On Fire

By Otis Wollan

Fire is our greatest threat. It needs to be our highest priority. PCWA has a key role to play.

PCWA and Placer County are less than a year away from finally receiving full value for the power generated on its Middle Fork Project on the American River. This new and significant revenue source will begin 2013, and belongs to all the people of Placer County. We need to share a vision for our priorities, and I strongly believe that community fire safety has to be our highest concern -- saving our lives, our properties, and our beautiful surroundings here in the Sierra.

Take a deeper look at what we can do NOW to address the fire threat:

Read my fire plan, written with feedback from my colleagues on the Placer Sierra Fire Safe Council and CalFire. It shows how PCWA and Placer County can work together to protect us.

Start where you are, choosing fire safety first where you live. I just finished building a new house â€" take a tour and see how I built fire safety into it, from the ground up and to the surrounding space.

Check out the community fire safe project which I managed to reduce fire risk for the neighborhood surrounding Colfax High School. We can do this throughout District 5.

Review the PCWA Middle Fork Project Policy, which I helped write while serving on the PCWA Board in 2005. In this election season, fires are burning all around us. We have the means to make our communities fire safe, to over time transform fire threat into a job-creating, community-building opportunity for a sustainable future that protects our lives, our property and our environment. I pledge to return this kind of leadership to PCWA.