Jan. 2025 News: Survey, CalFire Update, Health and Safety
Hello, Bear Valley Community!
Last year the Sheriff had just closed the roads around this time: this year, we’re walking, skiing, and snowmobiling on what feels like an increasingly thin, icy layer of old snow. Please do all your snow dances! Up at the resort, the new-to-us Koala quad chair is finally open! And there’s also a brand new live webcam installed on the summit.
Read on for some important news and updates from BVRI.
~Your friends on the BVRI Board
The BVRI Board
Dear Non-BVRI Members: Please Take Our Survey
BVRI membership for 2024 closed on December 31. Membership for 2025 will open on March 1. Last year, membership rates were slightly down from 2023, and we’d like to know why. Our email newsletter list includes members from previous years even if you did not re-join in 2024. We would love for both non-members and 2024 members to take this short anonymous survey and let us know your reasons for joining or not joining BVRI: https://forms.gle/LoNh5fu94fJmRsqi9
Next BVRI meeting
The next BVRI Board meeting is via Zoom on Sunday March 16, at 4 p.m. All members of the community are welcome to join and listen to the important updates given by Terry Woodrow, Alpine County Board of Supervisors; Tim Cohee, California Mountain Resort Company; Kimi Johnson, Lake Alpine Water Company; and the Sheriff’s office. We’ll also be discussing and voting on some amendments to the Bear Valley Design Standards (primarily regarding Accessory Dwelling Units); Class A Members will receive additional communication about this in the next few weeks.
To receive the zoom link, please fill out our form — you can also submit questions in advance that you would like us to discuss.
BVRI Elections Reminder
All 2024 BVRI members should have received an email on Jan. 13 with statements from the five candidates running for BVRI election. (You can also read them on our website.) You will receive an email from our voting system ElectionBuddy on Feb. 4: you can cast your vote (one per lot/condo) through Friday, Feb 28.
CalFire Inspections Update
CalFire and the Bear Valley Fire Department will be carrying out fire inspections in Bear Valley this summer. CalFire’s requirements and training plans for inspectors are unfortunately not workable for BVRI’s longtime Volunteer Inspection Program. The BVRI VIP program will be on pause while the organizations that are legally responsible conduct their inspections. BVRI will continue to help educate the community about the new requirements as best we can. We encourage community members interested in helping with the inspection efforts as volunteers to contact the Bear Valley Fire Department.
What You Need to Know: Health and Safety in Bear Valley in the Winter
If you were in Bear Valley in the Christmas-New Year’s stretch, you saw an alarming number of red helicopters on the mountain. Dec. 30 in particular sparked an important discussion on Nextdoor about how While Bear Valley has an excellent on-call staff of Emergency Medical Technicians, they are only currently able to offer Basic Life Support services, not Advanced Life Support. There is definitely community interest in Advanced Life Support, and at our March meeting we will discuss whether and how BVRI should help.
Meanwhile, it’s a good idea to have helicopter insurance, especially for winter medical emergencies. Two helicopter companies serve Bear Valley and the resort: if one is busy, they call the other one. So bad news is you need both, but good news is, they are quite affordable! AirMedCare (http://www.Airmedcarenetwork.com) is $99 per household per year, and PHI Cares (https://phicares.com/) is $65 per household per year. These policies supplement your health insurance, not replace it: they are designed to cover your out-of-pocket costs for being evacuated by helicopter from the mountain or from the village.
The Bear Valley Sheriff can be reached during business hours at 209-753-2321 and the Fire Department at 209-753-2232. In case of emergency, always call 911.