Amador County – Ione last week gave Notice of Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report for its Wastewater Master Plan, and set a public scoping meeting for 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 17th at Ione City Hall. The announcement marked the start of a 30-day comment period on the Master Plan. Ione City Manager Kim Kerr said that, due to the holidays, the city will accept comments through the close of business on December 29th. The master plan will include two facilities in Ione, the Ione Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Castle Oaks Wastewater Reclamation Plant. The notice said the wastewater service area in Ione is divided by Sutter Creek, with approximately 450 acres on either side of the creek. It serves 3,300 residents and a small number of commercial customers. Project elements include construction already completed in accordance with a Settlement Agreement between the City and a neighbor of the existing wastewater facilities, some of which elements require additional California Environmental Quality Act review. Phase 1 would include expansion of the City’s secondary and tertiary treatment facilities to provide more treatment capacity to the City. Phase 2 would include disposal of the City’s treated wastewater. Phase 3 would involve storage of treated effluent. The notice said “It is likely that mitigation would be required for some impacts,” but noted that it is “Ione’s intent to mitigate significant impacts.” A preliminary list of Potential Environmental Impacts noted possible impacts to Hydrology and Water Quality; Biological Resources; Geology, Soils, and Seismicity; Air Quality; Aesthetics; Agriculture, Land Use, and Recreation; Transportation and Traffic; and Cultural Resources; along with the possible adverse affects of Hazardous Materials. The project IS meant to expand services and also meet conditions of and lift a 2003 “Cease & Desist” order from the Regional Water Quality Control Board. The order came “due to concerns that insufficiently treated wastewater might be seeping from the existing percolation ponds at the secondary (treatment plant) into nearby Sutter Creek.” The Ione Wastewater Master Plan is available for review at City Hall. Send public comments to City Manager Kim Kerr at 1 East Main Street, P.O. Box 398, Ione, CA 95640. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – Black Friday 2008 received some good reviews from a few local businesses last week. Wolf Hein of Hein & Company Booksellers, 204 Main Street, said it was his “very best Black Friday for sales ever.” It was up 15 percent from last year on Friday and up 10 percent on Saturday. His bookstore has had the best November since it opened 20 years ago. Most of his items are used and discounted and he saw people in tough times were “value shopping” – thus thinking more about the purchases. He said he saw the same thing happen after 9-11, “when times are bad, people slow down.” He said a used book costs one-third the price of a new book and makes a thoughtful present. Further down Main, Richard and Sherry Small of Richard & Sherry’s Wood Carvings, 33 Main, said they had a busy Black Friday. Richard Small said he sold a lot of bigger items, like a slot machine and sculptures. It wasn’t a record but it was good business, with sales similar to 2007. Richard Glade, owner of Full Circle Trading Company, 15 Main, said he also was busy Friday and Saturday, during the Black Friday Open House. He saw some people coming back from last year and also had first-time visitors to his shop. And he sold three of his American Indian-themed acrylic paintings, a first for him on a Day-after-Thanksgiving shopping day. Glade said his sales were up about 20 percent over last year. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – Ione City Manager Kim Kerr will report today that the city is almost fully compliant in its reports to the state for its wastewater treatment plant testing, though one report will never be made. In a February 11th letter to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, Kerr said Ione “is unable to submit the 2008 first quarter self monitoring Groundwater” report from Castle Oaks Golf Course. “Due to a miscommunication” between City Chief Operator and the city, “the city failed to sample the groundwater monitoring wells associated with Castle Oaks between January 1st and March 31st, 2008.” Kerr said “We believe that the lack of … data for first quarter 2008 has minimal effect on the evaluation of groundwater impacts.” She said irrigation at the golf course stopped November 11, 2007 and did not start again until April 6, 2008, so “the monitoring data during the first quarter 2008 would have reflected a period of time during no irrigation.” She said: “It is also believed that the first quarter report would have shown the same results as second, third, and fourth quarter reports,” which showed “no degradation.”

In a February 9th letter to the Central Valley Board, Kerr explained the reasons for delinquent monitoring reports, noting staffing inconsistencies, ARSA emergencies, staff health issues and work related to wastewater master planning efforts among the reasons. Kerr said: “nonetheless, city management believed that the Chief Operator had the skill and expertise necessary to maintain compliance with the monitoring and reporting program,” while also addressing emergencies and planning. Kerr said it was discovered last February that quarterly reports were going unfiled. City Council approved contracting out quarterly reports. But a request for proposals was not released until Fall of 2008, due to “workload issues and other priorities.” Kerr said in the letter that “city management did not fully appreciate the scope and extent of the delays and expected the chief operator to maintain compliance with reporting requirements until the city could finalize a contract” for quarterly reporting. Kerr said the city is in compliance and will remain so. She said effective immediately, “the city manager will review and sign off on all future monitoring reports,” and “Implement performance standards for submittal of all required reports.” The city is “soliciting proposals for wastewater operators who can manage and perform all required operational tasks.” Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The Jackson City Council received a mid-fiscal-year budget update Monday and heard that its finances were not bucking any trends. City Manager Mike Daly said tax revenues were in a steady decline for the city, including 5 months last fiscal year of payments totaling zero dollars. Another “payment” figured in January, a “triple flip sales tax,” corrected an overpayment, in effect deducting $76,912 for last month. Daly said 2007-2008 had zero sales tax receipts in August, September, November, December and March. Jackson sales tax revenue in 2003-2004 totaled $1.23 Million, and dropped in the fiscal year beginning in 2004 to $973,000. It jumped the next two years, to $1.24 Million in 2005-2006 and $1.34 Million in 200-6-07. Last year, sales tax revenue dropped to $866,000 and through the first 6 months this year totaled $308,000. Daly said: “Obviously sales taxes have not fared well in the last couple of years.” The city has lost several businesses to Martell, including Safeway, Kragen, Mother Lode Music and Prospect Motors. Daly said the city had $87,000 in revenue sharing last year, down from $250,000 to $300,000 in previous years. The city has made $64,000 in building permits this year and should come close to $100,000 again this year.

Transient Occupancy Tax revenue is on “another area downturn,” Daly said, and this year’s TOT taxes total about $285,000, under the budgeted $310,000. Those taxes fuel the city’s General Fund, which he said started at $1.5 Million this year and is expected to end the year at around $1.1 Million. The city girded for the expected losses by not filling an administrative clerk position that came open, saving about $50,000 or $60,000. The city building department reduced staff from 3 to 2 personnel and Jackson Police dropped one officer with a vacancy that came up. Councilman Keith Sweet asked what they can do in the next 4-and-a-half months to reduce spending. Daly said “you don’t want to spend your way out of being a city.” Councilman Wayne Garibaldi asked when are members of the City Council is going to sit down with Daly and “talk about the future.” Daly said any time, noting that another good route is the revitalization committee. Mayor Connie Gonsalves said that committee’s work included recruiting and retaining businesses. Gonsalves appointed Councilmen Sweet and Pat Crew to the committee to work with Daly. Gonsalves said: “Just keep us posted.” In another sign of the times, Daly said the ACTC told that the county would share about $730,000 from the Federal Economic Stimulus bill for road projects. Meanwhile, ACTC gathered a list of prospective projects around Amador County, with an estimated total price tag of $88 Million. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – Amador County will share about $1.5 million of the $819 billion federal stimulus package. On Tuesday, Ione City Manager Kim Kerr reported the numbers on the federal stimulus, of which California would get $30 billion, with that trickling down to Amador County, all for transportation projects. Kerr said “we are basically getting double what the state normally gets for gasoline taxes.” She said the city needs to update its list of “shovel ready” road projects to give it to the Amador County Transportation Commission, including projects that we ready to start in 120 days and others that were ready to start in 365 days. Kerr said the federal strings attached to the funding meant that besides California Environmental Quality Act requirements, the jobs also must meet National Environmental Protection Agency requirements. She said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger asked for a waiver of NEPA requirements, but she did not know if the state would get that. The city council and Kerr discussed some roadwork needs around the city, such as repairing Sacramento Street and work on several streets in “Old Town East” (from Main Street to Foothill Street). Kerr also mentioned extension of Golf Links Drive, to the JTS property, part of a “developer agreement” with the city. She said the federal funding could be leveraged to do the job and JTS could reimburse the city. But the cost of that work was estimated at $6 million. Kerr said “that is probably the least likely one, based on the price.” She said an ACTC subcommittee ranks projects and makes recommendations on completing them. Mayor Lee Ard said he thought rebuilding Old Town sidewalks was a “priority project” for the city. Kerr said the trouble was that the federal stimulus funding could only be used on “collector roads,” or main thoroughfares, and they must be identified as collector roads on federal maps. Councilman David Plank asked if one project, putting sidewalks on Highway 124, was a Caltrans project. Kerr said it was a collector and Caltrans wanted the project, but had no funding. Councilwoman Andrea Bonham said safety priority should be building sidewalks to the schools and to Howard Park. Staff will submit a list of projects to ACTC. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The City of Ione late last month received a notice of violation for delinquent monitoring reports at its wastewater treatment plant, and could face a $2.56 million fine. Ione City Manager Kim Kerr said the remaining three reports will be finished and sent to her this week by contractors, and the city should expect to pay less that the sum indicated on a letter from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board. Kerr said: “That’s definitely the worst-case scenario. We don’t expect to be paying that much.” The fines are based on late reports of groundwater sampling, required with wastewater discharges. Steve E. Rosenbaum, senior engineering geologist for the regional board, wrote a letter January 28th to Kerr, in which he said a review of the Ione’s wastewater facility reporting from “January 2006 to the present revealed that of the 46 reports due during this time frame, 39 were submitted after the due date.” According to water code, he said failure to submit Waste Discharge Requirements reports “within 30 days from the due date is a priority violation. For the period reviewed, ... Ione has accrued 19 late report priority violations.” Rosembaum said the “most egregious of these reporting violations are the delinquent quarterly groundwater monitoring reports. The failure to submit the quarterly groundwater monitoring reports for the past 5 quarters constitutes a serious failure on the part of the city and gross violation of the WDRs.” Kerr said Ione is not in compliance, adding, “I knew we had a problem. I didn’t know that it was that bad.” The City Council sent out Requests For Proposals last October for a contractor to update and report on samples taken but not reported. The city signed a contract with Condor Earth Technologies Incorporated in November. She said 3 reports remain to be filed, including 2007 and 2008 Annual Reports, and a First Quarter Report from 2008, all 3 of which she expected to get this week. The Rosembaum letter said the annual reports were due February 1st. Condor reported that one required surface water sample was not performed in the second quarter of 2008, which Kerr said would have to be reported as such. She was unsure of the fine amount, but said once the reports are completed, “we will go from there.” Kerr said the issue was to be discussed at last night’s city council meeting, to update council members. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - The Sutter Creek City Council sped through a series of brief but important agenda items during their meeting Tuesday evening. The first of these was a resolution of support for the recently closed auto dealerships Prospect Motors, Amador Motors and Amador Toyota. Sutter Creek is the final in a string of local council’s to issue formal proclamations of support for the mammoth business, which shut down shortly before Christmas. The proclamation read that the “City of Sutter Creek…urges General motors to take action to restore the dealerships to operation; and urges our state and federal elected officials to ensure the financial bailouts intended to help the national economy will also benefit our local businesses and communities.” The council approved the resolution unanimously. Next on the agenda was the election of a new Mayor and Mayor Pro Tempore. Vice Mayor Bill Hepworth promptly proposed that Gary Wooten continue as Mayor, which was approved unanimously. Wooten jokingly promised that this “will be my last year as mayor.” Wooten immediately recommended Hepworth to continue as Vice Mayor and the council retained its current makeup. Another big topic of discussion was the appointment of Planning Commissioners. Newly elected and reelected council members Wooten, Murphy and Anderson appointed three members to serve on the City Planning Commission. Each appointed commissioner “works at the pleasure of the council member,” said Wooten. Crosby said that “commissioners review things to the nth detail, so I think we’ll be in good shape,” referring the Gold Rush Ranch and Golf Resort project. As a show of thanks, Hepworth offered to pick up dinner for each planning commissioner and their spouse when the Gold Rush project is finally completed. Wooten said, “the new word is transparency and they do a good job of it.” Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The Amador Water Agency is looking at whether to raise wastewater fees and staff expects to recommend doing so, after state fee hikes. The AWA board meets Thursday and will receive a staff report on wastewater fee hikes by the state and corresponding impacts on the smaller customer systems under the AWA umbrella. Engineering Manager Gene Mancebo in a report to the board said “staff is currently working on a financial review of the wastewater systems and likely will be recommending a rate increase based on increased operational costs.” He said the recent state Regional Water Quality Control Board rate hike “is one of the items that are included in the financial review and a factor in proposing rate increases.” Wastewater system fees for Lake Camanche and Improvement District Number 1 were raised in July 2006, Mancebo said, and current annual state fees represent about 2 percent of Camanche’s operating budget and about 4 percent of WWID Number 1’s budget. The report asks for no action by the board but tells that the Regional Water Quality Control Board last year increased annual fees. Mancebo said it “can have a significant impact” on AWA customers, especially those with fewer customer bases, such as View Point Estates, with 5 connections; Surrey Junction, which has 8 customers; and Eagles Nest, with 14. Mancebo said the “one-size-fits-all” state annual fees do not consider the “very small systems.” Staff has asked the state board to consider consolidating the smaller wastewater systems under one permit for AWA, “instead of one permit and one annual fee for each.” Mancebo said to day the regional board “has not been able to execute the consolidation” but it is “sympathetic to the agency’s concerns.” To minimize fees, AWA consolidated 7 systems and plans to do more pending revised reports of waste discharge from other systems. Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – If it’s ready for the shovel, the Amador Water Agency believes it could be funded by the California Clean Water Revolving Fund, to the tune of $450 Million. The AWA Board of Directors meets Thursday and will discuss, among other things, the prospect for its “Shovel Ready” projects to get federal funding from the national Economic Stimulus Bill. The bill, introduced on September 26th of 2008, “would address the nation’s need to bolster the economy and create jobs,” General Manager Jim Abercrombie said in a report for Thursday’s meeting. Abercrombie said “it is our understanding that a new bill will provide Federal Capitalized Grants for water and wastewater infrastructure projects.” He said the state Clean Water Revolving Fund “is anticipated to receive $450 Million to fund shovel ready projects.” Though the bill is not yet written, Abercrombie said staff has compiled a “2009 Ready to Construct Project” list and plans to use the list “to meet with both federal and state agencies responsible to distribute the grants once the bill is approved.” The $42.8 million list of projects includes $31.5 million in funding to be sought from federal sources. The top projects include the Upcountry Gravity Supply Line, listed at an estimated $11.6 Million, seeking $8 Million in federal funding; and a Camanche Lake area surface water treatment plant, estimated to cost $10.5 million, for which the AWA would seek $7.5 million. The gravity supply line is listed for a start date of this summer, and all 9 projects list start dates of the upcoming spring, summer or fall. A pipeline for the Amador Canal is listed at a total cost of $5.6 million, looking for $4 million from the federal government. A water conservation pipeline is also listed to cost $5.6 Million, seeking $4 million from feds, and would replace the Ione Raw-Water Canal and “conserve an estimated 1,000 acre-feet of water annually.” The Lake Camanche Water System would cost $4.5 million, with $3.5 million sought from feds. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - The Amador County Recreation Agency Board of Directors bid farewell to four of its members at its last meeting of 2008. Retiring Supervisor Richard Escamilla said he was proud of how far ACRA had come. He said he will be spending more time at the Kennedy Mine, where he has overseen donated lumber, building of a stage, fixing up of the kitchen and installation of a sound system. Escamilla said “one of my goals for the Kennedy Mine is to get more use out of it” for recreation. Amador City Councilman Richard Lynch, who is also retiring from the city council and the ACRA board, expressed his satisfaction at being part of ACRA. “Unfortunately, it’s been a well-kept secret how well we’ve done,” Lynch said. He hopes ACRA increases communications and he offered himself “as a source of any advice or consultation - free of charge.” Chairwoman Debbie Dunn, who was sworn into office in early December as District 4 board member of the Amador Water Agency, is also leaving the ACRA board, on which she represented the Upcountry Community Council. Dunn thanked Escamilla and Lynch for their work on the board and said she hoped Upcountry parks would remain part of the goal of the ACRA board. Sutter Creek Councilman Bill Hepworth also gave thanks to Escamilla and Lynch and outgoing Jackson Mayor Rosalie Pryor Escamilla on their work in recreation, fund-raisers and meetings. Jackson Councilman Wayne Garibaldi, elected to his first term after being appointed to the council, said he hopes to continue to be a part of the ACRA board. He said he also has a goal of helping Jackson become the economic and entertainment center of Amador County. The ACRA board next meets January 14th. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).