What’s in the future for Kay’s Resort at Silver Lake? The El Dorado Irrigation District acquired the former Kay's Silver Lake Resort when it bought a PG&E hydroelectric system in 1999. EID closed the resort facilities – including a boat launch – last year. The EID is considering selling the property to pay for rebuilding the boat launch there – the district is required to maintain the boat launch for public use.

The lighting of the official state Christmas tree has heralded the start of Christmas season at the State Capitol. The star-studded event was held yesterday evening on the West Lawn of the Capitol, with Gov. Schwarzenegger and eight-year-old Itzamaya Nunez, a San Jose girl with Down syndrome, flipping the switch and lighting the tree. Children and adults with developmental disabilities made the majority of the 2,000 ornaments on the tree. The 55-foot white fir tree was cut in Camino, then transported to the State Capitol in mid-November. The U.S. Forest Service donated the tree. It took 2 days to set up the tree and several days to decorate. To reduce the California state tree’s carbon footprint, the governor has arranged for the tree to be decorated with ultra-low-wattage LED lights. The 6,500 lights will be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell system for the second year in a row.

An Amador firefighter was back to visit the Sutter Hill CALFire station after being burned while battling a Malibu wildfire Thanksgiving weekend. 21-year old Scott Hertzog was on his way to spend a few days of R & R at his family’s home in Pioneer after being released from a Southern California burn center. Hertzog, a seasonal firefighter who was assigned to a CAL FIRE Amador-El Dorado Unit fire engine at the Corral Fire, received first and second degree burns on his face and arms. He was met at the CAL FIRE station by television crews and reporters – his story has been featured by media outlets in Southern California and Sacramento.

Hospice of Amador has new leadership – Dan Riordan of Sutter Creek took over the executive director position for the hospice organization last week, replacing recently retired Abigail Gessler . Riordan brings a range of management expertise to Hospice, most recently from First 5 of Amador. A decade or so ago, he managed the former Blue Shield insurance processing office in Jackson. Along the way he worked as a management and human relations consultant for Bay Area and Sacramento concerns. Riordan says he began volunteering for Hospice two years ago and loved the work he was doing there. When the Hospice position became available, Riordan says he saw it as a great opportunity for him to put his management skills to work at a service he knows has great value to the community.

A Sutter Creek man adjusting his radio rear-ended another car on New York Ranch Rd last week.  According to the California Highway Patrol, the 24-year old Sutter Creek driver was following a 62-year old woman from Citrus Heights on New York Ranch Rd north of Coventry Way, when he took his eyes off the road to adjust his radio. The Citrus Heights driver braked going down the hill and was rear-ended by the car behind her, resulting in property damage but, fortunately, no injuries. Almost 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes happen within three seconds of some form of driver distraction, according to a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. The study tracked drivers with video cameras and sensors and offered evidence that inattentive driving causes accidents, and young drivers are much more likely to have such crashes. The study found that drivers between 18 and 20 were four times as likely to have inattention-related crashes and near-crashes as drivers over 35.

Extremely dry weather conditions have prompted the Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit of CAL FIRE to extend the 2007 fire season until further notice. They had originally planned to close fire season on December today. The Amador El Dorado Unit closed fire season for its jurisdiction on November 15 but will continued to maintain staff and equipment ready to respond to local emergencies as well as meet statewide needs until at least December 10. Before burning you must obtain a valid permit from your local fire protection agency.  Before burning you must also check the current burn status by calling your county’s Air Pollution Control District. To protect local air quality, burn only clean, dry vegetative material.  Do not burn household or commercial trash, tires, plastic or other garbage.  Avoid burning piles of pine needles, which smolder and often spread dense smoke over the entire neighborhoods. Leave pine needles on the ground for erosion control over the winter or burn them with other dry vegetation.

 

You can put Dungeness crab back on your holiday menus again --  Governor Schwarzenegger has reopened fishing in the San Francisco Bay, since test results show no significant health risk from eating marine life caught in the area impacted by the oil spill. The exceptions are commercial oyster facilities and mussels caught in two locations: Berkeley Marina and Rodeo Beach in Marin County. On Nov. 13, the Governor closed fishing in the Bay so that tests on the fish could be conducted after a container ship struck a Bay Bridge abutment west of Yerba Buena Island and spilled fuel into the bay.  Some 58,000 gallons of bunker oil poured into the water, polluting beaches and covering hundreds of seabirds. Sample testing has shown that marine life in the Bay and coastal waters are fit for human consumption. Specifically, the Dungeness crab season will immediately resume and the season for herring will open as previously scheduled. While fish and shellfish from the spill area, with the exception of mussels in the two locations, are safe to eat, it is still possible for marine life to come into contact with pockets of oil over the next several months. Health officials recommend that sport fishers take a common sense approach and avoid consuming fish and shellfish with an oily smell or taste.

Christmas trees are beautiful, but they can also be very dangerous. Two hundred times a year, a dried-out Christmas tree catches fire. Last year, those fires caused 10 deaths and $10 million in property damage. During November and December each year, about 10,000 people are taken to hospital emergency rooms as a result of falls, cuts, shocks and burns caused by decorations at home. The best way to prevent fires is by picking the freshest tree and watering it correctly. Julie Vallese, a spokesperson for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, who appeared on CBS’s “The Early Show,” says, "You don't want your Christmas tree to dry out.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters have forecast a La Niña winter this year. La Niña is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures in the Pacific, compared to El Niño events, which are caused by unusually warm ocean temperatures. La Niña tends to bring nearly opposite effects of El Niño to the United States — wetter than normal conditions across the Pacific Northwest and dryer and warmer than normal conditions across much of the southern tier.

The last of an innovative workshop series on Amador County government was held this week and TSPN was there to tape the full session of Amador Government 101. The workshops were presented by decision and policy makers themselves, as a way to help the general public better understand how our local government works. The final workshop was held Wednesday, with almost three hours of presentations and an open public question and answer period. Presenters at this final workshop included both governmental and non-governmental county agencies. Non-governmental agencies included: the Foothill Conservancy, Amador Community Foundation, First 5 of Amador, Sierra Pacific Industries, East Bay Mud, and Amador County Smart Growth.