New nonprofit group focuses on Mount Provo Road evac route
A new nonprofit based in Twain Harte is focused on making Mount Provo Road a passable evacuation route for hundreds of residents in the Ponderosa Hills area between Twain Harte and the township of Tuolumne.
More than 800 people and 330 homes are in Ponderosa Hills, which have experienced a handful of fires in the area since the 1970s. The last major blaze in watersheds around Ponderosa Hills may have been back in the 1940s or 1950s, said Anaiah Kirk, the elected District 3 supervisor for Tuolumne County, who is one of seven directors for the new nonprofit organization.
The new nonprofit, named Tuolumne Safe, is a 501(c)3, meaning it’s approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a taxexempt, charitable organization.
Starting the new nonprofit cost about $8,000 in donated legal fees and an additional $2,000 in outof-pocket expenses, Kirk said Friday. Tuolumne Safe has no annual budget and no paid staff.
Kirk said the volunteer directors and donors intend to focus on one project at a time, with the first being the Mount Provo Road evacuation route.
Donations so far to complete the Mount Provo Road project total $150,000 in labor, and materials and completed work donated by Frontier Communications, Sierra Mountain Construction, Inc., Cal Fire, Tuolumne Utilities District, and Blue Mountain Minerals.
Completing the Mount Provo Road evacuation route is going to cost about an additional $13,000 to truck base rock up to the site and grade it. Additional funding could pay for ditching and culvert pipes for better drainage. Completion of the project is expected in the next three to five weeks, Kirk said.
Kirk said about $3,000 of the remaining $13,000 has been donated by Healy Homes; MGK Visions; Neon Media Company; Coleman & Horowitt, LLP; Cody Ritts, a write-in candidate for county supervisor in District 1; and Karl Rodefer, the elected District 5 county supervisor.
The primary reason for forming the new nonprofit is to complete the Mount Provo Road evacuation route for Ponderosa Hillsarea residents. The name of the nonprofit refers to Tuolumne County, not the township of Tuolumne ex
clusively, Kirk said.
Aside from Kirk, the other six Tuolumne Safe directors are Terry Northcutt, president and chief executive of Timberline Environmental Services Inc. in Twain Harte; Anaiah’s brother Mel Kirk, who has experience in business development, licensing, and marketing, as well as public relations in the interactive entertainment and technology industries; Matthew Nutting with Coleman & Horowitt, LLP of Fresno; Curtis Doty, who works in emerging technologies, network infrastructure management, cross-platform
systems integration, and cloud computing; Shelly Foley, controller at ARCH Medical Solutions - Sonora; and Clay Mermod, owner and operator of Sawyer Tree Management of Sonora, formerly with Groveland Hotshots and Cal Fire.
For more information or to make a donation, go online to www.tuolumnesafe.org, or contact Mel Kirk at tuolumnesafe@gmail.com.