LOWER LAKE >> Many believe Lake County is undergoing a housing crisis following the fires of 2015 and 2016. The county has tried to work with victims during the process of rebuilding, but it has been no easy feat. Fire victim, Dini Marotto, 86, knows all about that.
Just Tuesday, the County held a job fair in the lobby of the Lake County Courthouse for immediate job openings in the Building Division in an effort to hire back-up for jobs like inspections. The uproar from the community during previous Board of Supervisor meetings and town halls have caught the attention of many county officials, including District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown, who has taken matters into his own hands by conducting inspections himself — about 60 building inspections thus far. This comes after the county has had just one inspector for the county. Volunteers and on-call workers have been aiding the county for this matter. However, with a shortage of staff and prolonged procedures, inspections have piled up.
Contractors, fire victims, and others have had to wait an extensive period of time to proceed with projects, rebuild, or return to their original homes. Marotto is one of the many.
She originally came to the United States from Holland in the 1960s. After living in Oakland for a while, she and her husband bought a 20-acre property on Rocky Creek Road in Lower Lake. It was “beautiful,” she said of the property which had its own pond. Both built their house with a guest home and sauna room from scratch — or at least attempted to. When Marotto’s husband passed away in the 1980’s, the house was not yet finished. As the independent woman she claims to be, Marotto tried her best to complete the home and eventually received help from several Lake County neighbors, including her still-close friends, the Solan family.
“Dini doesn’t like attention,” said friend Lonnie Solan. “She represented Holland in the Olympics in the early 1950s, but she says ‘Oh, I just played a sport.’ She doesn’t like taking anything from anyone, but we wanted to help.” Even more so now than ever, Lonnie adds. That’s because Marotto lost her property to the 2015 Rocky Fire. It swept the three structures she had, leaving a 20-acre ghost town-like area in Lower Lake. She and her brother Bill Hilbrandie, 82, who lived in a distant part of the property were left with nothing.
“We had been with the Red Cross, in hotels, and with friends after the fire. Lonnie, her husband, and four dogs settled us (Marotto and Hilbrandie) in their home within a week of the fire,” said Marotto.
Since that week in 2015, the sister and brother have faced a housing challenge.
“The first days after the fire, we were at a meeting in Lower Lake,” Hilbrandie said. “They (the County) told us they’d go easy with permits, but they haven’t. There’s just one inspector now.”
For now and for an unknown period of time, Hilbrandie has returned to the property where he has settled inside a fifth-wheeler camper.
As for Marotto, the Solano family has offered to permanently shelter her, but Marotto has refused. Instead, she is attempting to digress from the wait of inspections and permits. She is currently waiting to be approved for a mobile home that will be provided by the non-profit organization Hope Crisis Response Network (HCRN). The network is known for helping hundreds of communities that have suffered from both man-made and natural disasters. According to Solan, HCRN CEO Kevin Cox has faced multiple challenges due to inspections, so “he came up with the idea to get her (Marotto) a mobile home. She won’t have to pay or deal with permit issues.” If all is processed, the ex-Lower Lake resident will move into her new home that would settle in Central Park, Middletown by the end of the month.
“I’m sorry to say, but the County has promised everyone leniency but they have not been very helpful. I hope I get a home,” said Marotto.
This has not been the first time Marotto and Hilbrandie have dealt with challenging issues such as finding a place to resettle. The siblings recalled their times in Holland during World War II when they’d sell their father’s belongings in exchange for food. At the age of nine, Marotto, and Hilbrandie, who was six at the time, would dismantle and burn wooden shelves and furniture of their home to keep warm during the five years under war.
“It wasn’t easy, but we managed,” said Marotto.
“And we will continue to manage,” Hilbrandie added.
