Also at Thursday’s meeting, the Plymouth City Council considered and discussed the submittal of a Home Application to the State Department of Housing and Community Development. The money, if granted, would go to assisting individuals in the area either through the First Time Homebuyer Program, which provides loans for the acquisition of a dwelling on the open market and allows up to 10,000 dollars for rehabilitation of the home, or through Owner Occupied Rehabilitation Program, which assists owners to make the necessary repairs and improvements to comply with federal, state, and local building codes for their primary residences. The item was presented by Paul Ashby of the California Engineering Company, who has been working closely with the City for the past two years. The City of Plymouth has been awarded approximately 500,000 dollars in past grants, which has assisted four families in the area. The cost for preparation and submittal of the application would equate to 3,500 dollars, however it is the only fiscal impact to the City, as there is no cash match requirement or other monetary condition on the funds. The City also scheduled a Draft Budget Workshop for the 08-09 fiscal year for Wednesday, August 20th at 4 pm. The City has not adopted a budget, and is currently working off of an interim budget; however, this is not a long term solution and city staff is working hard to prepare all documents and necessary information for the council to adopt a final budget. And lastly, the City Council decided to designate the 1,000 dollar donation received from the Rotary Club earlier this summer to the public pool for maintenance and operations.

With the Amador County Transportation Commission, or ACTC’s, recent decision to scrap the Pine Grove Bypass project already one month in the past, TSPN found that many upcountry residents were not even aware of the change. When told that ACTC is in instead in favor of widening the highway, residents’ responses were all over the map. Some feel widening the highway will hurt the area’s businesses and prosperity. Local resident Debbie Dunn feels that adding lanes to the highway will wipe out essential parking, especially in busy lots like the Pine Grove Village, which houses the Pine Grove Post Office, and the Pine Cone Drug lot, home to Pioneer Travel, Pine Grove Donuts and Frank A’s Pizza. Thanh Nguyen, owner of Pine Cone Drug, doesn’t like the widening project “if it’s going to affect my parking,” and added “I don’t see where widening the highway is going to decrease traffic congestion.” Pine Grove resident Ted Wilson wants things to stay the same. “I like the way it is now. We don’t want a big boulevard like in Elk Grove, and we don’t want traffic diverted. We get a lot of recreational traffic going up to Kirkwood, and that’s good for business.” Jill Wade, owner of Sierra Homes & Properties in Pine Grove, isn’t really opposed to widening the highway, just as long as “it doesn’t affect businesses in a negative way.” “It’s better than the bypass, because that would be worse,” says Wade, referring to the amount of traffic that would essentially be diverted away from her business. Another option that is still in its infancy is moving Pine Grove Elementary School, the Post Office and several other large businesses to a location just outside of Pine Grove.  Mark Bowman, a local real estate developer, wants to use the tax dollars available to move the school and businesses that cause traffic congestion to a prime spot along the straight-away between Aqueduct-Volcano and Aqueduct-Grove Roads. Bowman said, “Pine Grove is second in the county for the number of cars per day (behind Jackson’s Hwy. 49). Highway 88 through Pine Grove sees over 14,000 cars per day.” And with school starting up again this Wednesday, Bowman noted the growing conflict between school traffic and local businesses. With limited funds and ever increasing traffic congestion putting pressure on the situation, ACTC must now carefully consider all of the elements before it proceeds with a solution. We’ll have more on this project for you in a later news broadcast.

Amador County - A property tax assessment scam that alleges payments are required for assessments is sweeping Amador County. Private companies using clever names like “Tax Adjusters,” “Tax Review,” or “Tax Reassessment,” are sending mailers in official-looking envelopes charging fees for the filing of decline-in-value reassessment applications. “In these unsettling economic times as the values of homes and properties decline, it is my responsibility, as County Assessor, to ensure that no property owner pays more than their fair share of taxes. People worry about foreclosures and paying property taxes even with the protection of Proposition 13. Now, they have to worry about being taken advantage of by companies offering the lure of lower taxes,” said County Tax Assessor Jim Rooney. These mailers are written in language with deadline warnings which can easily be mistaken for an official government form. “This office will be reviewing the values of many homes this year without the filing of forms and we’ll be doing it for free. I want to stress that there is no charge associated with the assessment review,” said Rooney. The guidelines for determining property taxes are set through Proposition 13. Another lesser known regulation, Proposition 8, “allows a temporary reduction in assessed value when the current market value of a property is less than the value shown on the property tax bill.” In 2008, the Assessor’s office initiated a review of all properties in the county purchased or built between July 1, 2004 and June 30, 2007. In 2009, they are expanding the number to be reviewed for homes that were purchased between July 2003 and June 2008. Property owners who are considered eligible for the review will receive a letter by the end of June notifying them of the results. Owners who disagree with the results of the review or those who were not included in the review, may file a Request for Assessment Review with the Assessor’s Office through December 31. In addition, owners who still disagree with the value may file a Formal Application for Changed Assessment with the independent County Assessment Appeals Board between July 2 and November 30. If you have questions or concerns, contact the Assessors Office at 223-6351 or Jim Rooney at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors voted to move the Victim-Witness Department office and the Public Conservator’s Department office during their regular meeting Tuesday. The Victim-Witness Department will move into the space occupied by the Public Conservator Department, which will first move into the new Health & Human Services building on Conductor Boulevard near Sutter Hill. Amador County Chief Administrative Officer Terri Daly read a letter to the Amador County Administrative Committee asking for the move of the Victim-Witness office, into the District Attorney’s office on Court Street. Daly said the “Public conservator’s office is in need of more office space” and the county has “known about this situation for quite some time.”

The second issue was the Victim-Witness Office. Daly said it is located across the street from the old courthouse and the Victim-Witness office is budgeted to pay $13,200 in rent and “the landlord has expressed interest in our operation vacating the property.” Daly said the Health & Human Service building now has office space available and she proposed moving the Public Conservator’s office to the Health & Human Services building. Daly said “the conservator’s office shares many clients with other operations at the HHS building and the space is available to suite the conservator’s office.” She said the District Attorney supports the move. District Attorney Todd Riebe told the supervisors that the move of the Public Conservator’s office would open up space for evidence storage in the DA’s building. After moving the conservator’s office to the HHS building, the vacant office space in the DA’s office could then house the Victim-Witness operation. Daly said “moving the Victim-Witness office into the DA’s building would eliminate payment of the rent.” In addition, DA staff would be available to back-up and better support the 2-person victim-witness operation. Daly said the county would like to enact the moves by January 1, 2009. The board approved the moves on a 5-0 vote. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - A certified forester told the Sutter Creek Planning Commission last Wednesday that the dying oak trees at the Highway 49 Bypass are an avoidable problem. Ralph Osterling of Osterling And Associates, a consultant for Gold Rush Golf & Ranch Resort, said that similar climates produced big trees in short time frames, with the right, intensive care at the outset. Osterling showed an 11-year-old valley oak that was 25 feet tall. He said the tree was raised from an acorn at the site, with TLC, that is, a good initial care package. Osterling was talking for Gold Rush in the developer’s efforts to get its Environmental Impact Report analyzed by the planning commission through the city of Sutter Creek’s General Plan. Osterling said that intense care included wrapping the area around the trees with a mesh to keep out voles, or field mice, that otherwise will eat the bark of the seedlings, which kills the seedling oak trees. He said grasses beat the tree roots to the ground’s moisture and thus must also be kept clear of the area around the seedlings. He said he was asked to look at the mitigation oak plantings made around the Highway 49 Bypass by Caltrans, but he had not. He said planting oak trees can be problematic, if it is not done correctly, the trees can fail. They are watered for three years and cared for a total of 5 years. Osterling said “with maintenance and proper techniques, it will work. We’ll get this kind of growth because they are not allowing these problems to occur.” At the request of Commissioner Mike Kirkley, Osterling showed an 8-year-old blue ok that was 25 feet tall, which he grew in the San Fernando Valley, where there is the same elevation and weather patterns. Commissioner Cort Strandberg asked why trees would be planted and not maintained. Osterling said some plantings of oak required in mitigation then say nothing of care and maintenance, so the trees are not cared for a die off. Developers suggested a 20-acre tree habitat, along with saving about 10 percent of the trees in the project, would mitigate for the loss of about 14,000 trees in the project. That included trees that are 5 inches in diameter at a height of 54 inches. The planning Commission meets as needed on Mondays in Sutter Creek. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

By Jennifer Wilson - The partial smoking ban in Downtown Jackson was crushed out, for now, at Monday’s Jackson City Council meeting. The council may be taking a step back on its proposed smoking ban after holding a first reading of the proposed ordinance, drafted by Councilman Andy Rodriguez and City Manager Mike Daly. Public feelings about the smoking ordinance have thus far been mixed.  Jimmy Yep, a downtown property owner said “it may scare off people who want to come downtown.”  Yep said that many of his tenants smoke on their balconies.  Downtown business owner Stan Lukowicz thought the council’s time would be better spent on more important issues.  “I don’t see how having a smoking ordinance in downtown will help business,” Lukowicz said.  Others thought there were too many loopholes in the document and that the ordinance would be hard to enforce.  Walt Hoeser, a Jackson Planning Commissioner, thought the ordinance was too lax and should be “stronger.”  Conversely, Planning Commissioner Dave Butow was concerned about bias on the council.  “A legislative body cannot allow its own bias to color its decisions,” Butow said. The council acknowledged all public comment and agreed to revisit the ordinance and get further public input.  Councilman Rodriguez suggested not taking up any more of city staff’s time, and asked for another volunteer to work on the document.  Councilman Wayne Garabaldi volunteered to work on the ordinance with Rodriguez.  Additionally, Vice Mayor Connie Gonsalves noted that the original complaint came from downtown merchants and that the main concern was the bar patrons who smoked outside of any of the three bars on Main Street. “Maybe we need to work with (the bar) owners on how to provide more places outside to smoke,” Gonsalves said.  In addition to conducting the first reading, Daly indicated that a copy would be disseminated to downtown merchants and property owners for their input.

By Holly Boitano - The City of Sutter Creek is approaching a half a million dollar deficit from the 2007-2008 fiscal year. That was the bad news last Friday in a Sutter Creek City Council Special Meeting, where the city's money woes took center stage. "To summarize our performance last year, I'd say it looks pretty dismal," said Councilman Brent Parsons after looking through the numbers. The City's Financial Advisor, Jeff Gardner, walked the Council through three data sets, including the General, Internal Services and Enterprise Funds. Gardner said the deficit could be summed up starting with a few items in the General Fund. The City realized $255,000 in sales tax revenue for 07-08, about $125,000 less than anticipated. The City is down another $110,000 in revenue from other taxes and permits. Considerable over-expenditures also occurred in the Police and Planning departments. City Manager and Police Chief Rob Duke said that in order to save money, the City will not replace a police officer who recently left the force. During the ensuing discussion of planning expenses, Planning Commissioner Mike Kirkley entered into a heated round of finger-pointing with some members of the council. Kirkley's assertions included that the council is overzealous with its contracting out for inconsequential services, and dependes too much on anticipated revenue from the Gold Rush Ranch development for upgrades to existing infrastructure. Councilman Parsons, in turn, criticized the Planning Commission's demand for "high cost planning consultants" during the City's General Plan update. To compensate for the deficit, Gardner has trimmed department budgets by 10 to 15 percent, and City personnel will not see an increase in salary this year. In addition, the City plans to increase sewer rates yet again. On the bright side, some revenue is expected in 2009 from the Sutter Hill annexation and the Crossroads Retail Development. The City will complete its budget review at its regular meeting September 15th.

Plymouth Mayor Jon Colburn has called a special meeting of the Plymouth City Council for a Budget Workshop, to be held Monday, September 8, The meeting will be at 5 pm at City Hall, located at 9426 Main Street, in Plymouth. The business to be conducted on the agenda is strictly the Budget Workshop. City Clerk Gloria Stoddard announced the special meeting Wednesday. Stoddard said the agenda was also posted at city hall.

The Amador Water Agency Board of Directors last Thursday approved a fourth Addendum to the Revised Final Environmental Impact Report for the Amador Transmission Project. The addendum will allow the agency to deal with each landowner affected by the transmission system on an individual basis. The agenda item sparked some emotional comments from the public regarding the Amador Canal and the availability of water in Jackson Creek. Several residents in attendance expressed their beliefs that leakage in the canal was at least partly responsible for the reduced flow of Jackson Creek. Many landowners along the canal complained of reduced or no water for irrigation and watering. Vicky Ehrhardt of Cuneo Ranch told the board: “It has impacted us – it’s extremely bad.” Ehrhardt said her ranch never had a problem pulling water from the creek until recently. “We don’t even use the irrigation system anymore, and we had to move our cows to another pasture.” Another complaint was that the AWA was skirting landowners’ questions. Ms. Jerry Soderston, a landowner along Jackson Creek, said AWA was "not giving enough information for the public to make proper decisions as individual landowners." Others agreed. David Evitt, who had originally submitted a list of direct questions to the agency regarding the canal, was “disappointed” that his questions had received generalized answers. At the podium, Evitt revisited those questions, by asking agency staff to give more detailed answers -- a process that some members of the board felt could be handled off-line. Many of the questions centered on technical aspects of the canal and pipeline, such as pipe diameters and water flow percentages. Bill Condrashoff, a candidate for Water Board District 1, spoke numerous times, talking about reduced creek flows and denouncing the validity of Jackson Creek pictures taken by agency staff. All in all, the landowners affected by the water system are concerned about the effects of the canal, and are reluctant to sign any type of agreement with the Amador Water Agency until they have more information about their rights and liabilities. Board Chairman John Swift urged the property owners to not sign anything until all their questions were answered. The board unanimously approved the addendum, and the next step will be to work with each landowner along the transmission system to make sure their needs are met and questions answered.

Last week, the Sutter Gold Mining Company announced that the sale of the company’s controlling shares has been finalized. US Energy Corporation, a mining company based in Riverton Wyoming, retained Sutter’s controlling shares for the past 11 years. 2 years ago, Sutter Gold Mining Company was made into its own entity, and an extensive Exploration Program ensued, which involved core drilling for over 100,000 feet in order to locate and sample major quartz vein structures. After entertaining multiple interested parties, US Energy sold the shares to Rand Merchant Bank Resources, a trustee for the Telluride investment trust. RMB Resources is the resource merchant banking business unit of FirstRand, one of South Africa’s leading financial institutions, and has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, London, Johannesburg, and Denver. Sutter Gold outgoing CEO Hal Herron issued a statement about the deal’s closing. “This announcement is a significant milestone for Sutter shareholders. RMB and their professional staff have spent a great deal of time analyzing Sutter's gold projects and have determined that they warrant continued exploration and/or development. Going forward, the Company will be focused on accelerating development activities at its Lincoln Gold Project in the historic Mother Lode district of Northern California and on continued exploration at its El Alamo gold project in Baja Mexico in a joint venture with Premier Gold.” In a statement issued exclusively to TSPN, an RMB spokesman stated: “with the acquisition complete and funding now having been raised, we are very much looking forward to SGMI commencing the detailed work and evaluation which is required by SGMI to make an informed decision on the development of the project, for the benefit of all stakeholders including shareholders, the community of Sutter Creek and Amador County. We understand the activities under way include augmenting the core team of employees and consultants to provide the expertise required to conduct the evaluation work, including continued permitting and reclamation planning to ensure responsible development and operations, completion of a comprehensive geologic data base for use in detailed underground mine planning and the finalization of metallurgical test work from which a final process design will be generated. We expect that much more information will become available from the Company over the next several months as SGMI completes this work. We look forward to further reports from the company on the progress of this work, in due course.”