Amador County - The Amador County Sheriff’s Office has arrested three suspects for a series of vandalisms in the Sutter Creek, Martell, Jackson and Lake Camanche areas. Cody Allen Gribble, 20, and Jaimeson Russell Kelly, 18, of Sutter Creek were arrested and charged with Vandalism and Conspiracy to Commit a Crime. Both Gribble and Kelly are currently in custody at the Amador County Jail. A 17 year old male juvenile was also arrested in connection with the crimes. The juvenile is currently in the custody of the Amador County Probation Department. During the last two days, over 40 vehicles have been reported as vandalized by the suspects. The majority of the reports were damaged vehicle windows. The crime spree began early Wednesday morning when three vehicles in the Martell area had their windows shot out with BB guns. Jackson and Sutter Creek Police Departments received similar reports around the same time. More reports of broken windows came the following morning from the Jackson and Lake Camanche areas. James “J.D.” Harding, a resident of the Lake Camanche area, woke up at 4:30 Thursday morning to find the back window of his Ford Explorer shattered and the rear paneling halfway removed. He estimates the cost of repairs at around 6000 dollars. He flagged down a passing Sheriff who was investigating similar reports from the neighbors. When Harding awoke again at 7 am, he found an apparent hand-written confession on his windshield. “It was in a girl’s handwriting and basically said ‘This is Jamieson Kelly and I am the person responsible for your damage, along with an address and phone number’.” Harding said he contacted the sheriff, who arrived with a pocketful of confession notes. There is speculation as to whether the note was a frame job or the suspects were given up by someone who knew of their activity. A Jackson Police officer arrested the three individuals during a routine traffic stop Thursday morning. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Amador County resident Ken Berry has appealed the certification of the Wicklow Way Subdivision Final Environmental Impact Report, making the initial filing November 7th. He filed another document Tuesday at the Amador County Planning Department. Planner Heather Anderson said the county would prepare an answer to the appeal letters, before the December 16th hearing, 10:30 a.m. before the Amador County Board of Supervisors. Anderson said the staff report should be finished by December 12th. Berry filed the appeal on his own behalf and for the Concerned Citizens of Jackson, saying “we are affected by the proposed project both personally and by being residents and neighbors of the city of Jackson.” The appeal alleges that the Amador Planning Commission failed to “fully disclose significant facts concerning the effects and impacts of the project on the environment in the FEIR” and that the commission violated the California Environmental Quality Act. The letter refers to an October 17th letter by Berry that “notified the Planning Department of 2 significant defects in the FEIR,” including “internal inconsistency resulting from incorporation of the Amador County Transportation Commission’s Regional Transportation Plan and the failure to comply with water code” on water assessments. On Tuesday, Berry filed a supplement to the appeal, alleging Public Resources Code violations. The letter said that the Amador Water Agency exceeds it maximum rate of water delivery from Lake Tabeud and will not be able to meet peak water demands. It concludes that the “AWA has rights to sufficient water to supply the Wicklow Subdivision, but it lacks the right to transmit water at a rate sufficient to meet its planned commitments during the period of maximum demand.” It said recycled and stored water would help AWA meet the needs, “however, both solutions require the planning and approval of infrastructure that does not exist.” The letter alleged that “certification of the Wicklow Subdivision project EIR is unlawful and must be set aside.” Berry notes in the October 16th letter that his pending lawsuit against the AWA on its Amador Transmission Pipeline could affect the availability of water, should the agency lose the suit and be forced to mitigate pipeline impacts on Jackson and Jackson Creek. Story by Jim Reece. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The Sutter Creek Planning Commission sought a revision to the Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort “Specific Plan” Wednesday night, looking to “fold in” its preferences to make the plan adhere to the city General Plan. Consultant for Gold Rush, Greg Bardini, gave details of the specific plan, which he acknowledged was written before the planning commission had poured through the project to determine its general plan consistency. Commissioner Frank Cunha said he thought the “document should be updated to reflect everything that (they had) done in the last 5 meetings.” But he noted that the landscaping element was very extensive and something the city needed to do itself. City consultant Anders Hauge said he had not thought of going through and making updating the specific plan, but doing so could not be done before Monday’s scheduled next meeting on Gold Rush. Cunha said the commission had spent a lot of time on the subject and had “discussed 90 percent of the things in this document.” Commissioner Mike Kirkley agreed, saying a meeting Monday would “not be very productive.” Commission Chairman Robin Peters agreed, saying he thought “someone should take the general plan recommendations and fold it into this document.” He did “not want to submit a document that isn’t something the planning commission completed.” Cunha said even through the consistency analysis, they saw how the applicant disagreed with some recommendations, including the fact that in the General Plan, there is not “General Grading” category, though Bardini’s presentation included that type of grading. Bardini said the “intent of the specific plan is that it matches the mitigations.” The commissioners canceled the Monday meeting and asked for the document’s revision to be brought to the next regular Planning Commission meeting, Tuesday, January 12th. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County - The Amador County Technical Advisory Committee fielded complaints Wednesday pertaining to a permit for a Sunday School at the Mt. Zion Assembly of God. Pastor Blayne Corzine voiced his frustration over gaps in communication and the number of steps required to meet standards. According to Larry Petersen of the Planning Department, a new use permit is required in order to allow the existing trailer to be used as a Sunday School and classroom. In addition, a Sunday School is not considered a classroom and “Sunday School” must be added to the application. Corzine said that when the church acquired the trailer it was already setup as a business trailer for a construction site. He already had filed for a permit and did not understand why he needed to file a permit yet again. But Petersen said the current permit only allowed for storage and did not include some specifications needed to determine whether it was suitable as a meeting area. “Now I have to give an additional 300 to 500 dollars to use this trailer for these kids,” said Corzine, referring to filing fees. But the committee explained that when you change from a storage unit to a building with people, documentation is needed on file to ensure it meets all code requirements. “No one is saying it doesn’t meet those already, it’s just the process,” said Planning Director Susan Grijalva. Corzine said “The frustration comes when I talk to someone else in the building department and they told me completely different standards. I have to go back and answer to the Church board about this. I’m coming to the people that are supposed to help me and it seems like there hasn’t been one straight answer that I get.” Grijalva sympathized, saying “it looks like you got left holding the hot potato here.” The Planning Commission said these types of miscommunications were one of the main reasons why the Advisory Committee had been created. “Sometimes the public uses words that mean something different to us,” said Grijalva. Deputy CAO Kristen Bengyel said the land use and planning departments will also be offering a weekly drop in period to answer questions from the public in the near future. “We’ll take info, apply it to appropriate documents and streamline this process,” she said. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Ione City Council on Tuesday will consider approval of a 119,000-dollar contract for city union employees over the next 2-and-a-half years. City Manager Kim Kerr will present a report on negotiations with city staff and the Service Employees International Union Local Number 1021, with the numbers and a list of negotiated terms. The contract includes salaries and raises of employees over the next 2-and-a-half fiscal years, with the salaries totaling 46,558 dollars and raises between 29,000 and 73,000 dollars. The raises are based on the federal Cost Of Living Adjustment and cannot fall below 2 percent or rise higher that 5 percent. Raises in this fiscal year would take effect January 1st, 2009 at a cost of 4,867 dollars. Raises in fiscal year 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 both occur on July 1st of each lead year. In 2009-2010, raises in the contract could cost between 14,224 and 35,561 dollars. In 2010-2011, raises could cost between 14,645 and 37,684 dollars. The total cost of the 3-year contract, counting this fiscal year, is between 75,000 and 119,000 dollars. Kerr in a report recommended the council authorize the her to finalize the MOU with SEIU to incorporate the changes and finalize other revisions to the language, then sign the final version of the MOU upon completion of revisions. Kerr said the “negotiations took time to complete” due to a Total Compensation Study presented to the City Council. In the report to Mayor Andrea Bonham and the council, Kerr said the “City Council can elect not to approve this agreement and request that City negotiators go back and negotiate more with SEIU.” She said that was “not recommended at this time due to the on-going negotiations that have been shared with the City Council during Closed Session and how SEIU and the City negotiators arrived at this agreement.” Kerr said “Unfortunately, the MOU has expired and we need to address the issues raised by staff and to be competitive with our employees even during difficult financial times.” Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The Amador General Plan Update ended last week with direction to staff to look at a Water Element and also to Solar Power requirements on new projects with 6 or more units. The process took a 2-week break, directing staff to research those and other areas and report back in February. Among those was looking into having a water element in the plan. District 3 Supervisor Ted Novelli requested the matter be looked at because of funding from the state and federal governments that might be available if the county adds a water element. He said the state and feds might be “willing to give us 2 Million Dollars if we add a water element.” He suggested asking the Foothill Conservancy if they knew of the funding. He suggested working with Calaveras and Alpine counties on a watershed overlay with regional involvement that could help qualify for the funding. Planning Director Susan Grijalva said her department would see if there was money available and if the county would need to make a water element part of the general plan. Planning Commissioner Ray Ryan said he would “like to see what’s on the other end of that carrot.” Katherine Evatt of the Foothill Conservancy said “one of the best sources of new water is conservation” and she said that if governments don’t implement a water conservation program, they will not get state money. More study was also sought for Greenhouse Gas emissions policy, which required that “new residential building permits for more than 6 units provide solar power generation on 50 percent of units.” District 2 Supervisor and Board Chairman Richard Forster thought they should require 100 percent of units have solar power in projects of 6 units or more. District 5 Supervisor Brian Oneto said he thought the requirement would be expensive and suggested the county wait to see what the state requires. Forster said he thought the county would be “taking a big step backward because standards are coming down and the standards are coming down hard.” District 4 Supervisor Louis Boitano suggested and the panel agreed to leave the policy as it was for now, with planning staff research brought back in meetings February 17th, 18th and 19th. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - The Board of Supervisors met last Wednesday for a special meeting to certify the results of the November 4th Election. The brief meeting that was planned took somewhat longer when Registrar of Voters Sheldon Johnson surprised the Board with the presentation of an antique County map. The map is dated 1896 and outlines in detail the numerous mining claims from that period. The map includes Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne and Mariposa Counties. It was given to Supervisor Oneto as a gift during a property deal. The Supervisors were all impressed with the generous gift. “This will be a great addition to the County,” said Forster. As for the certification, the Supervisors unanimously approved to make all vote tallies official. Johnson proudly noted that this year’s voting percentage in Amador County was 88.56 percent, up from 88.34 percent in 2004. Amador County has one of the highest voting percentages in California. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The Amador Joint Water Committee talked about regional wastewater in its final meeting of 2008 in late November, with the subject of wastewater reclamation becoming the latest buzzword for local collaboration. AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie said the solution now was a regional wastewater recycling plant. Engineering Manager Gene Mancebo said the “focus is now on how we can get reclaimed water and how we can use it.” He said the objective is to minimize the impact on potential drinking water resources. He reported that the Amador Water Agency had submitted a grant application to the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, requesting 250,000 dollars for a water recycling project. He said the Sierra Nevada Conservancy seems to be very interested. Part of the project is to get the county and cities to work together and to replace drinking water with reclaimed water, to be sent on to the Jackson Valley Irrigation District for agricultural uses. The early step is to do outreach and bring parties together. Mancebo said the “Purple Pipe” program was such a project, but it was not a solution to the average residential user, as to even turn on the spigot or adjust a sprayer head of a Purple Pipe requires a licensed operator. The Purple Pipe program would pump reclaimed water around the county, but it can only benefit agencies. He said they could try to get it to serve public needs, such as irrigation at cemeteries, school grounds, parks and open areas. Abercrombie said collaboration among political entities was more important now that funding had changed. Instead of getting state funds of 2 Million Dollars per regional project, the funding now is disbursed at 2 Million Dollars per community. Local developer Krista Clem said her Golden Vale subdivision, currently in the application phase, has two ponds, at 18 and 27 acres, which could be available for storage as part of a regional water reclamation project. Joint Water Committee member, Supervisor Richard Forster asked Clem is she would “work on developers and bring them to the next meeting and see who’s willing to participate.” Clem agreed to do so. The next Amador Joint Water Committee meeting is January 19th at the AWA office. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - This year’s annual Ione Christmas celebration will be held on Saturday, December 13th at 4 pm in downtown Ione. The parade will have more than 30 entries that include floats, three marching bands including Argonaut, Amador and Ione Jr. High School, Santa Claus and his helpers closing the parade. The downtown will be aglow with lights outlining the buildings, Christmas displays and garland. After the parade, downtown businesses will host an open house with refreshments for parade attendees. A special professional group of carolers will be singing songs of the season downtown from 3:30 to 5:30 pm and will be at the newly opened Clark’s Corner after the parade. Santa will be in the park located at the corner of Main and Preston for free pictures and listening to Christmas wish lists from the children. Candy Cane Lane in Ione will officially open the same evening. Story by Alex Lane(This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - The Amador County General Plan panel chose to designate land inside city Spheres of Influence as “Urban Reserves,” as they wrapped up a rehashing of the draft General Plan. The panel broke for the holiday season and a 3-month hiatus on a month-long serial meeting Thursday with staff directions to the planning department. County Planner Susan Grijalva said she thinks she knows what was agreed upon by supervisors and county planning commissioners and what was rejected over the 5 days of the meeting, which began in mid October and was reconvened 4 times. The meeting will resume in February. Grijalva and her staff will make further review on some items, including affordable housing, and on the topic of “Town Centers.” The latter will be subject of community input to determine which areas do or do not want to be designated as Town Centers. Among some items discussed Thursday, Planning Commissioners reported on their Tuesday meeting that had representatives from 4 of the 5 cities in Amador County. Commissioner Ray Ryan said they got a lot of input from developers and city planners, with the “Urban Reserve” designation getting the nod as a fit for designating unincorporated areas of Amador County that fall inside city Spheres of Influence. Ryan said he thought it was “in unison with the cities as well.” He said the planning commission agreed. Supervisor Richard Escamilla said he would still prefer to leave it alone and handle each designation individually. Commissioner Andy Byrne said he was in favor of designating all areas in Spheres of Influence of the cities, noting that addressing it with the blanket action “rather than an ad-hoc basis allows for better planning in the long run.” They identify what land is for, its development potential and its future within city boundaries. She said LAFCO looks at whether a vacant lot with cows on it will be there in 5 years. Board Chairman Richard Forster voted against the Urban Reserve designation, saying that it was “asking agriculture people to make a justification to stay agriculture.” The planning commission will return with revisions and further study information when the serial meeting resumes, February 17th, 18th and 19, from noon to 4 p.m. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).