MAGALIA — Residents of the upper ridge will get to ask questions about fire safety, communications and town development to key government and community officials at a resource forum at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Magalia from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday.
The Upper Ridge Community Council is organizing the event. Residents of the partly-burned areas of Magalia, Stirling City and Lovelock revived the grassroots organization after the Camp Fire to bring more attention to their community’s challenges and opportunities.
“We found there was a real need for organization to help the Magalia community have a voice and get their needs met,” said Patti Simons, a 25-year resident who lives in her standing home in the burn zone and is on the executive committee of the council. The forum, which is part of recovery effort, is the first event of its kind on the upper ridge.
Representatives from Cal Fire-Butte County, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, Butte County Public Health Department, Butte County and Paradise Ridge fire safe councils, the Camp Fire Long Term Recovery Group, the Magalia Beautification Association and the Paradise Ridge Chamber of Commerce will be at the open house, among others. The Butte County Office of Emergency Management will be signing up residents for its emergency notification system.
The priority will be addressing fire safety, communications, including evacuation systems, and town center development because those were the issues that came to the forefront in listening sessions held in the area by the Camp Fire Long Term Recovery Group in the past couple months.
The Upper Ridge Community Council holds public meetings at 6 p.m. every last Thursday of the month at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Magalia.
