LAKE COUNTY >> The county ordered the temporary lumber operation at Hoberg’s Resort and Spa on Cobb Mountain to stop importing logs and remove all remaining logs from the property.
According to Community Development Director Rick Coel, the lumber staging area exceeded multiple provisions and “got so big it overwhelmed the site.” This created issues such as materials being too close to Highway 175, trucks dirtying nearby roads, and potential threats to the nearby watershed from storm runoff.
“The scope of it got to be far too much,” Coel told the Board of Supervisors at its regular meeting on Tuesday. “It far exceeded what we intended.”
Since mid-December, Mountain Enterprises, a PG&E contractor, has used the resort to process trees from the Valley Fire area. There they were sorted based on quality: the good wood set aside for future milling while the “less desirable” lumber was sent to China via the port of Oakland, he said. Milling was planned on the site, but it hadn’t started yet.
Hoberg’s Dan Nelson responded immediately to earlier concerns and made improvements by Friday afternoon, according to Coel.
According to District 5 Supervisor and BOS Chair Rob Brown, Nelson met with him and Coel on Jan. 19 and the resort owner estimated that he would have the problems mitigated in two to three weeks. Nelson told the Record-Bee that he was “very supportive of the decision,” and would have all the remaining “wood chunks” removed in eight weeks.
That was also the same night as the most recent Valley Fire Recovery Task Force meeting, scene of a strong public voice of concern. Many people consider the operation an eyesore.
“There’s no trees hiding Hoberg’s,” a Cobb mountain resident said at the BOS meeting. “It’s all we look at.”
The threat to the area’s water was brought forward at the task force meeting by Rob Stark, the general manager of Cobb Area Water District. He was worried that the runoff from the site, which hasn’t completed debris cleanup since it was completely destroyed, would run into his system and affect the quality of his customers’ water.
Debris removal from the resort and other commercial sites has become an issue for the county received an unofficial email from CalOES stating that Sacramento would not continue with business lot cleanup. Long-term Recovery Coordinator Carol Huchingson said the county has met with the state to discuss it.
Despite these talks, Rob Brown said the state may provide seed money, but it will not give any additional financial support to clean it up. According to Brown, Nelson needs to come up with a plan with the county — through insurance, SBA loans — because the county cannot afford to clean it and put a lien on the property.
“Weather permitting, he’ll have them out of there and we can begin with the erosion control measures,” Brown said. “Then we can get down to what exactly it is going to take to clean that place up.”
However, Nelson said his group, Lake County Partners, should not be completely liable to clean the property as CalRecycle told them that they would clean it up earlier.
“We don’t feel that we should be responsible, as were given verbal commitments and also assurances by the county that the cleanup efforts will be completed at Hoberg’s,” he said. “If in fact CalRecycle would’ve said they were going to clean it up, the site wouldn’t be so unsightly.”
Now, the county has to find an alternative site to process and possibly mill the lumber. Coel said that Crazy Creek in Middletown could be an option.
“There may be a more appropriate place to put [the mill],” he said. “There’s other properties where it can be more easily managed… the scale can’t be that big.”
Mountain Enterprises and Nelson also need to find a place for the removed lumber. The lower grade will still be exported to China but the Douglas fir will be sent to a place in Ukiah.
Additionally, Nelson said he wants to ensure that local schools will still receive donated wood.
“We still plan to fulfill that commitment regardless of the decision,” he said. “I believe our donations programs and plans for reuse of the trees was our way of giving back to community under these devastating circumstances.”
