- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Celebration marks beginning of new Anderson Springs infrastructure, home projects
State Sen. Mike McGuire hosted the groundbreaking event for the new Anderson Springs wastewater system and the beginning of the process to rebuild dozens of new homes in a ceremony at the Anderson Springs Recreation Center.
Numerous dignitaries from local, state and federal agencies were on hand, including Congressman Mike Thompson, Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, Jodi Traversaro of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, Cal Fire Northern Region Chief Scott Upton, Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg, Sheriff Brian Martin, Supervisor Rob Brown, Supervisor Moke Simon, Special Districts Administrator Jan Coppinger, as well as State Water Board staff, Anderson Springs’ homeowners group, and representatives of numerous other groups and agencies that have served in the response and recovery.
The heartfelt event marked another step in Lake County’s ongoing recovery from the Valley fire, which began on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015.
The third-most damaging fire in California history, the Valley fire that burned more than 76,000 acres and close to 1,300 homes, and resulted in four confirmed fatalities.
Southern Lake County continues to show the ravages of the fire. The hills above the recreation center are gray and dotted with the remains of thousands of still-standing blackened trees, and the rebuilding process across the fire area has been plagued by delays and struggles for survivors.
However, hope and resilience were the themes of the day.
“This morning is truly a milestone event,” said McGuire.
Thanks to the efforts of McGuire and cooperation between the county of Lake, the state of California and the federal government, construction of the $10.5 million new wastewater system is set to begin soon. The Board of Supervisors is expected to award the bid for the project at its Oct. 17 meeting.
The wastewater system will allow 119 homes to be rebuilt that otherwise couldn’t be and will also allow full buildout of the community’s 350 lots, McGuire said.
Another $7.2 million in low- or no-interest CalHome loans will allow dozens of homeowners to rebuild, plus there is another $4.5 million from Housing and Community Development for infrastructure, according to McGuire.
Aguiar-Curry said during the event that she is seeking another $5 million in relief funds for the county.
Anderson Springs – with the exception of a fraction of its homes – was devastated by the Valley fire.
At one point, the fire was burning so fast and hot that it was consuming 48 acres a minute, McGuire said.
“If hell existed on Earth, it was the Valley fire,” he said.
It proved to be one of Lake County’s toughest moments, but McGuire and the many others present on Saturday would agree that the disaster also brought people together and showed the county at its resilient best – neighbors helping each other, strangers reaching out to lend a hand – and creating as significant a story as the fire itself.
The county’s unshakable spirit, said McGuire, is what led to the achievement in efforts to rebuild Anderson Springs, a key achievement in the overall recovery.
He also was quick to acknowledge that the process has been neither easy nor quick, and that there is a lot of work still to be done.
Congressman Mike Thompson said the Valley fire, for all of its devastation, didn’t put a nick in Lake County’s spirit.
He recalled returning from the East Coast to respond to Lake County during the fire. Thompson said he had been at ground zero after Sept. 11, 2001, he’s seen the aftermath of earthquakes and served in Vietnam.
Yet Thompson said there was nothing that could have prepared him for what he saw as he rolled into Middletown, an area he has represented for decades. He found much of it unrecognizable in the immediate wake of the fire. Homes were burned to ash, vehicles were melted, dreams destroyed.
He also called the Anderson Springs wastewater project “a game changer.”
There was abundant praise during the event for local leaders, including Sheriff Brian Martin, who McGuire has dubbed the state’s hardest working sheriff, as well as county supervisors Rob Brown and Moke Simon, all of them having had a presence during the fire.
In the case of Simon, at that point he wasn’t yet a county official, but as tribal chair of the Middletown Rancheria he opened the tribe’s facilities at Twin Pine Casino to help shelter evacuees.
Traversaro, who along with McGuire and Martin took a harrowing ride through the Valley fire in hours after it began, said she’s always inspired by Lake County, where she’s seen not just the community’s resilience and grace but the heroism and leadership of local officials.
Coppinger, who has taken over as the head of Lake County Special District since the fire, said, “I still choke up when I think of that day and this fire,” recounting watching the fire’s smoke plume build from her home at the base of Cobb Mountain.
She said the Anderson Springs wastewater project has been both the most challenging and the most rewarding project of her career.
“This project is actually moving at lightning speed,” she said, noting the comparative speed of government processes.
During the ceremony Aguiar-Curry, McGuire and Thompson also caught Supervisor Brown off guard by presenting him with a plaque for his work in both the Valley and Clayton fires, filling roles that spanned not just his normal job as supervisor but also including everything from directing traffic for evacuees, structure protection, running shelters, coordinating response and, more recently, doing building inspections to help fire survivors get their homes completed.
The ceremony ended with dignitaries and Anderson Springs community members ceremonially tossing shovelfuls of dirt in front of the recreation center to symbolize the new building to come.
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.