- Elizabeth Larson
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Council gets report on reopening of Sutter Lakeside after fire evacuation, awards bid for repair project
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council on Tuesday evening heard from Sutter Lakeside Hospital’s chief administrative officer about the hospital's evacuation and reopening due to the Mendocino Complex.
The hospital was closed for 12 days to the River fire arm of the complex, reopening on Aug. 10, as Lake County News has reported.
“Our team did some really amazing things during that time,” hospital Chief Administrative Officer Dan Peterson said.
Peterson said Sutter Lakeside staff was helped by other facilities in the Sutter Health system, including a sister facility in Santa Rosa that had gone through an evacuation last fall.
He said Sutter Lakeside reopened six days after the mandatory evacuations were lifted, which he added was very quick considering the testing and requirements it had to meet before taking patients again.
On July 28, the hospital evacuated 15 patients to other facilities, Peterson said.
During the following week, Peterson said a team of three to five people was on site at all times, with a number of staffers living on site around the clock.
He said it was especially important to have maintenance staff on site in order to do the kind of required ongoing maintenance that prevented equipment like its multimillion dollar MRI machine from being damaged.
Peterson said he was on site with security guards watching flames come down the ridge. He said he encouraged them to go and take care of their own homes, but they refused to go because they wanted to ensure the hospital was safe.
“It was a very meaningful time for me,” he said.
The hospital staff turned off the air conditioning units and sealed them from the outside, which stopped smoke intrusion and damage, Peterson said.
However, at the same time, the inside of the facility suffered significant temperature damage, with two semi loads of pharmaceuticals needing to be replaced. He said the items that they had to discard because they no longer met accreditation standards actually were donated to a third world mission project so will still be put to use.
Peterson said the hospital then had constant shipments of new supplies arriving, although there were some items they had a hard time acquiring due to existing shortages.
Over a four-day period, Peterson said the hospital was completely restocked and thoroughly cleaned, and all electrical equipment was retested, thanks to a team of 200 people.
Councilman Kenny Parlet asked Peterson about the cost of restocking and cleaning the hospital.
Peterson said they are still figuring that out for the purpose of insurance, adding they also paid people through the closure. “It's several million dollars all told. I don't have the final number yet.”
Mayor Mireya Turner said it was a good reminder that there is an incredibly dedicated team at Sutter Lakeside Hospital.
Council awards bid for Lakeshore Boulevard repair project
In other business on Tuesday evening, the council awarded to Granite Construction the bid for the city’s final emergency repair project on Lakeshore Boulevard.
Public Works Director Doug Grider said Granite was the low bidder at $239,556.
His written report said the project is a result of storm damage that occurred during the flooding in January and February of 2017.
“The project area is from 100 feet south of Sayre Street to 300 feet north of Jones Street. Work consists of replacing damaged pavement sections, replacing drainage inlets and culverts and minor sidewalk repair. This project will repair the shoulder area of Lakeshore Boulevard that has been barricaded off since the storms,” Grider wrote.
His report said the majority of the funding is from the Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief program, which reimburses 88.53 percent of the construction costs. The city is required to contribute 11.47 percent of the total cost for the project.
“We have to get it done before the lake comes up,” Grider told the council.
Parlet said he was concerned that the project appeared to have been bid 70 percent higher than the city engineer’s estimate of $143,732.50, adding it felt like the city was being taken advantage of.
“This is the new norm for what construction's going to cost us now,” Grider replied.
He explained that, during the recession, companies were working at cost just to keep going. Now with a number of factors, including an improving economy, and disasters such as floods and fires, “now you’re looking at a very small contractor pool.”
Many small contractors dropped out of the business. “This is something that works in a cycle. This is not the first time I've seen this happen,” he said.
Grider said he doesn’t expect prices will come back down in the near future, explaining that they could see a three- to four-year cycle of rising prices until more smaller contractors come back into the market.
During the discussion, Grider noted that the city engineer’s estimate was done two years ago, and that it had taken that long to get through the Federal Highway Administration’s program.
Police chief gives after action report on fireworks
Lakeport Fire Chief Brad Rasmussen presented the council with the after action report on his agency’s operations relating to fireworks on July 4, which the council voted to receive and file.
He said there were no major issues in the downtown during the Independence Day festivities, with one lost child and one arrest for public intoxication.
While it looked like police received fewer calls about illegal fireworks, Rasmussen said that doesn’t mean there were fewer issues, as many times people don’t call them in.
He said there were a lot of illegal fireworks being shot off around town, and especially in the Safeway shopping center on 11th Street.
While officers were engaged in a drunk driving vehicle stop, they wanted a truck shooting illegal fireworks off over homes on 11th Street, Rasmussen said.
“They didn't care there were police cars there, they just shot them right out of the truck,” he said.
Turner asked how easy it is for police officers to tell the difference between illegal and safe and sane fireworks.
Rasmussen said it’s very easy, noting that illegal fireworks shoot high into the air and have flaming material, while safe and sane fireworks have the state fire marshal seal.
He said that, depending on the amount and type of explosive content, possession of them can lead to felony violations. Getting illegal fireworks, he added, is very easy.
Parlet asked about a public information campaign. Rasmussen said they had done more media outreach this year than any other year.
Also on Tuesday, staff and council members noted that they thought the National Night Out event the previous evening in Library Park was a great success, with Public Works staff having worked hard to have new playground equipment in place.
Rasmussen said he believed it was the best National Night Out in the six years the city has hosted the event, adding he was still getting messages from people in the community who really appreciated it.
He said having it in Library Park was one of the factors that made for its success, suggesting that the city should think of holding it there again next year.
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091818 Lakeport City Council agenda packet by LakeCoNews on Scribd