Marilyn Lewis, a candidate for Jackson City Council, has withdrawn her request for a recount of the ballots of the November 7th Jackson City Council race.

A workshop was held this week to discuss the Regional Transportation Plan and the policies and fees that are being charged for transportation issues to new developments in the county. Who pays for what and why? How much should developers pay?- that was the hot topic in the workshop that was deemed needed because of controversy over a proposed development in the Pine Grove area. In that case the developers have requested a new zoning that would allow multiple commercial buildings, specifically 12 condo type businesses. The development would include mixed commercial and light industrial businesses. The issue centers around what the Regional Traffic Plan formulas dictate for fees and the traffic mitigation fees for this project; nearly 6 million dollars.

Monday night the Jackson City Council reviewed the possibility of annexing the City of Jackson into the Amador County Community Facilities District for Fire Services Funding. According to City Manager Mike Daly in September of 2006 the City Council reviewed a report regarding the formation of a Community Facilities District (CFD) for funding fire services within the City of Jackson. Amador Co. recently adopted the ordinance creating this type of CFD for new construction projects, and offered to allow cities within the County to annex into the district. This would simplify the process for cities to establish a CFD that will create funding for additional fire services within City boundaries.

BloodSource and Sutter Amador Hospital have announced a MotherLode Community Blood drive to be held on April 5th 11am to 6 pm at the Jackson Civic center. This important event to meet the community’s need for blood and blood products is being sponsored by the ACUSD ROP Medical Arts Program. BloodSource supplies blood and blood products to Sutter Amador Hospital and many other Sacramento area hospitals as well. To give blood you must be in generally good health, free from cold symptoms for at least  48 hours, 17 years of age and older and at least 100 pounds. There is no upper age limit for blood donations.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has been held responsible by another arm of state government for waste water spills at Mule Creek State Prison. The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Board has fined the CDCR 50,000 dollars for eight spills into streams including Mule Creek. The board cited “operation, maintenance and overflow problems” at the prison as the reason for the spills. Notices of violation were issued to the peison in September and October, followed by a cease and desist order in December. Officials also came up with a schedule for prison officials to fix the problem. The issue may be heard at the water board meeting May 3 or 4.

Amador County’s second major construction project, the new county courthouse, is being completed on time and on budget. GSA Director John Hopkins said, “We are well below what we would consider industry standards for change orders or contingencies with all of the information we have right now. We are about 2.3% in contingencies and typically contingencies for remodel projects are any where from 7-10%.”  The project to move the courthouse to its new location at 500 Argonaut Lane was a natural transition for the county that had out grown its administration center and was being required to find an American with Disability Act compliant facility for the Amador County Superior Court.

 

On Friday, April 27th at 7pm, the Amador County Historical Society offers a special event at the Volcano Press in Volcano. Publisher Ruth Gottstein will show guests around the old 1856 brewery that currently houses the Volcano Press. She will also talk about the publishing and marketing of several interesting historical Volcano Press books, past, present and future and recount the life of a small press. The Volcano Press is directly across Consolation Street from the Union Hotel; turn right at the end of Main Street in Volcano. Refreshments will be served. For more information contact Andy Fahrenwald at 267-5967 or e-mail Andy This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The City of Ione this week considered a new waste water agreement with ARSA and Mule Creek State Prison. The agreement would include the forming of a Joint Powers Authority, or JPA, to facilitate the finances and terms of the agreement. It would also completely replace any old agreements between the agencies and would dramatically change the way the Amador Regional Sanitation Authority, ARSA, handles its waste water.

The Junior Olympic trials recently held in Amador County by the Amador County recreation Agency showed the athletic talents of our local kids. The winners will now be moving on to the regional competition to be held in West Sacramento. The first place finishers are eligible to continue to the national junior Olympic held in Colorado. The winners are: for Boys Basketball - 8-9 Division First Place - Travis Andrews Jr., Second Place - Stone Mason Third Place - Jesse Batchelor. Boys Basketball 10-11 First Place -Aaron Zambrano, Second Place - Josh Coy. Boys Basketball 11-12 First Place - Kyle Chew, Second Place - Wade Wontorek, Third Place - Wayne Batchelor.

Yesterday’s Amador Water Agency meeting brought some interesting news from Ryland Homes, the developer of the Wildflower subdivision in Ione. Ryland’s representatives stated that the water agency’s request for cash upfront payments for water connections for the planned 276 home neighborhood may be beyond the company’s scope at this point. The dollar amount being discussed is around the 1.3 million dollar mark and Ryland representatives state that the company has already invested 28 million dollars into the project and this additional investment may not be feasible based on the City of Ione’s current sewer and water constraints.