By Holly Boitano -

A routine agenda item turned into an episode worthy of the Discovery Channel Tuesday when Amador County Planning Commissioners learned of an early 20th Century mine tailing dam that had been seemingly lost since the 1970s, at Rancheria Creek. Commissioners were set to review an environmental document and possibly vote on a subdivision of 311 acres into 7 parcels, located on both sides of Highway 49 at the Rancheria Creek crossing, 800 feet south of Vaira Ranch Road in Drytown. About 10 area residents sat through 3 hours of agenda items to voice objections to the project’s inclusion of a 14.5-acre dedication to CALTRANS for a right-of-way, consisting of portions of an ancient road that had been abandoned by the County in the 1930s, but which residents still use and maintain as a secondary access to their properties.

But before the discussion reached the subject of the road, area resident Amy Turner dropped a bomb: The environmental document contains a highly inaccurate description of a “small agricultural pond” within Rancheria Creek, which is actually a 30-foot tall, 200-foot long dam that was built in 1910 to impound mine tailings from several of the area’s historic mines. Turner said that according to her research, the dam was last looked at in 1975, when apparently someone decided that it did not meet the qualifications to be placed in the Department of Water Resources Division of Dam Safety’s jurisdiction. Project applicants Steven MacDonald and Jeff Cookson also failed to disclose the existence of the dam in their project application. The written description of the project goes as far as to state, in two places, that “there are no existing structures on the properties.” This information was enough for Commissioners to require additional environmental review, including an engineering study on the stability of the dam and a study on the contents of the impounded soil. Residents were also reassured that the proposed right-of-way is only specific to this project, and that the County has no reason to independently seek easements through their properties.

By Jim Reece -

The Plymouth City Council heard Tuesday that its draft budget for 2008-2009 included 404,000 dollars in planning work, 324,000 dollars of which was reimbursable. Finance Director Jeff Gardner presented the draft budget at a city council workshop, with General Plan Update budgeting taking the biggest bite out of non-refundable spending at a cost of 40,000 expected for the current fiscal year. Gardner also budgeted 4,500 dollars for Public Assistance, 5,600 for on-site staff meetings, 2,300 for graphics, 2,000 for Economic Development and 1,500 for design guidelines. The reimbursable planning budget included the biggest cost of 74,000 dollars for 4 sub-consultants, staff review and coordination of work on the Highway 49 and Main Street intersection.

Other big ticket planning items included 43,600 dollars each for project processing and California Environmental Quality Act documentation for three projects – Shenandoah Springs, Oak Glen and the Shenandoah Valley Community Center. Four housing developments were budgeted for 21,000 dollars each for project processing, excluding CEQA documentation. They are Reeder-Sullivan’s Zinfandel and Shenandoah Ridge housing projects, Arroyo Woods and Cottage Knoll. Gardner’s budget mentioned the Ione Band of Miwok Indians’ Casino project, with a budget unknown, at city direction, with a question mark about whether or not any planning work would be reimbursable. Likewise was the case for Mitch Lubenko property litigation.

By Jim Reece -

Ione elected officials and staff hosted a General Plan Workshop Sept. 8 with 45 people attending and nearly all contributing with the help of a digital instant polling mechanism and a slide show. Daniel Hamilton of Rancho Cordova hosted the meeting and called the General Plan a “blueprint for growth and planning now and in the future” and a reflection of community goals.” He said it was a framework for land use decisions, housing, economic development, cultural and natural resources and transportation. Of the 45 attending, 66 percent were residents of Ione for 10 years or less, including 34 percent less than 5 years. 24 percent were residents for 20 or more years.

84 percent said Ione was their primary resident and 95 percent owned their home rather than rented. 94 percent of the crowd thought Ione’s pedestrian system was inadequate. To improve circulation locally, 45 percent supported expansion of the city’s sidewalk system while 34 percent preferred building or designating bicycle lanes. Of the 45 in the crowd, three raised their hands to say that they had a walking destination in town that they could reach entirely on paved sidewalks. Others criticized the bicycle lane idea, said there were no shoulders on streets and no room for the lanes. 58 percent said it was very important for Ione to encourage more entertainment, festivals and nightlife, while another 37 percent said that was somewhat important. Hamilton said some aspects of festivals included large commercial spaces dedicated to such use, while nightlife events would include neighborhood communication about such events for noise and light impact. The crowd split exactly 50-50 on whether the city’s parks were adequate, which Hamilton said was a good place to finish and encourage conversation. One person said Ione needed more small neighborhood parks, while another said small parks were the problem because they were so small. For an overall poll of the biggest areas of concern, 58 percent said attracting new businesses and industry was the top priority. 45 percent chose improving downtown, 37 percent picked preserving open space, 34 percent said managing the pace of growth and a high number picked improving roads, traffic and transit.

By Jim Reece -

Work progresses on the Amador County Museum, but once the roof is repaired sometime in November, that likely will not be the end of renovation. The Museum could remain closed due to a recent action by the Board of Supervisors, waiving a formal bid process for a contract addendum to Otto Construction Inc., in the maximum sum of 113,955 dollars. The board also OK’d the General Services director to make glass purchases of 22,600 dollars and another purchase of consulting of 5,200 dollars. In the vote, Supervisors also took action to keep the Museum closed until after the roof repair project was completed. The action also would keep the museum closed “until the second phase of structural work and (Americans with Disabilities Act) modifications are completed and funding becomes available from sources other than the General Fund.” The closure of the Museum came this year as long time Curator Georgia Fox retired. General Services Director Jon Hopkins said there was no immediate plans to hire a new curator at the Museum. He said the Board of Supervisors elected to close the museum until ADA corrections and also second-floor structural improvements were made. He said the roofing would be finished sometime in November, but the ADA and Second-floor repairs had no timeline as “no funding was going to be able to pay that unless it was from outside sources.” Hopkins said last week that no estimates had been made on the work, but “guess-timates” saw those additional repair costs to be 300,000 or 400,000 dollars.

By Jim Reece -

Ione City Manager Kim Kerr gave a presentation on the Measure M half-cent sales initiative last week, which would pay full-time firefighters in Amador County. “Whether this passes or not, the city of Ione will be looking at getting a paid fire department,” Kerr said. The department, she said, would consist of one full-time firefighter, on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Kerr last week said Ione has 60 calls a month, 720 calls a year, with 70 percent of those medical emergencies. Kerr said volunteer firefighters must be EMT certified and current, hence Ione’s 35 volunteers are employed at various fire departments. If they work outside the county, it is hard for them to respond on work days. The Amador Fire Protection Authority formed in 2003 to help create paid county firefighting. AFPA estimated county fire coverage would cost 2.4 million for personnel alone. That would give 50,000 dollars to each city and divide the rest based on call volume and population. Call history would give Ione 24,000 dollars for 10 percent of the county’s fire calls. But Kerr said that Ione actually should get 20 percent, as about half of Ione’s calls are routed through a Camino dispatcher. Local calls to the firehouse are not routed through Camino and not counted. Kerr said that would change, increasing Ione’s expected cut in the Measue M funding.

Part of the AFPA vision is the Tax Force Plan Implementation. Kerr said the “biggest thing we could do is to not have duplicate service.” She said one option for Ione would be a 24-7 firefighter, shared with the Jackson Valley Fire District. The on-duty firefighter could split time three days a week at Ione’s station, and four days a week at Jackson Valley’s station, then switch the following week. The on-duty person would do required maintenance and give 24-hour coverage. City Councilman Lee Ard said with full-time coverage, there was a good chance insurance rates would go down for Ione residents. “This is a use tax,” Ard said. “All visitors pay sales tax, so this is one way for us to bring those tax dollars back down to work for Ione.”

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.

By Jim Reece -

Shy of a quorum, the Amador Regional Planning Committee had an informal meeting last week and directed staff to prepare a presentation on profit sharing for the next meeting, Oct. 2. The location of the next meeting is to be determined, said Mike Daly, city manager of Jackson and a staffer for the Committee. Only one of the five members attended, Tim Murphy of the Sutter Creek City Council, while alternate member, Jackson Mayor Rosalie Pryor-Escamilla attended in the place of Vice Mayor Connie Gonsalves. Committee members absent were Supervisor Louis Boitano, Ione Mayor Andrea Bonham and public member Elida Malick of Fiddletown. Ione City Manager Kim Kerr brought a packet of revenue sharing research she had compiled, with attendees including Sutter Creek Planning Commissioner Frank Kuhna and Plymouth Vice Mayor Patricia Fordyce.

In the research, Kerr said was the Twin Cities, Minnesota, Fiscal Disparities Program that began in 1976. She said the 7-county area of Minneapolis and St. Paul had 300 taxing jurisdictions that contributed 40 percent of commercial tax base into an area-wide pool. Part of the report, by BBC Research & Consulting, said an area-wide tax rate is calculated using “weighted average local property tax rates of all participating jurisdictions in the previous year.” Revenue was shared “based on each municipality’s aggregate property value per capita compared to the area-wide average property value per capita.” The formula was criticized for not considering service needs, which some municipalities wanted to be added to disbursement based on “indicators of need, such as poverty rates and age of housing stock.” Kerr said the Twin Cities program shared 406.8 Million Dollars in property tax revenue in 2000. Pryor-Escamilla said revenue sharing would allow industrial projects to locate where appropriate and preserve the small-town ambiance. Kerr said the object of the committee and profit sharing is to attract businesses to Amador County, saying “we can’t do it as individuals, we have to do it together.” Kerr said she was looking for direction and Murphy asked if she would volunteer to put the 83-page report into a presentation for the committee’s Oct. 2nd meeting. The location of the meeting is to be determined.

By Holly Boitano -

Tuesday Sutter Creek city officials and the public got the rundown on two topics that have the potential to make or break the Gold Rush Ranch and Golf Resort: money and wastewater. City Attorney Dennis Crabb outlined the Development Agreement process, saying developers will offer the City some “public benefits” it will provide in exchange for project impacts. The contract may span 5-25 years, and use benchmarks and checkpoints to insure adherence by both parties. Crabb said the disadvantage of a development agreement was inflexibility in the face of unforeseen change. He said the City must carefully sort the issues and terms of the contract before signing it. Throughout the discussion, Councilman Pat Crosby repeatedly said, above all else, the Development Agreement should be the Council’s top consideration, contrasting Mayor Gary Wooten’s stance -- to consider dollars in conjunction with other aspects of the planning process. Members of the public said the Development Agreement should be negotiated in conjunction with the city’s general plan, now being updated. Others said the cost of public benefits would be applied as credit toward developer impact fees.

The topic switched to wastewater, with City Manager Rob Duke and consultant Rob Williams summarizing the project’s wastewater history. They also reviewed the City’s options in the areas of wastewater planning, golf course development, improvements to the current treatment system, and funding. In the end, public officials requested a spreadsheet that outlines the City’s options for wastewater disposal, in comparison with options for Gold Rush’s development. City officials also chose to slightly decrease the pace of the Gold Rush meeting schedule, cancelling a meeting at the end of September. The next meeting, 7-9 p.m. Monday, September 8 in the City Auditorium, will be for the Planning Commission to discuss the Gold Rush Draft Environmental Impact Report.

By Jennifer Wilson -

The apparent demise of the Pine Grove Bypass project was again the topic of discussion at Wednesday night’s Pine Grove Council meeting. Collectively, council members are wondering why and how Pine Grove’s transportation solution became a widening project. Several members of the public showed up at the meeting specifically for that topic, including local Realtor Marc Bowman, local Jay Ollig, and developer Tony Rapini, who is currently working on the Pine Bluffs development project at Ridge Road and Highway 88. In addition to the original three options for Pine Grove, which were a southern bypass, a northern bypass, or upgrading 88 “straight up the middle,” Ollig suggested partial widening in conjunction with roundabouts and frontage roads, and promised to bring a drawn plan to the next meeting.

Additionally, the council voiced fears that if Pine Grove doesn’t “pick a solution,” state transportation funds will be given to another area, such as Martell or Ione. Another fear being heard “around town” is that the five-lane widening project is happening, regardless of the promised upcoming public workshops. To allay those fears, the council agreed to invite a member from both the Amador County Transportation Commission and Caltrans to their next meeting. Charles Field, Director of ACTC, has already confirmed that he will be in attendance. The council has put out a request for a representative from Caltrans to appear. The council is hoping that by having members from these two agencies together in the same room, the council’s and the public’s questions can be answered. Council Chair Andy Byrne hopes the information these to people can provide will help to “dispel the rumors.” The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 1st at 5:30 PM at the Pine Grove Town Hall.

By Jim Reece -  

The Ione City Council OK’d a notice of completion for work on a Main Street project that several citizens, including a council member, called a problem project. City council members Jerry Sherman and Jim Ulm excused themselves from the meeting, due to owning property adjacent to or involved in the project, which was to repair drainage along Main Street. Sherman, before leaving city hall, address the remaining council members from the public podium, and said the work was supposed to improve the drainage. “I think the City will find that it did more damage than good.” Sherman owns a rental property on Main Street. City Manager Kim Kerr said that if the project was found to be improperly engineered, then the city would have to address the matter later. Mayor Andrea Bonham, Vice Mayor Lee Ard and Councilman Skip Schaufel voted 3-0 to approve Resolution No. 1688 to accept the work and authorized the filing of the Notice of Completion.