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Hello — and welcome to my April newsletter along with warmer weather and longer days! In this issue, you'll find information on a couple of upcoming events, some exciting County projects completed, a profile on the Napa County Public Works Department and more.
Please reach out to me or my District Aide Leah Doyle-Stevens with any County-related issue or question.
Thank you for reading!
Anne
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Emergency Readiness, Resilience & Self-Sufficiency: What are Napa County and its community partners doing, and what can rural residents do to prepare?
With many local partners, I will be co-hosting a community meeting and resource fair geared toward the District 3 areas of Deer Park, Angwin, Conn Valley, Pope Valley & Northern Berryessa on May 7, 2024 from 6:00pm-7:30pm in Angwin. Please join me along with fire safe councils from Deer Park, Angwin, Lake Hennessey, Pope Valley and Northern Berryessa, Napa County emergency services experts, and more, for this spring emergency readiness event. Contact Leah in my office with any questions you may have. I hope to see you there! Spanish translation services will be available.
What can you do to prepare in advance of the community meeting? Check out these organizations in our community; they offer helpful tips and resources for being prepared for emergencies:
NCFF - Napa Communities Firewise Foundation
COAD - (Napa Valley) Community Organizations Active in Disaster
CERT - Community Emergency Response Team
NCART - Napa Community Animal Response Team
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Happy Earth Month, and thanks to everyone who helped make the Oxbow Earth Day Celebration a success this year, including cyclers, recyclers, register-to-voters, resilience-makers, ivy-removers and more. Also, thank you to the Suscol Intertribal Council who opened the event with a drum blessing. | The Calistoga, St. Helena and Yountville Chambers of Commerce came together for a great event at Merryvale Vineyards this month. Gatherings like these build community, and they help our local businesses connect and collaborate. Thanks to all the members and staff who attended, and to the Merryvale Vineyards team for generously hosting. | Thank you to the Rutherford Volunteer Firefighters for inviting me out to their wildland training session this month. It was great to get a glimpse of their ongoing skill building and teamwork! | A big THANK YOU to Congressman Mike Thompson, as he recently secured $1,383,069 for the Lake Hennessey & Deer Park Fuel Reduction and Community Infrastructure Protection project. This project will protect residents around Deer Park and Lake Hennessey, as well as Adventist Health St. Helena Hospital, while building on the extensive work the County has done over the years to improve wildfire resiliency. Learn more here. | |
This month, Dave Jones, former CA Insurance Commissioner, and I testified before the State Senate Insurance Committee. We were advocating for Senate Bill 1060, which would tell insurers to consider wildfire mitigation in their underwriting.
Speaking on behalf of Rural County Representatives of California, I told the committee about how much Napa County is accomplishing with our partner Napafirewise. Our work on fuel breaks, defensible space, and home hardening, plus the work done by our local fire safe councils - it all makes our county safer and more resilient. We need SB 1060 to make certain that insurers are taking into account all this mitigation work too.
| Watch the Napa County Annual Report video to learn about some of the great accomplishments and work of County staff over the past year. | |
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Annual Angwin Flea Market - May 19th
I look forward to this fun, social and informative event each year! Join the firefighters of Angwin Volunteer Fire Station, members of the Angwin community, representatives of County and community service organizations and find a treasure, learn a safety skill, or take home important resources. Who knows what you'll find?
May 19, 2024 | 8am-1pm
15 Angwin Plaza, Angwin (behind Howell Mountain Market)
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(click image to enlarge)
Climate Education Session - May 30th
Have questions about the climate, and how to improve climate resiliency at home and in the community? Please join me and Drew Isaacs, scientist and lecturer on Climate Change and Business, for the first session of the District 3 Community Climate Education Series. This series is an opportunity for members of the community to learn and ask questions and hear about practical solutions.
May 30, 2024 | 5:30-7pm
Yountville Community Center
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Celebrating and serving the needs of seniors.
At the April 24 Board of Supervisors meeting, my colleagues and I proclaimed May as Older Americans Month to celebrate seniors in Napa County. With the growing number of seniors in the county, we are committed to addressing their needs and encouraging all generations to celebrate seniors and contribute to the creation of an inclusive society around aging.
In addition to the proclamation acknowledging our older adults, the Board also received a presentation from the Napa County Department of Housing and Homeless Services (DHHS), as the County has been selected to receive a grant of up to $5 million to launch and administer the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA) Rental Assistance Pilot Program. The pilot program is designed to safeguard the county’s rapidly growing homeless senior population by offering rental assistance to extremely low-income residents who are experiencing severe rent burden.
Seniors account for more than 10 percent of the population experiencing homelessness in Napa County. For older adults, financial or health crises are the leading causes of homelessness. Through the pilot program, Napa County DHHS anticipates providing stability and rental assistance to 180-200 seniors monthly to facilitate sustainable housing.
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Can you drive a truck? Do you have the capacity to deliver meals to people's homes? Help someone shop at the Food Pantry? Share talents or art with a stranger in need? Or, maybe you have a professional service you can share? CANV needs you!
Community Action Napa Valley (CANV) is a non-profit organization serving and benefitting the everyday lives of Napa County residents up and down the valley. CANV operates the Napa Food Bank, eight food pantries, ten free markets, Meals on Wheels, Wellness on Wheels, pre-schools for low-income children, tobacco cessation education programs, free tax preparation services and so much more. Learn more about CANV and ways to volunteer here.
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A webpage dedicated to roadwork projects.
Did you know that Napa County Public Works maintains a roadwork project webpage dedicated to past, present and future road projects? It allows users to locate projects, learn their projected timeline, and/or submit a request for a project not listed. Visit the webpage here and learn more about road programs and projects, funding sources, view maps and more.
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SNAPSHOT ON COUNTY SERVICES | |
Department Spotlight: Napa County Public Works
This month's spotlight focuses on our Public Works Department. Steve Lederer leads the department along with his five deputies who head up each of the divisions:
· Engineering, Roads, and Surveying (Juan Arias)
· Flood Control & Water Resources (Rick Thomasser)
· General Services (Leigh Sharp)
· Lake Berryessa Resort Development (Leigh Sears)
· Administrative and Financial Services (Maiko Klieman)
The Engineering Division manages all the County’s large projects, including:
- Road and bridge replacement projects, and leadership of the County’s Facilities Master Plan (FMP) process;
- Maintenance of existing facilities; and
- construction of a new jail.
The Roads Division does daily maintenance on our roadways and responds to urgent issues as they come up. While our roadways still need a great deal of work, we have raised our Pavement Condition Index score by 17.78% over last year. The 5-year paving plan can be found here.
The Flood Control & Water Resources Division has led the Napa Flood Control Project, bringing flood protection to downtown Napa and surrounding areas. They continue work on remaining elements of the project and maintain oversight and operation of the facilities during storms. They have also played a role in restoring the Napa River, returning the river to its more natural state after decades of encroachment from development and agriculture. The group manages the water and wastewater systems that serve the Berryessa Estates and the Berryessa Highlands, and also protects the environment by overseeing a stormwater program to ensure no contaminants end up in our creeks and rivers.
General Services handles a wide range of functions, including doing maintenance and small projects on our aging buildings, while also maintaining the grounds surrounding them. They manage our fleet of on and off-road vehicles, doing regular maintenance and ensuring we stay in compliance with air quality regulations. Our animal shelter works every day to protect domestic animals that need help and finding them new homes. And our airport is undergoing a renaissance, having recently moved our staff and other General Aviation functions into a new space, demolishing our 1940’s era terminal, and having signed agreements to have developed two new private terminals, while still serving over 50,000 takeoffs and landings every year.
At Lake Berryessa, the County has taken over several of the long dormant resort sites from the Federal Government and is in various stages of negotiation with different private parties to revive the resorts, and the economy of the region.
The Administrative and Financial Division functions so as to ensure all of the above can happen, creating and monitoring budgets, ensuring everyone gets paid, providing program and financial analysis, and helping to oversee all the real estate the County owns or leases.
As Director Lederer says, "the role of Public Works is to just get stuff done." And, they certainly do a lot of that. Click here to view a list of current Public Works projects.
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Ways to Connect and Find Information | | | | |
