Rally planned by Altaville tree supporters

Efforts to alter a plan that would remove a 60-year-old redwood and three dozen oaks at the Altaville Cal Fire station continue, even as the state agency renews warnings that changes will be costly and delay construction.    

Members of Save the Altaville Oaks, a grassroots group formed to protest the trees’ felling, will travel to Sacramento today to submit three letters in support of their mission to the governor’s office, said Tim Folendorf, one of the group’s leaders.
   

Folendorf, Angels Camp Planning Commissioner Wrenae Rowe and former station chief Bob Lehmann will carry letters from the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors, the Angels Camp City Council and the Calaveras County Garden Club.

The group has also collected more than 900 signatures against the current plan, said Folendorf, and hopes to collect more during a Saturday rally at the neighboring Historic Altaville Schoolhouse.

The trees are scheduled to be felled to make way for a $5.4 million modernization project that will bring the station up to code, provide facilities for both sexes and build a circular driveway system now favored by fire stations. The project has been in the works since 1998.

The trip and rally come despite a presentation Tuesday by Cal Fire representatives hoping to address the community’s concerns.

The agency’s foremost worry is delays. The project is currently first on the list of shovel-ready Cal Fire projects, meaning once state bond money is released it should get under way, possibly as early as March 2010, said Daniel Berlant, Cal Fire spokesman.

Any changes would jeopardize that position, he said.

Lehmann, who recently retired as the station’s chief and is part of the group heading to Sacramento, sees this as retribution.

“It’s almost as if it’s a punishment,” he said. “We’re going to punish you by putting you at the bottom of the list and make you wait another 10 years.”

Another worry is cost. Changing the drafted plans now would cost $30,000, but “there is a lot of domino effect that would occur,” Berlant said.

The station was designed in the late 1990s and building codes, handicapped regulations and other rules have changed since then. “Things are a lot more strict than they were 10 years ago,” Berlant said.

Plus, opponents’ proposed redesigns, like moving the parking lot which will fall atop the redwood tree, involve additional grading and materials costs, he said.

Finally, Berlant predicted that a delay would lead to cost overruns. “We know that ... at the rate government often moves, costs can quickly go up,” he said.

In sum, changes to the plan could result in cost increases of $200,000 to $500,000, he said.

Lehmann and others have long contested the latter figure.

Berlant also mentioned that the plan would see more than 60 new trees, including a redwood, planted to replace those to be chopped down.  

Adding a redwood is actually unusual, as the state’s Fish and Game Department asks that only native plants be used in landscaping. The redwood that has caused so much controversy was actually targeted for removal as a non-native, landscaped tree, said Berlant.

But opponents were unimpressed by the arguments. They say there is no reason the plan cannot be changed at a lower expense and without causing undue delays.

“Nothing that was mentioned there swayed us to give up the fight,” Lehmann said.