Amador County – Central Sierra Mining Association members and supporters are having a dinner and meeting Friday, March 16 at Mel & Faye’s Restaurant Banquet Room in Jackson.

CSMA Director Tim K Smith announced the dinner in February, and said the meeting will serve as the Annual Organizational meeting, “so the nominating committee will be the entire body in good standing for this reorganizing effort.” Nominations for Directors were to be sent to the secretary by Feb. 15, and if they are lacking nominees, nominations will be taken from the floor, as a nomination notice was sent out per bylaws.

Mining Association members will elect seven directors and subsequently officers, at the time and place of choosing of the newly elected Directors. The officers are President, Vice President, and Secretary, Treasurer. Smith said only paid up members will be voting. Existing directors are Smith, Ted Allurd, Mike Dell’Orto, Doug Ketron, Tom Swett and Ed Swift.

Mining Association directors will also accept for review any proposed changes to the CSMA bylaws which were distributed to members recently. Any requested changes will be considered for approval at the next dinner meeting after the March 16 meeting.

In February, Smith said the meeting was shaping up nicely. Damien Galford will speak about five minutes on the status of the Industrial General Storm Water Permit process, and Madera County Supervisor Frank Bigelow has been provided copies of CSMA’s proposed legislative changes to the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975. Bigelow will be talking to members and guests about those and his position on the mining industry.

Bigelow, in his 14th year as Madera County District 1 Supervisor, is a candidate for the newly redistricted California Assembly District 5, which represents Amador County.

Smith said Bigelow will review and comment on Central Sierra Mining Association’s requested legislative changes to SMARA and speak to the group that evening.

Bigelow is a mining and dredging supporter, Smith said, noting that CSMA has “presented our requested changes to Senator Ted Gaines and Assemblywoman Alyson Huber but as you know neither one of these people will be representing either Amador, Calaveras or Stanislaus County in the future and have shown little enthusiasm toward our efforts.”

The new California Assembly District 5 includes Amador, Calaveras, Alpine, Madera, Mariposa, Mono and Tuolumne counties, and parts of Placer and El Dorado counties. RSVP for the dinner and meeting by March 10 by calling Interim Secretary Laurie Lord at (209) 274-2777.

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