Rebuilding Sonoma County: a changing of the guard in Coffey Park

A year later, the recovery of Coffey Park can be measured in homes under construction, in regular gatherings of residents and in the work of a neighborhood group that didn’t exist before the historic Tubbs fire.

The northwest Santa Rosa neighborhood remains the center of the fire rebuild efforts in Sonoma County.

As the first anniversary of the North Bay wildfires draws near, nearly six in 10 property owners have formally stepped forward to replace the 1,321 single-family homes lost in Coffey Park.

Twenty-one homes have been completed and 520 remain under construction, according to city planners. Another 101 property owners have received permits and are expected to break ground in the coming weeks. Finally, 145 more owners are awaiting city approval, a total that accounts for 787 properties.

Here is a recap of Coffey Park news from September:

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Coffey Strong gets new president

A year ago, Coffey Park resident Jeff Okrepkie put together a meeting for neighbors then reeling from the devastation of the most destructive wildfires in state history. That gathering, which focused on the first steps to recovery, became the genesis of the Coffey Strong neighborhood group.

“I was just a guy who had a little bit of information,” Okrepkie recalled.

Soon Okrepkie joined forces with other residents and they put together a November meeting attended by 500 people at the Burbank Center. That night Coffey Park residents organized into five areas, with block captains as points of contact for the flow of needed information.

A year later, Coffey Strong is its own registered nonprofit group. And Okrepkie, 39, is about to step down as the group’s president and allow another neighbor to take on the leadership role. Even so, he will remain active with the group.

Coffey Strong has been credited with helping residents work through the debris cleanup process and with the daunting tasks of finding a builder and deciding on plans for their new homes.

But the group also is working on such joint projects as the design and rebuilding of the neighborhood park, the landscaping of a community entryway at Coffey Lane and Hopper Avenue and the replacement of 2,900 linear feet of burned walls along Hopper. The last project is expected to cost roughly $650,000 in cash and donated contributions and is a joint effort by Coffey Strong, the nonprofit Rebuild North Bay Foundation and Florida debris removal company AshBritt Environmental.

Assistant City Manager David Guhin said the neighborhood group also played a key role in helping city planners understand a multitude of issues that fire survivors would need addressed in order to restore what was lost.

“We couldn’t have done what we did with the rebuild center without Coffey Strong coming together,” Guhin said. The resulting city programs didn’t just aid Coffey Park residents but “helped everybody affected by the fires.”

Other city leaders credit Okrepkie, who was a renter and is the national president for the Active 20-30 Club, for his focus on finding solutions that would benefit fire survivors.

“Jeff has been leading that charge,” said City Councilman Tom Schwedhelm, who lives in Coffey Park. He called Okrepkie “a valuable asset to this community.”

Coffey Strong’s new president, Pamela Van Halsema, agreed that Okrepkie’s work in bringing the neighborhood together was “hugely valuable.” But she said neighbors also want to take care of one another and Okrepkie is due for a chance to spend more time with his wife, Stephanie, and their 2-year-old son and newborn daughter.

She said they assured him, “We love what you’ve done, Jeff, but we’ve got this.”

As a result of the disaster, Okrepkie said, his neighbors have forged bonds that will last. In the years ahead, he foresees plenty of occasions when residents will join together to “celebrate the resiliency of our neighborhood and celebrate who we are as Coffey Park.”

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Paying it forward to Redding

When the Carr fire destroyed 1,600 homes in Redding this summer, many Sonoma County residents felt themselves taken back to the flames that ravaged northern Santa Rosa and its environs.

In response, Coffey Strong leader Okrepkie and Kunal Nagpal of Emerge Rebuild traveled last August to the city at the north end of the Sacramento Valley to tell fire survivors there what to expect in the coming months.

“They were very much like us a month after the fire,” recalled Okrepkie. “They didn’t know what they needed to know.”

Okrepkie urged the Redding fire survivors to band together for a stronger recovery.

Adam McElvain, a Redding city councilman, said his community gained important insights both from Okrepkie and from an earlier visit by Santa Rosa City Manager Sean McGlynn.

“I can’t tell you how beneficial that was for us to learn from you in Santa Rosa,” McElvain said.

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Many gatherings in neighborhood

Coffey Park residents will gather Oct. 9 to mark the first anniversary of the disaster that struck their neighborhood.

The 7 p.m. gathering at Hopper Avenue and Coffey Lane is poised to be unlike any that has occurred there since the fires. But it will still be just one of many occasions bringing people together there.

This summer the neighbors regularly got together for weekly “Whine Wednesday” evening gatherings and for a monthly walk through Coffey Park. Groups of neighbors also have marked the start of rebuilding on their streets and at least one burned lot received the blessing of a Jewish rabbi as the owners prepared to break ground for a new home.

The gatherings remind neighbors that they aren’t going through the recovery alone. Many said the occasions have reinforced the strong sense of community that has been built after the fires.

“That’s the silver lining that came out of this,” said Tricia Woods, a Coffey Park resident who organized Whine Wednesday.

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PG&E on track with new systems

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has completed digging the entire 17 miles of trenching needed to install a new underground utility system in Coffey Park.

The utility is on track to finish the installation of a new electrical and gas system by the end of October. PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said the new gas system already is pressurized throughout the neighborhood and ready for each new home there to be connected during the rebuilding process.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit.