The View, 3/19/15, CalFire update

Next week: Kelley House representatives Bill Lemas and Jill Jahelka will talk about the museum’s pond restoration plans.  Reminder: the first Adopt-a-Highway clean up day will be Saturday, 3/28/15 — meet at 11:00 a.m. at St. Anthony’s.

President John Cottle opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thought for the Day: Prez John told a joke. A very lengthy joke… It was funny, but I can’t reproduce it here!

Guests: Speaker Rob Daugherty of CalFire; and Tiarra Rogers, who is Sean Leland’s daughter and a student at the Community School.

Guest Tiarra Rogers.

Guest Rob Daugherty.

Happy Dollars:

Heather dishes out some happy dollars.

• Bruce is happy that the CD loader on his computer was fixed for only $40! Watch your CD labels, everyone, and make sure they don’t peel off as you load them!
• Heather is happy that it is sunny today.
• Dean is happy for global warming’s effect on our local climate today.
• John C. is happy for a recent camping trip.

Sunshine Report:

Everyone is doing better… Wilma was a bit too tired to be here today. We hope to see Wilma, Joe and Jerry back very soon!

Announcements:

Rides were organized for this Saturday’s District Training Assembly; Jody will be leaving from FB at about 6:15 a.m. Meet at the Boatyard parking lot if you need a ride.

High school senior Tiarra talks about the play she is directing as her senior project, while proud dad Sean looks on.

Sean announced that his daughter Tiarra is directing a play called Picasso at the Lapin Agile — this is her senior project. Tiara then explained that the play is a comedy by Steve Martin about a night Paris in 1904. Opening night is tomorrow, March 20, and the show will run two weekends, with showtimes on Friday and Saturday at 7pm, and Sunday at 2pm (so you have 6 opportunities to see it – March 20, 21, 22, 27, 28 and 29). It is playing at the Matheson building in Mendocino. Ticket price is a suggested $7. Tiarra made all the costumes, and has spent a full year developing this. All are encouraged to attend!

The Club’s regular Board meeting will be Monday, March 23, at noon in the Mendocino Hotel; please bring $20 each for lunch.

Cornelia announced that the Chatter Bishoff Rotary Park Art competition will be announced next week. Keep an eye out for the details, and invite your artist friends to participate! There will be lots of (cash!) prizes.

John P. announced that today’s Adopt-A-Highway project meeting will take place following today’s club meeting. Next Saturday, March 28, at 11:00 am, meet at St. Anthony’s for our first cleanup event. Bring your own gloves; all other equipment will be provided.

Today’s Program:

Dean introduced our speaker today, Rob Daugherty, Chief for CalFire’s Conservation Camp program. Dean thanked CalFire for the picnic table they donated to our Rotary Park (and to other nonprofits too!).

Finemaster Dean taught us the following:

Finemaster Dean grills the audience.

• Conservation Camps: there are 39 conservation camps statewide
• Approx 4300 inmates are housed in the conservation camp
• Wildland firefighting is one main area of CalFire’s work. So is earthquake relief, etc.
• The conservation camp is a co-ed program. Women serve as correctional officers, captains, and inmates in the system.
• Inmates are paid for their service in the conservation camp program ($1.45 to 3.xx per day).
• Inmates received emergency pay while working on firelines ($1.00/hour)
• Fire crews go out every day, rain or shine, when not working on emergency assignments.
• The conservation camp programs save the state of CA more than $80 million/year.
• There is not a high risk of escape while inmates, due to getting a day off of their sentence for every day they work for the camp programs. There is a lot of incentive to stay in the program.

CalFire’s Rob Daugherty shares important CalFire information.

Chief Rob Daugherty is a former crew captain, as was Dean. He is a 31 year veteran of CalFire. He is back on the conservation camp at Parlin Forks and Chamberlain Creek Camps. He feels like he has the best job ever… the colleagues, the program and the setting are great.

This is the largest state forest in CA, and that is why there are two conservation camps so close together. www.fire.ca.gov is their website, with a comprehensive description of their role related to fire protection and forestry.

They are a de facto State fire department. No other state that he knows of has this function. At the peak of the season, there are 8000 paid CalFire employees. They fight an average of 5000 wildfires per year. They receive 400,000 emergency alarms every year… They are responsible for state responsibility lands, which don’t include the Central Valley or federal responsibility areas.There are 196 crews in the state currently.

Project work is one of their core functions. Has to be of benefit of taxpayer and public agency or qualified nonprofits. There is a fee of about $200/day plus an 11% admin fee to schedule their crew for a day. They can clear land, fall trees, lay underground pipes, and lots of other unskilled and semi-skilled labor.

Emergency operations: the crew constructs fire lines (clearing land around the perimeter of a fire). While the crew earns a dollar a day, the taxpayer is paying $20,000/year to keep them housed as inmates. Wildfire control is done almost entirely by perimeter control — hand digging and clearing brush. Crew captains do one of the hardest jobs, working with crews of 15 inmates for up to 24 hour shifts. Crew captains are paid employees of CalFire. Their work can be especially rewarding, since they get to work with crews of inmates who may not have had a lot of structure in their lives, and they get to mold them into a well-functioning crew.

Recent local work: clearing at Jughandle; firewood cut and bagged at McKerricher; conservation work at Jughandle Farm; cleaning up and painting Friendship Park in Mendocino, and much more. To request their services, a nonprofit must do paperwork, and it cannot enhance the value of private property. The paperwork is available from Rob. Availability is limited, especially during fire season.

We could schedule a tour of the facility; they hosted Rotary several years ago.

Today’s Raffle Winners: Sean Leland, and Tiarra. No joker drawn, the pot continues to grow! $160 and rising…

Prez John, still laughing at his opening joke…