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Firewise Meeting Minutes
Oct 7th, 2008       

Meeting was called to order at 1:00pm

Firewise Council members:

Bill Sostrich, George Fisher, Jerry Eaton, Bob Berger, Bob McCormick, Mike Bergwin, Jackie Bevens, Sandy Eaton
Betty Widing – community member/LCMC  Board
Art Emmons – community member/LCMC Board

Local Firewise representative: Colony Surf – Ed Fraser

Advisors:

Jim Mitchell – Fire District 18 Commissioner
Ken Weaver – Fire District 18 Commissioner

Speaker:  T.R. Rankin, Mason County Sheriff Department

Deputy Rankin gave a presentation on the Block Watch Program of Mason County.  He indicated that there are 42 active Block Watch programs in Mason County.  Block Watch provides extra support to the efforts of Deputy Reed.  Block Watch is very important to keep our community free of drug problems as well.  By neighbors keeping their eyes open, we can eliminate those looking to steal as a way to support their very dangerous habits.  If you happen to see something that looks suspicious rather than dialing 911, call the 24 hr direct line to dispatch at 427-9670 x 226.  If you have an actual emergency, dial 911.   Deputy Rankin is available to our residents for more information regarding their particular Block Watch programs.  He also gave us information on signage for residents homes and streets in the Lake Cushman area.

Firewise Old Business:

               Treasures report – Checkbook beginning balance = $2624.79

                                     Checkbook ending balance = $2352.03

         Expenses for the month - Mike Bergwin – 20 firewise signs = $151.76

                                     George Fisher – 6 mo. PO Box rental = $21.00

Charley Burns is not here, he is at a fire in OR.  He will be bringing some information on a grant opportunity that will come available in Feb of 2009.

George Fisher reported on the letter we received from IRS asked for additional information regarding us filing an amendment to our application showing that one of their requirements about how our money is spent.  So George filed the amendment to our state application for incorporation and asked for an early consideration for our 501c application.

We are trying to get in touch with other Firewise groups in regards to the 501c.  Bill Sostrich has contacted a group in Southern Cal.  We are exchanging information about how their organizations are setup.  This is one reason we have asked another member of our community, Jackie Bevens to join our Firewise Council.  Jackie will be helping us with the accounting details for our future needs and how being a 501c impacts us from an accounting standpoint.  We will be adding Jackie’s name to our West Coast Bank checking account.

Bill Sostrich presented a communication letter that we will be sending to let our local residents know about what Firewise is and what we are doing in the area.  Betty Widing indicated that it would be good to include the letter in our LCMC Newsletter.  Bill also suggested that next years Firewise day be at one of the Booster Club meetings.

Ed Fraser indicated that at Colony Surf Kerry normally attends the monthly meetings to discuss Firewise projects. 

Next was a discussion about the purchase of the pole saw.  Bill Sostrich would like to have another vote taken based on new information.  The new information involves the “address marker” program.  He felt this would be a better use of our funds.  Bill made a motion to approve purchase of 100 address markers at $21.76 ea.  We will ask the Booster Club for $1000 for this community project.  The remainder of the money including shipping and taxes will come from our funds. Mike Burgwin made a motion to sell the markers at $30 and all agreed.  The stakes will be installed by the Firewise Volunteers.

Firewise Meeting
Minutes
Sept 10^th, 2008

Meeting was called to order at 1:00pm

Firewise Council members:
Bill Sostrich, George Fisher, Jerry Eaton, Bob Berger, Joe Eaton, Bob McCormick
Betty Widing – community member/LCMC  Board
Art Emmons – community member/LCMC Board

Advisors:
Charley Burns  - DNR
Janice Pacific – DNR
Jane Potter – Firewise Preventative Specialist
Jim Mitchell – Fire District 18 Commissioner
Ken Weaver – Fire District 18 Commissioner

Old Business:

                     Treasures report – Checkbook balance =  $2524.79

                     Expenses for the month -    None

Received letter from IRS indicating they had received our monies and application for the 501c.  We need to amend our bylaws to adhere to the standards required by the IRS.  All agreed to amend the bylaws as required.

Power line tree trimming – Jerry Eaton talked with Mike Speaks from PUD3.  He indicated they are on a 6 year cycle to cut the trees under the power lines.  He will come up at some point here in the near future to take a look and see what is going on now with the trees.  We would like to have him come to our Firewise meeting so he can understand what we are doing up here.

Jerry also talked to a representative from Asplund (the tree cutting company).  They indicated they would be interested in coming up here and giving us an idea of what would be needed on our roadways. 

Betty indicated that the Control Committee would like a permit turned in to allow for tree limbing up.  This is not exactly clear if this applies to all Firewise projects.  i.e. A homeowner doing work on his lot.

It was brought up that the LCMC office is now including Firewise info in all of their packets when a person gets a permit from the office for tree cutting.

Ken was asked about our recent fire.  It was along the power lines behind the Lake Cushman Store.  The cause was due to someone shooting the insulators from the power lines.  The fire was contained by the fire department (many departments and DNR). 

It was also mentioned that during the fire people were directed down the Potlatch/Cushman Rd.  Unfortunately, there is no sign to direct people onto the Potlatch/Cushman Rd. (by the Stump dump entrance).  So we need to discuss this with the LCMC.

Also Bill S. will be going to the LCMC Board meeting on this Sat. to give the Board an introduction/update on Firewise.  There are new Board members who have not heard what Firewise is all about and also we need to keep the Board up to date on what we are doing.

We discussed the purchase of pole saw.  We had narrowed it down to two options.  One sold by Northern Tool, Efco model PTX 2500, price $559 + tax.   The other sold by Skipworths, a Stihl model HT101, price $672 total.   The efco had a tilting head and reached 10’4” and a 5 yr warranty.   Stihl has a 11’6” reach, no tilting head and a 2 yr warranty.  The discussion was mostly that buying local was a better idea.  What happens when something goes wrong and so on.  We voted and everyone agreed to purchase from Skipworths.

There was a discussion about lots in our area that have been neglected and need to be brought to a Firewise standard.  We need to be very tactful in the letter and that we are a Firewise community and we are trying to have everyone comply with the basic principles of Firewise.

Charley discussed the Firewise grant opportunity that would be available in Feb 2009.  This would be using our community matching funds.  We would be asking for money to help continue our education, working in our shaded fuel break areas (greenbelts & roadways) and also for money to move us away from burning. 

Ken W. stated that the burn ban areas will be expanding this next year and we need to find other options for removing our debris.

Janice Pacific indicated that our future Firewise programs should promote a healthy forest and also that we work in conjunction with DNR's Stewardship program.  This program could help manage our greenbelts, which are small forest.  Jim Freed’s name was given as a possible contact in the area of stewardship.   Janice will give us his contact info. 

Meeting was adjourned at 2:15pm

Firewise Meeting

Minutes
Aug 13th 2008

Meeting was called to order at 1:05pm

Guest in attendance were Kerry Frazier (Colony Surf)

Firewise Council members:
Bill Sostrich, Bill Weed
Jerry Eaton, Bob Berger, Alan Benedict– community members

Advisors:
Charley Burns  - DNR
Jim Mitchell – Fire DisOld Business:

                  Treasures report – Checkbook balance = $2524.79
                  No Expenses for the month -

Defined the next Firewise project for Aug 26^th.  We will be working around the bus stop in Div 6.  This is right across from the maintenance company.  This is in the common area that is a 50ft strip between Hwy 119 and the lots along Duckabush Dr.  Some of the work that is on the other side of the entry is Department of Transportation property.  Charley Burns has a contact at the DOT and will talk with them about what kind of work they might be doing in the near future.

A question about what were we going to do with the trimmings.  We are going to contact the LCMC and see if we can take it to the stump dump.  If not Charley knows the people that will be doing the chipping from the debris from the lake.  He can check with them and see if we can put it there if we can’t put it at the stump dump.

Ken Weaver brought up the need to have the power lines cleared from the trees that have grown in the past few years.  It would be a big problem if a fire broke out in that area with the live wires.  So Jerry Eaton will check with Tacoma and PUD to see if they have plans for working in this area.

Some homeowners have indicated that their neighbors lots are not well kept and we should have some way of informing them of this.  We have talked to our Firewise contacts and they have no specific letters to send to people.  So we discussed this and have decided that Lake Cushman Firewise Council is here for information and education.  We will be sending something to the homeowners to explain Firewise and how this impacts our area.  We will include some local landscapers who could help the owner if they are unable to do the work.

We discussed the possibility of having address markers available as a fund raiser for Firewise.  Bill S. is talking to a company that has the carsonite type markers (as we have had available in the past).  A sales price would be $25.  We still don’t have a cost of the signs.  We agreed that the best plan would be to put together a plan and do some “pre-sales” at the Booster Club or other events.

A new grant possibility is now on the horizon with Western Wildland Urban Interface Grant program.  The focus of this grant is reduction of fuel in our fuel breaks.  These are our common areas and also roads.

Bill Weed wants us to consider purchasing a “pole trimmer”.  These are made by various companies and will save us having to climb up a ladder to trim trees on our projects.  We all agreed that Bill will check on more details and he will bring to our next meeting.  We are thinking that the cost would be something less than $500.  

Kerry Frazier reported that Colony Surf had over 600 hrs of time turned in on their timesheets.  They have completed work in their common areas and many homeowners have followed Firewise principals in working on their properties as well.  They do have issues with power lines’ not being properly maintained by the PUD and Kerry continues to deal with this.  Also they have had some neighbors complaining about the fact that now that they have done the work on their particular lot, what about their neighbors?  This is a problem that all Firewise communities are experiencing and it is a difficult situation for all. 

Meeting was adjourned at 2:45pm

 

Firewise Meeting

Minutes
June 11th 2008

Meeting was called to order at 1:10pm

Firewise Council members:
Bill Sostrich, George Fisher, Mike Burgwin

Betty Widing – community member/LCMC  Board
Art Emmons – community member/LCMC Board

Advisors:
Charley Burns  - DNR
Jim Mitchell – Fire District 18 Commissioner
Ken Weaver – Fire District 18 Commissioner

Old Business:

                     Treasures report – Checkbook balance =  $2703.03
                      Expenses for the month -    $151.76, printing for demonstration signs.

We start out our discussion to point out that a couple of our council members are now faced with some very serious medical conditions.  Bill Weed and Lorna Burgwin need our thoughts & prayers.

While Bill is absent, Betty will put her name on the checkbook. 

Bill brought up the question that was presented at the last Booster meeting.  The question was what can be done about a lot owner that doesn’t do anything to their lot?  There was much discussion that ranged from changes to the covenants to sending out information packets to the lot owners.  The majority of the people at the meeting feel that it would be best to use a put together a letter and packet of Firewise information and send to the owner.  Betty indicated that she would help in putting this together and will get together with Bill for the actual brochures to be included.

We discussed our last two demonstration projects and that we all thought that they had made a good impact on the community.  We are looking at doing another one in July.  The project will probably be done around the entrance to Div 6.  We will try and open up the view for traffic coming onto 119 and also making that area conform to the Firewise principles.  Thereby solving two problems!   

We are in the process of trying to get the information regarding the address markers for individual homes.  We will put this out as soon as we can get it.  We would like to make up our own for the most part.  Maybe ask people for a donation to Firewise when we put up the sign as an additional source of income.  Ken mentioned that the Fire Department is now using addresses for all lots when they get a call.  So we should use addresses instead of Div/lot numbers.

George Fisher asked a few questions regarding our 501c application and we are ready to send it in.  So we will wait for the government’s approval.

Bill Sostrich reported that he had sent an email to Mark Gray, our contact regarding the pending grant with the National Fire Plan.  We have not heard anything yet, but on the web site it seems that we were not selected.  Mark is out of the office until June 13^th so we should know more then.

Charley has sent an email to Mark regarding us (Lake Cushman) combining with other local communities to share in the use of some of the money obtained by DNR.  These would again be in some more involved demonstration projects.  Charley also got some more of the data from the group regarding the stump dump burn.

Betty will also be conducting the meeting next month on July 9^th.

Meeting was adjourned at 2:45pm

 

 

Firewise Meeting

Minutes
May 14th 2008

Meeting was called to order at 1:05pm

Guest in attendance were Ed & Kerry Frazier (Colony Surf).  We also had Sandi Kvarnstrom with Mason County Emergency Management and Shelley South – Homeland Security Region 3.

Firewise Council members:

Bill Sostrich, George Fisher, Mike & Lorna Burgwin, Jerry Eaton, Bob Berger, Joe Eaton, Bill Weed – community members
Betty Widing – community member/LCMC  Board
Art Emmons – community member/LCMC Board

Advisors:
Charley Burns - DNR
Jim Mitchell – Fire District 18 Commissioner
Ken Weaver – Fire District 18 Commissioner

Old Business:

                     Treasures report – Checkbook balance = $2524.79

                     Expenses for the month -    $300, IRS 501c application (this was shown on last months app, but we haven’t applied it yet.)

$75.81 – Signs to indicate demo projects

$70 – Information boxes paid to Lake Cushman Realty

Art Emmons reminded us about the stump dump being open May 17 – May 31.  Then we will close the dump and start burning.  Ron Gold will be doing the burn.

More on the 501c, George is pretty much through the document.  He did receive some feedback from the people in attendance at the Lake Chellan Firewise conference and turns out no many of them are a 501c as a stand-alone entity.  They are usually under another organization.  To us this would not apply and we need to be on our own.  We are very close to completing the document and it should  be done by the end of the month.

George also found that the price for PO Box’s have increased.  We will go with the 3”X5”, small size at $35/yr.

Speakers:  Sandi Kvarnstrom discussed the program Map Your Neighborhood.  This is in preparation for a disaster.  A volunteer would collect information about their immediate neighbors.  This information may be the special needs or abilities they these neighbors have.  During a disaster these folks would be contacted based on this information.  This makes for a kind of community watch program as well.  This is a free service offered through the Mason County DEM.  Sandi can be contacted at 360-427-9670 ext 801 or email at sandiK@co.mason.wa.us.

Shelly South talk was on the program Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) offered through the Homeland Security.  This is a 20 hr class.  The hours can be arranged to meet the needs of the attendees.  At least 15 people are required for the class.  There are several modules in the training, including light search & rescue, basic cribbing & leveraging techniques, med ops (triage patients), fire safety module (use of fire extinguisher), small segment on disaster psychology and terrorism.  This is also a free class.  More info on CERT can be found at http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/training_mat.shtm including an online class and materials. 

Committee Discussions:
Fuels Reduction Committee:

Jerry Eaton talked about the project we did across from his house.  We had 7 people working on the project and removed about 6 pickup loads of fuel removed.  We talked about future project areas.  The entrance to Div 8 would be a good project.  Also the Hwy debris on hwy 119 was brought up and Betty indicated that the State was working on getting this cleaned up.  A request was made to look into a chainsaw on an extension pole.  The issue was brought up about the need for a chipper.  Ed Frazer said that they really liked the idea of paying $50/hr to hire the local guy to come in and do their chipping.  Bill Weed would like to see us move into a chipper sooner than later.  Jerry Eaton indicated that we would need some method of moving the chips out of the area.  Kerry Frazer said they have not seen this as a problem.  After some discussion we understand that the stump dump is a “temporary fix” and we need to start a chipper project.   Jerry asked about getting more signs made up to leave on a permanent basis.  The signs would be posted on a tree or other structure. 

Communications/Publicity – Discussions about various opportunities to look into.  One opportunities is the annual Hoodsport 4^th of July Celebration.   Could we have a booth or participate there?   We have ordered and received some brochures, we need to get more for the summer and install in our information boxes.  Also it was brought up that we could do as Colony Surf is doing and have a Hot Dog sale at the annual board meeting.  The meeting is at 10am on June 21^st.  Also we could put together a get together at the gazebos in each of the divisions.  Collect monies for ice cream or something similar.  George Fisher is going to follow up on setting these things up.

Betty gave out some Thank You cards and Business cards that Julie McGrady donated to Firewise.  We really appreciate her doing this! 

Charley said that he was glad that we are able to put together the meeting bringing the communities of Colony Surf and the other agencies to do their presentations.  He has been doing Wildland Urban Interface Fire presentations at various Fire Departments in the area.  Firefighters are looking at the fire in the house and Charley talks about the fire approaching the house.  Just a bit of difference, but very important information for Fire Departments.

Meeting was adjourned at 2:45pm

Firewise Meeting

Minutes

Apr 9th 2008

Guest in attendance were Ed & Kerry Frazier (Colony Surf)

 Firewise Council members:
Bill Sostrich – community member
Betty Widing – community member/LCMC  Board
Art Emmons – community member/LCMC Board
Mike Burgwin – community member
Jerry Eaton – community member

Advisors:
Charley Burns  - DNR
Jim Mitchell – Fire District 18 Commissioner
Ken Weaver – Fire District 18 Commissioner

Old Business:
Treasures report – Checkbook balance =  $2670.60
Expenses for the month -    $300, IRS 501c application

We discussed our filing application for the 501c and the many questions that are asked in that document.  We asked for an expenditure of $40 for a book to help us answer those questions.  All were in agreement that we should do this.

 Also another need is to setup a PO Box for mail.  We currently use the LCMC office for a physical address but should have a PO Box for our ongoing mail.  All agreed that this should be done at $35/yr.

 We briefly discussed the recent grant application with the National Fire Plan.  Bill Sostrich read a letter received from Mike Gray, chair of the National Fire Plan Working Team.   The letter indicates that are grant “is on a list of proposals that were submitted for funding”.  Unfortunately there is no way to tell when the actually funding will happen for these grants.  So we are on hold at this point as far as funding is concerned.

 Committee Discussions:

We had a brief discussion of our Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).  The topics were how the different committees that are included in the plan will participate in our community.  We discussed the Emergency Response/Evacuation Plan committee and the items included in this.  Much of the discussion was around how we do actually inform our residents when there is a disaster.  One method might include sirens on the water towers.  If the system we currently have in place to send information back and forth to the water tanks allowed for other signals to be sent, we might be able to use this.  Also, the idea of using a reverse 911 system could be implemented.  One concern of course is the possibility of loss of phones in the area.  This would have to be done immediately after power was lost.

 There is a definite need for locating people in each of the areas and designate them as “block captains” and let others in the area know who these people are in case of emergency.

The emergency response plan called out in our CWPP document would be written in conjunction with the needs and input of the Fire Department and our DNR representative.

Also an evacuation plan would be written.  This would include maps of the various areas.  One possible evacuation route for the lot owners in Div 1, 2, 3 & 4 would be the lake itself.

 Fuels Reduction Committee:
Jerry Eaton discussed his attempts to get approved the area across from his house for a demonstration project.  He had not had any luck in talking with the Operations Manager to get this done.  Betty Widing stated that we need to put together a description of the project area and she would work with the Operations Manager to make this happen.  We also discussed doing a clearing around all of the bus stops as these would be very noticeable areas. 

Jerry has also talked with Tacoma Power regarding a schedule on power line maintenance.  They really don’t have a set schedule; they work on them as needed.

Mike Burgwin indicated that he had reviewed 3 different areas that could be used as demonstration projects.  He said that the area around the Div 8 entrance would make the most impact and present the least amount of work to accomplish.  He then passed around a contract that we can use with the lot owners to indicate the work that we are going to do on their individual properties.   All agreed that this would be a good document to use.

Kerry Frazier was asked if they had encountered any negative feedback when doing Firewise projects.  She said that they have started working in the common areas show people the kind of work that will be done to lessen their concerns.  They will then do a chipper project where owners will put their cuttings in front of their properties and a chipper will come by.

Charley Burns will be speaking at the Booster Club in May and will emphasis how Firewise can work to prevent homes from being destroyed by wildfires.

Meeting was adjourned at 2:45pm

Firewise Meeting pan>
Minutes
Mar 12th 2008

Guest in attendance were Ed Frazier (Colony Surf), Art Remsbecker (Owner -Lake Cushman Realty), Lois Brisban (agent - Lake Cushman Realty)

Firewise Council members:
Bill Sostrich – community member
Bill Weed - community member
George Fisher - community member
Mike Burgwin – community member
Lorna Burgwin – community member

Advisors:
Charley Burns  - DNR
Jim Mitchell – Fire District 18 Commissioner
Ken Weaver – Fire District 18 Commissioner
Old Business:

                     Bill Weed gave the treasures report.  Income for the month - $2970
                     Expenses for the month -    $5.30, Receipt book
                    Balance - $2990.60

 Members of our community donations this month included Ann Kelly, Jack Hamlin, Fritz Schmid, Bruce Ahnemiller and the Lake Cushman Fire District 18 Ladies Auxiliary.

 We have received the WA non profit certificate.   Our UBI Number is 602-806-317.  Issued on 2/7/2008.  We still need to updates to our Bylaws and Articles and then proceed with the 501c application.  MMonies donated by the Auxiliary will be used to make the 501c filing.  George indicated that as long as our revenue was less than $10k we could do so for $300.

Committee Reports:
George Fisher on Public Relations:  We will continue our efforts to get the word to people about Firewise.  Bill S. made a very brief presentation at the Booster Club about our program.  Also, Bill S. went to the Control Committee meeting this morning to describe how the 2008 Volunteer Timesheets could be presented to people when they are issued a tree-cutting permit.  We also talked briefly about the information that could be presented by our local realtors when they are selling property.  This would introduce people to Firewise on the “front end” instead of us having to do it on the “back end” as it is now.

 Disaster Preparedness – Bill Weed has been starting on an emergence plan for Lake Cushman.  He showed us a cover sheet and an outline of a table of contents.  Questions were raised as to how we would work together with the Fire Department so that we were not doing duplicate work.  Bill W will work with Ken on this.  Bill W indicated that we will be getting a Ham radio for the station from DEM.  We also need to find another Ham operator in the Lake Kokanee area.  Bill W has been stripping the tower that will be used at the Fire Station for the Ham radio operation. 

 Fuels Reduction – Jerry Eaton has been talking with various tree trimming companies about how they would help.  One of those being Northwest Land & Tree Inc who has been doing some work with the LCMC.  We also discussed one thing that would really reduce our fuel load would be to cut along our roadways and power lines.  Keeping those areas clear would give us the fire breaks needed.  We will try and put together a demonstration Firewise project in the next month.  This will be done in areas that are very visible to all coming by.

 Bill S. indicated that one of the brochures that was handed out at the last Booster meeting titled Homeowners Handbook, Don’t let Wildfires Strike Homes, is a very good little booklet and we should obtain more.  A search has been done, but so far we have not been able to find.

 Charley Burns talked briefly about the grant application that we turned in on Feb 8th with the National Fire Plan.  We have to answer some questions that have arisen based on the information that we had provided.  Charley and Bill S will be working on this in the next week or so with the help of Larry Nickey with the NPS.

 Next meeting will be on April 9^th at 1pm.

 Meeting adjourned at 2:45pm