At Monday night’s Sutter Creek City Council meeting, the Council discussed some of the details of the proposed Erickson Ranch Annexation, a project that has been the subject of controversy in recent weeks. The Erickson Ranch property is comprised of 187 acres adjacent to the Hwy 49 bypass, between Tonzi and Sutter-Ione Roads. Although the item was not on the agenda, several residents commented on the proposal. Concerns among the public included the cost of maintaining the property, the limitations on public access to the land, and the Amador Land Trust’s involvement in land’s maintenance.

On Tuesday, the Amador County Board of Supervisors held two informational public workshops regarding updates to the county’s Hazardous Materials and Infectious Waste ordinances. Mike Israel, from the Environmental Health Department, explained that the ordinances are due for an update, as they have not been revised since 1980. The ordinances specifically affect facilities that utilize hazardous materials, produce hazardous waste, have above ground petroleum storage, or have underground storage tanks.

Amador County Recreation Agency is holding a planning meeting tonight for the Volcano Communications Park in Pine Grove. The public is invited to bring their ideas and hear what others say about construction of a new 22-acre park in Pine Grove. The future park property, donated to the county by Volcano Communications, runs between Mt. Zion Rd and Tabeaud Road. The park planning meeting tonight will run from 5 pm to 7:30 pm at the Pine Grove Town Hall. Two more park planning meetings will be held, one on Jan 24 in Pioneer – no location announced yet, and another on Jan 29 at Pine Grove Town Hall. For more information about the park planning process, call the Amador County Recreation Agency at 223-6349

At the Amador Water Agency meeting Thursday, General Manager Jim Abercrombie told Board members that the agency has received a letter from the attorney for the Foothill Conservancy, threatening to sue the agency if it moves forward with expanding the size of the pipe in the Plymouth Pipeline. As is customary with matters of litigation, the board will discuss this in closed session and no other details were provided. Chris Wright, director of the Foothill Conservancy says that changing the size of the pipe expands the capacity of the system from 1065 equivalent development units to 2730 units – more than doubling the amount of growth possible in Plymouth, at least as far as water is concerned. Wright says the addendum to the pipeline EIR that the Water Agency approved does not address the impact of that additional growth in Plymouth. Wright told TSPN that the Conservancy is not opposed to the pipeline itself – Plymouth needs the water, he said, but – he says the letter is to let the Agency know that they are serious about opposing the Plymouth pipeline unless there is additional environmental review.

The 3rd Annual Backcountry Film Festival will be held tonight at Pioneer Elementary School. Each year, the Snowlands Network hosts this film festival of grassroots backcountry films and shorts of winter wildlands and muscle-powered snowsports on public lands. This year’s films focus on the backcountry skiing lifestyle, sustainability, and the history of telemarking in China. Tickets are $7 at the door, doors open at 6:15 PM and the show begins at 6:45 pm. The Snowlands Network is a nonprofit organization promoting backcountry skiing, snowshoeing and snowboarding. Also associated with the Film Festival are a backcountry ski tour on Saturday, and a backcountry snowshoe tour on Sunday. For details about all these activities, see www.snowlands.org.

Westover Field got the go-ahead to lease vacant county-owned airplane hangars, even though they do not meet current building and fire codes. One of the hangars, built in the late 1960s, can house 6 airplanes, and the other, built in 1986, can accommodate 12 airplanes. New leases have been held up in the two community hangars, because of possible liability claims resulting from the code violations. Over the years, tenants have made modifications to the individual hangars, which the Building Dept. says do not meet current codes. Fire resistant partition walls, paved floors, and adequate electrical systems are the main items lacking in the large metal hangars.

Ione’s new Police Chief Michael Johnson and his narcotics K-9, Hawke, were sworn in at Monday night’s Ione City Council meeting. Police Chief Johnson’s wife and son were present at the meeting, along with officers from Ione and officers from Eureka, where Johnson last served as police sergeant. Johnson spoke briefly, and touched on the goals and objectives he has for the Ione P.D., including instilling professionalism, and moving forward and putting past controversies behind them.

A new Ione Police Chief will be sworn in tonight. Michael L. Johnson and K-9 officer Hawk will officially join the Ione Police Department when they are sworn in by the Ione City Council tonight at their regular council meeting. Johnson was one of 23 candidates for the job and was selected from six applicants who made it as far as the interview process. Johnson was recommended by Ione City Manager Kim Kerr, who worked with Johnson in her previous position in Eureka.

About three dozen peace loving citizens of Amador County turned out for a candlelight vigil Friday evening in Jackson.  This vigil is part of the Iraq Moratorium effort, sponsored by a number of peace seeking groups. The goal of the nationwide movement is to ask that people break their normal routine on the third Friday of every month and do something to promote peace.

The Ione City Council met Tuesday night to a full agenda, with each discussion item dealing mainly with finances. First on the agenda was the City’s Audited Financial Statements for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2006. A recent audit included an adverse opinion on the city’s financial statements including lack of historical documentation, a lack of documentation to support accounts receivables and deposit liability accounts, seven- instances of non-compliance required to be reported under Government Auditing Standards, and 22-matters involving the internal control over financial reporting and its operations.