Amador County – Sutter Creek Police Department is seeking a person of “extreme interest” after an apparent homicide that occurred over the weekend of March 12-13 in Sutter Creek.

Police Chief Brian Klier issued an initial press release at about 3 p.m. Tuesday confirming that an apparent homicide had occurred over the weekend of Saturday March 12 and Sunday March 13 in Sutter Creek.

Klier said SCPD has not made a confirmation on the victim’s identification, and a “person of extreme interest is being sought for questioning.”

The investigation is being conducted by the Sutter Creek Police Department and the office of Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe.

Klier said more information will be provided as it becomes available.

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Amador County – Jackson City Council and Amador County Recreation Agency held a public hearing Monday to take input on a Proposition 84 recreation grant for Oro de Amador park land within the city of Jackson.

City Manager Mike Daly said ACRA is lead agency in seeking the grant for the 155-acre property, which is vacant, and was the mine tailings depository for the Kennedy Gold Mine. The city owns the property, and has worked with the Department of Toxic Substance Control, which along with the EPA awarded assessment grants of the property. The mine tailings left arsenic on the property, and tests showed it OK for “trespassing” uses, that is, going through the park once every six months.

Daly said the entire property has been tested by the Department of Toxic Substance Control, and cleanup is the next phase. There are some “hot spots with high levels of arsenic,” and the next step is to get money to clean up the property. The city submitted three cleanup applications in the fall, and should hear the fate of those in the next few weeks.

Daly said “when you are out on the property, it’s like nowhere else in the town, nowhere else in the county.”

ACRA Executive Director Tracey Towner-Yep said her agency’s role is to gather the facts to see what people would like to see by way of a park on the Oro de Amador property.

Towner-Yep said Monday’s was the best attended public hearing so far that has been held regarding the Oro de Amador land. She said a “tree fort idea from the fourth grade class was probably the coolest idea” so far. She said Prop 84 offers up to $5 million in grants for different improvements to parkland. A survey being distributed on paper, or which can be filled out on the ACRA website, will help determine how the park grant will be designed.

Towner-Yep said the amount of the grant applied for depends on the survey, and she would like to see Jackson’s park buck a Prop 84 trend. Of $160 million awarded in Prop 84 funding, $140 million of it “went to big urban areas.” She asked that parents take surveys and tell what they want.

She said the goal is to put together a grant application by July 1, and they could get a response by November, or maybe March. She said the selection process last year received $1.6 billion in requests for $1.64 million given out last year.

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Amador County – A small business paperwork reduction bill by Congressman Dan Lungren was passed last week by the U.S. House of Representatives, and headed to the Sentate for a first and second read, and was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar.

Lungren (R-District 3, California) said last week that the House “passed my proposal to strike the expanded 1099 reporting requirements contained in the health care bill by an overwhelming vote of 314-112.” He said the vote was “a strong show of support for the small business community and a recognition that government cannot continue to heap additional mandates on the productive sector.”

Lungren aide Robert Ehlert said passage of H.R. 4, which was authored by Lungren last session and resubmitted at the start of this session, was a “victory for small business.”

He said Lungren led the effort to “repeal onerous tax” beginning last year with the “Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act,” and its passage last week by a 314-112 vote included 76 Democrats in support.

Lungren, a Republican from Gold River, released a statement March 3 following the bill’s passage of the House, saying he was “thrilled that H.R. 4 passed with such strong bipartisan support. It is my hope that the Senate will pass this bill without delay.”

Lungren said: “We need to finally provide assurance to small business owners that they will not be subject to this unfair and unnecessary tax reporting burden. The small business community is the backbone of our nation’s economy and our country’s job making machine.” He said: “Let’s stop imposing obstacles on those who make this country work.”

The bill was introduced into the House with its 245 original cosponsors, and when the vote neared, it had 273 cosponsors from both parties.

He said “the 170-word provision buried within the 340,000 words of the health care law” would require all businesses and non-profit organizations “to file 1099 forms for every business-to-business transaction over $600 per year.”

The GOP Legislative Digest said Lungren’s H.R. 4 would have a net impact of reducing the deficit by $166 million.

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Amador County – About 30 people attended a public hearing Monday at Jackson Civic Center discussed uses of Oro de Amador park, hosted by the Jackson City Council and the Amador County Recreation Agency, with a variety of comments, mostly supportive and positive.

Judy Jebian asked if the project would require an Environmental Impact Report, and Thornton Consolo asked if the edges of the 155-acre park would be sold by the city for development. Another woman asked if development was possible there.

ACRA Executive Director Tracey Towner-Yep said an EIR was likely. She said the EIR cost would be included in a grant. Mayor Connie Gonsalves said there was no restriction on the use of the property. City Manager Mike Daly said development would be a city council decision, but it was allowed, as long as the zoning was appropriately changed by the council.

Joel Mottishaw said he grew up in Amador County, competing for time on playing fields, and he supported placing sports fields at Oro de Amador. Shane Alderson, a father of two small children, said he has seen large parks built in Paso Robles and Auburn, and he wondered if such a park could be funded here.

He said they should think about park maintenance funding after it is built, and suggested using Pine Grove Camp or Mule Creek crews. He said ball fields could also sell sponsorship spaces along its fences, because “that’s ongoing and constant” income. He also recommended putting surveys in Tuesday envelopes, to reach many more parents.

Towner-Yep said the ACRA’s website and information about the importance of the Oro de Amador survey would be noted in the Tuesday Envelope newsletter, and hopefully parents would see and respond to the survey. Gonsalves said sports fields are “absolutely needed,” and she pointed out her daughter in the audience as proof, saying she had twisted her ankle in a hole while playing outfield during a recent ballgame.

Gonsalves asked if ACRA had tried to incorporate input on recreation needs of senior citizens. Towner-Yep said a workshop was held at the Amador Senior Center, but no one attended.

A man said he is a 25-year avid skateboarder, he supported a skate park. He said he could help with construction and insurance, and as a merchant, he wanted to give local kids a “safe haven,” which they take in his parking lot, where they “still get hassled.”

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Amador County – The Amador County Unified School District board of trustees last week learned that as many as 1,000 students may need booster vaccinations against Whooping Cough before school starts next year.

School nurse Joanne Hasson explained new California law that requires children in grades 7 up to 12th grade to have proof of immunization against Whooping Cough, known formally as Pertussis, before the start of the next school year. The law was based on an influx of confirmed cases of the Whooping Cough, which “has been widespread in California.”

Amador County Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Hartmann said officials expect about 75 percent of children entering grades 7-12 have not had a booster shot for Pertussis. Hartmann said “somewhere around 1,000 students will need the vaccine” in Amador County, before the start of the 2011-2012 school year.

Parents must prove that students have had the Pertussis booster shot after the age of 7. Anyone not showing proof of having the booster shot will be given a “notice of exclusion from school.” The notice has a space for a date by which the student must notify of the immunization or the district “will exclude your student from school.” The notice said: “We regret that we must take this action, but state law requires that students must be immunized to attend school.”

Hartmann said after this year, it will only be required of students entering 7th grade. He urged families to take their children to their “home doctor,” to avoid the rush to shot clinics. Calaveras County held a Pertussis clinic March 4, but only vaccinated 37 kids in 7 hours.

He said a “leading anti-vaccination group in the country” has sent e-mails dissuading people from the vaccinations. Hartmann said “vaccinations clearly have saved millions of lives.” He said vaccine-preventable diseases and deaths have decrease by 99 percent.

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Amador County – An update of the Gravity Supply Line project last week drew public criticism of the Amador Water Agency board of directors, though staff saw it as indicative of changing economic times.

During public comment, Rich Farrington said AWA cannot build its Gravity Supply Pipeline project without a USDA grant and a loan. He said they also should consider the $900,000 loan from the Amador County Water Development fund, due in August.

Farrington said hydrants will be built on the GSL, and would give 2,500 gallons a minute of flow, which could be used to fill contracted water tenders to fight fires. He also suggested that the financial plan use a bar graph.

Past director Debbie Dunn chided the board on allowing Farrington to speak about the GSL, although he was commenting on the engineering report. She also said the GSL would need a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license for the project. AWA President Don Cooper said the FERC issue should be agendized and discussed at a later date.

AWA Board President Don Cooper said the target date to tell the USDA whether they do or do not have public support is July 22, in order to secure the $5 million grant and low-interest loan.

David Evitt of Sutter Creek, who led a petition drive in a Prop 218 process which stopped the last CAWP increase, said he already knew that people did not support the GSL. He said he went to more than 1,500 homes when gathering signatures, and told people their rates would go up, then they asked where they needed to sign.

AWA General Manager Gene Mancebo said Evitt’s protest last year was against a CAWP rate increase that did not include the GSL project, including the $5 million grant and low-interest loan.

Former Director Bill Condrashoff brought up concerns for what he called “wrong numbers” in the financial plan. Mancebo said they were really “assumptions,” and staff may go through a revision with it’s Budget and Finance Committee of Cooper and Director Robert Manassero.

Mancebo said it “will change proposed rate increases with those assumptions,” but it was a matter of the rate of inflation. He said staff was unsure whether to use 1, 2 or 3 percent inflation rates, while last year ended with a negative 1/10th of a percent inflation rate. He said those were the kind of things brought up, during an update meeting that went more in depth than expected.

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Amador County – The Amador Water Agency Board of Directors got an update on its Gravity Supply Line last week.

Agency General Manager Gene Mancebo said staff is working on a communications plan, a presentation, and revisions to the Central Amador Water Project financial plans, and is preparing to bid the Gravity Supply Pipe project. He said staff would like to set up small-group settings to talk about the pipeline around Upcountry, in “coffeehouse” meetings.

Part of the meetings would be to explain about the CAWP system, what it is, and who it serves. He said they would also use the small groups to get feedback and find out what people think about the plans, and bring information back to the AWA board.

Mancebo said the new communications plan was discussed and reviewed in the agency Public Relations Committee, made up of Vice Chairman Gary Thomas and Director Robert Manassero.

A “CAWP customer priority survey” to be used, in part, said “pump stations that raise water from the Mokelumne River are approximately 35 years old, at the end of their useful life, operating beyond their design, and will need to be replaced with new pumps or a gravity supply pipeline.” It asked respondents to choose between buying new pumps for the CAWP system or paying for construction of the GSL. It also asked how much more people would be willing to add to their current water rates.

Another question said “CAWP customers have had no increase in water rates in four-and-a-half years,” and now “the CAWP system is running in the red,” and “reserve funds for repairs and improvements are depleted.” It asked what the customer would be willing to add to its water rate to “cover the current costs of operating the CAWP system and rebuild a reserve fund.”

It asked the same question about the cost of improving water pressure and adding fire hydrants in the CAWP system, to improve systems built in the 1960s and 1970s “to much lower standards than today’s,” with smaller pipes, lower water pressure and few hydrants.

Engineering Manager Erik Christeson said all but one private easement along the GSL route had been successfully negotiated, and title paperwork was in process. The last to be negotiated was recently sold, but the agency already has a 20-foot utility easement there, which it could use if needed.

He said all non-private easement talks are also under way and scheduled to be completed by late April, except for PG&E, but it was not expected to cause a delay.

He said work was on schedule for a May 24 bid opening on the GSL. Story by

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