We have been awarded an exciting new grant to mitigate the brush and tree fire danger in the Lindero and Medea Creek communities, as we continue to move forward with Firewise and to prepare for the big October 5 open house.
Here are our major activities and accomplishments in August:
Firewise
- Vents have been ordered pursuant to Canyon Cove’s $1,500 grant for dryer vent replacement.
- Curb addresses were painted this month at Country Meadows HOA pursuant to the association’s $1,500 grant from Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council.
- Morrison Sutton and Regency Chambord have submitted their final Firewise application packages to National Fire Protection Association.
- A fourth HOA, Tract 3141, is now going through the Firewise process and should be able to submit its application by the end of September, along with the Mae Boyer East community.
- We’ve sent out September 1 Firewise Investment reports to all seven existing and pending Firewise communities.
- We have created a landing page on the website for Firewise certificates, to make it easy for residents to download their certificates when dealing with insurance companies. This will be a great way to make certificates easily accessible to homeowners.
- We have created an initial flyer for Firewise communities to send to their residents regarding Firewise certificates and assessments.
Assessments
- Three Home Wildfire Assessments were performed in August.
Marketing
- We are working with Fire Station 36 and the county supervisor’s office to host an open house at the fire station October 5th from 11 am – 3 pm. This would be a family event similar to last year’s successful event, which several hundred people attended. This exciting event has already been approved by Ventura County Fire and the supervisor’s office, and we are working on logistics. Some of the fun things that will be happening are:
– Fire trucks for kids to sit in and fire hats to wear
– Goats (many of you have seen them on local hillsides mitigating brush). Yes, the kids can pet them.
– Ice Cream Truck
– Several agencies and organizations will be in attendance for those who want to discuss improved fire resiliency, insurance benefits, etc. - We sent out the September newsletter.
- We are now sending out two Social Media posts on Nextdoor, Facebook and Instagram monthly. This has had a positive impact on the number of people signing up for assessments, our newsletter and our website, and contacting us regarding Firewise.
- Another 20 residents – more than 910 now – have signed up for our newsletter.
Fundraising and Grants
- Oak Park, along with the Ventura County Collaborative, was awarded a $3 million Wildfire Prevention Grant. The lead agency on this project will be the Ventura County Resource Conservation District, and it also includes several large fuel mitigation projects from Ojai, Bell Canyon and Oak Park. The Oak Park portion of the grant is $623,000 that will focus on mitigating the brush in the riparian areas of Lindero and Medea creeks. We will work closely with Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District to implement this complex project. See the article in this week’s newsletter for detailed information on this important project.
Volunteer
- We are adding a member to the board and are looking for an additional board member as well. Please reach out to info@opfsc.org if you are interested.
