Amador County - The Amador County Recreation Agency Board of Directors also heard a pitch for a donation program to help county trails and recreation in their last meeting of 2008. Amanda Bohl, a board member of Mother Lode Land Trust the program titled “A Buck For Open Space and Trails.” Bohl said Mother Lode Land Trust’s “Buck For A Cause” is a voluntary program where local businesses ask customers to donate a dollar. The money would be split 50-50 with ACRA and the Land Trust, or at a ratio agreeable to ACRA’s board. Her work with the Truckee Donner Land Trust found that it benefits businesses because people preferred to frequent places that donate money. Bohl said the Land Trust would do the work, and how the money is split would be clearly spelled out. Bohl said it was simply a can that could be placed near a cashier. ACRA Executive Director Tracey Towner-Yep proposed the idea of putting the first $3,000 toward developing a trails master plan for Amador County.

Amador City’s Richard Lynch said it sounded like a great opportunity to get money for the Land Trust and ACRA, “for the whole world of recreation.” Lynch supported giving most of the money to MLLT and trails and he felt that money should go into trails or property acquisition. Supervisor Richard Escamilla said he would like to see the new board decide on the program, as three new members would replace himself and outgoing members, Chairwoman Debbie Dunn and Lynch. Dunn said Measure L for firefighters died at the polls but Measure M passed because supporters learned that they needed to tell people where the money was going. Jackson Councilman Wayne Garibaldi said he would like to see more of what the agreement would be and the legal parts of the MOU. Towner-Yep said she would outline what is going to happen, with a basic structure and the goals of the program and bring it to the next ACRA board meeting, January 14th. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).