HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019.04.17 Wildfire Safety Commission Minutes MINUTES FOR A MEETING OF THE WILDFIRE SAFETY COMMISSION
Wednesday,April 17, 2019 11:OOAM to 1:OOPM
Training Room, Ashland Fire Station#1, 1860 Ashland Street
I. CALL TO ORDER: 11:03
Stephen Gagne, Steve Asher, Tracy Peddicord, Tonya Graham,Kent Romney, Daniel Dawson,Alison
Lerch,Bruce Moats, Charisse Sydoriak
II. INTRODUCTIONS
Pricilla Franco, Forest Lands Commissioner
David Lane, Interested citizen
Chris John, Tree Commissioner& Canopy, LLC
John Weigang, Canopy, LLC
III.APPROVAL OF MINUTES: March 20, 2019
Minutes approved unanimously with corrections of changing the title from Agenda to Minutes and
spelling Charisse Sydoriak's name correctly.
IV. PUBLIC AND GUESTS FORUM
David apologized for missing the March meeting. David showed the commission the Alarm Box from
March written by Chris Chambers. He suggests that if the city cannot reduce the wildfire risk of Ashland
quickly,then the city needs a paradigm change. He challenges the commission to decide how much
wildfire risk is too much to carry on our shoulders.
Chris John introduced his employee.
V.ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA
VI. CITY COUNCIL CHECK IN
The Council is approving Wildfire Safety Commission members at a record pace. Tonya announced the
Wildfire Preparedness Campaign. The budget process could be completed mid May but can go as long as
June.
VII. OLD BUSINESS
A. Fire Season Campaign/Jefferson Exchange (Tonya, Daniel)
a. Media Plan update
i. May 8'from 8:30-9:OOam is the May Be Ready for evacuation. Chief D'Orazi
and Terri Eubanks are invited. Brian Hendrix,Alison Lerch and Daniel Dawson
were on in April. There is an announcement in Sneak Preview and made the front
page of the Ashland Tidings on April loth. Tonya handed out flyers. We have
easels and display boxes for: Ace Hardware, Bimart, Grange,Ashland Lumber.
We need to make sure the displays do not fall down in the wind. The displays
will be printed locally and laminated today.
ii. What we need help with: Anyone that is on social media needs to link people to
the Ashland Tidings article. Tonya and Alison will get out the information by
tomorrow to all the email co-sponsors.
iii. CERT has volunteered on May 4th and will be out at stores from 9am-12pm in
conjunction with the campaign.
iv. Kent Romney,Wildfire Safety Commission 541-292-6019
v. Ashland.or.us/wildfireprep
b. Sponsor needs?
c. What documents should be on hand, and where, during this rollout?
i. Doug will be handing out flyers at the Farmers Market on Tuesdays.
B. Ashland Electric—update (Alison)
a. Thomas McBartlett sent this information to Alison from Josh Hooley,
Southwest Pacific Power(PPL)Forester
i. Inspections:
• Vegetation management completes feeder inspections and
maintenance every two years. The first time through a feeder it is
worked as a cycle and is typically a very aggressive maintenance that
is designed to reduce inventory along with addressing hazard trees.
Two years after cycle maintenance is performed we then have crews
go through on an Interim maintenance, and the primary focus is to
identify any trees that may have grown too close to the lines and
hazard trees.
ii. Clean-up:
• During all routine maintenance brush from tree pruning that is near a
road side is chipped. Brush from pruning or tree felling on wires that
go cross country is piled and lopped down so that it can biodegrade
naturally. This practice is aligned with the best practices established
by the Bureau of Land Management along with the Forest service.
b. Commission discussion:
i. It was brought up that the standards described above are not seen on current and
past projects with the PPL transmission lines. It may be advantageous to invite
PPL to a Wildfire Safety Commission meeting to get further detail about their
practices and timeliness on transmission line maintenance and vegetation
trimming. This topic ties into the wildfire forums that have been hosted by Pam
Marsh. Tonya will bring up this issue on the Legislative Hotline. Tonya will
also urge the City Council to send a letter to PPL bringing up the issue that the
maintenance may not be adequate for the current state of wildfire risk
surrounding the city. This will need to happen after budgets are finalized, so
looking into July. The Wildfire Safety Commission could also engage with the
Mail Tribune/Ashland Tidings about getting this public. Charisse participated in a
wildfire risk workshop yesterday and there are a lot of options for communities to
do assessments and protection plans in the region. There is an online platform
called the Oregon Risk Explorer. This will be put on the May agenda. Moving
forward: Invite Tom back to the May meeting. Steve will bring visuals of
examples where PPL has not performed adequate maintenance. Ask Tom to get a
printed maintenance schedule for the Commissioners before the meeting.
VIII. NEW BUSINESS
A. Evacuation Study Session(D'Orazi)
a. Fire,Police,Public Works, and CERT met to discuss ways to move forward with an
evacuation exercise. They are looking to do a community NIXLE alert system test in
addition to a recorded presentation on the evacuation process.
B. Intterra Data-Chris --model to better describe the"exposure rating" and combine it with the
Intterra data set... On screen presentation? Plus,update on interface portal and social survey.
a. Staff feels that publicizing the Intterra Data now is not the best idea until staff capacity
concerns are met. Kent is a proponent for sharing the Intterra data. Who is currently
tasked with doing assessments and evaluations?
i. Alison is looking into bringing the Assessing HIZ course to Ashland.
ii. Using Intterra data during a free home assessment
b. There could also be paid inspectors that perform a home assessment. Tonya would not
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like to sit on the data too long and send people to the website. The Fire Department could
put it on the individual citizen that this is their responsibility. The commission would like
to see the data publicized. Stephen, Tonya, Mayor Stromberg, City Administrator
Madding, Chris and Alison met yesterday and discussed the data.
c. Kent, Daniel, David and Charisse will be part of an official Intterra Data Working Group.
C. Earth Day with Tree Commission(Doug)
a. Alison will print out April Flyers for the event. Doug worked with Paige to get more
space for the Tree Commission table. This event will show collaboration between Tree
Commission and Wildfire Safety Commission.
D. Vacant Lot Count-- accurate number? (Chris)
a. This will be moved to May.
E. Spring Retreat check in- so far only- Steve, Tonya, Dan, Doug plus no good winning time.
a. Stephen put out a doodle poll for the Spring Retreat and still needs a few more
Commissioners to answer the poll. Stephen will send a new poll with open times from
Chris and Alison for the first two weeks in June. An agenda is not yet created for this
meeting but there are numerous topics for discussion.
IX.REPORTS IF TIME ALLOWS (2 min each)
A. Report on our meeting with Kelly, Tonya, Chief, etc- Stephen/Alison/Chris
a. Stephen met with the above people on April 16'to talk about the real estate fire
inspection topic. This is a very sensitive topic that is not ready for a Study Session yet.
At the end of the meeting, there was consensus for Stephen to call the cities in California
that have already passed similar legislation. Tracy mentioned that this will get a lot of
pushback since it could cause the closing date to be months later. We need to get data
from Firewise USA about how much quicker a home with defensible space sells
compared to one without. This could be an awareness campaign. Tracy knows an agent
in Marin County. Stephen will work with Tracy. This concept could be a sales tool and
can be shared with every real estate agent in the town.Real estate agencies could also use
Intterra data and other risk assessments. There could be a study session with real estate
agents. One of the main takeaways, is that this topic is just one piece of the pie. The topic
needs to be "How do we engage our citizens to actively care about improving the safety
of their homes?" Stephen would like to highlight this need during the May 21 St
Presentation to the City Council. He will raise the awareness that the Paradise fire are the
exception to the wildfire norm,the 1%wildfires. He will highlight that citizens can
reduce their risk during an ember storm driven wildfire.
B. Illegal Campfire Issue (Chris)
a. Coop Agencies/Mutual Ordinance
b. Ashland Police Permission to Enforce beyond jurisdiction(Chris)
c. Drone Operations idea: status,bid, including Federal Property Fly-over, enforcement
jurisdictions update
d. OHRA update (Alison)
i. Alison and Chris presented at the OHRA April board meeting. Could the city
create a place where the unhoused population could make meals or create a
camping area that it is legal.
e. Fire Adapted Communities Network Call-Update(Alison)
C. Chamber Wildfire Task Force (Smoke/Evac/Business)—(Alison)
D. Plant List Subcommittee(Alison)
a. Charisse mentioned that the Native Plant Society would be a place we need to do a
presentation.
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E. Forest Lands Commission Report(Kent)
a. Kent made an announcement at the Forest Lands Commission about the Wildfire
Preparedness Campaign and it was well received.
F. Tree Commission Report—Nothing to Report
X. REVIEW AND SET COMMISSION CALENDAR/NEXT MEETING
A. Rogue Valley Earth Day: April 20, 2019 (Science Works)
B. Next WSC Meeting: May 15, 2019, 11:00am(Station 1)
C. Presentation to City Council: May 21, 2019, 7:00pm(Council Chambers)
XI. AGENDA ITEMS FOR May 15,2019
A. Cooperative Law Enforcement Agreements/Drones (Pricilla)
B. Maintenance of electrical grid outside city boundaries(Tom)
C. Check in? on Evac re Police/CERT coordination; bicycle idea?
D. Creating a"Don't Forget This" section that goes out with Minutes?Example: There is great
research that within 40 meters of your home that is where the influence of your neighbor's
property can affect you-how do we incorporate this into our Fire Commission knowledge base.
E. Firewise Plus (Stephen)
F. Oregon Risk Explore
G. Ashland Electric invited to May meeting
H. Vacant Lot Count-Chris
XII. ADJOURN: 1:00pm
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act,if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting,please contact the Public
Works Office at 488-5587(TTYphone number 1 800 735 2900).Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make
reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to the meeting(28 CFR 35.102-35.104 ADA Title I).
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