Ione – Ione Mayor Lee Ard said last week that the city of Ione was not going to pay its portion of membership dues to the Amador County Recreation Agency. Ard, who is chairman of the ACRA board of directors, said board members were shocked last week when he told them Ione would not be paying the $13,000 voluntary membership fee to ACRA. He said ACRA Executive Director Tracy Towner-Yep told him the money paid salaries at the agency. Ard said the funds instead would go toward paying lifeguard staff at the Ione Pool, which the city will maintain itself, rather than pay ACRA to tend. Ard said “the money just doesn’t get to Ione.” City Manager Kim Kerr said the pool’s teenage lifeguards live in Ione and Camanche. Kerr said she will be asking ACRA “for a list of lifeguards.” Council David Plank said the city should start with Kristi Root, an Ione insurance seller, who is head coach of the Ione pool-based youth swimming team. Ard said that the Jackson City Council had reduced its membership fees to ACRA, cutting them in half this year. ACRA board member and Plymouth City Councilwoman Patricia Fordyce, said Plymouth this year paid its $5,000 membership. She said Plymouth City Council “is always pretty pleased” with Towner-Yep. But she said ACRA is hurting for money. At its next meeting Nov. 12th, the board will discuss its Blue Moon New Year’s Eve fundraiser, for which Fordyce is decorations committee chairwoman. The party will have 5 bands for $35. Fordyce told her city council last week that “there has to be 1,500 people to break even” and “Tracy’s hoping for 5,000 people.” Fordyce said Towner-Yep “is one of the most optimistic people I know.” She said: “All of us really feel that Tracy makes an effort to do things around Plymouth.” The agency runs the swimming pool at the fairgrounds, and this summer it stayed open a little later, a couple of weeks after school opened, staying open on the weekends. Fordyce said. “They had adult lap swimming for the first time,” she said, which gave adult swimmers an hour to swim laps, while children had to vacate pool. She said she believed the city “had more kids at the pool this year than we’ve had in the past.” ACRA also kept the pool open during the Amador County Fair. It normally was closed during the fair, but this year it stayed open. Fordyce said “Tracy’s constantly working on things to bring here,” which is nice to have because the city has generally had nothing as far as recreation. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.