Yesterday afternoon a single vehicle collision gave a whole new meaning to plowing the garden. A Jackson man, for an unknown reason, lost control of his pick up truck and drove through his neighbor’s fence, plowing through the garden area. The driver was transported to Sutter Amador Hospital for precautionary reasons. The accident is under investigation  by the Jackson Police Department.

The weather was the talk of the town yesterday with thunder, lightning, rain and snow and the season’s first chain controls on Hwy 88. It’s rare that we see a winter storm pattern like this in September, according to the National Weather Service, and more is on the way – They forecast more rain overnight and possible hailstorms in the Valley tomorrow with rain and snow over higher mountain passes. Southern California is also feeling the effects of this very cold storm, with snowfall predicted as low as 5500 feet in the southern Sierras.

The September 19th Amador County Transportation Committee meeting saw discussion of several proposals that would improve county roads. Project Manager Scott Moss gave a brief presentation on a proposed Pine Grove Bypass. He discussed possibilities of a bypass to either the north or the south of the city, as well as the possibility of widening the route through town. He stated that the ACTC was in the process of completing a more thorough report through Cal-trans. Moss also says that Cal-Trans will be instating a survey crew at the highway 49 bridge in Sutter Creek, in order to monitor the bridge through the winter and ascertain why the bridge is deteriorating.

The Ione City Council met Tuesday night to a full agenda, with each discussion item dealing mainly with finances. First on the agenda was the City’s Audited Financial Statements for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2006. A recent audit included an adverse opinion on the city’s financial statements including lack of historical documentation, a lack of documentation to support accounts receivables and deposit liability accounts, seven- instances of non-compliance required to be reported under Government Auditing Standards, and 22-matters involving the internal control over financial reporting and its operations.

Sutter Creek Elementary and Primary Schools will be joining schools from around the world to celebrate International Walk to School Day on Wednesday, October 3. Watch for lots of elementary school-age students on Sutter Creek streets, walking to school with parents, teachers and community leaders. The event will begin at 7:30 am at the new upper parking lot on Sutter-Ione Road and the Sutter Creek parking lot next to the post office. The event is being organized by Sutter Creek and the school district to celebrate the completion of the Safe Routes to School project along Sutter-Ione Road and Spanish Street for the Sutter Creek Elementary School. For additional local information, please contact Mel Welsh at 296-4848.

You can run, but you can’t hide from the CHP… On March 2, 2007, Mike Schwartz of Murphy’s thought he had received the perfect birthday gift from his wife – a 1931 Model A Ford, off an E-Bay auction listing by the St. Louis Car Museum in St. Louis Missouri. The Schwartz’s purchased their dream car for just under $22,000. The car arrived with a Certificate of Title with a Vehicle Identification Number which matched the number on the engine.

The Amador County Sheriff’s Office says there is success in its efforts to investigate and eradicate illegal marijuana growers in Amador County, with over 42-hundred pot plants destroyed in two recent operations. On Tuesday, the Amador County Sheriff’s Office searched a property located at 11656 New York Ranch Road in Jackson. A garden of 1440 marijuana plants was found in a wooded area, complete with water lines running from a nearby home to the marijuana plants.

“Continued restraint” is how staff described the Amador County 2007 – 2008 final budget approved by the county Supervisors at Tuesday’s Board meeting. County coffers ended last year about $837,000 higher than anticipated and the final budget includes some increases from the draft version including $20,000 for grant writing contracts and almost $33,000 more for Amador County Recreation Agency. The revised budget also restored the Supervisors’ $18,000 travel reimbursement fund and reinstated their discretionary fund for recreation projects to $10,000 for each district.

A new report by the Sierra Nevada Alliance finds that sprawling patterns of homes built in the Sierra are more expensive and dangerous to protect from wildfire. The report is the result of two years of research and finds that major wildfires like the Angora Fire in South Lake Tahoe will become more common and more destructive, if current growth patterns continue. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of people living in extreme or very high fire threat areas of the Sierra increased by 16% and is expected to triple by 2040.

This week the US House of Representatives is making moves to overhaul the FHA, or Federal Housing Administration, with the passage of a piece of legislation. The Bill, 348-72, backs mortgages for moderately priced homes. The bill also will allow some borrowers to refinance existing mortgages through the FHA as a way to prevent them from defaulting on their loans. The House also passed an amendment to the legislation sponsored by Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, that would raise the loan limit to the lower of either 125 percent of an area's median home price or 175 percent of the national loan limit.