Community Preparedness Committee Meeting Minutes
January 30, 2010

Present:  Fred Strieff, chair, Nancy Allred, Joan Beaumont, Monty Beaver, Bob Dye, Bob Scott, Dennis Scott, Mary Jo Shelton, Harriet Vaugeois, Betty Withington

Absent:  George Gonzalez, Rick Kinder, Ronnie Mack, Don Ruward, Sheryl Smith, and representatives from Area 7

The meeting was called to order at 10:40 a.m. in the Fire Station.

Items of discussion and action:

  1. Discussed the need to alter the boundaries for Areas 5 and 7 to make them more equitable and more manageable in case of emergency.
    1. Decision to move the west boundary to Upper Gallinas.
    2. Nancy will call Elaine Fodor to serve as Area 7 Leader and Betty Withington is calling Diana Novacek
    3. A revised map needs to be published. Bob Scott will follow up on this with Web Master Pat Roehl
       
  2. Area leader updates.
    1. Area 4 might need a new Leader in order to have someone who lives full time on the ranch. Decided to approach Al Tucker about this position, with George Gonzalez and Don Ruward as assistants.
    2. Area 3 has not been represented at meetings by a Leader in quite some time. Decided to ask Ronnie Mack if he’s still interested. If not, Bob Dye agreed to take over as leader. Mary Jo recommended calling Donna Garrett and Sue Spanner as possible assistants.
    3. Agreed to have three assistants for each area. Area leaders are to call or email their residents to find enough volunteers to fill the assistant need.
    4. The importance of having volunteers to monitor each area of the ranch was re-affirmed. Being an Area Leader with 3 assistants makes this job fairly simple, while also critically important in times of emergency such as fire. Areas without volunteers to assist with this information could be left vulnerable. All ranch owners are encouraged to consider helping the community in this position.
       
  3. Residency (property owner) List.
    1. The website list is current.
    2. Monty and Nancy reported that the Communications Committee is planning to add additional fields to the online database that will include categories necessary for the CPC committee, such as status of residency: unoccupied, building, part time, full time; as well as other owner data necessary for other POA committees.
    3. Nancy will provide a current list of property owners to Fred, listed by Lot #, which he will update with CPC information and send out to Area Leaders.
    4. Area Leaders will then update the list with any occupancy information they’ve been able to gather and send it back to Fred.
    5. Fred will maintain the master list until the website database is available.
       
  4. Ideas for improving safety on the ranch, an open discussion
    1. Emergency situations during unusually heavy snow conditions. Decided to post online a list of commercial snow removal operators on the ranch who could be called during such an emergency. Fred asked that area leaders check their areas for anyone with commercial equipment and a willingness to be called during snow emergencies. Bob reminded the committee of the basic protocol for all emergencies which is to call 911 and then the Road Committee chair.
    2. Earthquakes that might move rocks into positions of possible danger. Decided that this condition falls into the category of other mountain living challenges and that property owners must always be on the look-out for possible rock slides and other earth movement hazards.
    3. Trees close to power lines, either through natural growth, high winds, or heavy snow. Property owners should call San Isabel Electric about such potential fire hazards. History of this problem is that San Isabel is very quick about coming out to trim or remove the trees.
    4. Entrance fire danger sign. Fred and his wife have been monitoring the danger level and keeping the sign current. Dennis suggested Fred access the Colorado link for fire danger status which might be more accurate than the national reading.
    5. Entrance surveillance cameras. Fred and John Sanders are in the process of investigating an upgrade to HD cameras which will cost approximately $1,000. Don’t tell anyone, but the current cameras aren’t worth anything in terms of image detail.
    6. Magnetic Community Watch signs for ranch vehicles. Several are available for anyone who wants to put one on a car. Unfortunately, the signs tend to rust the paint underneath.
    7. Medical Packs. These packs were donated to the volunteer fire department years ago because of the need to update many items and the fact that the packs were never used. The decision had been to get the packs in the hands of the QRTs who would use them.
    8. Exit 2. The entire exit is gone. End of discussion. The railroad should be returning the POA lock.
    9. Incident Reports. The CPC committee no longer takes the responsibility of handling all incidents on the ranch. Instead, anyone noticing something suspicious should call the county sheriff directly. Monty will look at the former report forms and submit a revision that could be made available online for anyone to record critical statistics when calling the sheriff to make a report. The revised form will be looked at the next meeting and we will make a decision on what to do with it.
       
  5. Area Leaders are reminded to continually monitor their areas for any new building on the ranch, in order to keep the emergency notification list current. Bob Scott suggested that the METRO would be a useful resource since they are running the ranch roads regularly.
     
  6. The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 pm. The next meeting will be scheduled when needed but at least prior to fire season. In the meantime, action items will be sent to committee members via email. When the Residency database has been expanded, the CPC will convene for training on how to upload information to the database.