Amador County – The city of Plymouth and the Amador Water Agency officially marked the start of an 8-mile water pipeline Wednesday with a ceremonial ground-breaking on Fiddletown Road. Several dozen people attended the event at the Plymouth Water Treatment Plant, under the shade of the city’s water storage tank. AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie led off the ceremony, naming some major contributors to the project, many in the crowd. Those included Plymouth city grants writer Terry Cox, of Cox Consulting in Tuolumne County. Cox wrote the successful application for $3 Million Dollars for a Community Development Block Grant, along with a successful CDBG loan application for another $5 Million Dollars, to fund the pipeline. Abercrombie also introduced Jack Scroggs of KASL Consulting, which did engineering and environmental work on the pipeline. Abercrombie introduced an aid to Congressman Dan Lungren, and noted that the Amador County Supervisors were unable to attend because they were simultaneously starting their latest General Plan Update meeting back in Jackson. He introduced Dave Hartwell and Frank Risso of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, whose agency brought CDBG funding through the Rural Utility Service. He introduced Erik Christeson, AWA engineer in charge of making sure the pipeline was accurate. He introduced current AWA board member and its Chairman Terence Moore. Moore lauded the partnership with the AWA, which “once again is going to return to a high quality of water to the city of Plymouth.” Moore said “as a Plymouth resident, (he) would like to thank the city council for pursuing the project,” which will finally “lift the building moratorium.” He said the city has rationed water during the Amador County Fair week, but that time is gone. Moore said: “Let’s turn the spigot!” Plymouth Councilwoman Patricia Fordyce thanked the people who worked on the pipeline, to fulfill her dream to be able to turn on the faucet and “get good, quality water.” Abercrombie mentioned AWA Engineering Manager Gene Mancebo, who worked on the project. And Cox mentioned early project helpers for Plymouth, original engineer John German, former City Manager Gene Albaugh, and current City Manager Dixon Flynn, who said his city council was working and could not attend the ceremony. AWA board members Moore, Vice Chair Bill Condrashoff, Gary Thomas and Debbie Dunn then took golden shovels and posed for cameras, with Abercrombie, Flynn, Fordyce and former AWA Director Madonna Weibold. Hartwell and Risso then joined AWA project manager Ken Hunt, Christeson, Cox and Scroggs for photos with the shovels. Hunt said the project, which started last month, has about 1-and-a-half miles of pipeline now in place in the ground. The project will be 8-and-a-half miles long when completed. Project builder Mountain Cascade’s project manager, Tony Batista of Valley Springs, also attended. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.