Amador County - Pacific Gas and Electric Company, or PG & E, will temporarily shut down power throughout most of eastern Amador County this Sunday in order to install new electrical poles. The company is sending out notices to residence in the vicinity of Pine Grove, Jackson, Martell, West Point, Sutter Creek, Pioneer and Volcano. PG & E said it does not anticipate the outage to continue for a long period of time and it will do its best to minimize the length of the interruption. The service interruption will take place from approximately 7am to 4pm on Sunday, March 22nd. “If unsafe weather conditions or an unforeseen emergency force us to cancel the work at the last minute, we may be unable to notify you of the cancellation,” said PG & E. A notice of the service interruption will be sent out to customers detailing the operation and the locations affected. For general questions, call PG & E on their 24-hour hotline at 1-800-743-5000. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County - Amador County can expect to see $35,659 from money allocated for law enforcement through the recently approved Federal Stimulus Package. Nearly $225 million is heading to law enforcement offices across the county. “Funds included in the economic stimulus package for law enforcement grants are vitally important as California struggles through its economic woes,” Democratic Rep. Sam Farr of Carmel, said in a news release. Neighboring Calaveras County will receive $35,659, and Tuolumne County will receive $55,945. According to a release from Senator Barbara Boxer, “Specifically, the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program funds will be used to fund critical state and local law enforcement efforts, including community gang prevention programs, anti-drug task forces, and assistance for victims of crime. The grants can be utilized for training, personnel and equipment to further law enforcement programs.” Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Police investigated a minor mudslide yesterday above the public bathrooms at the intersection of Highway 49/88 and Main Street in Jackson. The hillside gave way after being battered for over a week by intermittent rains. Police arrived on the scene Wednesday afternoon to make sure there was no damage to the bathroom structures. “This has happened many times before with this hillside and it was just a matter of when it would happen again,” said concerned Jackson resident Kevin Clark at the scene. “Water could seep through the rock and cause a bunch of damage,” he added. Fortunately, the parking lot is surrounded with a sturdy retaining wall that prevented the dirt from damaging the restrooms or making its way to the street. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Board President Terence Moore called a special meeting of the Amador Water Agency board for today to consider starting preparation work for the agency’s Gravity Supply Line Project. Board secretary Cris Thompson announced the special meeting Monday. The agenda includes the single item of discussion and authorization for General Manager Jim Abercrombie to execute a consulting agreement to perform geotechnical work needed for the design of the Gravity Supply Line. The line would connect the Buckhorn Water Treatment Plant on Highway 88 in Pine Grove with Tiger Creek, via a 20-ince pipeline, 33,000 feet in length. Abercrombie in a summary of the project earlier this year said the “project will also include a strategic placement of fire hydrants along the route that will improve capabilities of fire suppression in a corridor vulnerable to forest and grass fires.” In November 2008, the AWA approved a $6,875-dollar contract with consultants PBS&J to complete “Federal Cross-Cutting Environmental Regulations, to evaluate the Gravity Supply Line’s potential effects pursuant to 13 different state and federal environmental laws. The Gravity Supply Line would serve the Central Amador Water Project, and replace a pipeline installed 30 years ago as an “emergency repair,” but which has been in place since. It was placed in service by the former local Water District during a drought, to restore lost water pressure and ease the district’s extremely high fire danger. The Gravity Supply Line is one of 11 projects the AWA listed as its top jobs for which to seek funding in the Federal Stimulus Package. The estimated cost of the project is $11 million dollars. The project would reduce electric use by the agency equivalent to “nearly 50 percent of the total annual operation and maintenance budget” of the agency. The AWA board was already scheduled to hold a special meeting today for a closed-session conference regarding its suit against Kenneth Perano, as Trustee of the Ernest W. Perano Exemption Trust. The closed session starts and 9 a.m. and the open session starts at 9:30 a.m. today in the AWA office, at 12800 Ridge Rd in Sutter Creek. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The Amador Water Agency on Thursday voted to send out requests for proposals for professional services with an aim to eke out more capacity and a longer life-expectancy at water treatment plants in Ione and on Sutter Hill. Engineering manager Gene Mancebo said the consultation could cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 dollars, and would look at treating more water at the 2 plants. District 3 Board Member Don Cooper said the work should include “avoided costs,” or costs that are saved through conservation measures. General Manager Jim Abercrombie said that would be something staff could try to develop and bring back to the board, though he was not sure how PG&E would gauge such measurements. District 1 Board Member Bill Condrashoff said he had a problem with “asking for voluntary conservation so that new people can come in and use that water.” He said he would rather do things to increase capacity and flow. Mancebo said they could address changes to customer appliances and toilets to conserve water among agency customers. Abercrombie said the study’s scope would be to see “what we can do to increase treatment plant capacity.” Mancebo said the plant was already getting tweaked to increase capacity at Tanner water treatment plant, on Ridge Road, which was approved by the state about a month ago to increase treatment capacity from 4.5 Million Gallons a Day to 6 Million Gallons A Day, maximum. They eventually aim to push 6.3 Million Gallons a Day through Tanner. With other changes described by Operations Manager Chris McKeage, Condrashoff said it translated to serving 1,800 new homes. Mancebo said an increase in backwash must be handled and there was “still some imbalancing between the filters that has to be worked out. I’m a little reluctant to say, oh yeah,” AWA can handle the flow rate. Condrashoff said “there’s a potential that these upgrades can take us a long way.” McKeage said he agreed with Mancebo’s reluctance, and warned: “Don’t become too comfortable with riding way out on a limb there.” He said a filter going off-line could lead to flow shortages and DHS infractions. Cooper also added that “you don’t want to pay a consultant to tell you what you already know.” Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Spokesman Thom Walker said Wednesday that the closing of the National Hotel will not mean that the business wants to become a homeless shelter. He said a recent newspaper referred to the word, “homeless,” but it is not something the National Hotel wants. Walker is spokesman for the corporation that owns the National, ENG # 1 Inc., or Evelyn Nancy Gannon # 1, owned by Bill Smith. What they do hope to do is continue a decades-long tradition of renting rooms to churches and the Salvation Army for the cost of housekeeping. Walker said “it never was an idea to turn the hotel into a shelter. These rooms are rented out on an individual basis, as many as needed.” The state Alcoholic Beverage Control issued an order to close the doors of the National Hotel and bar at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, due to 7 violations, including selling alcohol to a minor, last May. It will close for 20 days or longer, until the liquor license is met, by opening its restaurant or by applying for a new bar license. Walker said “we’re going to go ahead and file within the next few days.” The bar and hotel will both be closed, though he may try to continue renting rooms to nonprofit organizations. The new bar license paperwork could take longer than the 20-day-to-indefinite closure order. Walker said the “60-day neighborhood is more likely.” It will not be open for Dandelion Days, and no rooms will be rented to the public, but possibly to non-profits. During closure, they plan to clean out the basement kitchen area, and he has offered the antique shop space in the lower level as a free home to the Amador County Museum, which has been closed due to its roof being in disrepair. Walker said the National’s basement was protected against flooding by a “dike of sorts,” built about 10 years ago after a Jackson Creek flood. Walker said the locks have been changed on the National and the doors were to close last night before midnight, potentially ending the hotel’s claim to being the longest running hotel in California, since its rebuilding in 1862 after a fire. The National is up for sale, at a reported $1.9 million dollars. Walker said it is no longer a flourishing business, but the owner would like to seek its intrinsic, historic value. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

By Jennifer Wilson -

The Pine Grove Bypass took center stage again at a public meeting last week. This time it was Thursday’s Upcountry Community Council meeting. John Carlson, a staff member of the Pine Grove Community Council, provided Upcountry residents with an update on transportation issues. Carlson’s update instigated a slew of questions and comments from many meeting attendees, some of whom had differences of opinion in regard to when and how a bypass option came about, and was subsequently dropped. Discussion went as far back as 2002, when the county held a series of public workshops on the bypass. UCC member Debbie Dunn gave her opinion that around that time, the Amador County Transportation Commission was required by the state to submit a Regional Transportation Plan addressing transportation issues. She said they fulfilled that requirement by holding the workshops and narrowing several ideas down to three options, then submitted those to the state. After that, the whole issue apparently was forgotten. Now, six years later, with what some say is a recent “explosive growth” in Amador County, and several new housing developments in the works, citizens are clamoring for some sort of solution for Highway 88 through Pine Grove, which sees as much as 14,000 cars per day. Carlson, also a board member of the Pine Grove Civic Improvement Club, noted that Pine Grove’s Level of Service, is now an E on a scale of A to F, with A being free-flowing traffic and F representing multiple stops and delays. Some of the public’s questions may be answered at the next Pine Grove Council meeting, which will have in attendance ACTC Director Charles Field and a representative from Caltrans. Both should give a background on the history of the proposed traffic solutions and answer questions from the public. The meeting is 5:30 PM Wednesday, October 1st at the Pine Grove Town Hall.

By Jennifer Wilson -

The Jackson City Council will be meeting tonight to present a first reading of a draft smoking ordinance for the downtown area. The council gave the matter serious discussion at their August 11th meeting, and decided to draft a smoking ordinance for review. At their August 25th meeting, Council member Andy Rodriguez reported that he and City Manager Mike Daly were in the process of drafting the ordinance, which will institute a partial smoking ban in historic downtown. The ordinance, if passed, would restrict smoking on all sidewalks from Broadway and Water Streets up to Magdaleno’s restaurant and the fire station on the north side of Main Street. The only exclusions to that rule would be the parking lots off Main Street, and the sidewalks directly in front of those parking lots. Smokers would still be able to use Petkovich Park, which will be handy for bar patrons on the south end of Main Street. The entire issue has been kicked around for several years, and was revisited recently due to citizen complaints of secondhand smoke and cigarette litter. At prior meetings, several council members and citizens in attendance brought up the delicate balance between scaring away non-smoking tourists by not controlling the situation, and insulting tourists who do prefer to smoke. Daly indicated that their draft ordinance was on the lighter side. “It’s about as non-heavy handed as it can be,” reported Daly. The council meeting will be held tonight at the Jackson Civic Center at 33 Broadway at 7 PM.

Amador County – The Plymouth City Council last week heard staff reports on forming a Redevelopment Plan, then agreed to have a Sacramento-area expert do an assesment. City Attorney Steven Rudolph said the Redevelopment Plan would include designating a “project area,” identifying “what kind of blight conditions exist,” and doing an Environmental Impact Report, which is “usually about half the cost of putting the plan together.” He said if the plan “is going to displace folks living in affordable homes,” the city must create a “Project Area Committee.” The process allows taxes in the area to be put toward revitalization in those areas. Rudolph said estimates to prepare required reports to various agencies would cost about $70,000 dollars, “to go from now through the plan adoption process, not counting fees to various entities.” City Manager Dixon Flynn said in 20 years, the Redevelopment Plan process has gotten more complex, so the city “is not going to get this done this year.” Rudolph said the 13-month process should begin September 1st, to have the area ready for the effective cycle date August 20th, and the next tax year. Vice Mayor Greg Baldwin said that “practically,” the city is “looking at almost $100,000 dollars.” Rudolph said a feasibility study by Pacific Municipal Consultants said the 30-year life of the Redevelopment Agency in Plymouth would divert $35 Million Dollars to the agency. He said with the feasibility study, the council could issue a bond. Flynn said the agency is “improving the whole value of the community” and “making what people have more valuable.” And that first $100,000 dollars the city pays “can be charged to the Redevelopment Agency,” which he said “is always going to be in debt.” He suggested having expert, Frank Spevack, come and look at the community and the city’s documents so far, and then talk to the council about what they can do. He said by July they should know whether they want to move ahead. The council agreed to ask Spevack to come and assess the town and talk to the council. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to adjust a memorandum of understanding for the Amador County Recreation Agency that could more easily allow the agency to seek a tax ballot or a bond issuance initiative for funding. ACRA Executive Director Tracey Towner-Yep said she thought it was unlikely that the agency would seek to have a voter-approved tax, but it was a power that she believed the agency already has as a Joint Power Authority. Towner-Yep said the language of the MOU that outlines the JPA’s “powers needs to be adjusted to more adequately allow for the possibility of an assessment to finance the development, maintenance and operations of new facilities.” Supervisor Richard Forster asked if another issue, involving Lake Camanche Community Service Area Number 3 (CSA-3) had been resolved. Towner-Yep said it is up to the county attorney, who said that CSA-3 “is a water purveyor, but they sit on” the ACRA board of directors. County attorney Martha Shaver said she was “not sure why CSA-3 is an enumerated member of ACRA,” considering the “anomaly, that CSA-3 was not authorized to offer recreation services.” Shaver said to be a member, CSA-3 “must be authorized to offer recreation.” Supervisor John Plasse, also an ACRA board member, said he took issue at the MOU draft language giving ACRA “the ability to levy a tax,” and encouraged calling it an “authority to impose a special tax subject to voter approval.” Shaver said “a Joint Power Authority has any power in its agreement and that includes any power that they all share or that are willing to put in.” Towner-Yep said the JPA allowed ACRA to finance itself, but Shaver said she was “not sure taxes fall within the word ‘finance.’” Board Chairman Ted Novelli said: “I think we all know how hard Tracey works, and none of us want ACRA to go away.” Plasse said it was the supervisors’ “job to weigh” consequences of their actions, and “a JPA can also exercise eminent domain.” Forster said: “You can’t fear too much. Some people getting elected may favor eminent domain. In this county at least, that has not been an issue with bodies wanting to exercise eminent domain.” Plasse said he was worried about the JPA’s long-term power. Shaver said the ACRA JPA agreement said its “members will have only the power to offer recreation.” The board approved the changed MOU language 5-0. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.