News Archive (6192)
Mayors’ City Selection Committee appoints LAFCO and ACTC seats
Written by Tom
Amador County – The City Selection Committee met Wednesday afternoon and selected Ione and Jackson to represent the cities on the Local Agency Formation Commission, and also appointed Jackson and Amador City to hold seats on the Amador County Transportation Commission.
Mayor Connie Gonsalves presided over the meeting of Mayors, which selected Jackson City Councilman Keith Sweet to sit on the ACTC board. Amador City Mayor Aaron Brusatori said he was not sure who would be appointed to the position to represent his council.
Plymouth Mayor Greg Baldwin said he planned to stay in his position for Wednesday night’s ACTC meeting on the Pine Grove Highway 88 improvement project. Baldwin said his position expired Jan. 29, and he was adamant about keeping the seat until then. His position would be taken by an Amador City appointee.
Sweet took over for the position of retiring Councilman Pat Crosby of Sutter Creek. ACTC Chair Charles Field said as Sweet was Crosby’s alternate, an new alternate should be assigned. Ione Mayor David Plank said his council has selected Councilman Lloyd Oneto, “who will be starting his first year as an alternate.”
Field said alternates are appointed by the City Select Committee to be second in line for specific seats, and “only the alternate can take that seat.”
The committee also appointed Sutter Creek Councilman Jim Swift as an alternate behind the Jackson seat, and Plymouth Councilwoman Sandy Kyles as the Number 2 alternate, behind Amador City’s seat. The appointees join Commissioner Plank, whose alternate will be Lloyd Oneto.
The City Selection Committee also appointed members to the Amador County LAFCO. Plymouth past Mayor Jon Colburn rotated out, Ione Mayor David Plank was appointed to the number 1 city position, and Jackson City Councilman Pat Crew was appointed to the number 2 city seat.
The committee chose Amador City to be the alternate, and Mayor Aaron Brusatori nominated Amador City Councilman Tim Knox, who was appointed by the committee.
LAFCO Executive Director Roseanne Chamberlain said the “alternate has a full and valid vote in the absence of the representative.”
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ACTC recommended three Pine Grove Highway 88 improvement project alternatives for further study
Written by Tom
Amador County – The Amador County Transportation Commission voted 5-0 Wednesday night to recommend three alternatives to Caltrans for further study for a Pine Grove Highway 88 improvement project.
The recommendation would ask Caltrans to study the project alternatives with greater detail, using state and federal environmental criteria, to see if they remain feasible in cost and impact. The vote also eliminated 10 other alternatives for various reasons, and the alternates would no longer be considered by the commission.
ACTC Project Manager Neil Peacock said the work would be done by Caltrans, and the commission only makes the recommendations. He explained the process by which the preferred projects were evaluated, with input from a “stakeholder working group,” which held 8 meetings to discuss needs and wants for Pine Grove.
About 40 people attended the meeting Wednesday, including many of the stakeholder group members, who spoke in praise of Peacock’s handling of the process. One, Rebecca Brown, admired the “context sensitive solution process” being used by ACTC and Caltrans.
Commissioner, Supervisor John Plasse asked about Peacock’s projects recommended for study, a North Bypass, a Southern Bypass, and a “Through Town” project, and why they did not have “built-in fatal errors.”
Peacock said “we will have them shortly, when you give us the go-ahead.” He said the study would get the finer detail of the project, and closer looks at impacts.
John Gedney, rural planning administrator for Caltrans District 10, said stakeholder group information was given to the Caltrans Project Development Team, which has been working on the project. Gedney said he “would be very surprised if there was a fatal flaw at this point.” ACTC Executive Director Charles Field said the stakeholder group included knowledgeable people, including Dokken Engineering members, so they were “not out in left field.”
The commission also voted to have staff further evaluate another alternative proposed by the Pine Grove Council, Alternative Number 14. Andy Byrne of the Pine Grove Council said the “Alternative 14 was not a last-minute addition,” but was made up by stakeholders working group members from details they gathered as the group met and worked. He said Alternative 14, with north and south one-way, one-lane bypasses, was drawn with the intention of keeping Pine Grove as a “Town Center,” as it is designated in the Amador County Draft General Plan update.
The commission directed more study, and evaluation of Alternate 14, to give it the same scrutiny other Alternates received from the stakeholders. It would then be brought back with a staff recommendation for commission action.
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Amador County mayors’ “City Selection Committee” could make appointments to LAFCO and ACTC seats tod
Written by Tom
Amador County – The City Selection Committee was scheduled to meet today to consider approval of appointments or reappointments to the local LAFCO and the ACTC boards of directors.
The Committee’s assignments must be agreed to by the simple majority of the committee. The City Selection Committee is made up of the mayors of the five City Councils in Amador County.
The county’s current sitting Mayors are Aaron Brusatori of Amador City, David Plank of Ione, Connie Gonsalves of Jackson, Greg Baldwin of Plymouth and Tim Murphy of Sutter Creek.
Appointments include the committee’s own chairman, who would serve a one-year term. Another appointment will be to the Amador County Local Agency Formation Commission. The agenda lists the “review and possible recommendation relative to the current membership roster and how it relates to the term of succession policy adopted by the Committee in 2009.”
A third appointment to consider would be to the “Airport Land Use Commission,” and the Committee would review and approval of current membership roster and recommendations for appointments to vacancies.”
A fourth appointment to consider would be for the Amador County Transportation Commission. The Committee will have a “review and possible recommendation relative to the current membership roster and recommendations for appointments of vacancies.” Those include “two city members and one city alternate.”
The Committee could schedule another meeting if needed, to complete the appointments. The City Selection Committee meets at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 19 in Conference Room A of the County Administration Center in Jackson.
ACTC its scheduled to get a presentation later today on what its staff sees as the top 3 proposals for the Highway 88 Improvement Project, and could take action to eliminate 10 other alignments found to be too costly or otherwise less popular.
ACTC staff last week encouraged the public to attend, and the public will be given time to comment directly to the commission about the alternative routes, which will be discussed in detail.
The Highway 88 Pine Grove Improvement meeting is 6 p.m. today, that is, Wednesday, Jan. 19 in the Supervisors Chambers in Jackson.
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Amador County – The Sutter Creek City Council earlier this month received a budget update that shows Transient Occupancy Tax revenue exceeding expectations, and sales tax revenue meeting projections.
City Manager Sean Rabe in a report to the council said part of the revenue exceeded expectations in the hotel and motel tax area, while property tax revenue is on schedule, and sales tax revenue is meeting projections.
He said expenses are going pretty well, and with the Sutter Creek City Council’s appointment of full time Police Chief Brian Klier (CLEAR), the police department budget should reduce its need for overtime pay. Rabe said when Klier was serving as interim chief of police, he would accumulate overtime.
Staff will be working with the chief to address salaries and overtime running “ahead of budgeted amounts for mid-year” in the police department, where an adjustment of “$16,000 will come from existing revenues or reduction of other expenses.”
In a report to the council, Rabe said the city to year-to-date had taken in $269,000 in total general fund revenues, and was estimated to end the fiscal year with $1.4 million in general fund revenue. The budget’s projected total general fund expenditures were $1.3 million, with a “city council targeted contingency” of $74,284. He said mid-year revenue projections continue to remain on track, and the contingency was slightly better than the anticipated $74,000.
He said it was “still too early to make any assumptions on major revenue sources,” but “both sales tax and property tax are at 50 percent as of two weeks ago.” He said the “first property tax installment came in two weeks ago,” and was also “on track.”
The Transient Occupancy Tax on hotels and motels was “running ahead of estimates” and “revenue projection has been updated by $10,000.” Other revenues were “slightly ahead of schedule.”
Rabe said some mid-year expense projections were not under estimates. One was the Finance Department, for which the “city will need to reprogram” its existing budget, which “has enough to cover” it.
He said Planning, Streets and Roads will see significant savings in the last seven months of the fiscal year from furloughs, and the Administration and Finance Department continues to kept a “tight expense control.”
He planned to bring budget amendments to this week’s meeting of the council, which he did not expect to affect the city’s contingency amount. He said “increased revenue should offset the amendments.”
Rabe said his monthly budget reports will continue until the economy improves.
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Jackson, ACRA looks to get $5M Prop 84 Recreation grant
Written by Tom
Amador County – The Jackson City Council last week discussed a possible $5 million parks and recreation grant to revitalize Oro De Amador Park.
The idea was to team with the Amador County Recreation Agency to apply for a Proposition 84 recreation grant, through the California Department of Parks & Recreation.
City Manager Mike Daly said Friday that the “maximum Prop 84 grant allocation is $5 million, and I imagine that our needs will probably max it out.” They will be looking at the grant guidelines with ACRA to try to come up with an attractive grant proposal. He said it is a very competitive application process, and ACRA would be lead agency.
Oro De Amador Park is a 160-acre property between New York Ranch Road and North Main Street, which the city acquired in December 2006. The city got the park for free from Chubb Insurance Company, which acquired it from a real estate developer in the mid-1980s, after a foreclosure.
The goal is to get Oro De Amador Park open so people can enjoy it. Daly said, being in the park with its density of trees is “like you are not even in city any more,” Teaming with ACRA on the project is “really a marvelous opportunity.”
They still have environmental issues related to soils to address before getting clearance to use the park, which is now closed to the public. The Oro De Amador Park is the tailing depository for the Kennedy Gold Mine, where the mining waste was taken to keep it from affecting water downstream from the mine.
The city has received a couple of grants to look at concentrations of contamination, primarily arsenic from the mine tailings. “There are a couple of hot spots,” Daly said, but “they are certainly overcome-able.”
Daly said the city will be working with ACRA Director Tracey Towner-Yepp to have public hearings in February and March, to get input on ideas for recreation facilities on the property.
The city has had a couple of committees looking at developing ballparks at Oro De Amador. He said the field at Detert Park is the only city ball field. Another idea was interpretive trails, or a system of trails connecting the tailing wheels, which could easily connect with the rest of town.
Daly said there have been thoughts about a skate park, and even an approved aquatic facility, though the latter would require high operational costs.
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AWA board of directors adopted an agency hiring freeze, cuts own compensation and benefits
Written by Tom
Amador County – The Amador Water Agency Board of Directors last week adopted a hiring freeze, and also reduced its own compensation, and removed all of its benefits.
AWA General Manager Gene Mancebo announced the moves in a release last week, saying the actions were part of “ongoing efforts to cut costs to meet reduced revenues.”
Mancebo said the “agency has been operating under an unofficial hiring freeze for two years.” He said the “temporary policy adopted Thursday ,formalizes the policy and aligns the water agency with Amador County government’s hiring freeze.”
The Agency has reduced staff by 20 percent since 2008, “through voluntary and non-voluntary means,” Mancebo said. “These positions are being held vacant, given the current economic and financial conditions facing the Agency.”
Under the new policy, the board will consider any proposal to fill job vacancies, “on a case-by-case basis,” Mancebo said.
“Board members also reduced their own pay and eliminated the directors’ benefit package”.Mancebo says. “The Board approved a maximum compensation for seven meetings per month for directors, down from 10 meetings per month. Reimbursement for the Board president will remain at a maximum of 10 meetings. Directors are paid $119.80 per meeting day.”
The reduction in benefits effectively dropped all health, dental and life insurance coverage for the five directors. District 1 Director Paul Molinelli Senior had already made a campaign commitment to refuse any compensation for his service on the board.
A voluntary water conservation notice remains in effect for AWA public water customers of Mace Meadow, Rabb Park, Pine Grove CSD and AWA’s CAWP Retail.
Recent heavy rains have filled water treatment plant storage ponds at Mace Meadow Golf Course, triggering an emergency contingency plan, as determined by the state.
To prevent the ponds from spilling, the plan requires the AWA to ask for voluntary water conservation.
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Jackson studies wastewater alternatives as state permit deadline looms
Written by Tom
Amador County – The Jackson City Council last week took a recommendation from its Sewer Rate Committee to look at options for the city wastewater system.
City Manager Mike Daly said the “main option now is taking some of our effluent and discharging it onto land, whether that is onto ranchland, or storing it until a wetter time of year, when there will be more dilution.”
The Regional Water Quality Control Board has a Basin Plan and “strongly discourages agencies from discharging into intermittent streams or otherwise impaired bodies of water – any bodies of water.”
Because Jackson Creek water is used for a potable water source downstream, after it flows into Lake Amador, the California Department of Public health has been vocal on the permit. Daly said the Buena Vista Road treatment plant for Oaks Community mobile home park near Ione uses the lake’s water for drinking.
Due to that, the city has been required to have a permit to discharge into a waterway, the Jackson Creek, and to renew it every five years. It was last renewed in 2007, and in 2012, Jackson will be required to meet state code which says that the city’s effluent discharge must make up less than 5 percent of the volume of Lake Amador at all times.
“That’s the driving force,” Daly said, looking at options for alternatives. City consultants Stantec, formerly ECO:LOGIC, recommended a preferred alternative in a report last July that would cost $7 million. That prompted formation of the Sewer Rate Committee, which discussed supplemental discharge of raw water into the creek, and “directly piping effluent to Lake Amador, so it doesn’t go into Jackson Creek.”
Jackson also looked into purchasing raw water from the Amador Water Agency and releasing it into the creek to dilute the effluent, but Daly said “there were lot of issues that were identified” by the AWA attorney, and “there appear to be other options that are more affordable.”
He said, assuming the city must cease discharge into the creek, they “must submit a water rights petition, to stop discharging into the creek.” The process has some documentation required by the California Environmental Quality Act requirements associated with that permit request.
Daly said there will be an environmental review of various options that have been proposed, and are under consideration for solving the Jackson “permit situation.”
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Susie Clark will join her husband, Ralph in the Western Fairs Association Hall of Fame
Written by Tom
Amador County – As Amador County Fair CEO Troy Bowers prepared last week to head to the Western Fairs Association annual convention this week in Reno, he had both bad news and good news.
The bad news was the proposed governor’s budget cut of 100 percent of state fair funding in California. But the good news was the Western Fairs Association has selected another former Amador County Fair director for induction into the Western Fairs Association Hall of Fame.
Bowers said it is a “huge honor for Amador County and for Susie Clark” of Plymouth, who will be inducted into the WFA Hall of Fame this year for her work at the El Dorado County Fair, the Amador County Fair, and the Western Fairs Association.
“She’s unique in that she will join her husband Ralph in the hall of fame,” Bowers said, noting that “they are the only husband and wife team that is in the WFA Hall of Fame.”
They will join Ciro Toma as the third member of the WFA Hall of Fame from Amador County. Bowers said Toma was formerly the only fair director to serve as president of the Western Fairs Association, until this year’s induction of Michael F. Treacy.
Susie Clark, according to the WFA Hall of Fame announcement, “has spent the last 25 years dedicated to the fair industry. She served as the CEO of the El Dorado County Fair, the Redwood Empire Fair and the Amador County Fair,” and “various boards and committees.”
The WFA said her “passion and enthusiasm for the fair industry, along with her innovative business skills, have proved to be extremely effective with individual fairs, committees, boards and the personnel she has taken under her wing.”
With three Amador County Fair inductees, Bowers said “we’re among the elite for sure.” Toma was inducted in the 1980s, and Susie’s husband, Ralph Clark also served as WFA president and was inducted in the late 1990s.
The WFA represents all fairs west of the Mississippi, Bowers said. This year’s other WFA Hall of Fame inductee, Michael F. Treacy, was a longtime CEO of Kern County Fair, and Jackson County Fair. He was also executive director of the Division of Fairs and Expositions, and “worked with other key industry players to acquire the $32 million general fund continuous appropriations for fairs” in California.
That allocation is now being considered for cutting from the state budget proposed by the governor.
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Governor’s budget proposes $32M in fair cuts statewide, including $200,000 for Amador County Fair
Written by Tom
Amador County – The governor’s budget proposal last week included a reported elimination of 100 percent of annual funding for 78 fairs in California, $32 million statewide including a $200,000 allocation to the Amador County Fair,
Troy Bowers, CEO of the Amador County Fair, said Friday that those who would be affected by the cuts include district fairs, considered agricultural state agencies, and also festivals, such as Lodi Grape Festival.
“We know that everybody needs to be part of the solution, and we fairs, we all knew there would be a reduction from the state,” Bowers said. “We all think that a 100 percent reduction is pretty heavy. So obviously, we are in the very early stages of this negotiation, and we’ll see where it goes.”
California Fairs have representation, the Western Fairs Association, “who will be advocating on our behalf,” and negotiating. “We know that there’s a huge need,” Bowers said. “It’s a huge problem and we need to be part of the solution.”
The smaller the fair, generally means the larger the allocation. Amador is ranked a 3 on the size scale of 1-5, with 1 being the smallest.
“Amador County Fair normally gets $200,000 a year from that allocation,” Bower said. “That represents about 25 percent of our operating budget.” He said the “serious reduction” will require a lot of effort, thought, and sacrifice, “but we’re ready for the challenge.”
“We’ll work hard to maintain the Amador County Fair as we all know and love it,” and people should know “there will be an Amador County Fair next year, and in 10 years, and for their children’s children. It may not look like it does this year, but it will still be there.”
Through facility rental year-round, Bowers said the fair generates “about $600,000 of our own, and that stays in the county. Sponsorships are a pretty good part of that too.”
Bowers said: “What I’m so grateful for is that we are not alone here.” The not-for-profit Amador County Fair Foundation is in its third year, and has a “mission to generate funds, through gifts of cash, or property to support the fair.” The Fair will have its third annual Valentines Ball Feb. 12 to support the Fair.
Last Friday, Bowers was headed to the Western Fairs Association’s 88th annual convention, which runs Jan. 16-19 in Reno. He said the “California budget will be topic one,” and “we should know a lot more by the end of the convention.” The convention ends Wednesday.
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