Amigo Road Meeting	Sunday July 25, 2021
Attendees: Rod Caborn, Rick Duckart, Ken Smith and Daryl Dichek, Melanie and Gary Bertelsen, Tom Pohorsky, Darlene Gardner, Mark and Sue Rolen, Mauro and Nori Olivieri, Thien Mai and Maureen Cahill, Eric Rupp, Eric and Carla Walton, Pat and Deb White, and Steve Kettmann. Dillon, Ashley, and Trevor attended for Kurt and Joni Rocklage. 
The meeting included guest fire safety speakers, road issues, and  jet noise status. 
The fire safety speakers were
- Susan Tatsui-D'Arcy, coordinator of the NRG (North Rodeo Gulch)  Firewise Program 
- Marco Mack of Aptos/ La Selva Fire District. 
Firewise: Rodeo Gulch resident Susan talked about Firewise.  Firewise USA is program setup for communities by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and has the potential for better treatment from fire insurance companies, along with the practical benefits of general fire safety.  Susan is trying to set up a Firewise community for the North Rodeo Gulch (NRG) area. She is offering to include our Amigo Road community in the NRG Firewise group, which provides much benefit and saves Amigans a lot of trouble.  I know some of us are not “joiners” in general,  but this is unusually beneficial and worth the effort.
What the Firewise program offers: 
1.) Helping obtaining fire insurance
2.) Access to grants
3.) Emergency communications. Susan is currently working to establish a HAM radio system for our area for communications in case phone signals are lost.  Amigo resident Keith Trinity has also mentioned experience with emergency radio.
4.) Home protection. This would include home fire protection surveys, access to free chipping, and home maintenance programs.
    Susan recommended these steps for fire safety
1.) Having a go bag ready to go in case of fire. 
2.) Having lettering visible at your residence for emergency personnel to see. Recommended is 4 inch white numbers on a green background. 
3.) Meet with fire department personnel such as Marco Mack to assess your property for fire safety and maintenance. 
4.) Set up chipping piles to be cleared through the chipping program. 
Firewise requires participation of one third of the residences in an area to qualify as an official Firewise community, so participation from each of you is strongly encouraged.  Since the list of Amigo resident contact information is considered confidential and restricted to our group, the Amigo Road Assoc did NOT pass anyone’s contact info to Firewise.  To participate, you will need to contact them directly by filling out this survey:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScbyCokoBufku78he3Wyk0FFhOWnYXGCit5eGY9UjbebHCrHQ/viewform?usp=pp_url
All the information on the form is stuff the fire department considers useful.  If you feel any part is too personal, it’s better to skip over it than to not fill out the form at all.  Information regarding local Firewise Programs can be found at https://www.firesafesantacruz.org. There’s more information from Susan about Firewise is at the end of this note, including useful offers for street signage from the Zayante Fire Department, fire suppression devices etc.
Aptos Fire Marshall presentation: The second speaker was Marco Mack, Fire Marshall, Aptos LaSelva Fire District. Marco is working closely with Susan to assist those residents that sign up for the Firewise Program. Marco is doing inspections and giving suggestions to residents on how to make their homes fire safe. He described signage needs as well as access to and from your property for emergency vehicles. Ideally you display your house number at the base of your driveway, AND on your house unless it’s the only building along that driveway.  Also all residents of a side road should have their house number posted at the base of their road. 
Marco talked briefly about what to do if a fire should occur: 1.) Find a safe place to go. 2.) Identify high intensity fire sites. 3.) Understand wild fire behavior. 4.) Need for good signs on property. 6.) Fire personnel need 30 feet of defense able space around your property.   He is available to meet with residents to discuss above items.
For evacuation orders and other info, note that Amigo Road is in fire zone ZCL2-A.
Amigo Road stuff:  The road meeting was chaired by Rod Caborn. The main topic for the meeting was the condition of the road. Rick Duckart is head of the road repair subcommittee and well as an experience contractor for road work.  He said that since the road has never been set with the normal rock base the entire road will eventually have to be repaved. Rick indicated that a three step program might be necessary. This would consist of an oil coating, rock on top of the oil to create a base, and then paving. Because this process could be quite an expensive, a vote was taken to start a Future Resurfacing Fund. It was voted upon and agreed that for this year residents in the following zones would be responsible for the following payments to the fund. 
    Zone 1 (Bronco Road and 101 Amigo)  $250.
    Zone 2 (up to Mt Messiah)  $500. 
    Zone 3 (up to Felicidad) $750. 
    Zone 4 (Felicidad and above) $1,000. 
As usual, assessment bills will be sent by treasurer Carol Bjorn.
Ken Smith volunteered to look into the bid process with companies that would do this project. There is currently $18,000 dollars in the Amigo Road account. $5,000 of this is the emergency fund, and the balance is for general road work such as pavement repairs, weed abatement and tree trimming. 
The last topic was the poor condition of North Rodeo Gulch Road. It was suggested that this be referred to Supervisor Manu Koenig. Ken Smith said he would contact Manu’s staff to setup a meeting with Rodeo Gulch residents to work towards getting the road fixed. Ken sent an email Aug 12 about this issue, so check your inbox if you want to participate.
Jet Noise: Eric Rupp gave an update on the air plane traffic and noise in our area. The FAA is now saying they won’t move the current flight pattern back to what it was in 2015. They say they won’t do any fixes requested by the Select Committee unless they can do all of them. And since the FAA doesn’t want to do some of these, nothing is happening.   Several residents expressed concern about this, and what can be done. Eric and Vicki Miller mention the following options.  
1  Our local US Rep Jimmy Panetta has authority over this.   https://panetta.house.gov/contact
Tell him how you’re affected by the noise, and you want him to o press the FAA to return to the table and take another look at the "RECOMMENDATIONS" not requirements for the BSR Overlay.  Also point out that this procedure (SERFR) affects Santa Cruz County much more that Santa Clara County.  It’s been mentioned he is chummy with the aviation industry, so it could hurt to speak in strong terms.

2  Santa Clara/Santa Cruz Roundtable  https://scscroundtable.org
 Remind them of the number of people from our County that participated in the Select Committee process.  Let them know you are disappointed with the result after being lead toward a different outcome.  Let them also revisit the Select Committee Report with the intent that the Report was created for. The decision was a super majority and the communities all had their say during the process.  Tell them to present to the FAA the adjustments needed to make the requested Overlay happen.  You can contact them via their website above, or via email at  scscroundtable@gmail.com .
3  Save Our Skies Santa Cruz  https://sossantacruz.org
They are directly involved with stopping the noise that affects the Rodeo Gulch and other areas. Their website is self-explanatory.

More Fire Safety Info from Susan, on FireWise, reflective address signs, and F.A.C.E. fire-activated extinguisher. 
1. NRG (North Rodeo Gulch) FireWise USA will have a meeting on Saturday, Sept 11th at 10:00 am - 12:00 noon. Supervisor Manu Koenig, Deputy Fire Marshal Marco Mack, and many speakers will be there to discuss our 3-year plan to protect our homes and properties. The official agenda and location will be determined soon. Susan will post that info on NextDoor, and email anyone who signs up for Firewise.
2. Order your green-color address signs with white-reflective 4-inch numbers for your house, driveway, and other locations. Ensure that EMS and firefighters can find you in case of an emergency. Place signs on your home near the entrance so EMS knows the quickest way to reach you. If your house is not visible from the street, place an additional 2-sided sign on the driveway that is visible from both directions. On driveways that serve more than one house, place each address sign in sequence on a pole. Place all address signs high enough that they are visible from 20-50 feet and above obstructions like trash cans and parked cars. To Order signs: Zayante Fire Dept:$20 each (4" white vinyl lettering on green signs - double sided) https://zayantefire.com/reflective-sign-program/ SafetySign.com: $24.85 each (4" white 3M lettering on green signs - double sided) https://www.safetysign.com/products/8348/green-horiz-911-sign-numbers-only
 3. Susan’s student Arul Mathur has designed and engineered a fire extinguisher canister that is heat activated and can put out fires in a 10-foot diameter. He's been interviewed for over 50 newspapers, magazines, and radio shows; and he's talking to venture capitalists who want to finance this canister! Susan is ordering 10 for her property. See http://kck.st/3All9uK  for details, or contact Susan.
If you have any questions re local Firewise, Susan will happily answer them for you. We look forward to seeing you at the NRG FireWise USA meeting:  Susan Tatsui-D'Arcy   info@meritworld.com