Supervisors announce March 13 Clear Lake town hall to form Fire Safe Council; Scotts Valley water-tank grant proposed

Lake County supervisors announced community efforts this week to bolster wildfire resilience, including a March 13 town hall in Clear Lake to form a county Fire Safe Council and a proposed Resource Conservation District grant to place large water tanks in Scotts Valley.

Supervisor Sabatier said she and Supervisor Owen are organizing a town hall set for March 13 at 6 p.m. in the Clear Lake City Hall chambers, with a Zoom option, to discuss creating a Fire Safe Council and encourage formation of local Firewise communities. "We are looking to do a town hall to create a Fire Safe Council and hopefully get people energized to creating Firewise Communities," she said.

Why it matters: county officials said they want broader community involvement in wildfire mitigation and preparedness. The town hall is intended to provide information, recruit volunteers, and coordinate between county, city and community groups, Sabatier said; she named Fire Chief Willie Cepeda, Teresa Harberth of the Lower Lake Community Action Committee and officials from the City of Clear Lake as partners in the effort.

In a separate report, Vice Chair Rasmussen said the Resource Conservation District (RCD) presented a grant proposal that would place 10 tanks of 10,000 gallons each in Scotts Valley for fire protection and would include a second component using a technology called Meter Me to let fire authorities know where private water sources are available. "If successful, would place 10 10000 gallon water tanks strategically in Scotts Valley for fire protection," Rasmussen said, adding the Meter Me tool would connect water-source owners to fire authorities.

Meeting remarks described the town hall as an outreach and organizing step; no formal county action to create the Fire Safe Council was recorded in the transcript, and the RCD grant remains an application under consideration. The Supervisors encouraged residents to attend the March 13 event and noted that a Zoom link had been posted with the county press release.

Officials also noted related resilience work: Sabatier said she might attend the resilience hub work group meeting and asked for broad community participation in fire mitigation work. No funding commitments or grant awards for the RCD proposal were recorded at the meeting; the RCD presentation was described as part of ongoing community planning.