Amador County – An elderly woman was injured after a car struck the KFC Restaurant in Jackson Wednesday afternoon at approximately 2:45pm. According to Jackson Police Chief Scott Morrison, a woman driving a red Hyundai Elantra mistook her gas pedal for her brake and bolted over the curb and into the wall by the restaurant’s front doorway. The impact severely damaged the support beam and knocked a pinball style machine into a bench where 92-year-old Catherine Campau of Wilseyville was eating along with her husband. Fire Chief Mark Morton and Morrison were the first to arrive on scene. Campau complained of head trauma and Morton advised her to “go see a doctor.” After paramedics arrived on scene, Campau reluctantly chose to go to the hospital via ambulance. At the time of this report there is no word of her condition. The driver of the Elantra told TSPN she was surprised the impact had not caused her vehicle more damage. After assessing the damage to the restaurant, one fire official advised the manager on duty “not to take anymore customers” due to the structural damage. The manager said she would have to clear that with her superior. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Calaveras County - Another case of the H1N1, or “swine flu” virus has been reported in the Mother lode region. Calaveras County Public Health Officer Dr. Dean Kelaita confirmed Wednesday that a 16-year-old resident of Angel’s Camp “is recovering from the virus and did not require hospitalization.” This is the second case in Calaveras County. The new case was reported the day after Amador County Health Officer Dr. Robert Hartmann made a presentation before the Amador Board of Supervisors on county efforts to prepare for a possible second wave of the pandemic. On June 11, the World Health Organization raised the worldwide Pandemic Influenza Alert Level to Phase Six, the highest such designation for a flu outbreak. The US now has 37,000 documented cases and 211 documented deaths from H1N1. As of July 9th, there were 2, 469 cases, 287 hospitalizations and 32 deaths from the virus in California. No deaths from the virus have been reported in Amador or Calaveras counties. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – A fire Saturday morning took the home and many belongings of the Frachon family of Pioneer. But Wendy Frachon said she was still happy. She said: “I’ve just been rejoicing. There’s sadness, but there’s no loss whatsoever because we all made it out.” She and her husband Michael, and their boys, Adam, 12, and Jacob, 6, all escaped the fire, with her grandson, and her daughter, Kylene. But they lost all of their furniture and many of their clothes and their rental home on Silver Drive was a total loss. Saturday the American Red Cross gave them a credit card to put clothes on their backs, to replace pajamas. At Jackson Lodge Wednesday, Wendy said she washed saved some clothes. And friends and strangers alike have offered much help. They said Cindy Turner was Number One on the long list of people they wanted to thank. That includes Amador Fire Protection District Battalion 10, of Pioneer and Kirkwood, where, Kylene worked as a volunteer. Wendy said “it was a nice personal touch having” Battalion 10’s Chief Ray Blankenheim and the crew there during the fire. She said: “You don’t feel so alone.” The family, and some adult house guests, just stood and stared at the fire. She said “it was all just so surreal.” Wendy said the fire started in a smoking area on the front porch, where a saved cigarette smoldered in a planter, then ignited the house’s siding. Kylene noticed the smoke and woke Michael, who went through bedrooms, yelling “fire.” Wendy said flames were shooting around the steel front door, which glowed beet red from the heat. They made it out through the garage, and she later saw that the only thing holding up the garage ceiling was the frame of the garage opener. Family friend Robert Jarrell arrived to help with two big trucks and trailers, to help load up the items they could save. Wendy said they lost all beds and furniture to water and smoke damage. They saved TVs, and old, irreplaceable photos. Mike said they also saved a refrigerator full of food. Jarrell started a relief fund for donations to be made, by donating the first $200 dollars at Wells Fargo. To donate, call Wells Fargo’s Lisa Jabs at 223-0113 and mention the Frachon Family Fire Victims fund. Wendy said the funding will help the family get into a new home. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

State – Representatives from cities throughout California are pooling their collective frustration over state proposed borrowing and budget cuts in order to help solve the state’s $26.3 billion budget deficit. Plymouth City Manager Dixon Flynn called the state legislature’s indecision “the big unknown” in determining whether local cities can balance their own budget’s for the 2009-10 fiscal year. Jackson City Manager Mike Daly is urging local employees to participate “in a grassroots effort to get our legislators to listen to their constituents and urge the state to solve its problems without raiding local government coffers.” Hundreds of cities in California have now passed a resolution put forth by the League of California Cities declaring a state of severe fiscal hardship. The League said the “actions reflect the impacts that the stagnating economy has had on California cities due to serious declines in local tax revenues.” Beverly Hills City Manager Rod Wood decried the legislature’s inaction in an open email to city managers throughout the state. “We need our citizens to demand their legislature do exactly what 480 cities and 58 counties do every year, in good times and bad, adopt a balanced budget,” he said. Hopeful news came from Sacramento yesterday when legislative leaders announced they have reached a tentative agreement with the governor on how to close almost all of the state's deficit and hope to conclude negotiations by today. The resolution will inevitably include major cuts to vital state programs. Even if the state can manage to find a resolution, local government’s will still struggle for a long time to come said Flynn. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Nearing the latter of dozens of meetings, the Sutter Creek Planning Commission talked about Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort’s specific plan and started looking at its conditions of approval Monday. Gold Rush’s Troy Claveran told the commission that the sole purpose of an agreement with Sutter Creek was to get tertiary treated water for its golf course. Claveran said Gold Rush helped the city and Amador Regional Sanitation Authority in a pinch, when they were close to lose the property on which the sewer treatment plant stands. Gold Rush provided $2.5 million dollars, matched by $375,000 dollars each from the city and ARSA, to save the sewer facility. He said “there has always been a subdivision” on Gold Rush, and “that was the basis for the project.” Commissioner Cort Strandberg said that the first and second phases of residential and golf were accepted, but when Phase 3 came out with 1,100 total homes, that’s when people “filled the auditorium” – to hear about the hotel and time-shares. Claveran said “no one has ever stated how many homes we are ever going to have.” And the “only number that ever existed” was one the engineer came up with and put in the EIR. Commissioner Mike Kirkley said Gold Rush, to his knowledge, “may be the biggest project ever proposed in the city.” But he was worried that it never addressed traffic. And despite the Highway 49 Bypass, he thought the city would still have a “Level of Service” rating of “F” on its traffic. Kirkley said he “could support maybe 500 homes because of traffic.” And he said it was “hard to believe we have this demand for 1,400 or 1,500 homes.” Peters said the city has “locked in this process and someday we’ll come to a conclusion.” He said the they “get the specific plan right, it will be consistent with the General Plan, no matter what the size of the project.” The commission was short 2 members, Frank Cunha and Robert Olson, both on vacation, but went through Peters’ comments on the “Conditions of Approval” for Gold Rush. Commissioner Cort Strandberg said he was “not satisfied” with the specific plan’s consistency with city General Plan Goal 2.1, on preserving the city’s feel. He asked to move on and return to the topic when all 5 commissioners are there. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County - A fire Tuesday evening behind Campbell’s Quick Stop in Jackson burned shrubbery and part of a fence. Jackson Assistant Fire Chief Dale Fishback confirmed that the fire took place at approximately 6:45 pm near the corner of Folger and Wallace Streets. Area residents watching the Major League Baseball All-Star game were alarmed by the blaze. Shrubbery burned up to the back porch of a house adjacent to the burn. The Jackson Fire Department and CALFIRE responded to the blaze within minutes. No one was injured and the cause of the fire is still under investigation. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – An early morning house fire in Pioneer Saturday left one family homeless and burned multiple dwellings. According to photographer and TSPN contributor Bill Lavallie, firefighters from the Amador Fire Protection District and CALFIRE responded to the blaze at approximately 5:20am. The garage from one of two adjoining housing units was heavily involved in flames and firefighters worked quickly to keep the blaze from spreading. Firefighters approached the blaze quickly and from multiple angles, dragging heavy hoses and climbing across the rooftop. The fire was eventually extinguished, but not before the blaze destroyed most of one unit. The cause of the blaze has not been officially stated by fire officials and is still under investigation. A planter box against the garage containing cigarette butts in it is a prime candidate. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – A 49-year-old transient man was found dead early Saturday, after an acquaintance checked on his welfare. Authorities were trying to determine the cause of death through an autopsy in the Amador County Coroner’s Office. His name was not yet released. Jackson Police Sergeant Christy DeStidger said the body was found Saturday, July 11th, in a shed in which he lived between Broadway Street and South Street, in downtown Jackson. It started as a welfare check, when the reporting party called the Jackson Police Department, after seeing the man apparently passed out on the bed. A JPD officer was dispatched at 7:30 a.m. Saturday and attempted to rouse the man, but there was no response, DeStidger said, so they forced entry and checked for signs of life. He was deceased, and Destidger said things were checked to see if there was foul play and it appears that the cause of death was natural. An autopsy is being conducted by the Amador County Coroner’s Office. She was not sure if the next of kin have been notified. The man was 49 years old. 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 on Tuesday heard a presentation by members of the Public Health Department on Amador County’s efforts to prepare for any future outbreaks from the H1N1, or “Swine flu” pandemic. In California, there have been six deaths. One case of the virus was discovered in an Amador County man who returned from Mexico in mid-April, but Amador County Health Officer Dr. Robert Hartmann assured that that case was mild and the man recovered to full health without any propagation of the illness. On June 11, the World Health Organization raised the worldwide Pandemic Influenza Alert Level to Phase Six, the highest such designation for a flu outbreak. The US now has 37,000 documented cases and 211 documented deaths from H1N1. Every single country in the southern hemisphere has reported the virus. Hartmann narrated a PowerPoint presentation outlining the impact and response to other major historical outbreaks. “We generally say that we have three worldwide pandemics per century,” he said. The largest in modern history was the 1918 Spanish Flu, or what Hartmann referred to as the “granddaddy of all pandemics.” That outbreak killed about 50 to 100 million people worldwide over the course of a year. He said the second wave of the Spanish Flu was five times as viral. He said county officials should prepare for a possible second stronger wave of the H1N1 virus. The current H1N1 fatality rate is 0.4%. Outbreaks are increasing in the northern hemisphere, and ninety cases have occurred amongst health care workers. Hartmann said the most worrisome figure is that the median age for infection is down to 17 and “hitting young populations much more heavily.” Amador County Public Health Director Angel LaSage said the county is utilizing a recent $150,000 state grant to prepare for the future by purchasing pharmaceutical type refrigerators and staying abreast of new science and information. Hartmann said the Health Department’s goal is to be “first, fast and accurate” in relaying health information to the public and gaining the public’s trust. LaSage said “vaccines are being developed and developed rapidly.” Ironically, one US company is testing the vaccine in pigs. Supervisor John Plasse said “it’s good to see that Amador County isn’t putting their head in the sand as was done in 1918.” County Counsel Martha Shaver noted amusingly that county code still contains provisions requiring the reporting of Spanish flu. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The Plymouth City Council hosted a public hearing on it General Plan update Final Environmental Impact Report last week, and took staff advice to consider giving relief to housing developments outside the city that annex into the city. That relief was suggested by City Attorney Steven Rudolph in the form of allowing housing projects located outside of the city limits and that are annexed into the city be exempt from the General Plan’s requirement that 20 percent of housing units be designed and built as “affordable housing.” Rudolph also suggested that the annexed property would be subject to other, future policy by the city council requiring affordable housing. Stefan Horstschraer (Horsetrader) said “if you don’t get rid of this 20 percent tonight,” his company Reeder Sutherland will have to wait for its housing plan to be reworked. He said the best estimate could have that taking half a month. Or it could take a year-and-a-half. And “in the worst estimate, it could never happen if you don’t have the money to do it.” Reeder Sutherland’s 2 developments, Zinfandel and Shenandoah Ridge, are planning to build 460 to 500 luxury homes on ¼-acre to 1-acre parcels. In public comment, Councilman Greg Baldwin asked if doubling the population from 1,000 to 2,000 people over the next years would be “outrageous” to ex-councilman Gary Colburn. Colburn said when they put 500 homes and 1,800 people out there, “then who controls the town? I’m not ready to hand over the keys.” Horstschraer said regarding voting and build-out: “We have proposed a very slow build-out, so the first people will be well established Plymouth residents by the time we reach build-out.” Maria Simon said she sees mansions built on top of hills in the Shenandoah Valley, and she would “rather see (mansions) built in the valleys and see vines growing on those hills.” Simon said she is “looking forward to Mr. Reeder’s development and other developments. None of us will be here.” The council continued the public hearing on the city General Plane and Final EIR to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, August 13th. The updated FEIR with “strikethroughs” will be available to the public on Friday, July 31st. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.