At the meeting's start, the council quickly moved through its consent agenda, which included a request from Councilman Bob Rumfelt to accept a resolution encouraging the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force and California Fish and Game Commission to support and adopt the Regional Stakeholder Group Marine Protected Area Array Proposal.
He said the request came from Fort Bragg Mayor Doug Hammerstrom, who was seeking support for the regional stakeholders' marine protected area proposals. The goal was to give North Coast residents local some control over the process.
Councilman Roy Parmentier had complained that that, because of the Marine Life Protection Act, “None of us will be able to fish down there on the coast at all.”
Councilman Ron Bertsch suggested the proposal was the opposite of what Parmentier was thinking. “We're just saying that we think they should be heard,” said Bertsch.
The council voted 3-1, with Mayor Jim Irwin voting no and Parmentier abstaining.
During citizens' input, Dennis Rollins, chairman of the Westside Community Park Committee, gave one of his regular updates to the council on the park's progress.
He said the inaugural “Grillin' on the Green' event on Aug. 7 brought in just over $19,000 and cleared $16,000 in profit, thanks in part to donations from the Keeling-Barnes Family Foundation and the Priest Family Trust.
Rollins showed a perpetual plaque for the event's barbecue cookoff – this year won by Chris Irwin and his family – which is proposed to be hung in Lakeport City Hall.
For the park's phase two, Rollins said all soil preparation work has been completed thanks to efforts by volunteers and businesses.
Park volunteers started laying out the irrigation system and hit problems, so rather than try to push ahead in the face of the approaching rainy season, they're putting erosion materials in place and planning to get started again on installing the system next spring.
In the meantime, the irrigation supplies are being stored at the city's corporation yard. Rollins said $18,000 in grant money was used for the equipment.
This weekend inmates from the jail will assist with putting in straw wattles for erosion control, he said.
Rollins said the group has just finished its first milestone for a grant it received last year.
The park effort received a $200,000 Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council grant late in 2009, as Lake County News has reported.
Rollins said the committee was required to get all the soil and grading work done, and spent $46,000 from the first $50,000 installment of the grant. He said the next $50,000 installment is expected soon.
The major work will stop for awhile, he said. “April 15 is when we can go back out to get started again.”
Before starting up again in the spring, Rollins said the volunteers plant to preassemble the irrigation system parts in order to be ready.
He thanked city staff for their assistance in the effort.
“I think you guys are doing a great job,” Bertsch told Rollins.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at