RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - An upcoming meeting to discuss evacuation from behind the gates and an update about the $4.5 million CAL FIRE fuel reduction grant were topics when the Rancho Murieta Regional Fire Safe Council met via Zoom on June 4.

The council members represent the Rancho Murieta community, local ranchers and the Sacramento Valley Conservancy, which operates the Deer Creek Hills Preserve. Since its formation in 2019, the Fire Safe Council functioned as a subcommittee of the Rancho Murieta Association (RMA) board until it became an independent entity last year.

Evacuation 

Fire Safe Council President Greg Vorster, a retired firefighter, reported that he has scheduled an Sept. 16 online meeting to consider evacuation options for residents behind the gates in the event of an emergency. The primary concern is a wind-driven wildland fire potentially approaching from the north.

Vorster said the “stakeholders” at the upcoming meeting will include the chiefs of Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District (Sac Metro) and the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services, Sacramento County Supervisors Sue Frost and Pat Hume, and representatives from Rancho Murieta Association, the Rancho Murieta Community Services District and Fire Safe councilmembers.       

Pryor described the upcoming meeting as one last effort to develop an evacuation plan that has remained in limbo for years because the Fire Safe Council has been unable to secure Rancho Murieta Association board approval. 

Under the preliminary evacuation plan devised by traffic engineer John Long, three currently locked gates would supplement the two main gates as exits in an emergency. They are the Escuela Gate and two country gates off Jackson Highway, the first next to the Yellow Bridge and the second end of Bent Grass Drive. Pryor obtained bids to automate the gates and ascertained from fire officials that a system could be set up so a dispatcher could open the gates remotely should the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office order an evacuation. 

As an interim step, Knox locks, which only firefighters can open, were installed on the remote gates in 2021 

“It was a temporary measure for ingress, not for egress, and then we sort of stalemated there,” Pryor said. 

He asked attendees for a show of hands or a motion to support holding the shareholder’s meeting to “see if we could do something more than the Knox locks.”

Councilmember Betty Ferraro opposed the idea “because you are not going to get the people you are interested in having come attend,” she said. “We went through  all the options over the years, and we were shot down.”

Pryor still advocated a final meeting.

“It will be a documented meeting and everybody will know where everybody stands,” he said. 

The vote on the motion was 6 to1 with Ferraro opposed.

Rancho Murieta Association Director Pat O’Hern, who is the association’s representative to the council, said he would attend the Sept. 16 meeting. He said he couldn’t speak for General Manager Rod Hart. Pryor said the entire Rancho Murieta Association Board had been invited.

Another topic briefly touched upon is that Rancho Murieta is better off than other communities located in high-fire-risk areas due to its golf courses, parks and lakes, which would  provide sheltering options inside the community. 

Meeting attendee Diana Schmidt, a Sac Metro Fire inspector, said this had happened before. 

“A lot of people in Santa Rosa (during the Tubbs Fire) were able to ride it out in fairways and parks,” Schmidt said. “Rancho Murieta does have unique and very beneficial terrain to utilize in the event of emergency.”

Regarding  evacuating outside gates on Jackson Highway, Pryor said that he, Long and Councilmember John Merchant continue to work with the county. Two grant applications are pending to improve evacuation in fire and floods.

Cal Fire grant

Although the Fire Safe Council secured the $4.5 million Cal Fire grant in 2022 after three years of trying,  it needed a sponsor since a homeowners association subcommittee wasn’t qualified to apply. Because of efforts by Supervisor Frost, Sacramento County Regional Parks agreed to sponsor the grant and is now the administrator.

Parks employee Virginia Thorley and forester Phyllis Banducci, who is supervising the work on the ground, provided a brief update. They highlighted that Sept. 1 would be the start date for contractors to begin the ladder fuel reduction on 947 acres of woodlands inside and around Rancho Murieta, barring extreme fire weather.

Earlier this year, the county rejected the initial contracting bids because they were too high. However, Thorley and Banducci happily reported that 13 prospective bidders showed up for a pre-proposal conference a week earlier.

“We also got confirmation from county counsel that were able to move prevailing wages from the private parcels,” Thorley said. “That is really going to help with our bids and our concerns about our budget.”

Except for the Deer Creek Hills Preserve, which comprises 27% of the project, the other parcels are privately owned by ranchers and developers. Thorley also reported that two separate Deer Creek Hills projects, removing invasive weeds and planting new trees, will begin after August.

Banducci added that county environmental scientists had begun biological and archeologic surveys.

The Fire Safe Council’s next meeting will be on Sept. 9.