Amador County – The Pine Grove Council heard an update on the Pine Grove Corridor Study at its monthly meeting Wednesday. Neil Peacock, project manager for the Amador County Transportation Commission’s study, said funding was still available for the Pine Grove Corridor Study, only not as much as before. But Peacock said ACTC could eventually get the entire $400,000 from the federal government. Peacock said the Fed did a 10 percent rescission of the funds, taking back $72,000, which means ACTC will get $356,000 for the study. The remainder may be sent later on for the study. Peacock said in the planning stages, California Department of Transportation’s District 10 now has a cooperative agreement with Amador County, and he has been working with District 4 Supervisor Louis Boitano on preparations. Peacock said the project will have civil engineering done and he also wants to bring in an environmental consultant to advance the environmental impact element of the study. He said ACTC also will be bringing in the foremost expert of a new “contact sensitive solutions approach,” basically the new Caltrans approach, invented by the woman whom Peacock will bring in to implement it in Amador County. He said the expert was in the process of training Caltrans employees in using the method. Peacock said many public meetings will ensue over the course of the project. That will begin with a preliminary draft phase, to get input and “make sure we don’t miss anything.” One man in attendance suggested Peacock bring old maps to be able to tell people where ACTC left off earlier and where it is now. In January, Pine Grove Council member John Carlson was appointed to the ACTC Technical Advisory Committee for the Pine Grove Corridor Study, part of the preparation of the study. Peacock expected public meetings to start possibly at the tail end of March. Story by Jim Reece