Can you COPE?
EDITOR: It took a half-dozen readings of Stuart Tiffen’s clear and concise commentary in the March 28 Tribune before the enormously complex financial challenge facing Sonoma County’s fire protection agencies began to sink in. The relatively dense housing here on Fitch Mountain means we generate a disproportionate share of property taxes and though I may not like it, I shouldn’t be surprised that we don’t see it all spent right back here. But I’m not going to get into that. I’d rather focus on a program Stuart mentioned called COPE – Citizens Organized to Prepare for Emergencies. The Fitch Mountain COPE group formed 3 years ago (before the 2017 fires) based on the Oakmont model. Word spread and now there are upwards of 10 communities in North Sonoma County with active COPE’s. In addition to meeting within their own communities, the leaders meet together monthly to foster consistency, share ideas and plan projects together like vegetation management, evacuation planning, home hardening and signage. Efforts that depend on those dollars that are drifting around the county. Thankfully, despite this budgetary turmoil, Geyserville Fire, Healdsburg Fire, Cloverdale Fire and CalFire all make time to attend the monthly meetings to advise and collaborate with these citizens organized to prepare for emergencies. It’s neighbor-helping-neighbor after all.
Pat Abercrombie
President, Fitch Mountain Association
City twisting over scale
EDITOR: The recent city council meeting presented us citizens with the spectacle of city staff and supporters twisting themselves into a pretzel trying to convince us that the 231-seat restaurant they approved was “small scale.” It would be laughable if not so lamentable.
Walt Maack
Healdsburg
