State -- Desegregation at both Mule Creek State Prison in Ione and the Sierra Conservation Center in Calaveras will continue after a temporary suspension by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on October 10th. All 30 male prisons in California are scheduled to comply by 2010 with a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court that said California's unwritten policy of segregating inmates by race in their cells needed to be reviewed by an appellate court. A settlement later created a policy mandating that prison staff fill open bunks regardless of race or ethnicity. The changeover was supposed to begin July 1, but has been delayed by discussions with employee unions and concerns over possible violence. The Department of Corrections has long used race as a factor in segregating men, based on a history of racial and gang-related violence. On October 1st, the Sierra Conservation Center, or SCC, officially started the desegregation, which had already started at Mule Creek. Officials at the SCC said prison inmates refused to eat or work for four days following the start of integration in minimum security. Officials at the prison are not sure what prompted the Corrections Department to drop the suspension. Although authorities at both prisons are remaining cautious, they don’t anticipate any major problems. -- Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

State - Desegregation at both Mule Creek State Prison in Ione and the Sierra Conservation Center in Calaveras will continue after a temporary suspension by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on October 10th. All 30 male prisons in California are scheduled to comply by 2010 with a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court that said California's unwritten policy of segregating inmates by race in their cells needed to be reviewed by an appellate court. A settlement later created a policy mandating that prison staff fill open bunks regardless of race or ethnicity. The changeover was supposed to begin July 1, but has been delayed by discussions with employee unions and concerns over possible violence. The Department of Corrections has long used race as a factor in segregating men, based on a history of racial and gang-related violence. On October 1st, the Sierra Conservation Center, or SCC, officially started the desegregation, which had already started at Mule Creek. Officials at the SCC said prison inmates refused to eat or work for four days following the start of integration in minimum security. Officials at the prison are not sure what prompted the Corrections Department to drop the suspension. Although authorities at both prisons are remaining cautious, they don’t anticipate any major problems. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

By Jim Reece - Amador County Planning Commission studied the Wicklow Way Subdivision’s Environmental Impact Report, which they eventually approved Tuesday. Commissioner John Gonsalves led the charge, saying: “I sound like I’m all over this. I just want to get some answers.” One subject was the school district property and related traffic, with one main through-road and the rest cul-de-sacs. Susan Larson, planning manager for Lemke Construction, said the developer gave the Amador County Unified School District 8 acres. Larson said former Superintendent Mike Carey wanted it adjacent to the Argonaut High School property. She said Carey’s wish list was to move the tennis courts and other sports facilities to the new property and build a new, 2-story classroom building in the tennis courts area. Larson said Carey thought the main drop-off area for parents would be on Argonaut Lane. Lemke’s Brian Chadwick said the developer donated the land and left its design to the county and school district. He said the school district had not yet given Lemke plans for the property. Amador County Transportation Commission Executive Director Charles Field said Wicklow Way and “H” Street are the project’s “main collectors,” designed to carry higher volume. Commissioner Ray Ryan was concerned that the school property was land-locked, and he worried about traffic speed, kids walking to school. Gonsalves said, “You have supplied the site, but access is not in the EIR.” Field said any access to a school site would be best off of one of the main collector roads, and it would be a good planning commission condition for approval. County Works Director Larry Peterson said there should be a “condition of prohibition” saying that there shall not be access to the school property from the residential cul-de-sacs. The commissioners agreed.

By Jim Reece - Road funding ideas ranged between a nonexistent plan and a 100 percent reimbursement from the developer in Tuesday’s meeting on the Wicklow Way Subdivision. The Amador County Planning Commission asked for a “Fiscal Impact Report,” which Lemke Construction said was not a part of the California Environmental Quality Act, and therefore not a part of the Environmental Impact Report, which the commission later approved. Lemke’s Susan Larson said a study showed that the project would be responsible for paying 39 percent of road work for its project’s traffic impacts. But Larson said Lemke was willing to pay for 100 percent of the roads, if they were built by Amador County, Jackson and the school district. She said Lemke would then reimburse the funds. Amador County Transportation Commission Executive Director Charles Field said that ACTC was working on a program that would allow “fair share” payment into road funding. Those funds would pay for the roads in the Wicklow Subdivision, and others. Field said a computer program to determine those fair shares, based on trips, was a way to look at 30-year to 50-year build-outs and cash flow, but the program was not yet released and was in the hands of ACTC’s Transportation Advisory Committee. Setting up the fair share program allows all projects in the area to pay into the funding pool. Commissioner John Gonsalves said that if Lemke wanted to pay for 100 percent of the roads, that was a big gamble, and it was also something that he wanted to make happen. Field said he was “not in a position to sign a reimbursement agreement for a program that does not exist.” One important part of the program was extending Sutter Street., which must be done before Stoney Creek Road is connected. Field said a study by Fehrs & Peers Transportation Consultants said that with or without an extension of Stoney Creek Road, “either way, it does not represent an operational problem for us.” But they said it could create a “perception problem.” He said one way to address that would be to bar vehicle roadway connection until the Wicklow Way/Stoney Creek Road connection is built and open. The meeting on the project presentation resumes November 18th.

By Alex Lane - A suspect has been arrested for a string of arson fires in the El Dorado area. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CALFIRE, arrested Kenneth Powell, age 25, on seven counts of arson. Powell was arrested in El Dorado Hills where he was a long time resident. CAL FIRE Peace Officers and El Dorado DA Investigators executed the arrest warrant on October 27 at 5:30 PM; he is currently being detained in El Dorado County Jail. The seven fires broke out during a two-hour period on October 18th. All were grassland fires except one that was set in a dumpster at Raley's, said Bill Dillard, a criminal investigator with the DA's office. The grassland fires were in large, dry fields and many were near multi-million dollar homes bordering Amador County. According to Dillard, he fires were kept to less than an acre each because of the quick response from fire agencies including Cal Fire and the El Dorado Hills Fire Department. “I commend the efforts of the joint investigation team working diligently on the case,” said Unit Chief Bill Holmes. The joint investigation was conducted by CAL FIRE, El Dorado Hills Fire Department and the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office. “There is a lot of tedious, time consuming work that goes into these investigations,” said Holmes. “It’s worth the effort, though, when we can stop arson fires from occurring. Californian’s lives and property are already at significant risk from wildfire without these intentional fires adding to the threat.”

By Alex Lane - The Humane Society of Amador County, or A-PAL, went before the Board of Supervisors Tuesday to request funds to allow the low-income Spay/Neuter program to continue in Amador County. A-PAL was given 12,000 dollars to maintain a low cost 15 dollar program at the end of 2004, but less than 3000 was spent and the program was revised to be free of charge to qualifying applicants. In March 2007, A-Pal requested an additional 15,000 to continue the program. Those funds have been depleted to 735 dollars. “The disturbing thing is that our (shelter populations) are increasing rather than decreasing. However, that number would be much higher if this program weren’t in place,” said Susan Manning, A-PAL President. “I do think this is a good investment and the cost of animal control would increase without this program,” said County Administrative Officer Terri Daly. As an example, Manning noted the dramatic increase in shelter impounds of cats and kittens over the past year, which she attributed to unchecked population growth and a challenging economy. Between 1999 and 2007, over 4,747 cats have been saved through the “Save Our Kittens” program. The Supervisors were in agreement that the program required additional funds in order to continue. Supervisor Novelli, who acted as Chairman because Supervisor Forster was sick, recommended and approved postponing the item for further discussion in a future Board meeting.

By Jim Reece - County Planner Susan Grijalva said Wednesday that she fully expected an appeal to be filed for the Wicklow Way Subdivision set for the Martell area, which has a 10-day appeal period. Anyone can appeal the decision if they file the 400-dollar appeal fee and paperwork in the county clerk’s office by November 7th. The meeting was continued to November 18th, when developers Lemke Construction will give a presentation on the Wicklow Subdivision project. Commissioners John Gonsalves and Ray Ryan asked staff before the vote if they had any procedural problems to worry about, and also asked about a 2007 court ruling dealing with water supplies in EIRs, brought up by a member of the Foothill Conservancy. Deputy Council Greg Gillott said the scenario was different in that ruling, on a 22,000-home Vineyard Development in Rancho Cordova. He said the Vineyard project’s EIR had two-thirds of its water supplied from underground sources, and the other one-third of the water supply vaguely said it could come from the American River or other sources. The Vineyard Project lost the ruling for not showing how it would supply water. Gillott said the situation was different because the Amador Water Agency has a water pipeline and gave spread sheets and a study showing it would have adequate water to build out the Wicklow project. Gillott said state law required analysis of the supply, and getting the water to the treatment plant, as AWA does with its Amador Transmission Pipeline. He said “getting water from the agency to the subdivision is not required.” The commission in its vote amended the EIR to show that either the AWA or the City of Jackson could be purveyors of water to the Wicklow Subdivision, so as to not give the impression of favoring one over the other.

By Jim Reece - An estimated 14,000 oak trees will be lost in the footprint of the proposed Gold Rush Ranch and Golf Resort. The issue was among the remaining key areas still needing agreement between developers and the Sutter Creek Planning Commission. The commission met Monday and heard a report from city planning consultant Anders Hauge and discussed the housing element, grading and tree mitigation. Commissioner Frank Cunha said the commission could possibly get through the remaining issues and make a recommendation to the Sutter Creek City Council after their next meeting. But there were still areas on which the planning commission and Gold Rush developers needed to reach agreement. Cunha said there were probably about a dozen issues that needed settlement. High priorities for him were traffic, parks, housing, grading and the oak tree mitigation. Regarding oak mitigation and the loss of those 14,000 trees, he said discussion circled around solutions such as planting seedlings to replace the trees -- or the use of conservation easements. The conservation easement would typically replace each lost acre of oak woodlands with 2 acres of oak tree acreage that would be preserved and remain undeveloped. “My first choice is in Sutter Creek,” he said of any prospective conservation easement’s location. His second choice would be a preserve on property adjoining the Gold Rush property. His third preference would be to have the property in Amador County, and if it were property outside the county, he would expect more mitigation. He said “the people of Sutter Creek are the ones who are going to be impacted by this, so they should benefit from the mitigation.” An Oak tree specialist told the council that an average Blue Oak tree seedling took 50 to 70 years to grow to 5 inches in diameter size at “breast height,” or 54 inches from the ground. They also took 5 to 7 years to reach 1 inch in diameter at that height. Cunha said “it’s not something we are going to see in one or two generations.” The next meeting is November 5th and the work will be toward recommending completion of a Draft Environmental Impact Report on Gold Rush.

By Jim Reece - Amador County Undersheriff James Wegner said in a letter last week that he did not believe the Wicklow Subdivision would affect the Jackson Police Department. Wegner was asked by the Amador County Planning Commission to comment on a September letter from Jackson Mayor Rosalie Pryor-Escamilla about the Revised Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Wicklow project. In his response, Wegner partly agreed with the Mayor in that he did believe as she said that Jackson Police would at times assist with calls in the Wicklow Subdivision. But Wegner pointed at call histories for JPD since 2004, the Jackson Police had been the primary responder in the unincorporated area of Martell on just three occasions in four years. He said Jackson and other city police departments and the sheriff’s officers all had mutual aid agreements, and the sheriff office also had such an aid agreement with the California Office of Emergency Services. Pryor-Escamilla’s letter said the proximity of the Wicklow project to Jackson makes it highly likely that the JPD would be the first to respond in the event of an emergency. Wegner disagreed with that. And he said in development of sheriff’s personnel mitigation agreements with developers of Wicklow and also the Buena Vista Casino, “restructured and realigned sheriff’s office beat assignments are already in the planning stage” and “there will be more sheriffs’ office patrol units assigned to the Martell area than are currently deployed.” Pryor-Escamilla in her letter, dated September 23rd, said that the Wicklow Subdivision will cause a need for additional JPD personnel, which “will require expansion of the city’s current police station as this facility is already overcrowded.” She said the issue must be addressed in the Wicklow Subdivision’s Final EIR, “for the document to be considered adequate.” Wegner said he disagreed that the Wicklow Subdivision would require additional Jackson police personnel, “based upon documented city responses to the Martell area.” The Amador County Planning Commission considered the Wicklow Subdivision’s EIR last night, with results from the meeting unavailable for this report.

By Jennifer Wilson - Jackson’s proposed Circulation Element and Draft Land Use Element were presented to the City Council Monday night. City Planner Susan Peters and ACTC Director Charles Field gave an overview of the most recent changes to both documents. The Circulation Element, which is responsible for developing “a comprehensive circulation plan for all travel modes within the Jackson area, and to provide a strategy for financing preferred transportation improvements,” had some “noteworthy” changes. Field explained to the council that Highway 49/88 through Jackson is now a threshold of Level of Service D, which is congested traffic. All other areas of the city remain LOS C. On a scale from A to F, A is free-flowing traffic, while F represents multiple delays and stops. Another important change in the Circulation Element is the addition of implementation measures requiring the development of new Traffic Impact Study guidelines. This change also includes the formation of an NEV Plan, which is a plan to establish Neighborhood Electric Vehicle routes through and around the city. The Draft Land Use Element, which serves to “establish a framework to direct the physical development of the City and to form the organization of the City’s environment,” had some moderate revisions. One key change was the elimination of a 25 percent limitation on Residential Single Family, or RSF, lots that can have an exemption from the 8000 square foot minimum. As written, the Draft Land Use Element has changed the minimum square footage for RSF from 6,000 to 8,000 square feet, but developers will have the option to reduce it back to 6000 with the Planning Commission’s approval, and if certain criteria apply. Overall, public reaction to the two documents focused mainly on questions regarding land use designations, traffic impacts, spheres of influence, and infrastructure needs, such as water and fire services. Jackson property owner Jim Lawton got up to point out his problem with an overlay affecting his property near Fuller Road. “This bothers me. I just want to get it on record that (I have an issue with this).” Peters assured Lawton that she would look into the issue and work with him on any problems. After receiving public comment, the council decided to continue the public hearing to their next meeting in order to give city staff time to make final revisions.