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Jackson – East Bay Mud has delayed a decision on its highly contentious 2040 water plan in part due to strong objections from Amador and Calaveras County residents. The EBMUD Board scheduled another workshop for Tuesday at 10 am in Oakland to discuss the plan. Local objectors to the plan were expected to turn out in force at this morning’s meeting. The majority of local protest is centered on a proposed plan to expand the Pardee Reservoir and flood portions of the Mokelumne River in order to provide more water to customers in the East Bay. A number of local groups and government entities have publicly objected to the plan, citing potential damage to the river’s ecosystem, the destruction of historic sites and irreversible damage to a river considered important to Native Americans. Katherine Evatt of the Foothill Conservancy has said there is “also a concerted effort the last 10 or 15 years to develop the whitewater resources” of the Mokelumne River for the rafting industry. A resolution by the City of Sutter Creek “urges the Utility District to adopt higher conservation levels in its 2040 Water Management Plan instead of expanding Pardee Reservoir and destroying the Middle Bar reach of the Mokelumne River.” Two public workshops were held earlier this year in Amador County and Calaveras County. To comment on the proposed plan, contact EBMUD Board President Doug Linney at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sacramento - Faced with a $26 billion budget deficit, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed off on a number of budget cuts that will have a direct impact on Amador County. During his State of the State address in January, Schwarzenegger called the massive deficit “a rock upon our chest, and we cannot breathe until we get it off.” Since then he has proposed draconian cost-cutting measures, from scheduling early release for prisoners to selling off historic state properties. The Legislature remained deadlocked in budget negotiations for months before finally agreeing on a solution July 28 that includes $16.1 billion in spending reductions. When included with the $15 billion in reductions last February, the cuts amount to approximately $31 billion. While the package makes it possible for the state to operate during the current fiscal year without new taxes, it spares few other areas, including $9.3 billion in cuts to education, $3 billion in cuts for health and human services and cuts in general government spending of $1.7 billion. Even then, it was still $156 million short of being balanced. Schwarzenegger likened the approval process to “the good the bad and the ugly.” Almost simultaneously, he signed off on another $489 million in spending cuts to eliminate the $156 million deficit and build up the reserve, borrowed $50 million from a state special fund and found $117 more in savings from last fiscal year. Many of theses drastic cuts will be felt locally. The largest cut was $80 million allocated to counties for child abuse programs. $27.8 million was eliminated from the Williamson Act program, which enables local governments to enter into contracts with private landowners for the purpose of restricting specific parcels of land to agricultural or open space use. $6.2 million will be eliminated from the state parks budget, resulting in the likely closure of 100 of the state’s 280 parks. $50 million was eliminated from the Healthy Families program, providing medical insurance to low-income families that don’t qualify for MediCal. $52.1 million was cut from the Office of AIDS Prevention and Treatment, eliminating all services except drug assistance and surveillance. Schwarzenegger said, “I see the real Californians that will be affected by the decisions made within this budget and nothing guarantees revenues won’t drop further, but this budget puts us on a path toward fiscal responsibility so we can focus on bringing jobs back to get California moving forward again.” Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Ione – The Ione Planning Commission voted to recommend the city’s draft General Plan Wednesday, and sent the document to the City Council. The commission requested more staff work on the zoning portion of the plan, and for definitions of the different zones. Commissioners Stewart Wilkerson, Mike McDermed and David Jenkins voted 3-0 to recommend the draft, with changes and clarifications made after comments were received, some as late as Wednesday. Ron Smylie and other members of the audience were concerned about the definition of the zoning, and McDermed said they were asking staff to clarify and define the different zones. Wilkerson said as a land owner, who lives close to Smylie, he said he is concerned about the effects of zoning on landowners’ rights. But he said the commission was also there and working for everyone in the city. Among additions to the draft General Plan, the commission added a map showing “existing conditions and anticipated future conditions for noise generated by vehicle traffic on major city roads.” City Planner Christopher Jordan submitted an edit to the housing element related to “very low-income housing,” with new text noting that “rental prices for 3- and 4-bedroom apartments, condos and homes were renting from $975 to $1,400, and therefore are out of the affordability range for these households.” A population density table was also added to the housing element, with ranges of minimum and maximum dwelling units and population allowed in each of 6 land use designation categories. Those were Rural Residential; Low, Medium and High Density Residential; Central Business District; and Downtown Transition. Density unit maximums in the latter 3 categories were 25 units per acre, and Jordan noted that “density bonus consistent with state law may be allowed to exceed the 25-unit per acre maximum.” Maximum population density was 39 people per acre for the latter 3 categories. The table include a maximum total estimated population of 17,258 people, and staff based its assumptions on data from the 2000 U.S. Census, which uses 2.64 people per singe-family household; and 1.56 people per multi-family units. The commission also added an “Action” section item on a “Child Care Program,” which said “In cooperation with private developers, the city will evaluate on a case-by-case basis, the feasibility of pairing a child care center in conjunction with affordable, multifamily housing developments or nearby to major residential subdivisions.” The program listed the city manager, planner, planning commission and city council and responsible for the program, and funding from the General Fund. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Ione – The Ione Planning Commission added a series of changes to its recommendation for the draft city General Plan Wednesday, including a land swap for the Q Ranch development. The swap of Q Ranch “policy area” property gives a parcel from Rancho Arroyo Seco to Q Ranch, in exchange for one there. The properties were on opposite sides of Irish Hill Road from the rest of their respective properties. City Planner Christopher Jordan is a report said the 2 parties, the Toma family and Rancho Arroyo Seco, “have agreed to the principles for the transfer of property. The swap is subject to approval of a Boundary Line Adjustment by Amador County and execution of exchange documents.” Jordan said staff reviewed the agreement and recommended the swap be included in the final General Plan. Jordan gave the commission an e-mail in which Ciro Toma said he met with Bill Bunce and Tom Swett of Rancho Arroyo Seco and said he “agreed in principal” to the swap. A map approved to be recommended with the draft General Plan listed the former Arroyo Seco property would have “Open Space” and “Low Density Residential” land use designations. The commission also accepted recommendations form Jordan and General Plan Project Manager Daniel Hamilton for replies to comments from Mintier Harnish Planning Consultants on behalf of Amador Ranch Associates. Replies included mostly notes that questions raised had been address in the General Plan. Staff did not agree with Mintier Harnish’s comments that a Conservation & Open Space Element “action” was “too rigid,” and suggested a change. Jordan and Hamilton also recommended making no changes addressing comments from the Foothill Conservancy’s Thomas Infusino. In the letter, Infusino said the Conservancy is “encouraged by some language and state goals” in Ione’s draft General Plan, but said the “overall growth of the Ione area seems extremely high,” and noted the current population, 3,500, including Mule Creek. He said “it is assumed 2030 the development capacity of the proposed General Plan would be … a population of 18,182.” He said the “mitigation recipe lacks some key ingredients.” Infusino said in “many cases there are no established quantified objectives to guide policy implementation.” He said: “When deferring mitigation to some time in the future, key necessary ingredients are the sorts of quantified standards to which the city and the development community can be held accountable in the future.” He also said it was urgent to get development standards in place, before the approval of other projects. The public hearing on the General Plan was continued to August 26th, when the city council will convene. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sacramento – Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill last Thursday that will temporarily ban the use of suction dredges in gold mining following a California judge’s ruling. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch created a moratorium two weeks ago on the issuance of suction mining permits in California. The ban will remain in effect until a lawsuit against the Department of Fish and Game asserting that tax dollars are being used to illegally subsidize dredge mining is resolved. The lawsuit was filed in 2005 by the Karuk Tribe, who also claim the Department of Fish and Game allows the practice of suction dredge mining to occur in areas known to be critical habitats for endangered and at risk fish species. Mining groups like the New 49’ers Prospecting Association say there is no proof that dredging harms river environments. The New 49’ers urged the Governor to veto the bill, though there were enough votes in the Senate to override a potential veto. Approximately 3,500 permits are issued nationally each year for suction dredge mining. Many of these miners come to California’s Gold Country. The Mother Lode was ground zero for the original 49er movement and has since hosted hundreds of thousands of hopeful prospectors. Karuk Spokesman Craig Tucker said less than half the cost of issuing dredge mine permits each year is collected from permit fees. He said the rest “is subsidized by California taxpayers, including tribal, commercial and recreational fishermen who depend on healthy salmon runs for their livelihood or their businesses.” The ban will remain in effect until the state Department of Fish and Game completes an environmental review of suction dredging and creates new rules and regulations, said Lisa Page, a spokeswoman for the Governor’s office. Suction dredge mining is an underwater process that works like a vacuum to suck up and filter gravel from river bottoms. Miners who already have a permit can continue using dredges. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Buena Vista – An Arizona company hosted an open house Wednesday at the former Cogen wax plant on Coal Mine Road on what will be a $22.3 million capital funding drive to reopen the plant as a forest-waste-burning electric generating facility. Buena Vista Biomass Power company Managing Partner Mark D. Thompson told the dozens of people in attendance that the company has invested $2.3 million there, and was still assessing the project. He said: “We’re here very focused on getting this investment done.” He told attendees, including all 5 members of the Amador County Board of Supervisors, that they need about $20 million in capital investment to open the plant. He said it was 1 of 2 combustion electricity plants in California that would receive Federal grant funds, and it would be getting between $1.5 million and $3 million. Thompson said the plant will rely on biomass or wood trimmings from regional forests to operate 24 hours a day. Mechanical Project Manager Eddie Messinger said the plant would require 24.5 tons of wood chip fuel an hour to operate at full capacity, and run 7 days a week, generating 18.2 megawatts, to be sold on the open market. That would be 20 truckloads a day delivered to the site. The plant would keep on hand at the site 30 days’ worth of operating fuel, in 3-inch wood chips. Thompson said the project would help alleviate excess wood waste from forestry management, which could be stepped up after lumber mill closures slowed logging. The plant already has a forester on staff, and he has located 18 slash piles that they company could contract to pick up, rather than put a match to in the open air. He said to date this year 3,000 fires had been or were being fought in California, compared to 2,350 this time last year. CAL FIRE has spent nearly $10 million to fight the Stanislaus National Forest’s Knight Fire in Tuolumne County, which on Wednesday was 50 percent controlled, with 5,000 acres burned. Last year, Thompson said California spent an “unbudgeted” $800 million in fighting fires. He said removing biomass from forests reduces fire threat and eases pressure on watersheds. He said burning wood wastes there would help reduce emission in the region. With state-of-the-art filters, the plant will emit significantly less that the old plant and will try to be the best generating plant of its type in the state in emissions quality. Thompson said they were working with Amador Air District’s Jim Harris to modify the permit to remove lignite coal from its fuel list, and to have a program to pick up peoples’ biomass and lower the number of burn permits issued. He said last year, Harris issued 600 burn permits. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sutter Creek – The City of Sutter Creek City Council on Monday directed staff to continue working with city employee representatives for 3 week to try “to come to an agreement on the expired contracts for each union.” The finance committee, made up of Mayor Pro Tempore Tim Murphy and Councilwoman Linda Rianda, will join Rabe and City Manager Rob Duke as the negotiation team for the city, to work to resolve contract disputes with the Service Employees International Union and the Sutter Creek Police Officer’s Association. POA was to meet with the committee next week, and SEIU representatives were to meet this week. Rabe said the negotiation team has been meeting on a regular basis with the 2 associations since early June. The city council’s original deadline to finish negotiations passed without resolution July 15th. Rabe said “while progress was being made” in talks, the latest “did not provide any movement on either side.” As a result, the POA declared an impasse July 29 and sought the council to do the same. The SEIU did not declare an impasse as of Monday, and the council did not declare an impasse with either group Monday. Had the council declared impasses, it would have activated the negotiations’ “last and final offer” for a contract to each union. The council instead “directed the finance committee to continue working with each group for a period of 3 weeks, with the ultimate goal of coming to an agreement with each association.” Rabe said: “the Council recognized that we are very close to an agreement.” The council took “several steps to decrease the General Fund deficit,” he said, including: “termination of two management positions; consolidation of department head duties” under Duke and Rabe; and leaving vacant a Public Works Director post, with duties to be absorbed by Rabe. The council also revised a purchase agreement for the Knight Foundry to prevent any General Fund expenditures from being used for the purchase. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sutter Creek – The Amador Water Agency board on Tuesday discussed the water needs of the Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort, and learned that Sutter Creek is still negotiating its “conditions of approval” on the project. District 1 Director Bill Condrashoff said raw water for the golf course should be in a new analysis of the Water Supply Assessment done by the AWA staff. And he wondered if the plan was “to use up all the water in the first 10 years.” Chairman Terence Moore said it was not the plan, but the board was trying to ease his concerns. AWA attorney Steve Kronick said the state gives water agencies “guidelines on how to document future demands,” but these are “not necessarily what the cities” plan or do. Condrashoff said the WSA should look at other cities’ future needs, but Abercrombie said they “must include planned projects, but not unplanned or speculative ones.” Sutter Creek’s Bart Weatherly asked who would pay for a new raw water line to serve Gold Rush. Abercrombie said there were “a lot of developers here today,” and he will work with them and “have them pay as much as they can.” Developers in attendance included Cirro Toma, Rob Aragon, Bill Bunce, Greg Bardini, Stefan Horstsradter and Bob Reeder. Sutter Creek Assistant City Administrator Sean Rabe said the “conditions of approval” agreement with Gold Rush was still a working document, but so far says the developer shall build a new tertiary-level water treatment plant for the city and the developer’s needs, within 3 years. It also says the project will accept wastewater from Sutter Creek. He said “within 36 months, the project has to construct the tertiary plant.” That could be extended to 5 years, at the developer’s request. Rabe said “they will need raw water for the golf course,” and “it’s your job to tell us how long it will be.” He said “before the first certificate of occupancy is issued, the tertiary plant has to be built.” That is for the first phase, and subsequent phases require other treatment plant upgrades. Rabe said the “whole point of the golf course is to dispose of water,” and the “golf course won’t be able to take all of the water that the city can produce.” It will also be sent to Ione, or to the Amador Regional Sanitation Authority’s storage. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sutter Creek – The Amador Water Agency Tuesday signed off for a second time on an 18-month-old Water Supply Assessment for Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort. Chairman Terence Moore introduced the topic as primarily the issue of concern of District 1 Vice Chairman Bill Condrashoff, saying the meeting would likely be a discussion between “Bill and staff.” Condrashoff asked why the WSA did not use data from a particularly high peak flow in July 2008, when the flow needed was 17.95 cubic feet per second. Engineering Manager Gene Mancebo said 2 special circumstances made him choose to not use that data. He said the canal foreman was on vacation for most of that month. A leak went unnoticed for most of the month, and a new pump was installed but not adjusted correctly, and it also leaked. Mancebo said “water flow dropped more than 3 cfs after the foreman returned and made repairs.” District 3 Director Don Cooper said Condrashoff was “identifying a 100-gallon difference” in usage between staff estimates and his own, which amounted to 28 percent more than staff numbers. But even using 500 gallons a day use for the assessment, flow needed would be 28.28 cfs. Cooper said: “I’m sorry I’m having a real hard time seeing your numbers justifying that we are going to exceed 30 cfs.” Moore said “I’m not seeing the fatal flaw here,” just little errors he pointed out, which somehow “all accumulatively go up. They don’t offset each other like in the real world.” Moore said: “I think we are trying to satisfy your concerns.” Eric Robinson, attorney for Gold Rush said this was the second meeting he has “attended on an already approved water supply assessment.” He said “this particular (WSA) was reviewed an incredible number of times.” He said was amazed at the staff hours spent answering comments by “then citizen Condrashoff.” Robinson said AWA “debunked” Condrashoff’s “mathematical analysis” that was “orchestrated to create a phantom belief that there might be some peaking demand problems.” He said “there is no merit to the phantom peaking concern.” Robinson said staff analysis says there is enough water to supply Gold Rush, and validates the WSA, and he “humbly” requested the board to end its review. Amador County Planning Commissioner Dave Wardall criticized the board, and said: “If we have some board members that have personal agendas and are affiliated with environmental groups, that is not good for the agency.” He said board members should put those issues aside for the good of the agency. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sacramento - A key figure in the ouster of former California Governor Gray Davis is now spearheading an effort to remove Assemblywoman and 10th District Representative Alyson Huber from office. Republican activist Tony Andrade of Rancho Murieta is calling the El Dorado Hills Democrat too liberal for her district and last week served her with recall papers signed by at least 50 other people. However, Andrade’s initial effort was short lived, as the California Secretary of State's Office last Thursday rejected paperwork because it did not contain key legal language. According to state law, Andrade and other recall supporters must file paperwork with the secretary of state before collecting signatures for a recall petition. 37,821 valid signatures from registered voters are needed in the district to qualify for a ballot. Andrade has called this legal setback a minor snag on the road to Huber’s recall. Huber has said the recall is a political game that will cost taxpayers to hold another special election. Huber said the recall seems to be driven by people who didn’t like the election result. Huber’s win in last November’s election was carried by votes from more Democrat-friendly areas of the 10th District, including El Dorado Hills, and resulted in a narrow victory over her main opponent, Republican Jack Sieglock. Sieglock told TSPN he has no part in Andrade’s recall efforts. Huber also said these efforts further agitate the differences between Republicans and Democrats. Andrade served as petition manager in the 2003 recall of Gray Davis. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
