MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – A community meeting regarding the plans to build a dormitory for recovery effort workers at a county park will be held next week.

Board of Supervisors Chair Rob Brown will host the town hall meeting on the Hope City dormitory – proposed to be built at Trailside Park near Middletown – on Monday, May 9, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Middletown Library/Senior Center Community Room, 21256 Washington St.

“I just wanted to tell people exactly what it is what we're doing because there is so much misinformation out there,” Brown told Lake County News.

Kevin Cox of Hope City, a ministry of the Hope Crisis Response Network, will be on hand for the meeting, as will some of the people whose homes will be rebuilt by the organization, Brown said.

At its April 5 meeting, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution to use county property at the 107-acre Trailside Park for a dormitory for the Hope Crisis Response Network volunteers, who will participate in rebuilding homes for Valley fire survivors.

Brown said the matter was on the board agenda three times, and in March he gave an update to the Middletown Area Town Hall on the plans.

Hope City is partnering with a number or organizations, including Middletown Bible Church, The Bridge, Santa Rosa Bible Church, Community Baptist Church and Redwood Covenant Church, according to its Web site, http://www.hcrn.info/hope-city.html .

In March, a group composed of Hope City, Team Lake County and the Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians completed its first home rebuild for Valley fire survivors on the rancheria, as Lake County News has reported: www.bit.ly/1Z8vfGx .

Brown said the county has received approval from the state, which provided grant funding for the park, to place the dormitory on the property.

He said Hope City is ready to move forward and begin going through the planning process in order to build the dormitory.

The plans so far call for the building to be located close to Highway 175, although Brown said it could be moved to the park's Dry Creek side.

According to Brown, the dormitory will look like a barn, and will be complete with a kitchen and bathrooms. He said it will be large enough to house up to 60 workers at a time.

Hope City reported that its volunteer building crews will come from around the United States and Canada and stay for a week at a time.

“For the needs that they have, that property is really the only property that can meet that need,” Brown said.

Brown said Hope City will be part of rebuilding about 140 homes – at an estimated cost of $50,000 each – over the next several years.

Close to 70 of those homes will be for people whose insurance was canceled a month before the Valley fire due to the Rocky fire, Brown said.

In addition to discussing the building and its placement, Brown said the May 9 meeting will offer an opportunity to discuss uses for the facility once Hope City has completed it work here and will no longer need the building.

Once Hope City is done with its Valley fire-related building efforts, Brown said the building will be turned back over to the county.

Future uses he is proposing for the building includes making it available to community groups, in particular local 4-H clubs for use as a camp facility.

Anyone with questions about the plan can contact Brown at 707-349-2628 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Find out more about Hope City at https://www.facebook.com/Hope-City-483457481822748/ .

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.