Safe haven
First of 2 new community ommunity resilience centers dedicated in Tuolumne township
There was a lot of fallout from the devastating 2013 Rim Fire that burned up more than 400 square miles and more than 100 structures in the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park, and it prompted state and federal authorities to act.
Positives that came out of one of the worst disasters in Tuolumne County history are being celebrated this week with the dedication of two community resilience centers — intended for use as evacuation shelters and feeding locations during emergencies, as well as for recreation and education when no wildfires or other disasters threaten county residents.
The two brand-new facilities being dedicated this week — in the town of Tuolumne on the north side of the Tuolumne River and in Groveland on the south side of the massive watershed — cost a total of around $25 million combined and were funded mainly by Tuolumne County’s grant-winning application in a nationwide disaster resilience competition in 2015 and 2016.
When the 2013 Rim Fire was burning, it became at the time the largest fire in more than 150 years of written history in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Tuolumne County was chosen as California’s sole candidate in the competition, announced in June 2014 by thenPresident Barack Obama and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, with a total pool of $1 billion in disaster resilience funding.
Tuolumne County’s final application, with backing from then-gov. Jerry Brown, earned the county a badly needed cash infusion to improve forest management, promote healthier watersheds, and prevent more giant forest fires in the Mother Lode.
In 2016, California received a total of $70 million from the National Disaster Resilience Competition for projects in Tuolumne County that included $20 million for the two centers, $28 million to restore
forested areas burned by the Rim Fire and to create fuel breaks, and $22 million to develop a biomass energy and wood products manufacturing facility.
Earlier this year, an additional $6.5 million in federal Neighborhood Stabilization Funds was added to the community resilience centers project.
“One of the key decisions was to build two centers instead of one,” John Gray, former District 4 county supervisor, said Monday before dedication ceremonies began at the new center in the township of Tuolumne. “That took some major lobbying with the state and feds. But it was well worth the effort to have two centers in two communities, rather than having all our eggs in one basket.”
Current District 3 County Supervisor Anaiah Kirk, who serves as board chairman this year, and others who spoke during the ceremony Monday recounted some of that history and credited former supervisors Evan Royce, Sherri Brennan, John Rodefer, Randy Hanvelt, and Gray for telling the powers that be they would build two resilience centers and wouldn’t settle for one.
The Rim Fire demonstrated to 21st century Tuolumne County residents how badly overgrown and mismanaged Central Sierra forests had become over the past century, and how a megablaze in the county’s centrally located Tuolumne River canyon watersheds can easily divide county communities, cutting off Groveland residents from the rest of the county at times, and isolating Tuolumne town at key moments when the Rim Fire blew up large.
Dore Bietz, the county Office of Emergency Services coordinator, is among those celebrating dedication of the two new resilience centers this week. County OES will oversee the new facilities during emergencies, Bietz said, and the county recreation department will oversee them when emergencies are not happening.
Andrea Reich, tribal chair for the Tuolumne Band of Me-wuk Indians, cut a ceremonial ribbon with Kirk on Monday. The tribe donated land for a parking lot with more than 120 spaces. Kyle Cox, the tribe’s vice chair, offered a song and prayer to dedicate the new center.
Maureen Frank, the county capital-projects director, accepted flowers from Kirk at one point. The Tuolumne town center’s primary conference room is now named for Frank, and she asked the sign maker to call her “Mo,” like everyone she works with does.
Representatives for state Housing and Community Development, for state Assemblyman Frank Bigelow, and for U.S. Rep. Tom Mcclintock, R-elk Grove, the Mother Lode’s congressman, all spoke at the ceremony Monday.
Shawn Strohman, a project executive and senior construction manager with Roebbelen Contracting, also among those who spoke.
Both facilities in Groveland and Tuolumne were built by Sonora-based Robert E. Boyer Construction Inc.
The new center in Tuolumne town is at 18241 Bay Ave. The Groveland center dedication is planned at 18986 Ferretti Road at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“The community resilience centers really provide two things for the county,” Frank said Monday. “On an emergency basis they add another tool in our tool kit when we need it. And on a day-to-day basis the new CRCS provide opportunities for the county and service providers to get services and programs out into two communities, instead of just being available in downtown Sonora.”
The best thing about the new resilience centers, Frank said, is they were designed by people who live in the communities they will serve.
Frank said the concept of community resilience centers — what they can be and what they should be — evolved and took form during many meetings with residents of Tuolumne and Groveland.
County government staff are looking at a location in Columbia for a possible third community resilience center, at the former National Guard Armory building next to Columbia Airport.