Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 8-7-12

·       Ione’s new city manager recommends forming ad hoc committee to respond to the Grand Jury Report.

·       ACUSD to consider North Star admin reclassification.

·       Plymouth Planning Commission revised the city downtown design guidelines.

·       Amador Community College Foundation OKs non-profit incorporation, plans first two classes at Sutter Transit Center.

·       ACUSD hears report about air quality inspections.

Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 8-7-12 - Today's news guest, Al Lennox of American Legion Ambulance, talks with TSPN's Tom Slivick.

Amador County – Ione City Council on Tuesday (Aug. 7) will consider a recommendation by its newly hired City Manager Edwin Pattison to form an ad hoc committee to respond to the 2011-2012 Grand Jury Report.

Pattison in an Aug. 2 report recommended creating a committee to include two Council members, himself and the city attorney, saying it would have no financial impact other than staff time to prepare the response. He recommended the committee write a draft response to be “presented to the full City Council with time to prepare and submit a final response,” by the statutory deadline of Sept. 19.

The Grand Jury is still investigating Ione. The ’11-’12 report included an independent financial analysis that looked at thousands of pages of documents, including the City Auditors’ reports for fiscal years ending in 2006-2010. The Report found Ione spent $2.29 million on a total of five different wastewater consultant engineers between those years, and paid a legal firm $1.18 million between June 2007 and August 2011.

Among findings, the Grand Jury said the City Manager at the time “did not demonstrate that she possessed the proper qualifications and expertise to perform the duties required for that position.” It also found that the General Plan created by the City Manager and (Pacific Municipal Consulting) was unrealisticly based on the financial infrastructure in place at the time.” The report also said “on many occasions the City Manager provided insufficient or misleading information making it difficult or impossible for the City Council to cast intelligent votes.” This was based on independent analysis of the city’s Local Agency Investment Fund, about which complaints said it may have been improperly using restricted Community Facility District funds. The study showed that was not the case.

The independent Grand Jury finance consultant, Conrad Davis (of Crowe Horwath LLP) in a report said “it is our understanding the city is in the process of reconciling the deposits and receivables related to the (CFD) to underlying supporting documentation. When issued, the audited financial statements and financial statements of findings for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011 may confirm whether this issue remains a significant deficiency.”

The Report found that the City Manager and City Council disregarded findings and recommendations of the 2010-2011 Grand Jury report” and “ignored complaints voiced by local citizens at City Council meetings concerning financial matters and problems surrounding the proposed wastewater treatment plant.” It also found that “the money spent on consultants for the wastewater plant was unnecessary because it was based on an unrealistic General Plan.”

Story by Jim Reece

Amador County – The Amador County Unified School District board of trustees on Wednesday, Aug. 8 will consider reclassification of an administrative assistant position at North Star Independent Study School.

The change would remove an admin assistant 2 position of full time 8 hours and replace it with a full time equivalent secretary position at North Star.

Trustees on Wednesday will also consider reinstatement of a full-time admin assistant 3 position at Independence High School. The position changes were negotiated in a memorandum of understanding with the California School Employees Association Local Number 239, to restructure the positions.

At the last board of trustees meeting, July 25, two people spoke in support of keeping the administrative assistant job rating level in the position at North Star. Doug Turner, a North Star Independent teacher, said he had just learned that the position was being changed to a secretary post. Turner said he felt that considering the consolidation of the administrator’s position and the responsibilities of the secretary position, that it should not be a downgraded position.

Cort Strandberg, also a North Star teacher, also addressed trustees on July 25, and said he felt the change of the position would not be positive for North Star Independent Study staff. He praised and emphasized the importance of the current administrative assistant, Mrs. Allen, at North Star.

Story by Jim Reece.

Amador County – The Plymouth Planning Commission held a public hearing last week and slightly revised the downtown design guidelines, which will be taken to the City Council at a later date, for a public hearing.

On Wednesday, Aug. 1 the Planning Commission recommended the Downtown Design Guidelines after a public hearing, the last time the commission will see the guidelines before they are considered by the Plymouth City Council.

City Planer Jeff Beiswenger said the design guidelines have been in the making for the several years, and were nearly approved by the City Council in 2009. Instead, the council directed some changes, and sent the guidelines back to the Commission, which returned to them in April and held a public hearing last week.

Beiswenger said no significant changes have occurred since the project first started a few years back. In 2009 the Council almost adopted the downtown design guidelines but wanted a few changes made. It sat idle for a couple of years, and then the Commission reinitiated the process of adopting them. It was idle because no development was occurring, and also because of staffing changes.

The Plymouth City Council and Planning Commission held a joint meeting in April and made some minor changes. One was removal of a separate Architecture Review Commission. Beiswenger said that was eliminated with the understanding that the Planning Commission would serve as the review body for design review.

Other changes, including picking a palate of color for a “uniformity for color.” They selected an earth tone color palate. Another issue that had considerable discussion but no changes was the boundary for the downtown area to be covered by the guidelines. The area will be the downtown east to Highway 49 on the east side and it continues to commercially zoned property on Main Street.

Beiswenger said there will be a separate set of design guidelines for the Highway 49 corridor, which won’t apply to downtown. He said it would be different, probably more focused on landscaping and more related to the visual aspects of its site planning, landscaping, and building form, rather than trying to match up with the historic character.

The City Council will address the downtown design guidelines at an undetermined date after a required public notice period. The guidelines will not affect the Reeder Sutherland residential developments, which are planned developments that have separate design guideline documents that go with them.

Story by Jim Reece.

Amador County – Amador County Unified School District board of trustees heard a report on the school district’s air quality inspection from a professional with the district’s insurance collective.

Doug Carson, Loss Control Assistant with Pritchard Safety and Health, told trustees that he monitors air quality at school sites and facilities, and how the tests are used to evaluate air quality and locate contaminants. He said “your interior air is good.”

Carson told trustees that it was critical that teachers keep running their heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in order to get fresh air into the buildings, and to keep carbon-dioxide (cO2) from building up. He said high cO2 levels can cause burning skin and can affect learning and test scores. He said teachers must run the systems and not keep the HVAC systems off just to increase hearing between the front and back of the classroom.

Carson said his sampling looked at mold inside and outside the classrooms and buildings to see if some mold is more prevalent inside than it is outside. If there is more of a type of mold inside, then they see if they can find the source of the mold. He said: “Your interior air is good.”

Trustee Lynette Lipp said she is the one who asked for Carson’s report, and she asked him if he knew about studies of using leaf blowers having the affect of increasing mold in the air. Carson said he had never heard of it. Lipp said she could give the study information to him about that issue.

Story by Jim Reece

Amador County – The Amador Community College Foundation board of directors voted Thursday, Aug. 2, to approve incorporation documents to file as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation.

The Foundation board met last week in a special meeting, and regularly meets on the third Thursday of the month. It will meet as scheduled Aug. 16.

Karen Dickerson, Secretary of the Amador Community College Foundation last week also announced that adult enrichment classes will begin in September, including a wine appreciation class, and an art appreciation class at the new Sutter Hill Transit Center beginning the first week of September. Both courses are free, with suggested donations to ACCF of $5 per session encouraged. Registration forms and flyers are available online.

The classes include the “The Everyday Guide to Wine” class to help master the fundamentals, including the language of wine, basics of wine making, varieties of wine and the world’s great wine regions. Classes are 6:30-8:30 p.m., Tuesdays Sept. 4 through Nov. 20. The 12-week series includes 24 lectures on DVD by Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan, master of wine, and discussions facilitated by by Shan “The Wine Man” Trail, manager of the Amador Vintner’s Visitor’s Center in Plymouth. Trail has been part of the Amador County wine scene for 20+ years.

Another class, “How to Look at and Understand Great Art,” will help to master the fundamentals of art, through discovering the artist’s language, rich and varied genres, great eras and visionary movements. It will include presentation of 950 works of art. Class times are 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Thursdays, and dates are Sept. 6 to Nov. 15, and Jan. 10 to Feb. 21, 2013. The 18-week series consists of 36 lectures on DVD by Dr. Sharon Latchaw-Hirsch, and class discussions facilitated by Dr. Pamela Sharp, Professor Emeritus of Art Education at San Jose State University. Sharp is a local artist who is the Director and Teacher of the Children’s Studio in Sutter Creek.

People interested in the classes should enroll early as space is limited. Classes will be held at the Sutter Hill Transit Center, at 117 Valley View Road in Sutter Creek. For information, see the ACCF website AmadorLearningCenter.org or call Karen Dickerson at (209)482-1369.

Story by Jim Reece

 celebrate the 4th of July at the Upcountry Independence Day Celebration in Amador County Ca. at Pioneer Park on Amador This Week with host Tom Sivick of TSPN TV

TSPN TV's Out and About takes you to The Amador Home & Lifestyle Show & Fair Aid Event at the AC Fairgrounds with host Sue Slivick. Fair Aid is a music event fundraiser for the County Fair.

TSPN TV's Amador This Week's host Tom Slivick takes you to Jackson Ca. Main Street for the Annual Jackson Lions Halloween Parade, and You'r Invited to meet the Goblins