News Archive (6192)
AC Tax Collector announces mailing of annual secured property tax bills
Written by Tom
Amador County - Amador County Treasurer-Tax Collector Michael E. Ryan has announced that the annual secured property tax bills for the 2010-2011 fiscal year have been mailed. Ryan indicates that there are over 23,200 secured tax bills for ad valorem taxes and voter approved special assessments, with tax charges totaling in excess of $47.7 million.
If you own property in Amador County and do not receive your tax bill by October 8th, 2010, please contact the Amador County Tax Collector’s Office at 810 Court Street, Jackson, CA 95642, (209)223-6364, to request a copy of your bill. Please note that State Law provides that the failure to receive a property tax bill does not relieve the taxpayer of the responsibility to make timely payments to the Tax Collector’s Office.
Your Amador County property tax information is available on-line. To view your tax information, visit www.co.amador.ca.us, click on “Online Services”, and then click on “Property Tax Information (Tax Information Search)”.
For additional information, please contact the Tax Collector’s Office at the address or telephone number shown above. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Amador County – The Ione City Council heard an update of ongoing wastewater treatment plant issues in the city, including that the Regional Water Quality Control Board will tour the site in two weeks.
City Manager Kim Kerr said design changes were be required by the state on the city’s proposed new plant, which includes a proposed new storage pond, Pond Number 8. The state found its design could cause groundwater seepage.
One proposed change included capturing water in an underground French drain, to keep wastewater from percolating out though the ground. Kerr said the French drain would have a pump to recycle water through the system.
A request for proposals (RFP) and an amendment have gone out on the project, which seeks bids from one company to design, build, operate, and finance the project.
Last week, the city council learned two bidders pulled out, including Auburn Construction and Teichert Construction. Kerr said one bidder is still there: PERC Water Corporation of Costa Mesa.
Councilman Jim Ulm criticized the bidding process at last week’s meeting, saying it seemed the city was “making it a design project for PERC.”
Councilman Lee Ard recommended Ulm go back and read the initial proposal. He said Teichert and Auburn proposals excluded some conditions the city specifically sought, so they did not entirely meet the requests. PERC met all the requirements.
Proposals are due today (Tuesday, September 28th).
Kerr said the proposed new tertiary-level wastewater treatment plant is a solution to the cease and desist order that stems from a 2003 infraction. She said the error was the “daylighting”, or leakage, of wastewater stored in Pond Number 7. Since then, the city installed rip-rap, and the pond’s berm “now has vegetation growing on it.” An inspection showed no signs of seepage.
She said the city was told to do a water analysis, for its Report of Waste Discharge, and additional modeling. Kerr said: “We’re waiting for them to give approval to move forward with our design.
Quality Control Board’s compliance and permitting officers will tour the plant site October 12th. Kerr said one concern is that the cease and desist order is so old the regional board may have to update it.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Amador County - Nearly 250 volunteers worked along and in the Mokelumne River from Pioneer to Lockeford in Saturday’s Mokelumne River Cleanup. This largest-ever group of cleanup volunteers picked up nearly 8,000 pounds of trash and recyclables on about 28 miles of river and reservoir shoreline, making the Mokelumne and Camanche Reservoir a healthier, more attractive place for people, wildlife and fish.
The cleanup was part of the annual Great Sierra River Cleanup and California Coastal Cleanup Day. “We were especially glad to see so many young people picking up trash along the Electra Run,” said Foothill Conservancy Executive Director Chris Wright. “We’d like to thank them, their parents, and their teachers and advisors, as well as everyone else who gave their Saturday morning working on our beautiful Mokelumne River. We hope everyone will take the next step now and support permanent protection of the river through National Wild and Scenic River designation.”
“EBMUD is proud to a part of this annual event,” said Kent Lambert of the East Bay Municipal Utility District.” We would like to thank the many sponsors who help with this event every year. Most importantly we want to thank all of the volunteers who give their time and energy to keeping California’s waterways safe and clean for everyone.”
“We were glad to see less trash at Electra this year than last,” said Conservancy Cleanup Coordinator Randy Berg. “People seem to be littering less, or cleaning up after each other. Either way, it’s good news. Maybe one day these river cleanups will be obsolete.”
Foothill Conservancy has been holding Mokelumne River cleanups since 1991. This year’s cleanup sponsors also included the East Bay Municipal Utility District, Mokelumne Coast to Crest Trail Council, Mokelumne River Outfitters and Camanche Recreation Company. Business sponsors include ACES Waste Services, California Waste Recovery Systems, New York Fitness, Martell Safeway, Pine Grove Market, Martell Starbucks, and Munnerlyn’s Ice Creamery. The Great Sierra River Cleanup is sponsored by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and a number of businesses and organizations.
For more information, contact Randy Berg at 209-295-4900, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit www.foothillconservancy.org.
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Nomination period opens for candidates in River Pines recall effort
Written by Tom
Amador County – Amador County’s Registrar of Voters announced the opening of a nomination period this week related to the recall effort of a member of the River Pines Public Utility District board of directors.
Registrar Sheldon D. Johnson announced Thursday the opening of the nomination period for the January 4th, 2011 special recall election against Lylis R. McCutcheon, a director of the River Pines utility board. The nomination period opened Monday, September 20th, and will close on Thursday, October 21st.
Johnson said “nomination documents may be obtained form the Amador County Elections Department” at 810 Court Street in Jackson during normal business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The filing period ends 5 p.m. October 21st.
Johnson said: “Candidates must be registered voters of the district” in River Pines, and the “election of a successor will be contingent upon the recall” of Director McCutcheon.
The district serves water and wastewater customers in both Amador and El Dorado Counties, on Highway 16E in River Pines and on the El Dorado County side of the Cosumnes River.
For further information, call the Amador County Elections Department at 223-6465.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Amador County – The Amador Water Agency board of directors spent time Thursday explaining why its means of repaying a $900,000 loan from Amador County was on hold.
Supervisor John Plasse asked what action by the agency placed the Gravity Supply Line on hold, along with a USDA grant and loan.
AWA Board President Bill Condrashoff said they were doing budget work and realized “we don’t have the cash to go forward at this point.”
Plasse said AWA authorized Finance Manager Mike Lee to seek the loan, with its repayment based on the USDA grant, but now board action has put the grant funding in jeopardy, giving him “great pause – and even more pause when you say you want to come to me for more money.” The agency discussion Thursday included looking to get another loan from the county.
The board said the GSL is also on hold due to a Proposition 218 protest of a Central Amador Water District rate increase. The rate increase was part of the GSL financial plan, in support of the loan repayment structure and basis for the USDA loan of $8 million, to supplement the project’s $5 million grant.
Director Terence Moore said “Prop 218 is not the end of the road. We can very well go out with a new rate increase tomorrow.”
The agency board voted 4-1 to direct staff to meet with the county and discuss renegotiation of the loan, and ask the county to consider amending the terms of the Water Development Fund loan repayment, which is due to be paid December 31st. They will also look at details of bank loans.
Vice President Debbie Dunn voted no, saying it was compounding the problem and sending the general manager to the discussion “unarmed.” She thought it was important to approach the discussion knowing the “risk level,” so AWA can “understand financially what this is going to do to us.”
Director Don Cooper said the discussion would simply see if the AWA can renegotiate, or if it needs to seek an outside loan.
Robert Manassero in public comment said “December 31st was never the right date because the recession was here.” He said they should talk to the county and try to “get a loan that would be more reasonable than a six-month loan.” He said the AWA should “not want to burn any bridges with the county.”
Cooper said they owe it to the rate payers to talk to the county and see if there are any changes that can be made that can be beneficial to the county and the agency.” Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
AWA to ask Amador County to renegotiate $900,000 Loan
Written by Tom
Amador County – Amador Water Agency directors voted 4-1 Thursday to seek renegotiation of a $900,000 loan from Amador County that is due to be repaid December 31st.
Supervisors John Plasse and Ted Novelli and County Counsel Martha Shaver spoke to the board about the loan, which the agency had said it would pay back with a USDA loan and grant for its Gravity Supply Line project.
Novelli said when initially presented, AWA wanted a 30-year loan. He said supervisors had not discussed the issue as a board, and if they were asked to do so, he “would like something in writing,” including rates and timelines. He asked if AWA had looked at problems it now faces, including a stalled USDA loan, blocked by a Proposition 218 protest of a rate increase in the Central Amador Water District.
President Bill Condrashoff said “we definitely looked at in great detail.” He said he “was under the belief that money would come back in the busy summer months with the sale of water,” when he voted with Vice President Debbie Dunn, and Director Gary Thomas to seek a six-month loan from the county, instead of a 20 or 30-year loan as recommended by staff.
Dunn said: “My decision was made based on the ability to pay, not the grant.” She said she felt that, “USDA loan or not, we’d be able to pay back the money.”
Finance Manager Mike Lee said he researched general loans to pay back the $900,000 owed to the county by year’s end. Interest was 6-7 percent for a 10-year loan, or 4-7 percent for a 5-year loan. The loan was taken to pay sunk costs on the Gravity Supply Line, which were paid by an internal loan from the Amador Water System.
Plasse said the county did not need to see the internal paperwork involved. He said the $900,000 loaned from the county at 2 percent interest rightfully could have earned 4-5 percent for the county.
Loan interest rates were not the only thing to consider but also the risk of repayment, Plasse said, as the county was now experiencing.
Condrashoff said “we’ll come up with a solution to pay you back,” and “we’ll not walk away from this.”
County Council Martha Shaver said that was reassuring. She said “we sort of view this as your problem and not the county’s problem.”
The 4-1 board vote also set staff to look into more detail of bank loans to repay the loan on time. Dunn dissented.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Amador County – Amador Water Agency directors last week discussed the issue of operating and capital salary overruns, and sent that and other budget work to different committees.
President Bill Condrashoff said he placed on the agenda for discussion the issue of “budget variance concerns of operating and capital salaries.” The board assigned it to the budget and finance committee, made up of Directors Don Cooper and Condrashoff.
The agency is $500,000 shy of its budget, Condrashoff said, due to lost revenues, and “we have not been informed as a board” or given approval of the budget overruns. He thought they needed a “line item policy to keep track of” each system, to bring the line items to the board when they exceed budget by 10 percent.
Director Gary Thomas agreed they should hear about a “spike in the budget,” but he disagreed with 10 percent, saying it was too high. He said the board should have alerts simply to keep the budget balanced.
Vice President Debbie Dunn said they should look at the authority the general manager has to override the budget.
Finance Manager Mike Lee said his monthly budget report, with variance, gives information about overruns, and if it is over by 10 percent, it gives the reason.
Dunn said the monthly report “doesn’t put it on the agenda,” so they can only briefly discuss items. She said the report protects staff, “but we end up holding the bag.”
Director Don Cooper agreed with Dunn, and said they also need to allow staff to develop a better forecasting tool. He said they also should link to specific capital projects, because if they are “not lined up,” then “maintenance and operations funds are used to pay for it.” He also recommended looking at creating general construction crews, or borrowing crews from neighboring water districts.
Director Terence Moore agreed with Condrashoff, if his idea meant to have a policy for review of any budget line item running over budget, by sending it to the budget and finance committee. He said he thought budget & finance could handle “line item control, unless it becomes unstoppable,” then it could go to the full board.
Condrashoff said he meant staff. He said: “If we set a budget, it’s up to staff to hit that budget, and if they can’t, they should bring it to us.” He said: “Staff should come to us for approval of increases to each line item, before money is spent.”
Cooper said the problem is that reports are two months after the fact. Condrashoff said staff knows when they spend over budget, and they should say something to the board.
The board agreed to send the topic to the budget and finance committee, made up of Cooper and Condrashoff.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Study reveals federal poverty line leaves many California seniors destitute
Written by Tom
Amador County – A new report that measures the cost of basic necessities for older adults reveals the federal poverty line leaves many California seniors destitute. The Elder Economic Security Standard Index, calculated by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, indicates thousands of seniors in the state are suffering with severe economic insecurity, yet have too much income to qualify for vital public programs like Medi-Cal and cash assistance.
The index reveals that the cost of living for single elderly renters in Amador County was $21,873 in 2009. Federal Poverty Guidelines are $10,830 for every county in the nation.
“This year the federal government officially acknowledged it’s time to improve the outdated Federal Poverty Guidelines (FPL’s) by announcing that it will release a ‘Supplemental Poverty Measure’ in the fall of 2011 – a baby step in the right direction,” said Assemblyman Jim Beall, Jr. (D-San Jose) in a release last week from the studies’ authors. “California has the largest senior population in the country, so we simply can’t afford to take baby steps. That’s why we are embracing the Elder Index, from City Hall to the State Capitol.”
The most expensive county by this standard in California is San Mateo at $27,710. The release said that even in Kern County, where the cost of living is the lowest at $17,276, real costs add up to $6,447 more than the FPL’s nationwide, one-size-fits-all amount of $10,830 per year.
“One size does not fit all," said Steven P. Wallace, Ph.D., associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the lead author of the new policy brief containing the data, Older Adults Need Twice the Federal Poverty Level to Make Ends Meet in California. “California’s high costs make a single national income standard like the FPL totally inadequate for seniors.”
The studies’ authors said “the inadequacy of the FPL is important to California’s older adults since it is used to determine income eligibility for many public programs, to allocate funding for other programs, and is used as an evaluation measure when determining program effectiveness. Yet unlike the Elder Index, the FPL is the same dollar amount across the country, and it is based on the cost of food alone.”
The Elder Index is based on data and research from each of California’s 58 counties. Researchers said the data being released last week “was calculated using the most up-to-date publicly available data from several different federal agencies.”
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Amador County - A fundraiser to support Ione Police Department community programs is planned for Saturday, October 23rd from 5:30 to 9:00 PM at the Big Red Barn at Rancho Arroyo Seco located on Hwy 104 across from the entrance to Mule Creek Prison in Ione. The event will include a dinner of top sirloin steak, BBQ chicken, salad, sautéed vegetables, cole slaw, Santa Maria beans and toasted garlic bread. The cost is $15 for pre-purchased tickets for adults, $20 at the door, $5 for children ages 6-10 years, no charge under 5 years old. There will be a no-host bar, silent auction and raffle, bounce house, laser tag and kid’s shooting alley. Tickets are available at City Hall and Clark’s Corner, or call 209-274-2777 for information. There will be a Grand Prize raffle drawing for a scoped .17 HMR Savage Rifle and a Carnival Cruise for two gift certificate. Raffle tickets are $5 each. ¶ Rancho Arroyo Seco will once again match donations dollar-for-dollar up to $10,000. Donations will be used for four public safety programs that will include a citizens/volunteer patrol, a new K-9 program, gang task force and school safety program. The goal is to raise $20,000 or more. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.AAUW to hold Community Law Enforcement Symposium Oct. 20
Written by Tom
Amador County – The Amador branch of the American Association of University Women will hold an upcoming Community Law Enforcement Symposium in which local officials will address law enforcement issues, efforts and programs in Amador County.
The list of guests scheduled to speak are Sheriff Martin Ryan, District Attorney Todd Riebe, D.A. Investigator John D’Agostini (representing the Amador County Combined Narcotics Enforcement Team, and Chief Probation officer Mark Bonini.
According to a press release, “each speaker will discuss the organization, responsibilities, and role of their respective departments within the law enforcement/corrections community.”
Topics will include substance use and abuse in our county, information on upcoming proposition 19, the insurance and worker’s compensation fund, elder abuse, child abduction, Megan’s Law and Offender Watch, the Hidden Key program for older adults, home electronic and GPS monitoring of offenders, educational programs available to offenders, and challenges resulting from reduced funding, gangs and proposed casinos.
Questions from the public will be taken after the presentation.
The symposium is Wednesday, October 20 from 3 pm to 5 pm in the Jackson Civic Center, located at 33 Broadway Street in Jackson.
Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
