By Jennifer Wilson - It was a busy, fun-packed day at Westover Field on Saturday, where at least 2000 people showed up for the airport's Wings & Wheels event. Locals and tourists were able to view a variety of small aircraft and helicopters from the US Forest Service, CALSTAR, Civic Air Patrol and others. Gold Country Flyers, a radio-controlled aircraft group, put on a spectacular show with several of their aircraft. Perhaps the most popular draw was the free plane rides for children, called "Young Eagles." 248 children took advantage of that program, which was made possible by the Experimental Aircraft Association. Also, the helicopter rides were a big hit, flying 285 times over the course of the day. The event also featured a car show, three bands, a variety of food and multiple booths sponsored by local organizations. Dave Sheppard, Westover Field Airport Manager, says that "everyone seemed to have a great time.” In conjunction with that event, Animal Control held an open house that day. John Vail, Animal Control Director, reports that everything "went great." The shelter had about 20 volunteers on hand to answer questions, direct traffic, and help with adoptions. By the end of the day, about 8 dogs had been adopted, and the agency received a number of phone calls Monday asking about animals they had seen on Saturday. "It was good exposure for us," says Vail. The shelter also had about nine booths outside, and received about 900 dollars in cash donations via the Amador Community Foundation.

By Jim Reece & Jennifer Wilson - The U.S. Department of Transportation announced that effective Monday, the Federal Highway Administration will delay financial reimbursements from the Highway Trust Fund to all states. The delays will slow four projects in Amador County, but will not have any financial impact as the Amador County Transportation Commission is currently between projects. Amador County Transportation Agency Executive Director Charles Field says, "It could affect the federal grants that have already been awarded." Those include improving intersections at Highway 49 at Court Street in Jackson; at Sutter Hill and Ridge Road in Sutter Creek; at New York Ranch Road and Ridge Road in the unincorporated area of the County; plus several other projects. He said the "silver lining" is that ACTC had not gone out to contract on any of the projects. This is good, he said, because to go out to contract takes a deposit of funds, which would have been reimbursed by the grant. He said Amador County would not feel the impact that other places in the United States could feel. "In the rest of the country (workers) went to work and were probably told to go home," Field said. If money had already been spent, they would only get reimbursed 40 to 60 cents on the dollar. Once they get it sorted out, then the feds can move forward with the projects and grants. California Department of Transportation Director Will Kempton announced the policy in a release Monday. "This latest announcement from the U.S. Department of Transportation aggravates an already tight budget problem for California's transportation program," Kempton said. Caltrans had projected that the state budget impasse could impact ongoing transportation construction projects by October. But delays in federal reimbursements could exacerbate the situation. Kempton said "failure to resolve this issue will have a significant impact on California and the rest of the nation. Unless resolved, this situation could result in delaying, reducing, or canceling transportation projects." He said the ripple effect could impact California's economy through loss of revenues, reduced productivity and increased unemployment. In July, Kempton wrote a letter to California's congressional delegation emphasizing the need to resolve the issue at the earliest possible date. He said Caltrans will continue working with Congress and federal transportation officials to secure the passage of legislation that will address the funding shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund.

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.

Via News Release - The Foothill Conservancy this week announced the election of two new members to its board of directors. Charles R. "Bob" Leitzell of Mokelumne Hill and Dan Port of Ione were elected to the Foothill Conservancy Board of Directors last Thursday. They will serve two-year terms as directors of the local nonprofit conservation organization. Two incumbent Conservancy directors, founding members Pete Bell and Katherine Evatt of Volcano, were reelected to the board. Chris Wright, Conservancy executive director announced the elections in a news release last week. Leitzell is a self-employed consulting traffic engineer and the retired public works director of Calaveras County. Port is a farmer and rancher active in local agricultural land protection and conservation. He owns Winterport Farm outside Ione with his wife, Susan. Port is president of the Mother Lode Land Trust, a director of the Amador Resource Conservation District, and a member of the Amador County Agricultural Advisory Committee. He is a member of the Farm Bureau and a founding director and member of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. Bell is current Foothill Conservancy vice-president. He is a self-employed sound engineer and hydroelectric relicensing consultant. Evatt is current president of Foothill Conservancy. She recently retired as marketing publications manager for CalSTRS. The newly elected Conservancy directors join the other Foothill Conservancy directors, Susan Bragstad of Amador City, Pamela Hill of Mokelumne Hill, Jane O'Riordan of Fiddletown, Gwen Starrett of Plymouth and Laurie Webb of Sutter Creek. The Conservancy's departing directors are Jerry Cassesi of Jackson Valley and Rick Torgerson of West Point.

By Jim Reece & Jennifer Wilson -

Home Depot USA has withdrawn its application for a store in Jackson and requested Jackson City staff to immediately stop work on the project. Consultants for Home Depot sent a letter last week to City Manager Mike Daly to inform them of the decision and to ask that the city and its consultants immediately stop work on the project. The letter, from Scott A. Mommer Consulting, Land Development Services, asked also that the city provide an accounting of any outstanding consultant fees or expenses it had incurred to date on Home Depot’s behalf. Daly said today that the consulting fees had been paid by Home Depot as they accrued over the time of the proposed project. The project was proposed to be located just off Highway 49 in Jackson, north of the Jackson Lodge. Home Depot’s decision to build in Amador County was seen to be unpopular with the general public, and spurred public protests and marches in downtown Jackson over the last several years. Kathryn Gallagher with Home Depot Public Relations said the decision to withdraw its application for a store in Jackson had nothing to do with the current economic climate. Gallagher said “The city is going through growing pains with future growth plans and hasn't determined how a use like ours will fit into the general plan. We will evaluate locating a new store in Amador county in the future, but have no current plans at this time." Kathy Allen, chairwoman for the local group Amador Citizens For Smart Growth, said hers and other groups would celebrate Home Depot’s decision to pull its application. She said Home Depot’s proposed project was “ground zero” for the formation of her organization. Allen said she was in the process of calling all of the organizations involved in the fight to let them know about the application withdrawal. Those groups included the Kennedy Mine Foundation, the Progressive Women’s Group and Main Street Theater Works. “We worked so hard to get that project out of here,” Allen said. “I’m not opposed to Home Depot, it was just a bad location and it was bad for Amador County. Those types of stores can destroy a local economy.”

Several Amador County community organizations have joined together to form a new organization called the Amador County Business Council. The new council, headed up by marketing director Jim Conklin, could ultimately address any issues facing the County, the first of which will be Amador County’s general plan update. The council has been circulating a draft letter among local groups that will eventually go to the Amador County Board of Supervisors. In the letter, the group expresses concern over the upcoming public workshops scheduled for October 14th through the 16th, at which Draft General Plan Maps will be discussed. The council feels that the county should hold public hearings, not just workshops, in order to “achieve a more community driven and legally supportable process.” Back in July, the Board of Supervisors voted to hold the public workshops, which are more of an information-dissemination forum. According to County Planning Director Susan Grijalva, “at public hearings, you receive public input, and take action.” At the scheduled public meetings in October, no decisions will be made, “just direction to staff” says Grijalva, who also noted that the three-day meeting was “only the beginning” in a series of meetings, and that “we’ve got a long way to go.” Grijalva says that the meeting (in October) is to “begin development of the county’s preferred alternative.” As it stands now, there are four alternatives for the General Plan. No one alternative has yet been chosen, but once it has, that selected alternative will be the focus of an Environmental Impact Report. So far, a number of local organizations have supported the content of the draft letter, including the Amador County Chamber of Commerce, the Amador County Association of Realtors and Amador Citizens for Responsible Government. Al Bozzo (BOT-ZO), Vice President the Association of Realtors, said “we support the intent of the letter,” and added that before the County’s EIR is finished, “we want to make sure everything is aired out.” Bozzo also stressed that the most important aspect of that letter is that the scheduled workshops should instead be public hearings, a point that was also stressed by Jackie Lucido, Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce. The council board was scheduled to meet at noon today to finalize the content of the letter and to make the decision to send it to the Board of Supervisors. We’ll have more on this as details develop.

Ione Mayor Andrea Bonham announced a complaint has been filed against her with the California Fair Political Practices Commission. Bonham said the complaint letter and her response were available to the public and she wanted to air the matter during the Ione City Council meeting because she wondered if any other people had a similar complaint. Vice Mayor Lee Ard said the complaint was filed by Councilman Jim Ulm and Ard heard about the issue when confronted by Jackson and Sutter Creek residents, who told him, “Well, we see nothing has changed in Ione.” The complaint said that Bonham allegedly used her membership in the Ione Picnic Association to influence a donation by JTS Homes, the developer of the subdivision at Castle Oaks, in exchange for a vote favorable to the Developer. Ard said the letter “doesn’t state the fact that our own counsel said there was no conflict.” Regie Sargent, a board member of the Ione Picnic Association, read a letter from the board members stating that the JTS donation was not even the biggest one received by the group. She said JTS’s donation was small compared to others received by the Picnic Association. She also said Bonham was a volunteer but not an officer of the organization. City Attorney Kristen Castanos said that a council member cannot preside over an issue before the council in which that member has a financial interest, the definition of a conflict of interest. Castanos said if the council member were a volunteer for an organization, they would be considered having no financial interest and no conflict. But, if the council member were an officer of the organization, he or she would have a financial interest and a conflict. Likewise, there would be a conflict if the council member were a paid volunteer. In public comment, Jack Brotherton said he thought the issue was something the council needed to get away from and the council should have requested a city attorney opinion. City Manager Kim Kerr said that a conversation had taken place between Ulm, herself, and Castanos. Ulm stood by his decision to file the complaint. “I started this,” Ulm said. “It was brought to me from various people in the city.” He said those people wanted to remain anonymous. Ulm said the investigation was ongoing so he could not comment too much. “I thought I was taking a step up,” he said. “I thought I should take it to the (FPPC).”

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.

Amador County Unified School District Superintendent Dick Glock said last week the Back-To-School nights at several schools were well attended in the early school year, including ones he attended at Amador High, Pioneer Elementary and Jackson Junior High. He said schools will hear form a drug task force person before they begin the school drug testing program. Board member Pat Miller said he agreed about transportation. “We instituted fees this year and that seems to have gotten off to a good start,” Miller said. Board member P.J. Karnaze said he also attended open houses and noticed new teachers who seemed like some exciting and enthusiastic additions to the staff. Glock, first year superintendent for ACUSD, said the school year had gotten off to a running start, in part with high school principals, Amador’s Alan Van Velzen and Dave Vicari at Argonaut, who were around for the summer, “not getting paid but letting us know what they needed.”