Amador County – The Amador County Sheriff’s Department, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration, will again participate in the nationwide “Take-Back Initiative,” set for April 30.

Sheriff Martin Ryan announced the participation plan last week, and said “last September, Americans turned in 242,000 pounds – 121 tons – of prescription drugs at nearly 4,100 sites operated by the DEA and more than 3,000 state and local law enforcement partners including the Amador County Sheriff’s Department.”

In an effort to prevent increased pill abuse and theft, the Amador County Sheriff’s Department will be collecting potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs for destruction at one location within Amador County. The service is free and anonymous.

The initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Many Americans are not aware that medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the United States are increasing at alarming rates.

Ryan in the announcement last week said “Amador County Sheriff’s Department recognizes the importance of community involvement and urges the citizens of Amador County to take a stand against illegal prescription drug abuse by using this opportunity to dispose of expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs.”

The Amador County Take-Back Initiative is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday April 30 in the Amador County General Services parking lot, at 12200 B Airport Road in Sutter Creek.

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Amador County – A 33-year-old man was arrested Saturday in Mexico for the murder of his mother some time last week, after her body was found at the Day’s Inn Hotel in Sutter Creek.

Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe released details of the arrest today saying Justin Bryan Bergo, 33, of Aptos in Santa Cruz County was arrested for the murder of his mother, Dolores Anne Bergo, 62.

Justin Bergo was arrested at the Tijuana Airport by Mexican authorities. Riebe said: “This followed a torrid search for Bergo conducted by the Sutter Creek Police Department, Amador County District Attorney investigators, and the U.S. Marshals Central Valley Joint Fugitive Task Force from the Eastern District of California.” Mexican immigration officials turned Bergo over to U.S. Marshals and he was booked into the San Diego County Jail.

“Sutter Creek Police Chief Brian Klier contacted district attorney investigators Monday afternoon, March 14, requesting assistance following discovery earlier that day of a deceased female in a room at the Day’s Inn Hotel in Sutter Creek,” Riebe said. The victim was later identified as San Jose resident Dolores Anne Bergo. He said Miss Bergo and her son, Justin had checked into their room on Saturday, March 12. Mr. Bergo fled early Sunday morning after he allegedly murdered his mother.”

“After autopsy results confirmed that Miss Bergo had been murdered,” Riebe said his office “filed an arrest warrant for Justin Bergo” on Thursday, March 17. “On Friday, March 18, District Attorney investigators requested the assistance of the U.S. Marshal’s office, when they found that Bergo had fled the United States.”

U.S. Marshals “worked with Mexican authorities in gathering information that eventually led to Bergo’s capture Saturday afternoon. Bergo will be transferred to the Amador County Jail where he will face murder charges later this week.”

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Amador County – A long-time Sutter Creek business, Jack’s Chevron filling station in Sutter Creek is taking a proactive approach to thwarting high-tech credit card and identity theft.

He said it is the “latest and greatest method to prevent credit card information theft,” and he imagined other companies or banks in Amador County would be doing the upgrade, “to combat all the theft that is going on.”

He said he has not heard of any local reports in Amador County, but “in the Valley it’s a common thing going on.” He said “once they figure it out there, then it floats out to the outlying areas,” and the Foothills.

He said Jack’s Chevron was not part of several reported local credit card “skimming” incidents, as the identity thefts are called. And the new software will prevent that from happening at the old stalwart gas station, at the corner of Highway 49 and Ridge Road, a 62-year-old company.

“We’ve been on this corner for 20 years,” Brusatori said. “We’ve actually been in business since 1949, me and my dad.” His father is Jack Brusatori senior, who recently passed away.

Brusatori said it blocks the ability of illegally installed remote readers that have been used to access card information, and remotely send it to thieves, for identity and credit card thefts. The software will assure safe encryption each time the card is used at the station.

Jack’s Chevron will make the software upgrade through Gilbarco, directly through the station’s machines. Brusatori said it will assure that customers will have “security on the machine, so they can’t steal the identity off of the card.”

The software will be installed next Thursday, March 24, and the pumps will be down for about half a day during installation.

Brusatori said Jack’s Chevron also has new pump nozzles with “stay on” filling devices. For several months, they didn’t have the stay-on device, while they were going through a pump retro-fit stage. The pump safety lock is required by the state, and it allows people to pump without having to stand and hold the pump handle. The new “stay filling” pumps were installed about 2 months ago.

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Amador County – Amador County staff is preparing for a pair of lawsuits regarding county approval of the Buena Vista Biomass Power plant on Coal Mine Road, near Ione, but as yet, no hearings have be scheduled.

Deputy County Counsel Greg Gillott said two suits against decisions of approval by the Amador County Board of Supervisors, and the Planning Commission, will be heard at a date to be determined.

Two plaintiffs have challenged the decision for a use permit, which was approved by the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors, and later approved unanimously by the Amador County Air District board of directors on Feb. 3, though that decision could have been made with or without the suit in place.

The two plaintiffs are the group, the “Center for Biological Diversity,” and Ione resident. Thomas Strout. Gillott said the cases are separate, but “will sort of track together,” and the county now is preparing the administrative record of the Subsequent Environmental Impact Report that was prepared by a consultant for the county, as lead agency. The administrative record will include everything that went into the decisions of approval made by the planning commission and board, including the SEIR, a statement of mitigated negative declaration, and a use permit.

There are no firm dates going into the future, Gillot said. The county counsel’s office is scanning documents from a relatively large record involved in the Buena Vista Biomass Power plant. He said the parties will talk about when they will issue their briefs.

There was no request for a Biomass injunction, but the suits are asking for the same thing. Gillott said the contention is that county did not properly comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. He said the Biological Diversity case is based on greenhouse gas emissions, and whether the county calculated those properly in the SEIR.

Strout’s suit also is on CEQA grounds, but it also challenged the actual use permit itself, Gillott said, and the issuance of the use permit. He said Biomass asked for an amendment to the use permit to do 100% biomass burning, instead of partial lignite coal burning, along with woody biomass, as originally permitted.

Gillott said the Subsequent EIR treated it as if there was no plant at the location, with impacts based on zero impact, to compare emissions and determine impacts that could be expected from the plant, then base its mitigations on that. He said that’s the EIR evaluation, the environmental part of it, because what CEQA tends to do is see that a project has been mitigated to the extent that it can be mitigated.

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Amador County – The Sutter Creek Gold Rush Implementation Committee was to have its first meeting today, and the council tonight was to consider selling 10 units of sewer capacity to the Amador Water Agency. The Sutter Creek City Council’s Gold Rush Implementation Committee was scheduled to meet this morning to discuss a variety of topics, including the status of litigation against the Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort.

Gold Rush development partners are being sued by Martell resident Ken Berry on environmental grounds. The item, and all other agenda items are for discussion only.

The first topic was to review the “scope and purpose” of the committee. They also were scheduled to discuss the status of the “project implementation matrix,” and respective master plans for the wastewater treatment plant and the Amador Regional Sanitation Authority. Other topics include oak tree vandalism, and future items.

The committee meeting was to start at 9 a.m. today (Monday, March 21) at the community building in Sutter Creek. The Sutter Creek City Council regular meeting is 7 p.m. today, and will start, in part, with a ceremonial resolution “commending Butch Martin for service on the Sutter Creek Fire Protection District.”

Regular items include consideration of a resolution “authorizing the sale of 10 equivalent dwelling units to Amador Water Agency,” in the form of sewer plant capacity. City Manager Sean Rabe will also give a budget update report.

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