KERN RIVER VALLEY FIRE SAFE COUNCIL

Board of Directors  Meeting

Board of Directors Meeting

Introductions: 17 in attendance including Brandon from Kern Valley Sun

Tim Smith, Dave Brinsfield with presentation

Contact List Attendance: Round trip travel miles on attendance sheet

President’s Report:

Thank you: Kern Valley Sun, Courier, for inserts at no cost. (no bill from castle printing)

Kern Fire Dept 76 and all volunteers from crew 87.

Presentation from Tim Smith and Dave Brinsfield ( BLM )

                Grass fires, close to 3,000 acres on Carrizo Plain National Monument on May 15, Bakersfield up to three rivers in case mtn.  Update on usage and where problems could occur, travel management and recreation

                Dave moves to power point with Debbie on Wildfire Management at Bakersfield Field Office

a.       3 local fire stations-7 engines with 40 seasonals, depends on budget

b.       Fire Safety programs through schools

Debbie

a.       Environmental Education

b.       Wildland Urban interface

c.        Hazard Reduction

d.       Chipper Days

Dave Brinsky

a.       Prescribed Fire is needed and has a place

b.       Get together to plan for maximum efficiency

Most leverage out of projects with team effort

CWPP- Lloyd asks are they changing the risk?

Fire problem in Keyesville, BLM has ignored area in the past.

BLM is working toward better work on CG

Calender: Bakersfield lay use plan in the fall

Penelope: new planner for FS

a.       BLM , FS, private and all need to coordinate

b.       Good talks on joint work yesterday with Ed and Rick Larson

Patrick Pontes recap on 2009 projects

Bodfish II project adjoins Bodfish I of 2008

Pala Ranch/Tillie Creek

Piute Meadows Fire

Ed sends out thanks to Kern County Fire Dept., BLM and FS for help through projects.  A very successful year

Committee Reports

Grants:  Bodfish III across from Bodfish II.  Ready to go, 44,700 for project

Burma has 39,100 for start

2011 Grant Proposals meet this week and will hear by June 14

Six total proposals

Congressman McCarthy staff by Lloyd, issue of national fire plan, authorization in 2001 for ten year duration for money through clearing house.  We thought money disappeared in 2011.  Plan is different than money coming in for use on state and private land.  Authorization for money will not go away.

2011 planning will be competitive due to lack of money

Over 1 mil. For fire crews

Lloyd signed cooperative agreement with FS for Alta Sierra

Sawmill and Greenhorn in planning process with FS

Fundraising Committee

2010 brought in $1420 for budget for operating funds

Chipper Days Committee

Five chipper days with one more request

Squirrel Valley on May 15

One pile job in Mt. Mesa 5/20

Walker pass 5/22

Squirrel Valley finishes on Sunday 5/23

Crew 7 and Tehachapi Crew 87

Thank you Loren Lange for help on Chipper Days

Website Committee

Up to date with posting of living with fire

List of Chipper dates needed for calendar

Education/Speakers Bureau

Get email update

9:30 presentation at Boys and girls club

Thanks to Kern Valley Sun on coverage

Publicity

Thanks to Christine and Gordon Hancock for stuffing all the Couriers with Living with Fire

Kern County Fire-Heidi

Thank you for all your help at KRVFSC

Goal to get everyone back but there are budget cuts

Working toward year around crews

Issue with feds, disagreement not coming from local folks in Fire service.

a.       agreement with FS and BLM outlines how we work together, closest respond to fire

b.       Every year we sign agreement with come minor changes

c.        Administrative rate, % on bill to process bills, rate developed with feds, FS formula 12%-18%

d.       FS is evaluating rates.  Everyone signs at 10% and negotiate from there if possible

e.        You could sign at 10% or extend agreement to 6/2011. 

f.         Ultimatum now at 10% due to termination of agreement on June 16, 2010

g.        Without agreement the two cannot work together

h.       After end of agreement, FS identified delayed responses.  If FS called first, they call Riverside next before the Kern County Fire Dept.  Safety is no longer number one. 

Orders go to Porterville now, all

After June 16 everyone has their own orders.

Several groups go to same fire.

Kern County Fire needs to extend contract to June 26, 2011 so there is time to negotiate

Cooperative Fire Agency Agreement

Need to pray, always

Interagency Agreement was premier, hopefully it will continue

FS plans to 7 day staffing at Black Rock

Signs up at Kennedy Meadows

Rick has authorization to refill Scott’s position

Penelope Shipley, Valley View project

Environmental holdups keep projects from moving forward

Alta Sierra project

Christine Hancock and Gordon Hancock offer stickers for animals

Table for this meeting and talk over in the board

Thank you for all attendences

Meeting commences 12:00 pm

 

Committee Reports (Electronic Meeting):

Attendance via email:  Lloyd Smith, Ed Royce, Sharon Rooney,  Christine Hancock, Gordon Hancock, Gordon Ehmann, Chris Horgan, Patrick Pontes and Kimberley Cushman

President’s Report-Lloyd Smith

Presidents Activities

    + Authorized Dr. Dicus, California State Polytechnic University , San Luis Obispo , to include the Kennedy Meadows CWPP in an institutional repository.  Dr. Dicus co-authored with Ken Delfino the Kennedy Meadows CWPP, using his fire spread modeling techniques.

    + Completed registration in the Central Contractors Registration ( CCR ) as required for all grants for direct federal funding.  I am the primary and Sharon Rooney is the alternate administrator.

    + Responded to a request for assistance with creating defensible space from a resident in need.  KCFD Kernville was contacted and was able to responded.

    + Held discussions with Supervisor McQuiston about the criticality of fire crews to support chipper days and fuel reduction projects.  The Board of Supervisors and KCFD came to agreement on how to complete scheduled chipper days until 30 June. 

    + Attended the Board of Supervisor's meeting for the proclamation of Wildfire Awareness Week. (150 miles for matching)

 

Treasurer’s Report-Sharon Rooney

The 2009 taxes are complete:   the Federal form 990, the State form 199 (along with a $10 fee) and the Registration renewal with the California Attorney General (along with a $75 fee) have all been mailed today – the “State of California Secretary of State” statement of information is not due until November 2010.

In April we received $2,500 State Farm Grant, $44,700 Bodfish III Grant & $39,100 Burma Grant.

We paid $44 to Lloyd Smith to reimburse him for postage.

Fund Raising Committee-Lloyd Smith

    + A total of $1,250 has been donated this calendar year.  Thank you letters have been sent.

Education and Speaker's Bureau-Lloyd Smith

    + Delivered a presentation at the 22 April Exchange Club meeting (74 miles for matching)

    + Committed to a presentation for the Amateur Radio Club on 12 June.  Debbie Santiago agreed to assist with presentation on defensible space, embers, home ignition zone, and TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.

Chris will be doing the Audubon Presentation on June 5 

Website Committee-Ed Royce

Minutes for February and March were posted, and minor tweaks were made. (KRV CWPP is now one file.)  In honor of Wildfire Awareness Week, we posted Living With Fire. 

Grants Committee-Ed Royce

Patrick Pontes will be giving a slide presentation of our completed 2009 projects at the May meeting.

Patrick's detailed report is attached.  Briefly: All clearances have been completed for our 2010 projects ( Burma and Bodfish III ), and the first increment of funding is received.  We are waiting for KRVFSC crews to be available.  Our 2011 fuel reduction project proposals ( Lake Isabella and Pala II aka Mountain Shadows) are with the state evaluation panel run by the state FSC.  We will learn if they are to be funded on June 14th. 

Lloyd has been working with Congressman McCarthy's staff on continuing funding for fuel reduction projects on private land.  It turns out that, while in the past this funding was associated with the National Fire Plan, it now appears that in principle the expiration of this plan should not jeopardize continuation of this stream of funding.

Lloyd has signed the Cooperative Agreement with the Forest Service for the $300k, three-year Alta Sierra-Wofford Heights project and has negotiated a Work Plan for the project with the Forest Service.  The project has been scaled down to 200 acres, to reflect fiscal realities.  Progress will be tracked quarterly.  All (quarterly) reports from the Fire Department will go to the FSC (Patrick), to support the FSC's quarterly reports to the Forest Service.  Payments will be billed quarterly based on acres treated, rather than actual costs, with the Fire Department billing the Council, and the Council billing the Forest Service.  Operationally, the project will be handled by Patrick in the same way as our other fuel reduction projects, except that Patrick's (KRVFSC) reports will go to the Forest Service, rather than the state FSC.  We are currently waiting for the Fire Department to sign a letter of commitment and provide the crew(s).   

As indicated in the last report, Ed continues to participate in the planning of a potential Forest Service fuel reduction project on Greenhorn/Sawmill Ridge, along with Ken Stevens, Don Davis, some environmentalists even more extreme than Ed, the sawmill folk from Terra Bella, and a gaggle of Forest Service types. 

Education Committee and Publicity Committee-Chris Horgan

The Courier included the Fire Safe Brochure in all 5000 of their papers last week. Thanks very much to Christine and Gordon for helping to stuff the papers with the Courier staff

The Sun included 4500 in their papers

Thanks both to the Sun and the Courier for including the Fire Safe Brochure at no charge

We have 500 copies of the Fire Safe Brochure remaining for distribution, plus perhaps 500 of last years at Lloyd's house.

Reminders for KRVFSC BoD-Lloyd Smith

    + Committee chairs and officers agreed to provide a monthly report by the third Thursday of each month.  The reports should be sent via email to ALL BoD members.  This is how we maintain timely awareness of what has happened without having monthly meetings.  Kimberley consolidates your inputs into official minutes after she has received all inputs.

    + When your respond to an email addressed to the BoD it is important that you REPLY ALL so that everyone has the benefit of you comments and position.  You may need to check your email address book for proper addresses of BoD members since the senders addresses may not be the same as yours and your email application will try to send them to the senders addresses, in which case they may fail.

*Additions by Kimberley Cushman

KERN RIVER VALLEY FIRE SAFE COUNCIL

GRANT STATUS UPDATE

May 14, 2010

Bodfish III Fuel Reduction Project

 

When KCFD crews come on we will be ready to begin work. On April 29^th, we received a Quarterly Funding Allocation of $44,700 from CFSC for the project. As of May 14^th, there is no decision on crew on-dates.     

 

Burma Interagency Extension Project

 

Same status as Bodfish III above. On April 29^th, we also received a Quarterly Allocation of $39,100 for this project.

 

Power Point Slide Show- I will share a short before, during and after photo slide show for the 2009 projects KCFD just completed—Piute Meadows Road Brushing, Bodfish II Fuelbreak and Pala Ranch Community Shaded Fuelbreak.

 

FS/KRVFSC Alta Sierra Grant- Ed will provide the latest update on this project.

 

2011 Grant Proposals- From May 19-21 the CFSC review panel participants (FS, BLM , NPS, USF&WL) will be scoring proposals, and applicant notifications will be made in person by Cathy by 6/14/10 .

 

CFSC News/Update-- No news update as yet from CFSC this month. Cathy Brooke has sent us 250 “Take Responsibility” brochures for distribution. I will bring them to the FSC Meeting.

Patrick G. Pontes

Kern River Valley FSC, Grants Administrator