you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you We're really focused on a whole host of disasters or emergency events we wanna have a broad spectrum. We wanna be prepared for anything, but really we focus a lot on wildfire because we know that's one of the most likely events to happen in Nevada County. Ready set go is really built around the wildfire premise to prepare residents to be ready before an event, to move into the set posture when there's a red flag or a fire's near you, and then to go when it's time to go. Essentially, in its simplest form, it's a three-tiered community emergency preparedness plan. I have lived in this house, which we built by husband and I, 26 years ago now, actually. We selected the hardy plate, the concrete siding, and also the metal roof. Then when we moved up here and heard about the 49er fire, that's when we started to say, wow, this really is even more important than we first realized. So the 49er fire is one of the most historic fires in Nevada County's history. They figured it'd change the laws of state of California that said this is how you have to protect your home. That came out in Nevada County. Steve Ubex came from the FireSafe Council and the main thing we needed to pay attention to was the ladder fuels. Planting has been removed from the edges of the house so that it does not touch the house. It was an incredible service from the Firesafe Council to come out and spend a couple of hours going through this property. So the ready phase is when there's no immediate threat to you and your family. This is the time when you should be doing education and planning, whether that be training, educating yourself or accumulating equipment, hardening your home, creating defensible space. Defensible space is really all about creating a buffer zone between your house and Plammable vegetation. We really focus on defensible space around the home that first 100 feet But also around the roadway too Another aspect of the ready phase is hardening the home and really what that means is making your home more resilient to wildfire That's gonna be putting the fine grain mesh around the vents of your home so that embers won't get into under your house or into the eaves of your house. That's gonna be using non combustible materials on your deck and around your home. So when an embers storm comes through, it's not gonna ignite your home itself. I currently live here in Grass Valley with my parents. All of us have sleep apnea, so we all have CPAT machines that require power in order to run. I also use a nebulizer and that's used to disperse medication that I need to give myself breathing again. When we have safety shutoffs, we have to hook up our equipment to batteries that have inverters. We have a generator that powers some of the things around the house, but then I obtained a pretty substantial battery from freed. And it was so easy to go through the process to obtain a battery that I would recommend it to anyone who might have medical needs that require power, or really anything. I would highly recommend contacting freed. So whether it's a snow storm or a public safety power shot off we really want folks to be thinking about okay what are the things I'll need on hand to whether the storm do I need to have candles do I need to have battery powered radio do I need to have flashlights so what are the things that you'll need to shelter in place or address the disaster, I hand? So a go-back could be anything. It could be a backpack. It could be a suitcase. It's gonna be something that you put together to sustain yourself, your family, your pets if needed. That's gonna have food, water, medication, clothing, toiletries to get you by for 72 hours. You need to think of your go bag as the only resource you may have. Stores may be closed, the power may be out, so you may have to literally live out of this thing for a three day period as an evacuee. If you are someone with a disability, maybe you have a chronic health condition. For me, I have typhoon diabetes. I have an insulin pump, right? And so that's a critical piece that I need to plan for if I'm gonna ever evacuate or be away from my house, frankly, for any amount of time, right? What we find often is that if people don't evacuate with their CPAP machine, with their oxygen concentrator, with their wheelchair, walker, then it can be difficult on the other end. My name is Ulysses Palencia. I work in the 211 call center. I'm just a resident of Grass Valley. I have two daughters, four-year-old and a one-year-old. In Nevada County 211 is available 24-7. So we provide for the community is information. That can be anything from directions to the resource centers. It can be letting them know where the fire is. You know if they are themselves in an evacuation center if it's a fire, if there's any information as to whether power is coming back on during a PSPS. Two-on-one gets the information that we provide directly from the county. So directly from the Office of Emergency Services. The whole team cares. We're all local community members. We all just want to help. So we were all sleeping in bed on Thursday, November 8th, and paradise. And first the house phone rang, picked up my phone. It was my sister who lived in a block or so away from us. We were welcome by a telephone call from my daughter. She said that we were being evacuated. I left sooner than them. I had everything ready. They were on the way out the door. There was not time to think about what you're going to take, what you're not going to take. The night before the fire, I knew it was a red flag warning, and I knew that it was a high risk, so on my way home, I filled up the tank. On the way up, we didn't get too far from the house, and we're watching fire come down the hill. There was a machine shop right to my right right there and it had gas tanks and propane tanks. And I saw a lone ember kind of floating through, dancing through the air. And I watched it as it landed on the machine shop. In the time it took me to get my phone back into hand and to take a picture it was engulfed in flames. And I knew that within moments it would start exploding and I would be dead. And just as I moved out of the range of the explosions they started happening and I prayed for the people behind me. Ten minute drive normally the Chico became almost four hours. So it was a long trip. We started to hear a pattern. People kept telling us their story of how they escaped. They camped fire. And they talked about how if it wasn't for my neighbor who came and knocked on my door to tell me there was a fire, I don't know that I would have gotten out alive. If it wasn't for my son who lives next door picking me up and putting me in their car and driving me out of there, I don't know how I would have survived. And so I started really thinking about this connection between isolation and how connected you are to your community, to your neighbors, to your friends, to your family, and how that can be really helpful in a time of a disaster. So we were actually the beneficiaries of someone making that plan in advance to have that group of people that they were going to call. And that she saved my life that day. So absolutely having that network really saved lives. Find your five, the idea is that, you know, find trusted allies that can be there and can be responsive and we'll check in with you if a disaster were to happen. So we recommend that you put people in your network that are down the street, that are maybe the next town over, that are outside the county and maybe even outside the state. The final tier of the race that go is that go piece, and it's simply that it's go. Evacuation information comes in two types. The first type could be an evacuation warning. This is an essentially information that we're going to push out to the public, notifying them of a potential threat in their area where they may have to evacuate their home. An evacuation order is essentially that. We are telling people that it's time to go. There is an imminent threat to life, and we do not believe that you have much time to leave the area. Code Red is an opt-in alerting system that will dial your number. It'll send you a phone call, a text message, and an email, notifying you of an emergency. That message is sent from our office, the Office of Emergency Services. It's going to be very targeted to your area and it'll be specific to you. At 513 the phone rang with the code red call and so as I was going up 49 I could look over to the left and see the flames in the canyon. The next layer is for staff to actually be out driving in the areas with the high low siren. There's no other reason you'll hear that in an area unless we're putting out that evacuation order, not a warning but an order. My day started, a routine patrol came in and I was notified by dispatch to respond out to the Jones fire. Houses that had evacuation tags made it so we could just pass by. We knew that the residents had already been evacuated. Residences that did not have the tags, we would have to physically go in, knock on the door, look in the windows, make sure there were no occupants inside. Once you've been evacuated, as you're leaving, put this tag somewhere very, you know, clearly identifiable, whether it's a mailbox, a gate, your address marker, so that deputies and officers can quickly identify if your residence is already been evacuated. I mean, you look out my back window here on the east side, and you see how close this fire came. It was certainly a shock. And at the same time, it was such an incredible relief to have the house as safe as it was. I mean, I think with personal preparedness and being ready, it can feel overwhelming. It can feel like a lot to do. And the most important piece is to just start with one little bite at a time. Just start the conversation, have some sort of plan. It can be a small is a meet-up place, you know, a destination that everybody will get to, everybody in the household will get to if there's a disaster. Recognize you live in a community in a county that really does take the emergency response as a priority. We have worked diligently throughout the last few years on ensuring that not only our staff are trained and prepared, but we're also putting that out for our community. The more prepared you are in your own community, the better the outcome is going to be. The level of community awareness, they have to be part of the solution. They have to communicate with their neighbors. They have to be part of the discussion in communities. They have to be part of the solution. They have to communicate with their neighbors. They have to be part of the discussion in communities. They have to support the response, the prevention, the education, and ultimately the collaboration and the engagement. People have to be engaged at all levels. The more you think about it now, the easier it will be when the time comes that you need to evacuate. We've created this network and we want you to make sure that you know that you can tap into that. So if you are feeling a little bit overwhelmed, not sure where to start, reach out to one of our offices, reach out to the Firesafe Council or 211. We're here to support you. . you From the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, a new hero will emerge. One who makes sure their friends and family are set. and has the power to go at a moment's notice. This fire season, you're the hero. We are Ready Nevada County. Nevada County has a new tool to make evacuations safer and more efficient in the event of emergency. This new tool is called zone haven and we need you to know your zone. In order to know your need to go to community.zonehaven.com, type in the up-of-window take that information and write down the zone that is given to you where you know you'll find an incase of emergency. Zone Haven and knowing your zone does not replace, Nixel and or Code Red it actually supplements them and it makes those tools more powerful because you will know what zones are being evacuated or which ones are being placed on advisory and as a result you won't have to do anything else other than listen to those messages and know if it's time to go. Even if you don't have internet this could be done by word of mouth it can be done by, or it could be us driving down the street, so please know your zone. From trucky to lake of the pines, from Chicago Park to Spenceville, every single square mile of Nevada County has a zone. And having a zone that you know for your neighborhood is going to help you save time to be able to evacuate and keep you and your family safe. Ready Nevada County is an education campaign designed to help the public have successful outcomes during emergency events. We really focus on a whole host of disasters or emergency events we want to have a broad spectrum. We want to be prepared for anything. But really we focus a lot on wildfire because we know that's one of the most likely events to happen in Nevada County. Ready Set Go is really built around the wildfire premise to prepare residents to be ready before an event, to move into the set posture when there's a red flag or a fire is near you and then to go when it's time to go. Essentially in its simplest form it's a three-tiered community emergency preparedness plan. I have lived in this house, which we built by husband and I, 26 years ago now, actually. We selected the hardy plate, the concrete siding, and also the metal roof. Then when we moved up here and heard about the 49er fire, that's when we started to say, wow, this really is even more important than we first realized. So the 49er fire is one of the most historic fires in Nevada County's history. They figured it changed the laws of the state of California that said, this is how you have to protect your home. That came out in Nevada County. Steve Ubex came from the Firesafe Council and the main thing we needed to pay attention to was the ladder fuels. Planting has been removed from the edges of the house so that it does not touch the house. It was an incredible service from the Firesafe Council to come out and spend a couple of hours going through this property. So the ready phase is when there's no immediate threat to you and your family. This is the time when you should be doing education and planning, whether that be training, educating yourself, or accumulating equipment, hardening your home, creating defensible space. Defensible space is really all about creating a buffer zone between your house and flammable vegetation. We really focus on defensible space around the home, that first 100 feet, but also around the roadway too. Another aspect of the ready phase is hardening the home and really what that means is making your home more resilient to wildfire. That's going to be putting the fine grain mesh around the vents of your home so that embers won't get into under your house or into the eaves of your house. That's going to be using non combustible materials on your deck and around your home. So when an ember storm comes through it's not going to ignite your home itself. I currently live here in Grass Valley with my parents. All of us have a sleep apnea, so we all have CPAT machines that require power in order to run. I also use a nebulizer, and that's used to disperse medication that I need to give myself breathing again. When we have safety shutoffs, we have to hook up our equipment to batteries that haven't burned. We have a generator that powers some of the things around the house, but then I obtained a pretty substantial battery from freed. And it was so easy to go through the process to obtain a battery that I would recommend to anyone who might have medical needs that require power or really anything. I would highly recommend contacting freed. So whether it's a snow storm or a public safety power shot of we really want folks to be thinking about okay what are the things I'll need on hand to whether the storm do I need to have candles do I need to have battery powered radio do I need to have candles, do I need to have battery powered radio, do I need to have flashlights? So what are the things that you'll need to shelter in place or address the disaster at hand? So go back, it could be anything. It could be a backpack, it could be a suitcase. It's going to be something that you put together to sustain yourself, your family, your pets, if needed, that's gonna have food, water, medication, clothing, toiletries, to get you by for 72 hours. You need to think of your go-bag as the only resource you may have. Stores may be closed, the power may be out, so you may have to literally live out of this thing for a three-day period as an evacuee. If you are someone with a disability, maybe you have a chronic health condition. For me, I have type 1 diabetes. I have an insulin pump, right? And so that's a critical piece that I need to plan for if I'm gonna ever evacuate or be away from my house, frankly, for any amount of time, right? What we find often is that if people don't evacuate with their CPAP machine, with their oxygen concentrator, with their wheelchair walker, then it can be difficult on the other end. My name is Ulysses Palencia. I work in the 211 call center. I'm just a resident of Grass Valley. I have two daughters, a four-year-old and a one-year-old. In Nevada County 211 is available 24-7. So we provide for the community is information. That can be anything from directions to the resource centers. It can be letting them know where the fire is. You know, if they are themselves in an evacuation center, if it's a fire, if there's any information as to whether power's coming back on in a PSPS. Two-on-one gets the information that that we provide directly from the county, so directly from the Office of Emergency Services. The whole team cares. We're all local community members. We all just want to help. So we were all sleeping in bed on Thursday, November 8th, and paradise. And first the house phone rang, picked up my phone. It was my sister who lived in a block or so away from us. We were welcome by a telephone call from my daughter. She said that we were being evacuated. I left sooner than them. I had everything ready. They were on the way out the door. There was not time to think about what you're going to take, what you're not going to take. The night before the fire, I knew it was a red flag warning, and I knew that it was a high risk. So on my way home, I filled up the tank. On the way out, we didn't get too far from the house, and we're watching fire coming down the hill. There was a machine shop right to my right right there, and it had gas tanks and propane tanks. And I saw a lone ember kind of floating through, dancing through the air. And I watched it as it landed on the machine shop. In the time it took me to get my phone back into hand and to take a picture it was engulfed in flames. And I knew that within moments it would start exploding and I would be dead. And just as I moved out of the range of the explosions, they started happening and I prayed for the people behind me. Ten minute drive normally the Chico became almost four hours. So it was a long trip. We started to hear a pattern. People kept telling us their story of how they escaped. They camped fire. And they talked about how if it wasn't for my neighbor who came and knocked on my door to tell me there was a fire, I don't know that I would have gotten out alive. If it wasn't for my son who lives next door picking me up and putting me in their car and driving me out of there, I don't know how I would have survived. And so I started really thinking about this connection between isolation and how connected you are to your community, to your neighbors, to your friends, to your family and how that can be really helpful in a time of a disaster. So we were actually the beneficiaries of someone making that plan in advance to have that group of people that they were going to call. And that she saved my life that day. So absolutely having that network really saved lives. Find your five, the idea is that, you know, find trusted allies that can be there and can be responsive and will check in with you if a disaster were to happen. So, we recommend that you put people in your network that are down the street, that are maybe the next town over, that are outside the county, that are maybe the next town over, they're outside the county, and maybe even outside the state. The final tier of the Ready Set Go is that go piece, and it's simply that, it's go. Evacuation information comes in two types. The first type could be an evacuation warning. This is an essentially information that we're going to push out to the public, notifying them of a potential threat in their area where they may have to evacuate their home. An evacuation order is essentially that. We are telling people that it's time to go. There is an imminent threat to life, and we do not believe that you have much time to leave the area. Code Red is an opt-in alerting system that will dial your number. It'll send you a phone call, a text message, and an email, notifying you of an emergency. That message is sent from our office, the office of emergency services. It's gonna be very targeted to your area and it'll be specific to you. At 513, the phone rang with the code red call. And so as I was going up 49, I could look over to the left and see the flames in the canyon. The next layer is for staff to actually be out driving in the areas with the high low siren. There's no other reason you'll hear that in an area unless we're putting out that evacuation order, not a warning, but an order. My day started, routine patrol came in, and I was notified by dispatch to respond out to the Jones fire. Houses that had evacuation tags made it so we could just pass by. We knew that the residents had already been evacuated. Residences that did not have the tags, we would have to physically go in, knock on the door, look in the windows, make sure there are no occupants inside. Once you've been evacuated, as you're leaving, put this tag somewhere very, you know, clearly identifiable whether it's a mailbox, a gate, your address marker, so that deputies and officers can quickly identify if your residence has already been evacuated. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. I mean, you look out my back window here on the east side, and you see how close this fire came. It was certainly a shock, and at the same time, it was such an incredible relief to have the house as safe as it was. I mean, I think with personal preparedness and being ready, it can feel overwhelming. It can feel like a lot to do. And the most important piece is to just start with one little bite at a time. Just start the conversation, have some sort of plan. It can be a small is a meetup place, a destination that everybody will get to, everybody in the household will get to if there's a disaster. Recognize you live in a community in a county that really does take the emergency response as a priority. We have worked diligently throughout the last few years on ensuring that not only our staff are trained and prepared, but we're also putting that out for our community. The more prepared you are in your own community, the better the outcome is gonna be. The level of community awareness, they have to be part of the solution. They have to communicate with their neighbors. They have to be part of the discussion in communities. They have to support the response, the prevention, the education, and ultimately the collaboration and the engagement. People have to be engaged at all levels. The more you think about it now, the easier it will be when the time comes that you need to evacuate. We've created this network and we want you to make sure that you know that you can tap into that. So if you are feeling a little bit overwhelmed, not sure where to start, reach out to one of our offices, reach out to the Firesafe Council or 211. We're here to support you. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. you From the pit hills of the Sierra Nevada. A new hero will emerge. What who is ready. One who makes sure their friends and family are set. and has the power to go at a moment's notice. This is the end of the video. This is the end of the video. You're the hero. We are Ready Nevada County has a new tool to make evacuations safer and more efficient in the event of emergency. This new tool is called zone haven and we need you to know your zone. In order to know your zone, you need to go to community.zonehaven.com, type in your address. Once your address populates in the popup window, take that information and write down the zone that is given to you where you know you'll find it in case of emergency. Zonehaven and knowing your zone does not replace, Nixel and or Code Red, it actually supplements them and it makes those tools more powerful because you will know what zones are being evacuated or which one plays on advisory and as a result you won't have to do anything else other than listening. Even if you don't have internet, this could be done by word of mouth. It can be done by radio or it could be us driving down the street. So please know your zone. From trucky to lake of the pines, from Chicago Park to Spenceville. Every single square mile of Nevada County has a zone. And having a zone that you know for your neighborhood is going to help you save time to be able to evacuate and keep you and your family safe. We're really focused on a whole host of disasters or emergency events we want to have a broad spectrum. We want to be prepared for anything, but really we focus a lot on wildfire because we know that's one of the most likely events to happen in Nevada County. Ready set go is really built around the wildfire premise to prepare residents to be ready before an event, to move into the set posture when there's a red flag or a fire is near you, and then to go when it's time to go. Essentially, in its simplest form, it's a three-tiered community emergency preparedness plan. I have lived in this house, which we built by husband and I, 26 years ago now, actually. We selected the Hardy Plank, the concrete siding, and also the metal roof. Then when we moved up here and heard about the 49er fire, that's when we started to say, wow, this really is even more important than we first realized. So the 49er fire is one of the most historic fires in Nevada County's history. They figured it'd changed the laws of the state of California that said this is how you have to protect your home. That came out in Nevada County. Steve Ubex came from the Firesafe Council and the main thing we needed to pay attention to was the ladder fuels. Planting has been removed from the edges of the house so that it does not touch the house. It was an incredible service from the Firesafe Council to come out and spend a couple of hours going through this property. So the ready phase is when there's no immediate threat to you and your family. This is the time when you should be doing education and planning, whether that be training, educating yourself or accumulating equipment, hardening your home, creating defensible space. Defensible space is really all about creating a buffer zone between your house and flammable vegetation. We really focus on defensible space around the home that first 100 feet, but also around the roadway too. Another aspect of the ready phase is hardening the home. And really what that means is making your home more resilient to wildfire. That's gonna be putting the fine grain mesh around the vents of your home so that embers won't get into under your house or into the eaves of your house. That's gonna be using non-combustible materials on your deck and around your home. So when an embers storm comes through, it's not gonna ignite your home itself. I currently live here in Grass Valley with my parents. All of us have sleep apnea, so we all have CPAT machines that require power in order to run. I also use a nebulizer, and that's used to disperse medication that I need to give myself breathing again. When we have safety shutoffs, we have to hook up our equipment to batteries that have inverters. We have a generator that powers some of the things around the house, but then I obtained a pretty substantial battery from freed, and it was so easy to go through the process to obtain a battery that I would recommend it to anyone who might have medical needs that require power or really anything. I would highly recommend contacting freed. So whether it's a snow storm or a public safety power shot, we really want folks to be thinking about, okay, what are the things I'll need on hand to whether the storm? Do I need to have candles? Do I need to have battery-powered radio? Do I need to have flashlights? So what are the things that you'll need to shelter in place or address the disaster at hand? So go back, could be anything. It could be a backpack. It could be a suitcase. It's going to be something that you put together to sustain yourself, your family, your pets, if needed. That's going to have food, water, medication, clothing, toiletries to get you by for 72 hours. You need to think of your go-back as the only resource you may have. Stores may be closed, the power may be out, so you may have to literally live out of this thing for a three day period as an evacuee. If you are someone with a disability, maybe you have a chronic health condition. For me, I have type 1 diabetes, I have an insulin pump, right? And so that's a critical piece that I need to plan for if I'm gonna ever evacuate or be away from my house, frankly, for any amount of time, right? What we find often is that if people don't evacuate with their CPAP machine, with their oxygen concentrator with their wheelchair, walker, then it can be difficult on the other end. My name's Ulysses Palencia. I work in the 211 call center. I'm just a resident of Grass Valley. I have two daughters, four-year-old and a one-year-old. In Nevada County 211 is available 24-7. So we provide for the community is information. That could be anything from directions to the resource centers. It can be letting them know where the fire is. You know, if they are themselves in an evacuation center, if it's a fire, if there's any information as to whether power's coming back under in a PSPS, 2-1 gets the information that we provide directly from the county, so directly from the Office of Emergency Services. The whole team cares. We're all local community members. We all just want to help. So we were all sleeping in bed on Thursday, November 8th, and paradise. And first the house phone rang, picked up my phone. It was my sister who lived in a block or so away from us. We were woken by a telephone call from my daughter. She said that we were being evacuated. I left sooner than them. I had everything ready. They were on the way out the door. There was not time to think about what you're going to take, what you're not going to take. The night before the fire, I knew it was a red flag warning and I knew that it was a high risk. So on my way home, I filled up the tank. On the way up, we didn't get too far from the house and we're watching fire coming down the hill. There was a machine shop right to my right right there and it had gas tanks and propane tanks. And I saw a lone ember kind of floating through dancing through the air. And I watched it as it landed on the machine shop. In the time it took me to get my phone back into hand and to take a picture it was engulfed in flames. And I knew that within moments it would start exploding and I would be dead. And just as I moved out of the range of the explosions, they started happening and I prayed for the people behind me. Ten minute drive normally the Chico became almost for a horse. So it was a long trip. We started here a pattern. People kept telling us their story of how they escaped. They camped fire and they talked about how if it wasn't for my neighbor who came and knocked on my door to tell me there was a fire, I don't know that I would have gotten out alive. If it wasn't for my son who lives next door picking me up and putting me in their car and driving me out of there, I don't know how I would have survived. And so I started really thinking about this connection between isolation and how connected you are to your community, to your neighbors, to your friends, to your family, and how that can be really helpful in a time of a disaster. So we were actually the beneficiaries of someone making that plan in advance to have that group of people that they were going to call. And that she saved my life that day. So absolutely having that network really saved lives. Find your five, the idea is that, you know, find trusted allies that can be there and can be responsive and will check in with you if a disaster were to happen. So we recommend that you put people in your network that are down the street, that are maybe the next town over, they're outside the county, and maybe even outside the state. The final tier of the race at Go is that Go piece. And it's simply that it's go. Evacuation information comes in two types. The first type could be an evacuation warning. This is an essentially information that we're going to push out to the public, notifying them of a potential threat in their area where they may have to evacuate their home. An evacuation order is essentially that. We are telling people that it's time to go. There is an imminent threat to life and we do not believe that you have much time to leave the area. Code Red is an opt-in alerting system that will dial your number. It'll send you a phone call, a text message, and an email, notifying you of an emergency. That message is sent from our office, the Office of Emergency Services. It's going to be very targeted to your area, and it'll be specific to you. At 513, the phone rang with the code Red call. And so as I was going up 49, I could look over to the left and see the flames in the canyon. The next layer is for staff to actually be out driving in the areas with the high low siren. There's no other reason you'll hear that in an area unless we're putting out that evacuation order, not a warning, but an order. My day started, a routine patrol came in and I was notified by dispatch to respond out to the Jones fire. How's the had evacuation tags made it so we could just pass by. We knew that the residents had already been evacuated. Residences that did not have the tags, we would have to physically go in, knock on the door, look in the windows, make sure there were no occupants inside. Once you've been evacuated, as you're leaving, put this tag somewhere very, you know, clearly identifiable whether it's a mailbox, a gate, your address marker, so that deputies and officers can quickly identify if your residence is already been evacuated. I mean, you look out my back window here on the east side, and you see how close this fire came. It was certainly a shock, and at the same time, it was such an incredible relief to have the house as safe as it was. I mean, I think with personal preparedness and being ready, it can feel overwhelming. It can feel like a lot to do. And the most important piece is to just start with one little bite at a time. Just start the conversation, have some sort of plan. It can be a small as a meet-up place, you know, a destination that everybody will get to, everybody in the household will get to if there's a disaster. Recognize you live in a community in a county that really does take the emergency response as a priority. We have worked diligently throughout the last few years on ensuring that not only our staff are trained and prepared, but we're also putting that out for our community. The more prepared you are in your own community, the better the outcome is going to be. The level of community awareness, they have to be part of the solution. They have to communicate with their neighbors. They have to be part of the discussion in communities. They have to support the response, the prevention, the education, and ultimately the collaboration and the engagement. People have to be engaged at all levels. The more you think about it now, the easier it will be when the time comes that you need to evacuate. We've created this network and we want you to make sure that you know that you can tap into that. So if you are feeling a little bit overwhelmed, not sure where to start, reach out to one of our offices, reach out to the Firesafe Council or 211. We're here to support you. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go. The From the pit hills of the Sierra Nevada, a new hero will emerge. One who makes sure their friends and family are set. And has the power to go at a moment's notice. This is the Florence Notice. This fire season. You're the hero. We are Ready Nevada County. Nevada County has a new tool to make evacuations safer and more efficient in the event of emergency. This new tool is called zone haven and we need you to know your zone. In order to know your zone you need to go to community.zonehaven.com, type in your address. Once your address populates in the pop-up window, take that information and write down the zone that is given to you where you know you'll find it in case of emergency. Zone Haven and knowing your zone does not replace Nixole and or code red, it actually supplements them and it makes those tools more powerful because you will know what zones are being evacuated or which ones are being placed on advisory and as a result you won't have to do anything else other than listen to those messages and know if it's time to go. [♪ music playing in background, even if you don't have internet, this could be done by word of mouth, it can be done by radio, or it could be us driving down the street, so please know your zone. [♪ music playing in background, from trucky to lake of the pines, from Chicago Park to Spenceville, every single square mile of Nevada County has a zone. And having a zone that you know for your neighborhood is going to help you save time to be able to evacuate and keep you and your family safe. Music Music Music Reading Nevada County is an education campaign designed to help the public have successful outcomes during emergency events. We really focus on a whole host of disasters or emergency events we wanna have a broad spectrum. We wanna be prepared for anything, but really we focus a lot on wildfire because we know that's one of the most likely events to happen in Nevada County. Ready set go is really built around the wildfire premise to prepare residents to be ready before an event, to move into the set posture when there's a red flag or a fire is near you and then to go when it's time to go. Essentially in its simplest form it's a three-tiered community emergency preparedness plan. I have lived in this house, which we built by husband and I, 26 years ago now, actually. We selected the hardy plate, the concrete siding, and also the metal roof. Then when we moved up here and heard about the 49er fire, that's when we started to say, wow, this really is even more important than we first realized. So the 49er fire is one of the most historic fires in Nevada County's history. They figured it changed the laws of the state of California that said this is how you have to protect your home. That came out in Nevada County. Steve Ubex came from the Firesafe Council and the main thing we needed to pay attention to was the ladder fuels. Planting has been removed from the edges of the house so that it does not touch the house. It was an incredible service from the Firesafe Council to come out and spend a couple of hours going through this property. So the ready phase is when there's no immediate threat to you and your family. This is the time when you should be doing education and planning, whether that be training, educating yourself or accumulating equipment, hardening your home, creating defensible space. Defensible space is really all about creating a buffer zone between your house and flammable vegetation. We really focus on defensible space around the home, that first 100 feet, but also around the roadway too. Another aspect of the ready phase is hardening the home, and really what that means is making your home more resilient to wildfire. That's going to be putting the fine grain mesh around the vents of your home so that embers won't get into under your house or into the eaves of your house. That's going to be using non combustible materials on your deck and around your home. So when an embers storm comes through, it's not going to ignite your home itself. I currently live here in Grass Valley with my parents. All of us have sleep apnea, so we all have CPAT machines that require power in order to run. I also use a nebulizer and that's used to disperse medication that I need to give myself breathing again. When we have safety shutoffs, we have to hook up our equipment to batteries that have inverters. We have a generator that powers some of the things around the house, but then I obtained a pretty substantial battery from freed, and it was so easy to go through the process to obtain a battery that I would recommend it to anyone who might have medical needs that require power or really anything. I would highly recommend contacting freed. So whether it's a snow storm or a public safety power shot off, we really want folks to be thinking about, okay, what are the things I'll need on hand to whether the storm? Do I need to have candles? Do I need to have battery-powered radio? Do I need to have flashlights? So what are the things that you'll need to shelter in place or address the disaster at hand? So a go-back could be anything. It could be a backpack. It could be a suitcase. It's going to be something that you put together to sustain yourself, your family, your pets, if needed. That's going to have food, water, medication, clothing, toiletries to get you by for 72 hours. You need to think of your go bag as the only resource you may have. Stores may be closed, the power may be out, so you may have to literally live out of this thing for a three day period as an evacuee. If you are someone with a disability, maybe you have a chronic health condition. For me, I have type 1 diabetes, I have an insulin pump, right? And so that's a critical piece that I need to plan for if I'm gonna ever evacuate or be away from my house, frankly, for any amount of time, right? What we find often is that if people don't evacuate with their CPAP machine, with their oxygen concentrator with their wheelchair, walker, then it can be difficult on the other end. My name is Ulysses Palencia. I work in the 211 call center. I'm just resident of Grass Valley. I have two daughters, four-year-old and a one-year-old. In Nevada County 211 is available 24-7. So we provide for the community is information. That could be anything from directions to the resource centers. It can be letting them know where the fire is. You know, if they are themselves in an evacuation center, if it's a fire, if there's any information as to whether power is coming back under in a PSPS, 211 gets the information that we provide directly from the county, so directly from the Office of Emergency Services. The whole team cares. We're all local community members. We all just want to help. So we were all sleeping in bed on Thursday, November 8th, and paradise. And first the house phone rang, picked up my phone. It was my sister who lived. A block or so away from us. We were welcome by a telephone call from my daughter. She said that we were being evacuated. I left sooner than them. I had everything ready. They were on the way out the door. There was not time to think about what you're going to take, what you're not going to take. The night before the fire, I knew it was a red flag warning, and I knew that it was a high risk. So on my way home, I filled up the tank. On the way up, we didn't get too far from the house, and we're watching fire coming down the hill. There was a machine shop right to my right right there, and it had gas tanks and propane tanks. And I saw a lone ember kind of floating through, dancing through the air, and I watched it as it landed on the machine shop. In the time it took me to get my phone back into hand and to take a picture it was engulfed in flames. And I knew that within moments it would start exploding and I would be dead. And just as I moved out of the range of the explosions they started happening and I prayed for the people behind me. Ten minute drive normally the Chico became almost for a horse. So it was a long trip. We started here a pattern. People kept telling us their story of how they escaped. They camped fire. And they talked about how if it wasn't for my neighbor who came and knocked on my door to tell me there was a fire, I don't know that I would have gotten out alive. If it wasn't for my son who lives next door picking me up and putting me in their car and driving me out of there, I don't know how I would have survived. And so I started really thinking about this connection between isolation and how connected you are to your community, to your neighbors, to your friends, to your family, and how that can be really helpful in a time of a disaster. So we were actually the beneficiaries of someone making that plan in advance to have that group of people that they were going to call. And that she saved my life that day. So absolutely having that network really saved lives. Find your five, the ideas that, you know, find trusted allies that can be there and can be responsive and we'll check in with you if a disaster were to happen. So we recommend that you put people in your network that are down the street that are maybe the next town over. They're outside the county and maybe even outside the state. The final tier of the Ready Set Go is that Go piece, and it's simply that, it's Go. Evacuation information comes in two types. The first type could be an evacuation warning. This is an essentially information that we're going to push out to the public, notifying them of a potential threat in the city. The first type of information is the first type of information that evacuation warning. This is an essentially information that we're going to push out to the public, notifying them of a potential threat in their area where they may have to evacuate their home. An evacuation order is essentially that. We are telling people that it's time to go. There is an imminent threat to life and we do not believe that you have much time to leave the area. Code Red is an opt-in alerting system that will dial your number. It will send you a phone call, a text message, and an email, notifying you of an emergency. That message is sent from our office, the office of emergency services. It's going to be very targeted to your area and it'll be specific to you. At 513 the phone rang with the code red call and so as I was going up 49 I could look over to the left and see the flames in the canyon. The next layer is for staff to actually be out driving in the areas with the high low siren. There's no other reason you'll hear that in an area unless we're putting out that evacuation order, not a warning but an order. My day started, a routine patrol came in and I was notified by dispatch to respond out to the Jones fire. Houses that had evacuation tags made it so we could just pass by. We knew that the residents had already been evacuated. Residences that did not have the tags, we would have to physically go in, knock on the door, look in the windows, make sure there were no occupants inside. Once you've been evacuated, as you're leaving, put this tag somewhere very, you know, clearly identifiable whether it's a mailbox, a gate, your address marker, so that deputies and officers can quickly identify if your residence is already been evacuated. I mean, you look out my back window here on the east side, and you see how close this fire came. It was certainly a shock. And at the same time, it was such an incredible relief to have the house as safe as it was. I mean, I think with personal preparedness and being ready, it can feel overwhelming. It can feel like a lot to do. And the most important piece is to just start with one little bite at a time. Just start the conversation, have some sort of plan. It can be a small is a meet-up place, you know, a destination that everybody will get to, everybody in the household will get to if there's a disaster. Recognize you live in a community in a county that really does take the emergency response as a priority. We have worked diligently throughout the last few years on ensuring that not only our staff are trained and prepared, but we're also putting that out for our community. The more prepared you are in your own community, the better the outcome is going to be. The level of community awareness, they have to be part of the solution. They have to communicate with their neighbors. They have to be part of the solution. They have to communicate with their neighbors. They have to be part of the discussion in communities. They have to support the response, the prevention, the education, and ultimately the collaboration and the engagement. People have to be engaged at all levels. The more you think about it now, the easier it will be when the time comes that you need to evacuate. We've created this network and we want you to make sure that you know that you can tap into that. So if you are feeling a little bit overwhelmed, not sure where to start. Reach out to one of our offices. Reach out to the Firesafe Council or 211. We're here to support it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. you From the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, a new hero will emerge. One who makes sure their friends and family are set. And has the power to go at a moment's notice. This fire season, you're the hero. We are Ready Nevada County. Music Nevada County has a new tool to make evacuations safer and more efficient in the event of an emergency. This new tool is called zone haven and we need you to know your zone. Music In order to know your zone you need to go to community.zonehaven.com, type in your address. Once your address populates in the pop-up window, take that information and write down the zone that is given to you where you know you'll find it in case of emergency. Zonehaven and knowing your zone does not replace Nixel and or code red. It actually supplements them and it makes those tools more powerful because you will know what zones are being evacuated or which ones are being placed on advisory. And as a result, you won't have to do anything else other than listen to those messages and know if it's time to go. Even if you don't have internet, this could be done by word of mouth. It can be done by radio or it could be us driving down the street. So please know your zone. From trucky to lake of the pines, from Chicago Park to Spenceville, every single square mile of Nevada County has a zone. And having a zone that you know for your neighborhood is gonna help you save time to be able to evacuate and keep you and your family safe. Ready Nevada County is an education campaign designed to help the public have successful outcomes during emergency events. We really focus on a whole host of disasters or emergency events we want to have a broad spectrum. We want to be prepared for anything. But really we focus a lot on wildfire because we know that's one of the most likely events to happen in Nevada County. Ready set GO is really built around the wildfire premise to prepare residents to be ready before an event, to move into the set posture when there's a red flag or a fire is near you and then to go when it's time to go. Essentially in its simplest form it's a three-tiered community emergency preparedness plan. I have lived in this house, which we built by husband and I, 26 years ago now, actually. We selected the hardy-plank, the concrete siding, and also the metal roof. Then when we moved up here and heard about the 49er fire, that's when we started to say, wow, this really is even more important than we first realized. So the 49er fire is one of the most historic fires in Nevada County's history. They figured it'd change the laws of state of California that said this is how you have to protect your home. That came out in Nevada County's history. They figured it'd change the laws of state of California that said this is how you have to protect your home. That came out in Nevada County. Steve Ubex came from the Firesafe Council and the main thing we needed to pay attention to was the ladder fuels. Planting has been removed from the edges of the house so that it does not touch the house. It was an incredible service from the Firesafe Council to come out and spend a couple of hours going through this property. So the ready phase is when there's no immediate threat to you and your family. This is the time when you should be doing education and planning, whether that be training, educating yourself, or accumulating equipment, hardening your home, creating defensible space. Defensible space is really all about creating a buffer zone between your house and flammable vegetation. We really focus on defensible space around the home, that first 100 feet, but also around the roadway too. Another aspect of the ready phase is hardening the home and really what that means is making your home more resilient to wildfire. That's going to be putting the fine grain mesh around the vents of your home so that embers won't get into under your house or into the eaves of your house. That's going to be using non combustible materials on your deck and around your home. So when an embersstorm comes through, it's not going to ignite your home itself. I currently live here in Grass Valley with my parents. All of us have sleep apnea, so we all have CPAT machines that require power in order to run. I also use a nebulizer, and that's used to disperse medication that I need to give myself breathing again. When we have safety shutoffs, we have to hook up our equipment to batteries that have inverters. We have a generator that powers some of the things around the house, but then I obtained a pretty substantial battery from freed, and it was so easy to go through the process to obtain a battery that I would recommend it to anyone who might have medical needs that require power or Really anything I would highly recommend contacting freed So whether it's a snow storm or a public safety power shot of we really want folks to be thinking about okay What are the things I'll need on hand to whether the storm? Do I need to have candles? Do I need to to whether the storm, do I need to have candles, do I need to have battery powered radio, do I need to have flashlights? So what are the things that you'll need to shelter in place or address the disaster at hand? So a go-back could be anything, it could be a backpack, it could be a suitcase, it's gonna be something that you put together to sustain yourself, your family, your pets, if needed. That's gonna have food, water, medication, clothing, toiletries to get you by for 72 hours. You need to think of your go bag as the only resource you may have. Stores may be closed, the power may be out, so you may have to literally live out of this thing for a three-day period as an evacuee. If you are someone with a disability, maybe you have a chronic health condition. For me, I have type 1 diabetes, I have an insulin pump, right? And so that's a critical piece that I need to plan for if I'm gonna ever evacuate or be away from my house frankly for any amount of time, right? What we find often is that if people don't evacuate with their CPAP machine, with their oxygen concentrator, with their wheelchair, walker, then it can be difficult on the other end. My name is Ulysses Palencia. I work in the 211 call center. I'm just a resident of Grass Valley. I have two daughters, four-year-old and a one-year-old. In Nevada County 211 is available 24-7, so we provide for the community as information. That can be anything from directions to the... you you you you you you you you you I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. I'm going to be back. Welcome to the Tuesday, October 8th, regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors here in East County. Thanks everybody for making the trip, jumping over the summit and being a part of it with us. Thanks to the town of Truckee for providing breakfast for everybody. I hope if you didn't get breakfast please grab it. And thanks for allowing us to use this meeting to order. And I think I saw chief Stewart. Would you like to eat us in the pledge of allegiance chief? Pledge of allegiance. Is it like the United States or America? Very publicly. Which stands. So a couple of notes, these mics are different than ours. So if you're not green, you're not going to be of our items, please step up to the podium and press the green button as well. But be aware there's a little ramp up to this dius. So don't trip on that ramp if you're coming or going. We'll just make that note very quickly. Madam Clerk, are there any corrections, solutions changes to the agenda? Chair Bullock, the closed caption system for the county technology is having some technical difficulties this morning. So if any viewers online meet the closed captioning, they can go ahead and watch the meeting on the county's YouTube channel and the closed captioning is functioning there. Okay, thank you. One special announcement because of a small on the same note because of a small time, the way I've approximately 50 seconds on the online and cable live streams, members of the public wishing to make public comment by phone should call in at the beginning of each agenda item rather than waiting until you hear us asking for public comment near the beginning of each agenda item rather than waiting until you hear us asking for public comment Near the end of each discussion if you wait to call in the comment period may be over You will be able to listen to the board discussion on the phone which is not subject to the delay on the live stream Online and on TV In one quick note. I'm gonna use This time for one special announcement. I just want to thank everybody who contributed to our hard of gold. Grable race, which was Saturday. I think it was, I saw everybody from this room had some representation there. So the Sheriff's Department, thank you so much to Damien and his officers who are out there. Search and rescue who without search and rescue, we couldn't, we couldn't complete that event. everybody was on Modos and radios and had the I see going Rescue to a couple people and provided some needed support there Thanks to the Cermet team so our internal Cermet team who was Handling all of our recycling and then social services was out there as well and and then Trisha Your staff and the facility staff and then social services was out there as well. And then Trisha, your staff and the facility staff, and then particularly Bo, who jumped in to take over an entire aid station. So I just want to say thank you to everybody who made that a success. Huge support, a team mental wellness and that charitable contribution and all the racers that came from all over. The nation to come here and race in Nevada County. So it was awesome. I saw people downtown at dinner, standing hotels all over the place, so town was busy with the families that were supporting the racers. And Mike, thanks again to the Washington, town of Washington, and the crew out there to support the races. It went through your community just a sincere thank you. Moving on to our consent calendar, these items are expected to be routine and non-controversial. The Board of Supervisors will act upon them at one time without discussion. Any board members may request an item be removed from the consent calendar for discussion. Members of the public wishing to ask questions or hear a discussion on items listed under the consent agenda. May now raise their concerns to the board members. The supervisors will take these concerns under consideration and decide if there's adequate reason to remove them from the consent calendar. This is introduction of items one through 20 on the consent calendar. If you're here for public comment, please call in. Jump on the phone. With that, I'm going to open up public comment and ask that anybody in the board chambers jump up to this dius to make public comment on items 1 through 20 items not included on the agenda only the consent calendar. We want to talk about the consent calendar. Seeing none we'll go to the court of the board any colors online. Chair there are no colors for the consent calendar no callers for the consent calendar. Okay. With that we are going to close public comments on the consent. I'm going to bring it back to the board and ask my colleagues if there's anything they'd like to remove from the consent. Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Second. Motion a second, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. District two. Yes. Motion a second. Madam clerk, please call the roll. District two. Yes. District four. Yes. District three. Yes. District one. Yes. District five. Yes. Okay. Consent calendar done. Moving on to general public comment. We are going to change it up a little bit. We have a very, very busy day. So we're going to change public comments to two minutes, not three minutes. So if you step up to the podium. I'm just going to remind the public to call in now if they want to provide comment over the phone members of the public shall be allowed to address matter jurisdiction of the board. Speakers are encouraged but not required to give their name and district of residents. Please direct your comments to the board, not the audience or staff. No individual may speak more than one steering public comment. If you are here to make comments on the Alpine Gloss Somal appeal, those public comments will be heard when we open the public comment. When we open that process at 10 a.m. So hold those till 10 a.m. This is general public comment to only things not appearing on the agenda. Please jump up and we're ready to hear you for your two minutes. And I'll ask the clerk to do have a clock somewhere. Chair Bullock, we do have a clock. It's not visible to the board. I apologize. Okay, but it's to comment why over the phone. Please note, you'll be given two minutes at which point the microphone will be turned off. Therefore, please keep your comments clear and concise in the interest of civil doors. Discourse, it is my responsibility as a chair to ensure public comments are conducted in such a manner that avoids disruptive activity, promotes mutual respect, keeps comments focused on issues and avoids personal attack. So we are ready for public comment. Anybody like to make a public comment? What can it Megan? Press the green button to there. There you. Thanks. Hi, my name is Megan Darshan Kewich. I will be here on behalf of my father, Robert Dargin Kewich, who is running for the Hospital Board. He is actively in the ER right now, so he really wanted to be here, but he sent me instead. He's running on a platform of improving access to your doctor, improving the well-being of the community and the clinicians that take care of us, and making sure that the Hospital board is well versed in the community and engaging with community organizations. If you want, I'll be around after the meeting, happy to talk and answer any questions you might have. Thank you so much. Thanks for your comment, Megan. Anybody else here? I'd like to make general public comment. Item's not appearing on the agenda. Seeing none, how about on the phone, Madam Court, anybody on the phone? Chair, we'll look there are no callers. Okay, that's a quickest public comment. We are very, very short there. With that, I am going to close General Public Comment and move on to Department Head Matters. This is item number 21 A and B, information in general services agency director Steve Monahan, which I believe is absent and filling in for him will be great grease box. This is a resolution accepting the amended joint powers agreement for the provision of a new library facility in the truck area, effective upon execution. About parties unauthorizedizing the chair of the board of Supervisors to execute the amended joint powers agreement authorizing the clerk of the board of Supervisors to execute and file requisite statutory notice. With the Secretary of State, the State Controllers office and the local agency formation commission in accordance with government code sections, 65.3.5 and .6, and authorizing the clerk of the Board of Supervisors to submit any associated filing fees. B part is a resolution to approve and transfer the funds in the amount of 150 from the Nevada County library to the Truckee Library Joint Powers Authority and support of the activities related to securing the financing for the construction and maintenance of the new truck your regional library. And direct the auditor controller to amend fiscal year 2425 library budgets. And this is a focus affirmative but required with that. I'll turn it over to Craig. Yeah, good morning, Chair Bola. Can members of the board? Craig Greasebach, Director of Emergency Services, filling in for your agency director for IGGS, Steve Monahan. As you said, Chair Bullock, you have two items being presented before you this morning and those items are with the goal of building a new regional trucky library facility. This includes a resolution and to approve the transfer of funds to the Nevada County Library to the trucky library joint powers authority and a resolution executing an amendment for the JPA for the provision of the new library facility in the trucky area. So with that, I have Mandy Stewart with our Clerk of the Board's office and Josh White with the facilities department joining me today to give you the brief presentation and answer any questions that you may have and I will hand it off to Mandy. Oh, too fast. All right. Good morning, Chair Bullock, members of the board. My name is Mandy Stewart. I'm an analyst supporting you guys in the clerk of the board as well as the CEO's office. We are here today seeking your approval to execute the amended joint powers agreement or JPA for the provision of a new library facility in the trucky area. As you may recall on January 23rd, 2024, staff brought forward a resolution for you to approve and execute the original joint powers agreement for the new library facility. Resolution 24-050 was unanimously approved. Truckytown Council simultaneously approved the agreement and the JPA was formally executed in February of 2024. As a reminder, the Joint Powers Authority was created to serve as the governing body for the construction and maintenance of the new library facility. The original members of the JPA include the county of Nevada and the town of Truckee. Today we bring you an amended JPA agreement which will serve to add Placer County as a new member of the JPA. Placer County will join as a non-voting member and will also have no financial contributions or liability as it relates to project construction at this time. The addition of Placer County does, however, allow for the JPA to include portions of Placer County's jurisdictional boundaries into a future financing district or other such financing mechanism. The portions of Placer County, which would be included, are the areas of Martis Valley, North Star, and a few other areas whose residents seek their services in the town of Truckee and would be likely patrons of the new Truckee library facility. The Placer County Board of Supervisors approved this amended agreement on September 24th, 2024 and the Truckee Town Council will vote on the amended agreement this evening at their scheduled meeting. In front of you is a graphical depiction of the JPA governance structure. As shared, the approval of the amended agreement will serve to add Placer County as a member agency of the JPA. Following the execution of the amended agreement, the three member agencies will include the County of Nevada, the town of Truckee, and the County of Placer. We also want to remind you that the board of the JPA is comprised of executive level staff from the County of Nevada and the town of Trucky. As Placer will be joining as a non-voting member, they will not have active board representation. Voting and action authority for the JPA will be split equally between the County of Nevada and the town of Trucky. For the County of Nevada, your CEO, Alison Lehman, and your deputy CEO, Aaron Matler, sit on the board of the library JPA. So while the JPA technically serves as a governing body for the construction of the new library building, we plan to bring all project milestones items to you for the project for your approval and review prior to taking the item to the JPA board. This process will ensure that you have the opportunity to provide feedback in specific direction prior to the JPA taking any significant formal actions. The town of Shrucky as an equal partner in the JPA will also bring the same items before town council for approval and direction. Once each milestone is vetted by the respective governing bodies, it will be taken to the JPA board. Please remember that the County of Nevada is represented on the JPA by your CEO and your deputy CEO, so they will have all your feedback and direction before making any decision on behalf of the JPA. All right, good morning Board of Supervisors. My name is Josh White. I'm a program manager with facilities. I'm honored to be a part of the county's team that's working on the new Truckee Library project. Following Mandy's slides, discussing the amended JPA agreement, I would like to request your approval for a resolution authorizing the transfer of $150,000 from the Nevada County Library Fund to the Truckee Library JPA. This transfer, if approved, will fund activities related to securing financing for the construction and maintenance of a new trucky library. The funds will match the town of trucky and the friends of the library's commitments towards the project. It will be a significant stepping stone for the JPA so that it can directly contract for services and maintain its own budget. The total planned county contribution for the new trucky library project as discussed at previous board workshops in January of 2024 and 2023 is currently $1 million. The county contributed $1500,000 along with the town of Truckee and the friends at a library for design of the new trucky library project management and baseline sequence studies. The $150,000 that your board is being asked to approve today will help fund track polling as well as contracts with a special tax consultant and bond council. Half of the cost of these services will be paid for by the by the town of trucky and the And the Friends of Library will provide in-kind support for the project in the form of a capital campaign. That concludes our presentation and our staff's recommendation is that you approve and execute the amended JPA agreement for the new Truckee Library and approve the second resolution to transfer $150,000 from the Nevada County Library to the trucky library JPA. In support of activities related to securing the financing for the construction and maintenance of a new regional trucky library. With that, we're open to any questions you have. Thanks Josh. Carifying questions from the board on. We've been provided. Any questions start with you, Supervisor Hook. So no real questions, but just for the public's interest, let's talk about why Placer is not part of the voting. Okay, that's the question Josh. I'm sure Josh Romandick can answer. Yeah, Placer did not request to be a voting member. During negotiations, they are not interested in the potential financial contribution Yeah, Placer did not request to be a voting member during negotiations. They are not interested in the potential financial contribution that the other two entities, the other three entities have taken. And so they requested to be a non-voting member. Their contribution right now is significant in that it allows us to potentially, if a tax measure was to be brought forward tax into their county lines, which is a huge piece, a huge stepping stone for the project. Questions to the brothers. Brothers are all. It seems pretty compact as we could do that. Yeah. Yeah. I don't have any questions. I mean, I'm really excited about this project, about for Truckee and the in-area to have a really great library with access to information, great information, especially now a days where we need access to accurate information and all the other services that that library is provide today. I'm excited that we're part of this project. I'm happy that we're contributing thrilled that Trecke is contributing. Understand that Placer has a lot of other projects and issues on their plate, but I really do wanna make it clear that I think Placer County needs to step up and provide some funding at some point. Their constituents and citizens are gonna be benefiting greatly from this library as well. So happy to support this and hope to see them. Come on board. No, super, that's sort of. Yeah, thank you for the presentation. My question or comment, I guess, is in line of regarding Placer County. When I stood before their board and asked them for their support and allowing us to bond within their jurisdiction, they gave a clear go forward on that. We are not making it this time a capital contribution, but I made it clear that we would be asking and talking more about that and the friends have made that clear as well. So that is something we've talked to them about. And so we're not sure where that's going to lie in the in the life cycle of the project. But again, many plaster county constituents will benefit from the library services and a new library, which is sort of we needed here. So there's more to discuss there. And I'm just glad that we have the ability to bond within that jurisdiction because without that, the project likely would not be successful. So with that, I would entertain a motion. We're gonna need two separate motions. One of them, item A is to amend the joint powers agreement and then item B is to transfer the funding from one account to another to fund that. On that. Oh, make a motion. I'm sorry. Thank you, supervisor Sorthak caught me. We would open up. Thank you for doing that. Public, I'm going to open up public comment on this item. Is there anybody who wish to make public comment on this? Thanks for catching that. Yes. Supervisor Bullock and fellow supervisors, Nevada County supervisors. We are pleased to be here. My name is Kathleen Egan. I'm on the board of the Friends of the Trucky Library. And here today also is April Cole, who is our library up campaign coordinator and director as well as Louise Briskey, who is president of the Friends of the Trucky Library. We know time is in short supply for you today. So we appreciate that. We just want to emphasize how much we are appreciative of this extraordinary collaboration between the town, the county, and the Friends of the Trucky Library. It's together that we are going to accomplish some pretty significant things. We are very excited and pleased with the fact that Placer County is going to join the JPA and so we'll be able to start to develop that next step in communication and collaboration as far as bringing this project forward and really making it the success that needs to be. So we're really excited about that. We want you to know that what we have on our shoulders, friends of the Truckee Library, is really developing community awareness and community support for this project. There is remarkable community support. May not be apparent to you. We've got Truckie Donner Recreation of Park District, Truckie Donner PUD, Truckie Fire Protection District, Truckie Sanitary District, all having written letters of support for this project, as well as over 40 nonprofit organizations who are in support to really speaking to Supervisor Hall's comments about how much this is needed in this community. It's going to take all of us together working on this. We're excited about the continual methodical steps we are making going forward. We don't always know how we're going to get there, but it's amazing working with Nevada County staff, the community and town staff, how we are making incredible progress. So we appreciate your support. Thank you very much. I hope you vote favorably today. Thank you. Thanks for your comments. Madam Quirk, are there any collars online? Chair Bullock, we do have one calling. Okay, let's bring them in. And if anybody else is getting ready, you can queue up in the chambers here after the caller or we'll get another comment here. Thank you. Thanks. Good morning board of supervisors Matthew Colter running for City Council, grass alley, California. I'm sorry I missed public comment because I had some things I wanted to public comment about. But I will definitely comment on the library situation. Our libraries in Nevada County have been very neglected. Nick has actually turned them around quite a bit. There's been a lot of good things happening. I love our libraries, including Truckee, who was in an old house at one time. That was very bad. But I'm calling specifically on the fact that we just heard maintenance and something. There's a large echo happening. I'm not sure if you're hearing. Am I on right now? Yeah, we can hear you, Matthew. Go ahead. You have your Rotten Clerk here. Yeah, grass out of the library, for example. Parents won't even take their children there because of what's going on at the park right next door which is a grass valley park. The fact that like I said the deferred maintenance on the building, I mean these are historic buildings in grass alley in Nevada City, the 45-barry county operating county run buildings and they just didn't allow just to decay to set the level, the pain, the lawn in front. They just don't look like the stored buildings should look. They look basically like plum lord's own them. And it's sad that county facilities have just ignored these situations for so long that it becomes a major event. You know, I've asked for the long to be repaired for like five years behind the Grass Valley Library. Now you're going to put a jack out there instead of the lawn. So there'll be no more lawn for people to sit on. The front of the place just looks horrible. There was an electric bike fire the other day that burned a bush. The bush is still burned in front of the library. It needs to be trimmed back. There's a training front of the library called the doctor's house tree that has been chopped down. Thank you, caller. You've reached two minutes. Okay. Thanks, Matt, for your comments and thanks for calling in. Any other comments related to the library's item A and B here in the chambers? Seeing none, I'm going to close public comment and now we will bring it back to the board for a motion. I'll make that motion. And that's item A. Yes. Okay. I'll second that. Okay. Perfect. Motion and a second on the JPA modification. Madam Court, please call the roll. District two. Yes. District four. Yes. District three. Yes. District one. Yes. District five. Yes. And I will now entertain a motion for the transfer of the funds that's item 21b. So moved. Second motion and the second Madam Clerk, please call the roll. District two. Yes. District four. Yes. District three. Yes. District one. Yes. District five. Yes. Thank you. Staff for putting that together and thanks for all the hard work bringing this forward. This has been a long process and I'd just like to say thank you. I'm going to ask you to ask the staff to be able to ask the staff to be able to ask the staff to be able to ask the staff to be able to ask the staff to be able to ask the staff to be able to ask the staff to be able to ask the staff to be able to ask the staff to be able to ask the staff to be able to ask the staff to be able to ask the staff to be able to ask the staff to be able to on to item number 22, individual, excuse me, board individual items. Number 22 is supervisor Swarthout and supervisor Hook. This is a resolution supporting California Proposition 36. Quote allows Thoney charges and increase sentences for certain drug and theft crimes, initiative statute appearing on the November 5th, 2024 statewide ballot. So I'm going to remind everybody if you have comments for this item and you're listening on TV or on the phone, please call in and queue up for your comment period. With that, we'll turn it over and we'll start with supervisor hook and then go to supervisor sort that will tend to introduce the item. Then we're going to turn it over to Jeffrey, keep the staff doors be to talk to us a little bit. I think we ought to just jump right into Jeff's overview and go to our public comment and then come back and make our closing statements. So I'm good. All right, perfect. Thank you so much, Chair Bullock. Honourable members of the board. My name is Jeff Thorizb. I'm your chief of staff. I'm pleasure to be here. Today, bringing forward to you on behalf of Supervisor Hogan Supervisor Sworth, a resolution supporting California Proposition 36. So what I would like to do today is just briefly provide a high level overview, then I'll be turning it over to the district attorney and the sheriff to provide some comments with the supervisor. I also wanted to mention, we do have various staff who are available to answer questions. Should the board want to ask? Has have any questions for staff? I just do just want to remind the public that staff do not take any positions on any propositions but are here to answer any questions on potential impacts or other county operations. So with that, a quick background, Proposition 36 is in response and reverses a law in Proposition 47, that was adopted, that was passed by the voters in 2014. That was a prison reform ballot measure aimed at reducing state prison populations. Proposition 47 reclassified certain non-violent crimes such as drug possession and petty theft under $950 valued at from felonies to misdemeanors. It also redirected savings from reduced incarceration to grant programs to support mental health and drug treatment and reduced truancy in K through 12 education systems and also the victim services. So Proposition 36, which will be coming on to the voters on the ballot this November, is known as the Homelessness Drug Addiction and Thaft Reduction Act. And will reverse certain provisions of Proposition 47 to reinstate and increase penalties for theft and certain drug offenses from misdemeanors to felony offenses. A couple key components I would like to highlight. One that reclassifies certain drug offenses, including fentanyl and repeated theft convictions under $950 as felonies. Establishes new felonies, sentences for certain crimes up to three years in county jailers, state prisons. Also could be linked there if multiple people are involved or other hard drugs are involved. The proposition also creates a new treatment mandated felony which would mandate convicted offenders to get mental health or drug treatment or face incarceration, specifically this would apply to someone who possesses certain hard drugs and two would have two or more past convictions of some of these drug offenses. These people would generally get treatments such as mental health or drug treatment. Those who finish treatment would have their charges fully dismissed. Those who do not finish treatment could serve up to three years in state prison. For certain crimes, Proposition 36, we require their offenders serve their sentences in a state prison as opposed to county jails. It also requires courts to warn people that could be charged. They could be charged with murder if they are selling hard drugs that potentially could result in someone's death. And also allows felony sentences for theft or damage of property to be linked up to three years of three or more people are involved in the crime together. A couple other facts that I'd like to highlight for the board is under the act in offender with two product evictions for theft can be charged with felony regardless of the value of the stolen property. Diversion programs would continue to exist, meaning judges would retain the discretion not to incarcerate an offender even more than two or more convictions. The value of property stolen in multiple thefts will be permitted to be added together to allow for felony prosecution. It's a key piece that's important. And then I just want to highlight in your packet, the legislative analyst office estimates that would require some people to now serve their sentence at the county level to serve them in state prison. And we're also linked in some prison sentences in total the prison population could increase by around a few thousand people. There's currently about 90,000 people in our state prison population now. In turn, if statewide prison populations go up, the state would then realize less savings that was realized by Proposition 47, which is used for certain grant funds. So you would see a potential decrease in those. The LAO also estimates the county bought jail populations may have a net increase population despite certain populations shifting over to the state prison system. And then also particularly there could be also increases to state court workload and also different agencies, including county behavior health and probation, as well as local prosecutor and public defenders. So that's the high level, that's the quick overview of Proposition 36. Unless the supervisors would like to interject this time, I'd like to turn it over to our district attorney, Jesse Wilson. Supervisor Sorthart and Huck, you wanna do that? Okay. You're Wilson. Good morning, Chair Bullock. Members of the board, I appreciate your time as district attorney of Nevada County. I'm a proponant of Prop 36. I'm asking today that this resolution in support of Prop 36 be passed. I think it's important to note on something like Proposition 36, which is effectively a crime bill in the state of California that it's not just district attorneys or the vast majority of them in the state of California. It's not just law enforcement across the state of California, local law enforcement that's supporting Prop 36, but there's a broad, diverse contingent of bipartisan support for Prop 36. So you have anyone from the mayor of San Diego, mayor of San Jose, mayor of San Francisco, you have state assembly members on both sides of the aisle, you have state centers on both sides of the aisle, you have small business associations, you have big box retailers, you have chambers of commerce, you have a broad diverse support, you have 70% of California voters at this time again on what's effectively a crime bill in California that based on the last polls are in support of Prop 36 and it makes sense. Prop 36 is a fairly pragmatic, straightforward approach to the shortcomings of Prop 47. So it's effectively aiming to restore some common sense to the criminal justice system where Prop 47 left off. It's not reversing Prop 47. It's not upending it. It's simply fixing what Prop 47 failed to deliver on Prop 47 is not upending it. It's simply fixing what Prop 47 failed to deliver on Prop 47. As mentioned, it was effectively recalibrating our approach to how we deal with low level crimes non-violent offenders. And it directed the system to approach not just the criminal behavior but the underlying causes of the criminal behavior and address those through treatment and rehabilitation, non-incarceration. Okay. Prop 47, as to the two promises that it made, it kept its promise to drastically reduce the number of incarcerated people that are in prison in jails for low-level, non-violent offenses. It kept that promise. What it failed miserably at is it failed miserably at addressing the underlying causes of criminality and substance abuse mental health issues through treatment. So it didn't do that in Prop 36 is stepping in to hopefully to bridge that gap. And you've seen the failings of Prop 37, I think on a statewide certainly local as well, but on a statewide level with just the numbers that we've seen since the Prop 47 was passed in 2014 in the state of California, we've seen a 51% increase in homelessness. We've seen 11% decrease in homelessness in the rest of the United States. Homelessness is a very complicated issue. There's a myriad of factors that go into homelessness itself, but certainly there is a broad section of homeless population that homelessness is the symptom of their problems, right? It's substance abuse, it's mental health issues. So Prop 36, what it's trying to do is stepping in and it's trying to provide the incentives, the motivations to mandate treatment to address these underlying problems that Prop 47 promised to do, but frankly never did. And that is the bulk of what Prop 36 is doing. We've seen the mandated treatment paradigm. We've seen it work. We've seen it work at the statewide level. We've seen it work at the local level with our own adult drug court. You can talk to people that are instrumental in that, like Jeff Goldman, his probation department in this wildly successful program. But the fact of the matter is that Prop 47 decimated the numbers that of individuals who accessed the highly successful resources of adult drug court in that mandated treatment because that they effectively have to choose between being out on the street in a couple days and using interviews and drugs or going through a two-year intensive treatment program, they're going to choose the former or not the latter. They're going to choose the former, not because latter. They're gonna choose the former, not because they're drug addicts, not because they're criminals, but because human behavior oftentimes takes the path of least resistance. And that's played out over the last 10 years since Prop 47. So if we can reestablish the motivation and the incentive to mandate, to put these people in this mandated treatment, you're gonna see a very successful program be reinvigorated with actual numbers. So if you go into the Dull Drug Court, you're going to see people that have had very long rap sheets, very, very long histories of criminal behavior. They go into this program, again, a very high batting average, very high rated success after two years of intense services and intense treatment. They come out as different people. They stop the criminality. They stop that cycle of criminality. Sometimes they stop in Nevada County. The generation cycle of criminality. It's very hard to put a financial number on that but certainly there's a windfall there to taxpayers in addition to the public safety. So that is a key component of what Prop 36 tries to do and the people in our community that are suffering from substance abuse deserve prop 36 and the mandated treatment that comes along with it. I think our small business owners they also deserve that. The big box retailers, they also deserve that. You look at across the state, the numbers at the big box retailers that have the resources to capture the metrics of the amount of theft that's going on, it's exponentially increased, exponentially increased. You can see that because the loss in the merchandise on an annual basis that these big box retailers put out is exponentially increasing, okay? They refer to a shrinkage that encompasses petty theft, but they're getting crushed, they're getting crushed, and we know that just based on the numbers, just like the increase in homelessness. So we deserve within Nevada County to provide some relief to our businesses. Okay, I've personally talked to the head of law's prevention at Target in Grass Valley. Okay, I've talked to that person's boss who's the regional manager of law's prevention for targets all across California. They're getting absolutely crushed. I've talked to a store manager in Western County at a safeway there. Safeway is getting absolutely crushed. Okay, there's no two ways about it. Safeway brought it in an outfit to do loss prevention over an eight hour block in a safeway in Western County. In eight hours, that company that did an undercover sting operation prevented thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars from walking out the front door due to theft and our local safe way. This is an issue that is real. It is not hyperbole and it is affecting our local businesses and our local community. So that's why I'm supporting Prop 36. Our community deserves it. Our local business is deserve it and our community members that are suffering from substance abuse, disorders and mental health, they deserve something different than to be released out on the streets and then left to the devices of their drug addiction. So for a whole host of reasons, I'm in support of it, law enforcement's in support of it, but what you should take notice of is that the voters are in support of it and a diverse communities all across the state are in support of it. So again, greatly appreciate your time and your consideration of this. What I would consider very important resolution. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you for your presentation. Sure, if Moon's coming up. Chair Bullock, members of the board, thank you so much for entertaining the thought of listening to some of you. Chair Bullock members of the board. Thank you so much for entertaining the thought of listening to some of your local elected officials. Definitely that are at the forefront in the community talking with not only our constituents that are in the city jurisdictions, the county jurisdictions, our business communities, are the folks that we have connections with every single day on calls for service, whether they're a victim of a crime, a suspect of a crime, or maybe even a witness of crime in Nevada County. to women support of Proposition 36 as a common sense fix to some of the unintended consequences of Proposition 47. I think decreasing some of our jail populations and our prison populations is a good thing. I think that when in 2014 when Proposition 47 was enacted, I think there was a lot of folks in law enforcement that were not in support of Proposition 47. I was at a level of let's see what happens. I've always been, since I came up through the the correctional division and saw lots of folks inside our correctional facilities every single day. I looked at truly not only the generational issues with substance abuse, but just looking at it a little bit more holistically on how can we be smart with crime and not necessarily tough on crime or soft on crime. How do we look at it individually and look at ways in which we can under our control help people. We all get into this service, public service, elected service to help people. And when I see on the front lines folks that are being incarcerated with substance abuse issues that get booked in for misdemeanors and then released and booked in for misdemeanors and released, at some point you have to look at it and say, they're not making the best decisions for themselves. When given the opportunity, and I think that's what Proposition 47 did, it gave people the opportunity to say, I want treatment or nothing. And a lot of folks chose the nothing because of a substance abuse issue. I've got substance abuse issues in my family. We talk with lots of folks that are in that substance abuse issue. I've got substance abuse issues in my family. I talk with lots of folks that are in that substance abuse arena. It is very difficult to come off of a substance. And because of that, I think sometimes that is the route of easiest concern for someone that is going through that. What I love about Proposition 36 is that it doesn't overhaul. We don't swing the pendulum all the way back. We look at it in a fair, consistent manner on how do we treat people? How do we allow people to get that treatment with accountability? So it's not everybody's going to get thrown in jail, throw away the key. Every community is a little bit different on what they have room in their correctional facilities in Nevada County because of the great work that all of the people that work in this community do. We do have a lower level of incarceration in Nevada County because of the great work that we already do through partnerships and collaboration and talking and understanding root causes and different things like that. It's what's happening in the urban areas that we see that that gets a little scary when they don't have any room inside their facilities. They're not booking misdemeanors. They're giving misdemeanants in the community a ticket to show up in court and then either not showing up or just continuing to continuing that cycle. So I think looking at it broadly as at the state level might be a little bit of a different viewpoint from a smaller rural community in Nevada County. I also think we can't always just look at data on crime. And I've said this from the minute I started campaigning is crime rates are what is reported crime. It's not what truly happens out in the community. And we know that lots of crime doesn't ever get reported, whether it's a theft crime, crime in the home with sexual abuse. A lot of that stuff doesn't get reported. So looking at crime data is one perspective, but it doesn't also share the entire story. And when I send my community outreach folks out into the community and talk to business owners and say, are you reporting your theft? They all said they weren't. And for lots of different reasons, it's not just because people are saying Proposition 47 ruined it for everyone. Sometimes it is that apathy of, I don't want to involve you. I just want, you know, it will take the loss or we're going to add more loss prevention in our own agencies to try to combat it. The difference between a felony and a misdemeanor is that we need that victim, that reporting party, that witness to be able to testify. On a felony, a lot of times we can take action as law enforcement. But on those misdemeanors, we're having to involve more of the retail business. And again, they're looking at it as I just want it to stop. I don't want to have to, I'm not gonna take an entire week off to go to court and go for a trial. I just want it to stop. So I think there's a little nuance in looking just strictly at data and what do we have here in Nevada County. I can say absolutely in our correctional facility in Nevada County, we provide a much higher level of medical mental health treatment for everyone that's incarcerated. So having those folks while they're in our care, doing the medically assisted treatment, doing a lot of the substance abuse disorder treatment with therapists and then also with the what happened in 2014 we didn't even talk about fentanyl in 2014. Fetanyl was not on our radar and today in 2023 when we're looking at 30 overdoses in Nevada County I have multiple overdose, fortunate, not deaths inside our incarceration, inside our jails because of fentanyl. I just think that Proposition 36 is a common sense adjustment. It doesn't wipe it out. It adjusts so that we can have some court mandated treatment for folks so that we can try and look at what we have in crime in Nevada County. Look forward to your questions, but again, appreciate the opportunity and full support with not only California State Sheriff's Association, a lot of the other law enforcement agencies. Again, the Chamber of Commerce in Nevada City, I talked with Lynn Scootard asked me and through the city of Nevada City they're in full support at the Nevada City Chamber because of the issues with retail theft and wanting to make sure that we not mass and carcerate, but we also don't mass victimization in our community and California with some of the things that happen with Proposition 47. So thank you. Thank you, Sheriff Moon. Any additional comments? No, I think with that I would just turn over to Supervisor Swarthon, Supervisor Hook. Very well. Supervisor Swarthon. I wanted to see if there was any public comment on the issue before I commented. So public comment, qualifying questions, sport deliberations at work for you? Yeah, I mean, at this point I don't have any questions. Okay. Obviously what the DA and the sheriff brought forward are things that I support. I've been talking with Jesse about this since before it even made it on the ballot. And I appreciate the common sense approach. You know, 47 was past 10 years ago, and there is unintended consequences, and I think you can't just let that go. You need to address them and maybe Prop 36 isn't perfect, but it does address some of the serious problems that we have. Okay. I'll just quickly any clarifying questions from the board or do we want to kick? You're going to wait. Okay, I'll just quickly any clarifying questions from the board or do we want to take oh you're going to wait okay. Yeah, no, any questions I would just kind of echo what Lisa just talked about and I've been out in our community. I've talked to business owners and again I I feel like this is a more common sense approach. I feel like there's some things missing in 40s. I mean it just has been very challenging and I just went to the Bay Area and it's very sad. We're, we don't have it here, but it's it's going to creep in here, right? And I was shocked at how many businesses are closed. And when I talked to our target, it was very interesting. And our local grocery stores are really struggling at this point. And I'm going to say it's not always just drugs too. It's alcoholism. I talked a little store up there on Hughes Road. And he is inundated with theft on alcohol. And he goes, it's killing my little business. I can't keep affording this. And how do we help those people? I think that's the bottom line. And I'd like what Sheriff Moon just said too, is sometimes people need that little push to be made to do something before they can find that right direction. I live with it in my family so I get it and it's a constant over the time and I want to see that ability to actually get to that 30, 60 day mark which a lot of people don't get to. And by just letting them come and go, I think that's the challenge. And I think a lot of our community feels a little bit that way, do they understand? They're always giving the issue to, our sheriffs aren't doing their job. They bring them in, they just let them out. The DA just lets them out, the judges are not doing what they're supposed to do. It's what the tool they have, right? They want to see people get better too. I think most people just want to see people get the help that they really need to become active community members in our community again. So I really appreciated both of the sheriff and the DA. I think they've made some really great comments and there's just a lot of different stuff when you look on the computer. I talked to some folks down in Sacramento the other day about that are working on this as well. And so I just feel it's a good thing that we could look at. I know we're small or county. We're different. And this is one of those things where like it doesn't one size doesn't fit all, but I think for a whole state it's it's really important issue. So thank you. Okay. Thank you, Supervisor Hook. We'll, with that, we'll open up public comment. If you have a public comment to make, please approach the dias. We have two minutes today for public comment on the side of them. And go ahead and step up there. And I would love to hear from you. It looks like Chief Gamble Gard is ahead of this way. Oh, if you're on the phone or watching on TV, go ahead and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and call in and First, thank you for hearing this item. I'll be bringing this item for discussion to the city council this evening. I just wanted to take this opportunity to provide a little bit of data as it relates to kind of what we're dealing with in this space. First theft in the state of California for theft reports where this value is over 400 has gone from 215,000 reports to 260,000 reports since 2014. On the DOJ crime stats on their open justice portal, the value of stolen goods has doubled between 2014 and today on a year over your basis. On a recent PPI-C report on shoplifting, it increased 29% statewide in 2022 and up 39% in 2023, which is at its highest level since the year 2000. And Prop 36 would provide the tools to hold repeat offenders within the theft space accountable for their actions in a way that isn't allowed today. And I just want to mention adult drug court. I've sat on Nevada County's adult drug court. I think it's incredibly important. We have seen, as was mentioned before, really a decline in participation rates in drug court throughout the state of California. And it makes a difference in people's lives and their family's lives. It is the single greatest thing that I've seen transform individuals. Talked a little bit about prison population. It was at 173,000 years ago. It's at 91,000 today. I'm going to talk about prison population. It was at 173,000 years ago. It's at 91,000 today. So that's just a data point. The most heart wrenching thing I hear as police chief is when parents call me and say, please do something for my child. Please do something for my family member. And really, as you mentioned, supervisor hook. The treatment programs and allowing people to have treatment and in this case, actually compelling them into treatment will make a difference. So I think it's an important change in where we're going. Thank you. Thank you, Chief, for your comments. Madam Quirk, are there any collars on the line? Chair Boleck, we do have one caller. Okay, we'll go ahead and bring them in. Thank you. Hi, this is Matthew Kulter. Can you hear me? We can hear you, Matthew, go ahead. Great. A path of least resistance that Jesse keeps bringing up time after time, that also equates to the DA's office, the Sheriff's Department and the police departments and they choose and pick and choose who they will punish. Some people are arrested six times in one week in release to continue their same crime screen. It's ridiculous that we need more tools when we've given you guys all the tools necessary to deal with this. But instead of that, you're gonna jump on my spine because I post these pictures and I bring it to your attention. I even give you the names, the people, and nothing can be done about it. Yet you're going to spend a year on busting someone in North Stand Long for mushrooms and pot. When all the surrounding counties seem to find pounds and pounds of meth, and fenton all constantly. But for some reason, Nevada County, because we're a tourist county, and we want the part here to come here and enjoy, We do not deal with this issue. And so now we got people here that have warrants from all over the country that come to Nevada County and the other people don't want them back. They're here, we've adopted them. I think this whole thing and your guys' aspect on it is wrong. You're gonna, I was in jail for four months. I got to listen to all the people and talk to the people and learn how to make the drugs and how they make their money and how they can steal and get drugs. And you're not going to change it through this aspect because when someone doesn't have a place to live, they're going to mediate themselves so they can deal with the heat and the cold and they're hungry. They're going to steal something to eat. I even had to name someone that's repeatedly. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the Right. Supervisor. Wait, you were chair before. Yeah, I was. Okay. Thanks. Supervisors go field. Well, I appreciate the comments from our district attorney and our sheriff. And I think. And chief press value chief. And I know other law enforcement and fire personnel out there. I'm supporting this also. I think it's a no-brainer. I think I look at the primary reason that I see is the cost of not proceeding with 36. And yet I look at what the cost is to our communities. It's probably equal to the cost of having to put folks more of them back into prison. I've just seen I questioned it in 2014. I have faith in our probation departments and our law enforcement. I think it works quite well, but you've got to get those people into the services. And I think this is what Proposition 36 will do, and I certainly do support it. Okay, thank you. Supervisor Hall. Thank you. Appreciate the passion that is brought to this topic from the Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney. And I have some questions, I have some concerns and some questions, but I want to start by making it clear that I understand the problems that proposition 47 is cause to your services and to our community and I agree they need to be fixed. There are problems that have built up over the 10 years. They've gotten worse, the statistics are, you know, heartening, not heartening, they're concerning, and there's something that we need to be doing about that. I want to ask, I mean, there's a couple small things and then sort of a bigger thing, but in general, I feel like I take public safety seriously as seriously as you all do and Proposition 47 was a huge deal so was Proposition 36. There are huge changes suggested. There are huge financial impacts. We haven't discussed any of that. We haven't heard the opposition point of view. We aren't have with there's no time to have this conversation. This was kind of rushed to the board. And it's also unusual that we're being asked to take a position on a proposition. So let me just ask Jeffrey, when was the last time we took a position or was asked to take one on a proposition? Do you know? Not in recent memory. Okay. And why would that be? Why is it that we don't generally take these on? Generally the positions of the Board is taking us through their legislative platforms. So it's usually specific to positions within the county's jurisdiction and purview. Whereas generally propositions are going to the voters. And so I think maybe the kind of the last component maybe the board's waiting on when we actually have local measures. So generally the board has not weighed in on ballot measures. And in fact, that's part of our decorum that we don't do that because it can be divisive and it really doesn't do anything for the county specifically. Right? I think so I would say currently in the order of decorum really doesn't do anything for the county specifically, right? I think so I would say currently in the order of decorum is not specifically prohibited from doing so. And conversely, the order of decorum really articulates the process by which individual board members can bring forward items. I think in general, though, you will see that, you know, I think the balanced questions on the purview of the chemistry's jurisdiction. Okay. So it's a little more complicated. So my big, my greatest concerns are how we're addressing this. So I think any elected official worth are solved. And I'm sure my colleagues will agree with me know that legislating by proposition is a failure. That propositions are sledgehammers taken to big complicated problems. They often, if you're lucky, solve some things and they often bring up new issues and that's exactly what happened with 47. That's exactly what will happen with Proposition 36. It's going to solve some things and it's going to create new problems because it's a sledgehammer. And we haven't really spent a lot of time looking at what the effects would be. I'm interested in the fact that we I don't believe we really got a full review of the issues and I'm going to ask some staff to come up and answer a few questions. I have a stack of documents here showing that the legislature just passed 11 bills to address specifically the problems that 47 raised. The last one specifically to go after this smashing grab issue, which is a serious one, was signed last month. The others were signed a few months earlier, dealing specifically with fentanyl, dealing specifically with the lack of tougher jail terms, all of things which I agree need to be resolved. It's a legislative process and we're not giving it time to solve that. So that's a little bit of a concern. I know that also the cost issue is one that I feel completely in the dark about. I know that we're gonna be putting more people in jail, which is gonna cost money. I don't know where that money's gonna come from. Is it gonna come out of programs that the Sheriff's Office and D.S. Office is gonna have to cut back on? Are you gonna come back to the board and ask for more funds? What about the funds that are going to, where are we going to come from? And how does this affect our, our own programs, our programs in our, our social services and the public defender who is also expressed some concerns about the idea of another proposition to fix the problems that we all agree there are. So if we could have, I believe it's Phoebe, who's here to talk a little bit about what this would mean for the county's budget and the county as a whole, if you could answer some questions for me. Hey Phoebe, just a quick question too, we'll all on the same lines. If you're answering questions related to programmatic funding, could you just try and interpret what the general fund implications may be? Because if we don't receive state support for a program, I'd just like to know, because we do have the control of the general fund portion. So I'd like to know the implications if there are any just anticipated. Thank you. Thanks, baby. So if you wouldn't mind speaking to the fiscal impacts that you're aware of as well as I believe the public defenders concerns as she's relayed them to you. Sure. So, um. Yeah, I met with Carrie who is unable to be here today and we just looked a little bit at some of the data around staff impacts. So, Kerry looked at cases from October 1, 23 through 930, 24 and found 226 cases which would have been filed differently under the new law. 54 of those were low level felonies that would become mid-level felonies, which is a workload increase. And then 172 misdemeanors, which would have been filed as felonies, which is an increase of about 3,500, close to 4,000 hours of staff time. And then I also looked at behavioral health staff time, which is a little bit harder to measure specifically. What we're seeing is an increase in staff time on collaborative courts in general. In 2223, we had 58 people in different treatment courts, including drug court. In this past year, we had 105 people, so a 95% increase in people in treatment courts. And we would anticipate a pretty significant increase if this were to pass. And I think to your question, Hardy, public defender staff time is, I believe, all general fund or mostly general fund getting the nod from the CFO. So that impact would be on that side, behavioral health side. We have a bigger variety of funding streams, not so much general fund. And then I think the one other fiscal impact that we looked at, as you know, we're under a state cap for the number of folks who we find in competent stand trial of felony charges. So the public defender also looked at the misdemeanor IST folks, how many would have been moved to a felony situation. So we have 10 misdemeanors who were found IST folks, how many would have been moved to a felony situation. So we have 10 misdemeanors who were found IST. And so we have a cap of three people who were allowed to find felony IST and refer to state hospital. So that's a pretty significant increase in the felony IST population potentially, which comes with physical fines. And it's less clear where the pay and back of those fines become prime in terms of funding source. And what would it mean for the programs? Is this going to affect our programs or do we know yet the programs that we have in under your purview in terms of we have been dealing with our folks who are addicted and going in and out of the jails. I mean, we're deeply involved with those folks as well. Can you talk a little bit about what that would mean for these programs? Yeah, I think the impacts are less clear in terms of finite quantitative impacts. What we do know is there's a significant shortage of substance use for residential treatment beds in California. There's 22 counties with zero treatment beds. Nibata County has 67 treatment beds, which is great well ahead of sort of the small county average, but we compete with many, many counties for those beds. So that system is pretty highly impacted in general. So mandatory treatment will potentially bump voluntary treatment out of contention for those beds. So that's one of the things that we'll be looking at and trying to understand what that impact will be. I think the other area that gets brought up is the impact on homeless services. And we have lots and lots of people in our treatment systems who don't have houses. And so housing is the solution to that issue. And we, you know, this does not create more beds in terms of permanent housing for people so that we'll continue to be a struggle of where to house people, whether they're in treatment or not in treatment. Okay, thank you. Yeah. I guess I don't have any more questions for you on that. I don't know if Hardy will. I think just in general, I feel like. It's clear we need to deal with the problems, but, but we don't know the extent of the impact. I'm not sure why this is coming to the board, honestly. This is, can I finish? Okay. We, yes, it's gonna come to all of us to vote on in our homes and it's expected to pass. So we will be dealing with the consequences both positive and negative no matter what. So bringing it to the board to me feels really awkward. I don't have access to all of the information that the law enforcement folks do. I do trust you to know what needs to happen, but the process by which we make these fixes is problematic to me, this idea of another proposition. And that I'm being asked to vote on it in terms of, you know, what I have to care about up here is how it impacts Nevada County and our budget as well as the public safety of our folks. So I'm just, I feel a bit at a loss with this. And that's, I think that's all for now. Okay, I'm going to make a quick comment. As the chair, I'm responsible for placing items on the agenda and allowing items to be placed on the agenda. So there's a lot of things that we all care about. You know, border walls, gun control, abortion, they do not come within the purview jurisdiction of this board. And so our decor and policy is designed to limit those discussions. So we only talked about things we can control. So this was a fringe item. When it was brought to my attention and request to be put on out of respect to supervisor, sort out and supervisor hook and also to the sheriff's office and district attorney, I wild to be placed on the agenda. So to answer your question, that was a choice I made. I'm not sure I'm going to vote for it at all. And I'm not sure it looks like it will likely pass here and also pass the California legislature. I have concerns about what our jurisdiction in this matter is and so I share those concerns, but I wanted to make it clear why I allowed it to be placed on this agenda. I do have some comments on it in general, but I think supervisor Hookie had a comment as well. Yeah, just like that's PB, just question, just for curiosity. So the CalDame program is kind of what set up to do behavior health and those things. So that'd be one place where funding would probably shift. I'm asking and the other thing we just passed this proposition one that is gonna, that I mean all of it should tie in together to bring this back into fruition. So just curious, that's not, I didn't hear any of that in your comments about funding. Sure. So proposition one makes one important change relevant to this measure, which is that it allows us to spend what will be called behavioral health services act dollars on people with the primary substance use disorder. Currently we can only spend that money on people with the primary mental health disorder. What's hard about that is that the money doesn't grow. It's actually less money than we currently get for our behavioral health system. Now able to be spent in different ways, but less money overall and all that money is currently spent on existing programming. So it's sort of wrapping Peter to pay Paul type of situation. On the Calam front, the primary sort of new benefits under Calame are around care coordination primarily, which helps kind of wrap comprehensive services around somebody who's struggling or unstable, but it doesn't pay for more treatment or more housing per se. There's housing navigation services. There's kind of ancillary components of the needs people have. No, thank you. I just, I'm just looking at the revolving door portion and we look at how much money we spend on some, but not all. So, no, no, good, good points. So thank you. I appreciate that. And one, yeah, yeah. I just wanted to question proposition one and proposition 47 and the implications of 36 on those likely is a reduction. I mean in general likely is in a reduction reduction for substance use disorder treatment. have changes for service provision reducing that available funding. If 47 realignment dollars or refund dollars for revenue are shifted back into prison populations to support those prison populations, that revenue is also decreasing, is that right? Yeah, the second part is definitely correct. The money saved through Prop 47 come in the form of grants to communities to support treatment services, that will go away or be reduced. The Prop 1 part, it's less money overall for the behavioral health system, hard to say yet whether it be more or less money for substance use and more or less money for mental health. So a quick question, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but if the court, if this Prop 36 passes and the court says we'd like to assign treatment to a third strike offender in lieu of a third strike and go into prison forever. Who pays for all that treatment if these funding sources are going away? Our general fund? No, behavioral health, we build Medi-Cal and it gets complicated from there, but we use that realignment to match the Medi-Cal or our BHIS aid office. If they're not Medi-Cal, then where is it paid for? If they're uninsured and don't have resources the county pays for it. If they have private insurance and theory private insurance will pay for it. Okay. That gets a little bit sticky also. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. It's on the funding piece. So yeah, this is very complicated. So my understanding is that these bills that were passed in the legislature to address these issues also came with money. So I don't know if the Nevada County has received any yet or will, but there's money going with that. That I know for a fact. I'm hearing, but I'm not clear on that Proposition 36 does not come with any funds. Is that... That's my understanding? That's correct. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay, we're going to, anybody else have any other, any of comments? I just, I have one set of comments I'm going to make before we entertain a motion, but. Yeah, just, I'm in a really quick. So I could not agree with Supervisor Hall more about ballot box planning. It is the worst possible way to legislate anything. Unfortunately, we live in California and that's the system we have. The only way to undo a voter initiative is with through another voter initiative is prop 36 perfect. Absolutely not. There's there's just no such thing as the perfect ballot box planning system, but I believe it does address some of the unintended consequences that prop 47 as created. And also, you know, just on a personal note, as a retailer, I've worked in retail my whole career, my family on businesses, I own businesses. And when you talk about shrinkage and retail theft, it really is a killer for our local businesses. shrinkage and retail theft. It really is a killer for our local businesses and you were not San Francisco yet but we are seeing so many of our local retail people and our restaurants close. You're seeing big box stores close in urban areas and it's just a matter of time before that comes to the rural community. So we don't do something to address the situation and again I don't think you know this is not the perfect solution, but there has to be something done to address the retail theft component because right now you can walk into a grocery store and walk out with $500 or $700 worth of groceries and nothing happens to you. And you can do it every day because it's not cumulative. Each incident is looked at individually. So now at least it gives law enforcement and the district attorney something to go on if there's repeat offenders. And hopefully this will be a deterrent to that. I mean, that really is the bottom line is we need to have a deterrent for the rampant crime that has been created through unfortunately, what Prop 47 has done. So I support this. I support the work of our law enforcement in our community. and I think that's what we're going to do. And so, I think that's what we're going to do. And so, I think that's what we're going to do. And so, I think that's what we're going to do. And so, I think that's what we're going to do. And so, I think that's what we're going to do. And so, I think that's what we're going to face is also pretty significant amount of money. I had a quick question for district attorney Wilson if you could quickly just answer one more question. The so I read the bill language in the long form. It's quite interesting. There's some things in here that you have to read a few times and I didn't read it for beta but I read most of the important parts. One of the pieces that comes up for me and just a question about our system and you know, question being like if you walked into Target today and you stole food, $80 worth of food, in as stands now, the sheriff's office could be called through the local jurisdiction, the police department come out, they would arrest that individual and charge them with Mr. Meanor crime, and then that would get referred to your office. Now, I'm not saying what is the unofficial protocol for handling those crimes. I'm just asking, does the law allow a police officer to go in arrest that person, you depressed charges in the court to hold the misdemeanor conviction penalties as they stand now. I guess my question is why aren't we, is there reason why we're not just handling it in the system we have and punishing those people? Well, this is a question in part for law enforcement on how they deal in response to calls. But what I'm telling you, this is a loss of credibility in our institutions and it's not just the plain letter of the law. Our retailers don't want to allocate the resources to have to go through the adjudication process in the court system and allocate all these resources that are razor thin anyway when you talk about the profit margins that they're operating on in order for an outcome to be a misdemeanor in the person to never serve any jail time and be back in their store stealing again. So they simply don't report it out, which is why we look at shrinkage numbers and we don't look at just outright reports of theft. So to answer your question, Chair Bullock, yes, we prosecute. You steal a candy bar and oftentimes we'll prosecute it, right, within the discretion of a district attorney's office and within the discretion of ours. But yes, those laws are on the book, but the credibility of our institutions have deteriorated where retailers do not even believe that it's worth their while to do that. So I've talked to in-house counsel at Walmart. I've talked to a lost prevention at Target. They simply don't allocate the resources because it's not worth their time and it's not, and again, the felony and the misdemeanor, you need a much more in order to go arrest somebody for a misdemeanor, right? You need to draw much more resources from that retailer in order to effectuate that and hold them accountable when you hold them accountable. There's just no juices and worth of squeeze. So it's a complicated answer to a pretty straightforward question but it does involve some discussion. And the fact of matter is, right? We're dealing with Nevada County right now. So I'm the district attorney in Nevada County. When you talk about what the governor did or legislatures did to sign crime bills, we don't have smashing grabs here. I have retailers getting crushed. So whatever they're doing to address problems in bigger cities is not my problem in Nevada County when we deal with public safety. So it's very much of a Nevada County when we deal with when we deal with public safety. So it's it's very much of a Nevada County issue, but it is nuanced and it's not the same as it is statewide. Yeah, I just I want to answer that question. I don't I personally do not believe this within our purview to weigh in on this. I will likely abstain from voting on this. I think the unintended consequences have not been thoroughly described to me. to be a lot of the consequences have not been thoroughly described to me. I did a bunch of outside research on it, talked to multiple people had meetings on Friday. Put them all together. I don't believe that I am mixed on whether this is going to fix the shortcomings of 47. I think it's going to have those considerable toll on health and human services on probation and on our substance use disorder treatment framework. And going through is the member of the budget subcommittee. We are looking at declining revenues, right? So everything we're doing is preparing to put money aside in different budget units to save money to reduce cost to cut staffing to do all these things and now we're adding workload. These are some of my concerns, but on its face value, I don't think it's within the purview of this board to weigh on on this and that's why Jeff, when Jeff was asked the question, we don't do this typically. There's a multitude of items that affect our communities that I stand up for. I support law enforcement. Everything this board has done, voting for the budget, voting budget is done. Everything that's forward has done. Voting for the budget. Voting for special projects, radio systems, the bear cat, everything that's ever coming in front of the sport. As far as I know, has been voted on yes. We raise our hand and support law enforcement. Both the Nevada County Sheriff, local police departments, and other outside jurisdictions when it comes to supporting law enforcement. The actions we take is a yes. On this particular item, I don't think it's within our per view. I wanted to be respectful of all the parties involved and make sure it was heard in a public open session for us to discuss it, describe it, have a good dialogue about it. So with that, I have no additional comments. I would entertain one final comment. Thank you, Chair. I just want to make a similar comment that I would like to ask one final comment. Yeah thank you thank you chair and I just want to make a similar comment that I recognize that we need to resolve these issues and I am also torn about why it's come to the board. I am our CSAC representative at the county level at the state level and CSAC had this same conversation. And they, we typically do not take a position on propositions and they also voted to take a yes position on Prop 36, but it was very divided. And so, and it is a state issue. So, to Jesse's point, either 47 is a state issue and is gonna resolve our rural issues or it's not, same with the 11 bills that have been passed. You can't have it both ways. It's a complicated thing and to have that come to us and ask us to weigh in on the details of that. When my job is to protect Nevada County and do everything I can to support our public safety officers and our budget is tricky. So my just final statement is I agree. I've also supported the Sheriff's Office district attorney. And I know that I believe my colleagues know that and that the sheriff knows that. But the public has a tendency to sometimes say, if we ever disagree with anything, we're against public safety and law enforcement. And that's not the case. And I just want to make it clear. I feel like I have to say that occasionally. But I absolutely support our public safety officers. I support the need to resolve all these issues they raised. Just also to me feels inappropriate to be weighing in on this tool. So I'm also going to be abstaining on this to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be's never my intention to be divisive. I just thought that this was an important issue. When I spoke with supervisor Hook, she agreed with me and that's why it's here today. So having said that, I would like to make a motion that we pass the resolution supporting Prop 36. All right, second that. Motion in the second, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. District two. Quickly before I vote. I'm aware there's going to be financial implications on this. But I think a lot of this is due because of the flaws of 47. I think you're at 47 sold to the public, of bill of goods, safe schools, safe neighborhoods, when a joke has been just the opposite. And I also think that even the legislative stuff that's been done was done out of panic because of 36. So I'm a very strong yes. District four? District four. District four. District four. Yes. And with that, I'd just like to say too, I belong to rural counties coalition. And they this was passed. They voted to support this as well. And numerous other groups. And so that's all my rural communities. And there are many other supervisors that and that took a took a role towards this resolution in their county. So with that, I vote yes. District three? Yes. District one? Obstain. District five? Obstain. Motion passes, thanks for the discussion. The board is going to be in recess until the public hearing, commencing near the 10 o'clock hour. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Okay, welcome back. We are going to the order of the the business today for this item is going to essentially be staff presentation presentation by the appellant which will be limited to 15 minutes and I understand the appellants council is on Zoom call. Not here. Okay. And then public hearing in the board is going to limit any person's input to know less, no less than three minutes, but three minutes is a limit to give your testimony. Then we'll have a summation by the project proponent ten minutes. So that's after that portion, the proponent may get up and you have 10 minutes summation by the appellant 10 minutes and then rebuttal by members of the public and the rebuttal is not included for proponents or opponents So if you're listed as one of the project proponents either engineering staff owner Chief Council etc Please don't jump into that two minute period. That's only for rebuttals for the public comment. After the information has been presented to the board, and then a staff summation, and we'll have board deliberation. And I think what I'd like to do is take on board clarifying questions during the presentation so we don't get completely backlogged into the deep end of the discussion with having a bunch of clarifying questions coming forward through the process. If that works for my colleagues on the board will go that way. So this is item number 23 planning director Brian Foss as a deck and to approve the conditional use permit, allow for the construction and operation of a mixed use development, including a forestry management and material processing facility, supported by a wood fire boiler and associated structures and six residential dwelling units. And this is at 10375 Silverado Way in Truckee, known as the Conduct Flat Area, to the people that live here. And with that, we will turn over to Mr. Brian Fost to introduce and provide an overview of the presentation. There we go. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, supervisors. Brian Fost, planning director. And as you mentioned, this is a public hearing regarding the Alpine Glow timber use permit and initial study and mitigated negative declaration project. Next slide please. As you mentioned, this is an appeal hearing. The Nevada County Planning Commission approved the mitigated negative declaration and use permit on August 8th, 2024 by a vote of 5 to 0 to allow the development operation and construction of the Alpine Glow timber Somal project. Within the 10 day appeal period, Donald Mooney did file an appeal on behalf of friends of Prostor Truckee, filed on August 16th. Your board accepted that appeal and set the appeal hearing for today's date. My presentation will give a brief overview of the project description and then touch on the appeal points and then conclude with the recommendation from staff. Next slide, please. The project site is 124 acre property located on the west side of Highway 89, north of Trucke about three or four miles. The zoning is FR 640, which is a 640 acre minimum parcel size. FR is forest and the surrounding properties are also zoned FR 640 with a land use designation of 4 640 as well. There are residential lead developed parcels immediately to the north along Klondike Flat, but the remainder of the properties are surrounded mostly by US Forest Service properties. Next slide please. As we mentioned, the project itself is a sawmill facility. The sawmill would contain a firewood, a sawmill would contain a firewood storage area, workshop, boiler plants, drying kilns, log deck, as well as associated infrastructure. There is a residential component to the project. It's a six units of state regulated employee housing that would be provided within three duplex duplex structures and then supporting infrastructure to support both the Sawmill as well as the residential development including a 200,000 gallon water storage tank electricity and other infrastructure improvements including road improvements along Klonday flat road. Next slide please. Just briefly this is a site plan of the project site highway 89 is to the east the or on the right side of the screen the sawmill components would be northwest of the proposed sawmill component of the project. Next slide, please. The sawmill itself includes a number of different uses and structures, including a 48,000 square foot sawmill structure, boiler plant areas, firewood storage, workshop, drying kilns, and then outdoor area of about four and a half acres for the log decks in addition to truck scales, parking areas, infuel, and water storage tanks. Next slide please. The residential component would include three duplex structures, housing and total six units. These are regulated by the state, anything over five units. Four employee housing is under the jurisdiction of state permitting, however it is included as part of the comprehensive project today. The infrastructure I mentioned would include the storage tanks and then road improvements along Klondike flat. Klondike flat is holy located on the project site and there is an easement through the Forest Service property between this site and Highway 89 to the east through use permit with the Forest Service. That road would be upgraded to Fire Safe Road standards and then there would be a little bit of site distance clearing along Highway 89 to ensure adequate access onto the highway. Next slide, please. The project is expected to be constructed in about a 22 to 24-month timeline. The project would operate six days a week Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. But some components of the project would operate 24 hours a day, including the biomass boilers and potentially the kilns on the project site. Next slide, please. In the county staff for Pair to mitigate a negative Declaration and initial study for The project that was circulated For a total of 62 days, The original period was between May 24th and June 24th, However, due to the amount of Comments that were received and the request for additional time to review the documents staff did extend the period of time for an additional 31 days from June 28th to July 29th. I'm going to touch on a couple of the issue areas that were addressed in the initial study because these are points of the appeal. So I just wanted to provide a little bit of context on a couple of the issue areas. The first being the air quality analysis, the project and the operation of the project in addition to the construction of the project was analyzed for potential impacts to air quality. It was done with comments from the norms and mitigation measures were applied to the project, including dust control requirements, vehicle operation requirements, and equipment operation. In order to ensure that the equipment used, the vehicle used on the site would meet air quality regulations and not violate any air quality standards and it was found to be less than significant with mitigation. Next slide please. Traffic was analyzed for the operation and construction of the project. The Klondike flat as I mentioned will be improved to accommodate the additional traffic associated with the project. There were no improvements needed based on Caltrans comments for Highway 89. However, there will be an improved encroachment of Condec flat off of 89 with some vegetation clearing and the moving of a speed limit sign to ensure proper site distance. But the roads were found to have adequate capacity to support the proposed project. The next issue is noise. A noise study was prepared by Saxal B acoustics for the development and operation of all components of the project, including the construction. There were a number of mitigation measures applied to the project to ensure that noise standards were not exceeded since the facility is proposed to operate until 10 pm and potentially 24 hours a day. The county has a number of or three different noise standards that need to be met that are lower the later in the evening that you get. So the noise study did account for those lower noise standards and mitigation was applied to ensure that those noise standards would be met for full operation of the facility itself. Next slide, thank you. Another issue that was reviewed with the initial study was fire safety and wild fire risk. Both Cal fire and the 200,000 gallon water storage tank would be on site for fire protection. And all structures would be required to meet California building code requirements, including the wild urban interface standards through conditions of approval to ensure that there were limited or lessened significant risk to fire and wildfire from the project. Next slide, please. Ultimately, the project was found consistent with the general plan land use designation of forest 640, the forest land use designation in addition to the zoning district is intended to provide for production and management, including timber harvesting and related operations of timber resources and compatible recreational and low density residential uses. It was also found consistent by staff and the planning commission with site development standards, community design standards and Eastern County design guidelines. Now touching on the appeal, the appeal contains five main points that I'll go through. A supplemental memo of the appeal was provided by the appellant after the staff report was completed. However, it was passed along to your board and I'll touch on that after the staff report was completed. However, it was passed along to your board, and I'll touch on that after the five main points of the appeal. Next slide, please. The first component of statement of the appeal is that the mitigated negative declaration contains an inadequate project description as it omitted a plan phase three of the proposed project and fails to disclose the source of timber associated with the sawmill processing facility. The entirety of the project, including all operational phases was included in the analysis of the initial study and mitigated negative declaration. The original project application did include three phases of operational to grow into. However, the entirety of the project, including all proposed components was addressed in the initial study and considered and found to be less insignificant. Additionally, that Phase III included the use of laminated timber project products. And that included, as part of our noise analysis and the air quality analysis, and a follow-up memo from RCH group, which is an air quality firm, did analyze specifically the laminated type product that would be used in the facility and found that the impacts were negligible. The source of timber was estimated to be approximately 20 mile radius. That was discussed in portions of the staff report, 20 mile radius from the project facility itself. However, the exact source of all timber coming to the site over the life of the project facility itself. However, the exact source of all timber coming to the site over the life of the project would be speculative and was not included. However, a reasonable estimate was included in the analysis and SQL does not require analysis of speculative impacts or sources. The field point two is similar to the point one, which is that the MND fails to consider the whole of the action and segments, the environmental review. Again, I touched on a number of the issue areas that the initial study addressed, including air quality traffic, wildfire noise, but also included all the other mandated components of CEQA in the initial study and did identify many of the all phases of development and source of timber was reasonably estimated in that environmental document. Point number three mentions that the environmental analysis fails to adequately study and identify potential noise generated by the project and the mitigation is uncertain to reduce impacts to less than significant. Again, Saxal B. Acoustics did perform noise analysis of the proposed project and also provided some updated technical memos based on comments that were received during the comment period of the initial study as well as comments that were received prior to the Planning Commission. Some of the comments involved the planer equipment. It's a piece of equipment that does have doors on it for accessing and putting wood product in. However, the doors need to be closed in order for that equipment to operate and there was some concern that the noise analysis did not require the equipment doors to be closed and if they were to open the noise impacts would be greater than assumed. However, based on the specs of the equipment, the planer doors must be closed for that equipment to operate. And so that analysis of SOX will be was adequate and accurate to address noise produced from that equipment. Furthermore, the noise analysis did not include insulation in the building. At one point, it was thought that the building would not require insulation. However, four to six inches of insulation will be required on the walls and the ceiling, which will further attenuate the noise, which makes the noise estimates contained in the initial study more conservative likely than will occur on site. Peel point number four is that the M&D fails to adequately address the potential risk for neighboring community from a wildfire resulting from the operation of the project. As I mentioned, the project has been reviewed in condition by the Nevada County Fire Marshall and the trucky fire Fire Protection District and has been conditioned to meet those different district standards in order to reduce and mitigate the risk of wildfire. One of the components of sawmill facilities that has created fire onsite in other circumstances is a large pile of biomass chips, however the operation proposed, would not result in large piles of biomass chips. They would be burned onsite throughout operation and so that internal combustion that can occur with storing of natural material would be reduced just given the operational nature of the sawmill proposed before us today. Next slide please. Appeal point number five requested number of changes to conditions of approval or mitigation measures including mitigation measure 13b. This is a mitigation measure that requires mufflers on the trucking equipment, the trucks and vehicles that would visit the site. The mitigation measure applies to the vehicles that are in control of the project owner. However, all trucking equipment is required to meet the California Air Resources Board requirements as well as vehicle code regulations, which also require muffling and vehicles to meet certain air quality as well as sound requirements. So staff believes that the mitigation is adequate and 13b, which is the requirement for mufflers, will actually reduce noise impacts associated with the equipment on site. And also this point requests that there was confusion regarding a condition of daylight hours being 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. which is restricting some of the operations that daylight in the winter would be before or nighttime would occur before 7 p.m. The language has been clarified in the mitigation measure just to say daytime hour 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. the importance of that mitigation is the hours of operation not necessarily if it's labeled daytime or daylight. I think we all understand the restrictions of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Additionally, this point does also talk about the planer, which I mentioned earlier, that requests the condition that the planer doors be closed. However, the planer doors will have to be closed in order for that piece of equipment to function. So we did not add a condition in response to that point. However, we did modify that daylight to daytime, as I mentioned. And lastly, the supplemental appeal document raised a fair argument statement that there was a fair argument that an EIR should be prepared for the project based on the public comments that have been received. Staff has found that there were no substantial evidence provided that the impacts would be significant with the mitigation required. The analysis in the initial study and the mitigated negative declaration is backed by technical reports and review of the appropriate professionals and county departments, and no countering substantial evidence has been provided at this time. The supplemental document also argues that the project itself would create forest thinning, which is inherently a fire danger. This comment is really related to forest management practices and not related to the direct physical impacts of the proposed project. The argument is speculative. The forest thinning operations would occur with or without this project done by the forest service or Cal fire or other fire agencies as well as individual homeowners may you know then their their properties are cut down trees and the source of timber when it necessarily 100% come from forest thinning activities they may come from like I said individual parcels that do three acre conversions need a source or a place to take the wood that's not technically a forest thinning, but it's clearing of trees for future development. So staff does not believe that there has been a fair argument or that the project would result in additional forest thinning nor that forest thinning in advance of itself, is a fire risk. And with that next slide, staff's recommendation would be to adopt the resolution to deny the appeal, and uphold with modifications the decision of the planning commission to adopt the mitigated negative declaration and approve the use permit to allow the construction and operation of the proposed project. And with that, I would be happy to answer any questions. Any quick questions from Brian? Yes, from Rosa Hall, yeah. Brian, great presentation. One really, a hopefully very simple clarification question. The one concern I'd had was the truck noise and this idea that it was going to go from 7 AM to 10 PM, which is in much of the documents. But then here you indicate that truck use is going to be reduced to 7 AM to 7 PM and that there will be all these noise mitigation measures attached to those trucks. Is that wreck? Let me just double check the conditions. Yeah, it's part of what you had in your slide. And so just want to confirm that the trucks will be asked to stop at 7 p.m. and that the mitigation with the noise so that mufflers and all will attach to all the trucks leaving the site. Yes. The condition is that the truck trips are limited to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and that's through that mitigation measure and then confirmed by the project proponent. Okay, so if we adopt this resolution that all goes into play. Yes, correct. Okay, that's good. Thank you. Is there a sore thumb? So just, just question one, just the 24-7 noise is that that's in the evening where it runs inside the mill or is it from the boiler? I believe it's from the boiler and the kilns. And they're inside. They're inside. Okay, just curious. Brian, I just have one question. Could you go to the slide previous to this slide? I just want to make sure and I've seen this information but the supplemental information argues that forced ending causes increase wildfire risk next bullet state argument related to forced management practices and not related to direct physical impacts of the proposed project. I'm still a little unclear. I mean, essentially that's saying the actual project itself where the thinning of the area or use of forced rate equipment would not, I mean, that's actually where the thinning of the area or use of forestry equipment would not, I mean, that's actually where the, that's where the risk would occur. In my opinion, the post treatment areas of a forest after thinning would, I think we could all agree it would be less of a significant wildfire threat. Chair Bullock and I'm sure the appellant will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the point with some of the supplemental documentation is that the forest is not benefit from thinning and that some of the fires have been worse because of forest thinning activities. So that's there. Okay. The. Yeah. Ported argument for that piece. Okay. Thank you. Um, and then just to clarify the road improvements is the road will be paved from the current existing paved road. It's going to come entirely pave the gravel area. It's currently gravel is going to be entirely paved. Yes. The highway to your site. Yes. Sorry. Just for the record. It will be paid from the highway to the site. Okay. All the questions I have. Yep, super. Just one word. Can we talk about? So one of the, one of the, in the appeal document talked about plan three. Is there a plan three? Or is that just to be continued? The original application documents included a phased approach. So that is phase three that is referred to. However, the entire full build out and full operation of the project is included in the analysis. The applicant decided that they didn't need the full phased approach. And in any event, we would have looked at all phases for the environmental analysis, which is a requirement of SQL, anyway, but it was included. OK, I just want to make sure that there wasn't something else that I was missing on that, because that's how I comprehended it. Thank you. And then one more question. The 20 mile radius for bringing in, there's not something that's limited to that 20 mile radius at some point. Is there? Let's say somebody lives 25 miles and is going to do a project. That's not going to limit to where they bring the man without having to be within that radius. That was just an estimation given the locations of other saw mill facilities. And the condition of the forest, and I believe potentially planned thinning activities within that area that would serve the site. So it's more of a business model estimation from the applicant, but there is no restriction on the location where the timber could come from. OK, and then one more thing about the trucks, because I read all this too again, and there was nothing in there about. So when the complaints always get as exhaust breaks. So that's a key component. They're coming out unloaded generally or loaded. So was there any. That's usually an issue. So just curious on that one. I might let the applicant touch on that. I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm not sure if I'm through the mitigation measures. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Yeah, and I think just some of the ancillary information we got related to exhaust brakes were that the new, obviously the new regulation on trucks in the ARB, they basically don't operate. They're essentially, they're very quiet compared to previous versions. I guess is what I wanted to, we see information I received. Okay. Thanks, Brian. All right, thank you. Next up we'll have the presentation by the appellant, which shall be limited to 15 minutes, and I believe the appellant's council. Who's in the room representing the appellant? Is that Mr. Groobie? Okay, can you come up to the podium please and then Appellants Council online. Jay is that correct? If you're online can hear us okay? Yes I can hear hear you just fine. Okay, great. Just please introduce yourself, Mr. Manny. Yes, I'm Dom Mooney and I'm an attorney representing the accounts. Friends across the country. Thank you. Over to you, Mr. Groobie. I think. I'll start off here. So I my planning is here. I'm going to talk a little bit about the standard. And then I'll hand it over to Mr. Spencer is going to ask for bids and comments as well. Mr. Groovy. We're going to have. And Mr. Spencer go next. And but first of all, I want to just thank you the county staff in terms of been exceptional and accommodating Gene able to do this remotely and it very courteous and very professional and very thorough. So I just want to kind of give a shout out to them and let the board know that your staff's doing a great job with respect to this. I just kind of want to kind of just remind the board that there's a low threshold here for the initial preparation of an EIR and that reflects the preference and sequel for resolving doubts and buy and in favor of environmental review. And so the county's task the board's task today and this hearing is to determine whether or not the record contains substantial evidence. The support's a fair argument that a significant impact made her. And it's not the job of the board as you hear the testimony today and as you review the comments supports a fair argument that a significant impact may occur. And it's not the job of the board. As you hear the testimony today, and as you review the comments there, necessarily weigh that evidence and see which evidence you believe is right or which evidence is wrong. It's, that's the role of the board during the preparation of an environmental impact report or the review of an environmental impact report. We think that the evidence has been presented in terms of the appeal, but the evidence before the applying commission and the supplemental evidence that Dr. Hanson's report satisfies that that low threshold standard. And then as a result, the liquid does require that the board prepare any IR in this matter. The probably the key thing here is is the application of Dr. Hansen's report and the response to that report. One of the things is, let me step back here, the thinning of the forest is somewhat separate. It is still an indirect impact of this project. That's one of the things I don't think that the staff report or the comment letter from the applicants council has addressed. It's also a cumulative impact. You're creating capacity for more thinning, you're creating the ability. And I know there's the comments of that, the Forest Service and the Cal Fire are doing the thinning and there's the old traditional thought that is thinning the Forest helps reduce fire risk. The Docker Hances report, and it's, which is clearly substantial evidence, its expert opinion supported by Florida Mayfac, he's cited numerous studies, and that the current thinking is that when you have these projects that are pending the forest, that the science behind that now is that that can actually result in a more intense fire activity and that in and of itself Is substantial evidence that there's potentially impact potential impacts They may be indirect they may be cumulative impacts, but they are associated with this project and they do require an EIR be prepared. Again, even though that maybe the Dr. Hansen's opinion goes against some of the traditional thought about the purpose of thinning for us, it's not your job, your role here to weigh that evidence. It is simply to say, oh, that evidence exists, it contradicts the other evidence. There's a conflict of opinion here, and therefore any IR needs to be prepared. And indirect, the Equal Defines Indirect is Indirect or Secondary Effects that are reasonably foreseeable and caused by a project can occur in a different place. And it's also a cumulative could be a cumulative impact and refers to two or more individual effects when considered together are considerable or which compound or increase other environmental impacts. So the idea that there's not, there's still going to be thinning if there's not ability to have to be some modification of that or some processing of that wood product that's being cut. So again, it's the board's job not to weigh this evidence with regards to traffic, wildfire and as you hear the testimony today and you review the testimony, it's not just expert testimony, but you have to take into consider the Levei testimony. People with respect to traffic potential traffic impacts and even wildfire impacts, that people that live in the community that have experience and personal knowledge that constitutes substantial evidence. And if it's substantial evidence that addresses a fair argument that this project may have impacts, then Sequig does require you to have an EIR prepared. And that's all we're asking for at this point. We're just asking for an environmental or more impact report to be prepared any more in-depth analysis done. And with that, I'll provide it, turn it over to Mr. Spencer for comments. Okay, I'm Dr. Herbert Spencer. I do, I'm trustee of one of the properties on Clendack Plot Road. This is a disclaimer. I do have expertise with dealing with fire. I've done analysis for spontaneous combustion both for a lawsuit and was in a coal fire fire plant, also dorked and cement plants and spontaneous combustion is also in a co-chair on a fire-wise safe community. When I read the Hanson report, I was somewhat surprised. It's not Mr. Hanson's opinion that's in that report. It is a compilation of multiple studies that have been shown that fending of the forest increases both the speed and intensity of fires. And when I initially looked at that, I thought, gosh, that's pretty surprising to me. I didn't expect that. But then I looked at my own neighborhood. My own neighborhood has the South County Fuel Break in it. I've actually submitted pictures of that area. There's actually one picture showing what has happened after that fuel break was put in. We now have grass growing a foot to two feet high. The sign, I know you all have the picture in front of you or not, is almost covered up from the fuel break. The sign saying that this is a county supporter of far was. It didn't get cleared off. All my neighbors are cleared off, but that land isn't cleared off. And there's no way that when we thinn't far as we're going to be able to clear the land basically the ground stuff. When you study the answer report, you're going to get faster growth. And we're going to have faster fires. Now why is this project being built? When it was presented to the Planning Commission, and I believe every person, the very member of the Planning Commission, approved this project on the basis is the need to get rid of the slash, the logs coming off the funding projects and that we needed to have this facility, and that irrespective of the damage that happens to the client act flat properties, the project needed to be proved. There was a question raised by the head of the commission. Where else if not here? It was clear that the planning commissioners were concerned about the impact of our properties. But they felt the need for the project and the thinning of the forest overweight issues with respect to the client act collect properties. So that is a big problem. It is a bigger concern than just this project. I mean, obviously for the commissioners and for you all, what we do in our forest, I was in favor of this project initially because I thought we needed to have a facility to get rid of the slash out of the forest. It turns out that conception I had was wrong. I've taught science and the history of science. In sciences, we've been wrong many, many times. We learn as we go along. And when you study the Hanson Report, you're going to see there are multiple studies that have been done by the forest servers that are showing our approach to the thinning of the National Forest and all the forests in our county is not necessarily the correct way to go and is actually increasing our fire hazard. to the city of New York, and the city of New York, and the city of New York, and the city of New York, and the city of New York, and the city of New York, and the city of New York, and the city of New York, and the city of New York, and the city of New York, and the city of New York, and the city of New York, and the city of New York, and the city of New York, and we need to do it. There are other issues with respect to fire in this particular project. It was just stated just a few minutes ago, there's not gonna be any significant chip stories or wood dust stories at this facility. Something's wrong with that analysis. And here's the reason it's wrong. The plant only operates from seven to 10. The boiler operates 24 hours a day. It doesn't, the mill doesn't operate on Sundays. So you have to store wood chip. You have to store dust to feed that boiler to dry the kilns and provide heating for the facilities. In addition, and I've done a lot of industrial work and co-fire power plants, you have to store fuel it, mentioned in the slides there was going to be fuel storage. As far as that fuel storage is going to be wood chips and dust. At this point, I don't know how much is being stored. But I do know holding property area, we can get 10 feet of snow in this area. That facility and people being able to get into it, it's going to be limited during those periods. You can lose power during those periods. They're going to have to have generators and they're not going to be at an operate that kill their planning operations and their wood processing. Potentially for multiple weeks and you're going to have to have fuel stored up to keep those homes, to keep those kilns going. Your net periods there has to be wood storage. That analysis needs to be done as far as I know that is not been done. The other fire hazards, static electricity is a problem with wood dust. You're going to be conveying wood dust at this factory. And it's a factory. It's an industrial operation. Part of the third phase was actually a glue land plant. But that's been included into the thing. And at the planning hearing, they said, there weren't going to be any VOLCs coming off that plant off the glue and plant. Now there's a report in the study and the latest documents that there is some VLCs coming off the glue and operation. That needs to be further evaluated. I only got that data yesterday. So I had a chance to review that from an air pollution control standpoint. So there are multiple potential fire hazards to be done. Another issue that I'm concerned about with respect to the analysis of the fire, Cal Fire is one of the ones that is sponsoring this project. And their public funds being used to support this project on the basis of enhancing fuel thinning and moving ahead with the project and I concerned those analysis were biased that it hasn't been a complete industrial analysis of the fire hazard in this mill and you need to insist that that takes place. You have about two minutes left sir. Okay other issues you're not consistent with your general plan. If this has been done as an industrial project, you say in your general plan, you will not put any industrial traffic through neighborhoods. This project puts industrial traffic through neighborhoods. The other issue is the Conduct flat is a private road. Right now in the county because of the Dover decision. A partial maintenance and liability that goes to every property owner. There is nothing in the permit that requires the owner to maintain the roads only to and only to rebuild the roads permit needs to be changed to do that. There is also no limitation on truck traffic. Right now the plan said it will only be 10 trucks a day, but the permit that puts no limit on that. It could go to 100 trucks a day, the way the permits written right now. Jay, you may add in 30 seconds. My name is Jay Groovy. Represent Friends of Prostor Chucky. I've been a resident of Clondike Flat neighborhood for about six years. Folks, these comments are around our access road. Clondike Flat Road is a rather steep, windy dirt road with a steep drop off on one side. This is our only ingress egress. Our community has a road association called Prostrelaca states as responsible for road maintenance and snow clearing as well as maintaining the permit allowing us to cross section of Forest Service at the entrance. Alpine Glow Timber has plans to utilize this road for their industrial operations within our neighborhood. This presents a number of safety and financial issues regarding residents of Klondike flat. As previously stated, Klondike flat road is our only way in or out. If an industrial accident, which is quite common in the timber industry, should occur, our only way in or out of our neighborhood could potentially be block trapping residents as well as blocking emergency vehicles and first responders. Allowing this project to move forward without providing a second ingress and egress to provide residents as well as employee safety will would be extremely irresponsible. Next, the developers. You gotta wrap it up pretty quick. Okay, yeah, I got like a couple of minutes more. Yeah, yeah, you're out of time, unfortunately, but we appreciate it. Just give us, give us a bullet, Mr. Groobie, in 20 seconds. OK. 20 seconds. They're going to be using this road with heavy semi-trucks, loaded logs, heavy equipment, other chemicals, and timber products. This road's being designed for industrial traffic, but it's also used by pedestrians with pets and children's, children as well, cyclists. The road aspect of the project has been designed to benefit a for-profit operation and not taken in the safety of other users. I could go. Okay. Thanks for the presentation. We appreciate that. Most of my questions related to the appellants points are probably more aptly. I give them to the proponent, but any colleagues have questions specific. No, no, okay. With that, we'll move on. We'll move on to. the report. No, no, no, okay. With that, we'll move on. We'll move on to. Presentation by the proponent and this will be 16 and a half minutes. Just like the opponent. Hello board. Thank you for hearing our. Well, thank you for hearing being here and trucking and coming over the hill. And thanks for everyone for showing up, either for against. I'm David Mercer and you can go to the next slide. That's our team, myself and there's many consultants in the room and professional engineers and such that can answer any technical questions you guys have Next slide, please So This is kind of the outline of what I believe you guys wanted to hear from us today sort of what it is And where it came from Maybe some background on why the Planning Commission approved it but I think Mr. Foss covered that more than adequately and also the appeal so next slide please. So a little bit about me I was born in Tall City I've lived here my whole life both of my parents were business owners from the early 70s. I've worked in the forest or in the ski industry for all of my life and specifically in the forest for about past 30 plus years. I've owned cross-check services for the last 20. And that statement at the bottom, that slide that I was thinking about kind of what my goal is and what what we do what my employees do and that pretty much covers it. We really want to be the best stewards of the land that we can be best we can be to the community giving our community a safe place to live. So that's really kind of what we are all about. Next slide please. These are folks we work for. State, local government agencies, private land owners. We work with fire districts. We work for large private land owners. And these are also folks that have supported either projects we are doing or this project that we are doing now as far as the Somal project. So this is what we do. This is this is State Parkland in South Lake Tahoe. It was Old Meadowland. It had been cattle grazing land. They had taken the cattle's off of about 50 years ago. Lodgepole came back. There wasn't fire and this picture to the left. That's what you end up with. And picture to the right was the following spring. We'd thinned it. They'd gone in and burned it. And yeah, so that's that's kind of what we'd like to do next slide, please This is for service land Just north of town. That's Penny Pines plantation out by Stampede That was all part of the Donner fire from I believe 1959 and then we went in they re-planted in the 70s We went back in and thinned it out and that slide on the right really represents our angle. It brings the ecosystem back to a more natural state. It allows the forest service to get in there and burn it regularly safely. And the fire really helps everything in the forest. So yeah, a lot of regrowth, not fire for the last 50 plus years, and trying to get it back so that the nature conservancy can put fire back on the ground in a safe manner. So what it is, it's a forest restoration. That's what we do, and we need somewhere to take the logs. We need somewhere to take small diameter logs, because that's predominantly what we take out of the forest. It's an integrated facility. I built it and designed it to be sustainable. We're not trying to build a mill that's of the SBI model, where we're taking 400 loads a day in. That's not what we're after. We're trying to build something that we can supply without or out of the forest that we thin in the local community. We're not looking to travel long distances. It doesn't make any sense with a whole bunch of factors of trucking and the economics of trucking. We need to stay local. So that was the basic project design and project goal. And the overall goal is to advance forest health because that's what we do currently and that's our goal. And that's reduced wildfire hazards. And the end goal and the end result is to protect our communities and our region. So the problems that we faced, it's a real lack of local infrastructure. As far as on the forestry end, there used to be half a dozen sawmills in this area. We're left with essentially one operator sawmills left anywhere around here. And when SPI land burns, which it does regularly these days they'd lost a couple hundred thousand acres in the park fire they'd lost hundreds of thousand acres and the Dixie, the bear, the yeah it's going on and on and on. When their land burns they cut off outside wood that's not coming off of their land so you end up with nowhere to take logs for 12 months, 18 months, 24 months. And it's a real problem to treat federal land, state land, private land, because there's nowhere to take wood. So, we're trying to mitigate that eventual outcome. Yeah. And like I said earlier, our goal is to make forest healthy. That's a slide of a fuel reduction project above Olympic Valley that we did last spring. And we typically treat five to six acres day on average, 1500 to 2000 acres a year. It's not, you know, we're not, we're not the end all be all solution to this. We're a drop in the bucket, but if you put enough drops in a bucket, eventually the bucket fills ups. So that's kind of our goal. And there is still demand for wood products, and we're going to try and make wood products at this facility that meet that demand so that we can facilitate more thinning operations. And maximize utilization of that product. Another benefit with what we're doing is there's a reduction in vehicle miles traveled because we're not having to haul all wood 120 miles round trip. We're hauling it 20 miles or less. There's obvious economic benefit to local community. There's jobs for local community. I can house my employees, which as everyone knows, it's an incredible challenge these days housing anywhere around here. And what we're doing falls in line with county, state, and federal goals, forest, health, wildfire, risk reduction, and carbon sequestration. So when you take wood out of the forest, you can sequester it. It's really a big benefit all the way around. These slides, so this really tells a tale of the state that slide on the right. That's fire history for the last 120 some odd years. Essentially all the conifer forests in the state is burned in the last and that time. And the slide on the left shows this little pocket where we are living that hasn't had a major catastrophic fire in the last 10 years. But it's going to come. I kind of look at our forests as in the game we play with suppression. It's a Russian roulette. Eventually you're going to get an ignition, and you're not going to get it. You're not going to get it you're not going to stop it. So next slide please. That is I believe Greenville on the left that's a picture of fire on the Dixie so those fire swirls are probably 700 feet tall and unthin forest you know the I had a really hard time reading that response about forestening causes more forest fires Basic science of fire you have a fire triangle you have fuel you have air and you have Combustion well if you reduce fuel you have less. So I'm not really sure where that argument goes. And I think there's quite a few knowledgeable professionals that will get up and speak to that. So a little background on the property. It was originally gonna be a church. They had used permit approved in 01 for a 50,000 square foot church complex and amphitheater and all sorts of things and the church never got around to pulling it together to make that happen. I acquired the land and have been added for almost four years to get to this point. Pre-applications meeting all the county and state requirements and studies and everything that goes along with that. And when we laid it out, Mr. Fossas slides really showed we tried to locate what we're doing as far away from our neighbors as we could get it. I know what we are doing. There is impact. Is it significant? No. We have moved everything away as far as we can get it. We've enclosed everything. We have built everything in a way that it doesn't impose a impact. And we modeled the Somal off of modern Somals, predominantly in Europe, small tested, improved without the data technology. And we're, you know, we strive to be environmentally respectful. That's just how I operate. That's how we operate. And all this EQUA study supported that. We can probably go through this pretty quickly, Mr. Fosk covered this, but yes, we meet the general plan. We're consistent and we're conforming to zoning. And that was that was shown. We are fully mitigated under sequa. And the staff is obviously in support of what we were trying to do here. That's that previous slide was part of the sound study showing the footprint of the noise. Yeah, I don't believe that we are going to be impactful to the half dozen residential neighbors in the Klondike area. This is a rather ironic slide. This is top of Todded honor. It was a ignition just above the freeway where the original 1965 or started. This was about 10 years ago and they were able to catch it at the top of the ridge due to some fuel breaks or it would have essentially burned a verdict, I peek again. So it is inevitable. It's going to happen. It's just a matter of what we're gonna do about it. We're trying to do about it. We're trying to fix something that we didn't create. It was created 100 years ago, but we have to deal with it. Yeah, that's going over the appeal. I think we've chatted enough about that. And in summary, we are appropriate to the general plan. We're conforming to zoning. Sequa showed that we meet the community priorities of for self. And we mitigated everything to be thoughtful and considerate to the surroundings. And I think that was evident by the planning commission's 50 vote for us. And I believe and I think a lot of people in this area also believe that it is a necessary piece of the puzzle to deal with our forests. Nevada County is a forested county as is placer and the other counties work in Sierra. It is we need to do something and I believe that this is going to help. It's not going to solve it, but it will help Next slide please. Yeah, so any questions Okay, yeah, thank you. Thank you for the presentation I think we if is that all the present we have some questions for you, but we need to take quick tech break up Leave get calling studio back online. Cherub, well, look, we can take a tech break now or we can take it after your board's clarifying questions. Okay, we'll do it after questions. Wonderful. Questions from the board. Thank you for the presentation. Okay, Supervisor Hall. Yeah, I just want to refer and I looked for a map that shows the Clondet neighborhood and I can't see it on our maps. It's too small. It I am concerned about the road. Are you planning to, I think part of the project is that you will pave that road, but are you planning to maintain it as well? Yeah, part of the planning commissions approval was a, I can't remember the exact technical term, but since we're entering a road maintenance agreement with the county to maintain that road. So we will maintain it in plow it and it will be brought up to county standard. Okay, so that's not something that I guess to Brian, we need to put into this. We need to make part of the conditional use permit. Supervisor Hall, there is a condition. It's C15 that the developer shall establish a permanent road division for maintenance of proposed roadways or other infrastructure, including stormwater facilities or provide a road agreement or annex to a maintenance entity for Klondike flat road. So they are responsible for either joining a road maintenance association or effectively creating their own to have sole maintenance responsibility on the road. So that's already in the way. Thank you. That should address the one comment from the earlier presenter. So, okay, let me, I'll stop there for now and thank you. Any other questions from the board? Oh, you'll wait, okay. There's a question brought up about the fuel storage amounts for the co-gen boiler. There's two part question. One of them is, I guess, as you make it, you consume it. But are there waiting periods where the ignite or something? Can you just talk a little bit about the actual size of the fuel storage? Yes. So the boilers have feeders that are internal. There might be a weak worth of fuel on site any excess fuel would be taken to co gen probably honey lake So that should So there'll be chip stacked up for Yeah, I don't think there'd be more than a weak worth of fuel and that pile would not pose a That's significant risk for combustion. So you grab with the loader, you put it into the hopper for the Cogin plant, so you're constantly dealing with or handling holiday periods, weekends, whatever. That would be the only time the pile would be unattended, but somebody's going to be living there too, right? Someone's going to be there, yes. And the feeders are automatically and they consume as the boilers consume. Okay. Yeah, just one quick question. The boiler makes heat obviously. Does it also supply your own power? No, it's not power generation. That requires steam boilers, which is a whole different animal. Okay, so if the power is out and the feeder stops. So we have backup power? Yeah, backup generation. Okay. Thank you. I guess I do have a couple questions, Mr. Mercer. I don't know that the thinning of the forest really is what we're really looking at here, the operation of the mill, but yes, it is absolutely a very important piece of it. And I noticed on your pictures that you showed here, it's very clean. What do you do with the slash that comes out of it. So typically we will extract bullwood or roundwood logs down to the smallest diameter we can either for ingestion into a sawmill or we run it as firewood and then the residual slash and tops and tips we chip and leave in the woods. You do. Okay. And one other question, are you the only operator that will be bringing loads of timber in? No, I don't think so. I don't. There's other operators around that have already expressed interest in potentially bringing in logs. It just depends on what we're generating and if there's a need to make up Between what we are generating and what the sawmill capacity is it's still the sawmill's cap so the sawmill can only really ingest so much That's I did have one other Slight point to make about engine breaks because that's been somewhat of a discussion point and just for clarity. There was a time and there still are vehicles that operate with un muffled engine breaks. They're not California legal trucks. They're typically the cattle trucks that go up in down 89 to Sierra Valley that people hear. So just wanted some clarity on that. The EPA DOT, California DOT, ARB, they all require emissions controls and mufflers on trucks. You cannot hear a engine brake operating anymore on a California legal truck. Supervisor Hook, any questions? No, thanks. That was the answer I was looking for. California legal truck. Surveyor, how can you question? No, thanks. That was the answer I was looking for. Back to this though, since you do chipping now already in the out in the field, do you plan on hauling those into your facility or are you still going to spread them? No. We will generate enough waste from the mill process to feed the boilers. It's not cost effective to bring which about of the forest. It just doesn't make any economic sense. Yeah, I know it's tough one. Thank you. I have one for Brian. Is that okay? Yeah. Brian, I have another question for you. Sorry to go back and forth. So the issue of liability was an important one that was I missed earlier. Is the conditional use permit the right vehicle to deal with the issue of liability? For example, I want to make sure that the company would be, you know, would be responsibly handling any accidents that might happen on that road, but I'm not sure the conditional use permit is a place to ensure that. Is that can you answer that? Generally conditions don't include liability type issues. I may defer to council if they have any input on that that might be more of a legal question and out of my realm of expertise. But typically we don't address that type of an issue through land use conditions. Right. Okay. Trevor, do you have anything you can add on the spot on that? I would just note that the conditions of approval are with the county and the applicant. So there may be, you know, indemnification and legal liabilities there. But the law writ whole once there's a legal obligation on somebody to do that. Of course, any, you know, torque claim under under the law could be brought again somebody that has a duty to do a thing and doesn't do it. Right. Right. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. Can you can you quit boil that down a tiny bit Trevor? I would say that if you have a legal duty to do something whether that's through an agreement or anything else and you don't do that duty and damages result to someone else there's potential civil liability through just the court system. Yeah, on the civil side. Thank you. So I think to answer the question, there just to be clear, it's not incumbent on the county to create provisions in this entitlement to protect liability. Is that correct? Basically, I would say whether the intent of the county, that by someone assuming that duty, there would be legal requirements on them and the ability to enforce those by the general public through that. Okay, thank you. So just curious about the road. That's been a conversation up here. So they've got to meet the new road standard. So will there be a percentage of it as a shoulder for pedestrians and bike riders on there? Said you're gonna go through a residential. That would have been one of my questions. So the road was drawn to, I believe it's 22 feet plus one or two foot shoulder on each side. And currently it's probably 16 feet, give or take, as a gravel road. And you can remind us just because I'm not sure the . I think you can remind us just because I'm not sure if everybody has been on the side. I have but on the inside the uphill side there's no driveways. There's nothing joining that driveway. At the very bottom on the right and then driveways starting at the very top of the hill. So the interim section, the quote steep section really doesn't have any direct driveway entrances at right. Correct. Is that right? Okay. Right, but so I am saying there's going to be a shoulder. Well, I see in at 16 now and it's going to 2022. So there'll be, uh, there'll be definitely a room for a shoulder line, like a fog line. No. No. Just. Okay. That's a question. Well, there is, there's, yes, there is shoulder. I think it's two feet of compacted. Right. Yeah. Of compacted road base outside of the asphalt. Okay. On the edge. Okay. On the uphill side too the area. Okay. On the uphill side too. Both sides. On the uphill side. It's shoulder and then there's drainage. Any other questions from the board? Okay. With that, we'll take a, do you need five minutes? Yes, chair. We would love a five-minute tech break and as I noticed to all the folks who have called in via the call in studio phone number. We will be disconnecting that phone call. So if you could please go ahead and call back in just a few moments. Okay. We'll be here just just for five minutes. I'll come back. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Okay. Thanks. Welcome back. I'm going to turn over to our district clerk and then I have one quick statement and then we'll open up the public hearing. Thank you, Chair Bullock. For the folks online and collars, I just want to say thank you for calling back in. We are all set and ready to take your comments. Via phone. So once again, thank you for working with us. Chair Bullock back to you. Okay, thanks. Mr. Grubby passed along his information, the final conclusion of the appellants comments. So I just want to make sure everybody understood I passed that along to Brian Foss and our clerk at the board. Make sure the appellants, the hearing is technically still open, so that information has been passed along for everybody's use. With that, I'm going to go ahead and open up the public hearing and ask if anyone wants to provide comments. Here in the Chamber and call in, so key yourself up if you're calling in will take a few people here and then we'll go back and take a few people on call. So on call. So, also members of the community that are also members of the friends of the trucky, Professor Trucky are considered the appellants and do not speak during this piece. So, this is not when the appellants speak, you have a different portion of comment on that. This is open for general public hearing. With that we'll turn it over to Mr. O'Lano and go ahead and state your name for the record and then we'll start the three minute clock. Good afternoon. My name is Eliolano. I am with the Forest Service Headquarters Office in Washington, DC, but for many years I was the Forest Supervisor and Deputy Forest Supervisor of the T the tow national forest dating back to 2010. It's nice to see some familiar faces. So I wanted to first start off by saying the US Forest Service currently does not have an official position on the specific proposal and decision in front of you today. The Forest Service does not typically provide official positions on local discretionary decision making. I would however like to provide a general overview of the role what utilization facilities play in the accomplishment of the Forest Service mission. In 2022, the second criteria of agriculture and interior announced a 10-year strategy to address the wildfire crisis across the Western United States. Part of that strategy is doing forest treatments to reduce the threat of large-scale destructive wildfire. The Forest Service designs projects to improve forest health and reduce the risk of wildfire to communities. These projects have proven to be effective in changing fire behavior and lead to a more sustainable resilient forest. These projects in many cases are more effective and more efficient if the wood material produced from the projects can be removed and utilized. Wood utilization facilities, including timber mills, help accomplish this work in a number of ways. They help implement the work in the forest. They help remove wooding material that is hazardous fuel from the forest. They help implement the work in the forest, they help remove woody material that is hazardous fuel from the forest, they help decrease the cost of these treatments by producing an economic product or service. When the wood and or hazardous fuels in the forest can be utilized, for example, by a mill, the cost of the project is a lower per acre, thus more can be accomplished. Many mills have closed across the Western United States over the past few years, and even just in the past few months, most recently in Central Oregon. Malhear lumber announced closure and the communities nearby are trying to figure out how to keep it operational. When these facilities close, it increases the cost of important restoration work and fuels reduction. In some places, it has rendered these projects infeasible. Prescribed fire is another important approach to implementing forest restoration and fuels projects, but it is not a viable safe approach across all the acres needing treatment. In order to address the wildfire crisis, we need all of the forest management tools. And that includes removing wood material and hazardous fuels from the forest to facilities like sawmills and other utilization facilities. I understand that the board has received communication from Chad Hansen, which contains inaccurate and unsupported claims. First, the information provided on cut volume covers an area of over 1 million acres of natural forest lands, which is not representative of the amount of material projected to be removed in the trucky area or even in eastern Nevada County. Mr. Hanson's claim that the foresters projects. Thank you commenter. It's been three minutes. organizations had additional time but. Yeah, we can do groups at five minutes if you're representing a group five minutes and we'll give you two minutes. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Hanson's claim that Forest Service projects that reduce hazardous fuels and restore ecosystem resiliency increase the threat of wildfire has been disproven on multiple occasions by the courts and by university research scientists from all major research universities involved in this area of research, including Scott Stevens, John Battles, Brandon Collins, Malcolm North, Hugh Stafford, Jen Stevens, Eric Napp, and many many others from UC Berkeley, Davis, Merced, University of Washington, University of New Mexico, University of Minnesota, and other major research universities. Mr. Hanson's work, Mr. Hanson works for an advocacy organization. I can provide a list of publications if you desire that not only provide support for the types of projects the Forest Service in this area has been completing and plans to continue, but also directly refute Mr. Hanson's claims. The Forest Service regionally colleges for California has also offered to discuss the claims in Mr. Hanson's paper with you all if you so desire. You could not be here today because you had a family emergency. Mr. Hanson is attempted to make similar claims numerous times in federal court to stop forest restoration projects on the Tahoe National Forest. He has lost every time. Because a person makes a claim does not make it true, nor does it mean there is scientific controversy. Coalition of University and Government researchers published a paper in 2022 identifying the negative impacts of the type of misinformation that Mr. Hansen presents, including misleading the public and policy makers on the causes and impacts of wildfire and the importance of wildfire mitigation treatments. Finally, the project proponents have been important partners with Forest Service and accomplishing Forest Restoration and fuels reduction work throughout the greater Tauho area. They have been responsible operators and sensitive to environmental concerns. Thanks for the additional time and happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. O'Wanna. I'm going to read my comments. I was under the impression we only had two minutes. I'm a part-time resident at 16-0-21 Hobart Nills Road, which is about two miles from the project area. And I was very honored to have a 36-year career in the fire service in the Tahoe-Trucky area. 24 of those as Chief of Olympic Valley Fire Department. During that time, I was in the area of the Tahoe-ie area, 24 of those as Chief of Olympic Valley Fire Department. During that time, I was one of the coordinators for the Lake Tahoe Basin operational area for the California Statewide Mutual Aid System under the Office of Emergency Services or Cal OES. I also served as president of the Lake Tahoe Regional Fire Chiefs Association a by-state nine county organization that provides mutual aid throughout the region. This project provides an innovative and badly needed capability and it should be replicated and it does in places or more across the Sierra Nevada. Our communities are located within the Wildland Urban Interface, adjacent to hundreds of thousands of acres of Overstock, National Forest Land. The need for thorough, proactive and ongoing forest management, thinning and understory removal is apparently universally accepted, but for one character. The issue is the disposition of the material that's generated. There's currently no capacity at the mills within reasonable transport distance for timber cut in the Tahu Trucky region, and far too many small trees are pile burned or buried. This project allows beneficial use of this timber in an ethical and environmentally responsible manner and minimizes air quality impacts due to trucking log distances and smoke generated by pile burning. The Forestry and Fire Service professionals that will comment on this project are unanimous in their support for it and then their experience with the applicant. A lengthy track record of careful, competent, responsible work, is proposal the bill a sustainable mill and include housing for his employees reflect those values. Our community and region have confidence that your board will do the right thing and approve this project. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Thank you Chair Boehlick and supervisors. My name is Darren Buu. I live in Floreston, the eastern most of that community in Nevada County. I live there all my life. I'm also the stakeholder coordinator for the Eastern Regional Firewise Coalition. And I bought a house on the southern end of Florida in 1993 and there was a wall of fuel that came up to the back of my house. It was 80 feet tall. And I started thinning and burning. And in 2001, the smartest fire came down the canyon and encountered my property first. And the fire departments were able to set up on my property and deflect the fire not only away from my house but away from the town of Floraston. Now my property is this beautiful stand of pine trees that are nicely spaced and the town of Floraston still stands and I just tell that story as a testament and the idea that forest thinning increases, increases fire danger by my life's experience is a preposterous misrepresentation of reality. And this project that David Mercer is proposing a preposterous misrepresentation of reality. And this project that David Mercer is proposing is exactly what we need. It provides not only an economic component to developing a more fire adapted community and culture, but it does it in a way that is scaled rightly and the idea that we might use the material that's generated in these forests to create a local product is exactly the kind of thinking we need to embrace. And I think it would be a tragedy to miss this opportunity. So thank you. Thank you. Just have a join with our clerk for one moment, one quick question. We'll be right back with you. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. Thank you for your patience. I was just trying to make sure I understood who the appellants were. So if you're officially related to the appellant group represented by Mr. represented by Mr. Mooney, this is not your time. But if you're not officially represented there and say you're an opponent of this, you're welcome to make public comment now. I just want to clarify that. Everybody understands that. Thank you. Go ahead Jim thanks. My name is Jim Dill like a pickle I want to thank you all for what you do for Nevada County and for this town and I moved to Squaw Valley Olympic Valley in 1978 ski racing. I have been a resident of the town of Truckee for 31 years. I currently live in Juniper Hill, which is a firewise community. I live on a 20 acre parcel up there. And I wanna speak a little bit about Dave Mercer. I've known Dave for about 45 of his 49 years. I wanna speak to his character. He's hardworking, dedicated, honest, trustworthy, fair, and passionate. Since he was a kid, he's loved machines from snowmobiles to snow cats, always just wanting to get rides on the snow cats at Squaw Valley, which is down Palosade's Tahoe, to helicopters. He's always been and continues to be his own mechanic. He wrenches and works on all his machines and always has. He has its determination to always do what's right. And I think that this, what he's done is he's parlayed his experience with machines into this high-tech machinery that is used now for forest fuel reduction. And I've been around it a little bit. I've seen them in action and I've been very, very, very impressed. And I think what we've seen develop is this, what Dave talked about earlier is this lack of places to take the materials that come off of these defensible space projects, these intermediate-sized logs. And so I am very much a proponent of the Alpinglow Timber project. We live in a forestry area that's rich in sawmill history, dating back to the 1860s, just before the town of Trucke was established. The Central Pacific Railroad was building the first transcontinental railroad, and that's when logs and lumber were being taken from the area around Boka, California. And once they thinned a lot of that area, they went deeper into the forest. Around 1886, three Lewis brothers built a Sommill 17 miles north of Boka, initially using horse-drawn wagons to bring the lumber back to the railroad of Boka. Then they used large steam tractors, and eventually by 1900 Mr. Lewis and Mr. Roberts built a railroad from Boka to the Lewis mill and then up to Loylton. At one point in Dave Mercer mentioned there was about half a dozen mills, there was actually over 12 different mills There was two in cold stream canyon the Stanford mill and the DJ Smith saw mill and flume There was one near Donner Lake the Pacific Wood and lumber Excuse me that was in herstale. We know of George Schaeffer having three mills in Martis Valley There was three different mills on Glenshire Drive. There was the Alder Creek sawmill. And there was a mill actually just off a Prostor Creek called the Nevada in California sawmill. Thank you for your comments. Thank you. Hello,orable board. Should I pull that down? Yep. There you go. I, uh, my name is Debbie Reath. And I want to thank all of you for the commitment that you've made to each of the voters in Nevada County. What you're doing and giving back to the community is very important. I worked really hard to gain my own two degrees that I have in education and social work. And so I know what I know the amount of hours involved in giving back to the people. I I owned a little place at Klondike Flat for 32 years and I dreamed of having a little special place in our beautiful Sierra Nevada mountain range. We cleared our land of buck brush to participate in fire prevention. I met the 19 families that have lived there of which six or eight lived on their properties for three generations. And this is a community of people that love their homes, just like you do. And what I'm hearing today and what I'm feeling, what I'm seeing is industry coming in, right beside 20 feet from a property with families that are enjoying peace and beauty and yes all of us all of us are engaged in fire prevention throughout California. Red was on the map. Red was on that map showing the current fires. We all care about fire prevention as well as you. Each of us through our elected officials need your help in protecting our own our properties that maybe in a different place as yours. We have very socioeconomic hardworking families that client-like flat that care. We had meeting work days where we cleared we cleared the land for fire prevention. Right next to properties that I've, of families that I've known for 20 years will have this new housing of workers. We've dealt with a couple of issues that Klondike flat where we've needed, needed law enforcement to come up and interface with highway patrol with symptoms of, of very serious issues. And it's very hard for Nevada County Sheriff's Department to get all the way over there. Fortunately, the guy that was selling meth down the road has had to sell his land because of another issue. Thank you for your comments. May I make one more comment about the housing and the workers? Yeah, excuse me, make your point very quickly. Thank you. Who will be available to contact for noise, the impact of noise to the neighborhood with young workers that may have friends and friends over with other vehicles coming up on the weekends and during non operating hours. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for your comments. Highway 89. Good morning, Chair Bullock and Board. My name is Jay Cudson and I am here today to express my strong support for the proposed Alpine Glow Timber Wood Products facility. I've lived in the Tahoe Trucky area for over 55 years and I've been a geotechnical engineer based in Truckee for more than 25 years. I have also been on the Truckee River Watershed Council Board for over 15 years so I am well aware of the forest health and restoration work that is critically needed in our area. However, I am not speaking on behalf of my employer or the Trekkie River Watershed Council. The proposed facility is desperately needed for forest health and fuel reduction activities in the trucky area. Without this type of locally based facility, we will be unable to perform the critically important fuels reduction and forest health restoration work needed in our area. Excuse me. Up and glow Timbers proposed facility is compliant with the Forest Zoning District. The property is intended to provide the for the production and management of timber support uses. The project site is located on a state highway that is designated for truck designed for truck traffic. The site is centrally located within an area where projects will occur so it's reducing the total vehicle miles traveled. The proposed operations will largely take place in an enclosed building, greatly reducing the potential noise impacts. The mill is a modern facility that will protect air quality and result in very low emissions. This will be a modern state of the art facility that deserves the Nevada County's full support. I urge the Board of Supervisors to move forward with the approval of this important project. Thank you. Hello, Supervisors. My name is Katie Poefall and I am a forest project manager with the Nature Conservancy in California and I live in South Lake Tahoe. I'm here to share information about the need for wood processing infrastructure in the Sierra Nevada. The Nature Conservancy in California is a nonprofit organization with the mission of conserving the land and waters on which all life depends. TNC owns and manages independence lake preserve, a 2300 per acre biodiversity hotspot located 20 miles north of Truckee. This lake is home to one of only two wild self-sustaining lake populations of Lahonton cutthroat trout in the world. A fish that has lost 99% of its historic range, and it's a refuge for six other species of rare fish. The lake also provides clean drinking water to Western Nevada. High severity wildfire is a threat to the water supply wildlife and communities near independence lake preserve. Since 2010, TNC has used ecological thinning and controlled burning to reduce wildfire risk and promote healthier, more resilient forests. Unfortunately, due to a lack of wood processing infrastructure locally, TNC has struggled to remove hazardous fuels such as small diameter logs and biomass to effectively restore these forests. TNC is not alone in this challenge. Nevada County has 398,000 acres of Timberland. Timberland and much of this area has experienced extensive drought-related stress and mortality, increasing the forest susceptibility to bark beetles, and elevating the risk of catastrophic wildfire region wide. Statewide, the wildfire and forest resilience action plan highlights the need to create economic opportunities for the use of forest materials that store carbon, reduce emissions, and contribute to local economies. Within the 2.4 million acre Tahoe Central Sierra region, which includes the majority of Nevada County, there are no active sawmills or biomass facilities, and there's only one operational biomass electricity plant within financially feasible haul distance. TNC's research shows that the TCSI region currently produces over 80,000 bone dry tons of live biomass per year. The low market value for this material and high transportation costs means that approximately half of this biomass is not removed from the forest, contributing to wildfire risk and delaying the application of prescribed fire. In addition, a forest restoration in the region is accelerated in accordance with the what California's roadmap to a million acres, live biomass production could increase considerably, quickly overwhelming all types of regional wood processing infrastructure. Expanding regional wood processing capacity is essential to enable forest managers like TNC and the U.S. Forest Service to accelerate the pace and scale of the ecologically-based forest restoration and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire in the region. TNC recognizes how important it is that facilities are properly sized, sighted, and that they employ the best available pollution control technologies alongside other important factors. Such infrastructure will, among other benefits, facilitate the use of safe controlled burns that maintain the wildfire resilience benefits of thinning our hazardous fuels. We hope you'll take this information into consideration as you make your decisions. Members of the board, supervisor Bullock, my name is Jeff Dowling. I'm the retired Cal Fire Forster for the trucky area. I've been in the community for 50 years and I'm here to address support for Mr. Mercer's project. I have three points. Fire behaviors determined by fuels, weather, and topography. Dr. Hansen describes the Dixie Paradise Rim, etc. But fails to state that these fires had weather with relative humidity, fuel moisters, and wind that were above the 97th percentile associated with the respective events. Fuel's treatments changed fire by the wind. weather with relative humidity, fuel moisters, and wind that were above the 97th percentile associated with the respective events. Fuel's treatments changed fire behavior there, but weather and lack of resources made suppression impossible. I verified this with Chris Waters, Deputy Incident Commander for the Cal Fire team assigned to the Dixie. Fuel breaks are not capable of stopping fire. They are operational features which give suppression resources opportunity to subdue and eventually extinguish wildfire. Dr. Hanson only takes into account the timber removed on the Tahoe National Forest. Sierra Pacific Industries removes over 30 million board feet annually from their lands which are checkerboard to the USFS. The extra volume for the Alpumple project does not constitute a 30% increase in harvesting. And there is no mention of other small private lands that contribute to the harvest base on any given year. Most important, the wildfire crisis we are experiencing is exacerbated by delay in getting meaningful projects like this put in place. Capacity to process logs is vital to increasing the pace and scale of the fuel's work, which is necessary to aid suppression and increase forest health. Thank you. Good morning, board members. My name is Danielle Bradfield. I'm a registered professional forester and I've worked in Truckee in the vicinity for over 17 years. I'm here to voice my strong support for the Alphanglow Timber Project and I offer my perspective as a practicing forester and a natural resource manager. One of the recent comment letters claim I'm a student at the Austin County University of New York. I'm a student at the Austin County University of New York. I'm a student at the Austin County University of New York. I'm a student at the Austin County University of New York. I'm a student at the Austin County University of New York. I'm a student at the Austin County University of New York. I'm a student at the Austin County University of This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. This is an important moment. reduce the distance that it is hauled. Second, as it seems, the concept of fuel reduction is being attacked related to Alpinglow. I wanted to emphasize that the practice of thinning and the practice of fuel reduction. They're both encouraged and facilitated by our existing state regulatory mechanisms. The California Forest Practice rules have streamlined documents to help hasten the pace at scale at which fuel reduction is implemented. The California Board of Forestry's created guidelines for use in fuel reduction and regulations to also hasten the pace and scale of this. Board of Forestry is also considering changes to the existing forest practice rules to further reduce stand density and certain stand types for the purposes of fuel reduction and forest health. Sequel itself has a categorical assumption to help facilitate fuel reduction and our own trucky community wildfire protection plan identifies and prioritizes extensive areas for fuel reduction within its jurisdiction. So each of these mechanisms encourage and facilitate implementation of forest spending. I urge the board to vest their confidence in these existing guidances and regulations, which are the result of collaborative processes using the best available science versus that of an errant opinion. Regarding the public comment that stated thinning and fuel reduction increased while fire, I want to caution the Board against considering input that relies on vague imagery, and all while disregarding all the other pertinent information such as civil cultural prescriptions, the slash abatement methods and the time since implementation. Again, what the existing state regulations in our own board of forestry are local community welfare protection plan support is reducing the horizontal and vertical continuity of fuels. As a forest-serving prescriptions are created for Managing a Forest. Unfortunately, a byproduct of this effort is small logs and a great deal of them to think that industrial milling facilities and Quincy and Lincoln will always be available and interested in small logs from the trucky areas short-sighted. Literally every year we are one fire away from having no delivery point for wood products in this area because burned logs take precedent over green logs. I respectfully request the board deny the appeal and approve the Alphanglo timber use from it. Thank you. Good morning chair Bullock and supervisors. I'm Joanne Rabiek, retired from the US Forest Service here locally. Currently a member of the Truckie River Watershed Council Board, however, I'm not representing either of those two organizations. As the former District Ranger here in Truckie, in my last 15 to 20 years with the US Forest Service, I became painfully aware of the threat of severe wildfire and the condition of our forest. It became obvious to me that the landscape locally has changed dramatically in the last 125 years. We no longer live in an open forest with widely spaced trees that might have withstood the kind of wildfires we see today, with the increased crowding of our forests and our warmer, drier weather patterns. It became obvious that we needed to take action to remove many of the trees to create a healthier forest, and we did as much of that as we could find funding to do. Unfortunately, when I go back and look at the work we did, I feel uncomfortable that we did not go farther. We were within the specific scientific guidelines that were hours, our guiding tools, but I think we're learning that perhaps even those were not going far enough. If you look at some of the communities that have been burned through, they experienced those very problems. One missing element of this, as you've heard from many people this morning, is the lack of mills to take this material so that it doesn't stay in the woods and eventually add fuel to a fire that might come through there. The larger mills in the area are too far away and seldom take the wood from other people's lands they have their own. Dave Mercer is offering our community and our area a piece of the solution, a place to take material from our local forest, and having seen his work personally over the last few years, he is a professional who does high quality work. In fact, one of the highest I've ever observed. I'm unaware of any other proponents who are ready to provide this piece of the answer. I support his project and hope it can become an example for other communities to model their own solutions. It is also my hope that this project might provide an example of how we might begin to solve a part of the wildfire and forest health problems facing us in Northern California. Thank you. Good morning board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is John McCarthy. I'm a licensed forester with Cal Fire. I work out of Sacramento headquarters in the Climate and Energy Program. I'm here today to speak about a grant program that we run for business development and why Alping Glow was selected through a competitive process for support through a grant. So, the state we have, we talk a lot about pace and scale, there's a goal of treating a million acres a year, forest health projects, fuel reductions, air resources board, estimates it's more like 2.4 million acres that we need to treat. That will result in millions of tons of biomass and much of which should be removed from the woods versus left or left in piles or open pile burned. So one of the challenges to hitting our pace and project is a lot of the work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force work force our business and workforce development program, which we started in just 2022. Today, we've awarded over $125 million to over 100 grants. Alpine Glows was one of the first grants that we awarded. It really checks the boxes on things that we're trying to accomplish in terms of a small mill up in the mountains, in the woods as opposed to larger mills, down in the valleys which are also important. This will reduce trucking costs which are heavy carbon and tensed of. There also can create a durable wood product which is one of the best ways to sequester carbon and a real tool we have in managing climate change. I would also add that in our climate energy program, we also operate the forest health grants and that's money for on the ground treatments. And all of those projects are subject to their own environmental review whether it's on for service or state lands subject to Sequa or NEPA. So I thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Good afternoon Mr. Chair or good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the Board. My name is Steve Frish. I'm the President of the Sierra Business Council, and I am speaking on behalf of my organization today. We previously submitted a letter in support of this project that lays out the ecological and social benefits of the project that we think are important. So I want to focus specifically on three issues. First, this project is entirely consistent with. As a matter of fact, it demonstrates a success of Nevada County's general plan and land use zoning process that identified this property for exactly this type of use. It is consistent with the comprehensive economic development strategy approved by this Board of Supervisors through the Sierra Economic Development District that identifies the need to create a wood utilization cluster in the central Sierra Nevada in order to increase the pace and scale of forest treatment and create economic benefit from it. And it's consistent with the county's climate resilience goal and the goal of the county in identifying strategies to improve resilience in the face of climate impacts, the most significant one being wildfire. The second point I want to make is that this project provides substantial economic and community benefit. Sierra Business Council ran an analysis of this project to a piece of software called Jobs EQ, which has a plus or minus tolerance for accuracy of 5%. And it found that this project will create $6.1 million in annual economic benefit in the community. $300 million in economic benefit over the 50 year life of the program create at least 15 jobs within the project at 140% of the area median income. And that impact does not include indirect impacts or avoided costs in the community from the benefit of doing the forest treatment. So that's $300 million in economic impact right there. The final point I want to make is that there clearly is a need for a regional biomass utilization cluster strategy in order to address increasing pace and scale. And this project represents a model that could be replicated not just in Nevada County, but across the Sierra Nevada. We see this as a tremendous success story. The reality is we need 20 or 30 of these facilities in the Sierra Nevada. And the idea that we would delay this decision or create a new barrier based on species research essentially dropped at the 11th hour. I think the question this board needs to ask itself is does that supplemental memo actually meet the fair argument standard? And I think the reality is looked at realistically the decision would have to be that it does not. So, Sierra Business Council strongly supports this project, and we hope that you will adopt the resolution, denying the appeal, and we can move forward with moving the project forward in the future. Thank you very much. I think I can officially say good afternoon, supervisor. Thank you for your time. My name is Scott Lindgren. I'm the fire chief for Tahoe Douglas Fire on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. I'm here representing the Lake Tahoe Regional Fire Chiefs Association. I'm the president of that group right now. And that represents 25 different fire agencies in and around the Lake Tahoe Basin. I also am representing the Tahoe Fire and Fills team on the chairman of the MAC, the multi-agency coordination group that oversees the Tahoe Fire and Fills team, and both of those organizations strongly support this project, so I want to devise that. You know, the ability to have a new mill that's local to take products has been talked about a bunch and it's it just makes sense. We need we need places to take take the product and take the wood and we need it to be economically feasible and that's what this local project is so we we support it for those reasons. There's been a lot of great comments from the public and from speakers that you've had so far. I don't want to echo and repeat a lot of those because you've already heard them, but I will just say the the Hanson report. It's been beat up quite a bit already, but we highly disagree with it. Fuel breaks and force thinning work. It helps us stop fire. The simple matter is when we can keep fire on the ground and out of running through the trees, it's easier for us to put out. And a healthier forest makes it easier for us to deal with that. So we support it in those ways. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, supervisors. I'm here representing FireSave Council and just want to make it very clear that as an agency that focuses on vegetation removal mitigation, we support this project. And it's just another piece of the puzzle that needs to be addressed immediately with the kind of situation we're at now with wildfire mitigation. It is also something that I believe we have to, we can't continue to claim that this is a critical topic that we need to address and help support facilities but say it has to happen somewhere else. And we all say, okay, great. Let's mitigate the wood products, but let's do it somewhere else on our backyard. I cannot speak officially for the air quality management district, but my position before FireSafe Council was coming from Northern Sierra air quality management. This project was the last permit that came across my desk before I changed positions. And before I handed it off to our other supervisor who had 30 years plus of permitting and planning. The interaction with Alpanglo with their staff I believe that the current air quality management staff has done more than due diligence with the, you know, permitting that I've seen them do the additional components that they've added to the requirements. So we just want to vocalize that we support this. It's critically needed in our area, if not the state, if not the nation. And we hope that you will support this. Thank you. Thanks for your comments. We're gonna take the two commenters here and then we're gonna break for lunch, then come back the public hearing will remain open and then we'll have additional comments if there are any. Oh, and colors. Yeah. And how many colors do we have? Chair Boleck, we have five colors on the line. Okay. Okay. So hand colors. Yeah. How many colors do we have? Chair Bullock, we have five colors on the line. Okay. Okay. Okay. We'll take the five colors to commenters here and then we'll break for lunch. Thank you. All right. Welcome everybody. My name is Anton Stuntiner. I was born in Turkey many years ago and I've spent most of my life in the town of Truckee. I live in the Prosser Lake View neighborhood with my wife and my three children, which is roughly two and a half miles from the project. I also own a large industrial metal shop in the Pioneer Center, which is roughly three and a half miles from the project. I'm also the active, current active board member of the Contractors Association of Truckee Tahoe, and I'm also the to support for this project and I hope that it gets approved. Thank you. Let's take one car please. Thank you, Chair. We'll is Barbara Palatro and I have a home at the screen lake. They've been about half night. A life that lovely screen legs and for the last five years I've been sharing the safety community and the technical space. We're closely with Bob Bellden to the years and now the team at Chuck E. Fire to help our community get on board the train with potential space. We've been a Firewise community since 2012 and we've reported a huge amount of work in the last five or six years. What I first I most appreciate all of you and your efforts. So, works at the council, excuse me, county says, in preparing for all the board. And then, sorry, I'm getting echoed, anyway, I'll keep going. And all the work that you all do on the board, whenever human disease is so proud to be an American that we have discussed. So with that said, my comments are related to, we certainly didn't have to care where they've done. Well, let me take it off my speaker. Oh, that's a make a difference either. Okay, I'm going to keep going. Is that okay? Yeah, we can hear you. You're good now. Okay, great thank you. Okay, so for a minute, I'd share the safety and decencyful space for our community and serene lights. We have about 800 homes and about 1100 lots, including 800 homes. We have done a huge amount of work on our defense both based on our homes and we were surrounded by these amazing forests and we've partnered with the PG&E, the world, the Trucky Donner Land Trust and and national forest. There's one other partner in there on the end of the picking right now. But anyway, we have a huge amount of trees around us. But to really protect us, we really got to deal with these little skinny logical trees. So the work that has kind of made this all happen is never just one thing. It's not just the trees around us, but it's the appreciation for measure T. If that we've had a community plant, a huge amount of buy-in, we've had the green waste removal that's been put in the last couple years. We have fire-wise requirements. We have a placement of a camera that we put in to detect and manage a fire should have come in. So all that is good. But our last remaining box that we need is what are we gonna do with all these trees that surround us? We've given up to our partnerships and we have amazing partnerships with those groups that I met. But it's not reasonable to put all these trees in the landfill. Okay, thank you for your comments. Oh, go ahead, Mr. Geary. Thank you, board. My name is Mike Geary. I've lived in Klondike Flat. I've run Klondike Flat Road for 21 years. I'm a professional engineer. I've been working in fuels management work for over 20 years. I'm familiar with a lot of the arguments being made here today. But that's not why I oppose this project. It's because of the impacts to the neighborhood that I oppose this project. It's because of the impacts to the neighborhood that I oppose the project. The location is wrong. I don't think the county wants to tie its name to this project. It's going to forever, you know, be opposed by the folks that have lived there. It's subdivision that's been around since the mid-70s. We are your neighbors. You would oppose this project if it was proposed on your neighbors. You would oppose this project if it was proposed on your road 61 new Vehicle trips on Klondike flat road every day We live in a rural part of our county. We appreciate it. We love it's a quiet character We love the peace and quiet. We like the fact that there's no traffic that we don't suffer safety risks from logging trucks and lumber trucks barreling up and down the road the sounds of engines Transitioning to go uphill and downhill to the Klondike flat highway 89 intersection For 21 years I've lived there and you know 30 years before that, my neighbors. This is an incompatible land use. This is not, you know, your own county code that you guys reaffirmed in April of this years, of this year says that the project, the development permit can't be issued if it's incompatible with the surrounding area. This is incompatible with the neighborhood and the residential use of Klondike Flat Road and Silverado Road. We're asking for a second ingress and egress. That is standard design for any industrial project of this scale. And that's for the purposes of public safety, employee safety, and the surrounding neighborhood. You know, should a fire occur, there's only one way out. That that that makes no sense. There should be a second ingress and egress out on highway 89. And even if that requires leadership from this board to work with the forest service to overcome the rule that says there's only one road into private property across Forest Service lands. That sounds like a small hurdle that can be overcome. That's what the residents are asking for here. It's just to be able to maintain our sense of peace and quiet in Nevada County, much like you guys enjoy. This is not a good project for our neighborhood. I think the whole, the project and its momentum is just so target focused. I don't think there's been enough work done to identify alternative locations for this project, like on Yorga Road, like at Loyalton, in the retrofit of that facility up there. Thank you for your comments. Thanks. Thank you. Madam Quirk, we take another color. Great, we will go to the next color now. My name is Kathleen Najera. I have been visiting this area since the late 1950s when Clint owned the property. He allowed us to come camping by the creek. In the late 1970s, my father and my uncles were able to purchase property up at the top on Silverado way. We have loved the quiet and peace and community and watched many I just think it's the wrong property. There is only one narrow way coming in and out. And if those logging trucks are coming in, we have to go down the road to get help. How is this gonna work? Heaven forbid if there is a fight, and they have their logs open, 10 feet high, it is near the road, the only road, getting out of our property. If a truck jack knife, we are stuck in the center. They should at least if this goes through another row that the truck could use. Another concern of mine is the use of water. We have the best truck well water, but that they would use the water for dust and for wetting down some hogs is going to affect the upper. Now we have inquired about building first. And we were told we needed to cut thread for the acres to build a cabin. I know that this amelette was one of the 40 acres. We will really miss the piece and quality. The legacy, my father left it. And I hope that you put some restrictions on this. My folks are being asked to bear from up early. And I hope that there is no police, police, light hope. Okay, thank you for your comments. Can we take another caller please? Yes, we will go to the next caller. Good afternoon, my name is Chris Cordero. I'm property owner. I'm so overwrought away. I like to voice my strong opposition to this project for many reasons, but just a few are safety of this project. the project is not on highway 9. 5.89, the roof is broke and it is not comfortable with logging trip, letting up a debt. So number of trips was state, but the number of gifts will be many. It will not say if there's a fire impact the neighborhood. This project, no matter what anybody says, compatible with the area, basically, capturing the facility into a neighbor with one. For just you look adding an additional act to that property that's directly closer to eight nine. I just want to voice my strong opposite. Okay. Thank you for your comments. Madam Quirk, next caller please. Okay, we will go to the next caller. Thank you. Hi, my name is Andy Baskin. I'm a full-time resident of 10670, Quantback Flat Road, and I fully oppose the location of the Altenglo Somal Development. We've all heard the reasons why this project is so great, and how it will benefit the greater trustee and Lake Tahoe Earth in which I completely agree. But this project, we do need better force management, but what I don't experience in this location of this project and the county's mobility to work with the Pondex Black community members can serve. As we learned at the last town hall meeting, you have the power to implement some meeting, we heard of a meeting. You have powered an implement in accepting the area for approval. As you examples were given, one of which was implemented in the crosswalk for a project even to the findings and the crosswalk weren't significant. How are the United please, from our nature, said not to the county implement special requirements such as a fully IR for current and foreign lane on time with the same thing, and most importantly, requiring a secondary fee for the safety of the community. My partner and I fled from the city of wildfires in the county and you can imagine how to find the bottom of us. If we didn't have a second road on our prop. We would have been trapped. Thank you. Thanks for your comments. Do we have one more color? Sure we have two colors. Okay. Next color please. Thank you. I'll you. Yeah, Matthew culture grass alley. Well, listening to this, I've been on the phone with air quality control and other folks dealing with just local issues in my neighborhood. And for those reasons alone, I'm just opposed because these big projects come through, they sound great. They probably are great. But they're not managed correctly. The county can't even run a meeting without echo and reverb and all the problems that go along with communication in Nevada County. I'll just listen to myself talk every time I talk, it's a little repeat itself. Fantastic, you get to hear me twice. I don't know if you're hearing it twice. I'm hearing it twice. Can you mute? So the mitigation of death, the mitigation of death, the jake breaks that are signed all over town in a 25 mile an hour zone in grass valley. Don't seem to be a five. The gravel plant expansion in trucky that was supposed to be a boom for the area, has not worked out so well. The fire that quote of fire helps everything in the forest. That was the quote. I find that to be pretty odd. I say correct fire might help things in the forest, but not fire helps everything in the forest. And then we got the DA saying humans take to loop path elites resistance. Well, that seems to be the problem with all the things that are happening here in the counties that nobody is following through. And the people that are doing the projects take the path of least resistance, even though in the fact others negatively, both in health, environment, and just visually. I would like 10% of the amount of time put in to what is going on on the east slope with fire mitigation to be done on the west slope, just 10%. We could make a huge dent because directly across from the Roode Center, there's continuing to be piles of dry green waste dumped. I mean directly across the street at the end of orchard, and on highway 49. Why can we allow? Because the fire starts with one spark, not a big bomb being dropped, and a big fire starts. It starts with a spark, not a big bomb being dropped and a big fire starts with a spark in a pile of green waste that has them end up with. And I just, I don't have faith. I'm sorry. I would love these projects to go through. I don't know the applicant. I don't know his history, but I know the county's history. And I know that they can't even do the most basic mitigation of fire hazard or issues someone to pick it that is illegally burning in their backyard inside city limits. It's insane what's going on with fire. I haven't heard one mention of wild. Yeah, your time's up. Thank you, Matthew, for your call in. Do you have any other callers? one mention of wild. Yeah, your time's up. Thank you, Matthew, for your colon. Do you have any other cars? Chair, we have one more caller. Okay, let's go ahead and take the car. Yes, my name is Paul Ruby and I own property. One zero five six zero conduct flat road. And aside from the legal and environmental issues, I just find that this project doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever. Putting a major business in the middle of a residential neighborhood could turn into tragedy. We have young people and pets and walkers, bikers going up and down that hill and it's not a good mix with you know, hundred ton vehicles or whatever they way. So you know to me it's a niceaint neighborhood. And it would be just to put a big courting on all the folks who live up there. Um, that's all they have to say right now. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for comments. Any other comments here in the board chambers or any other cars, no cars online. Okay. I have a number of comments here in the board chambers or any other cars, no cars online. Okay. We're going to go right to 1230 if you want to speak. Please step up. I'm in his family and I live in Clondack flat. I've a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm a guest. I'm just not hearing enough about our neighborhood. We live, we've lived here, we pay taxes here. The code, Nevada County Code says, yeah, the proposed use of facilities are supposed to be compatible with and not detrimental to existing and anticipated future uses on a budding property and in the nearby surrounding neighborhood or area. I just, I can't understand how anyone could honestly say that a sawmill is compatible to an existing neighborhood. The neighborhood's been there for the 70, since the 70s. And yes, Dave is a private property owner as well. And he has rights, but there's 20 other properties there. 19 other people have rights as well. We've been paying property there. Our property values values are gonna go down because of one property owner. I don't understand how Nevada County is fighting for the 19 people that we are. And I am concerned about the fire, the road, the trucks, all the studies, it doesn't really matter. I just, who's going to be regulating all this? Dave's going to be there at 10 o'clock saying, okay, shut down. We know how business works. It's just going to grow. It's going to be loud. Just, I just would like, some more, it to be looked at a little closer, to slow this project down, to say, yeah, this neighborhood does have some rights and The road is a massive issue. Yes, there's only one way in or out right now But there's like eight cars. I mean you're about to add like 60 logging trucks so The inevitability of something happening is so much greater so that argument that oh, it's only one road now What's the big what's the difference? It's so much greater. So that argument that, oh, it's only one road now. What's the difference? It just doesn't make sense. We are increasing the traffic. And also, in our opinion, we live there. We like the quiet road. It's not an improvement to Klondike Flat Road. We live on a dirt road. That's part of the reason why everyone lives there. We like it there. We like the rural character. And I don't know. Now it's going to be a paved road. And just it's in just logging trucks. I just can't grasp this. I mean, there's usually these are off to the side. There's actually there's logging roads with a huge sign saying don't drive down here. There's logging trucks. It's a threat. It's a danger. And I just would like the whole project to slow down. Some more things looked at for our neighborhood. We have brights and I feel like we're just being bold over and industry is coming in here. And it's just not compatible. And I can't understand. It's not just, oh, not in my, not in my neighborhood. It's beyond that. This is an industrial project in a quiet neighborhood. And it's going to destroy the character of our neighborhood. Thank you. Chair Bullock, we do have one more caller. Okay, let's take the caller. Thank you. Hi, my name is Alexandra Groovy and I live on 105-300-Condick flat road. I'm raising my children up there and I just want to start to say that we love the project. I'm trying to save our land and community. But when we brought the property in 2019, church owned the land. They allowed us to recreate and just have the good time. I thought somebody pinched me. This is a dream property to raise your children. Now I'm thinking this is a mess. And yeah, agree with all the other things. We need a new end graph and EI offer Thank you for your time I just Need to state that Thank you for your comments Any other colors on the line no additional colors, okay? We're gonna close public comment. We're gonna leave the public hearing open We. We're going to recess for a 30 minute launch. We'll return pretty close to one. Thank you. you We're really focused on a whole host of disasters or emergency events we want to have a broad spectrum. We want to be prepared for anything, but really, we focus a lot on wildfire because we know that's one of the most likely events to happen in Nevada County. Ready set go is really built around the wildfire premise to prepare residents to be ready before an event, to move into the set posture when there's a red flag or a fire's near you, and then to go when it's time to go. Essentially in its simplest form it's a three-tiered community emergency preparedness plan. I have lived in this house which we built by husband and I, 26 years ago now, actually. We selected the Hardy Plank, the concrete siding, and also the metal roof. Then when we moved up here and heard about the 49er fire, that's when we started to say, wow, this really is even more important than we first realized. So the 49er fire is one of the most historic fires in Nevada County's history. They figured it'd changed the laws of state of California that said this is how you have to protect your home. That came out of Nevada County. Steve Ubex came from the Firesafe Council and the main thing we needed to pay attention to was the ladder fuels. Planting has been removed from the edges of the house so that it does not touch the house. It was an incredible service from the Firesafe Council to come out and spend a couple of hours going through this property. So the ready phase is when there's no immediate threat to you and your family. This is the time when you should be doing education and planning, whether that be training, educating yourself or accumulating equipment, hardening your home, creating defensible space. Defensible space is really all about creating a buffer zone between your house and plammable vegetation. We really focus on defensible space around the home, that first 100 feet, but also around the roadway too. Another aspect of the ready phase is hardening the home, and really what that means is making your home more resilient to wildfire. That's going to be putting the fine grain mesh around the vents of your home so that embers won't get into under your house or into the eaves of your house. That's going to be using non combustible materials on your deck and around your home. So when an embers storm comes through it's not going to ignite your home itself. I currently live here in Grass Valley with my parents. All of us have sleep apnea, so we all have CPAT machines that require power in order to run. I also use a nebulizer, and that's used to disperse medication that I need to give myself breathing again. When we have safety shutoffs, we have to hook up our equipment to batteries that have inverters. We have a generator that powers some of the things around the house, but then I obtained pretty substantial battery from freed, and it was so easy to go through the process to obtain a battery that I would recommend it to anyone who might have medical needs that require power or really anything. I would highly recommend contacting freed. So whether it's a snowstorm or a public safety power shot we really want folks to be thinking about, okay, what are the things I'll need on hand to whether the storm? Do I need to have candles? Do I need to have battery-powered radio? Do I need to have flashlights? So what are the things that you'll need to shelter in place or address the disaster at hand? So go back, could be anything. It could be a backpack. It could be a suitcase. It's going to be something that you put together to sustain yourself, your family, your pets, if needed. That's going to have food, water, medication, clothing, toiletries to get you by for 72 hours. You need to think of your go-back as the only resource you may have. Stores may be closed. The power may be out, so you may have to literally live out of this thing for a three day period as an evacuee. If you are someone with a disability, maybe you have a chronic health condition. For me, I have type 1 diabetes, I have an insulin pump, right? And so that's a critical piece that I need to plan for if I'm gonna ever evacuate or be away from my house, frankly, for any amount of time, right? What we find often is that if people don't evacuate with their CPAP machine, with their oxygen concentrator, with their wheelchair, walker, then it can be difficult on the other end. ... My name's Ulysses Palencia. I work in the 211 call center. I'm just a resident of Grass Valley. I have two daughters, four-year-old and a one-year-old. In Nevada County 211 is available 24-7. So we provide for the community as information. That can be anything from directions to the resource centers. It can be letting them know where the fire is. If they are themselves in an evacuation center, if it's a fire, if there's any information as to whether power's coming back on during a PSPS, 2-1 gets the information that we provide directly from the county, so directly from the Office of Emergency Services. The whole team cares. We're all local community members. We all just want to help. So we were all sleeping in bed on Thursday, November 8th, and paradise. And first the house phone rang, picked up my phone. It was my sister who lived in a block or so away from us. We were working by a telephone call from my daughter. She said that we were being evacuated. I left sooner than them. I had everything ready. They were on the way out the door. There was not time to think about what you're going to take, what you're not going to take. The night before the fire, I knew it was a red flag warning, and I knew that it was a high risk. So on my way home, I filled up the tank. Well, away we didn't get too far from the house, and we're watching fire coming down the hill. There was a machine shop right to my right right there, and it had gas tanks and propane tanks. And I saw a lone ember kind of floating through, dancing through the air. And I watched it as it landed on the machine shop. In the time it took me to get my phone back into hand and to take a picture it was engulfed in flames. And I knew that within moments, it would start exploding and I would be dead. And just as I moved out of the range of the explosions, they started happening and I prayed for the people behind me. Ten minute drive normally the Chico became almost for a horse. So it was a long trip. We started to hear a pattern. People kept telling us their story of how they escaped. They camped fire. And they talked about how if it wasn't for my neighbor who came and knocked on my door to tell me there was a fire, I don't know that I would have gotten out alive. If it wasn't for my son who lives next door picking me up and putting me in their car and driving me out of there, I don't know how I would have survived. And so I started really thinking about this connection between isolation and how connected you are to your community, to your neighbors, to your friends, to your family, and how that can be really helpful and a time of a disaster. So we were actually the beneficiaries of someone making that plan in advance to have that group of people that they were going to call. And that she saved my life that day. So absolutely having that network really saved lives. Find your five, the ideas that, you know, find trusted allies that can be there and can be responsive and will check in with you if a disaster were to happen. So we recommend that you put people in your network that are down the street, that are maybe the next town over, they're outside and it's simply that it's go. Evacuation information comes in two types. The first type could be an evacuation warning. This is an essentially information that we're going to push out to the public, notifying them of a potential threat in their area where they may have to evacuate their home. And evacuation order is essentially that. We are telling people that it's time to go. There is an imminent threat to life, and we do not believe that you have much time to leave the area. Code Red is a opt-in alerting system that will dial your number. It'll send you a phone call, a text message, and an email, notifying you of an emergency. That message is sent from our office, the office of emergency services. It's going to be very targeted to your area and it'll be specific to you. At 513, the phone rang with the code Red call. And so as I was going up 49, I could look over to the left and see the flames in the canyon. The next layer is for staff to actually be out driving in the areas with the high low siren. There's no other reason you'll hear that in an area unless we're putting out that evacuation order not a warning but an order. My day started a routine patrol. Came in and I was notified by dispatch to respond out to the Jones fire. Houses that had evacuation tags made it so we could just pass by. We knew that the residents had already been evacuated. Residences that did not have the tags, we would have to physically go in, knock on the door, look in the windows, make sure there were no occupants inside. Once you've been evacuated, as you're leaving, put this tag somewhere very, you know, clearly identifiable, whether it's a mailbox, a gate, your address marker, so that deputies and officers can quickly identify if your residence is already been evacuated. I mean, you look out my back window here on the east side, and you see how close this fire came. It was certainly a shock, and at the same time, it was such an incredible relief to have the house as safe as it was. I mean, I think with personal preparedness and being ready, it can feel overwhelming. It can feel like a lot to do. And the most important piece is to just start with one little bite at a time. Just start the conversation, have some sort of plan. It can be as small as a meet-up place, you know, a destination that everybody will get to, everybody in the household will get to if there's a disaster. Recognize you live in a community in a county that really does take the emergency response as a priority. We have worked diligently throughout the last few years on ensuring that not only our staff are trained and prepared, but we're also putting that out for our community. The more prepared you are in your own community, the better the outcome is going to be. The level of community awareness, they have to be part of the solution. They have to communicate with their neighbors. They have to be part of the discussion in communities. They have to support the response, the prevention, the education, and ultimately the collaboration and the engagement. People have to be engaged at all levels. The more you think about it now, the easier it will be when the time comes that you need to evacuate. We've created this network, and we want you to make sure that you know that you can tap into that. So if you are feeling a little bit overwhelmed, not sure where to start. Reach out to one of our offices. Reach out to the Firesafe Council or 211. We're here to support you. I'm gonna go back to the next one. I'm gonna go back to the next one. I'm gonna go back to the next one. I'm gonna go back to the next one. I'm gonna go back to the next one. I'm gonna go back to the next one. I'm gonna go back to the next one. I'm gonna go back to the next one. I'm gonna go back to the next one. I'm gonna go back to the next one. you From the pit hills of the Sierra Nevada, a new hero will emerge. One who is ready. One who makes sure their friends and family are set. And has the power to go at a moment's notice. This fire season, you're the hero. We are Ready Nevada County. Nevada County has a new tool to make evacuations safer and more efficient in the event of emergency. This new tool is called Zone Haven and we need you to know your zone. In order to know your zone you need to go to community.zonehaven.com, type in your address. Once your address populates in the pop-up window take that information and write down the zone that is given to you where you know you'll find it in case of emergency. Zone Haven and knowing your zone does not replace Nixle and or Code Red, it actually supplements them and it makes those tools more powerful because you will know what zones are being evacuated or which ones are being placed on advisory and as a result you won't have to do anything else other than listen to those messages and know if it's time to go. Even if you don't have internet this could be done by word of mouth it can be done by radio or it could be us driving down the street so please know your zone. From trucky to lake of the pines, from Chicago Park to Spenceville, every single square mile of Nevada County has a zone. And having a zone that you know for your neighborhood is going to help you save time to be able to evacuate and keep you and your family safe. Reading Nevada County is an education campaign designed to help the public have successful outcomes during emergency events. We really focus on a whole host of disasters or emergency events we want to have a broad spectrum. We want to be prepared for anything. But really we focus a lot on wildfire because we know that's one of the most likely events to happen in Nevada County. Ready set go is really built around the wildfire premise to prepare residents to be ready before an event, to move into the set posture when there's a red flag or a fire's near you, and then to go when it's time to go. Essentially, in its ago now, actually. We selected the hardy plate, the concrete siding, and also the metal roof. Then when we moved up here and heard about the 49er fire, that's when we started to say, wow, this really is even more important than we first realized. So the 49er fire is one of the most historic fires in Nevada County's history. They figured it changed the laws of state of California that said this is how you have to protect your home. That came out in Nevada County. Steve Ubex came from the Firesafe Council and the main thing we needed to pay attention to was the ladder fuels. Planting has been removed from the edges of the house so that it does not touch the house. It was an incredible service from the Firesafe Council to come out and spend a couple of hours going through this property. So the ready phase is when there's no immediate threat to you and your family. This is the time when you should be doing education and planning, whether that be training, educating yourself or accumulating equipment, hardening your home, creating defensible space. Defensible space is really all about creating a buffer zone between your house and flammable vegetation. We really focus on defensible space around the home, that first 100 feet, but also around the roadway, too. Another aspect of the ready phase is hardening the home, and really what that means is making your home more resilient to wildfire. That's going to be putting the fine grain mesh around the vents of your home so that embers won't get into under your house or into the eaves of your house. That's going to be using non combustible materials on your deck and around your home. So when an ember storm comes through, it's not going to ignite your home itself. I currently live here in Grass Valley with my parents. All of us have sleep apnea, so we all have CPAP machines that require power in order to run. I also use a nebulizer and that's used to disperse medication that I need to give myself breathing again. When we have safety shutoffs, we have to hook up our equipment to batteries to have inverters. We have a generator that powers some of the things around the house, but then I obtained a pretty substantial battery from freed, and it was so easy to go through the process to obtain a battery that I would recommend it to anyone who might have medical needs that require power or really anything. I would highly recommend contacting freed. So whether it's a snow storm or a public safety power shot of, we really want folks to be thinking about, OK, what are the things I'll need on hand to whether the storm? Do I need to have candles? Do I need to have battery powered radio? Do I need to have flashlights? So what are the things that you'll need to shelter in place or address the disaster at hand? So a go-back could be anything. It could be a backpack, it could be a suitcase. It's going to be something that you put together to sustain yourself, your family, your pets, if needed. That's going to have food, water, medication, clothing, toiletries to get you by for 72 hours. You need to think of your go bag as the only resource you may have. Stores may be closed, the power may be out, so you may have to literally live out of this thing for a three day period as an evacuee. If you are someone with a disability, maybe you have a chronic health condition. For me, I have type 1 diabetes, I have an insulin pump, right? And so that's a critical piece that I need to plan for if I'm gonna ever evacuate or be away from my house, frankly, for any amount of time, right? What we find often is that if people don't evacuate with their CPAP machine, with their oxygen concentrator, with their wheelchair, walker, then it can be difficult on the other end. My name is Ulysses Palencia. I work in the 211 call center. I'm just a resident of Grass Valley. I have two daughters, four-year-old and a one-year-old. In Nevada County 211 is available 24-7. So we provide for the community is information. That could be anything from directions to the resource centers it can be letting them know where the fire is you know if they are themselves in an evacuation center if it's a fire if there's any information as to whether their power is coming back on during a PSPS 211 gets the information that we provide directly from the county, so directly from the Office of Emergency Services. The whole team cares. We're all local community members. We all just want to help. So we were all sleeping in bed on Thursday, November 8th, and paradise. And first the house phone rang, picked up my phone. It was my sister who lived. A block or so away from us. We were welcome by a telephone call from my daughter. She said that we were being evacuated. I left sooner than them. I had everything ready. They were on the way out the door. There was not time to think about what you're going to take, what you're not going to take. The night before the fire, I knew it was a red flag warning, and I knew that it was a high risk. So on my way home, I filled up the tank. On the way up, we didn't get too far from the house. And we're watching fire coming down the hill. There was a machine shop right to my right right there, and it had gas tanks and propane tanks. And I saw a lone ember kind of floating through, dancing through the air. And I watched it as it landed on the machine shop. In the time it took me to get my phone back into hand and to take a picture it was engulfed in flames. And I knew that within moments it would start exploding and I would be dead. And just as I moved out of the range of the explosions they started happening and I prayed for the people behind me. Ten minute drive normally the Chico became almost four hours. So it was a long trip. We started here a pattern. People kept telling us their story of how they escaped. They camped fire. And they talked about how if it wasn't for my neighbor who came and knocked on my door to tell me there was a fire, I don't know that I would have gotten out alive. If it wasn't for my son who lives next door picking me up and putting me in their car and driving me out of there, I don't know how I would have survived. And so I started really thinking about this connection between isolation and how connected you are to your community, to your neighbors, to your friends, to your family, and how that can be really helpful in a time of a disaster. So we were actually the beneficiaries of someone making that plan in advance to have that group of people that they were going to call. And that she saved my life that day. So absolutely having that network really saved lives. Find your five, the ideas that, you know, find trusted allies that can be there and can be responsive and will check in with you if a disaster were to happen. So we recommend that you put people in your network that are down the street, that are maybe the next town over, that are outside the county, and maybe even outside the state. The final tier of the Ready Set Go is that Go piece, and it's simply that it's Go. Evacuation information comes in two types. The first type could be an evacuation warning. This is an essentially information that we're going to push out to the public, notifying them of a potential threat in their area where they may have to evacuate their home. An evacuation order is essentially that. We are telling people that it's time to go. There is an imminent threat to life and we do not believe that you have much time to leave the area. Code Red is a opt-in alerting system that will dial your number. It'll send you a phone call, a text message, and an email notifying you of an emergency. That message is sent from our office, the Office of Emergency Services. It's going to be very targeted to your area and it'll be specific to you. At 513, the phone rang with the code red call. And so as I was going up 49, I could look over to the left and see the flames in the canyon. The next layer is for staff to actually be out driving in the areas with the high low siren. There's no other reason you'll hear that in an area unless we're putting out that evacuation order, not a warning, but an order. My day started, a routine patrol came in and I was notified by dispatch to respond out to the Jones fire. Houses that had evacuation tags made it so we could just pass by. We knew that the residents had already been evacuated. Residences that did not have the tags, we would have to physically go in, knock on the door, look in the windows, make sure there were no occupants inside. Once you've been evacuated, as you're leaving, put this tag somewhere very, you know, clearly identifiable, whether it's a mailbox, a gate, your address marker, so that deputies and officers can quickly identify if your residence is already ben evacuated. I mean, you look out my back window here on the east side, and you see how close this fire came. It was certainly a shock. And at the same time, it was such an incredible relief to have the house as safe as it was. I mean, I think with personal preparedness and being ready, it can feel overwhelming. It can feel like a lot to do. And the most important piece is to just start with one little bite at a time. Just start the conversation, have some sort of plan. It can be a small is a meetup place, you know, a destination that everybody will get to, everybody in the household will get to if there's a disaster. Recognize you live in a community in a county that really does take the emergency response as a priority. We have worked diligently throughout the last few years on ensuring that not only our staff are trained and prepared, but we're also putting that out for our community. The more prepared you are in your own community, the better the outcome is going to be. The level of community awareness, they have to be part of the solution. They have to communicate with their neighbors. They have to be part of the discussion in communities. They have to support the response, the prevention, the education, and ultimately the collaboration and the engagement. People have to be engaged at all levels. The more you think about it now, the easier it will be when the time comes that you need to evacuate. We've created this network and we want you to make sure that you know that you can tap into that. So if you are feeling a little bit overwhelmed, not sure where to start, reach out to one of our offices, reach out to the Firesafe Council, or 211. We're here to support it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. you From the pit hills of the Sierra Nevada, a new hero will emerge. One who makes sure their friends and family are set. And has the power to go at a moment's notice. This fire season, you're the hero. We're going to start summation of arguments for the project proponent. This will be timed at 10 minutes. Understand, Mr. Ball and Mr. Budeau are expected to provide the summation of the arguments on behalf of the proponent. Good afternoon, Honourable Members of the Board. Thanks for considering this project today. My name is Rob Hoodle with Coblin's Patch Duffie and Bass and we're legal counsel to the Project Apple Camp. And I just wanted to start by, well, I's, I wanted to focus on the sequa issues that have been raised. And there's literally, there's no merit to those claims that have been raised. And I wanted to focus on the legal task that Mr. Muni had mentioned, which is in order to require an EIR rather than the initial study mitigated negative declaration that's been prepared. There needs to be a fair argument that's based on substantial evidence of a potentially significant impact. And I wanted to delve a little bit deeper illegally into what substantial evidence means because that hasn't been presented here. It means under the SQL guidelines, it means facts, reasonable assumptions that are based on facts, expert opinion based on or supported by facts, and it also has to be reasonable on nature, credible, and of solid value. And importantly here, it must also be relevant. The evidence must be relevant to the project that is under consideration. So much of their SQL arguments, both in terms of the project description as well as the wildfire risk issue, rest on the position that this document needed to this mitigated negative declaration needed to analyze other projects. Timber harvesting and forced thinning projects that aren't part of this decision. Those are separate projects that would likely be happening without this project. And certainly there's no direct foreseeable connection between this particular project and any particular other forest thinning projects. And SQL doesn't, it says, SQL in the case of LaSae, you don't need to, it doesn't require analysis. You don't need to analyze impacts that are speculative. So, if you have a request for a request, if you have a request for a request, then you have a request for a request for a request. So, if you have a request for a request, then you have a request for a request, then you have a request for a request, then you have a request for a request, then you have a request for a request, then you have a request for a request, then you have a request for a request, then you have a request for a request, that can help aid decision members and members of the public to understand what's happening, what's going to happen as an impact of this project. So, and this is true for indirect and cumulative impacts as well. They need to be reasonably foreseeable consequences of the project impacts that are consequences of the project that you're approving. And here again, there's no direct connection at all between the approval of this project, which would receive timber and the actual timber harvesting projects that have their own project proponents. They have their approved by various different agencies. They have their own sequa and environmental processes or their own environmental processing processes, including sometimes NEPA, sometimes timber harvesting plans, which are SQL equivalent, sometimes SQL, but you know, the main point is that those projects are when they're proposed are analyzed thoroughly as part of separate processes and can move forward with or without this project, this project can move forward with or without them. So turning to the wildfire impact scenario, their expert analysis, supposed from Dr. Hanson, I think is both, well, I think you've heard a lot about the credibility aspects of that study. I think we have experts that have provided testimony, can have already spoken to that more than I can. But in terms of relevance, again, those are impacts of other projects. that have provided testimony can have already spoken to that more than I can. But in terms of relevance, again, those are impacts of other projects. They're not impacts of this sawmill project, even if it's credible information, even if there's a real scientific dispute about the worthiness of timber, of fire fuel thinning in order to reduce fires. That's not something that is an aspect of this project. This project has been shown in the negative declaration to have a less and significant impact related to wildfire risk and to comply with all the codes and other fire requirements that are necessary in order to make this a fire safe project. I think for the other various arguments that have been raised, staff has done a terrific job addressing those in terms of noise and air quality and why those aren't substantial evidence and that's all adequately in the record and the staff report. One other thing I'll mention briefly is Mr. Mooney also mentioned the fact that lay testimony can be substantial evidence and that is true in some cases for issues such as aesthetics where a layperson can be just as as adequate to speak on or as knowledgeable about that as anyone else that's a different issue and something like wildfire risk or traffic and traffic design hazards that are really issues that require some expertise to really qualify as substantial evidence. So I wanted to make that point. I also wanted to just step away from the sequestries and just clarify one point from earlier, which in response to one of the questions from the board, which was the width of the new pay of the road, which is actually 20 feet of roadway 10, 10 foot lanes in both directions plus two feet of shoulder on either side. So wanted to make that clear and just make myself and the rest of the other project team available for any questions that the members of the board may have. Okay, thank you. Unless the board has any questions, why don't we hold those till we get the appellant piece and thank you. We'll go ahead and turn it over to the appellant for summation. You have 10 minutes. Thank you. First, can you say I just want to say we're, yeah, thanks. Now we can see you. Thank you. Okay. A couple of things. One, the, comment's been Mr. Mercer about the, about the, the need for the Somal and the opinion projects that go on nearby. Really did in fact establish a link between this project and the opinion projects that are taking place. Getting a little bit of feedback here. We can we can hear you out and clear. Yeah, we can hear you out and clear. Okay. But in no doubt the Hansen report is controversial. In fact, when I read it, I was, you know, realized that it would be very controversial and a little outside the traditional thought. But that being said, what you heard today was disagreement among with that report. I thought that they call it discrediting it, but it's disagreement with that report. The report is, if you look at it, it is an opinion. It is, but it is an opinion based upon fact. It is an opinion based upon numerous studies, studies that were even conducted by the United States Forest Service. And it is an expert opinion. And again, it is a disagreement. There is a significant disagreement, and I understand that. What you also heard today was a lot of testimony about the road safety and public safety in the neighborhood. With regards to the trucks coming in, the expansion of the road. This is a neighborhood where there are children that use that road, the bicyclists that use that road, and with a substantial increase in drug traffic, as well as different times of the year. The road will be used, I mean, road will be used year round and with the weather conditions, it's going to change the dynamics there and the road will be and raises significant safety issues for the neighborhood. Also, you heard that there are concerns about testimony, about the lack of ingress and ingress, the second ingress and ingress. You've also heard that this project is inconsistent with the general plan and in county codes in terms of citing of us the early facility in terms of land use potentially potential land use impacts. And you've heard about the impact and just the overall impacts to the neighborhood. And some of that was expert testimony and some of that was lay testimony. And I agree with council that all that they just spoke that not all lay testimony is expert testimony and that there if it is testimony that is based upon some technical needs some technical background to be able to interpret and provide that testimony. But that is not the case with aesthetics, which council mentioned, but it's also not the case with traffic. Now if it's traffic, if you're trying to do a very formal traffic study, there may be a some type technical requirements required, but there is numerous case law that says that individuals who have personal knowledge about a particular area in terms of the traffic patterns of potential traffic impacts by adding cars or trucks to an area. you do not need to be a traffic engineer to be able to provide testimony about the potential traffic impacts in your neighborhood when you have personal knowledge of the traffic patterns and the amount of lay testimony. So with all of this lay testimony and expert testimony that's been provided to the board, what you have is essentially disagreement among the evidence in terms of the potential impacts of this project. And it is very clear that when there's, it's not your role at this point in time to weigh that evidence and say we disagree with that, with certain parts of that evidence and we agree with other parts of it. When it's substantial evidence. The role is to direct staff to go prepare an EIR. And again, that is what we're asking for here is to go prepare an EIR. Another benefit of preparing an EIR is EIRs do there's an alternative analysis in an EIR. So part of an alternative analysis could look look at is there another location for this. Now it may be something that would require a landswap with the forest service or a landswap or purchasing property elsewhere. That is more compatible with the land uses of the neighborhood. So there's another benefit of requiring the IRs that it does require the alternatives analysis that does require more in-depth analysis of the impacts that the neighbors and the folks here are very concerned about. And again, it's a project that is going to have a huge impact on a neighborhood, potentially impacts other areas in terms of the forest. But again, it's not the board's role today to weigh all that evidence and make a decision which evidence you agree with and which evidence you don't agree with. The board's role is to simply say a EIR needs to be prepared for this matter. And I think I want to check I think Mr. Spencer might have had a few things that he wanted also say in submission. Can you please turn on the microphone real quick? Okay. Yeah, that's what it was. One more time. Okay, sorry. Real quick, my name is Andrew, that's what it was. One more time. Okay, sorry. Real quick, my name is Andrew Heespencer. Can we, uh, excuse me, just one sec. Can you add a minute to the clock, please? Thank you. Yes, chair. Okay. You know, on the topic of subject matter experts, I think you've heard those today. My dad's resume is a doctor in sciences and all these things I think speaks to his background. I also worked as a realtor in this town for two decades. Was a paid professional which qualifies me as a subject matter expert. One thing I'd like to remind the board of is your oath that you took when you took this office was to protect the California Constitution on Article 1, Section 19 of the California Constitution. There's been overwhelming support for this project and the need to mitigate fire in this area. I agree with that. However, if you are saying that this location for this project is the only one that it can go in right now, then you have to understand that you are basically condemning the property owners there to a massive property value loss. It's been predicated by case law. We've sought other legal counsel on this topic that's professionals in this context. We've provided case law to this and you could be facing an inverse condemnation action based on that. On average, the property values and the median home prices in this area are $1.4 million with an average of I think $626 per square foot for home, et cetera. We could easily see as a professional relative or previously in this, a 30 to 40% loss in our property value. That is a significant impact to all of the homeowners in this area. So if this project is going to drive $300 million of revenue over the 50-year life cycle of this, and yet we're going to see essentially, you know, like most Americans today, of vast majority of my net worth has tied up in the property. I'm looking at losing all of that of my net worth, of my profit value of the property because of this. You need to take that into consideration as a significant impact. So going back to the request for EIR, right, looking at alternatives, one alternative is to do some measure of a landswap, which was already mentioned, but not looked at as an alternative of just take a 1500 foot linear path and move Mercer's property line, 1500 feet to the south, make that middle section US Forest Service, which accomplishes two major things. It puts a buffer between all of the homes and mitigates this potential loss. Two, it addresses the landlock issue of the single access road that the US Forest Service is saying is requirement right now to give an easement. If you move his property 1,500 feet south, make the middle forest service, then they would have to give him another easement on the other end. This is just an alternative that we're asking for in the EIR or something to be considered that would mitigate most of the impacts that we would feel as property owners in the area. And with that said, you know, it's there is other impacts to it, but just doing that alone or evaluating other ways to make this project work, which again, overwhelming support to make it work. But looking at simple solutions to say, if we just move this 15 hundred feet this way put another road in we address 80 to 90% of the impacts that we would feel why is that not being considered and why is that not being evaluated in an EIR thank you very much for your time I know we're out I know we're out of time. I make a look at our association in grass Valley for four years. And so I did look at the case law on the liability without some mitigation and some re-embedignification from the project owner, every property owner on that private road can be subject to a lawsuit and then it's happened multiple times to road association members. Right now there's not a road association for client act flat road, road association, I and we actually have a two or three million dollar liability policy that we pay any share to support. Thank you for your input. Thank you for the comments from the appellant. We're going to open up the public hearing for rebuttal with the members of the public timed at two minutes each if there's any additional public comments. It's likely we've heard them already but if you have a public comment related to the rebuttal, portions we've, excuse me, heard after lunch, feel free to step up to the mic. Do you have any callers on the line? Chair, we have no callers on the line. Okay. This is gonna be comments related to the rebuttals of the two, the proponent and the appellant that just came up before you. He have two minutes. My name's Michael Clark. I am the resident of Klondike Flat and I have been for about 30 years. My main concern is the noise. I hear very well. I sleep very well. I can tell who's coming up that road, by who it is, by the sound of the car. That's how quiet it is. If you can experience standing in the forest, being so quiet, that's the way it is, Klondike Flat. And with this traffic, it's going away. Our little community has been there for 50 some years. And we all work together in keeping a defensible space. Everyone can agree on fire and fire safety and wildfire suppression. But I really think there's got to be a better alternative and location for this project to go forward. And I asked that you consider that. One thing that I haven't heard was brought up at the first meeting was the property has a so-called toxic dump area. I don't know exactly where it is, but the years ago it was used as a dump site. I don't know what their cars, refrigerators, washing machines, who knows what. But it is public knowledge to my 30 years of living there that there is something on that property that shouldn't be there. That's all. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Any outcolors on the line? No colors, Chair. Okay. We're going to close the public hearing at this time, and I'm going to bring it back to the board, start with clarifying questions of either the appellant or the project proponent, the applicant, and we'll just start on my left and then we can go to board deliberation after we get our questions. I have quite a few questions. I'd like to just stick to questions at this point and then we'll go to deliberation. Supervisor Hook, do you have any questions? Actually, I don't. I think it's been pretty clear. So thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you supervisor. Let's go Phil Are we having staff come back for summary? I could I so chair block. We do have a staff summation available for you if that's the direction you want to go I have a question. I think They would summarize okay, that's that's the clarification on the the zoning that summarize. Okay. That's the clarification on the zoning that exists. Okay. Thank you for the correction in the process. Mr. Foss, will you give us some room? Sure. Thank you. Mr. Chair and supervisors. I'll touch on a few issues. The property is owned forest and has a land use designation of forest, the properties to the north that are developed with residential uses are also zone forests, that whole area does have a forest designation. Residential uses are allowed in forest as well as resource material processing, lumber mills, sawmills, those types of uses are also allowed in forest, although those properties to the north are developed with residential uses. They're afforded the same opportunities with zoning requirements under forest. Obviously, they're too small likely to develop with a sawmill, but they are under the same rules and regulations that the sawmill is as well. The compatibility issue is addressed typically through our policies and our land use zoning design standards in the form of setbacks, lighting standards, noise standards in addition to our environmental review. And as evidenced in the staff report, the project meets all of those design standards including the shielding of lighting, meeting the noise standards that are not only identified in the general plan, but also the zoning ordinance, and then re-verified through the secret document, and that the project was found consistent with those standards of the forest designation as well as the compatibility issue. The access, as been mentioned a number of times, as we know that the road is required to be improved to a 20 foot wide, two foot, two 10 foot lanes with two two foot shoulders. Those design standards are in place with safety in mind. When a road is improved to specific standards, it is assumed that there is safety built in, otherwise we would have greater standards. And those are our typical fire safe and county road standards that this project is being subject to. There is no secondary access requirement because the project is not beyond dead-in road limits. That is typically the requirement for secondary access. In this case, the dead-in road limit would be one mile given the zoning and it's not beyond that dead-in road. Distance limitation, therefore, no secondary access was required. And then lastly, in consultation with county council, staff does believe that the fair argument test has not been made, given the evidence in the record, and that the opinions regarding force management practices are not directly related to the project. In any indirect impacts are speculative and not based on facts and staff believes that a mitigated negative declaration is the appropriate environmental document for the project. And with that, we happy to answer any other questions. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Additional questions for Brian. Okay. Rosar, sort of. So I just have a question. Actually, I think this for our legal counsel. Thank you. Brian for clarifying the EIR versus mitigated negative deck decision. But Trevor, can you just explain what how this potentially could be affected with an inverse condemnation claim? Do you mean the risk to the county of an inverse condemnation claim in this instance? Yes. Right. Instance. Yes. You know, I'd hesitate to weigh in on the viability of any lawsuit that we would be defending, but generally speaking, inverse condenation claims are the requirement to make them would be a more of a total loss of value to a property such that it couldn't be used in any other way, rather than, than you know say a minimal loss. Okay. Thank you. And then so it's my understanding in this process that then that for example if we were to approve this today the applicants have the opportunity then to or the appellants have the opportunity to file a sequel lawsuit against the county. Is that correct? Uh, yeah, that is correct. Yes. Okay. So there is there, there's potentially further decisions that could be made on this application beyond our control here. Correct. The the appellants or whomever could file, yeah, could file a lawsuit and name whatever kind of claim they would like including CEQA. Thank you. Supervisor Hall. No questions. I'll have a couple of questions and in Brian you may be able to answer these if not. It could be, I I could be anyway anybody but when you continue down Condyke Road eventually will you come to a Forest Service Access Road that goes North or South and the second part of that question if you continue down your property to the dead end would that tie into another road exiting the property? If a road were constructed on your property? So there are two access points off of our property on to forest service property, but they do not give us legal access to the forest service property, the church put them in without permit, but there is physical access. As is their physical access off of any of the most western Klondike properties directly to the OHV and road network that abuts the the private property. Okay, I think I understand that. So there's a road constructed, non-permitted, that crosses for a service land on your property. If a fire were to start, you could drive a vehicle down that road and exit the property in the area, is that right? Correct. I've driven it. I've driven it in my pickup and it's not an off-road machine, trust me. They're road and then the ones off of Condyke are there other accesses that you described hitting the OHHV network. I'm familiar with that area, but I'm not familiar with where Condyke is. I just know that they're they're proper. The Western most properties butt up against the Forest Service and the Forest Service 89. I remember 36 road. I think it is butts up to the back of those properties and then goes on to the North and South. You can get across Sage handHan Creek from there. And okay. I'm just asking, my question is, is there a way you could drive a vehicle today absent any other development or road permissioning? If there were a fire to leave either the Kondike parcels or your parcel. Well, I can I know I can drive from our parcel onto the in 936 road and get back to the Prosero HV or get all the way to independence lake through that road. But you want it, okay? On which way you want to go. Okay. thank you. Mr. Chair. Yeah. How far is the OHV from? It's the there's OHV trails out behind this place? Well, he's using that. I think that if I understand you correctly interchangeably because they call it a OHV because it's basically the dirt road system that goes in between North to independence lake and then South to Truckee where people ride dirt bikes. I ride it all the time on my gravel bike and I can I could drive a car on most of it but I don't know what's directly adjacent to the Klondike road and the back of the Condiq homeowners areas. That's what I don't understand. Yeah, there are four service system roads that are but our property. Not single track, but full four service system roads. Okay. Okay. Understood. Thank you. I don't have any other additional questions at this time. Any other board questions, clarifications? Okay. Well, I'm going to open up board deliberation. I can start with, um, start with supervisor hook. I think we've been listening to all of this and I understand how it is to have to deal with change and where those things come. I've lived it myself. So I get it. And so I'm having, I am having some, and it is kind of interesting. I looked at staff's project. I thought they really did it in detail. I can't find any wrong mistakes in it that I guess it, I want to be able to say no, go back and fix it. You know, I think they've done that through the appeal. They went back and made some mitigative changes that were significant at the time the road is an issue. I love the have that you know we talked about this road standard when the you know it came back from the forestry committee and 20 feet is a good road you could get two cars passing it. I think that helps in a fire situation as well those were good points. I'm trying to listen to what these folks out here say and I and while I'm sympathetic to change there's the other part of it that says change comes with safety and fire safety is a huge huge component that we look at every day and how do we get rid of this material and how do we make that first step and so I'm I just I'm leaning towards this project going through, personally. I feel like that they're looking at loss in property revenue. And I don't know that I see that it really will be significant in that. Of course, I don't live there. I'm not going to say that I am an expert in this, but Sequa is such a detailed process. Sequa takes a lot of time and goes through so many details in this, and I feel like Sequa does its job. And so anyway, I'm kind of there. I listened. I'm feeling fairly much in support of this. Thank you. Thank you. Senator Schofield. Well, actually I grew up in Western Nevada County. And during a period when sawmills were in many areas right around the town itself. And I think the main difference today is, well, the one mill I'm mostly familiar with, it's not nearly as big as what is being proposed here. And secondly, the mills of those that era, compared to what goes on now, I don't think there's any real comparison to them. There was sound on those big, big projects and they would go 24 hours a day as I mentioned to you. So I think we're looking at a whole different, a whole different type of facility than we would have back then 30, 40 years ago. I do wanna point out that I did add the opportunity come out and take a look at the property. I had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Mercer at the time. I came out, Chair Bullock set up the meeting and I will tell you, we did not have a conversation on the project itself. I don't know where he stands on it, but I wanted folks to know that I was able to see it. The mitigated impact reports to me. of time and effort that goes into those reports. And when you see a challenge that ends up in a court saying there's something wrong with the environmental impact report, when it finally comes back, you see very, very little change from what's originally been presented to us. In fact, I see it as a stalling method, which I think is very, very unfortunate if that's the way this one goes. One of the selling points on this one to me is the zoning. You know, it's like, isn't there a better place? My gosh, how could you find a better place that's already zoned, forested, where you can put that type of facility in there. And all the neighbors have the same type of opportunity, granted smaller, but they have the same opportunity. So you've got a really great place there. I was impressed with the proponents speaking and the number of people that spoke, that Ellie would come all the way out from Washington DC to talk on this thing, Chief Lindgren and his response. And the thing that really kind of got me and I kind of picked this up and talked into Dave when I was up here last week. Mr. Hanson brought up the quality of this person and I think that's huge and I had that feeling with Dave is if something's not working right, he's going to do his best to take care of it. And I think that's a major major impact on this project. I support the project. I think the planning commission did a lot of work on this and I agree with their recommendation. Thank you for comments, Supervisor and Supervisor Hall. Yeah, I think I love that this is seen as a model project for what we need throughout this region and other parts of the air. I mean, we've been looking for projects like this for a while. It meets a deep need that we have right now in our wild farm mitigation, vegetation mitigation management work. And it seems to have been well thought out and well planned. I am always concerned about the impacts on neighborhoods and so I did look also at the mitigation measures and ask my questions with the trucks, but it's been minimized to my mind to a level that's reasonable. And I could say some things about the last minute report coming in that controversial report. I don't want to get into that too much, but you know, or being told what I can, I cannot consider up here on the board. Doesn't sit well with me ever. But when there is data that's brought in, that's been debunked by credible sources, that doesn't help your cause one bit. That's an aside, but I support this project. I always do wanna make sure the neighborhood is taken care of. And I feel confident that everything that can be done has been done in a reasonable way. Thanks for your comments and Supervisor Swarthout. Thank you. So I would agree with the comments that my colleagues have made. And the other thing that wasn't really brought up that much, but it was very I don't know. I really liked it. It was the fact that you're building some residential on that property and Trekkie this area desperately needs housing and the fact that you're providing some housing for people who potentially are going to be working there. There's two things obviously it helps you find people because they need housing, but also it mitigates some of your traffic issues because they're working and living close in. So, you know, I appreciate the neighborhood perspective changes is hard and that sometimes it's inevitable. So I would also support the Planning Commission's approval of this project. Thank you. I'm just going to mention a few comments from my perspective. I think I'm going to start with your your counsel's representation. I disagree whole hard with his assessment of our role in this process. I just like to point that out that in item B, is this been presented to the board in this fair argument test? The fair argument test requires an agency prepare an EIR. Whenever substantial evidence in the record supports a fair argument that a proposed project may have significant effects on the environment. Quote, if there is substantial evidence in the light of the whole record before the lead agency, that the project may have this significant effect on an environment environment. An impact report shall be prepared. That standard was not met in my opinion, not in the least, and actually contrary to the report provided by Dr. Hanson. The experts in the room that I recognize in respect have refuted that and so I don't believe that that is part of what would trigger us to require any IR for this project. I think the mitigated negative deck went the distance for me using the sequel checklist and understanding that are staffed the best they could to look at every possible detail associated with the sequel checklist and understanding that are staffed the best they could to look at every possible detail associated with sequel. I find it reasonable. So from the two parts available to this board on the environmental review part, I accept the mitigated negative deck as it stands. The conditional use permit. I have a few things to say about the the local impact that we talk about within the neighborhood has been my concern since the beginning. I did write a letter of support conceptually for this project before I knew. Everything that we have in front of us. I've refrained from offering any of my opinion until all the information is provided to the board through the planning commission process. I did meet with the neighborhood and I met with the homeowners on multiple occasions, both privately and in groups to understand their concerns. I think I understand most of their concerns. I may not share the severity of their concerns. When we talk about the project being located in the center of the neighborhood, I find that to be false that the project is actually to the south of the neighborhood. I've been out to the project several times. I've seen vehicles come and go. I've seen trucks come and go and those impacts from noise and what we may ask of the applicant, but as far as the actual impact of the neighborhood, I've listened carefully to the neighborhood and I do believe there will be some impacts. I think they're mitigated out. I think they're minor in comparison to the way that they've been described both of the planning commission and to the sport. I do understand your private property rights and I also understand that a compatible use based on zoning and entitlements is part of your neighborhood. It is your neighborhood forest. F.R. zoning is part of the neighborhood that you live in and that you've chose to make your home there include. So, well, I'm sympathetic to those concerns I think that we do have to understand that the county as a whole and the general plan reflects what is appropriate for that area and the neighbors. On the emergency egress road I know a fair bit about that area from my experience of living here for 30 years and spending a lot of my time Recreating behind those parcels. I don't know the intricacies in the detail But I think I understand enough that if there was a fire most people in this community drive four-wheel drive vehicles And I am pretty sure that we would all find a way out of that neighborhood if the front road was blocked and there was a fire I'm not a fire person, but I do feel comfortable that there's enough of a road out of that neighborhood. If the front road was blocked and there was a fire, I'm not a fire person, but I do feel comfortable that there's enough of a road network behind that area that would provide a safe egress for people located in that neighborhood. That's why I asked the question. I think as far as the road standard goes, the dirt road in its current condition, I feel is pretty safe for the type of traffic it gets. Obviously if we're adding industrial type of uses for the sawmill, it has to be widened with the shoulder and the lack of kind of ancillary driveways that come into that road. I feel like the road is safe. I feel like paving it, widening it, putting in shoulders, putting in BMPs to drain the water off. It's going to keep the road drier in the winter. I think it's going to be better for both the application of the industrial portion of the project and also for the homeowner's living there. I think ultimately you'll have a safer environment for everybody involved. The thinning in the front to create some more visual line of sight improve the line of sight related to the entrance on to highway 89 I think is critical. One of the conditions of approval I'd like to see is whatever thinning and removal of trees on the entranceway absolutely that happens so that we can get the safest sight line of distance. The other piece that I think is reasonable to ask and I'd like to ask if we can make this a condition of approval, but there was a fair bit of open space toward the front of the parcel that separates the residential development in the Somal entrance. I'd like to see earth and dams or some sort of earth and berm modestly built constructed along the kind of side of the property so that noise between the sawmill property and the residential development was mitigated, further mitigated, and potentially some visual screening. I think the 128 acres that the parcel has is going to be thinned. I think ultimately it's going to add to the defensible space profile with the neighborhood as a whole. I think Condyke Flat is going to benefit from the sawmill being there, because the owner's gonna thin the property and have resources like fire trailers, eight inch water lines, 200,000 gallon water tank. He's bringing resources, the applicants bringing resources to your neighborhood that could ultimately defend your neighborhood under any catastrophic fire condition. So this is my feeling on the project. That's the piece I have. And then if we talk about the regional benefit, I think it's been obvious from the testimony today that we need, we need sawmills, we kind of dismantled the logging industry as a whole in the 70s. And I think we've been trying to dig our way out of it ever since. We're not going to solve the fuels problem, We're not going to solve the forest problem. We're not going to solve the fire problem without saw mills, product utilization, you know, and start making dimensional wood out of some of the stuff that we have in our neighborhood. You get it out of here. I think this is a great project and, you know, my personal understanding of what Mr. Mercer is doing and his experience in Accument in this field makes me aware that he's going to do a good job. He's going to build a mill with this technology that's going to reduce impact. And he's going to be a good neighbor to the best of his ability. So with that, I would I would support a motion that added a few pieces on the conditions of approval to put visual or sound mitigation, earthen berms and visual screening between the neighbors as best as possible. And I would, I think, work with staff if we could to work through that process. So that's what I have in front of me. Brian, do you have any additional comments for us? I think that's a good point. Brian, do you have any additional comments? I think staff understands your direction. I'm just conferring with council that we would probably like to build that direction if it's the consensus of the board that is worded in the resolution further directing those two requirements. Do you might take five or 10 minutes? Okay. So you're going to reconstruct the resolution? Right. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Correction. Just talking with counts that we'd like to request actually to 20 minutes. 20 minutes. Okay. Thanks. We'll be in recess for 20 minutes. Thank you. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you And now it's drugs. Okay. Teenward just waiting for Chris. Is that right? That's correct. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. you you you you I'm going to put the amendment resolution on the screen for us. Yes, thank you, Chair Bolic and supervisors. The first document will be the conditions of approval where we made two edits based on the Yes, thank you, Chair Boehlick and supervisors. The first document will be the conditions of approval, where we made two edits based on the direction. And if I could have that first document up, please. Oh, we heard it. Okay. We're ready. We're going to. Okay. Well, this is the resolution. We made some modifications that added language, that the conditions of approval. Hopefully you can read that on your screen. Yeah, I think we can read it. Okay. Jumping around here. So these are the actual conditions of approval that have been amended that are reflected in the resolution. One is to maintain the vegetation for site distance at the highway 89 and Klondike flat road intersection for the life of the project. And the other is the addition of a earthen and vegetated berm budding clondike road in order to provide additional sound attenuation for the neighbors, for the residential neighbors. Okay. And then that's been reflected in the resolution. The second document that was up briefly just to specify the changes that were made directed by your board. And that's in therefore statement that's been modified that just summarizes those two changes. Okay, thank you, Brian. Um, Okay, thank you, Brian. Supervisor Huck. I just have a question. So when you say the construction of the earth and berm along Quantike, you that does mean the whole Quantike road, right? No, I'm at adjacent. I know I'm just saying, but that's what it reads. I saw the word adjacent maybe you could bring it up again. Well, it was said of budding but yeah the intent would be the bomb. The bomb would be constructed adequately to screen the neighboring residential properties along that road area. There's already a burn proposed in the resolution. This is a long will bring the resolution back up. Just give us a second. There you go. Okay, those are the conditions. The other documents the Rosa. Okay, so it doesn't matter the Rosa as long as it's in the conditions. Okay. Just want to make sure. Yeah, and just to be clear, my vision was if you're standing inside the property, looking out toward Condeye Croad on the flat area, on the applicants parcel, there could be some burns near the edge of the property boundary that would attenuated the noise, no operations. Yeah, no, I like your idea. In the resolution, it just said a long clondike. And I'm like, you don't want to have to do it all long clondike. That was kind of thing. I was just with the resolution, but it's in this differently. He said, just to be clear, we understand. So there's a berm already in the plan. If you will be speaking, thank you. Sorry about that. So there's a berm already in the plan, where at your discretion, it's essentially the driveway that is existing would become a berm, because we're moving the driveway further towards 89 and it's going into a cut. So then essentially the trucks won't even get up to the crest towards the residential area. Left. And this is the berm extend where the existing driveway is. And then your road coming in and then also which would I guess be to the east. Well, not to the east because that turns into the cut for the new driveway. And then once you're at that cut, then I don't know that it would have any effect. We could extend the berm to the south. I don't know, do you have a site plan? You could bring up for them. I'm gonna give you guys a, we have paper drawing, if you wanna look at it. I'm just wanna make sure that we're all talking the same thing. My concern is that there's a earthen berm in between condyike road and your parcel on the flat sections, not including the newly constructed driveway. If it encompasses the entire edge boundary of that Kondike road, that's what I'm asking for. So it'd be up on the top of the existing cut bank. Yeah, on your property. From the 89 corridor going towards our driveway. Yeah, on your property. From From the 89 corridor going towards our driving. Not on the 89 corridor just from the 89 corridor along Condeieck flat On the flat portion of your ownership. It's all above the existing road. Yeah, gotcha. Okay That makes sense Do you want to site plan to look at? Okay. I mean, you understand, Brian. Right. And I think the language reflects that. I believe. Okay. Good enough for me. With that, thank you for remaining the resolution, taking the time to do that. I would entertain a motion for anybody who would like to make a motion on. Do you need two of them? One for the M and D and one for the. CUP. It's it's one resolution for the denial of the appeal and upholding the decision of the planning commission. Okay, so moved. Second motion the second Madam Clerk please call the roll. District two. Yes. I just I just wanted to be clear that the motion is to adopt the resolution that was on the projector the amended resolution. Amanda resolution thank you. Yep so noted the your motion would support the amount of resolution. Correct. Correct. Okay. In your second. Second. Yes. Yes. Madam Court. District two. Yes. District four. Yes. District three. Yes. Yes. Oh, sorry. District one. Yes. District five. Yes. Yes. Oh, sorry. District one. Yes. District five. Yes. Thank you everybody. This public hearing is now closed. Moving on with the rest of the board's business. I think we're gonna skip announcements. And with that we are adjourned. Woo! you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you