News Archive (6192)
Central Sierra Planning may owe $2 million in Pubic Retirement PERS
Written by Tom
Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors at its first July meeting briefly discussed retirement payment refunds it may be due from the folded Central Sierra Planning and Development District, ranging up to $2 million, for county employees who worked for the District.
In matters not on the agenda, District 3 Supervisor Ted Novelli, who was the Board appointee to the District, said that the “Central Sierra Planning and Development District closed as of July 7,” and at the last meeting, it was discussed how much five Amador County employees have paid into the Public Employees Retirement System account, when they were working for the Central Sierra District, a Joint Power Authority (JPA), whose members dissolved the group.
Novelli said there might be “$1 million or $2 million that Central Sierra Planning might have to come up with” to repay that retirement of those five employees. He said there might also be others who paid into the retirement fund over the last 30 years, during the life of that JPA.
Supervisor Chairman John Plasse said he was worried about the PERS actuarial tables, and wondered if the Central Sierra Planning & Economic Development would become an “indenture of the JPA.” County Counsel Martha Shaver said Tuolumne County was the counsel for the JPA, and they were to meet July 14 with member entities to begin to address some of those questions.
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Amador County’s historic steam-powered sawmill will demonstrate daily at the Amador County Fair
Written by Tom
Amador County – The 2011 Amador County Fair, July 28-31, will once again feature live operation of the only Steam Powered Saw Mill on Public California Fairgrounds, with daily demonstrations that will be expanded this year.
Bill Braun, President of the Amador County Sawmill Association, said the “already dramatic – and completely authentic – 19th century saw mill will boast a recently added belt-driven sawdust removal conveyor powered by a second steam engine.”
“The restored boiler and powerful single cylinder Corliss Steam engine with at 7-foot flywheel will once again turn giant redwood logs into useful boards as they pass through the 48-inch circular blade.”
Braun said: “Fulfilling our mission to restore and demonstrate historic equipment is fun, but more important is our increased ability to educate young people about their American heritage.”
He said by “recreating a live 19th century saw mill, we provide a glimpse into Amador County history and one of the three traditional industries, Logging, Mining and Agriculture.”
Visitors are welcome to view the demonstration and talk to the volunteers who build and operate the exhibit, and they can “learn how to fire up the Dutton boiler, previously deployed on a pile driving barge in San Francisco Bay or how to muscle huge logs onto the carriage that carries them through the saw blade.”
The “Sawyer” then “directs the operation by hand motions and tells the ‘Setters’ the thickness he wants to cut. Take a look in the Engine Room and be hypnotized by the rhythmic machinery that, huffing and puffing, turns steam into 60 horsepower torque.”
Braun said “if nothing else,” people can “enjoy watching a totally unique demonstration that you won’t see very often.”
The historic Amador Sawmill is one of the last operational steam powered sawmills in California. The living history museum’s mission is Preservation and Education. ACSA is a non-profit organization supplying rough-cut lumber and timbers for projects that require time period saw marks for their restorations.
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Jackson Rancheria to feature award-winning comedy trio “Pow Wow Comedy Jam”
Written by Tom
Amador County – The Jackson Rancheria Casino & Hotel brings a trio of award-winning Indian comics, the group “Pow Wow Comedy Jam” for an Oct. 1 show.
Carol Cook Content Developer for Marketing said people can “follow the Trail of Laughs” and “experience the sacred clowns of the past delivered through the modern comedy voices of the present.”
Named the National Indian Gaming Association’s Entertainers of the Year for 2010, Pow Wow Comedy Jam “delivers all-out laughs Indian-style.” All three appeared on the historic Showtime special, “Goin’ Native: The American Indian Comedy Slam.” The show is “clean and hilarious,” Cook said.
Pow Wow Comedy Jam features Marc Yaffee (Aztec/Navajo), Howie Miller (Cree) and Vaughn Eaglebear (Colville/Lakota).
Marc Yaffee said he “was adopted at birth and has been confused ever since.” He pokes fun at the seemingly endless contradictions in his life, with “original comedy that people from all walks of life can relate to.”
“I’m a Mexican Irish Navajo, Mexi-jo,” Yaffe said. “My ancestors exploited my own ancestors. I feel guilty and oppressed.”
“A lady asked me after a show, is it true you Navajos in your travels, you’re guided by outer voices? I’m like, Yeah, it’s called an On-star Navigation System.”
Vaughn Eaglebear, nicknamed the Frybread Assassin, and his original brand of one-liner comedy, is unconventional and thought-provoking material. An accomplished Pow Wow drummer and emcee, Eaglebear also wrote the song “John Wayne’s Teeth” for the movie “Smoke Signals.”
“The Cleveland Indians are going to change their name,” Eaglebear said. “They don’t want to be known as a team that perpetuates racial stereotypes. From now on they’re just going to be called the Indians.”
Howie Miller, one of Canada’s top comedians, has performed at top Canadian festivals, including the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, the Halifax Comedy Festival, and the prestigious Montreal Just For Laughs Festival.
Miller’s landed a role on the Canadian hit show “Caution May Contain Nuts” where he also serves as one of the writers.
“Survivor, I can’t stand that show,” he said. “No Indians…It’s probably a good idea, because they’re not gonna vote me off the island. They’re just gonna vote me to the crappy part of the island and leave me there for 200 years.”
General admission is $40, and Dreamcatcher’s Club members can get half off tickets at the Jackson Rancheria Box Office or by phone.
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Amador ham radio operators participate in a national preparedness demonstration
Written by Tom
Amador County – Local ham radio operators, members of the Amador County Amateur Radio Club, helped stage a national emergency communications preparedness demonstration at the end of June, swinging into motion for the local version of the national “Field Day,” a 24-hour demonstration of readiness.
John Stettler, member of the ACARC, with the call sign, K6ARC, said on June 25, that “members of the local amateur radio club converged to participate in a nationwide event,” the “Field Day,” which “is set for one weekend each year at which time amateur radio operators set up stations under” what he called “less than optimal conditions.”
Stettler said the “purpose is to demonstrate the unique role that amateur radio plays during times of crisis or disaster.”
He said “supporting hams were the Red Cross mobile ‘Cook Shack’ team who prepared meals and demonstrated their emergency capabilities. The Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services communication trailer was also on site, which is often staffed by hams during search and rescue and other emergencies during the year.”
Stettler said the “event started Saturday morning with hams putting antennas between trees and setting up the operating equipment. Actual contacts with other stations around the country started at noon and continued until noon on Sunday (June 26), at which time all the antennas came down out of the trees and equipment was packed away awaiting the time when it would be needed for an actual emergency or disaster.”
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Ione to reconsider a negotiated contract with the Ione Police Officers Association
Written by Tom
Amador County – The Ione City Council last week voted 4-1 to reconsider revised terms of agreement with the Ione Police Officers Association, after clearing up a 2-2 vote that deadlocked on the issue in June, due to an absent council member.
New Interim City Manager Jeff Butzlaff (BOOTSLOF) in a report for last week’s meeting, July 19, said that, according to the Council “Protocol Manual,” a “motion to reconsider an item previously voted on can only be made by a Councilmember who voted in the majority.” He said “in the case of a 2-2 deadlock,” that, after the fact, would “be one who voted in opposition.”
The New City Attorney, James Maynard, of Cota Cole LLP, however, reportedly said that “any member of the City Council can request that it be brought back” and that it could be reconsidered.
Butzlaff said the Council then voted 4-1 to reconsider the entire agreement packet for the City Council’s terms of agreement with Ione Police Department’s Police Officers Association. He said the Council will reconsider the same bundled agreement at its Aug. 2 regular meeting.
City Clerk Janice Traverso said the Council at the meeting said it had deadlocked on the issue at its July 5 meeting, but Traverso said Friday that the meeting actually took place in June. She said the 2-2 deadlock on the Police Association agreement occurred at a June 27 special Council meeting, just before former City Manager Kim Kerr left. She said it was one of the issues Kerr wanted to finalize before her last day on the job, June 29.
Traverso said Councilwoman Andrea Bonham was absent, and Mayor David Plank and Councilman Daniel Epperson voted yes, and Councilman Lloyd Oneto and Vice Mayor Ron Smylie dissented, to make the 2-2 deadlock vote on the contract terms of agreement with the IPD officers association.
Butzlaff said the Council voted again, last Tuesday, voting 4-1 to reconsider the POA contract terms, with Smylie the only “no” vote.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Plymouth approves non-exclusive agreement to sell water from the Arroyo Ditch
Written by Tom
Amador County – The Plymouth City Council at its last meeting July 14 approved a non-exclusive contract with a company to market and sell water from the Arroyo Ditch, which will go toward preserving early 1900s water rights that could be worth as much as $150 million to the city.
Vice Mayor and Councilman Jon Colburn said the agreement was kind of pro-bono work, where the company would get paid if the water sells. He said that ranchers in the area could not afford to buy into the Arroyo Ditch, which diverts water from the Cosumnes River, and which is flowing at top level now. The ditch now is serving two large customers, those being the 49er Village mobile housing facility, and the Amador County Fairgrounds.
He said the ditch is running at about 25 cubic feet per second. The pre-1914 rights are equivalent to an estimated $100 million to $150 million in value, over the lifetime of the rights, he said.
Colburn said negotiations with Shenandoah Water to operate, maintain and sell the water from the ditch fell through due to the company’s unwillingness to accept the risk involved. He said they were facing a 50 percent share of the water sales with the city, but did not want to risk the costs. The city also did not want to put itself at financial risk.
The Councilwoman Patricia Shackleton, Colburn and City Manager and Finance Director Jeff Gardner negotiated the agreement for the city, with the new, non-exclusive agreement with BAR Water Associates Incorporated, of Acampo, “for the non-exclusive right to help the city sell water form the Arroyo Ditch. Additionally BAR Water will help the city develop a plan for improving the ditch for the long term viability of supplying water to Plymouth and Amador County.”
BAR Water, according to its web posting, is made up of engineers, including principal owner Clay Rosson, who is a project manager, hydrologist and design engineer with 10 years’ consulting engineering experience.
Principal and President John Bischoff has a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering from Iowa State. He is a “water quality non-point source contamination expert and water resources engineer with 33 years in the field.”
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Amador County – Congressman Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) joined the vote in the House of Representative Tuesday to pass the “Cut, Cap and Balance Act of 2011,” which Lungren said is a vote to “remedy the nation’s debt problem.” Lungren staffer Brian Kaveney said Lungren “voted in favor of legislation that will address the nation’s colossal debt burden, out of control government spending and take action on the debt ceiling.”
House of Representatives Bill 2560, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, passed the House Tuesday on a 234-190 vote. The Bill was introduced by Utah Rep. Chaffetz (R-District 3), and had 117 co-sponsors, according to a Library of Congress summary.
Kaveney said the Bill “is a serious response to a serious problem. House Republicans have put forth a proposal to the President’s request for a debt limit increase while achieving serious spending cuts, binding budget reforms, and putting in place a balanced budget amendment.”
Lungren released a statement Tuesday saying: “Tonight my colleagues and I proposed a plan that will ensure we don’t continue to kick the debt can down the road. Our nation’s current debt burden will crush us if left un-checked.”
Lungren said: “This is not about election politics, it is about the future of our children and grandchildren. The fundamental question facing the Congress is a clear one. Will we leave them saddled with a burdensome mountain of debt or will we have the courage to leave them a country where they have the same opportunities for success enjoyed by previous generations of Americans?”
H.R. 2560 cuts total spending by $111 billion in fiscal year 2012. The savings reduce non-security discretionary spending below 2008 levels, which saves $76 billion. It also has a $35 billion cut to non-veterans, non-Medicare, non-Social Security mandatory spending. It also cuts the defense budget at President’s level.
Total federal spending is scaled back in the Bill based on a “glide path” with, caps of spending between 19 and 22 percent of the Gross Domestic Product over a 10-year schedule.
The “balance” aspect of the bill requires the passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment before raising the nation’s debt limit. Also, it includes that a debt ceiling increase, requested by the President, is allowed but contingent on a qualifying Balanced Budget Amendment being passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification.
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Staind rocker plans acoustic country show Aug. 14 at the Jackson Rancheria
Written by Tom
Amador County – The former lead singer and song writer of the band Staind, Aaron Lewis returns to the Jackson Rancheria Casino & Hotel on Sunday, Aug. 14, with an acoustic performance of his new genre of country music.
Lewis’ latest release, the five-song “Town Line,” shows his country side, something that comes naturally, said Carol Cook, Content Developer, for Rancheria Marketing. “He’s never strayed very far from country. It’s something that he grew up with and something he comes back to. Hints of that are present in the stripped honesty and acoustic melodies of Staind hits such as “Outside,” “It’s Been Awhile,” and “So Far Away.”
It’s most obvious in the new single “Country Boy,” in which Lewis’s voice carries a catchy chorus over a slide guitar, and he opens up about his past, present, and future. Featuring a fiery fiddle lead from Charlie Daniels, a booming verse from George Jones, and Chris Youngs’ lilting harmonies, “Country Boy” strikes a balance between classic and modern country.
“George Jones and Charlie Daniels are two of the genre’s legends,” Lewis said, “and Chris Young represents the new regime. It’s definitely a personal, autobiographical song, and I’m very thankful that they all participated.”
Growing up in rural Vermont, he spent summers with his grandfather hunting and fishing. During that time, he developed a love for the land, the woods, and the simple life, which still permeates everything he does. There was one specific soundtrack to those times though.
“Country was the background music to my childhood,” Lewis recalls. “My grandfather listened to Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, Hank Williams Jr., and all of the greats. When Staind did our first tour with Kid Rock in 1999, I rode the bus with him on a couple occasions and we bonded over this music. I haven’t been able to let go of it since then.”
He said: “These songs are country in the sense of classic Americana. They’re simple, understated, and founded on quality songwriting. If you put a country accompaniment to any of the songs that I’ve written over the years on my acoustic, all of them would work as country tunes.”
Lewis said: “I’ve always stayed true to how I feel in my songs. I love this country, and I feel like I’ve gotten to live the American dream. I’m genuinely blessed to have this opportunity, and I’m glad to celebrate that classic country spirit with this new music.”
General admission is $40, and Dreamcatcher’s Club members can save 50% off tickets at the Jackson Rancheria Box Office, online, or by phone at 800-822-WINN.
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Regional Planning Committee to discuss future membership and scope
Written by Tom
Amador County – The Amador Regional Planning Committee will meet next week to discuss, among other things, the future of the committee itself, along with “view-sheds” of the various county jurisdictions.
The agenda includes discussion and possible action on expansion outreach of the Committee, and will also discuss view-sheds by jurisdiction. The Committee could also act to set an agenda for its next meeting, Aug. 24.
Committee Chairman, Jackson Vice Mayor Keith Sweet said: “In a nutshell: The Amador Regional Planning Committee is reviewing the (Memorandum of Understanding) that created it to determine if it (the MOU) should be modified or cancelled.” Sweet said “such modification may include a broader range of participants and a more specific list of activities.”
The other item for the Committee’s discussion and possible action next week, he said, set “for discussion for this year is an outgrowth of a county-wide workshop last fall and that was to review all jurisdictions’ General Plan statements regarding scenic view-shed protection along our scenic highways and determine if there is a need for any updating to these (General Plan) provisions.”
The Amador County Regional Planning Committee’s current members include the cities of Plymouth, Jackson, Sutter Creek and Amador City. Members also include the two informally formed citizen groups, the Pine Grove Civic & Improvement Club, and the Upcountry Community Council, along with representation by a citizen at-large.
The Committee meets 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 27 at the Jackson Civic Center.
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Amador County – A recent Youth Tobacco Purchase
Survey in Amador County revealed that more merchants are paying
attention when selling tobacco products. Of the 42 tobacco retailers
surveyed, none were willing to sell tobacco products to youths,
although 33 percent had the product on the counter or the sale rung up
prior to asking for identification. In 2010, a similar survey resulted
in a sales rate of 7 percent.
Amador County Public Health in early July announced recent results of the survey, in which “youth volunteers aged 14-16, accompanied by undercover law enforcement, canvassed the county’s retailers to assess the sales rate.”
Youths tried making purchases of “tobacco products at all types of retail establishments, including convenience stores, gas stations, liquor stores, grocery stores and drugstores, to determine how easily minors can purchase cigarettes and chewing tobacco.”
Selling tobacco to anyone under 18 years of age “is against the law. Tobacco retailers have the responsibility to check identification, verify age and post age-of-sale warning signs.”
As of January 2005, the self-service display of tobacco products is against the law. This includes cigarettes, chewing tobacco, bidis (products containing tobacco wrapped in temburni leaf or tendu leaf), pipe tobacco, roll your own tobacco, and any other product containing tobacco.
Diana Evensen, Project Director with Tobacco Reduction of Amador County said the group was “pleased with the results of the surveys. It demonstrates that a combination of merchant education and compliance activities can have a positive effect toward not selling tobacco to minors.”
Evensen said TRAC “wants to be sure that the rates remain low and that our local retailers have every opportunity to stay in compliance. TRAC will continue to offer retailer education at the request of any retailer in Amador County.”
Observational surveys were also conducted to determine whether stores had the required signage posted and 95 percent of local retailers in Amador County were in compliance.
Retailers must post Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement Signs with the “1-800-5 ASK-4-ID” phone number at each cash register. Signs furnished by tobacco companies such as “We Card” and “It’s the Law” are not substitutes for those signs which are required by law.
To report illegal sales to minors, the general public can call “1-800-5 ASK-4-ID.” Public Health said “most people agree that kids and tobacco are a deadly combination. Statistics show that nearly 90 percent of the Californians who die each year from smoking related disease started their deadly habit before they were 18 years old.
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