How the US Forest Service manages the Mormon Emigrant Trail (MET) that connects Highway 50 at Pollcok Pines to Hwy 88 will change this winter season to improve public safety and to better assist forest visitors recreating on the Eldorado National Forest. Wheeled motor vehicle use such as, cars, trucks, four-wheel drives, and all-terrain vehicles, is now prohibited along the five mile section from the Iron Mountain Sno-Park near Highway 88 to the Silver Fork Road junction on MET during the winter season when the road is snow covered and used by snowmobiles.

The Bureau of Land Management is seeking nominations to fill an unexpired term on the 12-person Central California Resource Advisory Council, a citizen’s panel which advises the BLM on the stewardship of Federal public lands. The term expires September 30, 2007. It became vacant in January when Mariposa County Supervisor Lee Stetson left the Board of Supervisors. The vacant position is reserved for an elected official of general purpose government. Each nomination must include the name of the nominee, work and home addresses and telephone numbers, a biographical sketch including the nominee’s work, applicable outside interests, and public service records.

Former Jackson City Council Member Marilyn Lewis made it clear that city politics are still a major interest and concern to her at this week’s Jackson City Council meeting. “You know my favorite little thing is the Brown Act,” she commented upon approaching the Board. She proceeded to inform the council that she felt the act had been violated at a Dec. 12th meeting when the council gave direction to staff under the Council reports, regarding the Chinese Cemetery, which was not the agenda.

The Ione Band of Mi-Wok Indians has applied to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a determination of land trust status under Federal Indian gaming rules for 229 acres in Plymouth. The tribe plans to purchase and then develop the property into a gaming facility and resort. Currently, the property is owned by a private individual who is not a member of the tribe. The tribe was given approval for the first step toward their casino project last fall when officials from the Department of the Interior declared that the land was indeed restored tribal lands because the tribe could prove a historical tie with the land in question.

Recently, Cingular Cell Service in the Upper Jackson and Pine Grove areas has become noticeably erratic. For some users of the cell provider conglomerate’s services local service was improved; but for many there was a sudden and dramatic decrease in service. According to Cingular Wireless officials the company is a victim of pure economics regarding their main tower in the Pine Grove area. In 2006, the California Department of Forestry, which owns the Mt. Zion Tower, raised the rent on Cingular Wireless’ Mt. Zion cell site by 10 times making the cost of maintaining the Mt. Zion cell site untenable for the company.  In order to continue to serve customers in the general area, Cingular relocated the Mt. Zion cell site to another location in Pine Grove.

The Amador County Transportation Commission discussed the recently proposed Caltrans Cost sharing agreement for the Angels Camp Bypass as well as the relinquishing agreement for the “old” Hwy. 49.  The cost sharing approach consists of 3.2 million dollars from the Cal Trans Discretionary STIP, or State Transportation Improvement Program funds, 5.2 million dollars from the Tri-County STIP Augmentation, and finally a 4.4 million dollar funding request from the Corridor Mobility Improvement Account (CMIA) available under recently passed prop 1b.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007 is Election Day for the River Pines Public Utility District as a special recall election will be held to determine whether or not Frank Sexton shall be recalled as Director. The election was conducted by a mail in ballot. Sheldon D. Johnson announced that these ballots will be counted and a semi-final official canvass will be conducted after 8:00 pm in the Elections Office, 2nd Floor at 810 Court Street, Jackson. Results will be posted at the River Pines Public Utility District Office and at the County Administration Center.

 

On January 3, 2007 the Amador County Sheriff’s Office responded to Mission Electronics located at 11968 Hwy 88 in the Amador Plaza to the report of the theft of a 42” LCD flat screen television valued at $1950.00 from the loading area.  During the investigation, deputies obtained surveillance video of the area.  The video depicted a blue Ford Bronco as possibly being involved.  Law enforcement personnel in the area were provided this information and requested to be on the lookout for the vehicle. On January 19, 2007 at approximately 0930 hours, a deputy sheriff patrolling the Amador Ridge Shopping Center spotted a blue Ford Bronco matching the description of the one possibly involved in the theft.  Deputies detained the vehicle at the Safeway Gas Station located at 12110 Industrial Boulevard.  It was determined that the vehicle displayed license plates not issued for that vehicle.

Amador County has made the map in more ways than one. A site in Ione is now on a worldwide map as part of an environmental study that uses a series of towers through out the world to measure the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. The project is called Fluxnet and the goal of the project is to provide information to FLUXNET investigators and the public with the goal to understand the mechanisms controlling the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy across a spectrum of time and space scales. The project is being conducted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC) and is a NASA-sponsored source for biogeochemical and ecological data as well as models useful in environmental research. There are currently over 400 tower sites operating on a long-term and continuous basis around the world and one of those towers is located right here in Ione.

The Amador County Transportation Commission met last week and continued their Public Hearing concerning unmet transit needs for the fiscal year 2007 and 2008 here in the county. According to ACTC’s bylaws, “Local Transportation Funds (LTF) are 1/4 cent of the State sales tax returned to the County by the State.  These taxed dollars are put into a trust account by Amador County Auditor Joe Lowe.  The funds are to be allocated and apportioned by the ACTC in conformance with the Transportation Development Act (TDA).”  Each year ACTC is required to hold an unmet transit need hearing to determine unmet transportation needs in the County. If there are transportation needs according to the unmet needs resolution the local commission is to decide “how to ‘reasonably’ meet those needs.” ACTC Executive Director Charles Field reported that the Public Hearing began in November but was continued because “an active group of citizens involved in transit issues asked for more time.”