Ione has a New Police Officer, retired CHP Officer, John Kellogg was introduced to the Ione City Council Monday and was sworn in to office by Janice Traverso. The city of Ione has not had a completed audit since 2003, this is not only bad for bookkeeping it may also cause the city to potentially lose future monies in the form of loan funding because of the lack of financial audits on record. The City had been using the same audit firm for many years and this firm has been continuously missing deadlines to provide the city with the audit reports.

Jackson City Manager Mike Daly has announced that a public workshop will be held to explore the possible reuse options for Amador County's historic courthouse, located in downtown Jackson. Everyone is invited to attend.  Please bring your ideas! The workshop is in the Jackson City Council Chambers, 33 Broadway, Jackson, on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007, starting at 4 PM. The current home of Amador County Superior Court, the building will be vacated in June for a new American with Disability Act compliant building at 500 Argonaut Lane, the former Amador County Administration Center.

Senator Dave Cox’s efforts to protect communities from the adverse effects of prisons moved one step closer to reality yesterday.  SB 878 by Senator Dave Cox passed its first hurdle by receiving a unanimous vote by members of the Senate Public Safety Committee. “Members of the Senate Public Safety Committee should be applauded for helping small communities,” said Senator Dave Cox.  “I am encouraged by today’s action to put the needs of local communities first.  In light of past history, it is important that the State of California live up to its promises.” SB 878 requires the State of California to include mitigation measures when building or expanding state prisons.  These measures would make the affected communities with current prisons and proposed expanded facilities whole in terms of transportation, education, social service and environmental impacts. Cox’s measure stemmed from having five prisons in his district and seeing first-hand the impacts prisons have on surrounding communities.  SB 878 will now move to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee.

A seat has opened on the Amador County Chamber of Commerce of after the resignation of former Supervisor and rancher Tom Bamert. Bamert’s letter of resignation is dated April 16th and addressed to the President of the Chamber Jack Mitchell. According to Bamert his decision to resign is based on the fact that the Chamber has reserved a place on a committee for the Buena Vista Band of Me-Wuk Indians. The committee in question is the Tourism Committee which is one of three committees that are structured by the Chamber. Bamert states that he quote “could not believe my eyes when I looked at the Committee Listings for the Chamber and saw that the “Buena Vista Rancheria” was included on the Tourism Committee.”

The discussion over a cell tower located at 1001 South Highway 49 generated quite a bit of discussion at Monday night’s Jackson Planning Commission meeting. Commissioners and the public were happy at the opportunity to get better cell coverage but were put off by the unsightly appearance of the cell tower that is proposed to be located in the City’s Visual Corridor.

Before Monday morning’s fatal accident on Camanche Rd another serious accident occurred on the same Roadway near Curran Rd. At around 7:20 am  on Monday Jennifer Roberts, 19 of Ione was southbound on Curran Rd when as she was negotiating a wide sweeping  righthand curve she allowed her vehicle to run of the roadway. In attempt to remain on the roadway she subsequently overcorrected to her left causing the vehicle to cross run completely off the roadway colliding with an embankment and rolling several times. Roberts was transported to UCDavis Med Center with major injuries. 

According to a recently conducted survey, 400 people in Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne are homeless and of those 400 people, 93 are children. The results of the homeless survey, conducted at the end of March, were released last week. The survey organized by the Central Sierra Continuum of Care, a coalition of mental health and social service organizations, identified 42 adults and nine children without homes in Amador County, 128 adults and 53 children in Tuolumne County; and 137 adults and 31 children in Calaveras County.