Memorandum
Date: August 13, 2024
To: The Honorable Bruno Sabatier, Chair, Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Susan Parker, County Administrative Officer
Terre Logsdon, Chief Climate Resiliency Officer/Tribal Liaison
Subject: Consideration and Presentation of Cooling, Warming, and Clean Air Center Procedures
Executive Summary:
On August 1, 2023, before your Board was a discussion and direction to staff regarding crafting a policy/plan for standing up warming and cooling centers, and by extension, clean air centers when the basin is inundated by wildfire smoke. Your board directed the Chief Climate Resiliency Officer to convene representatives from the following departments for discussion and policy/plan development:
- Behavioral Health
- Library
- Office of Emergency Services
- Public Health
- Social Services
- Public Services
Additionally, representatives from North Coast Opportunities and the Community Adaptation Program of the American Red Cross volunteered to participate. This representative group began meeting last fall.
At the time the initial item was before your Board, the Chief Climate Resiliency Officer had already gathered managers of area Senior and Community Centers, the Lake County Fairgrounds, North Coast Opportunities (NCO), and the Community Adaptation Program of the American Red Cross to work on a Community Resilience Center Planning Grant application. Additionally, the Community Adaptation Program of the American Red Cross and NCO’s Emergency Preparedness In Communities (EPIC) programs had already begun working with Senior Centers whose facilities are not owned by the County and several faith-based organizations to identify barriers to serving as cooling and warming centers and then address those barriers.
The Office of Emergency Services Manager, Leah Sautelet, created and made edits to both of the Severe Weather annexes to the Lake County Emergency Operations Plan: Extreme Heat and Heavy Rains, Snow, and Storms, which the staff convened to work on the policy/plan for opening warming or cooling centers reviewed, gave edit suggestions, and then Sautelet completed The Severe Weather annexes developed as part of this workgroup reflect the actions and processes that county departments have taken over at least the last two years in response to severe weather up to an including disseminating information about cooling/warming options. Those annexes are available at: <https://www.lakesheriff.com/924/OES-Plans>
Additionally, with the creation of the Ready.LakeCountyCA.gov website by OES in June 2024, information and resources are posted and tailored to current and upcoming weather events.
Infographics have been drafted to meet the direction to staff in the original item before your Board: An easy guide to determine when warming or cooling center operations will be announced. At this time, however, no County department has the budget to extend or expand facility operations outside of their normal working hours or technically operate a “Center” as those typically include additional amenities such as snacks, beverages, charging stations, back-up power, etc.
In the Early July Heat event, North Coast Opportunities and the Community Adaptation Program of the American Red Cross in coordination with County staff and other local Non-Governmental Organizations that comprise the Resilience Hub sub-group of the Lake County COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disasters) which is facilitated by the Red Cross, actively worked to increase capacity of local facilities through the establishment of Community Resilience Centers or the addition of back-up power to current facilities. As the result of this process, several non-governmental organizations opened for the first time in this capacity in response to the Early July Heat event from July 1-6, 2024.
The Resilience Hub working group of the Lake County COAD is interested in a Memorandum of Understanding with the County of Lake in the future and are actively solidifying their activation plans. The COAD does recognize that warming/cooling centers are not highly utilized but expect the need to grow significantly when severe weather coincides with power outages.
In order for County-operated facilities to serve as true Warming or Cooling Centers, all would need back-up power generation, additional funding for staffing and other amenities, as well as temporary curbside signage announcing the availability of warming or cooling to the public.
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Estimated Cost: ________ Amount Budgeted: ________ Additional Requested: ________ Future Annual Cost: ________
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☒ Well-being of Residents ☒ Public Safety ☒ Disaster Prevention, Preparedness, Recovery
☐ Economic Development ☒ Infrastructure ☐ County Workforce
☒ Community Collaboration ☐ Business Process Efficiency ☐ Clear Lake
Recommended Action: Presentation and consideration for direction to staff, as appropriate.