Thursday, 08 March 2007 05:49

City Council Of Ione Resolved an Issue

slide40The city council of Ione recently resolved an issue that the city had with the Amador County Girls Softball Association (ACGSA) regarding the equal availability of playing fields for both the Amador County little league west, a predominately boy’s baseball league and girls softball teams. Tuesday, the city signed a 3 year memorandum of understanding in which the city will participate with ACGSA to renovate the baseball diamond at Ione Junior High School. The ACGSA is being required to do some of the rehabilitation work with the city pitching in staff time and equipment to conduct maintenance operations. The total renovation is expected to cost $11,600 including ongoing maintenance. City staff thanked Amador County Recreation Agency Executive Director, Tracy Towner Yep for her, “Commendable effort to get the ball rolling on this issue.” The next stop for the MOU is at the Amador County Girls Softball Association, where it is expected to yield its final seal of approval. The school district already approved the agreement.

slide42 At their meeting the city directed staff to go out to bid on repairs for the Ione Junior High School Pool. The repairs are expected to cost as much as $45,000 and include the resurfacing of the pools floor. The pool had been drained and patched with fiber glass in recent years. The pool is now in need of more patching, and because the weight of the water is the only thing holding the fiber glass down, the pool County Environmental Mike Israel. The Amador County Unified School District is reaching to the city for help with funding this because they are already experiencing high costs involved with the pools electricity; estimated at $20,000 every year.

  slide44 ACRA Executive Director Tracy Towner Yep suggested that an electrical audit be done on the pool and gym area on the school’s campus. She told the council that the electrical bill in Plymouth is substantially less than $20,000/year and that the high electrical costs might be due to excessive energy use in the Gymnasium and not necessarily the pool. The council directed staff to go out to bid as quickly as possible in hopes of having the pool open for the 2007 Ione Marlin’s swim season which starts in June. The council was presented with a generous donation in a new asset proposed for Howard Park. The project is a joint Ione Rotary and Ione Picnic Association (IPA) collaboration and involves the construction of a “grove” at Evelyn Bishop Hall. The grove is envisioned to contain a 12x12 foot stage area on a150 foot circle of unused land and has no impact on the existing oak trees. The improvements are expected to cost $3-5,000. The City Council gave the IPA permission to construct the improvements, as it would contains, “minimal improvements with maximum results”