Modification Plans – update
The Lone Pine Canyon project is moving forward. Work on fire breaks will begin in August. The Big Pines Project work will begin in September. The Wrightwood proposal will be out in the next week or so. This project will fall under the guidelines of the Healthy Forest Initiative. The WWFSC hopes to get the Wrightwood Community Wildfire Protection Plan in place in order to obtain grants for fuel modification on private property to dovetail with the USFS projects.

Adopt-A-Hydrant
Station 101 has looked at every hydrant and will revise the map. Samples of the new poles and reflective tape were shown. Peter is working on obtaining the yellow reflective paint.

WW Community Wildfire Protection Plan
Jeff Bradford has completed 6 pages for the plan. A meeting will be scheduled in the coming weeks to start work on the WWFSC sections. The next step will be to combine the information provided by the participating agencies.

Adjourned 8:30 pm

Respectfully submitted by Susan Crew