Clear Creak CSD board to vote on rate increase beginning process
The board of directors for the Clear Creek Community Services District will vote at the December meeting on whether or not to proceed with steps to increase water fees.
Director Rod Twain, a member of the committee investigating the need for water rate increases, said the process could take several months; therefore, the issue should be on the agenda for a vote at the next meeting. In that way a notification could be mailed to residents with the next water bill. In a report submitted at the October meeting, committee members recommended a $3 a month rate increase.
Cathy Hunter, board chair, said she would like to see the rate analysis Pace Engineering in Redding, California was to have completed with the grant proposal which was prepared to obtain money from the state of California for a new water system. Twain said their analysis could be part of the discussion and did not have to be reviewed before beginning the process for a rate increase.
Board members agreed that the rate increase needed to be an action item and voted on in December.
Creating defensible space to protect structures from wildfire was a topic of discussion brought to the board by a community member. The resident said that as a Firewise Community, Clear Creek needed to be more proactive in making sure property owners had properly cleared flammable debris from their property. She wanted Cal Fire to do more property inspections since Clear Creek is part of their jurisdictional oversight. While this resident had cleared her property, a neighboring property had not been cleared.
For the past four years the Clear Creek Community Services District has worked with the Lassen County Fire Safe Council to organize Green Waste Days, a Firewise Community event. Debris bins are placed at Clear Creek Park for a few days in June to aid property owners in clearing their lots of green waste, such as dead vegetation. This year the event was June 6-9.
During manager reports, J.D. Hackett, maintenance manager, said he was insulating water boxes in preparation for winter weather. He was using pine needles from around the firehouse. Also he was putting markers near the boxes in order to find them once it snows. When questioned on the ability of the generator to sustain the water system during a prolonged power outage, he said it held 50 gallons of fuel and he kept it full.
Although John Hunter, the Clear Creek fire chief, was not at the meeting, he left a report stating he was working with dispatch on a problem with the pagers in Clear Creek, which were not always alerting volunteers to emergencies. Also, he had removed the siren from the wooden tower. At the October meeting Hunter reported that the tower was a hazard and needed to be torn down. Funds have been raised to rebuild the tower and use the siren as an emergency alert system for evacuation from approaching wildfire. However, in October board members began to reassess the plan and may purchase a new siren and mount it on the firehouse.
The next meeting of the Clear Creek Community Services District board of directors is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday Dec. 5 at the fire station in Clear Creek.
