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News & Features
From the Idyllwild Town Crier weekly newspaper, 07.24.08 edition.
Are
part-timers abatement victims?
By J.P. Crumrine, Assistant Editor
Editor’s note: As
Fire Prevention Services Inc. (FPSI), the firm with which Idyllwild
Fire Protection District (IFPD) has a contract for weed and rubbish
abatement, moves through the community, more property owners have been
sharing their encounters with the Town Crier.
Rosa Lee Long
The Longs — Rosa Lee and Gregory, her husband,
— live full-time in Hemet and own a second home on Point of Rocks
Drive. Both Lees are retired and senior citizens.
The initial Notice to Abate Hazard was dated June 14 and arrived at the
Longs’ Hemet address within days. In prior years, they said their
property had always passed inspections.
On a fixed income, the Longs needed family help to abate the property.
After several days and four trips to the transfer station, they thought
they had complied with any possible violations.
Abatement instructions started with the direction to clear all pine
needles, weeds, leaves and debris within 30 feet of any structures.
“Firewood piles within 10 feet of a house will be covered with a tarp,”
read the second direction. “All dead grass, weeds and non-ornamental
plants will be cut to ground level,” was the final direction on the
front page.
On July 8, FPSI sent the Longs a Final Notice to Abate Hazard via
certified mail. Long said she received it on Monday, July 14. Two days
later, she called the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council (FSC) and
asked for help.
“I couldn’t sleep. I was waking up at 3 a.m. fretting whether we should
sell the house,” she confided. “How were we going to pay the $350
[administrative charge]? We can only do so much abatement. ”
On her property, three woodpiles are covered with tarps and two can be
seen from the street. The Longs’ ground surface is mineral soil — no
duff, no growth except for oak, cedar and manzanita.
On Thursday, July 17, the Longs met Mike Kellner, FSC project manager,
at their property. “I don’t want my house to burn down,” she told
Kellner. “But what else should I do?”
After walking from the front to the rear, making notes and returning to
the front, he said he could not observe the alleged violations either.
He did recommend trimming some branches overhanging the roof.
“We’ll put it in the system and tell IFPD it’s taken care of,” Kellner
told Long. Before the sentence was finished, she was giving him one
huge, grateful hug.
Gregory McDonald
The McDonalds, who live in Bellevue, Wash., received a failure to
abate notice also. When McDonald’s wife called FPSI’s number on the
notice, she got an answering machine. When they called back, she was
told the abatement cost would be $3,000 on their Doubleview property.
McDonald questioned the estimate. Since he had the property abated in
2006 for $300, he could not understand how 10 times that work grew in
two years.
“I told him I do that work here [in Washington] and it would be cheaper
to send a crew there and pay the time and travel,” McDonald said. He is
still awaiting on a proposal from FPSI.
“The form looks very official, like it is from Idyllwild Fire,”
McDonald said. “Not only did it look like an official document, but
they talked to us as though they represented the fire department.”
Patti Lane
Another part-time resident experienced a similar reaction and feeling.
Inspectors should have no incentive to fail a property and require any
amount of abatement, she believes.
“With the inspectors also doing the abatement, we thought it better to
get someone else,” said Lane. “When we got our first notice in June, we
looked around our place and couldn’t see anything that needed
abatement, which really made us wonder whether an inspection actually
took place.
Lane characterized the situation where inspectors and abatement work
are connected as the fox watching the hen house. This was the
distinction McDonald wanted to clarify with FPSI.
“I asked them who they were and how they’re related to Idyllwild Fire,”
McDonald said. “To assess [inspect] the property and then to do the
[abatement] work seems like a conflict of interest I told them.”
After that, McDonald said he sensed a totally different demeanor on the
other end of the phone connection. He spoke to FPSI Regional Manager
Shirl Papaian and asked her to e-mail a proposal. Then he sent her
e-mails requesting a response and is still waiting.
McDonald’s Realtor suggested he contact FSC. Don Patterson, FSC project
manager, inspected the property and estimated that the necessary work
might cost $250.
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