Amador County – The Amador County Recreation Agency plans its Blue Moon Bash on New Year’s Eve, calling it the “celebration of the decade.”

The non-profit Joint Power Authority, ACRA will celebrate the New Year with its annual Blue Moon Bash, and it invites people to come and “usher in a new year of hope and possibility with an evening of celebration, great food, fine refreshments, and live music.”

The gates to the Amador County Fairgrounds open at 7 pm Friday, December 31st in Plymouth, with dinner served until 9:30 pm. Live musical performances will be done by the Speak Easy Jazz Orchestra, the Funky Blue Devils, Late for Dinner, D.J. Gavin, and the winner of ACRA’s Battle of the Bands contest, Meghan O’Keefe.

ACRA’s Tracey Towner-Yep, in a release announcing the event, said the Blue Moon Bash “is a terrific opportunity to have a fabulous evening while supporting parks and recreation and local community groups.” She said: “This event will be the place to be to celebrate the New Year.”

There are a limited number of tickets available. The ticket price includes entertainment, dinner and shuttles to and from the event. Tickets are $50 per person, which includes: dinner, all entertainment, goody bags, and shuttles to and from the event. The evening activities will take place rain or shine.

Tickets are on sale now locally at all branches of Bank of Amador, Play it Again Sports, Clark’s Corner, Curves, Amador Visitors Center, Amador County Fairgrounds, Plymouth City Hall, Munnerlyn’s Ice Creamery, and the Sutter Creek Ice Cream Emporium. Tickets may also be purchase online at www.highsierratickets.com.

Shuttle pick-ups will start at 6 p.m. The schedule and pick up spots are available on the ACRA website. The Bash includes special discounts for groups of 10 or more, and reserved seating is available.

Organizers suggest securing lodging early for the sell-out event, and RV accommodations are available on the fairgrounds.

The event will not have fireworks this year, due to insurance costs.

For more information, see ACRA’s website, www.GoACRA.org. You can also e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call (209) 223-6349.

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

Amador County - 10th District Assemblymember Alyson Huber is seeking support for a bill she introduced last week that would halt the planned closure of Preston Youth Correctional Facility.

Assembly Bill 8 was the first piece of legislation Huber introduced after taking the oath of office for her second term. Shortly after its introduction, Huber said the bill “would prohibit the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Facilities from closing any youth correctional facility during the six-month period following the effective date of the legislation.” It also directs that activities levels at any facility will remain at effectively the same levels as when the closure of Preston was first announced.

The closure will affect over 400 staff and at least 200 juvenile wards. Most of the wards would be transferred to nearby facilities in Stockton. The closure will also impact city and county revenues, businesses, school revenue, and potentially reduce the value of area homes.

At a special meeting called by Huber and the Amador County Board of Supervisors last week, Huber urged the capacity crowd in attendance to “write letters, make calls” and “do what it takes” to urge the legislature to approve the bill. She said the bill includes findings she feels are “incontrovertible.” Word spread Monday among concerned citizens that Huber seeks at least 2000 letters in her office to protest the bill. She plans on taking these letters into committee when she presents her bill in the coming weeks, a tactic she has used when introducing several past bills.

Said Huber last week: “This bill will put a temporary halt to the process that CDCR seems intent on barreling forward without clear regard of the impact of the decision. It will give the Legislature and Governor the time necessary to look deeper into how CDCR is making decisions about how to meet the needs of a dwindling youth offender population and a shrinking budget.”

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

Amador County – In the first meeting of its new makeup, the Amador Water Agency board of directors voted unanimously Thursday, December 9th, to spend close to $70,000 to proceed to bid as soon as possible on the Gravity Supply Line project.

AWA General Manager Gene Mancebo said bidding could start in April 2011, and if approved, construction of the GSL could begin late next summer or early fall.

Mancebo said: “Once construction bids are opened, the agency will have a firm cost to share with customers prior to considering a potential rate increase and weighing the cost versus benefits of the project.”

Three Central Amador Water Project districts must also approve financing for the final project, which the AWA board approved in March. The GSL is a gravity-fed raw water pipeline to CAWP’s water treatment system in Buckhorn.

Mancebo said the GSL is “designed to greatly reduce the impacts of rising electricity costs on CAWP’s budget.” The AWA board’s March approval allowed the agency to apply to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a $5.1 million grant and a low interest, 40-year loan for $8.3 million to pay for the GSL. The loan payment would be offset by a reduction in energy costs.

Mancebo said he was hopeful that actual construction costs will be lower than initial estimates, citing other recent public works project bids that have come in as much as 50 percent below original engineering estimates.

He said AWA staff will begin a series of Upcountry meetings to share information with CAWP ratepayers in January.

In a report to the board, Mancebo said the AWA board halted work on USDA conditions for the grant and loan for the project, due to concerns over the cost. Staff brought back a timeline and list of the conditions, and reported that for less than $70,000, consisting of “existing staff time,” the AWA “could bid the project and meet all conditions necessary prior to the start of construction.”

He said staff “will continue to refine financial plans with the budget and finance committee,” made up of President Don Cooper and District 4 Director Robert Manassero. Staff also plans “a future workshop on the financial plans with the entire board.”

Mancebo said on November 17th that AWA staff held a quarterly meeting with the CAWP wholesale districts, well represented by its board members. They unanimously said “they wish to proceed with spending $69,630 to get the GSL out to bid,” so a firm construction bid cost could be determined.

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

Calaveras County – The U.S. Forest Service recently announced that the Amador-Calaveras Consensus Group (ACCG) received the agency’s Pacific Southwest Regional Forester’s Award for “All Land Ecological Restoration.”

ACCG is a community-based organization that works to create fire safe communities, healthy forests and sustainable local economies. Their efforts have focused on reducing hazardous fuels in the Mokelumne River watershed, a common boundary shared between the Stanislaus and El Dorado National Forests.

The award, presented by Regional Forester Randy Moore, recognizes the group’s success in securing grants through National Forest Foundation to formally organize under a memorandum of agreement, and to facilitate support for on-the-ground projects that reduce hazardous fuel conditions and put local residents back to work in the woods. Other organizations that have contributed funds for this work include private landowners, Fire Safe Council, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Forest Service (FS), Calaveras Healthy Impacts Product Solutions, and the Calaveras-Mariposa Community Action Agency.

ACCG has facilitated the hiring and training of a hand crew made up of Me-Wuk tribal members as well as a non-native crew. Both crews have been working on implementing a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) for Glencoe, doing fuel reduction projects on BLM and private lands. In addition, the all-native crew has successfully completed fuel reduction work on several cultural resource sites on the Calaveras Ranger District, in a way that brings indigenous stewardship practices back to these ancestral lands.

Much of the woody material generated by these projects will be processed to make animal bedding, fence posts, firewood, or to generate electric power. These small efforts have given a much needed boost to the spirits and economic welfare of local residents and small businesses. In fact, the unemployment rate in the West Point/Glencoe area of Calaveras County recently dropped as a result of this program.

The effort began nearly two years ago, when Calaveras County Supervisor Steve Wilensky gathered a group of public agencies, private landowners, Me-Wuk tribal representatives, environmental groups, small business owners, and interested citizens together. The idea was to try to develop mutually beneficial solutions to problems of extreme fire danger, overgrown forests, threatened water quality, and persistent unemployment in the small communities of the eastern portion of the Mokelumne River watershed.

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Amador County – The Amador County Recreation Agency plans its Blue Moon Bash on New Year’s Eve, calling it the “celebration of the decade.”

The non-profit Joint Power Authority, ACRA will celebrate the New Year with its annual Blue Moon Bash, and it invites people to come and “usher in a new year of hope and possibility with an evening of celebration, great food, fine refreshments, and live music.”

The gates to the Amador County Fairgrounds open at 7 pm Friday, December 31st in Plymouth, with dinner served until 9:30 pm. Live musical performances will be done by the Speak Easy Jazz Orchestra, the Funky Blue Devils, Late for Dinner, D.J. Gavin, and the winner of ACRA’s Battle of the Bands contest, Meghan O’Keefe.

ACRA’s Tracey Towner-Yep, in a release announcing the event, said the Blue Moon Bash “is a terrific opportunity to have a fabulous evening while supporting parks and recreation and local community groups.” She said: “This event will be the place to be to celebrate the New Year.”

There are a limited number of tickets available. The ticket price includes entertainment, dinner and shuttles to and from the event. Tickets are $50 per person, which includes: dinner, all entertainment, goody bags, and shuttles to and from the event. The evening activities will take place rain or shine.

Tickets are on sale now locally at all branches of Bank of Amador, Play it Again Sports, Clark’s Corner, Curves, Amador Visitors Center, Amador County Fairgrounds, Plymouth City Hall, Munnerlyn’s Ice Creamery, and the Sutter Creek Ice Cream Emporium. Tickets may also be purchase online at www.highsierratickets.com.

Shuttle pick-ups will start at 6 p.m. The schedule and pick up spots are available on the ACRA website. The Bash includes special discounts for groups of 10 or more, and reserved seating is available.

Organizers suggest securing lodging early for the sell-out event, and RV accommodations are available on the fairgrounds.

The event will not have fireworks this year, due to insurance costs.

For more information, see ACRA’s website, www.GoACRA.org. You can also e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call (209) 223-6349.

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

Amador County – The Amador County Chamber of Commerce hosted dozens of local business people at its monthly mixer dinner party last week in the conference room of Thomi’s Café & Eatery in Jackson.

Chamber of Commerce Executive Board President Mark Borchin said the Chamber is growing and changing, including making new programs and revamping its website.

Executive Vice President Tom Blackman said the Chamber is adding new members daily, with new members and former members joining daily.

Blackman said the new website is about 45 days out and it will be “super useful.” Blackman said the new look of the website will be at the same web address of AmadorCountyChamber.com.

Borchin introduced Chamber member Ray Perry, who told the group that he is working on a new Amador Chamber Ambassador Program. He said it will be a good way to network with other businesses in the county, while also helping to recruit new Chamber members.

Perry said ambassadors will receive training and “will have a whole month to make these calls.” He said he “did this about 30 years ago in Modesto.”

Borchin said “there are so many folks that want to host a chamber mixer,” they may have to set up a lottery or some selection method. He said they want to take the Chamber Mixer all over the county, to the upcountry and the cities, so that all members can see all aspects of the county, and get out and support each other.

He said they will make some “e-mail blasts” when the mixer locations are determined.

Borchin announced during the meeting that Wednesday’s host, Thomi’s owner Frank Manzano, was giving attendees half off the cost of meals that evening.

Blackman said Amador Chamber of Commerce has 400 members right now, which makes it an influential group when it makes requests of the Board of Supervisors. He said the Chamber once had 700 members, and it is growing again.

“The Chamber is still the first portal to Amador County,” Blackman said, as people call the office daily. Members in good standing can benefit from business references from the Chamber office, which is staffed five days a week by volunteer Diane Lundgren.

Membership is open to businesses and individuals, with different levels of dues.

Visit the Amador County Chamber of Commerce at 571 S. Highway 49, behind Jose’s, or call (209) 223-0350.

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