Area Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Um, there is that. Okay. I can't find anything I'm looking for. Okay. Can we borrow your this too, please? I am calling this meeting to order at 6:30. the February 26th meeting of the Cobb Area Council. And uh we'll start with a roll call. Want the treasur call? Sure. Treasurer, we'll do the roll call. Thank you, treasurer. Um Kathy McCarthy here. Jake here. Paul

here. [snorts] And uh Joe Schneider is our other and he's absent. I think Joe's not actually on the list right now. Oh. Um Oh, is he not? He is not. But he's out of town. I know. And he's out of town. Okay. So Joe's not on the list. Is it Is Melar? Uh no. We have an open position. We have a a vacancy for a regular person and a vacancy and a vacancy for an alternate. Got it. So we do have quorum. So great, we are good to go.

Thank you for taking role. Um let's stand for a pledge of allegiance. The pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay. Uh we have an official agenda which we have a quorum. We can actually vote on this agenda. Motion to approve the agenda.

Second. Chris to write down these things. Um all in favor?

Any opposed? Okay, we have an agenda. Um, and now, um, we actually don't have our minutes. I'm sure our new secretary will get right on that when she is elected to when they are elected. We don't know who it is or do we? We have suspicions. Okay. Uh so yes we are we were actually missing agenda uh minutes from October of 25 November of 25 December was not we didn't have a quorum so we don't technically have minutes January no quorum so no minutes and now here we are it's been a busy few months okay at this time we could take uh any short announcements We have a microphone over there.

There you go. Hi. Uh, is that on? Yeah. Okay. Uh, hi. I'm Robert Stark, president of the Mountain Lions. Thank you CAC for meeting here for being part of our community and we are welcoming you whenever you need us. Uh I would say I am not hawking tickets for the crab feed because it was sold out three weeks in advance of that was that was quite a deal. As a matter of fact, we bumped over a few because well, we just didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings. The room holds 136 and right now we're running at about 131. So, just for the fire department's sake, uh, and I would mention that on April 4th, I know that's quite a ways, but time goes by as we all know, April 4th, we have scheduled the Easter egg hunt for the four age groups, as we do every year. It would seem as though it's going to be at the former Hoberg Forest Lake Roby Black Rock Course. Um, and we stress starting from the earliest [clears throat] announcements to get there at 12:00 because the 1600 eggs that we put out are picked up in 12 minutes by the horde of youngsters. So, don't

show up at 12:15 and wonder why there's no eggs left. I can't I can only keep as many in my pockets to drop by your kid uh so he gets an egg. But there will be prizes, there will be games, and um if everything goes as it's been indicated to us uh that is acceptable, we will be where we are uh over the year. They just seem to open the place up for the bathrooms. We can rent portaotties if necessary, but all of this comes out of the pocket. We This is not a fundraiser. This is a community service for the children's. So that's it. Thank you. Good evening, Kabites. Marggo Kambara. On Tuesday, March 10th, Community Development Department will present to the board of supervisors amendments to the county's cannabis ordinance. Of possible interest to neighbors is a setback for cannabis grows to off-site residences. Setback distance is one of the few feasible cannabis odor control measures. CDD accepted feedback from the agriculture advisory committee to develop a table of setbacks based on the size of the grow. Cannabis odor intensifies with the size of the grow. Thank you for your consideration. Okay. Are there any other short announcements?

Is my timing perfect? [laughter] Just about. Yeah. So this would be like a short announcement and then the next um section is a public and board comment when you would be limited to three minutes. So you have to pick how long is this announcement? One minute. Yes. Okay. Okay. Any other Okay. Thank you. And now we can take public and board comment on a non-aggenda item for three minutes. It's perfect. [laughter]

Hi. Uh, my name is Ben Hiddle. I live here and recently I have heard we are starting a energy task force and it kind of fits in with an idea of getting electricity for the whole community. I believe somebody tell me when we're about 10 seconds away from three minutes, please. Um, and I realized we use 650 gawatts about per year in Lake County. And so we only need 1500 acres. [clears throat] Time out for technical difficulty. Okay.

Awesome. Thank you, sir. Is that better? Yeah.

Okay. Hi. Uh Ben Hiddle. We use about 650 gigawatts per year in Lake County. Uh we have a task force to do electricity right now and some stuff like that. We need about 1,500 acres of solar to cover our total use, which is some amount of money. And I would just suggest that we drop the task force in Lake County and just go for solar and batteries. And would really like to integrate that with the bio gas projects that I kind of presented before with the ponds. It's a place where the bio gas is going to be able to provide somewhat of a battery as well, not just the normal lithium ion that people typically use. and Lake County is a perfect candidate because we're kind of in our own little canyon and we already export with Calpine, but instead of paying a bill to uh PG&E, we have a possibility to do local energy and then that money could go toward funding our seniors property taxes. Uh right now in Florida, the governor wants to get rid of property taxes. I would like to suggest that we do that here as well, and this would be an avenue. Thank you. Hello, Kabites. Marggo Kambara again. On Tuesday, the board of supervisors uh will be having a meeting that has an item of interest to taxpayers and property owners. Community Development, CDD, and Lake County Administration will present CDD's revenue and expense analysis to explain why the building department needed a $390,000 loan in November 2025. The presentation will also cover options on repaying the loan. Of concern to property owners is the option of code enforcement looking

for building permit violations. For example, uh existing structures without a burn building permit. This is a predatory practice to generate revenue. This action prays on the most vulnerable in our county. Of concern to taxpayers is a financial situation and oversight that led to the budget shortfall. At the board of supervisors June 2025 budget meeting, this budget problem was not raised by CDD. CDD first told the board of supervisors about this this problem in November 2025. CDD originally said that the loan covered recent pay raises and the funding gap from seasonal lull and business. The board of supervisors was not receptive to this explanation. At the December 9th 2025 board of supervisors meeting, CDD and admin revealed that the budget shortfall was long in the making. building and safety departments regularly drew from county reserve accounts the borrowing from reserves was and is unsustainable. In January 2026, CDD told the board of supervisors that CDD code enforcement and planning division also drew from county reserve accounts. About a year ago, county uh I'm sorry, community members analyzed the county's cannabis program revenue data. Community members informed the board of supervisors that the county's cannabis pro program was subsidized and not self- sustaining. Residents cannabis program analysis and observations did not prompt any known action by the county. Bad policy should not be enacted to fund loan repayment. Depending on code enforcement for revenue generation can lead to reduction in services valued by residents. Specifically, inspection of resident reported code violations and blight

abatement. Increases in fees are also being considered. Staff [clears throat] cuts may be needed. The loan repayment schedule will also be discussed. The repayment repayment plan has been shifting since the loan was approved in November. Thank you for your attention. I have a question. Elliot speaks. [snorts and clears throat] Yeah, [clears throat] Elliot is going to speak during for for the forest health committee. Yeah.

Thank you. Okay. Okay. Uh if there's no other um public and board comment, uh we will move on to some regular annual nominations and elections. Um so we have one vacancy uh as noted I think we announced dur during the January meeting that uh Darlene is going to retire from her post. Uh, and once again, we are very grateful for the time and energy she's put into this uh service to her community. Um, and so that means that we will have to elect someone to fill that term that began January and of this year and will end in December of 2027. Are there any nominations or

we will continue? Yeah, I'll continue the search. We could continue the search. Yeah. Um I I believe Joe Schneider is interested in continuing, but he had been absent at the the November meeting when we did this. I guess we did have minutes for the November meeting. Yeah, he was absent in November. He was We didn't have a real meeting in December. January was not a real meeting. Um so, um yeah. So, if we can get him here,

if we can just coordinate, [laughter] of course, you have to be present a certain number of meetings to be able to sit on that board. Sit sit in that seat. It's down at the other end. Okay. The second item would be uh that we need to fill a seat of an alternate which is a one-year commitment. And really it's it's it's a little bit more lenient because you don't have to be at every meeting because hopefully um the rest of us are here. But in a case where uh everyone was out of town or most people were out of town, it's nice to have the alternate so we can still have a quorum and continue the business. So, I don't know if there are any nominations for an alternate [laughter] who you could self-nominate. Okay.

Magdalina. Magdalina, you want to be the alternate? You're here most of the time anyway. I would like to be an alternate. Self nominated. Selfnominated. Thank you, Mr. Hiddle. Okay. And I'm alter I'm nominating my dele. [laughter] [gasps]

Okay. Any other self nominees? No. Uh Ben and then Magdalina, would you want to say a 30 second blurb about why we should choose you to be our alternate? a 30 second blurp. Um, okay. Time. So, I'm Magdalina Valderama. Um, I live out at Seagler Springs. I am a an officer of the Seagler Springs Community Development Association. Um, and I've been serving Cobb since the Valley Fire. Uh, starting out with recovery, making sure that people had financial supplemental financial assistance through the Red Cross. And from that point, it has just been kind of like a snowball, bringing all kinds of uh opportunities to the residents to meet each other, find out what uh needs to be done, and organized to get it done. So, um I'm still doing that and uh if I was to serve as an alternate, um I would do even more of the same.

Point of order. Yeah, I just want to make a point of order. Chair, go ahead. Both nominations will require a second. I don't think we've had that and I assume Oh, [clears throat] closer. So, I had a point of order. Uh the question was or the um the point was that we need a second for both nominations. Sure. Okay. And then we'll get some seconds and then we'll Is it on now? There we go. We need a Yeah. I don't know if you heard me or not, but we need a second for both nominations.

Yeah.

Uh my name is Ben Hiddle. I've lived here for a really long time. My mom brought me when I was 11. I went to Middletown High School. I've raised two kids here and I would like people to raise more kids. And I believe the direction that we are going is not toward having bigger families and jobs and bigger community. And I really want to push that through renewable energy because I taught that at Mendesino College. And there is an economic way to do this. And I would love uh Lake County to be at the forefront of that. It's not a super difficult process to go fully green, but politically it has been for some reason. and maybe I can step into politics and help work us through to a better place in the community. You guys have been doing wonderful work as well and thank you all for letting me speak.

I'd like to second uh both nominations. Just easier that way. I'm going to write that down. Um need seconds. What's your name again? Paul Duncan. [laughter]

Okay, thank you for taking care of that, Paul. All right, we can have a vote. Everyone in the room gets to vote if you are a Cobb resident. Let's vote for Let's hear raise your hand for Ben Hiddle, our excited volunteer. Thank you. Raise your hand for Magdalina Valddorama. Longtime volunteer, three. Magdalina, you're our alternate.

I need you to fill out the application on the county website under boards and commissions. Do your paperwork and then the board will make the appointment. Magdalina, thank you, Magdalina. It takes and it does take the whole community to show up. So, thank you for continuing to show up everyone. Thank you. And thank you, Ben, for stepping up. Yeah. Do do

I said that I I I I endorse Magdalena because we need someone from that end of the district. You know, we always had that struggle in the water district. Everybody would be from downtown and then everybody at the other end of town about users. Yeah. for the record. So to to have representation from the the four corners of Cobb Mountain. Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you. All right. Next step would uh point on the agenda. No, I almost skipped this. Um, in January of year, each year the board of directors will hold a roll call election from its regular members to select a chairperson, a vice chairperson, a secretary, and a treasurer. And I'd like to nominate Jake to be the new chair. I'll second that. Okay, [laughter] I'm going to write that down. Nominated Kathy. Nominated Jake. Seconded by Paul. Yes. Should we get a full slate and vote?

Sure. Yeah, that makes sense. I nominate Chris to continue to be treasurer. Who seconded that? Do we have to accept these nominations or Yeah. No, you don't get sometimes. Sometimes not. [laughter]

How do I spell your last name? Re e. Yes. Thank you. Let's see who else. Can we I'll really do you not want me? No. I'd love you to be secretary. Here you go. [laughter] Let's speed it. Okay. Really? Do I sound excited? I second that nomination. That self-nomination. Say it louder so everyone heard what you said. Oh, I didn't hear it. Nomination. Uh, yes. I'll accept a nomination for secretary. [laughter]

And I and I seconded his self-nomination for secretary. So that means we have a nomination still open for vice chair. Uhhuh. And that would be Kathy McCarthy. Yeah. I would be happy to accept that nomination for vice chair. I second. Elliot me. I nominated Chris to be treasurer. We already got him. [laughter]

Okay. So to recap, chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer, is there any further discussion? Great. Let's have a a show of hands. Raise your hand if you vote to approve this. All right. Slate approved. Unanimous slate approval. I wish all government work like that. Make make sure those notes are readable. I I think Kathy's making sure you're not leaving. Get some tape. And with that,

I hand over the good microphone to our new chair. Thank you, Jake. Well, I appreciate it. I'm a little under the weather, so my voice is a little raspy tonight, but we'll get through it. [clears throat] Where are we at? Sorry. Oh, we are um You don't even have to talk yet. Perfect. We're going to move right on to Supervisor Price's comments.

Okay. It's been a while since we had um an official meeting, but I have given some comments at the last unofficial gatherings. Um I think the biggest news is an update on the park and um so oops I lost it. I just wanted to pass on from Lars. I mentioned this before, but not everybody was here. Um, we are it's a the progress is a little bit slower than um what we were intending because we've applied for over a million dollars of federal funding for the park as well. So ultimately it's better, but um it takes a little Well, first of all, we don't know if we're going to get that funding yet. We're we're feeling very good about it. The pro uh grant manager came out, looked at the property, looks like a good fit. We should know soon, but then we have to go through NEPA uh because it's a federal grant. So I hope that we can get uh construction started in 2026, but I don't know. Do you know? That's pretty optimistic.

It's pretty optimistic. Um, this guy's working on it, too. So, it's exciting that we have more funding for the park. It's just going to um take a little bit longer to get things going, but that's okay. Ultimately, it's going to be a fantastic park. Um, so I I just got back from Washington DC. I was there for a week. Um it was a national association of counties legislation week which I do every um February, March and in at the end of January each year the board um has a governance workshop the last Tuesday of the month and we identify uh throughout that process we identify all of our state and federal policy priorities and then we we adopt those work with our lobbyists create a strategy and then when my colleagues and I go out and meet with the legislators we have a road map of everything that we're working on. So um so that's what uh supervisor Sabatier and I did in DC and a lot of the work was around um the effects to the county from HR1. That's the one big beautiful bill that um really impacts a lot of our programming with social services for our community. So that's uh 25% of our population receives CalFresh benefits, SNAP, and over half of our population is on medical. And so there are significant impacts to both of those programs and others um because of those budgeting changes. And so we spent a lot of time

talking about that. And um the other area where I spent a lot of time working was on FEMA reform, the FEMA act and uh con continued investment in disaster mitigation. So those were the two big areas that I focused on. I met with um let's see, House Transportation and Infrastructure staff, uh Senate Banking staff. Um I had conversations, face-to-face conversations with both of our senators and then follow-up meetings with their staff as well as uh several days of um policy committees and workshops um with the conference. Uh, one of the policy committees that I'm on is environment, energy, and land use. And one of our um big pushes this year, and I had a resol I was co-sponsoring a resolution on the reauthorization of the state revolving fund for water infrastructure projects. So that uh that's that's kind of it in a nutshell of all it was a full week of all that advocacy but it really matters cultivating those relationships knowing the staffers really well after all these years um and and really you know telling Lake County story sharing what our needs are sharing what our residents needs are so that our federal delegation can work more effectively on our behalf u especially in rural counties in California and rural counties like ours across the country. Uh so that's like my general update. But the plaque that we had made from and we presented the other plaque which was

over there. Um, this one I want to um entrust to both the Cabberry Council and the Cob Mountain Lions until our park is built and it can be installed there. So, this is the memorial plaque and I will open it up and show it to you because it just came in the mail and I just cracked it open out of the box.

[applause]

Oh, wow. So, yeah, I maybe we could take a group picture with everybody, but it um you know, memorializes what we went through in the Valley Fire, the lives that were lost, and I really couldn't think of a better place to um have it have it be kept safe um until one day it can be put somewhere in our park. Yes. So, Lions, CIC, you guys accept the responsibility of this plaque. I will do whatever I can. I'll do

on behalf of the mountain lines. We would be proud to caretake the plaque until it's further notice. Great. Wonderful. Thank you. So, we even have the template, which I don't keep it wrapped up or display it, whatever you like. If you want to hang it, you could hang it. because it'll be here for probably at least we will proudly display it. Okay, perfect. Thanks, guys. [applause]

Anything else? That's it. All right. Thank you, Supervisor Piscat.

Oh, yeah. Question, Tom. Well, as usual, thank you for our superc. So, I mean, that's one of the very real cases um of essentially fallout of the legislation because um shortly after the bill was passed, Adventist Health decided not to go forward with their new campus in Clear Lake, which we have all been working on for many, many years. But, you know, they really didn't feel like they could move forward with a capital investment of that size with funding not being reliable. And we've also seen the hospital in Glen County close. Uh, so rural hospital closures are very real. is a very real consequence to this legislation and really affects um all of us, not just those on medical, but anyone that needs any type of medical service is going to be impacted because there's just going to be fewer resources. And we're starting to see that happen already. Jessica, I have a question. I have been approached quite a bit about there was an article that said that Northern California, including Lake County, is loaded with hydrogen and that we're going to be drilling for hydrogen. But is there any validity to this? And there's been no applications put forward with the California Energy Commission or

Dogger, the Department of Oral Water and Gas for drilling for for hydrogen. But is the board of supervisors aware? Is this a reality? Cuz I don't know what to say to people.

Sure. Great question and sorry I forgot to put that on my list. There's a a company called Col um that has sent a lot of notices out to land owners and um I did meet with them. They met with all of the supervisors uh last summer and the idea is that there is potentially hydrogen here but nobody really knows. Um it is often found in places with serpentine which is why a lot of the land owners near the geothermal field are receiving notices but it's not isolated to the Cobb area. It's all over the county. Um what they are trying to do is put out these little it's like a little box about this big and

Yeah.

Yeah. and and it's a high it's very sensitive um instrument and they're kind of building a net around the county in different places so that these instruments can kind of like ping down below the surface and and determine if there are any stores below the surface. And so that is the first step is to see if there's anything here. And um so that's why they've been asking land owners to put these little boxes on. It is you don't really need a permit or any it's just you know just a little box on the ground. Um I think that they also want to they've identified some county property that they want to put these on and so that could potentially come to our board. But at this point, it's it's just um looking for information. If they determine that there are stores around, then the next step would be to drill. But of course, that would that requires, you know, permitting and and more things. And then of course if they were to discover hydrogen that's another process of figuring out what extraction looks like um what the use would look like. There's just so many unknowns. Um they basically told me that it it could exist anywhere on the planet except for the North Pole and the South Pole. But then kind of drilling down into those conversations. Yeah, it's it's prevalent where there is serpentine and so that's why they're looking here. So, it's just a it's just a a a quest right now to see

if they can find anything and then regulatory steps would occur after that.

It seems to me they want to keep a year and they offer like $200 on the property or something that is what I heard. Okay. I I thought it was the I thought they said it would be a few a month or a few months or it was the longer for you. Okay. But I may be wrong. I I think there's just a lot of unknowns and um you know it's just one step at a time. Sorry, I'll go

if I could just uh I'm all for getting more information. I think let as we know that the the geology of our area is incredibly complex and so particularly when we we're trying to understand issues like like our our groundwater issues. Um it's a it's an area. So this data could be extremely valuable as long as that data actually become is is available for us to use. And so I would like to ask that you know as you as you proceed on this and the people are negotiating I think a critical area will be kind of the uh availability of the information rather than having it being reserved as kind of private proprietary information.

I I'm I don't know about that because they're out there collecting their data right now. There are several other companies that are also looking at hydrogen explor exploration. So, I I don't know that I could promise you that. No, I'm just saying to the degree that you have either on the county's behalf or in this public forum to just kind of share that with with our neighbors here, um, you know, it sounds exciting. Uh, it also sounds, you know, something that we'd want to go quite slowly with, obviously, as you said. Yeah. Thanks.

And and we don't have an energy task force. We have a working group that is developing um our energy policy. Um so that's an internal working group. I'm on it with another supervisor and some staff because we are being approached by a lot of developers right now, hydrogen and geothermal. Um, and so it's just really important in my mind to make sure that our house is in order and that we know what we're looking for, that we set the table before we really start engaging with developers. And so that's the work that we're doing right now. Um, and this hydrogen piece is is part of it. Mhm.

I don't know if this has any bearing on it, but what came to mind when I heard this, I hadn't heard anything about it, but the generators, like the generators at the geysers are filled with hydrogen because it's far less friction when that armature is turning in there. And what we learned there, as I recall, is like gasoline, it can be very explosive, but the oxygen to vape gasoline vapor is narrow. So, it could be very explosive in certain narrow ranges, but that hydrogen has this huge range of of possibilities for exploding. So, I just thought I'd bring that up.

There are a lot of possibilities, but hydrogen has to be used at or very near the source. So, it it's not something that would be transmitted or um transferred out of county. It would likely be used in county. Um, I believe Jessica, do you know how much electricity Lake County uses per year? [sighs] Um, not offhand, but you're on the task force. That was Helen you're with right on that task force or working Supervisor Owen. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm just going to lay it out. We use 650 gawatts, 1500 acres of solar. We already know that. the county already did about 15% of that last year already. So, if we just kind of amp up what we've already been doing, uh, areas instead of waiting years, we kind of have an immediate potential plan to go forward. And if we ramp it up to a certain point, I would love to see us go beyond what we use as a community like we already do with Kalpine, but that money goes outside the community. And if we have it being paid back into the community, then again, seniors or people could potentially use that money for property taxes going lower. Thank you.

Okay. Supervisor Pisca, everything good? Yeah. All right, let's move on to our storm season update by Chief Duncan.

Yes. I'll cover a couple things. One is the Colerg Energy that uh hydrogen came before the fire district board because they wanted to put some sensors on fire district property. Um we have one um person on the board who's adamant as far as uh having those placed because the contract with them allows them further exploration after just putting the sensors in in addition to fencing and power supplies to these. So um the South Lake board uh rejected the uh contract last night for those. Uh so those won't be h happening u on South Lake property. um for just information. Um as far as CalFire goes, I wear a couple of hats. So on the CalFire side, we will be hiring back our seasonal staff starting the 16th of March. Um that will include the copter staffing. Um there's been lots of activity in the forest uh recently with a lot of burning and fuels work. So uh if you see fuels going work going on or equipment operating, please stay away from those. Uh we have masticators running doing a lot of cleanup around the periphery. Um the intent with all that work is really to make us a good neighbor. Uh we don't want a fire starting on the forest and then spreading to the neighborhoods around because we have a lot of dead and down debris after the valley fire that still exists surprisingly. So we're doing our work. Um Rich Booker's a huge component of that. He's been doing a great job up there. Uh and that is to maintain those brakes all the way around the forest. Um also on the forest, if you do notice the gate is closed, we do shut that during storms. uh people will drive off the roads and onto uh areas that are not really erode and it really causes a lot of erosion and damage to plants uh when the soil is wet. So those will be closed off. Um our recent snow events were not significant and thanks for that. Um and uh Chris and I were talking earlier, National Weather

Service redid a bunch of zones. Uh one is Cobb. We have our own zone now which is new. Uh I requested that when they put out a plan to uh redo uh zones instead of giving uh the whole county one because we have some unique microclimates up here. We want to capture those. So hopefully that makes our uh predictions a little bit closer to what they actually are. Um on the South Lake side, our yearly maintenance of the sirens will be happening in March. Uh that date is currently set for the 16th and 17th. So sirens could be heard on those days. not necessarily a test date, but they will be doing some maintenance on those. Uh the Cobb siren has been out of service for the last couple months. So, um just information, I've got a couple of complaints on that. So, that company that does the servicing is out of state and they will be doing the repair work on that when they come by. Um

so, possibly we'll hear sounds

from the one. Yep. In cuff. Yes. Um and just information, those are battery powered. So there's batteries that sit up there next to those sirens. So in the event of a power failure, they still activate. Um so batteries will be changed. We'll be upgrading those. Um during that maintenance, um we are hoping for delivery of two new fire engines and a new water tender in March, which is pretty exciting. Uh we'll be scheduling push-in ceremonies um for those after they show up, which is uh we invite the community out and to push those pieces of apparatus into the bay for them to be here. the last uh engines we were operating on are older than some of the firefighters that are on them. So, we're happy to have those. Um um and then uh yeah, that's uh will be for Cobb, Hidden Valley, and Middletown. And that is it for me if anybody has any questions.

Yes, Tom. Correct. So that green this this will be a uh the one in in Middletown is a 3000galon. It's the green one. Uh and that's a 1985. Yes. Yeah. So that one will be replaced with the new water. Same gallonage and it'll be out of Middletown. Yes. Marggo.

Yeah. Question. Um just out of curiosity, what happens to the retired fire trucks? Uh well, normally they would go to auction, so we would auction them off, but right now the Maja development is taking off. Uh and the Maja development part of their contract is the first thing they build as a fire station. Uh currently firet trucks take about 3 years from I put an order in till we get one. So we're going to keep the old one uh one of the old ones and then in case we need it out there. Same with a water tender. Um, we will probably take the old green water tender that Tom's talking about, take the tank off of it, put a new chassis under it, and just use it as a backup for out there. So, that's uh, but normally they auction. Uh, Robert had to stand up. Do you have something, Robert?

No. Oh, perfect. Briefly, Paul, you said the batteries are on the siren up there. Yes, there's wet I think they're gel batteries that are on the side of the We have solar for that because obviously that's going to be the way to get it cheaper and longer lasting and more consistent. Does uh there is not solar to charge those? Yeah, I'm just It would be a good working the community toward that direction. Thanks. Yeah, there is not solar to charge those. What the current that currently there's no batteries that charge those siren systems. They are fed up the grid fed. Then how are they charged? How many man hours? And like how much they're they're fed off the grid. So the there's a battery charger that is on that pole that gets fed by P Gen. By PG.

Yeah. Just and it keeps the batteries topped off. Oh, perfect. But then you said when PG is out, it goes out. But but that's why the batteries are there to activate those during emergency. So, um, the old style sirens that I don't we don't probably don't want to get too far into that, but the older style sirens that used to be on the top of the stations were air raid style sirens and actually displaced air. Very effective, had a much better spectrum range as far as sound projection, distance, uh, but they are intense to maintain. They use a lot of electricity and you can't put a battery backup on them. So, you kind of it's a trade-off. But those old uh air raid sirens spectacular. Put your put your eye out right next to them. All right. All right. Thank you, Chief Duncan.

Thank you. Next order of business, treasures report. Chris,

can you hear me? Okay. Yeah. Good. So, um, not a very active month. In January, we spent $164 for our storage unit. That's my report. Uh, no. I uh just uh so we've got balances. We have uh $33,730 for our operating budget balance. Uh we got 48,000 and um $82 in our revolving loan fund. And I'll I'll probably update us a little bit on that uh during the economic development committee uh update. Uh but uh total net assets are um $81,813 and some change. So we're we're in the black.

We've got some money. That's good. And and um some of that money is going to help us do the Blackberry Cobbler Festival. Hey. All right. Anything else, Chris? No. And if anyone wants uh details on um the treasures report with uh current account balances and everything, uh I've got numerous copies. Just come see me after the meeting. Don't all rush. That's why I handed it to you.

All right. Thank you, Chris. All right. So, next order of business is discuss approved letter from the Cabier Council to Mr. Holman regarding certain commercial property in Cobb and its impact on the economic development of the community and Kathy has a bit more information on that.

Okay. So, we've kind of been sort of talking about this in the last couple meetings that we didn't really have a quorum. Um, in the meantime, we've uh revised one of the previous letters that were kind of floated out there and this is what we have. This is regarding the property, the former Timothy Toy parking lot area. Um, dear Mr. Holman, who is the property owner, we hope this message finds you well. We regr writing regarding your plans for the property located along Highway 175, the former site of the farmers market, the community Christmas tree, and numerous small local businesses over the years. As a representative body, representative body of the Cobb community, a county advisory commission, we want to share that the community has valued this centrallylo commercial site through the years. This site has long served as a cornerstone of community life, a place where neighbors gathered, local entrepreneurs, built their livelihoods, and many visitors got their first impression of our town. It occupies a unique and irreplaceable spot in Cobb's small but vibrant commercial core. Over the past decade, our community, your new neighbors, has worked hard to recover from the devastating 2015 valley fire. We are finally beginning to see signs of economic and cultural cultural growth. We have several small businesses that have been able to hold on postfire, survive the economic uncertainty of the pandemic shutdown, and grow stronger since. We see new businesses blossoming while some are transitioning to reinvent themselves. We are on the threshold of planning our si sixth blackberry cobbler festival providing a platform for local

artisans, food vendors, and nonprofits to showcase their talents while partnering partnering with local businesses to promote their brick and mortar services. Maintaining spaces zone for commerce is essential to our long-term economic recovery. They provide opportunities for small business growth, tourism, and local employment. All of which help sustain a thriving, resilient economy. Our local area plan identifies the need for a town center in which you are quite literally in the midst. You are in a unique position to help our community in a way that has not yet been done. We are excited by the county's decision to invest in a new park just down the road from you and how that might further bolster our local economy. While residential and mixeduse development is an important part of Cobb's future, we respectfully urge you to consider the broader impact you can have in our community. Preserving this property for commercial use, even for mixed use, would support the continued revitalization of our town and honor its history as a shared community hub. Thank you for considering this perspective. We hope to work together to find a future for the property that benefits you, the owner, and the broader Cobb community. To that end, we'd like to invite you to attend an upcoming Cobb Area Council meeting. We meet on the third Thursday each month at the little red schoolhouse community center at 15780 Bottle Rock Road. Please email us at cob area councsilgmail.com if you can attend an upcoming meeting. Sincerely, Jake Strickler [laughter] and whoever else. We could put more of

us on there. I'm sorry I don't have a paper draft to show you. All right. Thank you, Kathy. Is there any comments, Elliot? I'd just like to What What's the current? Uh, to best my understanding, it's it's commercial. Um, I think there's a Paul, you probably know this better than I think it's C2. C2. C2. I don't.

Okay. So, C2 does not allow for residential just direct res. So, is he looking to reszone? Um so currently um there is a posted violation on the property because um of the dogs, the storage unit, the different things that he has in the fenced yard. Um there have been conversations with him uh about the correct use. uh he did apply for a major use permit, but it's not something that can happen when you have outstanding code violations.

But even with a major use permit, he he'd need to from what I understand from C2 would be either commercial or mixed use. Correct. Under C2, you can have an auxiliary uh residence, but you have to have um a business that is open to the public during normal business hours with the parking lot that is open and available. Um so, right, that could just want to clarify. Thanks.

Thank you, Elliot. I think I sent this information out before because I looked at the code enforcement on this and one of the concerns I think was blight and maybe this was a dictionary version of blight would be something that would reduce property values in the vicinity. So I just thought I but I think I already sent that out but I thought I'd mention it. Essentially, it's a it's an incompatible use. Yeah. Which is why there are the um active violations. All right. Any other comment?

Yeah. What would be the top 10 uses that the community would like to see? I'd hate to pigeon hole somebody and be like, "We don't want you to do this and then we don't want you to do that either." Mhm. So if we had some kind of a group idea and I love the blackberry cobbler kind of integration or something. I think it's a lot better to put something out like that. Not sure if that's applicable, but wanted to um I would just also suggest or recommend that um you CC both myself and Director Turner.

I'm not clear as to what he's doing that we don't like. Okay. So, um he's closed encircled the property with a fence and want intends to live there with his residents. He has a business that is not open to the public but to maintain healthy vibrant communities we h you know we have zoning for a reason and C2 zoning is to protect that community vibrance. So, uh, a compatible use would be a real estate office or in the past it was a video store, a hair salon, all those things. Um, that you know are service, community services, or it could be retail or it could be a restaurant. There was a restaurant there at one point. So, you have a parking lot that is open and you have businesses that their doors are open to the public, you know, during normal hours.

Thank you. I'm just say this might be a good opportunity to let people draw people's attention to the fact that the the draft of the new Lake County general plan including the draft of the new Cobb Mountain area plan has just been released by the community development department and it really uh deserves careful reading from our community. Uh we've been told by director Turner that the the local area plan advisory committee the lay pack will begin again meeting either in March and April at which point we'll have an opportunity to emphasize our our feelings and and desires about this and the entire community.

Yeah. Uh to your point um uh land use is a big part of that uh Lake County 2050 vision. So that's uh worth taking a look at and reading and seeing how the community is coming together on uh land use in central co you know what we cobb village if you will thereation of that. Yes. Yeah. It's and it's also the loss of like parking. I mean really in downtown for the the real estate office, you don't have that whole parking lot used to be filled up and just a loss of people can't walk by it either. Not without the dog going crazy too

and the dogs barking or driving everybody crazy. And the only crosswalk from one side of 175 to the other is leads directly to the fence with ferocious dogs, ferocious sounding dogs behind it. What do we want? Well, our economic plan discusses a a town center, you know, where we can have a farmers market, which we have had there. Not we, but has h taken place there once upon a time. We've had Christmas tree lightings. We've had, you know, just a place where people would gather and, you know,

and I would say we want it back to commercial. We want it so you can rent out uh the stores that are in that complex. Um and and it's not intended for residential occupancy. Perfect. I think they would understand. Yes. Yeah. Do you are you suggesting that that we um indicate that that's what we want in the letter? Are you suggesting a modification of the letter? I absolutely do think that is something that we should add if that's what people want because otherwise I feel like you're not guiding enough putting like we don't want this and noting.

Yeah, it's a good suggestion. I I I think you have to be very careful with us saying like we want this. We need to li rely on something within the C2 zoning that we can lay our hands on because it's really hard to go up to somebody whose property it is and say, "Hey, we want you to do this with it." I wonder though saying that we want a use that's consistent with C2 zoning. I think that's and that's I think that that's what I had envisioned maybe putting in the letter. Would that do you think that I mean I would that be useful? Yeah. or compatible use within the zoning. Compatible and allowable use within the zoning. Okay. Compatible, allowable.

Oh, I moved here in 1984 and I had a copy around that time of a general plan that may have already been outdated. I don't know. And I gave it to Denise and I wish I had kept it but because what it pointed out in there and I don't remember the words but it was like this the whole background idea is to maintain our quality of life and I don't remember the words rural or slow pace or I don't remember what that was but you I think you get the general idea what we had here and to ma to maintain that and I just want to bring that up. I I don't know I'll read the new one and see what it says. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, to follow up on Elliot and Tom's comment, Thomas, can we zoom in on this or tell me where to walk to see so to show everybody this is where you can find the draft of the general plan and the middle um the Cobb Mountain local area plan. Uh, I'll read it out. It's um www.lakecount2050.org og and then look under documents and then under documents look for under uh general plan documents. Thomas do I need to move forward?

Thank you. So this is Magdalina again and um I was just remembering that we have used that parking lot um with grant funding to educate people um residents and anyone who came to attend uh about uh fire safety. We had a a little um event, a couple of events there where we would have tables and booths and people would actually come and park. And uh there are so few places to gather um in Cobb uh that's open to the public and of a size that is intimate enough and yet spacious enough for people to um use things like Christmas tree trimmings or or anything else like that. So it's it still fits in. And I I also wanted to draw people's attention to the U Cobb strategy that this council adopted about nearly 5 years ago. Um we put in our whole community put in about 11 priorities. We've met about seven of them or they're in process. So that's a really good record and I would I would um invite participation in from him uh and point him to like hey we these are some of the things we would like to see um it's already out there

uh and um yeah so at that question was what to do I think she hit it we already have a cobb area economic development

my problem with this nobody's going to like Prices are skyrocketing. Families are flatlining. We are not doing the right thing economically. I can see why that's transitioned five times. We can't keep the golf courses there. There's not enough people here. We need to revive it at a deeper level. And I'm going to pause it after Robert said the crab boil is going to be $80 this year. When we borrow that million dollars for that park, we're going to pay for it at the Crab Bo. when we borrow the million dollars from the feds or the state at some point it comes back as inflation potentially. So we should be very careful about borrowing money and instead potentially bring things back economically and suggest something that will work that we've already asked about for our community but then

yeah that's it. Thank you. So, is a motion in order, chair? Yeah. Um, I think a motion to approve the letter based on a little more description in the zoning ordinance to match it what it currently is. I have a that adding in a sentence that says uh we need to see a compatible allowable use within the zoning the current zoning in order to strengthen the economic vitality of Cobb and maintain our quality of life and should we maybe point

did you reference the economic development plan? Um I've alluded to it maybe because it's isn't it on the web a web it council website. Yeah, we've got it on the cob council website. That's what so we can put a link in. Yeah, in the letter. Um, and hopefully that also I thought we did mention that gets him here because I I think it would be nice to chat with him. Yeah. Yeah. I move approval as amended. I I will second the motion that's been offered by the chair. You're not supposed to motion. Okay. So, I I Wait. So, who's who's motioning? So I I think the chair Jessica

he's not supposed to make a motion. So I made the motion to approve as amended. Thank you Jessica. Jessica is to approve as amended. The reason why I asked if a motion was in order is I was going to make it but u motions. Nope. Okay. Yeah. But but I think we have a motion on the floor so I'll second it. And All right. All in favor? I I opposed. All opposed. All right. I think the eyes have it. Okay.

All right. Next order of business. Let's move on to the committee reports and we'll start with firewise. Magdalena. Okay. Next. [laughter] minutes.

So, I'm reporting on Firewise communities. I don't see any of the other leaders here, so I'll just and I won't presume to speak for them, but I can tell you what I know of them. Um, we ended, you know, we we had about eight Firewise communities if we count Anderson Springs. Um, but a couple of had to bow out for at least temporarily. Uh, so they're considered inactive, but we still have Lachl Lomenmond. We have Anderson Springs as I mentioned, Seagler Springs, Cobb View, REMM, which stands for uh, Rainbow Estate Meadow, and I forget the other one, the other M. Um, and uh, uh, four of them got their we got our reertifications in uh, January, which is really good. That's for us in Seagler Springs. That was our ninth in a row. Um, REMM is about just that much as well in Cobb View. Um, and then, um, there is going to be a Firewise communities summit being sponsored by the Konai Fire Safe Council on April 24th. Um, they have been holding their own summit for uh, four years now. This fourth one they're actually opening to all the other Firewise communities. Um here in Cobb we've had small workshops. Um but this one is where everybody's going to come together and I I will be giving um about 10-minute presentation on grant preparation because I don't think that our community understands what it takes for organizations to collect the information about shovel ready projects. That's a term that I've um learned about and uh use regularly and then I have to

remind myself not everybody understands what is so important about having a shovel ready project. So I'm going to explain a lot about a bunch of th those kinds of things. Um we're not going to talk about grant writing per se, but just like okay, what does the community have to do to be part of um a a a greater ask? and you know our organiz uh RCD resource conservation district, Lake County Fire Safe Council, South Lake Fire Safe Council, Kakai Fire Safe Council. Um we have almost every time we ask for money, we're always looking for, okay, what do we need? Where do we where can we find those priorities? So, um that's going to be a good bunch of uh information. And um our supervisor here is going to be presenting on uh insurance. So there's a lot of uh there's a lot of information and opportunities to discuss with that.

I'm sorry, who hosted that summit again? It's called the Konai Fire Safe Council. It's the third one, the third fires safe council in the county. They include the Rivieras and the little communities in between like the mobile parks and stuff like that. Magdalina, before you go, I um I have kind of a question comment. I uh just couple of days ago in the mail, I got a notice from my insurance company

uh and well from my broker and from California Fire uh or uh California Fair Plan that um they were going to start offer offering a package of discounts if you um meet 10 hard uh home hardening uh categories. and they it said that there were additional discounts if you were part of a Firewise community. Uh and a couple there was at least one other thing in that letter. So, uh first uh I just want to say that those letters are going out apparently from um from the fair plan. And second, thanks for all the work that the fires safe communities have been doing because this is something that I think um our community needs to know about, know that they're part of and can exercise these discounts because I'm not sure what percentage of our folks are on fair plan, but I think it's a pretty high percentage. So,

um those discounts are important and let's harden our homes. Yeah, there there's quite a number of programs that um that Jessica helped to bring in um and uh that we're all cooper all the firewise communities are cooperating on, but there are still fire wise communities that don't even in in Lake County that didn't know there were other firewise communities. So, I've been trying to, you know, spread the word. Um we have two Firewise regional coordinators just for our county. the resource conservation district is trying to step in to be the overall county coordinator and um spread more of that message because look it it it makes sense that our firefighters as brave as they are and as strong as they are and as well equipped as they have been and and you know Paul you've been really working on that in the end we have to support our firefighters we're the ones that have to make sure that our homes are already uh fireweised as as my uh plumber uh colleague likes to say and and the science is there. The science is there. If you can clear the area around your house up to 100 ft even or even just that first five feet around and over the house, it makes a huge difference. Makes a huge huge difference. Um, so you know, we'll we'll we'll have all that stuff to share as well and um and and the insurance and keep it moving.

Thank you, Mike. I would turn off my microphone. One of the requirements that I have read that uh from what I have seen though for to have your house hardened, I may be mistaken, the sophets need to be enclosed and I don't know that anybody in in Cobb has that. We can all see the rafters, you know, from the from the ceiling box ees if you So, in other words, some some some houses, not probably not around here, the thing's completely enclosed and you can't see the rafters coming down.

So, um enclosed sophets are not required. Um if you want a really good list, you can go to wildfirepreparedhome.org. They have that's IBHS. They have two standards. The regular standard doesn't require enclosed sophets. The plus standard does, and that's really for new builds. It mostly is um making sure that all your vent screening is eighth of an inch. So, the vents in your foundation and the vents in your eaves. Um you have gutter covers. Um, you want there's some there's a lot of smaller details, but those are kind of the big things that make a big difference. Uh, if you can do non-combustible sighting at least like 3 feet off the ground. If you go to wildfirpar.org, you'll see the whole list and you can get that IBHS certification for wildfire prepared. Um we're trying to get more um resources for people in the county to get that. If you get that certification, it will help. But

but a lot of the insurance companies will recognize um different hardening thing, different different hardening practices. But the um enclosed gutters and the vents because most people have quarter inch screening on their vents and we want to get that down to eighth of an inch and it will then you won't have embers getting sucked into your attic or under your foundation. So those are like really important things that are actually pretty low cost.

Okay. Thank you. I I must add that it's starting to sound like it's probably time for another summit in Cobb, Cobb Safees, Cobb Resilient, the ones that we did earlier, because you know, we've we've got new people coming in and uh it was a light rain, light snow season, even though our reservoirs in the state are filled and uh we just need to educate people, make it fun, too. Would be it's a good idea.

All right, two insurance questions. uh when you reszoned us as a different climate, could that help with the insurance? Number one, it seems like it would because we're more wet than everywhere else. Uh I would say no. It's more about it's weather prediction. It's not about it's not about the the fire environment here. So because we're not at lake level, so we don't have that red flag that the lake gets, but we get more wind up here because we're more prone and also there's a lot of areas without trees. So we've seen what used to be a 20ft wind or 40 foot wind over the top of the trees is now a ground wind and that's what's ripping a lot of the trees out when we get the storms. So because we don't have the tree cover

and the second insurance thing was AI insurance through lemonade. 150 bucks a month is what my neighbor's house is getting. I so just no it's not an advertisement I nothing but it might help with insurance because it's been a beast. All right. Is there anybody else to speak on fire wise communities?

Thank you. Um Marggo Kambara questions mainly for Magdalene. So is the Firewise community summit going to be available to the public? If not, will it be recorded and available to the republic to to the public? Um, or otherwise, how can the public get that information, especially those who are trying to form a firewise community? Thank you. So the summit is so far is for um firewise community leaders and leaders to be uh we do we have invited we should make sure uh Cornelia has been invited. So uh so uh we we have invited folks who are in the process of forming a fire wise community. Um the question really is funding. We do we do uh record these. Um both Jessica and I were at the previous one. Um and it's funding. It's funding. So if we can figure out how how to um how to organize with all of the other nonprofits and county agencies and do something big for folks, then yeah, we'd love to open it to the public. And the whole thing about insurance, it's it's pretty complex. Uh, we know about IBHS and the funny thing is IBHS is the company that sponsored the research that Firewise USA uses. So, it's not like it's completely separate. Um, it's it's it's been there. The the process is just like, okay, who's which trade organization is going to take advantage of that? Good question.

Okay. Any more Firewise comments, questions? All right, let's move on to communications committee. Is uh anything to report on that?

Okay. report from Mel uh is that um we are in the winter mode for testing our radios each Wednesday beginning at 6:15. There's an alert test at 6:30 and the entire check-in goes until about 6:45. We will reprogram the licensed people's radios. So, if you have a radio license and you need your radio reprogrammed, uh they'll be doing that in March with a new 22 channel simplified channel arrangement. If you are not on the mailing list, please get uh or if you want a radio and get updates, you want to join the mailing list by going emailing me at cobalertnetgmail.com. And that's it.

All right. Well, thank you. Let's move on to the Force Health Committee. Elliot,

good evening. Um, I'm I'm very happy to to report that after about a year of wrangling back and forth and dealing with the federal government and contracting and issues like that, we have finally basically it's like we've come out of the harbor into the sea on actually working on our Cobb Mountain area community wildfire protection plan. So, we've got our our our principal contracts are now signed. We have our technical advisors in place and this and uh tomorrow uh the last Friday of the month uh we will be having our next meeting of the Kabary Council forest stewardship committee at which point we will be introducing a lot more details about really getting us up to speed. We'll be having a uh a more detailed uh overview of just what the Cobb uh the community wildfire protection plan formal process will be uh given by our our principal technical consultant Carol Carol Rice. Uh we'll also be talking about um some of the special elements of the Cobb Mountain CWP. uh in addition to the the formal requirements, we will also be doing a specific workforce development economic uh idea uh uh component of it looking for the long-term uh economic viability of doing the work that needs to be done. We'll also be uh making a special effort to in involve uh our tribal uh partners so that we can actually understand at at depth some more the the ecological factors that are involved. uh we'll have uh an initial set of maps. Our GIS specialist will be there. She's already kind of created a a halfozen uh visualizations of the various ways that we can look at our landscape. And we'll be talking about well what kind of information uh do we want to get because there is an incredible universe of data out there and we need to focus in on what's going to be useful for us uh

given the spec particular uh ge geological geographic challenges that we have here. We'll also be introducing the um cobb forest citizen science and ground truthing um program as part of our CWPP. As I said, we've got all this data, but frankly, a lot of that data is old. A lot of it is just satellite. A lot of it is at large scales. And we're going to want to understand what's actually there. So, we are going to be inaugurating a citizens volunteer cadre that will be trained to go actually out there and look at uh partials that we have that the group has identified as high priority to say, well, what's actually there? Uh we're hoping that this will also help overall increase the overall understanding and level of education amongst our community here about forest ecology about fire ecology. Uh because this is kind of what what it takes to live live in this place. Fi finally we'll be establishing a formal yes we do have this our our cab area council committee but the CWPP process requires a formal working group that will have certain uh particular uh members membership including a formal CalFire representative uh that will going to be Chief Chris Aragon uh Jake is going to will be on that working group uh as representing the Cabb area council and we're looking we'll be looking for other specific um representatives on that on that working group.

Yes. One question for you. Um for those who may not be able to attend the uh COB stewardship uh for stewardship meeting, uh will it be recorded or available? It will be it will it will be recorded. Uh the meeting itself, I should say, is is at the the Loman firehouse from 4:00 to 5:30 tomorrow. Right. Thank you. Sure. All right. Thank you, Elliot. Yep. Any comments, questions? All right, we'll keep

that I want to point out. I should have said this years ago because I bring up some comments and I'm we have citizen scientists. Well, I'm a citizen investigator going on 25 years now. And anything I bring to you a lot of times I can show you but always check the mic.

You you can always draw your own conclusions. I'm never here to tell you what you the conclusion should be and that's really important and I'm that's never I kind of careful to try to not be overbearing. Nobody wants that and I don't like that and I mean the you see the internet and everybody's telling you what to think and I don't think any of us like that. So, but at that adaptation meeting, I thought it was wonderful and that gentleman came up from Santa Cruz and but the only thing that got my attention. I asked a question about climate change and I think maybe he misunderstood me but everybody's here with good intentions and but I wrote this because we keep hearing climate change. Well, I think my impression is the planet's getting warmer and it's anthropogenic and um uh anyway I think sea level is rising and I think we see a lot of things going on but uh so I think that's true but when we keep talking about climate change and and so I wrote this to part of the email I wrote to to Elliot and and this is just to be very brief but regarding Friday's meetings I have some thoughts to share about what I said and why if we are going to adapt, we need to find out what we are adapting to. Simply labeling everything climate change, although not necessarily without some merit, is so general, two words in my opinion, incomplete and explains nothing and means nothing unless you being specific. And here's another part. I wonder what is and is not being probably not well worded, but I wonder what is and not and is not being monitored in Cob area and by whom? visible back scattering, dial temperature gradient compared to many years ago suggests 25 years or more evaporation rates, pan evaporation rates, aerosol masking, also known as global dimming. And you had mentioned that Chris, aerosol masking. Um, what about that? Because what are the effects of from well doumented man-made clouds? Why are the man-made clouds that is not natural and why are virtually if not literally never mentioned in weather

reports usually labeled partly cloudy and partly sunny? And I left this out. We can watch jet planes. The ones I have recorded back in 2002, unmarked, no windows, four and two engine planes, leaving these long trails. That's fine. Of whatever, but they don't evaporate and they spread out and we can watch them. It's been well documented. They form a cloud cover of whatever. You can decide what you think it is. Well, that's changing the weather. What is that having to do with trees or anything else? So, there's a lot that's that is not usually brought up and I'm not here to be overbearing. There's a lot of questions I have and information I've gathered for I'm going into my 25th year of my investigation and things I can show. But anyway, thank you. That's all I have for now.

There's no other questions or comments. We'll move on to the economic development committee.

Well, I think this might be a two-part report. We've got the economic development committee itself and the um revolving loan fund uh that we're beginning to explore some possibilities with. And then we I think we also may be having the um reinitiation of the Blackberry Cobbler Festival. So I'll pass that off to you Kathy when we're ready to talk about that. Uh but a few of us have met uh a couple of days ago to begin uh trying to figure out how we might be able to um deal with this uh $48,000 to $50,000 that we've still got sitting um in an account that was intended to be a revolving loan fund. um small loans uh targeted at micro businesses for you know short-term use uh is what the original uh loan application suggested that uh we were going to use these for and uh that money we update this body on it on a regular basis has really been sitting there and and um not working for the community in the way that it could be. Uh and uh the um the group that is meeting is doing some initial investigation into some ways that we might be able to re um revive that uh either loan fund or turn it into a grant uh process. Um one or the other. So, we're in the research phase and as soon as we've uh done a little bit of research and are ready to present some things and some ideas, we will actually call an official meeting of the economic development committee and uh begin to discuss what our options might be for uh dealing with that money. So, very happy to see some uh progress there and thank you Kathy for uh helping to facilitate uh that. It's deeply appreciated. Um, and then I'm going to hand it off to you about Blackberry Cobbler Festival.

Uh, I got to tell you, the best news I heard all week was that the Lions Club was going to have their egg hunt at the golf course because uh I was like, "Oh, good. That's just going to pave the way for bigger and better things." And I just think that that's a nod to um those involved who are um trying to make sure that this golf course is a space where our community uh can can gather. And so I do appreciate that. So we will be uh having our first meeting uh organizational sort of um we haven't pinpointed the date yet, but I'm looking at March uh 9th or 10th. Um, we will probably be meeting on the 9th or the 10th um at the pizza parter pizza parlor uh probably around the typical time is 6 6 pm. Um, and we'll just um I believe Jennifer Gada is is on board for another year.

Yeah, that's fantastic news. Yeah. Yeah. I I haven't heard from her, [laughter] but uh I'm I'm pretty sure that it's a it's a go. Um and so I I think that we keep just learning, you know, as each year goes by, we learn how to do this even better. And um 8th or 9th, you can I'll reach out to if you want me to reach out to you, like if you want to be involved in that first initial meeting, let me know. um at co area councsilaggmail.com. I would love

I I would love to be a part of that and I would love to work with you guys and I've already put out some ideas. Unfortunately, I'm out of town on the 9th and the 10th. So, okay. I would there will be many many many meetings. Will there be pizza? [laughter] Every night. By P. Bring your own pizza. [laughter] BYOP. Yeah. Generally, but yeah. And as it gets larger and larger, it it's going to take longer and longer to plan. Yeah.

So, that's a credit and extra work for everybody involved, but um it's great for the community and it's something that everyone looks forward to every year. So, um we appreciate everybody involved and encourage people to get engaged in it and help out. So, again, let me know if you want to be involved. I'll I'll send you an invite for March 9th or 10th at the pizza place. I think I'm done.

Okay, that sounds good. I did have one thing I wanted to mention. Um, I should have spoke about it in the short announcements, but I was reached out by a auditor for P Gen today, uh, about the wood management program and they said there's a form on the P Gen website that they're going back and they'll look at your case, but if you fill it out, that's his job is to see if P Gen actually came through and did what they were supposed to do. So, I encourage anybody and everybody that has anything that Pione cut down, I would just fill out the form, send it in, and then he's going to um look into each individual case. So, hopefully that helps out a few people. I don't have a link or anything. As soon as I get that, I'll um we we'll find a way to get it to you guys. But it was encouraging news.

Is this the ones that come out? No, it's if you had a if you had a agreement to remove your trees that they cut down. Yeah. And they never did. That's his job is to audit Peny and see if they did what they said they were supposed to do. So, it would be an agreement as opposed to the guys coming and saying, "We're going to take these trees down. They're going to come and do it." And then they don't come and then another guy comes. Yeah. It's it's only for timber that's on the ground. Oh. But he encouraged anybody that has a tree down, just submit it and he'll do what he can for everybody. So yeah, they never came back with the ones that were down.

Yeah, that's common occurrence, but uh it was encouraging. Yeah. And Jessica has always maintained email her if you still have timber on the ground, send her an email and she will get on it. Same with uh and just another Jessica thing, but if you have uh stop signs down or uh road signs, she's also got a conduit to uh county roads for that. So yeah, because storm knocked several down. So just information. Perfect. All right, I think that's um all we have on our agenda. Could we uh 803 get a motion to end the meeting? Oh, you get to just

Oh, I'm 803. I'm going to end the meeting. Um, and we will see everybody March 19th.