Tribal community center project would add commercial kitchen and upgraded HVAC to serve public during smoke and evacuations

County staff and a tribal official said the Habematopomo of Upper Lake’s proposed community center would include facilities and air-filtration upgrades intended to let it operate as a cooling and heating shelter during smoke or evacuation events.

Terry Logston, Lake County’s chief climate resiliency officer and tribal liaison, said the project would leverage federal support championed by Congressman Mike Thompson; Logston cited a HUD community project funding award of "3,150,000" to support construction of a tribal community center. Greg Folsom, the tribe’s facilities and lands administrator, described that prior support as "about a $3,000,000 grant from Congressman Thompson," reflecting a discrepancy in the transcript on the precise figure.

Folsom described what an implementation grant would fund: "If we are able to get this grant, this is an implementation grant, this will help us to put in things like a commercial kitchen, advanced filtration systems in the HVAC ... so if there's fires that people can still breathe and ... it can be both a cooling and heating shelter for the whole community," he said.

The county’s letter of commitment that the board approved is intended to be included with the tribe’s SGC CRC Round 2 application; staff said the amended letter will be posted with the agenda and that Logston’s time would be included in the application for public outreach work.