Amador County – The Upcountry Communities Council heard guest speaker updates last week, including on the long-term Highway 88 project and also the fireproofing of a housing development on Tabeaud Road. Neil Peacock of the Amador County Transportation Commission updated the council on the commission’s intent to pursue a project in the Pine Grove area to ease traffic on Highway 88. The project will still get $356,000 dollars of its original $400,000 from the government for planning. Peacock said any project will take years and years of planning, including many meetings. Debbie Dunn, president of the Upcountry Council, said that at a meeting 6 years ago, someone drew on a map with a Sharpie, to suppose where a “north bypass” and a “south bypass” could go, along with the 5-lane widening project up the middle of Pine Grove. She said “it was not engineered, it was just a simple Sharpie.” A man who said he was a former planning commissioner said the standard number of trips per household could be lowered if development created services that were closer and reduced mileage. Peacock said “that’s why we have a traffic engineer, so they can review traffic impact studies and improve them.” Marc Bowman and his brother, Steve Bowman, commented on their 85-unit Aqueduct residential and commercial project east of Highway 88 on Tabeaud Road. Steve Bowman, an expert in fire readiness, said he is a trained firefighter and has fire-readied his home, with a mule, a goat, irrigated land, hoses and a Class “A” roof. He said if there is a fire, he would “stay and fight it,” though not everyone can do so. Bowman said statistics show that in big fires, most fatalities in the United States occur during evacuation. He said the Aqueduct development “will be designed to be safer to stay in the development,” during such a big fire. The group deferred until next meeting its Annual Review and also its Media Policy. Story By Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.