Amador County is between a rock and a hard place on the matter of the proposed Buena Vista Rancheria Casino. Richard Forster, Chair of the Amador County Board of Supervisors announced yesterday that the county has reached a crossroad in its battle to keep the casino out of the county. Forster went on to say that the county has negotiated a proposed agreement with the tribe and wants to hear from county citizens on whether to approve the agreement or continue to fight the tribe in Federal court.

American Legion Ambulance Company is cutting back on the number of ambulances it puts on the roads in Amador and CalaverasCounties. Al Lennox, President of American Legion Ambulance, says the company’s call volume and revenues are down about 15%. Lennox blames the drop in call volumes on the economy. “There’s less tourism, and less travel on the roads,” he told TSPN. More Medi-Cal ambulance patients are reducing reimbursements for services, Lennox says, “and we’re seeing more and more people who have been laid off and have no health insurance at all.”  Lennox says in the first 6 months of his fiscal year, the company ran a deficit – had they continued with no cost correction, the ambulance service would have shown a deficit of $150,000 for the year. Lennox says he has informed the supervisors of both Amador and Calaveras of the force reduction of about 15%. No one has been laid off – Lennox says they’ve shifted some full time to part time workers and some part-timers to per diem work. “This is the best way to adjust to the drop in revenue, with the least impact on 9-1-1 calls,” said Lennox.

The Amador Water Agency will make a decision critical to the development of the Gold Rush Ranch project proposed for Sutter Creek. When a new development is proposed, the Water Agency must assess the availability of water to meet the needs of the new homes and businesses. On Thursday morning at their regular meeting, the Amador Water Agency Board of Directors will review the completed Water Supply Assessment for Gold Rush Ranch and Golf Course and decide whether or not to adopt the report. The Water Agency is also holding a Board Workshop on the Agency’s strategic plan on Wed, January 23. The Planning workshop is open to the public and will be held at 8:30 a.m. at the Jackson Rancheria Hotel in the Fire Conference Room.

Last Tuesday’s Ione City Council meeting covered a number of topics, including a development agreement, the local railroad and updates to existing codes. Council members were surprised by an unusual lack of public comment during the proceedings. The most significant ordinance to be adopted was an agreement with Ryland Homes regarding the Wildflower planned development. It will allow Ryland Homes to continue its plan to build some 201 residential units near the Howard Park recreation area.

The Amador County Board of Supervisors approved placing a modular office for the county’s Victim-Witness Program in the parking lot of the new courthouse on Argonaut Lane. Currently, the Victim-Witness office is located on Summit Street across from the old courthouse. But much of Victim-Witness activity is conducted during trials or hearings at the courthouse and the downtown office is now too far away to adequately serve victims, witnesses or the District Attorney’s staff, says D.A. Todd Riebe. Riebe says that last year his office assisted 589 victims and witnesses. DA staff and law enforcement officers are in and out of the Victim Witness office as well. When staff need to conference with victims or witnesses during a trial, they often have to meet in hallways or other public spaces, in full view of the perpetrator and in earshot of the opposing attorneys.

Sutter Creek resident Mike Sweeney just released his first book - Your Book of Poems.  Many of the poems in the book were written during Sweeney’s 20-year hike of the 2,650-mile Mexico to Canada, Pacific Crest Trail that he completed in August of this year.  At first, Sweeney says he just wanted to write a book of poetry on his hikes.  Eventually, however, he realized that he was writing a guide to overcoming writer’s block -- by setting goals to help inspire his fellow baby boomers get back to doing things rather than just being spectators. Your Book of Poems is a guide to using goals, action plans, and imagination to create a book in one year or less.  It contains everything needed (including templates) to not only write a book, but to use this experience as a bridge to accomplishing additional goals in music, art, sports, or whatever a person aspires to accomplish. Your Book of Poems is published by Infinity Publishing under Sweeney’s pen name: Sweonardo da Vinci.  He’ll be signing books is at Hein and Company on Saturday, December 8th from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM.   It can be purchased locally at The Bubble Gum and On Purpose bookstores in Sutter Creek and at Hein and Company in Jackson. 

Amador County Supervisors sent Drytown property owners and county planning staff back to the table to wrestle with a contentious zoning issue. The county planning department had proposed C1-X zoning for 7 parcels on the east side of Hwy 49 in Drytown. The C1-X designation would require the owners to apply for a use permit for any use of the property and the restricted designation was needed because of a potential lack of access, sewer and water supply to the parcels.

Monday night’s Sutter Creek City Council meeting turned into a major discussion regarding improvements to the city’s infrastructure. City Building Inspector Jeff Kelly gave a presentation on a proposed overhaul of Main Street, Sutter Creek, needed to make it more handicapped accessible. Sutter Creek City government is required by state law to improve handicapped accessibility on some parts of Main Street, to comply with the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Kelly said that the city is required to rework Main Street in at least six different places. Kelly suggested that the City Council conduct an informal bid process for the needed improvements, in order to get the most of the 50-55 thousand dollars they have earmarked for the project. He reminded council members that Sutter Creek does have an historical designation, so that handicapped accessibility will not take precedence over the town’s historic black slate sidewalks and steps.

Amador County is known for it’s variety of historical aspects. More recently the Knight Foundry in Sutter Creek has been a focus of local citizens trying to preserve the Foundry and all the history that it encompasses. The Knight Foundry Corporation, “An educational non-profit corporation has dedicated it’s time to acquiring, preserving and operating the Knight Foundry…” according to their mission statement. The Foundry was developed in 1872 by Samuel Newman Knight, a millwright from Maine.

Jackson City Council met with all five council members for the first time in the past month. At the meeting, Judy Jebian, spokesperson for the Concerned Citizens of Jackson requested that a member of the group serve an active role on the committee that will negotiate a development agreement on the proposed Jackson Hills Golf Community. The Concerned Citizens of Jackson recently gathered signatures for 2 ballot referenda which would put a hold on any permits on the Jackson Hills Project.