It what could be a landmark case involving how school district’s hire coaches for their sports teams, a Mother Lode League team has been sued by their teachers association. The Summerville Union High School Federation of Teachers is suing the district, claiming school officials are not following California Education Code for filling their coaching positions. The issue arose after a teacher sought any varsity or freshman-sophomore basketball coaching position at Summerville High school in October. At the time, the district responded that there were no coaching positions available.

Mule Creek State Prison appeared on the Board of Supervisors agenda again on Tuesday and it appears that the wastewater situation hasn’t improved with a reported increase in the prison’s inmate population. Supervisor Forster introduced the item and said he was concerned about information he received that very morning from Ione Mayor Jerry Sherman. “Mayor Sherman indicated to me this morning that the prison inmate count has gone up to about 4500.  We need to verify that,” he stated. Forster stated “I thought we had an agreement with the warden that he would call us if there were any substantial changes in the count or issues that occurred… That will affect substantially their sewer capacity.” Forster continued by saying that, “if ARSA and the city of Ione are trying to work with Mule Creek to resolve the issue and they just keep putting more prisoners in there, that’s not, to me, good faith and we need to make sure that we are operating in that good faith type of relationship.”

The East Bay Municipal Utility District, East Bay MUD, has responded to the draft tribal Environmental Impact report from the Buena Vista Band of Me-Wuk Indians for their proposed Flying Cloud Casino stating that many of the same considerations that Amador County residents share must also be considered for Calaveras County. The response, written by William Kirkpatrick manager of Water Distribution Planning, states that road impacts will not just affect Amador and San Joaquin County, but also Calaveras County Roads including a private road owned by East bay MUD, Sandretto Rd.. Kirkpatrick states that Sandretto Rd is open to the public but its usage is contingent upon load requirements and speed limits. East Bay MUD is asking for a traffic study to be conducted on Camanche Parkway South and Sandretto Rd to look at significant impacts to traffic volumes and loads on those roadways.

May 11-13, 2007 will see the second annual maintenance-of-way Ione Rail Fair and Exposition on the rails of the Amador Central/Foothills Railroad in the Railyard at the south end of S. Mill Street in the historic City of Ione, Ca.  Celebrating the small, historic, maintenance of way equipment for display and demonstration, this collection of railroad equipment will arrive for “set-on” on Friday, May 11.

The Amador County Women’s Network held their monthly meeting recently at the Jackson Rancheria. The network otherwise known as the ACWN, is a friendly organization designed to meet local businesswomen and to strengthen ties in the community, as well as a forum for social and educational events, a vehicle to promote business opportunities and support scholarships for deserving high school seniors in Amador County.

Ranger Pipelines, the Amador Water Agency’s contractor for the Amador Transmission Pipeline Project, held a special ceremony on Friday. It was a “blessing of the pipeline,” to commemorate the last section of pipeline being installed, as well as recognition, of a successful and safe project. The construction of the pipeline was an uneventful process and there were no injuries or mishaps during the installation. The ceremony was held on a private ranch off of Bosse Rd. Dignitaries including Water Board Members, Supervisor Brian Oneto and Water Agency staff were all present for the blessing.

Amador County Supervisors once again considered converting their new building to a green one yesterday when they discussed the use of solar energy. Previously, staff was tasked with analyzing photovoltaic (solar) financial solutions for the Administrative building. Three funding options were analyzed in the process.

The city council of Ione recently resolved an issue that the city had with the Amador County Girls Softball Association (ACGSA) regarding the equal availability of playing fields for both the Amador County little league west, a predominately boy’s baseball league and girls softball teams. Tuesday, the city signed a 3 year memorandum of understanding in which the city will participate with ACGSA to renovate the baseball diamond at Ione Junior High School. The ACGSA is being required to do some of the rehabilitation work with the city pitching in staff time and equipment to conduct maintenance operations. The total renovation is expected to cost $11,600 including ongoing maintenance. City staff thanked Amador County Recreation Agency Executive Director, Tracy Towner Yep for her, “Commendable effort to get the ball rolling on this issue.” The next stop for the MOU is at the Amador County Girls Softball Association, where it is expected to yield its final seal of approval. The school district already approved the agreement.

Today at 12:30 the Regional Waste Water Committee will once again meet. The meeting, which was originally scheduled for March 5th, will discuss regional solutions to a countywide problem; how to dispose of our growing county’s waste water issues in accordance with State and federal regulations. Some of the previous solutions discussed were the purchasing of a packaged sewer plant, or a used plant, to be added to the existing ARSA system which serves Martell, Sutter Creek and Amador City. This could add anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 gpd. of sewer processing capacity to serve the booming Martell area, as well as the 49 corridor, including Jackson.

The Upper Mokelumne River Watershed Authority is a joint powers authority made up of nine entities, including Amador, Calaveras and Alpine Counties in the Upper Mokelumne River watershed. The group, through proposition 13 and 50 grant funding, has undertaken a multi-phase watershed assessment and planning project which is aimed at advancing the group toward a broader understanding of the water quality issues that concern the Upper Mokelumne River watershed, as well as developing a method that will evaluate the water quality of the watershed on a long term basis. This project, known as the Upper Mokelumne River Watershed Assessment and Planning Project, was funded in part by grants available after the passage of statewide propositions.  As part of this project, a hydrologic model of the watershed was developed and calibrated using the Environmental Protection Agancy-supported Watershed Analysis Risk Management Framework, or WARMF, software.