One of the many virtues of our foothill region is the fact that we share our environment with a multitude of different animal species. As the weather gets warmer, one of Amador County’s more infamous animal inhabitants becomes active: Rattle Snakes. A recent rash of rattlesnake bite victims at Sutter Amador Hospital demonstrates the importance of educating yourself on the characteristics of these snakes, and what to do if you are bitten. A rattlesnake can be relatively docile, or easily provoked. Common characteristics of mature rattlers are: a powerful body that can reach a length of 5.5 feet, a thin neck, a triangular or heart-shaped head, facial pits, hooded eyes with elliptical pupils, and a tail rattle. It is important to note that tail rattles, or buttons, can be lost or may not be present in very young snakes. Skin color may vary from dark gray, olive, or yellowish-brown to brown or black with hexagonal, oval, or nearly circular blotches with well defined light borders. Baby rattlesnakes are just as poisonous, and often more dangerous, than mature snakes. When threatened, the rattlesnake may coil, rattle, and raise its upper body. If surprised, it may lunge up to several feet, striking without warning. Not every strike delivers venom, but every rattlesnake bite needs medical attention. If you are bitten, you should seek professional medical attention immediately. Keep the bite marks below your heart and limit movement to keep heart rate reduced. Remove any rings, bracelets, boots, or other restricting items from the bitten extremity. Do not apply ice to the bite, attempt to suck out the venom, or give alcohol, foods, stimulants or pain medication unless specifically directed to do so by a physician. If safe to do so, try to get a good look at the snake, so a description can be given to medical professionals. Don’t risk getting bitten by trying to kill the snake. There is also now a rattlesnake vaccination available for dogs. For more information on this vaccination, contact your local veterinary clinic. For more information on rattlesnakes in California, visit the department of fish and game’s website at www.dfg.ca.gov.

Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi, a Lodi Republican, announced today that he and Amador County Supervisor Brian Oneto will host a Town Hall meeting on Monday, July 7th, at 1:30pm. The forum will include a legislative update by Assemblyman Nakanishi and Supervisor Oneto, followed by an opportunity for audience questions. Assemblyman Nakanishi represents California’s 10th Assembly District, which encompasses all or parts of Amador, El Dorado, Sacramento and San Joaquin Counties. The meeting will be held at the Amador County Board of Supervisors Chambers, 810 Court St. in Jackson.

The Miwuk Band of Native Americans, in collaboration with CalTrans, has been conducting an anthropological dig off Highway 88 in Pioneer. The dig is part of an effort to mitigate the impacts of widening the highway, which will effectively pave over part of the historical site located on the south side of 88, just past Defender Grade Road. Several members of the Calaveras and Ione bands of Miwuk Indians were on site, actively involved in the project, including Debra Grimes and Adam Lewis of the Calaveras band, and George Gurion of the Ione Band. Grimes says that they have known about this site for some time and wants to make sure that the area is investigated before the CalTrans project takes place. An anthropological research firm was brought in to supervise the dig. Jeff Rosenthal of Far Western in Davis says that the artifacts being discovered are significant due to the fact that “we don’t have much from this time period,” which was between 600 to 1000 years ago. During that time, the Sierra Nevada experienced a drought, which forced many of the tribe higher into the conifer forest regions. Also of significance during that time is that the Miwuk Indians went from eating mostly pine nuts to making the acorn their main food staple, which Rosenthal calls “the acorn economy.” Recovered from the dig were quartz arrowheads, tools, mortars, grinding rocks, and cooking rocks, which were used to more efficiently heat food. The dig will be finished this week and Grimes says they hope to put together a presentation for local school children on the artifacts recovered and the history of the Miwuk tribe.

Throughout the county, most of us separate our recycling items from the standard garbage, and either place it in recycling bags or bins. We are all familiar with those orange or blue bags, or blue bins. Recent complaints from local area residents about their recycling pickup service prompted TSPN to investigate. A local man who lives in downtown Jackson, says, “I spend a lot of time sorting out my recycling.” The man claims he has seen, on more than one occasion, Aces Waste service dump both his trash bin and recycling bin into the same truck. According to Paul Molinelli, Jr. of Aces Waste in Pine Grove, they periodically receive calls from customers claiming that their recycling is being added to the trash. Molinilli cleared up the situation by explaining some of their routes. If you have the orange bags for recycling, you may notice the truck driver throwing it in with the trash. Not to worry, when the trucks deposit their loads at the yard, workers pull out the recycling bags. And as for the recycling bins, Ace’s runs different types of trucks on different days, including a split-body truck designed to hold both garbage and recycling items. Some routes use a separate truck for the recycling. So, you may see one truck collect your garbage, and then, later, another truck will pick up your recycling. If you have further concerns about your trash and recycling pickup service, you can contact your areas’s service provider. For parts of Ione, Lake Camanche, Buena Vista Area, Jackson, Pine Grove, Pioneer, Volcano, Upcountry, and Kirkwood Ski Area, call Aces Waste at 296-2237. For the parts of Ione, Sutter Creek, Plymouth, Amador City, Drytown, Fiddletown, River Pines and Carbondale, call Amador Disposal Service at 274-2454. You can also contact the county’s Waste Management Department at 223-6429.

At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, County Counsel Martha Shaver brought to the Board’s attention that the Amador Economic Stimulus Package has already reached the 30 permit limit set out in the package. Approved by the Board just three weeks ago, contractor Paul Bramell’s plan is designed to temporarily cut impact and development fees and to stimulate growth in the sinking housing market. The package allows a reduction in impact fees for local and regional traffic mitigation, recreation and capital facilities between July 1st, 2008 and December 31st, 2009. The popularity of the package came as no surprise to the Board of Supervisors. During deliberation over the approval of the package, the Supervisor’s chambers were packed wall-to-wall with contractors and realtors eager for a way to ease the burden of stringent building fees. However, now that the plan’s permit limit has been reached, the Board has to consider other options. “I think it’s time we put it back on the agenda and brought this discussion back on the table,” said Supervisor Richard Forster. Updates to the Economic Stimulus Plan will likely be discussed at next Tuesday’s meeting.

In Sutter Creek this week, the city’s ad hoc sewer committee began developing an amendment enabling the Amador Water Agency to participate in the costs and benefits of the current sewer plant project. City Council directed the ad hoc committee to work with staff and Amador Water Agency representatives to draft a term sheet that will be the basis for the contract amendment. City Manager Rob Duke lead the discussion, beginning with a brief synopsis of the city’s sewer problems, which began in late 2006 with a sharp, unaccounted-for decline in the processing capability of the sewer plant. It was determined that the diminishing capacity was due to the increasing presence of solids disposed of through the sewer system. At first, it was believed that vendors in the Mill Plaza development in Martell were the culprit, but, according to Duke, the problem stems from improper disposal of solids from restaurants located in Sutter Creek as well as in Martell. In total, the sewer plant has lost about 1/3 of its capacity due to the influx of solids. It is the city’s belief that everybody should pay their fair share to fix the plant. However, both the AWA and the city are concerned about increasing rates for customers. Sutter Creek sewer customers will soon experience a rate hike from 48 dollars a month to 75 dollars a month, and the city’s sewer problems could add even more to that amount. Until a deal is reached with the AWA, however, the city will foot the bill for the repairs, in order to avoid citations from the California Water Quality Control Board.

In other Sutter Creek news, there was some controversy this week about the schedule for the proposed Gold Rush Ranch Golf Course and Development project. The City Council received three letters from Planning Commission members last week, contesting the recently issued schedule, which involves 2-3 meetings a month through December. Planning Commission Chair Robin Peters addressed the council on Monday, and put forth his concern that after years of seeming inactivity on the Gold Rush project, he felt it disingenuous to ask the planning commission and the public to effectively drop everything and focus exclusively on Gold Rush through the end of the year. He requested a revision of the schedule, limiting meetings on the topic to once a month, which would push back the process approximately one month, to the end of January. Mayor Gary Wooten responded that the meeting schedule was only meant to be a guideline, and instead suggested a revised schedule proposed by Assistant City Manager Sean Rabé, which eliminates some of the meetings and combines several others. Members of the public also spoke on the topic, expressing concern that the public was not properly notified of the upcoming meetings. In the end, the council decided to allow city staff time to digest the comments made at the meeting, and then to modify the schedule in accordance with staff recommendations. As of now, there is scheduled to be a site tour of the proposed Gold Rush Ranch Project on Thursday, June 18th at 9 am. The public is welcome to attend, and attendees should meet at the end of Valley View Drive at 9. In addition, Thursday night there will be a meeting from 7-9 pm at the Sutter Creek Community Building on the General Plan Performance Standards for the project.