Area Council - Regular Meeting

So, good evening. It is Thursday, January 22nd, 2026. Uh, we do not have a quorum and um we do have a little bit of short information sharing and um Supervisor Piska can give share some information, but there's no actions that will happen. tonight. Um, you want to go first?

So, today was the um pit count, the point in time count, a national day where um we count um homeless people in our community so that um we can get appropriate amount of funding. Um, so Kelseyville was the site for district 5. In the past, we've um tried to do Cobb, but with the help of the water company, it's just it's a really hard time of year for people to be living outside and um so it's a difficult place, but it's something to keep in mind if for future Januaries, uh if we start to see a need in Cobb to have a a site here because it's always um this Thursday in January happens all across the lake and or across the county and um get a lot of resources to the folks. It's a really great day. So, just keep that in mind. If it seems, you know, like there's a need, we can always uh adjust and make a site here.

Okay. Uh the roads that were left unfinished um and then the the board approved the contract to finish them and then the bad weather came. are on schedule next week to get finished. And then the park um we so it went through the planning commission and the SQA was approved. Uh but staff applied for a federal grant for over a million dollars which is very very exciting. Um they they've applied for it but they haven't What's that?

They applied. Yeah. So, the grant they made it through the first round and um then there was an on-site walkthrough with the um grant manager which is a really great sign. That's a great and so we're feeling very positive. Um but we will know in spring when that's awarded. Um seems likely but you know we're just gonna keep all of our fingers crossed but that's a million more dollars for that project. Nice.

That's great. So there will be some delays because with federal money comes NEPA requirements which is uh another process but worth it but worth it. So um maybe later on in the spring we can get an update from Lars. Um sometimes NEPA and SQA can um can substitute for each other. Is there do you know if there federal grants require NEPA? Okay. Yeah.

Um so we'll see what that looks like, what could be used, and you know, we'll we maybe if we get that grant, we'll get um an update from Lars on when construction can start. And then next Tuesday uh for our board meeting is our annual governance workshop. It is not a regular meeting, but we spend the whole day talking about governing priorities. Uh in the morning we start with our federal and state lobbyists and then we go through all the with the department heads uh their priorities for the year.

You can I mean it's you go talk to Lars but it's not finished or anything. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Jessica. You're welcome. Let's see what else can be.

I heard there's a storm coming. Yeah, I think it's next Wednesday. It's not a big storm, but you're stealing Paul's Yeah, I'm stealing Paul's thunder. No pun intended. I don't think I have any other um Can we Yeah. Did anybody else have something to say? Go ahead. Yeah. Announcements. Yeah, we have announcements. Our non uh non-meating announcements. Anyone is can have the floor

since this is a nonmeating meeting. That's okay. Here, let me get my notes. You can take more than three minutes. It's a visual aid. Okay, here we go. Thank you. Uh, this is Robert Stark. I am the president of the Mountain Lions Club. And yes, it's crab feed time.

That's right. And the Mountain Lions Club annual crab feed Saturday, March 7th. Bar opens at 5:30. Food starts at 6:30. price of crab went up and so did the price for a ticket go up. So it's $80 this year. And we we buy 600 lb of crab and after it gets clean, cooked, and cracked, we get 300 lb back. So that's $20 a pound times 600 pounds. So it it adds up. So but uh there are these posters around and look to show you that we Oh, I feel like Vanna White. Look

QR code. There's a QR code. This is the Mountain Lions coming of age. Granted, it's been a long time before we've came of age, but we are we are making our way into the future. And to be quite honest with you, when we posted this on Facebook, in 15 minutes, we sold eight tickets through through the QR code. Oh, look. Scan it on their TV. Yes. Oh, can you

No. Anyway, the long and the short of it is there these are posted at the post office. They're posted at the gas station. They're posted at uh the coffee shop, of course, my other home. And our goal here is and we will have we will not have a R A F L E rather we will have an opportunity drawing. This is the only way that a nonprofit can provide little red tickets for which you will receive some form of restitution should your ticket be drawn. So think of that as an opportunity. Now don't confuse drawing. You don't have to draw a picture of the thing you want. If you if you want to, that's okay, but it won't count. Only the little red tickets will count. So, and they're the usual price, six for five, etc., etc. And that's the basis of our the money we make because by the time you get done paying for the crab, paying for the cooking, cracking, and cleaning. And this year, we're not going to put trays of crab out. We're going to give you a half a crab and when you raise your hand, we will bring you another half a crab. This is the new way of doing it in Lake County to try to make to try to not have so much leftover that then you can't reserve to anybody. This way we can keep it on ice, keep it fresh, and keep it coming. It's still a feed. All you can eat. That's not the issue. The issue is that there just

won't be trays at the end of the night when you go to clean up. You're throwing away 10, 15, 20 pounds of crab that's left over that you can't then turn around and put back on the market. Yeah.

So, we're giving you the opportunity to have all you want. It just will be in a little different form than it was before. And don't forget the terramisu. There are people that come to this crab food strictly for the terramisu. Well, their wives send their husband because they hate crab, but but they insist that the terramisu come home. So anyway, we are here. You know, you know that we're here. We're always here. We will always be here. We're doing everything we can. We have contractors coming in to redo the bathroom with quotes, redo these lights, these abominations in the sky above us. So, thank you and see you March 7th. Thank you to God a lot.

Thank you, Robert.

I can do a transition report. Okay, treasurer.

Oh. Oh, another announcement. Oh, happy new year. Kabites. Marggo Kambara. Happy New Year.

Lake County Board of Supervisors proclaimed January 2026 as human trafficking awareness month in Lake County. Polyclass Foundation will present how to stay safe online and in the real world. Dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m. The presentation begins at 6:00 p.m. The presentation is open to the public and appropriate for youth aged 12 to 16 years. The evening's program includes gift cards, door prizes, and free child care. Topics include real consequences of sex text sexing and sex trafficking, dangers of running away, and how to spot the red flags of online behavior. The program sponsors include the clubs of uh the Rotary Clubs of Lake County, the Education Community, and Lake Family Resource Center. Now, for the dates that are still open for this presentation, Tuesday, January 27th at Middletown Middle School, Wednesday, January 28th, Upper Lake Lucern at the middle school, Thursday, January 29th, KCI Unified at uh Obsidian Middle School, and the Spanish language presentation will be on Friday, January 30th, Koi Unified at the um Obsidian in middle school. So, that's one announcement and I have another. This is um one moment, please. Here we go. For heaven's sakes. Here we go. Here we go. Lake Area Planning Council is updating three local road safety plans within Lake County region.

and has a sponsor online and it's open till February 20th. Public input is requested so the agency can seek funding to implement um the plan. So Thomas, I don't know if you can pick up the um QR code and the from my laptop.

Yeah, just come a little closer. Yeah. Thank you so much. And one more. Um, according to Lake County Community Development Director Turner, drafts of the lo the lake county general plan and the local area plans will be available in April, March or April. The journal plan outlines the county's goals for physical growth, conservation, and community life in the unincorporated area and contains policies and actions necessary to achieve those goals. The general plan serves as a county's land use constitution for a 20-year period. General plan and local area plan advisory committee members will have access to the drafts when the public does. To increase the likelihood that Cobb's concerns are met, it would be wise to review the current general plan and the local area plan and no additions and revisions needed to address your area's concerns. Recommendations from individuals are good. Recommendations from Cobb Advisory Council to the general plan and local area plan teams carry more weight. Bottom line, your vision and direction for your community should be reflected in the general plan and local area plan language. Please capitalize on this opportunity to shape the future of your community. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Margo.

Sure. Sure. Yeah. almost.

Dear members of the council, thank you so much for having me here. My name is Ben Hiddle. I'm here to talk about what I'd like to bring to the Cobb area in partly what Jessica was talking about in our wonderful new park. And this directly involves long-term planning in Lake County with jobs. I don't know if anybody's seen the SS data besides Jessica where if you look at a graph and the community data where you have the time on the bottom and the amount on the top, our jobs are not increasing at all. It's just a flatline for the next 20 years. It's really concerning to me because when you look at another one of our county graphs, it shows the housing costs going up substantially. So, I have something I'd like to propose called the passenger pigeon plan. It goes along with the other things that I've kind of brought to this area, including the benefits of potentially the wildfire issues which is happening tonight. So, or it was on the agenda tonight. It's not happening anymore apparently, but the name of this is the passenger pigeon plan and it's a reminder of what happens when we ignore warning signs. An entire species disappears. and with it the benefits it brought to forests and people. Cobb is facing its own kind of tipping point with wildfire, water, and jobs. We can either keep talking until opportunities slip away or we can act now with the resources that are already sitting in front of us. This plan fix fits perfectly with the general and local plans and we need more wetlands. For years, roughly $50,000 in grants has been sitting unused while wildf fire seasons get worse, our landscape dries out, and young people to struggle to find a meeting a meaningful way to get work here. So, the passenger pigeon plan is a way to turn part of that idle money

into a concrete science science-based roadmap for resilience in jobs. Specifically, I'm asking the C council to allocate some amount of money, 15 to $20,000 for a focused planning effort that will map, design, and prioritize water storage and fire resilience projects on Cobb Mountain, starting with areas like Cobb Park, which Jessica Pisca mentioned earlier, and we have all these funds going to that already. So, it'd be great to work together with the area plan and wildfire issues. So this planning is practical and measurable. It includes lowcost drone mapping to identify the best locations for ponds, retention basins, and water storage features that can support firefighting, fishing, ecological restoration, and even future solar overwater aquaculture projects. It includes basic engineering concepts and community input. So what we would design actually works for the residents, fire agencies, and land owners. It also creates immediate local work, drone operations, mapping and data work, community outreach, excuse me, community outreach and early stage design. Exactly the kind of renewable and technical jobs that we want for Cobb Mountain. Just as important, this plan positions Cobb in a top way for much larger opportunities like what Jessica was speaking of with state and federal programs for wildfire resilience, California jobs first and rur rural infrastructure. They already are looking for plans like this and it'd be great if we could come up with something like this. And um my request this evening is simple and specific. First that the coun council direct staff to place on the next agenda an item to allocate 15 to $20,000 from the existing funds for this passenger pigeon planning effort focused on drone mapping, water storage,

wildfire resilience concept, circular economy with integrated renewable energy like solar panels on top of new ponds that are fishing ponds. So funny enough that Robert brought up the whole issue with the mountain lions feed. I would like to propose because this here $80 is a lot of money for this. If we integrate in these ponds, the fish ponds, some shellfish, we could potentially in the next couple of years have some of the local products for our lions meeting and our different things. So, I'm hoping we can see the circular economy idea kind of coming through. And uh second the motion in clear excuse me second that the motion include a clear intent to use the resulting plan as the basis for at least one substantial outside grant or partnership application within the next year. So the passenger pigeon plan is a story about what when people waited too long and this is only public comment.

Yeah. We won't be able to I don't even know how long respond to that. How long have you been talking? A long time. Yeah. So you do want to be on an agenda in the future, right? I didn't look I can't see the timing. Thank you so much for your time. I hope that was informational enough. Thank you, Ben. Yeah. Um can't comment, but we do have your email with the request to be on the agenda on that topic, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. The same thing. It was a couple months ago that I Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Ben. Thank you. Does anybody have anything else to say?

I have another announcement. I don't know if anyone else has an announcement. Okay. Um, I did receive a letter uh from Darlene Warner and uh unfortunately she has submitted her resignation um from the copier council just to a few unforeseen circumstances and you know she didn't make the decision lightly. Uh I just wanted to quote her as saying that serving on the council has been a meaningful and rewarding experience. She's deeply grateful for the opportunity to work alongside such uh dedicated and passionate individuals and um but she has to uh make some personal priorities. Um but uh we are very grateful for your your time and effort, Darlene. have been um just a breath of fresh air when we needed it and um I've really enjoyed working with you and getting to know you and we'll continue my friendship with her.

Yeah, we'll miss you Darlene here on the council. Thank you for everything. Thank you Darlene. Thank you Darlene. Taking notes Darlene. Yeah. Thank you. We'll talk later. Okay. Are there any other announcements? Okay. Seeing none, but seeing none, and it's not an official meeting, thank you for coming. Thank you for being here tonight. And um I'm sorry. I thought we were all lined up to be here. So, thank you. Okay. adjourned.