Meeting Outcomes
FireWise Council of Southwest Colorado
July 20, 2004

 

 

 

In Attendance: P.J. O’Connell, Kristine Borchers, Pam Wilson, Chas Carmichael, Mike Kane Jr., Joy Mathis, Ben Cordova, Dave Abercrombie, Marsha Porter Norton, and Carolyn Hunter.

Last month’s minutes approved.

Follow-up on 2 public meetings in May. Fire Council sponsored two public education nights – insurance/legal and evacuation/roundtable in May. Both events had about 25 people attending. (more notes in previous meeting summaries). Ben Cordova said that he thought the roundtable discussion was the more productive part. Consensus was that Council should continue offering this type of professional development/listening session a few times a year. Thank you cards have been sent to presenters. Dan Noonan – please send your powerpoint notes from your presentation on 5/18 to Chas Carmichael (good statistics).

Colorado Farm Bureau Insurance has sent out at least one letter to a client, requiring a 100-foot vegetation-free area surrounding a home. Chas will check to see if this particular insurance company has been working with the Colorado State Forest Service on a regional or state level. The 100-foot radius, no exceptions, is contrary to the CSFS information, to the information Council provides – which looks also at aesthetics and property value. Marsha mentioned that some of the insurance industry policies are enforced top-down. Dave was concerned about credibility – the Fire Department, the State Forest Service walks a property, talking wildfire safety. The insurance agent walks the same property, requires 100-foot cleared area. Council needs to proactively be involved with education efforts for insurance agencies, locally and statewide. Mike Kane did a presentation for the Four Corners Women’s Insurance Association, about reducing fire hazards around homes. Carolyn Hunter will look into the other Insurance Association – find out who is on the board now, find out how Council can be more involved with them. Joy mentioned that the mitigation work is only one aspect of protecting a home/property – replacing a wood shake roof, improving access, and mitigation work.

Letter to the Editor - Council submitted a letter to the editor in response to the May 14 insert, Durango Herald. Jeff Burman of Colorado Wild has been invited to Council meetings. Discussion centered around the Council invited a diverse group of stakeholders, including environmental groups. As we continue to function as a council, we can look at “who needs to be at the table.”

Home Depot booth on June 5th – Chas, Mike Jr, Ron, and Benny. Home Depot was great. Provided water, lunch. A engine and two firefighters came, and then later left to take a call. Not a huge public response – maybe 10 quality contacts. Benny suggested having the booth at the garden entrance, since that entrance seemed to be much busier this time of year.

CSFS Kiosk – the State Forest Service has a dark green kiosk, that could be set up in a visitor’s center or office. Kristie will make a list for Chas, where good places to put it – for a month at a time, or whatever. A table display could then have fire info, including council stuff.

Planning Commission meeting and County Commissioner’s meeting - Ron Tyner and Carolyn Hunter represented the Council, at Nancy Lauro’s invitation. Both informal presentations were well received. Planning and Commissioner’s were interested to hear positive comments about proposed driveway standards, as well as Ron’s view about how implementing required code can actually improve sales for a developer. Carolyn thought that it was great timing, right as we headed into fire season. She will look into when public hearings will be held on the proposed driveway standards for new developments. Council will develop a script (via email), so that we are organized and well-spoken, thinking ahead of the meeting what is most important to each of our respective segments.

Letters of Support for Driveway Standards – Council members are asked to submit letters of support for the driveway standards. Carolyn also suggested that letters come from a large group, so that she takes the idea back to her network, and 15 supportive letters are sent from architects (for example). Kristie will resend out a sample letter of support. Rather than sending as a group, please send directly to Nancy Lauro. Letters are copied and given to each Commissioner. Suggestion was made to ask the County to post the proposed standard on their website, so that we ask our networks to support this proposal, there is somewhere the current document can be reviewed.

Dedication – Pam Wilson and Joy Mathis extended an invitation for the dedication of the Missionary Ridge and Valley fires monument and interpretive signs. July 28, 11 a.m. to 12 noon, at La Plata County Fairgrounds. This is a cooperative project with Society of American Foresters, San Juan Public Lands, La Plata County, Fire Department, and Colorado State Forest Service. They are also still seeking donations to finish the project. Fire Council – using some leftover funds from the 5-part brochure series – will donate $250.00 to the project (Susan Bryson is sending a check 7/21/04). (reminder – Pam/Joy to send Kristie the invite and I’ll forward it to large Council email tree).

5-part Brochures – Nicole, please see if any areas need re-stocked (in your spare time!). Also, Chas is willing to make more brochure holders, if there are other areas that would like to display this information.

Ambassador Program – Marsha Porter Norton presented information about the proposed Ambassador Program. The concept is that Council would develop “ambassador” relationships with identified high-risk subdivisions, and help fire education awareness efforts. A difference with this program and the proposed Red Cross Partnership is that these volunteers would be used more for the “organizing” and “inspiring” attendance, but resource professionals would still be used for speaking or fire risk assessments. This will simplify the training and address Council-concerns about undertrained volunteers.
1. Review the high-risk maps (maybe multi-county).
2. Create a list of interested/involved potential ambassadors.
3. Meetings, trainings, MOU or job description.
Ambassadors, not technical resources.
Making contacts, distributing information.
Neighborhood-based.
Door to door distribution of information.
Invite professionals to speak at neighborhood meetings (getting folks to meetings).
Gathering information pre-disaster, able to be a key contact in case of emergency.
Organize chip/slash day.
Lead or involved with fire prevention committee.
Able to assist with PR of related-federal/state projects, hydromower or burn.
Report back to Council quarterly (not necessary to attend monthly meetings).

This project might need funding, might eventually develop into part-time staff to oversee. Committee includes Marsha, Nicole, Pam, Laurie, Mike Jr, Kristie. Anyone else is welcome. Marsha will call a meeting early September.

Contractor’s List - Concerns expressed over the 100+ names on the local CSFS contractor’s list. It seems too confusing and overwhelming to distribute. Suggestions include adding more checkmarks (like valid insurance on file, like certified spraying qualifications). Reformatting was suggested, as well as making sure all businesses are still in business. Chas will look into.

Professional Development Opportunities - Related to the contractor’s list, Chas brought up “Cattlemen’s College” – a professional development series. Council could host something similar, to build on this past spring’s In-Service for Contractor’s idea. Council could expand this idea to include many different industries (insurance, realtors, mitigation companies, architects). This is similar to an idea that Council has kicked around before, but in a more formal, connected way (rather than just presentations all over the place). Figure out a way to make this incentive-based for participants.

FireWise Communities - A few local communities are interested in being identified as FireWise. Council debated whether this is a good idea or not. Pam brought up that Dan Ochocki has mentioned some kind of state designation that might be more appropriate for our local area. Pam – can you find out more about this?

Miscellaneous
National FireWise conference, Denver, November www.firewise.org/2004conference
Distributed first two pages of “Fighting Fire with Education” – Journal of Forestry
Service-Learning presentation about fire education with students will attend next meeting
Suggestion made to invite Mike Preston to September meeting, to talk about National Fire Plan and how Fire Council fits in (Marsha)
Community Forestry presentation sponsored by Council (forester from Ruidoso), moved to October meeting and event

Next Meeting:
August 17, 2004
5:30 to 7:00 p.m.