FireWise
Council Meeting Outcomes
January 20, 2004
Present
Julie Korb, Joy Mathis, Ben Cordova, Kristie Borchers, Chas Charmichael,
Dave Abercrombie, Nancy Lauro, Jim Shepherdson, Ron Tyner, Nicole
Smith, Jim Garofalo
Logistics
Meeting minutes from December 16 were approved.
Roster was passed around and updated among those present.
Election of Officers
Kristie nominated Ron Tyner for the position of Vice President.
No other nominations were put forth. The nomination was approved
by the council and accepted by Ron. Congratulations, Ron!
Discussion of Policy Forum
We revisited the idea of bringing together groups in LaPlata County
hosted by SW Firewise Council to discuss policy issues. Nancy
updated the group on the county’s process.
The county has 2 approaches they are working on -
1) A working group has been created consisting of county staff,
fire chiefs and homebuilders association representatives. The
goal is to get more “firewise” type regulations in
place. Group decided on 3 key components of the regulation:
a) Driveway standards for all new homes,
b) Roofing standards for new homes, and
c) Defensible space requirements.
Standards need to be reasonable and not too expensive. Some questions
remain: Should the requirements only hold true for high risk areas
or for everyone? How to identify high risk areas? Are maps available?
The county is having difficulty locating maps that show the area.
County is close to getting a draft that develops from the meetings.
Nancy will show the council once it comes out. The plan needs
community support.
2) The county is rewriting their entire land use
code. Nancy would like the FireWise council to help with recommendations
about what to do with parts of the code. Some existing county
regulations include the requirement that when roads are put in
for a subdivision, the developer must “do thinning”.
Thinning plan must be approved by Colorado State Forest Service.
The first round of public meetings discussing the
first approach might occur as soon as March. Public meetings concerning
approach 2 wouldn’t occur until this summer.
Nancy will e-mail the council the draft of the first approach
before the next meeting. The council will discuss at the next
meeting. (TENTATIVE AGENDA ITEM)
Nancy also suggested that FireWise Council present
a 30-minute program on the concept of FireWise, reducing wildfire
risk through defensible space, etc to the County Commissioners
prior to them receiving a copy of the proposed changes to code.
This would be a great “background information” precursor
so they might be better able to understand and ask questions of
the code. More information from Nancy to follow.
Grants Update
Several outstanding grants for education related items. Marsha
will take the lead on pursuing grants for SW Firewise Council.
Chas suggested that SW Firewise Council may be able to apply for
grants for cost share projects from Colorado State Forest Service.
Marsha will report to the council next meeting on her grant progress
- looking at mitigation projects, cost share funding, and education
as grant topics.
Richard Johnson Foundations: provides funding for infrastructure.
May be able to help the council with infrastructure items related
to vehicles, equipment, office space, etc. Jim will look into
it. Nicole suggested a power point projector.
Logo
Kristie proposed 3 new logo ideas. Logos were passed around for
the council to vote on. Council decided unanimously on the circular
logo with black filling and white lettering on the outside circle
and white filling in the middle where the graphics are.
Other
Chas Carmichael reported:
-
Gary Jennings, Four Corners Ag website, connecting
forestry products and services to those who need them. Council
suggested a disclaimer on the website about bark beetle spread.
Gary is adding it on. Chas will e-mail us with the final draft.
He will suggest to Gary to include, “This message brought
to you by the SW Firewise Council.”
-
Chas contacted Cohen (Colorado State University,
or R-2 Research Station ??) to inquire about how defensible
space affects appraisals.
-
Colorado State Forest Service is holding 4-5
public meetings regarding beetle issues, and a defensible space
contractors inservice to provide information to service providers;
possibly in March. Joy suggested DCAT film it to put on community
access TV. (reference the attached “Mark Your Calendars”
reminder)
-
Chas has received notification that insurance
companies are dropping people for not creating defensible within
30 days of notification. (Clarification - - since the meeting,
Kristie Borchers has contacted Steve Nicolai, with State Farm
Insurance. Identified clients within the Wildland Urban Interface
are receiving a letter that says they will be contacted by a
Survey-Associate within the next 30 days - - this was originally
supposed to be happening in July in our area, so they are behind
schedule. The Survey-Associates have been trained by the Colorado
State Forest Service, will do a “fire-risk” inspection
with the homeowner, and provide information on what mitigating
actions to take. The homeowner is given 18 to 24 months to correct
concerns. A follow-up inspection will be made. At that time,
if wildfire risk has not been reduced, State Farm can drop homeowner’s
insurance.)
-
Put an update from Chas’ on-the-ground
projects on next month’s agenda.
Joy mentioned folks with disabilities who needed
firewood. High Noon Rotary has been helping these people out and
if anyone is interested in helping out, they can contact Rotary
through Joy. Kristie asked Joy to work with Carolyn Hunter, who
has spent some time looking into this issue.
Education
Part 3 and 5 of the 5-part brochure series are in rough draft
stage. Council members are asked to make comments and mail to
Kristie or Laurie Robison.
Kristie suggested the council chose 4 major topic
areas throughout the year and work around those issues. Dave suggested
looking into the National Firewise plan to see if they have some
topic areas lined out. Radio programs sponsored by the council
might feature each topic area. Nancy suggested FW council make
30 minute presentations to commissioners about topics.
Chas handed out a packet to the council with Colorado
State informational publications.
Durango Herald is doing Fire Prevention Insert to come out May
3.
April is Fire Month: Marsha has asked how the group
wants to be involved. Kristie suggested the FW Council sponsor
a one day workshop for homeowners associations – as a follow-up
FireWise workshop. FireWise normally hosts an intensive three-day
workshop (like last April) and then one-day follow ups, with specific
focus. Focus audience would be HOA’s – potential topics
include insurance issues (planning already underway – Marsha
directing), legal issues on requiring wildfire mitigation, and
how to create wildfire evacuation plans for subdivisions (maybe
the Red Cross ?) Council members would be involved with recruiting
representatives from each HOA. This may pose some difficulties,
since no cohesive listing of HOA’s is kept. Jim suggested
perhaps contacting metropolitan district. In addition, Ron Tyner
mentioned that title companies keep lists that we may use to identify
invitees. Deadline is Feb. 27 for the council to make a decision
as to the extent of involvement in the month. Jim will check on
availability of potential venues. Ron will follow up with title
companies.
Kristie will follow-up on Pam’s article for
Colorado Country Life, emailing it out to the group.
Next meeting
February 17; 5:30PM – 7PM in the LPEA Board Room
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