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 Sierra Nevada Conservancy at its March 3 meeting approved $10 million in Proposition 84 grants to 29 different projects, and the action left the Conservancy with $10 million more to give in grants.

Joan Keegan, Sierra Nevada Conservancy’s assistant executive officer, was in Jackson Wednesday for the March meeting of the Amador-Calaveras Consensus Group, and reported on the next grants. Keegan said “I’m excited to be here. This group is legendary.”

Keegan said Sierra Nevada Conservancy is looking at its grant program, which has $10 million left, and the Conservancy will be “looking at limiting the program,” to really focus the projects on two areas, those being “working landscapes” and “forest health.” She said they want to focus the funding awards because they “only have $10 million left.”

The grant funds were allocated in the amount of $54 million to the Sierra Nevada Conservancy by the Proposition 84 “Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Food Control River and Coast Protection Bond Act of 2006.” The funds were appropriated for the “protection and restoration of rivers, lakes and streams, their watersheds and associated land, water and other natural resources.”

She said the Conservancy will be working on its strategic planning process with public input, and has identified key areas including those two, and watershed protection and restoration, along with tourism and recreation, and the Conservancy’s own long-term effectiveness. The Conservancy is drafting a strategic plan to take to its board in June.

In other reports from member group representatives, Calaveras County Supervisor Steve Wilensky said Calaveras County had agreed to provide its green waste to the Buena Vista Biomass Power plant near Ione on Coal Mine Road. He said the green waste will be delivered to the plant to burn, and “in return we will get their ash to cover our landfill.” He said they had been using sludge, but that was not working as well as ash would.

Wilensky said a recent power outage led to a group of volunteers helping to deliver firewood to families that qualify for the Calaveras Food Bank. The wood was delivered to people for heating, during the power outages.

He said about 80 families were receiving the wood, and the volunteer crew did not know where they were going, and just got a list of delivery addresses. Wilensky said the crew arrived to a number of their own relatives’ houses, which led to impromptu and meaningful reunions. He said when the power was out, and people were snowed in and needing wood for heating, “it was a really big moment for the West Point area, giving people a real sense of mission, delivering heating wood.”

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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 – Forest officials announced this week that fuel-wood cutting permits will now be available year-round in the El Dorado National Forest.

U.S. Forest Service Public Information Officer Frank Mosbacher announced the new policy in an e-mail Monday, saying that the public will be interested in learning the new policy, which will help people get heating wood during hard economic times, and will help clear dead trees from the forest.

Forest Supervisor Ramiro Villalvazo said the woodcutting season in the El Dorado National Forest will open early this year, beginning on March 16, rather than the usual April 1. The 2011 fuel-wood permits will expire on December 31.

Mosbacher said the “opening date change came about partly due to the economic times and the many people requesting woodcutting permits.” He said “woodcutting will now be allowed year-round in the El Dorado National Forest.”

He said all roads in the national forest are not currently open, and motorized vehicles are not allowed on dirt roads since the wet weather seasonal road closure remains in effect in the El Dorado National Forest. Parking is allowed one car length off the road. Dirt roads will be opened when they dry out and the seasonal closure is officially lifted.

Forest Supervisor Villalvazo said: “I have decided that we will issue fuel-wood permits year-round and forest-wide. I believe there are opportunities for the public to find downed wood off of roads that are open during our seasonal closure.”

He said: “Given the economic times, I want to allow folks to be able to collect wood if they can.” Fuel-wood permits can be purchased at any El Dorado National Forest Ranger Station.

Fuel-wood must be removed according to the terms of the permit. No standing dead trees larger than 10 inches in diameter can be cut. The permits are non-transferable, non-refundable and are sold for $15 per cord with a two-cord minimum purchase.

Open roads and those subject to seasonal closure are identified on a map that is free-of-charge and available at all El Dorado National Forest offices and on the El Dorado National Forest website.

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Amador County – The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department announced that a Somerset woman was wanted for receiving stolen property, including items taken from burglaries and thefts reported in Amador County.

El Dorado Sheriff’s spokesman Bryan Golmitz reported the wanted woman’s identity Monday, and urged victims of area crimes to contact the department about possible recovery of stolen property. Also, a felony arrest warrant has been issued for the primary suspect in the case.

At about 7:30 a.m. Saturday, March 12, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department patrol deputies conducted a probation search of a home in the 2300 block of Apache Pass Road in Somerset, in El Dorado County. Golmitz said “deputies believed stolen property along with a wanted felon would be found at the residence. Upon arrival, three subjects were detained,” including “one after attempting to flee out the back of the house.

A department “search of the residence and outbuildings revealed an overwhelming amount of suspected stolen property.” Golmitz said “it is believed the stolen items were taken during multiple residential burglaries and thefts which occurred in both El Dorado and Amador Counties.”

Golmitz said two people “were taken into custody at the conclusion of the investigation. The primary suspect in the case, Alyssa Carole Rossetta,” age 40, is still outstanding. Rossetta is a resident of Somerset. “Her current whereabouts are unknown and a felony warrant has been issued by the Superior Court of El Dorado County on charges of receiving stolen property.”

Anyone with information regarding Rossetta’s whereabouts is asked to call the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department at (530) 621-6600.

All of the seized property, which is suspected of being stolen, is in the care of El Dorado County Sheriff’s detectives for identification and further follow-up. Victims of thefts and burglaries wishing to see property for identification may contact Detective Felton at (530) 642-4729.

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Amador County – The Sutter Creek Police Department has confirmed that there was a murder over the weekend at the Days Inn Hotel in Sutter Creek, and that the victim has been identified as a 62-year-old woman who was not a resident of Amador County.

Authorities are seeking to interview a “person of extreme interest” in the case, a male, who is also not a resident of Amador County. Sutter Creek Police Chief Brian Klier confirmed that there was a homicide in a room at the Days Inn Hotel over the weekend of March 12th and 13th, but he said he would not yet narrow down the date of the murder’s occurrence.

He said the victim has been positively identified as a 62-year-old white female Caucasian, but authorities are still trying to notify her next of kin, so he was not able to release her name this morning. He said he may be able to release more information this afternoon. Klier said “neither the victim nor the person of interest is an Amador County resident.”

Klier said Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe’s office has been and continues to work on the case. He said an autopsy was done Wednesday in Sacramento, and determined that a homicide had occurred, but he was “not going to describe the method of how it was done yet.” He said he would give a rough guess that there will be some sort of press conference by Monday.

He said the male person of interest is not a suspect, but is being sought for questioning. Klier said anyone who may have seen any suspicious activities around Days Inn over the weekend is being asked to notify police.

He said the victim was found by a staff member of the Days Inn Hotel, who immediately contacted the Sutter Creek Police Department. The woman’s body was found in a room at approximately noon on Monday.

Klier said besides vehicular homicides, this may be the first murder case in Amador County in as many as 30 years.

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