A wildland fire prompted a quick response by CAL FIRE firefighters Sunday in Westpoint. The blaze burned 50 acres at Smitty Lane and West Point Road Sunday afternoon. The fire was spotted by the Butte Mountain lookout post in Amador County and the smoke column could also be seen from Buckhorn. The damage had the potential to be really bad, with conditions dry from the current drought. The fire started on Smitty Lane in West Point and quickly traveled up the slope towards Valentine Hill Road, threatening homes in its path. CDF called for Heavy Tankers and helicopters along with local and regional fire crews to battle the blaze, including crews from San Andreas. Quick work by fire crews clearly saved homes off of Valentine Hill Road as flames licked at the porch of one home, and burned a well house. A spot fire also developed off of Valentine Road and a Bulldozer and crews were kept busy fighting that fire in thick, heavy brush. Several families were ordered to evacuate along the path of the fire until its forward progress was stopped. Ranchers in the neighborhood were also busy loading up horses to take them to a safer location. The fight included hand crews, and the attack got the fire under control pretty fast, according to witnesses. CAL FIRE’s website Monday reported that the Smitty Lane Fire burned 50 acres before 100% containment.

Two other fires broke out in the foothills over the Labor Day Weekend. CAL FIRE’s Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit was on the front line. Authorities in Placer County fought a 500-acre fire Monday that was 80 percent contained as of Tuesday morning. The Gladding Fire burned northeast of Lincoln, and 12 agencies responded, including CAL FIRE, Placer County Fire and the City of Lincoln Fire Department. The fire drew 40 engines, 7 fire crews, 2 bulldozers, 2 helicopters and 4 water tenders. The Gladding Fire destroyed 3 homes and 10 outbuildings and threatened 20 homes and 20 outbuildings. Full containment was expected by midnight Tuesday. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Alpine County and regional firefighters also fought a 204-acre wildland fire that started Sunday afternoon in Hope Valley, south of South Lake Tahoe. The Burnside Wildland Fire drew 183 personnel, 2 air tankers, 4 helicopters, 6 hand crews, 16 engines and 8 command staff. The fire was 50 percent contained Tuesday, with expected containment by 6 p.m. today (Wednesday, Sept. 3). The cause is still under investigation. By Tuesday, evacuation orders had been lifted at area resorts, residences and campgrounds.

The Wicklow Way Project Final Environmental Impact Report, or FEIR, is now available for public review, and a public hearing on the FEIR is set for September 23rd. The proposed project, which will be located behind the K-Mart and Wal-Mart stores, will include approximately 504 single family residential lots, 99 town-home lots, 5 acres for a 75 to 125 unit apartment complex, four commercial parcels totaling approximately 29.4 acres, one 8.5 acre-parcel for a future school site, and a total of 29.8 acres for parks and pathway areas. At last week’s Amador County Technical Advisory Committee Meeting, ACTC Director Charles Field reported that his agency had “looked at the transportation issues in-depth” over the last six months and was ready to submit the findings to the county. Field indicated that he would like to see the traffic conditions finalized before the planned public hearings to be held on September 23rd. Amador Citizens for Smart Growth director Kathy Allen voiced her concern of “long term water availability,” citing a 2007 law that stipulates that a project cannot move forward without a water reclamation project. The public can obtain a copy of the Wicklow Way Final EIR at the county’s website, www.co.amador,ca.us, listed in the Planning Department’s section. A public hearing on the Final EIR is scheduled for September 23rd at 810 Court Street, in the Board of Supervisors Chambers.

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.

Since when does a boat take a road trip? Last Thursday, motorists heading West on Highway 88 through downtown Jackson were surprised to find themselves behind a very unusual site on the highway – a very seaworthy traffic jam – a 32-ton Boat making its way from the East Coast to the Port of Stockton. With an escort of 3 California Highway Patrol vehicles, and two pilot cars, traffic jammed up last week on Amador County’s Highway 88 behind a huge boat called an Ocean Rocket. According to the driver of the truck, the boat is 75 feet long and 20 feet wide and weighs 64,000 pounds. The pilot car driver said that they had left New Jersey more than a month ago and traveled across the United States to deliver the boat to the Port of Stockton. Based on the manufacturer’s website, it seems that Stockton may soon have one heck of a boat ride. For information online, see www.oceanrockets.com.

The City of Jackson has just adopted two proclamations regarding the month of September. The first recognized that September of 2008 is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. Vice Mayor Connie Gonsalves read the proclamation, which stated that substance use disorders impact 22.6 million people aged 12 or older in the U.S. The proclamation called upon “the people of Jackson to observe this month with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies supporting this year’s theme, ‘Join the Voices for Recovery: Real People, Real Recovery’.” Also, September 2008 will now be Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in Jackson. Council member Andy Rodriguez read the proclamation and presented it to Karen Crabtree, whose husband successfully has beaten the disease. Crabtree provided the public with information on the cancer, including a group in San Francisco called the Second Opinion that offers free services on second opinions from a panel of five doctors. For anyone interested in that group, call 415-775-9956.

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.”

The Plymouth City Council voted 4-0 Thursday to renew its membership with the Amador County Recreation Agency at a cost of 5 dollars per capita. ACRA Executive Director Tracey Towner-Yep addressed the board in the request to renew, saying her 10-member board of directors included Vice Mayor Patricia Fordyce, presiding over the meeting in Mayor Jon Colburn’s absence. Towner-Yep said ACRA tries to “provide choices in the realm of recreation where there were none before.” She said ACRA is going out and earning money, getting grants and going after money. “I think this is the best 5 dollars per person that you can spend in the county,” Towner-Yep said. She commended Councilman Greg Baldwin on his backing of the county ski bus to Kirkwood last winter and she said ACRA is planning to sponsor the ski bus next year. Baldwin asked if ACRA, which runs the Plymouth pool at the fairgrounds, could keep the pool open another month on weekends. Towner-Yep said that will be done, with arrangement with City Manager Dixon Flynn. Plymouth will pay 5,165 dollars based on per capita numbers, for its annual ACRA membership. The council also appointed Community Development Director Paula Daneluk as the city council’s designated voter at the upcoming League of California Cities Annual Conference at the end of the September in Long Beach. City attorney Heather Kenny wrote up a resolution for the designation to be made so that the city could vote on the conference’s issues. Kenny said that council members could and should advise Daneluk on how they wish she would vote on issues, but they should do so in an open session.

The Argonaut High School Quarterback Club donated 4,000 dollars to replace 57 years worth of sports banners from Argonaut and Jackson high school history. Loreen Hickman, a bankcard services specialist for Bank of Amador, and mother of the Mustang varsity quarterback, senior John Hickman, said that boosters would be auctioning off the old banners over the first three home games. Mrs. Hickman and boosters Dara Falco and Barbara Steuble, on Friday showed the 152 banners, some of which had hung in the Argonaut field house until two weeks ago when they were deemed fire hazards and removed. The Argonaut QB Club then donated 4,000 dollars to have the banners replaced with plastic replicas. Hickman said a binder would be created and taken to at least the first several home games, beginning with Homecoming, September 26, then again at home football games on October 10 and October 24. Depending on public response, the banner binder may go to other games. The binder will have pictures and condition descriptions for each banner, with spaces for bidders to write their name and bid amount. The minimum bid will be 25 dollars. The banners date from a tennis banner in 1946 to banners from 2003 and come from Jackson and Argonaut high schools. The new banners will include those from the days of the Ione High School as well, which were replaced by the QB Club donation. Any funds raised past the 4,000 dollar cost of the replacement banners will be given to the Argonaut sports department. Bids can be sent by date of banners, with name and amount, to P.O. Box 1498, Jackson 95642.