Travis County Commissioners Court

May 15, 2012 - Item 4
Agenda

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Item number 4, approve resolution congratulating the city of Lago Vista upon being recognized as a Firewise Community by the National Fire Protection Association Firewise Communities Program.
Commissioner Huber.

>> thank you, judge.
we have some vips from lago vista here today and I've asked them to come up and take a seat.
I'll read the resolution first and then I would like to chat just a minute about this because this is a very significant accomplishment.
whereas the national fire protection association nfpa, firewise communities program, encouragees local solutions for wildfire safety by involving homeowners, community leaders, planners, developers, firefighters and others in the effort to protect people and property from wildfire risks.
and whereas to save lives and property from wildfire, nfpa's firewise communities program teaches people how to adapt to living with wildfire and encourages neighbors to work together and take action now to prevent losses.
and whereas 2011 saw numerous wildfires across Travis County in places such as oak hill, spice wood and steiner ranch and I should add numerous other smaller but still not insignificant fires.
whereas lago vista's beauty comes from rolling hills, rocky slopes, steep canyons and abundance of oak and cedar trees and areas also ripe for wildfire.
and whereas the residents of lago vista have exited that can do attitude, community spirit and leadership by being the first of the north shore communities to become accepted into the firewise communities usa recognition program.
and whereas by taking a collaborative approach to this process, lago vista has become an example for all of the other north shore communities.
and I should add other communities throughout Travis County, who are working towards being recognized as firewise communities.
also now therefore be it resolved that the Travis County Commissioners court congratulations the city of lago vista upon being recognized as a wildfire community usa recognition site.
and I move approval.

>> second.

>> I would just -- I'm going to ask these folks to introduce themselves in a minute and then make some comments, but I would just like to say, first, absolutely positively off the chart congratulations to you folks.
this is terribly significant.
I don't know if terribly is the world, but awesomely significant.
in light of what happened last year, you have set the bar for other communities in the area.
I know there are others working towards this, but congratulations on being the first.
and I think it would be very helpful if, first of all, you can tell about your ceremony coming up for those who would like to be aware of that.
and then secondly, elaborate just ever so slightly on what you did to go about organizing yourself to achieve this because I think you have lessons that you could share or experiences that you could share with the rest of Travis County as we move towards this fire season this summer in preparedness.
so if you could first introduce yourselves.
starting left to right, I guess.

>> Ron smith, I'm a concerned homeowner but I'm also a lago vista city council man.

>> eric krueger, I'm also a homeowner in lago vista and I work out at the refuge as a wild land firefighter as well so I have considerable interest in this as well.

>> dawn, president of the north shore firewise committee.

>> concerned citizen.

>> I'm david toby, secretary for the firewise committee, Austin community college instructor and also property owner, association president for the shady mountain development.

>> I am tom rogers, my wife sherri and I built our home in lago vista 28 years ago and I went to my first firewise meeting last August thinking I would just take notes and go home and fix my place.
but I was so shocked by what I had done wrong that I've had to join.
I'm usually not a joiner, but this is an effort that everybody should look into.
thank you.

>> welcome to all of you.

>> would one of you like to share just briefly how you made this happen?

>> I'm happy to start and hopefully I won't gettontongue tied because this is quite an honor and emotional.
it started back in may when esd 1, assistant chief dan mac allister worked with others and we had our first city hall.
I came along with several of the other folks and, you know, it -- being homeowners and protecting, wanting to protect our families and protecting our community, it just really hit home for me personally as far as the safety of it and everything.
from there we did our August town hall off of -- you know, of course immediately following everything that happened with bastrop and spice wood and of course that really helped facilitate the growth of that meeting.
the original meeting was 70 folks and in our August town hall there was over 200 people.
huge, huge success.
and you know what's kept it going is the commitment of each of the committee members and, you know, we want to thank -- I want to thank you guys for having us here and presenting us this extreme honor and thank you to all the guys here that has helped facilitate that success.

>> thank you.
any other comments?

>> just don't forget that we do have another recognition coming up on Sunday.
of course, to become firewise it has to go through the state and I believe the director of the Texas forest service, tom boggus, will be there to present our recognition award and I think some other dignitaries as well.
so you are all invited to attend that.
it's at k oaks clubhouse in lago vista of a the bar k road and it's from 2:00 to 5:00 on Sunday.
may 20th.

>> public welcome.
thank you, ericer for making sure I didn't forget that most important part.

>> and for any citizens that are interested in firewise, there's a great website that will get you started and it's just www.firewise.org.
and really you start by just finding your local fire departments.
that's how this started.
people came to dan and dan came to me, us being a federal agency very close to lago vista.
we kind of combined forces.
and then, of course, we met all these people that are the leaders and formed the committee and it just went from there.
numerous events that we didn't even name that we attended and passed out pamphlets.
we went door to door and it just grew from there.
and then, of course, we got the 200 and some folks at the town hall meeting.
we got -- worked closely hand in hand with Texas forest service and did a risk assessment on the entire area and just went from there.

>> thank you so much.
I think just your remarks have indicated what a -- the work and the effort that needs and must go into this so I thank all of you and others that participated with you for your leadership.
I'd also just like to add that if you don't remember a website specifically, if whereas ann you get ready to go looking for firewise information, many, many of our resources are out there.
you can call your fire department.
you can go to the county and look for firewise information.
so it -- it's there for the looking and it's easy to find.
I'd also just like to add that it's important to have the firewise communities, but if you are not in a community that is prepared or ready or not even in a community if you are in the country, you can go to these websites and find information like ready, set, goc to how to individually prepare yourself for wildfire.
it's a huge effort and it sounds like the north shore is really moving poured with these firewise communities.
I would like to challenge is south shore and the rest of the areas around the lake to get going.
maybe you are, but let's get you up here and recognize you too.
so thank you very much.

>> thank you.

>> congratulations to you.
thanks for coming down.
all in favor?
that carries unanimously.

>> thank you so much.

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