Thursday, 11 December 2008 23:41
Crowd Greets New AWA Board
Amador County -- A crowd greeted the new Amador Water Agency Board of Directors in its first meeting Thursday. Several members of the Protect the Historic Amador Waterways group addressed the board. Wendell Peart of Pine Grove said the “unsusual replacement of so many of you seems to say the public wanted change.” Peart said people say “PHAW folks” caused the high cost of the Amador Transmission Pipeline, but the past board could have settled and did not and litigation let the $8 Million estimate to grow later to $19 Million. District 1 Board Member Bill Condrashoff said he was there “because I don’t want to see the agency’s customers subsidize growth.” He said the pipeline money is already spent and he cannot change that, but he is “here to prevent it from happening again.” Project Manger Krista Clem of Golden Vale and Mokelumne Bluffs subdivisions, said it was “illegal for the water agency to deny water to limit growth.” She offered a 30-acre pond as part of a water reclamation project for AWA, near Highway 88 and an existing AWA easement. PHAW member David Evitt and Peart urged the board to select a president from its new members. Evitt preferred Condrashoff, saying it would still be the same board approving an upcoming audit, later on the agenda. Condrashoff said “you might have a different president, but it will still be the same board.” The board later kept Terence Moore as its president and made Condrashoff vice president. Engineering Manager Gene Mancebo reported that the Plymouth Pipeline is in the final mode of insurance documents and Mountain Cascade is gearing up for construction. Condrashoff asked if the Plymouth Pipeline could serve all of its 1,000 proposed units in 9 projects there. Mancebo said as designed it could not, but they were looking to add capacity and supplement the pipeline to get more water to Plymouth, which may include using wells. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).