Amador County – Crunching budget numbers in a workshop Monday, the Amador Water Agency board of directors dropped its Washington, D.C. lobbyists for the coming fiscal year and discussed other budget items. Dropping the D.C. lobbyist 2009-2010 will mean a savings of $90,000 dollars. Board Chairman Terence Moore recommended they “drop it for next year,” noting that the agency “could barely afford it last year.” Vice Chairman Bill Condrashoff agreed. General Manager Jim Abercrombie said the lobbyists, which were paid a total of $277,500 dollars over the previous 3 fiscal years, helped the agency secure $3 million dollars in funding from the USDA Rural Utility Service for expansion of the Buckhorn Water Treatment Plant. The consolidated administrative budget line items included a 300 percent increase in the public relations budget, from $2,500 dollars to $10,000. Moore said: “I don’t have any heartburn with $10,000.” A woman in the audience showed a 1-page folded newsletter from Calaveras County that she said costs 50 cents, compared to the AWA’s full-color, glossy newsletter. She said the agency should come down a bit on its costs, because “we’re talking about ratepayers here.” Moore said may they need to “have department heads report to us on where we can see savings,” and they “should direct staff to come back to us with some cuts.” Abercrombie said “I would ask them directly. They will know right now.” In public comment, David Evitt said the AWA needs departmental cost savings reviews, and each department should “bring in their cost savings and analyses, then see where the fat is.” Abercrombie said he does not “ask the department heads to report on things that they should be doing” as part of their job, and that is finding “cost savings” for the agency. Construction department head Barry Birge said he does a lot of research for purchases, spending a lot of time on the phone and the computer to get the best product at the cheapest price. Condrashoff said he saw some items in staff reports that he thought were expensive, so he wrote down the items and did his own research of prices. He said Birge is “kicking butt” in his shopping. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The Amador County Joint Water Committee last week saw water service commitment numbers in Amador County, and discussed current and conditional “will-serve letters,” and non-binding “notice of availability.” Amador Water System’s Tanner treatment plant has a capacity is 6,902 Equivalent Dwelling Units (EDUs). Its maximum daily use is 4.7 million gallons a day, while its capacity peak flow is just over 6 million gallons a day. Tanner’s commitments in March, according to the Amador County Planning Department, included will-serve letters for 361 EDUs, committing hook-ups, for a total peak flow of just over 5 million gallons daily. Tanner also had “conditional will-serves” for another 1,261 EDUs, committing a total peak flow of 6.2 million gallons a day. The letters of availability for Tanner totaled another 4,807 EDUs, for a total peak flow of 10.5 million gallons a day. The Equivalent Dwelling Units committed by will-serves in the Tanner system included 48 units in operational meters with zero use, and 102 units at Jackson View, 45 at Sierra West Business Park, 40 at Amador Central Phase 1, 21 at Golden Hills, 20 at Amador Ridge Business Park, 19 at Ridge, and 13 at Mesa De Oro. Of the conditional will-serves at Tanner, the city of Plymouth holds the bulk, at 744 EDUs, for 670,000 gallons of water a day at peak flow. The Valley View Vista has 60 conditional will-serve EDUs, and Sutter Creek Crossroads has 41. Tanner plant “letters water of availability” include 1,785 EDUs at Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort. Wicklow Way in Jackson, holds notices for a total of 1,044 EDUs, including 844 for its final phases, 3 & 4. Seven projects have notices of availability in Plymouth, for a total of 1,180 EDUs. Golden Vale, proposed off Highway 88, west of Martell, has a notice of availability letter for 472 EDUs. Buckhorn Water Treatment Plant’s Central Amador Water Project as of March had committed to 502 will-serve units and 166 conditional will-serves, and had 333 EDUs mentioned in letters of water availability. The will-serves included 405 “standby accounts,” and 92 operational meters with zero use. The conditional will-serves for Buckhorn included 60 infill projects and 90 EDUs and Cedar Ridge View trailer park. Martell District 12 had 240 EDUs committed by will-serve letters, with 256 conditional will-serves, and 1,724 letters of availability. Pine Grove District 1 had 65 will serves and 126 letters of availability. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Sutter Creek Planning Commissioners on Monday heard about a sweetheart of a sewer deal the city has in the works with Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort developers, and that money recently spent on the system was not a waste. About 60 people attended a meeting discussing Gold Rush’s Specific Plan, and City Manager Rob Duke said putting $750,000 dollars into the wastewater treatment plant before a planned retooling of the plant by Gold Rush was not a “waste” of money. He said more than half of the improvements would be used in the new plant. The work removed solid matter accumulated in the plant, which diminished the capacity. The work was needed to lift a “cease and desist order” for violations at the plant. Duke said the city teamed with Amador Water Agency to split the upgrade cost and also will split any added capacity 50/50. The city’s previous work is believed to have raised the plant capacity from 480,000 gallons a day to 600,000 gallons a day, Duke said, “but we won’t know until we turn it on.” The improvements do not yet have appropriate permits. He said improvements to Amador Regional Sanitation Authority and the treatment plant could be worth $30 million dollars over next 30 to 40 years. The value was roughly estimated by engineers, including $9 million dollars to expand Henderson Reservoir and boost storage, $5 million dollars in pipeline installation, and $2 million to $3 million dollars in disposal land. Duke said eliminating water runoff and underground seepage into the city system reduced daily operation capacity by 50,000 gallons a day. And he expected many more of those were in place around the city. In the agreement, Gold Rush would demolish part of the wastewater treatment plant. It would then build a new plant and restore Sutter Creek’s 480,000 gallons a day treatment, and meet its own sewer needs. At Gold Rush’s build-out, it is estimated to need 4 million gallons a day of wastewater treatment capacity. Duke said “we are skeptical that we will have that kind of growth in 15 years.” Duke said the upgrade from secondary to tertiary level treatment allows Gold Rush to irrigate its golf course, and upgrades the city’s water treatment level. 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 last week got what they asked for – the brutal numbers involved in having zero percent rate increases for fiscal year 2009-2010. Option “A” of, one of 3 options staff gave the board, would cost 17 employees their jobs in order to realize 0 percent increases. It would also cause a $118,000-dollar deficit in contingency funds of 4 systems including Martell and general wastewater, and Camanche and LaMel water. Option “B” suggested 4 percent increases across the board in all AWA systems, along with 14 job layoffs. It would also cause $114,000 dollars in deficits in those same 4 systems. Option “C” recommended a 15 percent increase in Martell wastewater rates, and an 8 percent rate increase in all other systems. It would also cause a $164,000-dollar deficit in the 4 contingency funds, and would require the layoff of 4 AWA employees. Finance Manager Mike Lee gave a presentation on Option “C”, and the board asked questions. Director Bill Condrashoff asked if they would also go through Options “B” and “A”. He pointed out a $30,000-dollar error in a Camanche system, in the budget, and he wanted to go through the Martell budget line items to see if there were any problems in it. Lee adjusted a percentage rate, and it lowered the budget numbers in a few areas. Condrashoff also asked why the details of budget items were not shown. General Manager Jim Abercrombie said the board asked for the budget “at summary level.” Condrashoff directed Lee to adjust the wastewater system budget, in effect reducing it by $27,000 dollars. Abercrombie said “you would be removing about half of an (plant) operator.” Board Chairman Terence Moore said “I think we’re getting nowhere fast,” and he “cut to the chase,” and asked to “see how many votes we have to pass Option “C,” so they could recommend changes and have staff go and revise that option. Director Gary Thomas said he was likely to vote for Option “C,” but was not yet satisfied with the numbers. Moore said “we’re going to micro-manage this thing to death.” They did agree to drop the Martell rate increase from 25 to 15 percent, Director Debbie Dunn said. Moore reminded the board that it would still face hearings for rate increases. Thomas said he needed to “justify the numbers.” The Option “C” layoffs would include 2 temporary engineering positions; a customer service tech/utility clerk; and a staff engineer. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.