 We are back here in the studio at Davis Media Access. I'm Autumn LaBaye-Renau, and I'm your host today. I have with me some guests from Paradise, California, and we're going to talk about the work that's happening up there to rebuild Paradise in the wake of the devastating campfire last fall. My guests today are John Waterman, who's the team leader for the Paradise Rotary, and Vicky Perez, who is also with the Rotary, and then Mark Thorpe, also a Rotarian, but here representing the Paradise Ridge Chamber of Commerce, and welcome to you all. So John, I met you briefly when we were holding a fundraiser here last November, and that was right on the heels of the fire. And my memory of that day was running around like a fool with wearing a respirator and trying to talk to people and raise as much money. So I'm glad to see you again. I hope that things are beginning to ease for all of you, but I have a feeling we're going to hear that it's still a pretty tough go. So how do you rebuild a town? Unlike some of the other towns in the area, Paradise didn't sustain some damage. It was leveled. How do you begin to get your head around that process as a business person? Well, just as establishing that at first. It was really, as it devastated the town, everybody had to get out. Basically, it was all immediate fire, how would you call it, what would you call it, an evacuation? Then we went into a recovery phase. And I have to emphasize that we have, we've moved into that with some of the cleanup. We started to have plots actually cleaned, and we're seeing some movement of trucks and a lot of personnel in town. We're starting to see how this has turned into a recovery effort. Businesses were affected as much as residential and vice versa. The town was virtually destroyed and infrastructure has been damaged and will need to be replaced. Rotary, among other organizations within the community, are doing all they can to support fire victims directly, as well as the rebuilding effort. And that is for residential and commercial, too. North Valley Community Foundation has been instrumental. A lot of individuals to international organizations contributing to that fund for the direct benefit of the fire victims. But again, we're moving into the recovery phases where we need to start supporting the business and the rebuild effort. And that recovery cannot have been made any easier by all the rain and the mud that you must be dealing with up there. That's true. Correct. We've got issues concerning the weather. It's wintertime anyway. And we can always reflect back and say it could be worse. A lot of us are taking that attitude. We have a lot of gratitude in general as a community. But the fact that it's not three feet of snow, that we're not hindered by other crisis that are occurring, or counter our blessings in that sense. How do you begin to bring together all the players who I'm sure need to meet and strategize and plan to physically rebuild buildings and homes and businesses? And that's for any of you who want to chime in. I think the big thing for most of us, it's the unknown. We don't know when we'll be able to rebuild. I'm thinking I'll be lucky if it's two years from now. And in two years from now, I'm older. Will I want to move back onto the ridge? Will we be able to get buyer insurance? Will we be able to afford the buyer insurance if we can get it? Are we going to face new building codes to where we may have to spend $300,000 to build a home that's valued at $200,000? Will the elderly of our community come back? A lot of people think the people who had retired up there that were in their 70s, 80s, 90s, they're not coming back. It's a problem. And we know that we won't face the rebuilding process for at least a year and a half, maybe two years, at the earliest. But I think, going back to your question, is getting people together is, first of all, our Rotary Club does still continue to meet weekly, not as many of us every week, but we do try to get there when we can. The other thing is, is the city council meetings and they're live streamed, so we can attend those in person or via watching it. And then also, many community members are getting together with events and things that are happening in the town just to get people together. Our ice skating rink has reopened. The chamber has been having ribbon cuttings as businesses reopened, so just getting as many people to get that word out and attend those events and reconnect has really been heartwarming to see when people reconnect with each other. Well, it must also be healing, that reconnection. It is. Yeah, yeah. So, John, when I met you last fall, you said, please have us on in February when everyone else has forgotten. Do you feel forgotten or is there still a lot of outside attention, care, money, resources coming in? I really think that we're getting the people on an individual basis still care. I've been going from Rotary Clubs from Cameron Park to Danville throughout the entire region and everybody still cares, but on our GoFundMe, for example, paradisestrong.org. We're during as many contributions as they were as there was in the first month, keeping it in the public eye a little bit, trying to continue to raise money. I kind of perceived that our Rotary Clubs gonna go from 80 very active members, maybe by the end of the year, down to 20, 25, 30 members as our talent scatters across the country. Our Rotary members are. On the I-80 corridor right now, we've got one in Truckee, one in Granite Bay. I'm now in Sacramento, Vicki's part-time in Vacaville, and we've got one down in Walnut Creek. And so the whole fabric of our community, we're kind of a microcosm of that. We're going through those same things in our Rotary Clubs, so we're continuing to try to raise money so that we can, whoever is left behind, and whether or not the three of us will still be there a year from now, we don't know. So we're trying to leave as much behind for, so that we can help the community to rebuild. Vicki, you mentioned earlier that you're living between three different houses. I am. Yes, I am. It's gotta be a little unsettling. It is. You know, I'm in Vacaville with our youngest daughter, part-time, and then my brother has been gracious to allow us to live in his home up in Kelly Ridge, which is just above Orville, also part-time. And then we do have some family in Las Vegas, so we've been there as well. So that's actually, my husband is there today, and I'm here in Vacaville. So yes, but you know, the good news is, is everything I own fits in a suitcase, so I just keep that packed and go from place to place, but. That's some perspective. Yeah, yeah, so it is difficult at times, although we are very fortunate that we do have the family that we can rely on. This is for all three of you. What do people need to know today about Paradise? Because when people see this, they're gonna ask me, how can I help? Because that was the question that came through Loud and Clear back in November. So okay, help is needed. How can I still help? So what can the outside world do? Go ahead, John. Well, we're working on several things. One is a Rotary Club, Clayton Valley, Concord, Sunrise Rotary Club, long name. That is a long name. But they have a program now called Cars for Paradise. So if you're sitting and you've got a clunker sitting in your driveway, we want it. They're restoring them, making them safe, and then turning around and giving them to people in paradise. We've got a small committee within our Rotary Club that is betting who gets them. We started with an organization up there called California Vocations. They take care of developmentally disabled adults. And they had 30 cars in their parking lots burned as they were in company vehicles. Picking up young adults with autism, Down syndrome, brain injury, whatever, their clients. And 18 of them didn't have full insurance. And so our Rotary Club with Clayton Valley's Rotary Club have been able to replace all 18 of those cars. It's going to be a long-term program with Clayton Valley. They're going to continue to get cars so that we can help our community. So if somebody in Davis has that. So people can donate a vehicle. They can donate a vehicle. We're still accepting contributions on paradisestrong.org. I'm doing a couple of fundraisers right now in the I-80 corridor. February 24th at the Deville Theater in Vacaville. We've got actually a Davis band playing cold shot along with time bandits out of Solano County. So that's a fundraiser that the money will go to the Paradise Rotary Foundation. Cars for Paradise had a motorcycle donated. And we didn't know what to do with it. So it's being completely restored. And we're raffling that off. So we're selling raffle tickets. And then the big event is going to be here in Davis at the Mundavi Center on March 23rd. And Judge Dave Rosenberg is going to be our emcee. Chancellor May has said that he'll come and will help us host the event. We're inviting all the politicians from the city council to the governor. Some we've heard from, some we haven't. We've got some fairly big names that are going to be playing at the event. And we hope to raise a couple of $100,000 at that event. So we're still trying to do the fundraising and keep the name in out there, or Paradise out there. But the event in Vacaville is co-sponsored by the Vacaville Rotary Club. And so we're getting a lot of support from Rotary Clubs throughout the state, everywhere we go. They're really reaching out and saying, what can we do? So we're appreciative of being members of Rotary. So support those fundraisers. Well, good. And you can get information to me and I'll help promote it here in Davis. Thank you so much. Thank you, of course. I literally talking with all of you, I have no clue what you have been through. And I said earlier that it really is a form of PTSD. And so you're all dealing with making these huge choices, even will you continue to live in the place that was your beloved home? You mentioned a couple of businesses were reopening. Let's just touch on that quickly because if that's happening, that speaks of hope, that speaks of renewal. So what kind of businesses are opening and are they getting support from, are people coming in them from surrounding communities or? They are. There are a number of different businesses that are opening, but we have to remember that we're dealing with issues concerning not having a potable water, number one. The power is hooked up in certain areas, but not extended to the entire community. So there's, there are a lot of challenges. They're opening up in the communities of Orville and Chico. They're starting to come back to the ridge proper, but absent water and power. It's a challenge at this point. But I want to emphasize that there's something that's coming up this month on the 22nd. FEMA has provided us with a master planner to be able to actually, who deals with disasters specifically, coming to the community so we can start lining up how this process is gonna work. We've been wanting a wastewater system for a long time in our community. Looks like it's on the table, fiber optic, buried PG&E lines, reestablishing perhaps some of the zoning within the community, which is essential for us to look down the road and we're talking about posterity and how it's gonna look in five, 10, 15 years. So there are plans that are being made now coming out of the direct impact of the fire to actually rebuilding. So when you talk about businesses coming back, yes, we're setting those plans up. Right. Well, in that kind of infrastructure, it's very hard if you don't put it in from the get-go, especially bearing the fiber optic and putting things underground. So that's encouraging to hear that ultimately there may come some very good, there may be some very good outcomes out of- We've had great cooperation from PG&E, from Comcast, from our partners into the community and from federal and state. Worst wildfire in California's history. They're addressing it that way. Right. And Vicki, you said that you commented on the state of the state address last week. You wanna share what you said about that? Yes, well, I happened to be watching it and at the very end, our governor introduced Alan Pierce who is a nurse at Feather River Hospital and I happened to know of Alan and the heroics that he showed in rescuing patients and from the hospital and taking them to safety. You know, it just brought tears to my eyes. I hear the story a lot. I know of the story, but every time I hear of it, it brings tears to my eyes just to know the dedicated people of our community that care about everyone. And so I think things like that, I was so happy to have Paradise mentioned in the state of the state because it is an ongoing process and it's gonna take many years. Sure, and clearly Governor Newsom hasn't forgotten about Paradise. Yes, and he was up and he visited Paradise after the fire so he's well aware of the devastation there. Yeah, good. Any last thoughts, John? I just had one that there's a now famous picture of President Trump and Jerry Brown and Governor Newsom. In pleasure. Yes. In our mayor, Jody Jones. And when I first saw the picture, all I could think of is God help these men because she's a dynamic lady. Caltrans divides the state into 12 districts. She used to run one of the districts. So she's uniquely qualified that she knows how government works, how federal, state, local funding works and having her as the mayor does make a difference because I don't think there's a better mayor in California to handle a disaster like this. Good. And she's, we're very lucky to have her. Well, I thank you all for taking the time to come down to Davis today and share this and saw that I in turn can share it with the community. And let's do this again some point down the road. So we keep it on Davis's mind, we don't forget and we are aware of what opportunities there are to attend fundraisers and to otherwise contribute. We are pleasure. Thank you for being my guest today. And this has been in the studio here at Davis Media Access and we've been talking about rebuilding Paradise, a long-term project for sure. Find us on the web at dctv.davismedia.org. You can find all our local shows archived there and watch this show Tuesday evenings on DCTV channel 15 on the Comcast system. Thanks so much.