News Archive (6192)
Amador Vintners Association plans “Behind the Cellar Door”
Written by Tom
Amador County -- Amador Vintners Association invites wine lovers “Behind the Cellar Door” to say “Vive Le Vin” on March 3-4. The Amador Vintners Association’s annual weekend wine extravaganza in the Sierra Foothills showcases classic Mediterranean-style wines, and more, at 36 Amador County wineries.
Jamie Lubenko, executive director of the Amador Vintners Association, said “fans of Amador County wines know they will not be fed a steady diet of Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot and other ‘mainstream’ varieties when they visit the historic region’s charming small family wineries.”
Lubenko said instead, they’re treated to a cornucopia of old-vine zinfandels, syrahs, sangioveses, barberas, viogniers and other “off-the-beaten-track” Mediterranean varieties, which flourish in Amador’s sun-bathed hillside vineyards.
The delicious, food-friendly wines will be showcased at the Amador Vintners’ annual “Behind the Cellar Door” weekend wine extravaganza Saturday and Sunday, March 3-4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event features tasting from barrel and bottle at 36 Amador County wineries, along with a diverse array of entertaining seminars focused on Mediterranean grape types. ¶ Library and vertical tasting, live music, gourmet foods, numerous winemaker dinners on Friday and Saturday evening and a Sunday brunch fill out the weekend’s festivities.
“Amador is a classic, Mediterranean-style winegrowing region that supports a diverse array of varieties originating primarily in southern France and northern and central Italy,” Lubenko said. “Our winemakers have been crafting world-class wines from these varieties for many years, and each year they experiment with new ones, such as Tempranillo from Spain.”
Lubenko said for the adventurous wine lover and those seeking full-flavored wines to pair with hearty Mediterranean-style foods, Amador Wine Country is the ideal destination.
Tickets can be purchased at www.amadorwine.com or by calling (toll-free) 1-888-655-8614. Separate admission is required for the winemaker dinners.
Amador County is among California’s oldest premium grape-growing regions, dating back to the early days of the Gold Rush in the 1850s. Many of the prospectors were European immigrants whose love of wine inspired them to plant grapevines upon their arrival in Gold Country. Many of these old vines survive to this day and produce the intense zinfandels for which the region has long been celebrated.
Amador County also is renowned for wines made from Italian and Rhône Valley varieties, such as barbera, sangiovese, syrah, and viognier. Along with the region’s fabled zinfandels, they offer wine lovers tremendous quality and value.
Amador wineries are small, family-owned and operated operations known for their gracious hospitality. They offer visitors an intimate view of wine country often unavailable in the more heavily trafficked wine valleys of the North Coast.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
2nd opinion finds that AWA's CAWP risk of failure begins this year
Written by Tom
Amador County – Amador Water Agency received a second opinion on the life expectancy of its Central Amador Water Project pump and pipeline system, and a local, long-time engineer agreed that evidence indicates that the system risks failure beginning this year.
Professional engineer Roderick Schuler, who has more that 38 years’ experience as a water engineer and “first hand knowledge of the CAWP raw water pipeline,” submitted an independent, unsolicited opinion paper that concurred with a recent risk assessment of the pipeline. Schuler agreed that with respect to the CAWP system, “we are living on borrowed time.”
AWA General Manager Gene Mancebo, in a staff report for this week’s AWA board meeting, said “Schuler has 12 years of experience with Sonoma County Water Agency followed by more than 26 years’ experience as a water engineer in Amador County and is one of the most authoritative sources available on the viability of our water system.”
Schuler “began his tenure with Amador County in 1978 as a senior engineer followed by becoming director of water resources and then director of Public Works for an additional 12 years before retiring,” Mancebo said.
Schuler will give a presentation of his Opinion Paper on the CAWP system at 1:30 p.m. Thursday during the AWA board meeting. Schuler in the paper said he looked at the records of the system to determine the status of the pipeline, in assessing an estimate of the age and life expectancy of the CAWP pipeline.
Schuler said engineer David Willer of Kennedy/Jenks Consultants, in an assessment for AWA, “estimated that the service life of the pipeline is about 35 years. Thus, the year that begins the risk of failure is 2012. After that, we are living on ‘borrowed time’.”
Schuler said: “This is a reasonable estimate, and I support that estimate. This does not take into account the mechanical equipment, pumps and controls that have a shorter service life and are far outdated already.”
He said “with parts more and more difficult to acquire, the risk of getting the water system back in service, within a reasonable outage time, is becoming greater every day.”
Schuler said: “In my opinion, not having a long term reliable water system in place by now to serve the upcountry population is resulting in a huge risk of jeopardizing the health and safety of the people in the CAWP area.”
Mancebo in his memo said the opinion paper was for information only, and he recommended the agency “prepare information to inform customers of the findings from this report.”
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Amador County – Amador County Board of Supervisors last week voted 5-0 to not support the California State Association of Counties in seeking its own budget initiative for constitutional protection of funding made by a recent state budget realignment.
The vote by Supervisors was an advisory to Supervisor Chairman Louis Boitano, who sought direction on the issue, along with the stance of the Board on Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget initiative. The Board voted 4-1 to remain neutral on Brown’s initiative, with Supervisor Brian Oneto voting no, saying he would not support new taxes.
Supervisor Richard Forster said: “You can’t tax your way to prosperity, as a great politician once said.” He said it was too much taxes, but “talking about politics, this is not the way to do it.” He said: “Can we get the quid pro quo if we put a bad taste in the governor’s mouth?”
Supporting a “no” vote on the Governor’s initiative support question, Oneto said the “quid pro quo would just make the agony longer,” and was like saying: “I will do what I should do if you do this for me.”
Boitano said Gov. Brown came to the last CSAC board of directors meeting. Boitano did not know if it would come to a vote that day, and he was not sure what to do, and wanted to see what the board wanted. Forster said abstention may be the best way to go. Boitano said Brown’s initiative would increase taxes, and make a constitutional protection of recent “realignment” of state funding. CSAC’s own ballot initiative would solely aim at constitutional protection of the realigned budget.
Boitano said he thought the CSAC vote of support for the Governor would pass. Supervisors voted to direct Boitano to not vote in favor of the support. They also voted 5-0 to direct Boitano to oppose a CSAC initiative.
The Board considered a memo from CSAC executive director Paul McIntosh to the CSAC board members, in which McIntosh said “while no county wants to see an increase in dues, such sacrifice would be far less than the potential of losing all or a portion of the approximately $6 billion dollars in funding for realigned programs or the loss of CSAC’s advocacy and program support.”
Boitano said McIntosh is not wild about CSAC’s own initiative campaign and does not want to spend the money. Supervisor John Plasse noted that it cost about $1 million dollars to push the initiative, and that would be offset by an increase in dues paid by CSAC members.
Boitano said: “I don’t want to have a CSAC initiative,” and he wanted to “nip it right there.” The next CSAC board meeting is Thursday, Feb. 23 in Sacramento.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Amador County – Rod Schuler, long time Amador County water engineer, found a lack of records for the Central Amador Water Project was part of unknown risks that diminish life expectancy estimates for the system.
In a report to be presented to the Amador Water Agency Board of Directors on Thursday, Schuler will discuss some of his findings in an unsolicited opinion paper he wrote after looking at CAWP records. Schuler said the opinion paper was “a discussion regarding my professional opinion of the risk of continued service of the CAWP Emergency Pipeline form the Tiger Creek Afterbay to the Buckhorn Water Treatment Plant.” He said the paper was unsolicited by the AWA, and was based on his knowledge of the system, project information gathered during the years since his first employment with the county in October 1978, and while reviewing CAWP files in the AWA archives.
Schuler said questions arose about handling of the pipe, its treatment with waterproofing sealant material, and the installation, and whether field welds or damage were properly treated to prevent corrosion. Among observations, he said “a complete certified copy of the final set of Contract Specifications was not discovered during the file search. There were no documents found indicating that the field-welded joints were treated to prevent corrosion or how any damaged coating was repaired.”
Excerpts from documents included briefs from an inspector’s report, Sept. 13, 1977 that said the “contractor attempted to place (in one operation) more than 280 feet of welded joints, when the pipe buckled.” He said “it is not clear if the re-welded ‘buckled’ pipe was coated to resist corrosion,” and “it is safe to say that the interior of the 40-foot sections of pipe at the field welds were not recoated to resist corrosion.”
Schuler noted that the CAWP system was installed under emergency conditions during the 1976-1977 drought to serve 10 upcountry water districts, whose wells were failing. Amador County led the design and construction, then dedicated the system to AWA.
After many years and six or seven office changes, Schuler said, the CAWP files have been “diluted” to the point “where specific documents that would be helpful in estimating the service life of the emergency pipeline could not be found.”
He said they did not know the results of pressure testing, only that the pipeline in one section met standards of the American Water Works Association, for 565 pounds per square inch pressure. They don’t know the type of wrap used for coating the pipe, and after coating, how the pipe was handled during loading, transporting, unloading, stringing and laying of the pipe in the trench. Questions included how any damage to the coating and lining was repaired, and whether field-welds were lined and coated.
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Amador unemployment lower than 2010, still tops state and federal rates
Written by Tom
Amador County – Amador County and California unemployment rates both declined slightly between December of 2010 and December of 2011, as did national unemployment, but Amador County’s rate still hovers around the annual average unemployment in 2010.
California Employment Development Department data showed that Amador County civilian labor force in December 2011 was 16,200, with 14,140 people being employed, and 2,070 unemployed, for a 12.7 percent unemployment rate in Amador County. That was down 7/10ths of a percent from the unemployment rate of December 2010, which was 13.4 percent in Amador County.
Amador County unemployment annual average was 12.9 percent in 2011, but was down from the 2010 annual average of 13.4 percent. The California Employment Development Department’s December 2011 preliminary data by city showed that Amador City had a zero percent unemployment rate, with 140 people in its labor force. EDD said the smaller city labor statistics “were calculated from published census data,” and assume no changes since the 2000 census. Plymouth showed a 7.1 percent unemployment, with a workforce of 480.
Jackson had a 9.4 percent unemployment rate, with a workforce of 2,160. Ione showed an unemployment rate in December of 10.6 percent, with a workforce of 1,590. Sutter Creek had an unemployment rate of 15 percent, with a workforce of 1,360.
California in December 2011 had a labor force of 18.1 million, with 16.1 million employed, and 1.9 million unemployed, or 10.9 percent. ¶ State unemployment rate in December 2011 was 10.9 percent, down from 12.3 percent in December 2010. U.S. Unemployment rate was 8.3 percent in December 2011, down from 9.1 percent the previous year.
Amador County’s biggest decline was 11.5 percent in total farm jobs. Federal government jobs declined by 10 percent, construction jobs declined by 7.4 percent and mining and logging jobs declined by 6.3 percent.
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Amador County – The Mother Lode Shoot Out Trout &
Salmon Derby scheduled for March 31 and April 1 has been changed to the
Mother Lode Trout Derby at Lake Camanche.
This will be a one day trout derby on Saturday, March 31. Fishing will be for trout at Camanche Lake only. The derby will be headquartered at the South Shore Marina at Lake Camanche instead of Jackson Rancheria Casino & Hotel. Jackson Rancheria & Casino is no longer affiliated with this derby.
The Mother Lode Trout Derby is presented by Kokanee Power and The Fish Sniffer and benefits Kokanee Power’s youth, educational and fisheries enhancement programs.
For more informatin, visit www.FishSniffer.com or www.kokaneepower.org, or call 916-985-4943.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phased Ione wastewater project would start with secondary treatment
Written by Tom
Amador County – Ione City Council in a special meeting Wednesday discussed its wastewater project, which would start with secondary treatment, but may need upgraded, per state regulators.
Castle Oaks’ Dominic Atlan said he saw two problems with the Seepage Plan. One was that there is no money in it if the city needs to expand. He also wondered about the cost to run a plant year-round, and said he would like to get more time from the Regional Board.
Atlan said he didn’t care what the city does and just wanted it to have better treatment. And if the secondary plans don’t work, they will have to come back in three years and build a tertiary level plant.
Atlan said there are a lot of “what ifs” and the Regional Board wants us to recycle, but they don’t give us any money. He said: “I hope this thing works, but what if it doesn’t? We have to decide in probably 30 days,” and building a tertiary plant would cost another $1.3 million dollars, and there is no money to expand the existing tertiary plant.
Councilman Lloyd Oneto said “I think Phase 2 is to go to tertiary.” Atlan said “it kind of revolves around whether they are going to give you an extension or not. Mayor Ron Smylie said: “If it fails, then we’ll go to Plan B.”
Jim Scully, a neighbor of the city storage ponds, said before you get too excited about the tertiary plan, remember there were two other plans that were accepted by the Regional Board. One had “22 acres of additional storage ponds,” accepted regionally but rejected by another level of regulators. Scully said: “Yeah you’re under but big deal,” and until you get a permit, you can’t move forward.
City Attorney James Maynard said the city needs to dialog with the Regional Board as they go through these things. Oneto said he attended the meeting with the Regional Board and told them he was disappointed, and the city should have done something 10 years ago about the sewer problems. Oneto said he had not known about city money issues and told the Board he wants to work with them to get through the problems. He said City Manager Jeff Butzlaff will go back to Shasta, and Maynard will go back to Sacramento, “but we will still be here with our children and grandchildren paying for it.”
Oneto said: “I would have said something in private but after I read your newspaper I wanted to go strangle somebody and I had to calm down.” Oneto said Butzlaff and the reporter were not there, and after he spoke, he left the room and did not hear Scully speak to the Regional Board, and did not read what he submitted.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sutter Creek sets downtown plaza workshop for February 22
Written by Tom
Amador County – Sutter Creek City Council has set a workshop for its Downtown Plaza project, hosted by the Sutter Creek Commons Committee. The workshop is set for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22 at the Sutter Creek Community Building, at 33 Church Street.
City Manager Sean Rabe said the City applied for and received a Caltrans grant to replace the old bridge over Sutter Creek and 60 feet of roadway on both north and south ends of the bridge. The project is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2013.
The Sutter Creek City Council appointed a committee, the Sutter Creek Commons Committee, to research and provide input on the possibility of creating a Downtown Plaza, or public gathering area, along each side of the bridge and directly in front of City Hall. The Committee is seeking input on certain design elements and aesthetics of the new Main Street Bridge over Sutter Creek and the Plaza areas. Citizen input on parking, seating, lighting, planters, landscaping, and displays is needed.
There will be conceptual drawings, photos, and bridge plans available for review. One of the original lights that hung over Main Street will be on display during the workshop.
City staff is asking the public to join the committee members from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22 at the Sutter Creek Community Hall, 33 Church Street. Rabe said public input is appreciated to assure the project will reflect the community’s needs and capture the unique character of Sutter Creek.
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Supervisors instruct Chairman to abstain from upcoming CSAC vote
Written by Tom
Amador County – Amador County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to advise Supervisor Chairman Louis Boitano to remain neutral and abstain from voting on Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget ballot initiative during the next board of directors meeting of the California State Association of Counties.
Supervisors also voted 5-0 to instruct Boitano to not vote in favor of Brown’s initiative, and also to not vote in support of CSAC’s own proposed initiative.
Brown appeared at the last CSAC meeting and asked CSAC to support the budget and higher taxes, Boitano said, and “I need to know what your direction to me is.”
Supervisor Richard Forster said: “I’m not sure I like some of the fixes, quite frankly.” Boitano said it exempts some impacts for smaller counties. Forster said it offers enough bones to interest people, but “we are not being helped enough” on the State Response Area fees.
Supervisor John Plasse noted that the CSAC initiative would cost about $1 million and cause an increase in membership dues to offset that loss.
Supervisor Ted Novelli said: “Asking rural counties to pay these SRA fees is pretty wrong,” and older population in Amador County and other small counties is impacted. Novelli said: “I’d like to say no, or stay neutral and see what happens. If push comes to shove, I’d say no.”
Forster said the governor feels SRA fees are a legitimate way to fund the Cal-Fire, but “that’s still double taxes on rural counties.” Forster said that’s when the governor said his SRA “position is in concrete.”
Plasse said the state is chasing producers out of the state, and higher taxes will not help. Boitano said the state keeps saying they are going to have layoffs but he hasn’t seen any.
Supervisor Brian Oneto, who dissented in the vote, said “the people in my district, the majority by far think we’ve been taxed enough already.” He said the state has high salaries and high pensions, and even if it is a temporary, five-year tax, the state will be in the same position down the road. Oneto said: “I’m opposed to any new taxes.”
Foster said, “In a perfect world, I would agree with you, but we’re talking about Sacramento.” Boitano said he thought it would pass CSAC, but he supported abstention.
Forster said “a lot of rural counties would like to make a statement but they’re looking at reality.”
Boitano said “It’s like we’re in the eagle’s claw.” He said: “Under no circumstances will I vote for the governor’s initiative,” and “I do not want (CSAC) to take up our own initiative. It’s not feasible and it’s too much expense.” He said “the governor has raised quite a war chest on this initiative – whether or not it passes remains to be seen.”
Story by Jim Reece
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As Ione awaits Regional Board dialog, another wastewater contractor changes its proposal
Written by Tom
Amador County – Ione City Council held a workshop and special meeting Wednesday and discussed developments on the city’s wastewater front, which included another proposed contract status change.
Mayor Ron Smylie said Winzler & Kelly representatives told the city they “decided to put their proposal on hold” until the city” decides its next move, with firm guidance by the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Smylie said “Winzler & Kelly will hold back until we as a community see more information” and look at whether the Seepage Discharge Compliance Plan will work on certain issues. Winzler & Kelly is a consultant for State Revolving Fund applications, which the city found was the cheapest way to fund a sewer project.
Smylie said during a Wastewater Committee meeting Tuesday, a lot of the issues were discussed, and on recommendation of a member of the public, they put the process into phases. He said the Report of Waste Discharge “needs to be done by a licensed engineer.”
Jim Scully asked about closed session, and whether the Council was expecting an extension to its Cease & Desist Order time line. City Attorney James Maynard said they discussed “litigation strategy,” and the Regional Board’s “prosecution team is recommending that the deadlines not be extended.”
Last week Robertson-Bryan Incorporated, engineers of the Compliance Plan withdrew a proposed contract amendment, and will end further work on the project, though they spoke with the Regional Board and did follow-up on the plan.
City Manager Jeff Butzlaff said Dr. Steve Deverel of HydroFocus and RBI’s Art O’Brien met with Regional Board enforcement staff last Friday (Feb. 10), and “was satisfied that it was sound science.” The board sought samples from the bottom of the pond, which were already taken, and a letter will be sent to the Board. Maynard said sampling will be done in conjunction with the Report of Waste Discharge.
A man asked if the sample would cause the Board to come up with more for the city to do. Vice Mayor Daniel Epperson said it was an unknown. Butzlaff said “it would change the nature of the solution, but not in a major way,” and 90 percent of it would be the same. He said “whatever the outcome of the testing, we still need to go forward.”
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