The Amador County Recreation Agency is once again raising funds to continue with the recreation build out in Amador County. Each year the agency relies heavily on local government agencies to finance the bulk of the annual budget. ACRA Executive Director Tracey Towner-Yep said during 2006-2007 member contributions came to $117,660 while the actual ACRA budget grew $220,000 a difference of $102,340 or 87%. Towner-Yep said as ACRA grows and becomes more self-sufficient, it is apparent that the base funding used to seed this operation needs to increase as well.  Although ACRA’s budget has more than doubled in size since 2004-2005, the member contributions have increased by only 8% per year, thus leaving a funding gap for the expanding agency and budget.

Representatives from the Amador Water Agency, the Board of Supervisors, local city councils and ARSA were all in attendance at the joint water committee meeting held this week. A topic of discussion was the Wicklow Way subdivision project and that projects impact on the Jackson Creek. Concerns included the fact that as much as 3 million cubic yards of dirt will be bulldozed and moved. This, in turn, is causing some concern that the downstream areas will be damaged.

The California State Court’s Third District Court of Appeals late yesterday issued the long awaited decision on the City of Plymouth’s Municipal Services Agreement with the Ione Band of Miwok. The decision pertains to the Amador County suit against the City over the city’s agreement between the tribe and the decision now completely voids the MSA and all its provisions. Accordingly, the decision of the City to enter into the MSA without complying with CEQA is void. For this reason the MSA and its support of the trust application of the Tribe is invalid. We will affirm the judgment granting the writ of mandate and enjoining the implementation of the MSA. In 2004 the City approved the MSA with the tribe.

Parents have become increasingly wary of letting their children use the internet as internet sex crimes targeting children have been on the rise. Locally, Amador County has also encountered these crimes. More recently in December the Sheriff’s Office arrested Richard Phillip Davidson, 48, of Pioneer after they received reports of a sexual predator trying to contact children via the internet

Sierra Pacific Industries’ latest timber harvest plan is generating quite a bit of interest- both from opponents and proponents of forest logging. Documents filed with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CalFire, show Sierra Pacific plans to log more than two-thirds of the 74,000 acres the company owns in Amador and Calaveras County over the next 80 years. The long term plan and application was originally filed in October of 2006. However at that time the state forestry department returned them because some information was missing or unclear according to state officials.