Amador County – Prospect Motors in Jackson isn’t the only local dealership to close its doors recently. Plummer Pontiac and Cadillac on East Kettleman Lane in Lodi closed its doors on Wednesday, putting approximately 58 people out of work. This closure is in the wake of another major Lodi dealership, Geweke Chrysler Jeep and Dodge, closing down three weeks ago. Ten jobs were lost as a result. A Volkswagen dealership in Tracy closed and put 13 people out of work in early February. But the largest and most impactful closure so far has been the trifecta of Prospect Motors, Amador Motors an Amador Toyota in Jackson. Eighty two employees lost their jobs when the Amador County dealership closed suddenly and only days before Christmas. Owner Frank Halverson said GMAC pulled its inventory because he was “16 days late” in paying loans on the auto center facility. Halverson’s situation has become an all too common story as dealerships across the nation weather the deepening economic recession. The significance of the Prospect closure and its affect on the county tax base has garnered national attention. CBS News Crews visited the county last week to cover the story for the Nightly News with Katie Couric. Plummer Dealership owner Dennis Plummer said he went to great lengths to negotiate loans with GMAC, but to no avail. GMAC has been making major cutbacks and was recently negotiating with federal authorities to have itself converted into a bank holding company so it could be eligible for part of the $700 billion in federal bailouts. Plummer said that Pontiac and Cadillac generated more than $975,000 in sales tax revenue for the city of Lodi and San Joaquin County last year. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County - During their February 18th meeting, the Amador Regional Transit System Board of Directors honored retiring General Manager Patrick Ireland for his many contributions to transit in Amador County. Even though official retirement is only a day away, the 24 year veteran of all things transportation has been making the rounds among local media outlets to announce improvements to the transit system. In an exclusive interview with TSPN, Ireland outlined the many ways ARTS is continuing to improve. Under Ireland’s leadership, the ARTS ridership grew from 50,000 a year to over 105,000 a year. Ireland was also instrumental in establishing expanded transit service to Sacramento, the Sacramento Airport and Calaveras County. Most importantly, ARTS has maintained an excellent safety record; on average 30 percent lower than statewide averages. “ARTS has maintained an industry leading safety record and an image of clean and friendly service throughout Mr. Ireland’s service,” reads the resolution. Finally Ireland has led funding and constructing the ARTS maintenance and operations facility in Martell. He said that upcoming programs include two weeks of free service beginning March 1st to coincide with new ARTS bussing schedules. He also announced a new service that will allow Internet access by laptop on all ARTS busses. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The Sutter Creek Planning Commission opened a discussion of the Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort with some good news from its local school board member. Public comment started off with Amador County Unified School District Board President Mary Walser clarifying information about a land donation. Walser said an agreement has been struck between the school district and Gold Rush developers. Gold Rush has agreed to donate 17 acres to the district for a school site, but the donation is not in lieu of school impact developer fees. Also part of the agreement, Gold Rush will test the property. Walser said if the school district opts out of the agreement for any reason, “Gold Rush will give us a Million Dollars.” She said a past proposal talked about the developer building a Kindergarten through 8th grade school, but the land donation instead was worked out. Walser, a Sutter Creek resident, and past Amador High School Principal, whose term runs through 2012, said it was the first time in history that Amador School District had received a gift of land from a developer, and it sets a precedent for the future of Amador schools. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The Plymouth City Council will get a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Association Thursday notifying them of $176,000 dollars worth of reimbursements the city will receive for storm damages suffered in 2006. The letter is among correspondence the council received in its agenda packet this week, including a February 11th letter from the California Emergency Management Agency’s public assistance officer, Charles Rabamad. City Clerk Gloria Stoddard said the reimbursements came from storm damage and resulting money spent to make repairs. City Engineer Roark Weber said “One of the reasons we got all of the money back was that Gloria did such a good job keeping track of all of the records.” Weber said one city project was repair to a failed earthen ditch around the city’s storage pond that holds the city’s treated secondary effluent as part of the city sewer treatment plant. Ditch failed and rain runoff flowed into the pond. Weber said the “City got it repaired and FEMA reimbursed it 100 percent.” That was listed as a “large project” in a January 15th FEMA letter, which approved the project original estimated amount for the repair at $65,000 dollars. The sewer pond ditch repair totaled $98,900 dollars and was reimbursed in full, along with $77,123 dollars paid by the city for other repairs from damage resulting from the 2006 storm. Weber said the jobs included fixing the intersection of Poplar and Mill Streets at Highway 49, where the road sunk in, leaving a hole 3 feet in diameter, 2 feet deep. The intersection now has a head wall with a steel protective rail on top. Empire Street at Highway 49 also flooded, causing the street to fall apart. It was resurfaced, and given miscellaneous drainage improvements. The city also fixed a damaged headwall on Sutter Street and repaired a dirt access road to the sewer plant spray field area, which washed out when the creek along Old Sacramento Road overflowed its bank. Weber said “Working with Cal-EMA is a treat. People in the governor’s office – the staff was a great help. It was a real pleasure to work with them.” He said “It wasn’t like the bad news that you hear about FEMA.” The repair work has been done for the last 6 or 8 months. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County - In an effort to gather funding to improve infrastructure at Westover Field, representatives of the Amador County General Services Department sought approval from the Board of Supervisors Tuesday to pursue a grant application and matching funds. The grants sought fall under the lengthy title of Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program Application. GSA Director Jon Hopkins gave an overview of the history of the process, beginning with a suggestion by Airport Manager David Sheppard to submit a grant application for a number of improvement projects, including runway safety improvements like a slurry seal and parallel taxiway, and replacing the current visual approach indicator. These improvements were made all the more urgent when the project manager advised the GSA that the airport will not be eligible for future grants until the runway safety area meets current FAA guidelines. A grant application to cover all projects totaling $1,170,000 was submitted by a February 2 deadline, but Hopkins said that due to time constraints it was not cleared through the Supervisors first. The Board had the choice of whether to accept or reject the grant offer. The FAA returned an approval of only $288,099. The FAA will fund 90 percent of the grant, or $273,694, CALTRANS Aeronautics will fund 2.5 percent of that 95 percent, leaving a balance for the county of approximately $7,563. In regards to submitting a grant application without prior Supervisor approval, Supervisor Richard Forster said “I don’t like someone being too much of a maverick, but when you have a chance at over a million dollars…take it.” Supervisor John Plasse asked “what portion of the funds this grant comes close to accomplishing.” Hopkins said General fund monies would be needed as the Airport Enterprise Fund does not have the money for the required local match. Hopkins said that much of the County’s share of the costs could be reduced by using County staff to accomplish some of the projects. He said this was not always easy considering FAA guidelines and layers of paperwork, but that “local construction would be used whenever possible.” The Supervisors approved the motion unanimously. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County - Sheriff Martin Ryan was present at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting to address a proposal for raising LiveScan fees and funding made available through the Secure Rural Schools Act. In reference to improved efficiency, Sheriff Ryan thanked the board for “the rare occasion when I come in front of a body such as yours and thank you for cutting our budget.” Ryan added that the “foremost priority of government is to make law enforcement and public safety a priority.” Supervisor Ted Novelli said that as Chairman, he “will try to help keep every deputy we need on the streets.” Ryan said that since 1999, the Sheriff’s office has been providing a successful LiveScan fingerprint service to residents and non-residents alike. During this time the office has only charged $5.00 per scan – the lowest in the state. Of 1,135 LiveScan’s in the 2007/2008 fiscal year, 879 were Amador residents and 256 were not. Ryan believes the high non-resident ratio is due to the low fee charged. He proposed raising the fees to a statewide average of $20.00 per resident and $27.00 for non-residents. The motion was approved unanimously. Ryan also asked to modify his original request for funds from the Secure Rural Schools Act from $20,000 to $18,000. These would go solely towards the Sheriff’ Search and Rescue Team. He said he had a recent discussion with Cathy Koos Breazeal, Director of the Amador Fire Safe Council, and decided he could function on fewer funds while her program needed more. The Fire Safe Council recently had to move its office into Koos Breazeal’s living room due to funding cutbacks. The Supervisors approved of both motions unanimously. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County - The Pine Grove Council, Pine Grove Civic Improvement Club, and the Volcano Community Association are hosting a Winter Safety Forum at the Pine Grove Town Hall on February 25 at 6:00 pm. They have invited representatives from the Amador County Sheriff, the California Highway Patrol, the School District, and Amador County Public Works. The PGC decided to host the forum at its January meeting after discussing some of the problems that occurred as a result of an unusually sudden and heavy hail/snowstorm on December 15. They were joined by PGCIC and VCA in sponsoring the forum. The storm caught many drivers by surprise and caused traffic problems even in lower elevations in the county. School bus service was also affected and many parents had to hit the icy roads to get children home. The focus of the forum will be on traffic safety, although other issues such as emergency communications, may be discussed. The sponsors hope the event will be educational, as well as problem-solving. The forum is free to the public and refreshments will be served. For more information on the forum, call 296-3795 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Staff Report

Calaveras County – Authorities reported an apparent suicide Friday afternoon when 2 people fishing along the Mokelumne River discovered a body on the Calaveras County side of the river. The body was that of Dean Watson, a 39-year-old Stockton resident. According to Calaveras County Sheriff's deputies, the male was a victim of an apparent suicide. Calaveras County Coroner Kevin Raggio said Watson died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Watson was found just off of Highway 49, about one-half of a mile from the Highway 49 bridge at the Amador and Calaveras county line near Electra Road. Raggio said Watson was formerly employed by the San Joaquin County Assessor’s Office. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Amador County stakeholders working on the economic element of the General Plan Update discussed economic development at length last week, hearing a presentation from Doug Svenssen of Applied Development Economics. Svenssen said 25 percent of tax revenue in Amador is generated by non-retail sales; and manufacturing adds “tremendously to the tax base.” He said “the more higher paying jobs we have, the more income there is to spend locally,” also adding to the tax base. He said the county should look to invest revenue toward economic growth and toward grants such as Community Development Block Grants. He said that is especially important for projects that benefit multiple jurisdictions. He noted that the CDBG could have close to $1 billion in funding with the federal stimulus spending. Jim Conklin of the Amador County Business Council asked about language in the Economic Element policy that would require that a fiscal impact analysis be compiled for large businesses seeking to locate in Amador. One man asked if that had been studied for Wal-Mart in Martell, and several in the audience said it had not been studied. Svenssen said a fiscal analysis “isn’t something communities normally have done in the past,” but due to lawsuits, the California Environmental Quality Act now requires it. Conklin said it would be “adopting words that are restrictive in nature.” Jeff Henderson of EDAW said a court struck down a business Environmental Impact Report in Bakersfield “because the court found that the project caused physical blight.” Ron Mittelbrunn of Amador County Economic Development Corporation said the new business park on Ridge Road had an inquiry from a company that would have been in direct competition with existing local stores, including Meek’s and the Feed Barn. Mittelbrunn said “they had the attitude that they didn’t care what they would do to the local businesses.” He said “they didn’t come in because I ignored them.” The joint panel of Amador County Supervisors and Planning Commissioners will discuss the Economic Element and also the Governance Element, including all public and stakeholder comments, during its next series of meetings, set for March 24th, 25th, and 26th. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.