Amador County – The Jackson City Council on Monday determined to seek more recreation survey responses to find what people want in a park in central Jackson.

Amador County Recreation Agency Executive Director Tracey Towner-Yep said it has been hard to gather survey responses, which would be submitted with a grant application for Proposition 84 funds to build a project to meet the city’s recreation needs. ACRA is lead agency in seeking the competitive grant through the California Department of Park & Recreation which can have a maximum of $5 million per grant.

Property called Oro De Amador, after a failed development from the 1980s, is a 160-acre property between New York Ranch Road and North Main, which the city acquired in December 2006 for free from Chubb Insurance Company.

In public comment, Judy Jebian said “it would be nice if Tracy can actually pull down a grant.” She said she is a property owner of land adjacent to the Oro De Amador, and every effort should be made to get survey responses from Rollingwood, and other adjacent property owners. Jebian said “no matter what goes in, there will still be traffic impacts.”

She said a project might impact the “view shed” coming into town on the highway, and “any kind of high-impact sports would be played on the tailing wheel piles, and that would have an impact on our view shed.”

Jebian said everyone knows about the arsenic of the tailings at the park, placed there during operation of the Kennedy Mine. She said “any kind of excavation would be highly problematic,” and arsenic is not only toxic but is carcinogenic. She did not want to get people’s hopes up for the park, and said her “highest hope is for a passive park.”

City Manager Mike Daly said at the next meeting, city and ACRA staff “will present some preliminary site development options for review by the public and the City Council.”

Mayor Connie Gonsalves asked what the next steps are in the process. Towner-Yep said they need a conceptual plan, with an estimated cost to maintain the project, and they would “need an EIR based on whatever it is we design.”

Towner-Yep said she could ask for donated concept drawings, but “when you ask for things for free, you don’t always get what you need.”

She said she understood the council wanted more survey responses from a wider demographic. The 450 or so surveys returned included more than half from people age 18 and under. Daly said “we are running out of time,” and it is “two months before the application is due.”

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