Sacramento – Friday was national Girl Scout Leader’s Day, a day to celebrate Girl Scout leaders who build girls of courage, confidence and character. Girl Scouts Heart of Central California profiled tributes to two of its long-time leaders.

Tracy Caldwell, Troop Leader in Rancho Cordova, became a Girl Scout as an adult in 1992 and has been a troop leader for two generations of girls. Once her children were adults she became a troop leader for her granddaughter and now has 20 girls in her troop; an average troop has 10 girls.

“I serve every girl who wants to be a Girl Scout,” Caldwell said. For the past 10 years, Caldwell has also volunteered as a Girl Scout First Aid Trainer. She plans to stay involved with Girl Scouts “forever.” She said “being involved in Girl Scouts is the most important thing I do.”

Caldwell said: “Everything my daughters do today comes back to Girl Scouts. They have confidence around their peers, they can get up and speak in front of 150 people and it’s just normal operating procedure, these are the things Girl Scouts has taught them and the reason why I stay involved.”

Donella Patalon, Girl Scout troop leader in Brownsville, has been a Girl Scout leader for 20 years and a trainer for 16. She started a troop when her daughter was a Brownie. Her daughter is now 26 and Patalon is still leading a troop of older Girl Scouts.

Patalon has been known to drive for hours to help at an event, train a group of troop leaders or mentor a girl on her Girl Scout Gold Award project. She said she will stay involved in Girl Scouts, “for as long as I can in one capacity or another.”

She said: “I want to give girls encouragement and advice and see girls take initiative and help other people. That’s why I do it.”

Patalon said: “I’ve seen the long term benefit it has for girls and leaders. It’s all about the commitment, leadership and passion.” Her background is in outdoor education, which she believes is a key component of being a Girl Scout.

“Outdoor education is more than just camping,” Patalon said. “It’s about environmental education, working together, budgeting and so much more. Experiencing nature gives girls a softer look on life and they realize the great outdoors is not that scary.”

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Amador County – The California Department of Transportation plans to have work crews on Highway 88 in Pine Grove and on Highways 49 and 16 around Ione to pick up litter today, that is Friday, April 22, as part of its statewide annual statewide Litter Removal and Enforcement Day.

Public information officer Chantel Miller of Caltrans District 10 in Stockton said the district’s maintenance field crews will clean up along freeways and roadways in the eight counties served by District 10.

Caltrans holds its annual cleanup day on Earth Day. Miller said the “activity is to enhance public awareness of the volume and cost associated with removing litter, trash and debris by removing litter along the highways and roadways.” Last year, Caltrans spent almost $50 million on litter removal throughout the state highway system. More than 141,000 cubic yards of litter were collected and disposed, or about 8,860 Caltrans garbage trucks full of litter.

“The best anti-litter campaign,” Miller said, “is to ensure trash never makes it onto our highways in the first place.”

In addition to the economic costs, litter presents a wide range of serious threats to the environment and human health. Wildlife can suffer from plastics in the environment; roadside vegetation can be damaged by large debris; fires can be started from burning cigarettes; and harmful chemicals and biohazards can cause a serious threat to human health. Miller said litter can clog roadway drainage systems and aid in the spread of disease.

Caltrans maintenance crews will pick up litter on highways and freeways in District 10 throughout the day.

In Alpine, Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties, Crews will be covering as much area as possible that has no Adopt-A-Highway sponsorship. They will pick up litter in the Pine Grove area, and along Highways 88, 49, and 104. They will stockpile at the Pine Grove maintenance yard. Crews will pick up along Highway 88 and stockpile at the Peddler Hill and Caples Lake maintenance yards and near Emigrant Trail. In Ione, crews will pick up on Highways 49 and 16, and stockpile at Highways 124 and 16.

Crews will also work in Calaveras County Highway 49, 12 and 26, stockpiling at Old Vactor Pits on SR12; in Tuolumne County on 108, and 120, stockpiling on 120 east of Kistler Ranch and on 108 just east of Green Springs Road.

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Amador County – An Upcountry special meeting of the Amador Water Agency board of directors Wednesday sought to inform the public about a Gravity Supply pipeline for the Central Amador Water Project service area, and answer the question, “Why now?”

Mancebo said the raw water conveyance system is 8,900 feet of 12-inch steel, tar-coated pipeline, with a vertical lift of approximately 1,100 feet. It is about 35 years old, with two inline pump stations, and was originally designed for a maximum capacity of 1,000 gallons a minute, and 1.4 million gallons a day. The system now is conveying more than the designed capacity, and on a peak day, typically operates at 1,300-1,600 gallons a minute, up to 2.3 million gallons a day.

Mancebo said a 1991 master plan identified improvements for the Pioneer area needed for fire protection and distribution pressures, which today would cost about $3.5 million. Mancebo said the AWA should plan for the improvements “with and without development.”

CAWP service areas include 13 former residential areas that were consolidated, and now make up Mace Meadow, Rabb Park and Pine Grove retail service districts. The CAWP Retail Distribution System includes about 90 miles of pipe, of which 42 miles is 4-inch diameter or smaller. Another 18,000 feet of pipe is 1-and-a-half inch diameter or smaller. The system also has 446 fire hydrants, which Supervisor Ted Novelli pointed out includes standpipes, with varying hose thread sizes.

Mancebo said the Gravity Supply Line would cut electricity costs to CAWP, which is about 18 percent of its operating budget. The gravity flow would decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce power use by 1.88 million kilowatt hours annually.

He said studies in 1989, ’95, 2002 and ‘07 all recommend “that we move forward with the GSL.” He said now was the time for several reasons.

He said “the system today is running over its designed capacity,” and the USDA likes the GSL project and is ready to award a $5 million grant, and a long term loan for the estimated $13.5 million, provided conditions are met. He said in the current economic climate, construction bids are coming in 25-30 percent under engineers’ estimates. Since 2003, AWA and staff have moved forward on the project.

He said a rate increase in CAWP was rejected last year, and estimates now say that it would cost customers $3 to $5 more per month on their bill for the AWA to be able to finance the Gravity Supply Line. They do not know the final number to build the GSL, but if it varies from $13.9 million to $11.9 million, Mancebo said “it would only change the bottom line cost to customers about $22,000.”

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Amador County – The Amador Water Agency board of directors wrapped up a series of informational coffee shop meetings around the Upcountry with a special board meeting Wednesday at the Veterans Hall on Buckhorn Ridge Road in Pioneer, and a light public turnout.

aidAWA General Manager Gene Mancebo said the attendance had peaked with last week’s meeting at Mace Meadow Golf Course restaurant when about 24 people attended the meeting, aimed at taking input from customers of the Central Amador Water Project service area, while informing the public about issues the system faces. Agency staff and board members outnumbered the four members of the public in attendance, with two of those staunch opponents, Debbie Dunn and Ken Berry.

Board President Don Cooper said past coffee shop meetings, hosted by himself and Director Robert Manassero, usually began pretty heated, but by the end people understood the dilemma the agency faces in an aging system that needs to be replaced. In meeting exit polls, up to 80 percent said they supported the Gravity Supply Line project.

Mancebo said the GSL would build in redundancy, reliability and water quality to the existing electrically pumped pipeline which now takes water from the Tiger Creek after bay. He said the pumps have run every day since the system was install, up to 22 hours on a typical summer day, and AWA staff “visit those pumps every one of those days.”

He counted 70 outages in the last two years on the pipeline, before he stopped counting. He said there were 163 incidents of inoperability between 2004 and 2008, including 97 electrical or mechanical failures, 14 communication failures and 52 power outages. Staff often must result in buying used parts online for the pump system’s control panel because new parts are no longer made.

District 3 Supervisor Ted Novelli asked if the AWA would need to raise rates if it lost a pump or the pipeline fails. Mancebo said there was no money set aside for a new pipeline or motors. He said CAWP Retail customers have not had a rate increase in nearly 5 years.

He said the agency and its board seek to cut out electrical costs that have more than doubled since 1989, then they paid PG&E $109,000 just to get the water to the treatment plant. The annual cost peaked at $300,000 in 2006, and last year was $250,000. He said the agency would have to pay PG&E for “power foregone,” but “those are wholesale dollars.”

He said drawing from the “regulator reservoir” would increase water quality, and the gravity-fed line would work “rain or shine,” without power. He said maintenance on the CAWP system was $67,000 last year.

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