Placer Broom Challanges

It is that time of year again and the Broom must be eliminated.  Be it Scotch French, Spanish or Portuguese, Broom is an invasive fire hazard and spring is the best time to deal with it.  It pulls up easier and it hasn't had a chance to seed yet.   Help out with one for a few hours you might learn a few tricks.  Here are a couple of events that I got from the Placer Sierra Firesafe Council.  

Saturday April 13th, 8am-noon

Ridge Road Pull 

Dutch Flat

Join the 3rd year pull for Dutch Flat. We will be meeting at the Monte Vista Inn and walking down Ridge Road to continue our efforts this year. Site Coordinator, Bill Hart.

Saturday, April 20th, 2013, 8am-noon

Placer Hills/Sugar Pine

Meadow Vista

Join Meadow Vista's first Challenge! We will meet at the staging area at Placer Hills and Sugar Pine Roads. The Challenge site is the property southeast of this intersection. Come join the fun for some or all of the Challenge! April 20th, 8a-Noon. Site Coordinator, Michelle Hamil.

To volunteer on this site or any other site, please register with the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County by either registering

 online or by calling 530-272-1122.

Fire Fee Tele-Townhall

Some time ago I signed up for a mailing list on the SRA Fire Fee.  Today I received a notification from Board of Equalization member George Runner that a Tele-Townhall is scheduled for this controversial topic.  I recommend attending if possible as there are a few new developments on this topic. 

I want to thank George Runner for keeping constituents informed. 


Date:  April 2, 2013
Time: 6:00 p.m.

Register at www.calfirefee.com/townhall when the tele-conference starts you will receive a phone call that will connect you to the town hall. 

Community Centers A Gap in the Process

Currently there is a bit of public outcry about a Placer County zoning category known as community centers.  Community Center zoning is nothing new.  It has been with us for a very long time and was intended for things like the old Grange Halls and such.   Under the Community Center category a business could be just for entertainment or gathering venues with no agricultural element and is not restricted to ag or residential ag zoning.  Community Centers could be located in most of the zoning areas.   The reason that they are getting some attention now is that there is a sudden rise in applications.  The rise in applications for this rarely used category brought light its deficiencies. You can flush all of the conspiracy theories floating around in the LTE section of local fish wrappers as it is nothing more than folks looking for a path of least resistance and this category was available.  

More SRA Fire Fee updates

Just a bit of reading for you.  Take it in small amounts if the Fire Fee riles you as much as it does me.  No sense having to double down on the blood pressure meds.  

Since it is a fee it can't be deducted.  I wonder if my anger management therapy can be.

Cal Fire Fee
Fire Fee Update: IRS says Fire Fee payments not deductible

Of course the fee was imposed because of cash strapped government agencies.  A little side note: not only do bureaucrats tend to hide money but when the budget axe hits hit they also tend to cut what we need the most.  It tends to hasten a return in funding.  While I haven't heard of that happening in this agency I certainly wouldn't be surprised.

Sac Bee
Dan Walters Daily: Hidden money and false poverty

You can always tell when a politician is planning for the next run.  When things improve you say the problem is solved.  You ignore known problems until forced to face up and then you downplay them as insignificant.  Its seems to be the Jerry Brown play book since the end of his first year.  In the corporate world we called it "managing perceptions"  No matter where I see it I call it lying but then I am old fashioned.

Sac Bee
Jerry Brown downplays Cal Fire reports, dubs it 'boring story'

This one is interesting Jerry Brown wants to take fees collected from the SRA and spend them outside of the SRA.  A sort of reverse Robin Hood steal from the poor folk in the forest and give to the rich folk in the cities.  There are some bills being introduce but lets face it when you look at which party is running the show in Sacramento they are really just some  political types introducing themselves to the rural constituents thaqt they were redistricted to.  In rural California you can always make a good first impression by trying to repeal Jerry Browns Fire Fee.

Sac Bee
Gov. Jerry Brown, Republicans float bills to change fire fee

SRA Fire Fee: Quick Update

Hopefully you have been keeping an eye on http://www.calfirefee.com/ and this isn't really news.   Most of the protests were denied and nice rejection letters were sent to those of us that did protest.  The legal action is in process.  Oh and they will start mailing this years fire fee bills in March. There are a couple of bills to repeal it once again but no one really expects them to go anywhere. 

For those of you that thought local Firesafe Councils might get grant money for prevention from the SRA Fire Fee you might want to read this. 

 No fire fee money this year for Shasta County fire councils