Lake Cushman Firewise Council

Feb 7, 2012
Meeting Minutes

Attending: Deanie Sostrich, Donna Hellyer, George Fisher, Bob Berger, Ken Weaver, Bill Sostrich, Charley Burns

Meeting began at 1:30 p.m.

Congratulations to George Fisher for the nice article and picture in the Tacoma Power brochure mailed to all residents.

Treasurer’s report: Ending balance on 1/31 was $4465.16 George Fisher audited the book for 2011 and found all in balance.

Old Business:
Community Sign -- Ken has done a lot of research on project and presented his findings. A sample LED powered sign 5’X 8’ on poles lighted with three lines on one side would be less then $3000. This includes transmitter and is programmable from a remote computer. Fully automated with only seconds to add or delete up to 16 messages at a times. Cost is plus our installation. We could use existing base at Lake Cushman Grocery. Mike, the owner, would also use his electricity and do and manage the messages. In exchange he would have a free permanent position and use. There are no restrictions or permits required. It was proposed the groups share the cost and then be given up to 2 years free use. Other users could be charged a per day fee ($10.00??). After the final presentation by Ken at March meeting we would visit various groups to determine interest. Firewise will be the coordinator of project. Goal would be a summer 2012 install.

Chipper Days: April 21^st and June 9^th.
Bill needs someone to head up the June 9^th project as he will be out of state. Bill needs to contact Stymack for price to provide and operate large chipper.

Jim Freed will be at the April meeting and is looking forward to working on forest stewardship with the community. His workshop could be on native plants, mushrooms or many other topics!

New Business:
Bill talked with Joe Cochran at Fire Dept. Joe is interested in doing a fire extinguisher training with our group and others or at a community event. Charley Burns said Mason Co. 5 has a great unit for demo that we might borrow.

Skokomish Park - Bill met with Patrick Palmer the ranger, on January 18^th. He is interested in working with Firewise and will be attending one of our meetings.

There will be a 2 day Firewise workshop at Lake Chelan. Charley says the deadline to apply is 3/26, but the sooner they know the better. All Lake Cushman residents are invited to attend this workshop. George Fisher highly recommends this workshop. He attended a couple of years ago. One night’s lodging and breakfast and lunch provided free. It is Tues & Wed. April 10^th and 11^th.

It was mentioned that Lake Cushman really needs a qualified Ham radio operator at north end of Lake for emergencies. Please contact Bill Sostrich if you know of someone that could help his or her community in case of an emergency.

Charley wants a list of our Firewise projects that could be done on short notice. There may be funds connected to the current Jobs Bill going through the legislature.

Bill went to the Port of Hoodsport meeting last month and after the meeting the Port submitted a Firewise timesheet in the amount of $200,000. That was their share of the logging of Hoodsport Trail last year.

Next meeting: March 6^th at 1:30 p.m. Donna will conduct meeting, George Fisher will take minutes. Sostrich’s will be out of town

Meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

Jan 3, 2012
Meeting Minutes

Attending were Donna Hellyer, Bill Sostrich, Deanie Sostrich, Ken Weaver, Bob Berger and George Fisher Treaurer, Donna Hellyer reported 2011 beginning balance of $3,374.99 and ending 12/31/11 at $4,425.84 It was proposed and accepted by group to move our first Tuesday of month meeting to 1:30 pm to allow George Fisher to come from his Shelton meeting.

New business began with Ken Weaver stating that the Lake Cushman covenants verify the Maintenance Company is responsible to maintain the common areas and deal with fire prevention. We need to push for more cooperation and assistance with Firewise. Bill Sostrich, President recommended chipper rental and operation as well as use of Stump Dump. These projects would involve the LCMC’s manager interaction and coordination.

Donna stated that LCMC office staff is doing a good job “pushing” the volunteer work sheets and stressing cleaning and limbing of brush and trees on homeowners lots. Each packet given to lot owners for tree cutting includes a time sheet.

Bill Sostrich reported that we aren’t sure about the actual success of the forms submitted after tree work is done. He suggested a code at the bottom of the form to indicate where the form was obtained. This will be done in 2012.

It was suggested we have at least two Community Chipper Days this year. Bill feels strongly we need to hire a company to do this, with volunteers coordinating and assisting with homeowner education. We could perhaps offer property assessments on those same days with the involvement of Fire Dept. It was agreed we needed lots of publicity beforehand.

Bill will contact Stymax for a bid. First Chipper day will be Sat. April 21^st (lower divisions – Div 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 16, 18) and the second, on June 9 for (upper divisions – Div 1, 2, 3 & 4, 11 & 14.)April date to coordinate with Earth Day and Spring Clean-up activities and to be included in our publicity to residents. George suggested we attempt to involve youth in work parties (including paying for their labor. 4-H?) More discussion followed on how to involve more people in our effort at proactive fire prevention. Use of education videos showing what happens to Firewise house during a wildfire and what happens to homes not “protected”.

Old Business: Lake Cushman sign project. Ken agreed to look more into what type and placement. Would be a great benefit to community. Could be paid for and maintained by a group of community organizations including Fire Dist 18, Firewise, LCMC, Booster Club, Community Connections, Fire Auxiliary, etc. Would we want to sell advertising on sign or have whole sign sponsored by someone?

Deanie brought up the Firewise article in the Journal in December.

Donna verified the LCMC newsletter won’t be mailed until the 2^nd or 3^rd of May, so won’t included info on our April Chipper Day. It was suggested we try to have a Lake Cushman Community Day that could be hosted by the LCMC, Fire Dept, and Firewise this summer. George will pursue. Ken will talk with Fire Department. This would be in addition to the Ice Cream Social.

BRING YOUR IDEAS TO NEXT MEETING.

Bill reported that Jim Freed from the Univ of WA has indicated he will be able to attend our February meeting. He will have a tentative plan for managing our forest and will be will to provide future training. He is an expert in healthy forest management and our model will be new plan for communities such as ours.

Meeting adjourned at 3:oo p.m.

Deanie Sostrich, Secretary