Amador County – The Amador Child Abuse Prevention Council plans its third annual “Bowl-A-Thon” March 26, and as of last week about nine spots remain for teams to join.

Program director Robin Valencia said Amador Child Abuse Prevention Council said Friday that 15 teams had signed up and that nine more slots remain open. She said the Child Abuse Prevention Council couldn’t do many of its special services “without the funds raised through our annual Bowl-a-Thon.” The public can join by forming a “five-person team, and collecting a minimum of $250 per team in donations.”

Bowlers get free pizza, soda, and a chance to win prizes. People can also donate a raffle prize or a silent auction item, or become an event sponsor. Valencia said: “One of our council members once commented,” that “we get a lot of bang for our buck,” and “when you look back at our activities for 2010 we hope you will agree.”

She said more than 1,000 community members benefitted from Amador Child Abuse Prevention Council’s free workshops. They hosted eight Child Abuse & Neglect Mandated Reporter Training sessions with 104 attendees. She said more than 200 school faculty and staff were presented information.

The Council held 22 Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention workshops that reached a total of 595 people, including all students in freshmen health classes at Amador and Argonaut high schools. The Council held 11 Digital Safety and Cyber Bullying Prevention workshops, attended by a total of 268 students and parents. And the Council’s 12 Stranger Awareness presentations gave information to 104 children and their parents or guardians since the program was started in July.

Valencia said: “We accomplished all of this with a volunteer Council of community partners, part-time staff, and a whole lot of community support.” Valencia said 120 people participated in the 2010 Bowl-a-Thon, which raised more than $13,000, and donated 194 pounds of “kid-friendly” food to the Inter Faith Food Bank.

Donations have already been received, for prizes and the silent auction, for this year’s Bowl-A-Thon. Prizes gathered so far include a $500 certificate from SunFlower Pro Cleaning, an electric toothbrush from Jackson Creek Dental, two treatments from Amador Acupuncture, a one-night stay at Shenandoah Inn, a case of wine, two sets of books from Volcano Press, and a $25 Raley’s gift card.

To reserve a team lane, call Valencia at 223-5921.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The California Department of Transportation this week announced the appointment of a new director for District 10 which covers eight Central Valley counties, including Amador County.

Stockton-based District 10 will now be led by Carrie L. Bowen, who was announced Tuesday as the new District Director. Caltrans public information official Michele Demetras announced the appointment in a release, saying Bowen is the first female director in District 10’s history.

“Bowen has more than 25 years of diverse experience in planning and delivering transportation projects,” Demetras said. “She began her career with Caltrans in 1991 as an associate environmental planner and worked on Fresno County projects, preparing complex environmental documents for a number of new freeways.”

Demetras said Bowen “rose to the position of deputy district director for the Central Region Environmental Division, overseeing Caltrans’ environmental work in 20 counties and staff in four districts.”

Prior to her current post, Bowen was “on loan” for the past 18 months to the California High Speed Rail Authority and served as its Central California Regional Director. She functioned as the focal point, for regional project issues, including resolving high-speed rail concerns with state, regional and local elected officials, as well as planning organizations and the general public.”

In 2005, Demetras said, “Bowen was appointed to the State Center Community College District Bond Oversight committee, where she served until 2009. She was appointed to the California Oil Spill Technical Advisory Committee from 1997 until 2000.” From 1985 to 1991, she served on the staff of then-Assemblyman Jim Costa, advising on a variety of key Central Valley issues, including transportation and high-speed rail.

As District 10 Director, Bowen will oversee “multi-million-dollar capital construction projects within the eight counties comprising the district,” which are Amador, Alpine, Calaveras, Mariposa, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tuolumne Counties. Bowen will also direct maintenance and operations for the district.

Bowen will be responsible for 524 employees and 3,670 miles of State Highway routes in District 10. She will oversee “an annual budget of $74.6 million and $4.5 billion worth of highway construction projects and programs throughout the eight counties.”

Bowen replaces District 10 Interim Director Richard Harmon.

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Amador County – California District 3 Congressman Dan Lungren has re-introduced legislation to repeal health care legislation passed last year, looking to restore the “doctor-patient relationship.”

Brian Kaveney of the Congressman’s office in a release Wednesday said Lungren “voted to begin the implementation of commonsense alternatives to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” which was passed last year.

Kaveney said “voting for the repeal of a government-run health care system sets the stage for Lungren’s bill to repeal the onerous 1099 reporting requirement to be brought to the floor for consideration.”

In the release following the vote, Lungren said: “Last year the American people and small business spoke and I listened. The bill that was pushed through Congress last year includes a number of provisions that are of concern to the American people.”

He said: “Not only does it require every American to purchase health insurance, but it dictates the type of policy they must buy and where they must buy it.” Lungren said the “health care law hinders the creation of jobs, when constituents in my district still face unemployment rates that exceed 12 percent.”

Lungren said the “law does not address rising health care costs, and it places the massive federal bureaucracy between patients and their doctors. Personal health care decisions should be made by patients, families and doctors, not by bureaucrats or politicians in Washington.”

“We all agree that health care can and should be improved,” Lungren said, “but last year’s bill was not well thought out. In spite of two years of debate on health care, the bill that was ultimately passed reads like an afterthought, with many provisions that simply don’t make sense.”

He said: “We need to focus on increasing patient choice for all Americans without losing the quality to which people are accustomed.”

The bill was initially introduced after last year’s approval of the Affordable Care Act, but it fell short of the 218 signatures needed to force a vote.

Lungren’s bill would repeal a 1099 tax reporting requirement from the law, that would require businesses to report to the IRS any purchases of goods or services from one company that total more than $600 in one year.

The Republican Party last September issued a “Pledge to America” to “repeal this job-killing small business mandate.” The pledge said: “This 1099 reporting mandate is so overbearing that the IRS ombudsman has determined that the agency is ill-equipped to handle all the resulting paperwork.”

Last week, Lungren announced that 245 signatures supported the bill, including 12 Democrats. The bill is called “The Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act.”

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Amador County – About 30 people attended a ribbon cutting ceremony Sunday at Mollie Joyce Park to mark the opening of a new flying disc golf course in Pioneer.

Amador County Recreation Agency executive board president and Sutter Creek Vice Mayor Linda Rianda cut the ribbon as a line of sponsors and volunteers lined the ridge above hole number one’s fairway.

ACRA Executive Director Tracy Towner-Yepp introduced Rianda and opened the ceremony by asking for a moment of silence for Fred Joyce, whom she said passed away last week. Fred Joyce was the donor who made the park possible, deeding the use of the park to the Recreation Agency. The park is named after his late wife, Mollie Joyce.

ACRA received the deed of the 76-acre park from Fred Joyce on Feb. 5, 2008, on condition the park be maintained for public recreation use. The park was long used by a Sacramento school district for a science camp, but for several years had been in disrepair.

Immediately after taking over Mollie Joyce Park, ACRA began to refurbish the two overgrown Little League Baseball fields. The fields have been revitalized, with installation of donated underground irrigation pipes, and regular ballgames have returned.

Sunday the disc golf course, which has 9 permanent holes, and a goal to get 9 more, held its first tournament, with about 25 players. Towner-Yep, program director Matt Nestor and others at ACRA have worked with local disc golfers, who volunteered to help design the course around Mollie Joyce Park’s hilly and wooded terrain.

Jackson Rancheria Casino made a big donation to purchase 8 of the baskets used for holes, and Brandon Wedge, co-owner of Play It Again Sports in Jackson, sponsored the purchase of another basket. Four other baskets have been sponsored, but not yet purchased and installed.

Local and regional golfers, including Paul Dalmau of Pioneer, Ray Birch of Ione and Wedge of Sutter Creek have volunteered on the project.

Sunday also marked the first official tournament at the course, the Martin Luther King Tournament, organized by Nestor for ACRA. Ray Birch won the professional division with a two-round score of one-over par. Brandon Wedge was second.

Kyhber Easton took first place in the amateur men’s division, while Peter Hertzog II took second place, Taj Easton was third, and Justin Agustin was fourth. Tara Easton took first place in the women’s amateur division.

Former ACRA program manager, Adam Lindsey, who also worked on the course, took first place in the recreational division. Second was Robert Moncada, and third was Jaysin Cabrol.

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Amador County – The Amador County Transportation Commission on Wednesday discussed 13 alternate routes for a future Pine Grove bypass, then narrowed the list to 3 to recommend to Caltrans for more detailed analysis.

ACTC Planner Neil Peacock said the commission was to decide the project to recommend to Caltrans, who is the “owner of the highway system.” He said “ACTC is the implementing agency, and I, of course am your project manager.”

Peacock said “we’ve spent the last 8 months going from 13 down to 3” alternatives, with the help of dozens of members of a “stakeholder working group.” The study included having “no project,” which showed 18,000 car trips in 2024, and “23,000 car trips in the design year,” which is 2030.

The tri-county area found economic constraints for the project of $41 million, and the process to narrow down the alternatives was done because “we are not going to spend a bunch of money on environmental studies on a project that we will not pursue.”

The tri-county funding agreement will take some gambles, Peacock said. One is the “gamble that we can leverage $20 million for a 50-50 match” through the State Transportation Improvement Program. ACTC Executive Director Charles Field said Alpine County could also choose to pull out of the arrangement.

Among alternate routes that were shelved for good was one proposed by Commissioners Dave Richards and Pat Crosby, which Peacock said was “my personal favorite.” But it also had $90 million cost, and it had to go. Another would have cut a 100-foot right-of-way through Pine Grove, taking many building landmarks, while widening Highway 88.

Commissioner David Plank asked if the swath could be moved southward, and Peacock said: “We looked at basically any way we could squeeze 100 feet through there and it was just not going to happen.”

Plank asked about the “practicality of businesses” with the preferred routes, and Peacock said staff did not want to misrepresent other possible concerns in the community. He said “additional analysis may warrant further elimination,” possibly due to cost increases, or Caltrans prerequisites that may be found after “embarking on more detailed analysis.”

He said the next stage will also try to get more individuals and business owners involved.

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Amador County – The Amador County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday that a suspect may be linked to the Dec. 27 robbery of Bank of Stockton in Pine Grove, and further investigation and processing of evidence is under way.

Amador County Sheriff Martin Ryan in a release Thursday said the suspect was in custody in San Joaquin County after being arrested for the robbery of another bank, which occurred last week in Lockeford.

Ryan in the release said: At this time, the suspect “has not been arrested or charged in connection with the Bank of Stockton robbery, and he remains in custody at the San Joaquin County Jail with bail set at $250,000.”

Last Thursday, Jan. 13, at about 9:30 a.m., the Bank of the West in Lockeford was robbed. Ryan in the release this week said, the “method used by the suspect in the robbery of the Bank of the West in Lockeford was strikingly similar to the method used by the suspect in the robbery of the Bank of Stockton in Pine Grove, including actions and/or facts withheld by the Amador County Sheriff’s Office to protect the integrity of the investigation.”

“San Joaquin County Sheriff’s detectives investigating the robbery in Lockeford recognized the suspect from video surveillance footage, as a local area resident and ultimately arrested Robert Daniel Mehrten, 52,” the release said. “Amador County Sheriff’s detectives assisted the San Joaquin Sheriff’s detectives in the subsequent execution of a search warrant at Mehrten’s residence,” and Amador detectives also interviewed Mehrten in the San Joaquin Jail.

The release said: “Based upon the totality of the circumstances additional investigation is being conducted which includes but is not limited to, the display of photographic line ups, a cellular telephone records analysis, a financial records analysis, another review of video surveillance, as well as DNA evidence analysis.”

The release said the Pine Grove Bank of Stockton was robbed Dec. 27 “by a white male suspect, carrying a bag, which he said contained explosives,” and the public’s assistance was requested to help identify the “images of the suspect captured on the video surveillance system.”

The release said the Amador County Sheriff’s department received information identifying nine people of interest related to the Pine Grove Bank of Stockton robbery. Detectives interviewed all nine people, “and collected voluntary DNA samples from five of those interviewed.”

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