By Manu Koenig, Supervisor, First District
A primary focus through the month of September was continuing our efforts in the areas of fire prevention and mitigation.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting on Sept. 14, our office introduced an item to improve our County’s early detection system through the installation of several new fire camera sites. Santa Cruz County uses the ALERTWildfire camera system for early detection of wildfires, and there are currently four cameras providing coverage for the entire county. Our office, working together with County Fire, identified 12 potential new sites.
In our Board letter, we asked for these new fire camera sites to be approved, and we requested the Office of Response, Recovery & Resilience (OR3) work with County Fire and any other relevant parties to obtain permission, cost quotes, and other logistical needs for these camera installations. We also asked the OR3 to provide a status update every 90 days until at least three cameras are operational in the county. Our goal here is to have as many of these new camera sites up and running as soon as possible!
As of now, we have already secured funding from a private donor for a fire camera to be located at the Silver Mountain Winery near the Summit. This new site will greatly expand fire camera coverage and early detection capabilities for the Summit-area and Soquel valley.
The view from a potential fire camera site at Silver Mountain Winery.
Continuing with our goal of public outreach and involvement, our office hosted a community meeting, “Prepared Not Scared.” Presenters included the Central Fire District, CalFire, the Office of Response, Recovery, and Resilience, the Fire Safe Council of Santa Cruz, FireWise, and the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County.
Our focus was education and outreach on how residents can reduce wildfire risk, and the meeting was informative and well attended. I have been pleased to attend many neighborhood FireWise gatherings over the last few months, including an impressive gathering of folks from the North Rodeo Gulch area on Sept. 11.
I applaud County residents for working together to address fire risk and increase prevention and mitigation efforts in your neighborhoods. Together we can all become FireWise! For more information about becoming a FireWise community, visit: Firewise USA Recognition Program (www.firesafesantacruz.org).
Another major focus of our office continues to be road repairs and improvements. While road maintenance has always been a priority, this issue feels especially critical during the fire season, with rural residents dependent upon reliable and safe evacuation routes in the case of a fire. We have been pleased to see a great amount of work done over recent weeks in key First District areas by the Department of Public Works.
Storm damage repair is now complete at Soquel San Jose rd. at mile markers PM 3.97 and PM 5.67; repair at Soquel San Jose PM 1.25 is planned for the coming year.
Additional projects identified for work in the coming year include Laurel Glen, Prescott Road, and Paper Mill Road.
In town, roadbed maintenance has recently been completed on Soquel Drive from Porter Street to Center Street, Soquel Drive from Soquel Avenue to Mission Drive, and on Eaton Street at the 7th Avenue intersection. To find up-to-date information on County road repairs and closures, visit: www.sccroadclosure.org/.
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Want to speak to us? We invite you to give us a call at (831) 454-2200, email us at [email protected], visit our website (santa-cruz.ca.us), or join us for a community meeting (full list of upcoming meetings available on the website).