The council put 3 motions up for the specific item with Lee Ard motioning to approve the project which received no second, Jim Ulm opposed the railing and motioned the topic be dropped with a second by Sherman but it failed to pass, and finally Andrea Bonham-Ridogna moved that the council receive further clarification and have more research conducted concerning the fence and make a decision from there, which was ultimately passed with a 3-2 vote. From there the discussion flowed into another Consent Calendar item, the approval of the agreement for a Certified Pool Operator, which would be hired by the council to take care of the Ione City Pool. The council motioned to approve the contract subject to review of the agreement (by the council) at 2 hours per day and at a rate of $50 per hour.

On the regular agenda the dialogue turned to the Amador Water Agency’s backwash water and the impact that it has on the City of Ione. The Ione Treatment Plant is almost at capacity, and taking the extra backwash water from the agency into the city’s sewer is currently using 25% of that City’s capacity. This has been an issue in the past and resulted in the water back up at the elementary school. The Amador Water Agency is currently in the process of expanding its Tanner Plant, which will take an estimated 3-4 years. The expansion will in turn take care of the backwash issue completely. Neither party wants to spend a great amount of money on an interim fix. In the meantime, the backwash influx will be decreasing in the next few weeks as the new pipeline will be accepting some of the water, and once the pipeline is fully operational water quality flowing into the city sewer from the pipeline will be much better as it is a covered pipe as opposed to the open canal. The recommendation from the interim City Manager, George Lambert was to start a process to resolve the issue with the Water Agency by means of a committee, including 2 members of City Council, 2 members of the Agency Board of Directors and Jim Abercrombie. The final decision was to table the topic for no longer than 30 days, which would allow new City Manager Kim Kerr to come in and move forward per her recommendation. This topic will be on the August 7th agenda.