Manton Fire Council Manton Fire Council

Manton Roadside Fuel Treatment by Tehama County Resource Conservation- TRCD

The Manton Roadside Fuel Treatments Project (referred to as the Manton Road Fuel Reduction and Community Protection Project in the 2017 Tehama East Community Wildfire Protection Plan) entails roadside vegetation treatments (cutting, chipping and herbicide applications) along 22.01 miles of paved roads (800 acres of treatment area) within and surrounding the Manton urban area which is located 25 miles northeast of Red Bluff and the I-5 corridor and 10 miles due south of Shingletown and the State Route 44 corridor.

High traffic volumes along all the roads proposed for treatments create a significant risk of roadside ignition and fire spread into numerous privately owned and developed homesites and ranchettes, commercial buildings, public facilities, ranches, vineyards and farms as well as adjacent healthy mature oak woodlands that contain such structures. Once proposed treatments are completed, not only will ignition and fire risk be reduced, these treatment areas will create fire breaks or where appropriate, sites for backfire operations during wildfire events.

In uninhabited portions of the project area, roadside treatments can become linear control points from which future prescribed fire or other vegetation treatments not associated with this project can be conducted. Importantly, the use of herbicides within both newly created and newly maintained fuel break areas will both extend the life of this fire management infrastructure and reduce the cost of future maintenance.

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Manton Firesafe Council Community Meeting Notes from November 29, 2021 at MVFD

Manton Fire Safe Council Meeting Notes

Nov. 29, 2021, 6:00 p.m.

Manton Volunteer Fire Station

Meeting was called to order by Janet Jensen.

I. Round table introductions of all in room- there were 15 community members in

attendance, including Bob Cords (Manton Assistant Fire Chief).

II. Establishment of norms/guidelines:

!. Be on time

2. Respect other people’s views

3. Be brief/mindful of time

4. Stay on subject/on point

5. Active listening, not talking over others

6. No cell phones

7. Commitment

III. Discussion:

~Discussion about committees- what types of committees.

~Michelle Heino brought up having committee chairs: elected/defined

~Discussion about projects being clear

~Education-Marlo Meyer talked about Resource Development District and oral

histories

~Discussion about communications and outreach

~Jadian Fredricks brought up definition of “community” - where fire travels

~Bob Cords talked about definition of our split down county lines

~Question of being in “96059”?

~Bob Cords brought up it is an inclusive as we want it to be.

~Michelle Heino- ~discussion of communication, outreach and education, led

to

~Projects

~Fundraising

IV. Board of Directors and Committee Members

~Members’ discussion of officers positions:

-Chairperson

-Co-chair (Vice)

-Secretary

-Treasurer

Members vote on positions:

-Chair- Janet Jensen

-Vice Chair- Joanne Paquin Sproul

- Secretary- Heather Boone

-Treasurer- Renee Timmons

Addition after discussion to encompass one Chair as Committee Projects Chair:

Members vote- Elliott Proffitt

V. Mission Statement

Members discussion and vote:

Our mission is “to protect the people and property of the Manton

Community from the catastrophic effects of fire through preventive, education,

cooperation, innovation, and action.”.

VI. Discussion about legal structure/ 501c3

-Pat Dwyer brought up direction with regards to funding & organization

- lead into to Powerpoint from Janet Jensen about the differences in 501c3,

Association and non-profit pros and cons:

- Also lead to discussion about need for insurance and costs

-Bob Cords spoke about Fuel Reduction and Education (big items)

-Associaton not way to go

-Discussion about volunteers and requirements (remember #4 of norms!)

-Vote called: Majority vote to go 501c3

-Vote called: Majority vote to go non-profit

VII. Action Items

-Janet to invite BCWC to next meeting to ask them what they have done so far

towards Manton Fire Safe Council and about “residual funds”

- Suggestions that we start our own gmail account- “.org”

-Elliott will set up .org account

- Michelle Heino assed that a page can be accessed without having an

account (i.e. Facebook)

- Board members to have a special meeting to work on Bylaws- Dec. 13,

10:00am at Fire Station.

- Next Community meeting- January 10, agreed and voted on to have meetings

aver 2nd Monday of the month at 6:00 pm.

-Two missions for Board before next meeting: Bylaws & domain name

Meeting adjourned at approx. 7:40p.m.

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Manton Firesafe Council Community Meeting Notes from November 15, 2021 at MVFD

Manton Fire Safe Council

Meeting Notes

Nov. 15, 2021, 6:00 p.m.

Manton Volunteer Fire Station

Meeting was called to order by Janet Jensen.

Round table introductions of all in room- there were 29 community members in

attendance, 3 Cal Fire fire fighters, Brian Desmet (Red Bluff CalFire Battalion Chief),

Bob Cords (Manton Assistant Fire Chief), Dennis Garton (District 3 Supervisor).

Michelle Heino updated us on our Fire Chief, Marion Rocksvold’s, condition after the

devastating hit and run accident on Nov. 12. Joanne Sproul made an announcement

regarding a fundraiser being organized for Dec. 3 and Silent Auction items being

requested by Judy Ramos.

Joanne Sproul gave a brief history of the origination of the MFSC, the 2005 fire, the

Red Cross donation and the connection between the Battle Creek Watershed

Conservancy which was created for as an umbrella for donations.

Dennis Garton gave an overview from his involvement then. He said that after the 2005

fire when the Red Cross gave the first donation, MFSC had “no checking account” and

through the coordination with Sharon Paquin Gilmore and the BCWC, a sponsorship

was set up under their 501c3 to “park” the monies donated.

He went on to say that various projects were organized working with MVFD, mapping

being an important one. He also mentioned the MFSC should get in touch with Brin

Greer from the Tehama County Resource Conservation District. Janet Jensen

mentioned that we have, and Joanne added that we will be working with Seronica Biggs

as she is the Fire Safe Council lead.

Bob Cords spoke about the Red Cross trailer that is at the Manton School. He said that

the bulk of the Red Cross funds went into the creation of the shelter operation. He

added that the Red Cross donation is very directed in the ways that it can be used,

unfortunately not for fire breaks or clearing.

Bob stated that the Fire Safe Council can bring a lot to the community as a “group” itself

and that there are many projects that can be worked on.

Brian Desmet, Bob and Dennis Garton talked about the insurance industry and the ISO

ratings that are set by insurance- 2 criteria used are response time and equipment. He

spoke about fuel maps: the slope, fuel type, accessibility and wind components.

Brian Desmet mentioned how Fire Wise opens up opportunities for grants and that

MFSC should utilize that.

Tom Twist, from the Shingletown Fire safe Council, was on the agenda but was not able

to attend, so Janet gave an overview of what they have done. Their FSC had also

languished, but is revitalized. They recently qualified for a $9 million dollar grant. Their

programs include chipping, SLASH and SNAP.

Someone in the audience asked about applying for grants and Patti Nolan mentioned

that the BCWC group had already begun working on them. Another person asked who

was in attendance from the Conservancy and 4 people raised their hands. A question

was asked about why Trey Hiller or Bob Nolan was not there and Patti said that they

were not there because they did not want the separation between the two groups and

that they did not want to get involved in a “dog pile”.

Dennis Garton again gave history that the two groups had been separate. He also

suggested that the two groups get together and talk about what plans they each had for

the MFSC.

Bob Cords mentioned that the connection between the two had been in name only, that

the MFSC had operated as a separate entity. He said that we should use the handbook,

California Fire Safe Council Handbook, to decide what kind of group we want to be.

https://cafiresafecouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FINALFINAL2020-

CFSC_FSC-Handbook_FINAL-revised.pdf

The group talked about the choices:

~501c3- a a non-profit standalone group, uses for tax deductions, etc.

~Or as a group under the umbrella of another group with a 5013c.

Bob Cords brought up how we should look at the guidelines in the FSC handbook to

define what a fiscal sponsor looks like. Discussion took place about the difference in the

BCWC when it became the fiscal umbrella for the MFSC and now. The BCWC is just

getting its legs under it and isn’t what it used to be, as the projects are different.

Renee Timmons brought up how the focus is different now, there are common goals

between the two, but not the same as in the past.

Pat Dwyer gave a good picture of the what a Fire Safe Council has before it and what

the watershed conservancy has to focus on.

The discussion turned to what are the pros and cons of separating form the BCWC and

Janet Jensen called for a vote vote- simple “Yes” if community member wanted to

separate from the BCWC and become a standalone group or a “No” if you didn’t want to

separate and to continue the agreement between the two groups.

After a vote and a small break, the votes were counted- The votes were unanimous

“Yes”, with one “No”.

The group decided that next meeting is Nov. 29, 6:00p.m. at the Fire Station.

A sign-up sheet was passed around for people to sign if they were interested in being

on the board or as a committee member.

Meeting ended at approx. 7:30p.m.

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