The Jackson City Council this week considered a 22% water rate increase, proposed by the Amador Water Agency, at Monday night’s meeting and the echo of the discussion seemed to be the fact that “there are so many unanswered questions.” Because no representative of the AWA was available, City Manager Mike Daly introduced the item and explained that the agency apparently hired Reed Group, Inc. to assist the Agency in updating their financial plan. This includes proposed water rates for the periods Fiscal years of 2007-2008 through 2009-2010.

A subject sure to generate heated discussion here in Amador County is that of the Board of Supervisors legislating mandatory garbage pick up for all Amador County residents. The subject was last discussed in the May of 2004 when the Board heard from, at that time Asst. Director of Public Works, Larry Petersen regarding the development of a mandatory garbage policy. In 2004 the Board was considering some exceptions from mandatory service for Ranchers and those with little garbage and a voucher system for self haulers and low income individuals and families. Currently, driving the discussion this time around is proposed state legislation that would mandate garbage and recycling to be 75 percent of all garbage and recycling waste products.

The Third District Court of Appeals has issued a modification of their April 17th opinion in regards to the lawsuit between Amador County, the City of Plymouth and the Ione Band of Mi-Wok Indians. The April 17th opinion was considered a clear victory for the plaintiffs in the suit, Amador County, and this new modification to the opinion does not change that consideration. There has been no change in the court’s judgment that the struck down the Municipal Services Agreement between the tribe and the city which was approved by the Plymouth city council back in 2004.

The City of Sutter Creek received good news from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency yesterday. The City had applied for a Brown Field grant for the Central Eureka Mine, and the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, in return has granted the City $200,000 to clean up the site which contains mining waste and is impacted with heavy metals. The clean up will remove the health and safety risks associated with the site making it perfect for the City’s hopes of using the 12 acres as a historic park that will provide walking trails. The EPA also granted $200,000 to clean a hazardous waste site in Tulare County.

Last night the Jackson City Council discussed Measure E. In 2002 Jackson voters approved the Measure which increased the transient occupancy tax or TOT from 8% to 10%. The City Council directed that the additional funds be utilized to develop programs to enhance tourism and business promotion, economic development of downtown and revitalization programs for Jackson.  The City Council appointed an advisory committee to provide recommendations for the expenditure of the additional transient occupancy tax funds generated by Measure E. The Committee developed a review procedure for funding requests to utilize Measure E funds to implement programs in Jackson that were to be approved by the City Council.

Fire Crews were busy on Friday with both a grass and structure Fire. The first fire occurred at Carbondale and Maxwell Roads in the area. The initial call of a smoke check on two large burn piles came in to Camino Dispatch at 2:22pm. Local Fire crews responded in force with 13 engines, one dozer, 3 hand crews, and 3 water tankers. Upon arrival it was realized that the burn piles had spread due to a breeze and had carried embers which landed and created a series of spot fires.

Other than Friday afternoon’s vehicle fire on Hurricane Hill, Amador County Roadways were pretty quiet. Sutter Creek City Police and Fire Crews responded to a vehicle accident on Old Hwy 49 near Dennis Drive.  According to witnesses on scene a green Jeep Grand Cherokee was traveling North from Sutter Hill and lost control on a curve veering into the South bound lane colliding with a GMC pickup. The passenger in the GMC and the driver were taken by ambulance to Sutter Amador Hospital for their injuries.

On Thursday Plymouth had their Bi-Monthly City Council meeting in which they discussed and reviewed three different proposals for the Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Facilities Improvement plan. The first discussed was a proposal from KASL consulting and Engineers providing civil water resources surveying based out of Citrus Heights, Ca., the Second proposal was presented from Nolte Associates Inc., based out of Manteca, Ca, and the third was submitted by Stantec Consulting Inc. from Sacramento.  A Wastewater facilities master plan was prepared by Toma & Anderson in December of 2006.