A Mother Lode Community blood drive will be held on Thursday, October 4 from 11 a.m. –  6 p.m. at the Jackson Civic Center, 33 Broadway, Jackson. Blood Source, a not-for-profit community blood bank is holding the blood drive to meet the community’s need for blood and blood products. Thanks to the generosity of local donors when you receive care at a hospital in our region, the blood you receive comes from BloodSource blood donors. Sutter Amador Hospital receives its blood from BloodSource. Giving blood is easy, safe and takes less than one hour, but only about 5 percent of the estimated 60 percent of eligible Americans donate blood. To give blood, you must be in generally good health, free from cold symptoms for at least 48 hours; be at least 17 years old (16 years old with parental consent); and weigh at least 110 pounds.  There is no upper age limit for donating blood. Prospective donors must bring a photo ID. All walk-ins are welcome.  Sutter Amador Hospital is sponsoring the blood drive. 

Thursday, the Plymouth city council held a public hearing to receive input on a proposed capital improvement plan for fiscal years 2008-2012. City Engineer Roark Webber informed the council that this plan, if adopted, does not authorize the city to construct any of the improvements but it is a commitment from the council to complete the projects after obtaining proper funding. Webber told the council that a large number of the projects in the capital improvement plan are paid for by developer fees. City streets and intersections which are planned for improvement include: several parts of Main Street, including its intersection with state highway 49.

At yesterday’s Amador Water Agency Board of Directors meeting, Duke Foster, Project Coordinator for non-profit group Resources for Humanity, requested the Agency to take temporary title of about 30 acres of land for watershed protection and possible recreation use along Jackson Creek.  The property along Hwy 88 would be paid for by a grant from the State under a program designed to protect water quality in lakes, streams and wetlands in the Sierra Nevada/Cascade Mountain regions.

The Amador County Catholic community will celebrate its 7th Annual Tri- Parish Mass and Picnic on Sunday, September 30, at the Italian picnic grounds on Highway 49 in the Sutter Hill area. Bishop William K.Weigand, Bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento, will preside at the outdoor Mass, which begins at 10:30 AM. St. Patrick, Immaculate Conception, and Sacred Heart Parishes comprise the Tri-Parish Catholic community of Amador County. A picnic lunch will be provided after Mass—please bring a dessert to share such as a plate of cookies or brownies. For your comfort, you may wish to bring a folding chair for Mass, as available seating is limited. Call 223-0168 or 267-5602 for more information.

Speaking of workshops, Amador Government #101,  a workshop for the residents of Amador County is being offered to all residents.  These workshops are an effort to allow citizens an opportunity to hear how our local government works directly from the mouths of the folks who run it. 

How do we want the story of Amador County preserved? What historical documents are important?  Those and many other questions are being posed regarding the county facility that houses the jewels of history for the county. Retired archivist Larry Cenotto (sin-auto) appeared before a committee of two supervisors as a first step. Cenotto had requested the item for discussion in this format because of his concerns over several pressing issues. First, he addressed the issues surrounding documents currently held in the former Amador County Superior Court building. The ownership of these documents was discussed. Currently the courts are a state run organization so does these mean that all of the documents are now owned by the state?

A lengthy and heated dispute over the ongoing Amador County General Plan tied up debate at the Board of Supervisor’s meeting for nearly two hours Tuesday morning. Vince DeStigter, President of local watchdog group Amador Citizens for Responsible Government, reiterated his group’s insistency on having more public forums before the plan progresses into its final stages. Of particular concern to his group seems to be personal property rights, particularly for residents in the upcountry region. “The great majority (in our survey) agreed with our concern that the proposed General Plan could result in “Down Zoning” properties,” said DeStigter. “I think the County goes out of their way to screw property owners,” said one Pioneer resident in the survey conducted through DeStigter’s group.

Jim Conklin, Executive Director of the newly formed Amador Business Council, agreed with DeStigter’s request. “Spending extra time and going through the elements prior to CEQA is going to save you more time and money than it would in reverse,” said Conklin. The debate over the General Plan has been a lengthy and complicated process. Skeptics have placed a particular emphasis on property rights and zoning during past workshops and public forums, often drawing battle lines between themselves and GPAC Planning Commissioners who have overseen the development process. During comment, Planning Director Susan Grijalva faced the Board to try and clarify many areas of the plan that seemed to be leading to public confusion. She noted that the Draft Environmental Impact Report, or EIR, and the proposed General Plan will both be released concurrently for public comment, and that the Planning Commission has every intention of getting full public input before recommending a final plan to the Supervisors.

The EIR will determine or develop some of the draft implementation measures that will influence the General Plan. But, as Supervisor Ted Novelli pointed out, “The general plan doesn’t just address planning, but zoning is totally different that the general plan.” During her turn at the podium, upcountry resident Debbie Dunn came to the defense of Grijalva and the Planning Commissioners. “The GPAC commissioners are members of the public who have endured 18 months of volunteer work…I would encourage the public to hold their own meeting, or have the Amador Citizens (for Responsible Government) hold their own meeting,” she said. In the end, the Supervisors agreed upon a motion to hold a set of public forums on October 14th, 15th and 16th. Said Grijalva, “We’re not in a rush to get this done. We’re trying to get it done right.”

The City of Jackson has prevailed in court to invalidate a referendum challenging certification of the Environmental Impact Report, or EIR, for the City’s General Plan Land Use Element, Circulation Element and a revised Development Zoning Code.  The City Council approved the EIR in March, 2008, however, before the City could complete the approval of the three projects subject to the EIR, a referendum petition was circulated to require the City Council to either repeal its approval of the EIR or place it on the ballot for voter consideration. California law specifies a process for challenging certain actions of the City Council by referendum. 

It is the City Council’s position that approval of a complex document written to assess the environmental impacts of a project under the California Environmental Quality Act is not one of the actions that can properly be challenged by referendum and that other requirements of the referendum process had not been met. After careful consideration, the Jackson City Council authorized the City Attorney to file an action with the courts to invalidate the referendum.  In a ruling dated July 18, Judge Harlan ruled that the referendum is invalid and the City’s writ to invalidate the referendum was granted. With the EIR certification issue resolved with the courts, the City Council will be reviewing a schedule for adoption of two General Plan Elements and the Development Code at its meeting this coming Monday. 

Former Amador County Supervisor and recent Calaveras Community Development Director Stephanie Moreno has been pushed to resign amid allegations of misconduct and creating gridlock in her department. The controversy became the centerpiece of recent Supervisors meetings and raised questions about both the Board’s hiring procedures and Moreno’s credibility. Moreno, who was employed in Amador County under her previous name of D’Agostino, was criticized in a recent grand jury report for “confrontational behavior”, “lacking the technical skills and sufficient related experience to successfully perform her job”, and mismanaging county funds, among a number of other accusations.

County Administrative Officer Bob Lawton this afternoon announced that Moreno was resigning from her 118,000 dollar a year job effective August 1st. The grand jury’s findings divided the Calaveras Supervisors through heated arguments in recent board meetings. Supervisor Tom Tryon has accused three other Supervisors of conspiring to protect Moreno and holding a calculated opposition against the grand jury. “They weren't interested in fact finding, they were interested in undoing the grand jury report,” Tryon said. Supervisor Wilensky has fired back with references to Tryon’s continued opposition to hiring Moreno. In the end, the Board voted 4 to 1 to accept Moreno’s resignation during a special meeting late Friday, with Supervisor Tryon opposed. Moreno’s resignation comes after years of complaints from builders and contractors who say she continually stood in the way of them doing their job.

Monday night marked the official opening of the long-awaited Sutter Creek “Gateway” project at the corner of old Highway 49 and the 49 bypass in Sutter Creek. A number of officials involved in the project were in attendance, including Sutter Creek city council members, Amador City Mayor Richard Lynch, Caltrans District 10 Director Kome Ajise, Supervisor Louis Boitano and representatives from the Amador County Transportation Commission, or ACTC.

According to ACTC Executive Director Charles Field, the ribbon-cutting ceremony was a modest and informal celebration of the hard work and investment that led to the project’s completion. “All of these projects that involve federal funds can sometimes be very complicated and hard to complete,” said Field. Indeed, Sutter Creek business representatives had first asked for a redesign of the grassy corner lot back in 1994 in order to make the gateway to the town more welcoming.

ACTC was granted money from the federal government and in turn awarded those funds to Sutter Creek and Amador City to create attractive signage that now bookends the 49 bypass. “In the past, a lot of people driving just missed Sutter Creek,” said Field. ACTC, Caltrans, Sutter Creek and Amador City all worked together to manage and implement the project design. So far, feedback over the project design has generally been positive. Field says there is a possibility that the lettering could be changed to a different color so the city titles are more visible from the road, but that is tentative.