Amador County – The 2008 edition of the Amador Water Agency Board of Directors meets for the first time 9:30 am Thursday at the agency office, with four new members joining Board President Terence Moore. The Board will select a president and vice president and discuss committee assignments. “To help facilitate the transition,” AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie said “interim Director Terry Moore has drafted suggested committee assignments for the new board’s review and discussion.” Moore’s suggested himself as chairman of the Plymouth Outreach Committee, member of the Engineering & Planning committee and alternate of Budget & Finance. Moore also headed special assignments of the Association of California Water Agencies as liaison for Joint Powers Insurance Authority, groundwater and local government; and was on the Grants & Funding Ad-Hoc Committee; and the Upper Mokelumne River Watershed Authority. Moore penciled in Don Cooper of District 3 to chair Engineering & Planning; and as a member of Budget & Finance and Jackson Outreach Committees. Cooper was also suggested for membership of the Grants & Funding Ad-Hoc Committee and as alternate of the Upper Moke Watershed Authority.

Bill Condrashoff of District 1 was suggested to chair the Budget & Finance committee, Chair the Jackson Outreach Committee and be a member of the Ione Outreach Committee. Condrashoff also was suggested to be alternate for Engineering & Planning and Personnel committees. Gary E. Thomas of District 2, was suggested to chair the Personnel committee and Ione Outreach, and as alternate for Rates & Rules and the Joint Water Committee. The President and Vice President, respectively, would be chair and be a member of the Joint Water Committee. Thomas was also suggested as a member of the Sutter Creek and Integrated Regional Water Management Plan Outreach Committees. Debbie Dunn of District 4 was suggested as chairwoman of the Rates & Rules and Sutter Creek Outreach committees; and member of the Personnel and Plymouth Outreach committees. Dunn was also suggested as chair of the Integrated Regional Water Management Plan Outreach Committee and as member of the Calaveras Amador Mokelumne River Authority. All directors are authorized to attend the Mokelumne River Association and Mountain Counties Water Resources Association meetings. Board members will discuss committee membership and the president will make assignments, after the board first selects its president. Abercrombie has suggested that Moore be selected, due to his experience and also due to AWA board policy that the president must have served 2 years on the board. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The Ione Planning Commission hosts a public hearing tonight to take input on the land use elements of the draft Ione General Plan. The Public Hearing opens at 6 p.m. and commissioners will take input on a general plan update being spearheaded by City Planner Christopher Jordan and consultant, Daniel Hamilton. Jordan will present the commission with a report on a series of General Plan Workshops. The meetings surveyed 230 people and helped identify a preferred land use alternative. The planning commission will be reviewing 4 alternative draft land use plans and identifying a preferred plan for recommendation to the city council. Once identified, staff will begin developing an Environmental Impact Report to analyze potential impacts of the preferred Land Use Plan. Jordan’s report identifies the 16 current land use designations along with the draft plan’s suggested designations, and descriptions of each. Jordan and Hamilton in the report suggest they “take public comment, discuss the draft preferred alternative, discuss the issues outlined by staff, and direct changes to the draft preferred alternative and recommend it to the City Council.” The report also recommends Alternative 4 as the base for the Preferred Alternative and recommends identifying Dokken Engineering’s alternative as the preferred alternative for a “western Ione backbone roadway system.” The report also adds staff or resident suggestions to augment the alternatives. Top priorities identified in the surveys were Managing growth; preserving open space and agricultural land; maintaining the small town character; enhancing recreation facilities; revitalizing downtown; and creating more activities for families and children. The Public hearing is 6 p.m. today at Ione City Hall. The City also hosts a public workshop on the aesthetics of its “Downtown Park & Ride Lot,” from 4 to 6 p.m. today, also at city hall. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – According to Marilyn McDanel of the Fiddletown Preservation Society, two treasures located in Fiddletown will soon be open to the public. The Chinese Gambling Hall and Chinese General Store, both over 150 years old, have undergone extensive renovations. “The bricks have been meticulously removed one at a time and replaced in the same manner,” said McDanel in a release last week. She said the buildings came very close to imploding as the walls bulged and the cracks widened and were only months away from becoming ruins when the restoration crew stepped in. “With renewed life these buildings can, hopefully, withstand another 150 years,” she said. Leland Peterson Construction of Pioneer, the Amador Sawmill & Mining Association and Project Manager Carl McDanel of RKT Builders of Santa Rosa all worked hard to keep the project on time and within budget. The Society plans to eventually turn both buildings into museums. Despite a number of successful grant applications and fundraisers, the Fiddletown Preservation Society is still about 30,000 dollars short of the funds needed. If you are interested in contributing towards the restoration and maintenance of these and other historic local buildings, contact them at 296-6476 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Donations are tax deductible in most cases. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – Two local businessman reported what seemed to be another rash of window vandalism Tuesday night on Sutter Hill and in Jackson. Mark Borchin, owner of Glass Doctor in Martell, said he had received 17 calls from people with windows broken on vehicles and some storefronts around Amador County, the second such incident reported in the last week. A vandal or vandals reportedly struck last Saturday night in downtown Sutter Creek. Borchin said he fixed windows at Backroads Café and the antique shop next door. This time, reports are mostly broken back windows and side windows of vehicles left parked mostly between Broad Street and Clinton Road in Jackson. Authorities asked him to notify them if he comes across any evidence he finds when cleaning up the shattered windows. He said the “more evidence they have, the more helpful it will be for them to prosecute the perpetrators.” Mike Sweeney, Executive Director of ARC of Amador & Calaveras County, said ARC also sustained damage to vehicle windows Tuesday night. The rear windows of two white transportation vans were window-less Tuesday afternoon. Borchin said he made an appointment to make the repairs today, Thursday, December 4th. He has 4 technicians and himself as backup in case they can’t do all the jobs that come in. He said people sometimes must have appointments made because of the varied specifications of car windows. Specs include year, make, model, number of doors, hatch back, color, whether it has a heat element. Borchin said “6,000 pieces of automotive glass are available – it’s just too hard to have all those pieces here on the shelf. We have it all out at the warehouse,” in Sacramento. He said they had received reports from the Jackson Rancheria, the Rancheria apartment complex, a business next door to Umpqua Bank and one each in Camanche and Plymouth. Jackson Police Department said it would release information today on the incident. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The Ione City Council on Tuesday approved two contracts with city employees and the city police force for the next 2-and-a-half years. The contracts make individual adjustments on salaries to pull some employees up the regional industry standard while lowering others and keeping those at par on the same track. Percentages of raises range from 2 to 5 percent for the city’s 10 Service Employees International Union Local Number 1021 members, while the raises also vary for the 5 employees of the Ione Police Department. City Manager Kim Kerr said that excludes herself, Police Chief Michael Johnson and Finance Director Mark Smith, who are all contract employees, though she said the city is working to make the chief and finance director positions also salaried, non-contract posts. Katie Kaneko of Koff & Associates reported on her analysis of all city employees. She said she found “one base salary significantly above the market median,” 6 were within 5 percent of the market range and 5 were below market. She said salaries above the market range would get no raise and would be equalized. Kerr said that the discrepancy was because of an accounting specialist position that had a job description change to accounting technician, with a lower salary. Councilman Jim Ulm asked how police market salaries were determined. Kerr said Calaveras and Amador police forces were surveyed and the city did the work for Kaneko. Kaneko said the analysis was done by building a salary schedule with job descriptions. Job titles were ignored and they looked for “70 percent likeness” among duties. Kerr said police officers were 20 percent below market in salary and the report and the city “looked to see how (it) could get that corrected.” They are implementing the raise schedule over 2 ½ years and those salaries will be adjusted by July 1, 2010. The council approved the two contracts on 5-0 votes. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

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 - A woman arrested on an outstanding warrant in Amador County has been tied to a home invasion in San Lorenzo and a complicated web of criminal activity that resulted in murder. Crystal White, 35, was arrested November 19th in Amador County, according to Alameda County Sheriff's Detective Kirsten Tucker. White, who is eight months pregnant, was arrested along with John Favley, 48, who has a long criminal history. The puzzle began to take shape when Alameda County investigators discovered the body of George Bailes, 54, in Favley’s residence, dead of a shotgun blast to the chest. According to court documents, Falvey, White and Bailes entered a single-family residence on Via Ventana in San Lorenzo at around 9:45 pm on Sept. 8 while the homeowner — a man in his 30s who had previously had an intimate relationship with White — was in a back bedroom watching television. The now deceased Bailes was carrying a .22-caliber handgun with a soda bottle taped over the barrel as a makeshift silencer. There was a protracted struggle between the homeowner and Bailes, during which the handgun discharged four times, striking both Bailes and the homeowner in the legs. Favley reportedly struck the homeowner in the head with a flashlight before the three suspects fled without taking anything from the residence. Detective Tucker said the gunshot wounds were not life threatening. Nevertheless, Bailes was found at Favley’s residence nine days later dead of a shotgun blast to the chest. Bailes was reportedly shot by yet another man, Ben Eddleman, 33, of San Diego County, who had been arguing with Bay Area resident Aaron Hammond, 33, about a vehicle, authorities said. Bailes intervened with a shotgun on behalf of Hammond, but Eddleman wrestled the weapon away and shot Bailes, according to investigators. Eddleman turned himself in to deputies Sunday, but is now out of custody. Bailes body was found near a vehicle that matched the description of the one used during the home invasion. White, who has lived at a number of addresses both in the Bay area and Amador County, subsequently admitted to participating in the home invasion and was transported to the Eden Township Substation in Ashland. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – Five local firefighting brigades learned Monday that their new extrication and traffic safety response equipment was ready for action to improve emergency response in Amador County after two Oakland technicians helped get the equipment fired up and operational. On Monday, L.N. Curtis & Sons workers Jim Colwell and Dave Anderson were at the Sutter Creek Fire Department helping service the equipment and get them running. Helping were Jackson Fire Captain Frank Tremain, Sutter Creek Chief Butch Martin and his firefighters, Aaron Watkins and bob Barghoorn Jr. The equipment was purchased by Sutter Creek Fire Protection District, lead agency in receiving and dispersing a $181,000 Dollar “Regional Extrication Improvement Program.” Sutter Creek Fire Captain and grant program director Dan Barnes said members of the local brigades will each get about $36,000 dollars worth of new extrication equipment from the grant, through the California Office of Traffic Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Barnes said Sutter Creek Fire District prepared the fully equipped extrication systems, and notified the 5 jurisdictions that they were ready to be picked up. Departments that will get the equipment are the Lockwood Fire Protection District, Jackson City Fire Department, Amador Fire Protection District Battalions 10 and 20, and the Sutter Creek Fire Department. Barnes said “additional training for the new equipment will also be provided to 40 firefighters in the region.” The program should be fully implemented by next September. He said on completion of the program, “responding agencies will have the same standard of equipment that is fully compatible with each other, and outdated equipment will be replaced, allowing for improved emergency medical service delivery in the region.” The package for each jurisdiction includes hydraulic Hurst extrication tools, heavy airbags, “Rescue 42” stabilization struts, portable lighting and a portable gasoline powered hydraulic power unit. The Hurst tools include a spreader, a cutter and a ram. The generator powers two Hurst tools at a time. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, in cooperation with the California Department of Fish and Game, is preparing a major joint Environmental Impact Report and Habitat Conservation Plan for the PG & E multi-region area of the North Coast, Central Coast, Sacramento Valley and Sierra. The Plan covers approximately 550,000 acres and includes the right-of-way surrounding gas and electric transmission and distribution facilities. It covers the network of PG&E facilities in 36 counties, 18 of which are in the Sacramento Region, which includes Amador, Calaveras, Sacramento and Tuolumne Counties. The Habitat Conservation Plan, or HCP, is being prepared under the Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973. PG&E intends to request a permit to cover 75 species federally listed as threatened or endangered and 34 unlisted species that may become listed during the term of the permit. PG & E needs the permit to authorize “incidental harm” to endangered species that could occur as a result of implementing activities covered under the HCP.

At least nine of the endangered species, ranging from the California Tiger Salamander to the American Peregrine Falcon and the Bald Eagle are included in the agencies' “Proposed Covered Species” list for the Sacramento region. Section 9 of the Act and Federal regulations prohibit the harm or harassment to any of the listed species. However, permits may be issued to authorize the “incidental take” of these species. “Incidental take” is defined by the Act as take that is incidental to, and not the purpose of, carrying out an otherwise lawful activity. The EIR will also identify potentially significant impacts on land use and planning, agricultural resources, water resources, transportation, noise, air quality, environmental justice, socioeconomics, and other environmental issues that could occur directly or indirectly with implementation of the proposed action and alternatives. PG & E said in a release that the EIR will identify mitigation measures, where feasible, to reduce these impacts to a level below significance. A public meeting will be held on Thursday, December 4, from 2 pm to 4 pm, at the Evelyn Moore Community Center, 1402 Dickson Street in Sacramento. PG & E is encouraging the public to attend and give suggestions on the scope of issues and alternatives to be included in the EIR. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - October marked a decline in foreclosure filings for the first time in two years, but it’s still too early to speculate whether this is the beginning of the end. A number of foreclosure and statistical tracking services have been watching the market closely. They’ve monitored a steep decline in the number of housing auctions and notices of default, the formal warnings issued when borrowers fall behind on their payments. “Trustees deeds in Sacramento, statewide, everywhere, are trending down from September to October. It's a meaningful decline,” said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage. Statewide, 275,000 households have foreclosed since January of 2007. Sean O'Toole, CEO of ForeclosureRadar, said there was a 39 percent drop in the number of California homes auctioned from September to October. There were 14,042 auctions in October, compared with 23,049 in September, he said. Nationally, there was a in home repossessions compared to September. All this indicates that the nation’s foreclosure free fall may be subsiding. From January through October of 2008, there have been 33,961 sales of new and existing homes in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, according to MDA DataQuick. October marked the first month since April of 2002 that median home prices for new and existing homes combined dropped below 200,000 dollars in the Sacramento region, according to Dataquick. Amador County’s median home prices dropped to 250,000, down 27.5 percent from the same month in 2007. Prices have fallen 41.2 percent from a May high of 425,000 dollars. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).