Frost Town Hall Covers Evacuation Gates
Dec 06, 2024 09:29AM ● By Gail Bullen River Valley Times Reporter
Council President Greg Pryor strongly advocates automating two remote gates to ensure they can be unlocked during an emergency evacuation. The Rancho Murieta Association Board prefers keeping the gates locked until a fire responder is present to direct traffic. Photo by Gail Bullen
RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - When Rancho Murieta residents were given the chance to weigh in on a proposal to automate two remote gates on the north and south for evacuation purposes, only 30 attended the discussion.
The proposal was the focus of the second half of a town hall hosted by retiring Sacramento County Supervisor Sue Frost at the RMA Building on Nov. 16. Frost opened the meeting by highlighting recent county initiatives and introducing her successor, Rosario Rodriguez, who also addressed the audience.
Frost opened the second hour by reflecting on her years of collaboration with the Rancho Murieta Fire Safe Council to enhance community safety. She highlighted their achievements and praised the all-volunteer group, calling them a valuable asset to the community.
Frost noted that using two remote gates during emergency evacuations was the only unresolved issue before she retires.
“There’s a difference of opinion regarding the gates and whether they should have automatic gates,” she said. “The fire safe council feels automated locks would be the safest, and RMA feels there could be a potential danger if you have automated gates without someone managing the traffic.”
The Fire Safe Council has long advocated the automation of the Escuela Gate on the north side and the Bent Grass Court gates on the south, allowing them to be opened alongside the two main gates during an emergency evacuation.
Under the council’s proposal, the incident commander or their designee would use a cell phone to unlock the gates with a code stored at the interagency fire dispatch center. The remote gates are currently secured with Knox Locks, which can be opened by police and fire personnel using a key.
Frost explained that she recently organized a meeting to discuss gate automation with representatives from the Fire Safe Council, RMA, and several key stakeholder agencies. These included the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, and various county departments such as the Office of Emergency Services (OES), transportation, planning, and county counsel.
“Every one of them basically said: ‘It’s not our deal. It’s not our decision. It’s the community’s,’“ Frost said. “The community is your RMA, and you…It’s going to be on you to convince your RMA of what you want.”
Residents who wish to learn more about the Sept. 16 stakeholders meeting may request the minutes at [email protected].
Although invited, RMA representatives General Manager Rod Hart and Director Patrick O’Hern, who attended the Sept. 16 stakeholder meeting, did not participate in Frost’s town hall. However, they later explained their opposition to gate automation during the Nov. 19 RMA Board meeting that drew three attendees.
Both emphasized that the health and safety of the community were their top priorities. They warned that opening the emergency gates before a first responder’s arrival to manage traffic could lead to chaos, mainly if a resident crashes while exiting onto the roadway. Hart also informed the board that RMA complies with county code by maintaining two gates on both sides of the community, including the remote gates.
During the town hall, Fire Safe Council President Greg Pryor, who spent 38 years in fire service and 11 years on a fire board, explained how a wildland fire could sweep through the community within a half hour to an hour. Retired traffic engineer John Long said his calculations showed it would take an hour and a half to evacuate the community under the best-case scenario, which is not likely in an emergency.
Pryor also recounted a series of “roadblocks” posed by RMA over the years as the Fire Safe Council worked to address the gate issue. He expressed disappointment that the two RMA representatives had opted not to attend to explain their stance on keeping the gates locked until a first responder arrived.
“I’d say it is a bigger problem to lock in people and for them to panic than the problem of having the gate open and causing an accident,” Pryor said.
Audience members asked a few questions and shared several comments, with the strongest opinion coming from Lynn Erpelding. “Are they saying we should just sit here and cook in the fire because someone might make a left turn in front of somebody getting out of here,” she said. “Is that what we have running this community?”
During the town hall, Pryor asked Cheryl McElhaney, a past RMA Board president, how residents should communicate with the board. She recommended writing letters and requesting to be added to a meeting agenda.
Pryor concluded by saying he and Frost had taken gate automation as far as they could. “It’s going to take more than the people in this room,” he said. “You have to talk to your neighbors to let them know where we are.”
“That’s why we are coming to you, and this is what this is,” Frost added.
Earlier in the meeting, Pryor had expressed his gratitude for Frost’s assistance to the fire safe council. “It’s been wonderful working with her. She’s done so much,” he said. “Getting that kind of attention at the county level to shine a light on a satellite community like ours has just been amazing.”
Background
The evolution of the fire safe council began in 2018 when McElhany was an RMA Board member. She volunteered to lead an ad hoc committee to examine emergency preparedness in the community. The committee, which included experts such as Long, Pryor and IT specialist Rob Schultz, researched the issues for months. Their efforts culminated in an emergency preparedness plan that the RMA eventually printed and distributed to residents. Members can find it on the RMA website.
However, an evacuation map attached to the plan became problematic since Sac Metro said a proposed third gate near the Yellow Bridge would be unsafe. The evacuation map hasn’t been revised since then as the dispute over automating the Escuela and Bent Grass gates continued.
After the RMA board formed the fire safe council in 2019, Pryor was elected president. In late 2021, the board agreed to fund the automation of the two remote gates in the 2022 budget. But after the board composition changed, that didn’t happen, despite repeated efforts by Pryor and the fire safe council.
In 2023, the board and the fire state council agreed to separate. Since then, the fire safe council board has discussed seeking its nonprofit status. It has remained a satellite fire safe council that functions collaboratively with the Sacramento County Fire Safe Council. The board was slated to hold its quarterly meeting on Dec. 2.
Frost cited the fire safe council’s accomplishments during her town hall. The first was the designation of Rancho Murieta as a Firewise Community, which enables discounts from some insurance companies. The council also used a $25,000 county grant secured by Frost to pay for the construction of a shaded fuel break on Scott Road.
In 2022, after two years of efforts by Schultz, McElhany, and Prior, Schultz authored a successful application for a $4.4 million Cal Fire grant to reduce fire fuels within and around the community. Thanks to Frost’s advocacy, Sacramento County Regional Parks initially sponsored the grant and now oversees its administration. The on-the-ground work is underway.
Following the New Year’s Day storm in 2023, which left Rancho Murieta isolated due to flooding, traffic engineer Long and council member John Merchant collaborated with Frost and Supervisor Pat Hume to address the issue. As a result, the county Department of Transportation secured a $400,000 Caltrans grant to study the problem and develop recommendations. The study aims to identify solutions for fixing evacuation bottlenecks and implementing measures to protect the highway from future flooding.
Frost Town Hall Covers Evacuation Gates [3 Images]
Click Any Image To Expand
