News Archive (6192)
Upcountry Community Council hears a report on two major transportation projects
Written by Tom
Amador County – The Upcountry Community Council heard a report on two major transportation projects at their meeting Tuesday, including the announcement of an upcoming meeting on the Pine Grove/Highway 88 Improvement Project.
The report was presented by Pine Grove resident Gary Reinoehl, who serves as the council liaison for regional transportation issues, which includes serving on the Pine Grove/Highway 88 stakeholders group.
Reinoehl said the criteria for rating the route alternatives of the Highway 88 project has been completed. “All projects that were of very high cost (over 50 million) were removed from consideration as the excessively high price was considered a fatal flaw by (Amador County Transportation Commission) and agreed to by the Stakeholders,” said Reinoehl in his report.
The project originally included 12 different alternatives for route modifications at a price tag not to exceed $40 million. The ultimate project goal is to reduce congestion, improve operations and enhance safety between the intersections at Climax Road and Tabeau Road.
Reinoehl said that of the eight remaining alternatives, four were rated low and four were rated high. He said he also introduced an alternative as approved by the Pine Grove Council “that will also be rated using the criteria and performance measures as well as cost.”
He also discussed a November 3rd public workshop on the Highway 49 Transportation Concept Report. The meeting was hosted by Caltrans with the goal of gathering local input on a long range plan it is developing for Highway 49.
Reinoehl said the agency is looking at “future needs of the highway in 20 years and beyond.” He said “Caltrans received numerous community comments as they discussed the separate segments of Highway 49 and the projected needs.”
The most important announcement of the night was a reminder about the upcoming public meeting to discuss progress on the Pine Grove/Highway 88 Corridor Project. The meeting will take place Tuesday, November 16th at Pine Grove Elementary in Pine Grove. The open house begins at 5:30 pm. A formal presentation and public comment period will begin at 6 pm. ACTC will then facilitate a workshop with individuals to discuss the project alternatives and gather ideas and feedback on potential project solutions.
Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sutter Creek Planning Commission receives reports on medical marijuana dispensaries
Written by Tom
Amador County – Sutter Creek Planning Commission received reports on medical marijuana dispensaries recently.
The planning commission was asked last month by Mother Lode Wellness and Patient Care to determine whether or not a medical cannabis dispensary is a permitted use in Sutter Creek.
City Planner Bruce Baracco in a November 4th report noted that the Planning Commission had determined that “allowing a medical cannabis dispensary under a conditional use permit did not apply” because “the proposed use was not essential or desirable to the public convenience or welfare.”
Baracco analyzed “whether or not a medical cannabis dispensary is similar to permitted uses contained in the zoning ordinance.” He said “drug stores,” normally considered “pharmacies,” are allowed in city zoning code, and some marijuana dispensaries call themselves pharmacies. He said “the operative question” becomes whether a medical marijuana dispensary is “the functional equivalent of a pharmacy, and therefore a permitted use.”
Baracco said the Federal Controlled Substances Act classifying marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, and “a medical cannabis dispensary is not the functional equivalent of a pharmacy, and therefore is not permitted within” the city commercial “C1 or C2 zone,” and “not eligible to be dispensed by a pharmacy.”
Assistant Planner Mary Beth Van Voorhis reported Monday that she attempted to gather information about medical marijuana dispensaries that are permitted within cities having population sizes similar to that of Sutter Creek.
She was unsuccessful in her “first five attempts to be able to talk to any owner of a medical marijuana dispensary.” She planning and building departments gave some information, but “lacked specifics on taxes collected or law enforcement issues.”
Van Voorhis said Rancho Cordova (population 62,937) “prohibits any use that is in violation of state or federal law.” Windsor (population 25,916) prohibited marijuana dispensaries “on the basis that it is not consistent with federal law.”
Sonoma County (population 472,000) and three other jurisdictions polled by Van Voorhis, allowed pot dispensaries under the state “Compassionate Use Act of 1996.” Sonoma and Shasta Lake (population 10,294) tax marijuana sales, while Colfax (population 1,993) also taxes cultivation.
Sebastopol (population 7,943) does not collect taxes, and has a use permit, annual review criteria, and procedures, under a specific ordinance. Colfax’s dispensary “came in under the radar” and opened with a business license. Colfax City Council passed an ordinance to prohibit additional dispensaries.
Shasta Lake allows the dispensary with a specific ordinance, and limits to a maximum of three establishments in city limits. It is also working on a cultivation ordinance. Sonoma County has a use permit and specific zoning districts.
Sutter Creek, had a population of 2,654 in 2009.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Citizens comment on Preston closure at Jnt. Leg. Audit Committee
Written by Tom
Sacramento – A Joint Legislative Audit Committee of the California Legislature, chaired by 3rd District Assemblymember Alyson Huber, discussed the impacts of the planned Preston Youth Correctional Facility closure before a crowd of concerned Amador County citizens at the State Capitol last week.
Various other legislators joined Huber to analyze the criteria used by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) officials to determine the closure. A Huber aide said she used the hearing to compel the CDCR to answer questions about how this decision was made and how they will mitigate the impacts of the closure.
At least 100 Amador citizens came in on buses chartered by District 2 Supervisor Richard Forster, who said he had “many reasons” to be there. Forster’s district is home to Preston, and Forster has experienced first-hand changes within the juvenile justice system as a longtime CDCR employee at (VIDEO) Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp in the upcountry.
During public comment, Forster countered a comment by CDCR Undersecretary Steve Kernan, who said part of the reason wards will be incorporated into the O.H. Close and N.A. Chaderjian youth correctional facilities in Stockton was because those facilities had more rooms as opposed to open dormitories.
“We’re not going to be doing the best thing for wards if they live in rooms,” said Forster. “They certainly aren’t going to live in rooms when they go out in society.”
Buena Vista resident Jerry Casessi countered a statement by Kernan about wanting to keep wards close to home and their families, saying he has “yet to see any statistical data that proves that point.” He said that as a former employee of that department, he always thought it beneficial to get wards away from often negative family and living situations.
Sergeant Don Dufraine, a longtime Preston employee, criticized the trend toward putting wards under county, rather than state care. “Counties can’t provide the services that we can,” he said. “Where are the people who care about these youth?”
He said the Stockton facilities have often come to the Preston staff for training on various programs because of Preston’s “reputation” for maintaining a high level of care for its wards.
Ione City Manager Kim Kerr said the closure will have a number of negative impacts on her city. She said Preston contributes to community projects, including an annual golf tournament fundraiser and free cleanup services in and around the downtown creek. She said the city gets vehicle license fees from Preston. She said Preston is on the city seal.
As planned, the closure will take place June 30th, 2011. As many as 400 staff will lose their jobs locally.
Huber clarified at the end of the meeting that the decision to close Preston was not supported by the legislature. She said another community meeting on the matter will be held in Amador County in December.
Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Oneto pushes for Transparency, cheaper sewer plant project in Ione
Written by Tom
Amador County – Lloyd Oneto, newly elected to the Ione City Council, said last week that “when three unknowns beat three incumbents” it tells him “people want change.”
Oneto, Ron Smylie and Daniel Epperson actually beat two incumbents, Lee Ard and James Ulm in the 2010 general election.
Smylie talks common sense and “feels the pulse of city, I’m sure more than I,” Oneto said, and Epperson “cares about the community and kids.” He said they “seem like good young men,” who have a lot of people depending on them: They “made a commitment” and now must “carry it through.”
Oneto was second in the vote count, with 753 votes, but said “it doesn’t matter if you win by one or a thousand. It’s still a win.”
He said: “On big issues, I like to have the people’s input,” such as a school crosswalk that needs paint, or a big hole in a street. He said he knows the new tertiary treatment plant needs to go in, but not at a $15 million to $30 million cost – the estimates he has heard.
He said maybe alternatives to the sewer plant were not looked at well enough, and “that’s the big, burning issue.” He knows Councilman David Plank has said those cost estimates were shown to be high.
Oneto said: “I don’t know for sure, but for me, if you sign on the dotted line, you better know what you’re buying,” and if city government changes, “the bill stays with the people.”
For campaign help, he thanked his wife, Rose Andrews-Oneto, who also starts a four-year term this year, having won a seat on the school board, unopposed.
Oneto said he wanted to bring transparency to Ione City Council. He said the way it is run “bothers me, otherwise I wouldn’t have ran.” He said they should “let the people paying the bills know how their money’s being spent, and where and why.” He said he “can’t really cite specifics,” and it is “not a personal vendetta thing.” He said he just wants to let people know what’s going on.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Amador County – The Amador County American Legion Post 108 is planning a Veterans Day Parade for 10 a.m. Thursday, November 11th in downtown Jackson, with groups welcome to come early to sign up and participate.
Grand marshal of the parade Tony Mathos said organizers have about 20 groups signed up so far for the parade, set on Veterans Day and dedicated to showing respect for those that served in the U.S. military.
Mathos is the current president of the American Legion Employees Association, and is a member of Sons of the American Legion and is also past president of the American Legion Riders. He said all three of those groups are among those who will participate.
The groups include American Legionnaires, the Legion Auxiliary, and potentially every fire brigade in the county. Civic groups committed to the parade this year include the Boy Scouts of America and the Cub Scouts. The parade will also include American Legion Ambulances and personnel, who operate from four locations in both Amador and Calaveras counties.
Mathos said a car club from Calaveras County will bring its antique Jeeps from the World War II era, and there will also be floats, including one with Legion members.
He said the parade will be without a marching band this year, as the Argonaut and Amador high school combined band is not active this year.
Mathos said any group can come and sign up to march in the parade. They must arrive by 8:30 a.m. Thursday (November 11th) and sign a waiver to participate. Those already signed up will start staging at 9 a.m. on Main Street at California Street, just off Highway 49 in front of the TSPN TV studios, and Hein & Company Bookstore, at 206 North Main Street in Jackson.
The American Legion Color Guard of six to eight members will lead the parade, which starts at 10 a.m. and marches down Main Street, and will turn at Water Street and end at Bank of America.
Veterans Day got its start on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, with a “temporary cessation of hostilities” in World War I, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website. Seven months later, the Treaty of Versailles ended the war.
In 1926, Congress proclaimed it a holiday, and in 1938, a law was passed to make it a legal holiday, “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as Armistice Day.”
After WWII and the Korean War, the law was revised to call the holiday Veterans Day.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Preston supporters plan shuttle bus to oversight meeting in Capital, Nov. 4
Written by Tom
Amador County – The planned closure of Preston Youth Correctional Facility had a sobering affect across Amador County last week.
It also mobilized support, including Plymouth City Council as the latest to send a letter urging the “continued operation” of the 105-year-old facility, calling it “an important member of our community.”
Ione resident Dusty Stahl said an oversight committee meeting will discuss Preston Thursday, November 4th, and a shuttle busses will give free rides that morning from Ione to Sacramento for the meeting at the Capitol. The busses will have space for 100 people.
Stahl said “not only will Amador County suffer the effects of placing over 400 people in the unemployment line, but our small businesses and cities will suffer.”
Mayor Pat Fordyce said last week that she attended a public discussion of the closure hosted by California Department of Corrections in Ione City Hall. It drew a lot of emotional testimony, but she said facts should have been more prevalent. That was part of the letter she sent to CDC Secretary Mathew Cate.
In the letter dated October 28th, Fordyce said closing the facility will affect 450 jobs in the county and “have a significant economic impact on the city of Ione and the many residents of Amador County. But of greater importance, is the successful record of the staff and employees who have devoted their lives to the training and rehabilitation of the many young offenders who have successfully passed through” Preston.
Assemblywoman Alyson Huber requested last week’s meeting and Ione city staff offered the city hall, with a capacity for 70 people, or Evalyn Bishop Hall, which seats 600. Fordyce said CDC chose city hall, which was loud, hot and overflowing with people.
Fordyce said she stood in the hallway, could not see speakers, and had to go by their voice to determine who was talking. She later asked City Manager Kim Kerr what Plymouth can do to help, and Kerr urged her to send a support letter.
Fordyce told Plymouth City Manager Dixon Flynn, who on short notice did not have the letter agendized, but last Thursday gave copies to the Plymouth City Council.
Fordyce said people can speak publicly about Preston Thursday but time limits will be in place.
Stahl said those seeking rides should meet in Howard Park at 6:45 a.m. Thursday, November 4th. The busses must leave by 7 a.m. The oversight committee will meet at 9 a.m. in Room 4202 of the State Capitol.
For information call 267-5257.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Amador County - A public meeting last week on the announced closure of the Preston Youth Correctional Facility drew an outraged and emotional crowd to voice their concerns and seek details behind the process that led to putting it on the chopping block.
Community members, prison employees and elected officials stood or sat shoulder-to-shoulder in Ione City Hall as representatives of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) explained their reasoning behind the announced closure, which they blamed on budget cuts and a declining ward population.
Many who spoke called for a more thorough analysis of regional impacts. Supervisor John Plasse said “we’d have a lot more trust if we had those impact studies in front of us.”
CDCR Undersecretary Scott Kernan said “I don’t have the luxury of an impact statement that’s going to take several months” because his department must make a decision within a set time frame.
Dana Jorgensen, an aide to the late Senator Dave Cox, said he felt compelled to speak because “this hasn’t been a good process.”
Kernan countered that “Senator (Cox) passed the legislation” that required spending cuts and forced his department into this position.
Roger Niello, 5th District Assemblyman and candidate for the seat vacated by Cox, said he didn’t think it appropriate for Kernan to “draw conclusions that the legislators that authorized…spending cuts would authorize the closure you came up with.”
Jorgenson also asked if Kernan and staff could make a commitment to keep Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp open in the upcountry. Kernan said he “could never make such a commitment.”
Others questioned the CDCR’s recidivism data, and two Preston employees claimed their facility had lower recidivism rates than others in the state. Kernan said “recidivism data does not allow us to break it down by facility.”
Jackson Mayor Connie Gonsalvez read a letter from her council that reiterated the most commonly expressed fear. “At a time when (the) local unemployment rate is 12.7 percent, higher than the statewide average, closure of this facility would further hamper the region’s recovery efforts,” she said.
Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Amador County – The Amador Water Agency board voted last week to have its general manager look at the cost of having a consultant analyze the agency’s reorganization.
Retiring Director Terence Moore said they should let the general manager handle any staff reduction.
Moore said he was glad Director Debbie Dunn “in her 2 years’ experience on the board knows what the agency should look like because I’ve been on the board for 12 years and I don’t know what it should look like.”
He said “it’s all good and well to grandstand before an election,” but they should give the power of reorganization to General Manager Gene Mancebo, who can bring back recommendations in January, and “hopefully Debbie won’t be here to vote on it.”
Moore said “this has been the most dysfunctional board that I’ve ever sat on,” and he was glad he wouldn’t be coming back.
Dunn asked staff to put a date on the reorganization, and said staff should “bring information to justify” having an engineering department head presiding over three staff members. She suggested having no department head, and they all report to Mancebo.
President Bill Condrashoff suggested setting a number to meet with staff cuts, and Director Don Cooper said “that’s way too ambiguous.” Cooper said he would like to see direction coming from Mancebo on how to reorganize.
Cooper said “that is why the ad hoc committee was formed, to study the reorganization and make recommendations.” He said Dunn is “indicating that the board is to act like chief executive officers,” and she wants to build the agency “from the top down, instead of from the bottom up.”
Dunn asked: “Do we need the agency dictated by the general manager and we are here to give the rubber stamp?”
Mancebo said he took “offense to that,” and it was “important to not make decisions in a vacuum.” He said they can’t “eliminate positions without knowing the specific requirements of those positions,” and whether other employees can absorb that work.
He said “these managers are working managers,” and such changes might result in the need for contract labor at higher costs.
Condrashoff asked why there was a “big hoo-ha” about upper management.
Mancebo said engineering staff was lower than it was 15 years ago, and they can cut without concern of organizational structure, but if they want to look at services and bare bones necessities, they need to look at tasks.
The board voted 4-0 to have Mancebo look at the cost of having a consultant analyze agency structure, with Dunn not voting. Dunn said: “It makes no sense to me what we just did.”
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
CAL FIRE announces staff layoffs in preparation for winter
Written by TomAmador County – On Monday, November 1st, at 8 am,, the Amador-El Dorado-Sacramento-Alpine Unit (AEU) of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) will transition into their “winter preparedness” level of staffing. This means most seasonal fire fighting personnel will be laid off and some outlying fire stations will be closed. Keep in mind AEU’s staffing levels are sufficient to respond to local emergencies and CAL FIRE is always prepared to call back additional resources if fire weather conditions change.
AEU’s Chief Bill Holmes says that “in this challenging economic period, down staffing is prudent based on the current and forecasted weather conditions. We need to manage our resources to the best of our ability and administer our budget responsibly.”
Chief Holmes adds “this is an excellent opportunity to work on your defensible space. Establishing the 100 foot barrier around your home and outbuildings on your property is the best defense against a wildfire and since the weather is cool and you can pile and burn the vegetation, the time is now.”
Burn restrictions have been lifted and CAL FIRE residential burn permits are no longer required for four by four foot debris piles (vegetation only).
The local Air Quality Management Districts (AQMD) govern burn/no burn day status so make sure you call the burn information line immediately prior to burning. In addition, your local AQMD may still require a permit for burning.
For additional information on burning safely, defensible space and other fire and life safety topics, please visit the CAL FIRE website at www.fire.ca.gov.
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Amador Air District conducts pine needle collection project
Written by Tom
Amador County - A pine needle collection project is being conducted by the Amador Air District to help reduce the volume of smoke generated by smoldering residential fires. Smoke from such fires is harmful to public health and creates a nuisance for residents trying to enjoy the outdoors or let fresh air into their homes.
Instead of burning Pine Needles, Pine Cones, Grass Clippings, Weeds and Leaves, area residents may bring these materials to a central collection point and place them into a dumpster. The Air District will provide the dumpster and monitor the projects.
The project takes place November 2nd through Sunday November 28th from dawn until Dusk Daily until the dumpster is full. It is located at Pine Acres Community Services Building, 12990 Tabeau Road in Pine Grove and Mace Meadow Golf Course, 26570 Fairway Drive in Pioneer.
Only natural vegetation falling into the categories listed above will be accepted. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
