Amador County – Amador County Transportation Commission on Tuesday gave an update on its “U-Plan” traffic mapping tool to the Amador County Board of Supervisors.

ACTC Executive Director Charles Field said the brief presentation precedes a more in-depth workshop planned for next week, which will tell how U-Plan is put together and how it works, and in which attendees “will see some of the initial model runs,” or scenarios.

Supervisor Ted Novelli asked what population numbers were used in the scenarios. He said county population and school district enrollment numbers both have declined over the last three or four years, and he wondered if that would be reflected in the scenarios.

Field said population numbers came from the California Department of Finance, and they can look at that for relative effects. He said: “We can change the numbers. We need to make it reflect how we think Amador County looks, and we will.” Novelli said he hit on the right idea, that they “can change it.”

Field said when U.C. Davis developed the U-Plan tool, they meant for the U in the name to mean that “you plan it,” and to signify the personalizing of the model scenarios to the communities.

The U-Plan workshop scenarios may include “Draft Land Use Diagrams” for 2030 and 2050, and different land-use designations. Field said it would narrow down some of the 97 different land-use designations used in Amador County to 12 different use designations in the U-Plan tool.

Field said the scenarios did not look at planning areas inside cities, but did look at the affects of having two more casinos in 2030 and 2050, those being sought in Buena Vista and Plymouth. Supervisor Brian Oneto said that would be a “worst-case scenario” because the casinos “may never be built like that.”

Field said U-Plan’s real value is in five to 10 years, when the scenario models “can be adjusted for things that we learn about.”

Oneto asked about U-Plan’s cost, and Field said it was funded by federal and Caltrans grants totaling more than $100,000, for maintenance and monitoring over a two-year period. He said they can calculate the cost to monitor it in the years after that, and he said “it shouldn’t take that much time to update it.”

Supervisor Louis Biotano said the model is “only as good as the information that goes into it.” Novelli agreed, and said the population number changes would have some affect on it too.

The workshop is set for 5-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 30 in Supervisors’ chambers.

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Amador County – The Amador Regional Sanitation Authority met this week and heard from staff that a closure of Preston Youth Authority would not impact the authority’s sewer system operations there.

City Manager Sean Rabe, manager of ARSA, said in a report to the board that ARSA’s contract with Preston would keep the facilities open to the sewer management authority. He said the agreement could only end after a five-year notification period, and then only after the prison and ARSA agreed on how the wastewater flow would be disposed of, due to its being a municipal sanitary service.

Rabe in the report said “the agreement states that the five years’ notice can only come after Ione and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation ‘have resolved how to provide adequate reclaimed water for both Castle Oaks Golf Course and Preston Youth Correctional Facility.’ ”

The ARSA board appointed an ad hoc committee of Sutter Creek Mayor Tim Murphy and District 2 Supervisor Richard Forster. The committee will work with Rabe “on issues surrounding the ARSA agreement with Ione,” Rabe said. “There was some discussion about the Preston closure but no action was taken or needed.”

Rabe said: “Another issue we talked about was the impact of all of the rain on the system. With all of the rain the reservoir levels are rising. I don’t think we are in any danger yet, but if the rain continues and the levels continue to rise we could be. The engineer and I are looking into contingencies if that happens.”

Rabe in the report said two agreements “define the role of the facility in terms of ARSA,” an operations lease and a ground lease, both of which expire in 2037.

He said analysis made it clear to staff that the agreements “provide ARSA with more than ample protection to continue to use Preston Reservoir, regardless of whether or not CDCR closes the Preston facility.” He said the “clauses of the operations lease have not been met,” and “there has been no five-year notification and there is no resolution on how Castle Oaks would receive reclaimed wastewater if Preston Reservoir were closed.”

He said “terms of the ground lease require CDCR to allow ARSA staff access to the reservoir at any and all times. The ground lease also notes that termination of the lease is not feasible, and that the terms of the lease apply to the successors of the parties of the lease,” such as any subsequent user of the facility.

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Amador County – The Amador County Transportation Commission will give an in-depth look at its developing “U-Plan” planning model, and will share the results of its “preliminary model runs” in a workshop next week.

ACTC will discuss the development of its “long-range planning tool” called the “U-Plan,” in a community workshop. Executive Director Charles Field said ACTC, with support from the California Department of Transportation, and U.C. Davis, “is developing a tool called U-Plan to show likely growth scenarios based on existing city and county policies.”

Field said the “public is encouraged to learn more about the tool and contribute to the discussion on the future of transportation and other potential concerns in Amador County” by attending the community workshop.

He said it is planned to have two parts, and runs from 5-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 30 in the supervisors’ chambers at the Amador County Administration Building, at 810 Court Street in Jackson.

“There will be two opportunities to learn about the tool including a more detailed and technical presentation starting at 5 p.m. that will focus on how the model was built,” Field said. “The U-Plan tool models potential growth scenarios using inputs such as land use, environmental constraints, population, housing and employment estimates.”

The second presentation starts at 7 p.m., and “will review the inputs and focus on the results of the preliminary model runs. The process, funded through a Caltrans grant, is designed to inform future decision making by prioritizing limited transportation dollar resources.”

Field said the U-Plan is also intended to help with “understanding development patterns” and “all the influences that factor into market trends and decisions.” The U-Plan also is intended to be used for “verifying and supporting the cities and County General Plans,” and “helping ACTC to identify regional planning opportunities and concerns so they may better prioritize limited transportation funds.”

For more information about the meetings, contact Charles Field, ACTC Executive Director, (209) 267-2282.

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Amador County – Amador County Board of Supervisors approved an emergency purchase of a dump truck and trailer Tuesday for $108,000, pending assurance that the truck has a clear title.

Supervisors directed General Services Director Jon Hopkins to do verification of information and request a clear title on the truck, which is a 2008 Kenwood T800 dump truck, for sale in Prescott, Arizona. Hopkins in a report to the board asked for the item to be “blue slipped,” that is, inserted into the board’s agenda as an emergency. He said the information was not available until after the agenda was posted” and “if the matter was postponed to the next regularly scheduled board meeting on April 5, the opportunity to secure the negotiated price” would be missed.

Hopkins asked for a waive of the formal bidding process, saying that the GSA had worked with Public Works Department for more than a year to find transport “trucks and trailers that meet Public Works specifications.” He said Dan Ryan of Arizona is “willing to sell his truck and trailers that meet the majority of public works specifications for $100,000.”

Hopkins said “many variables have been explored and no truck and trailers have been located within the budgeted amount during this time period.” He said the truck purchase was approved in the budgetary process but was limited to $110,000 in the current budget. The GSA estimated that painting the truck and trailers would cost about $12,000.

Hopkins said “Ryan reduced his asking price because he is downsizing and is willing to sell as a private party further saving any auctioneer or sales commission.” He was “also willing to pay off the lien holder to avoid any complications and ensure a clean transaction.”

Regarding the bidding, which was waived, Hopkins said: “Due to the uniqueness and variables of used equipment, bidding is not possible and, therefore, waiving the bid process is recommended.” He said “sellers cannot guarantee the equipment of interest will not be sold while awaiting the approval process.”

The non-compliance of specifications that Public Works was looking for included mileage. It sought a truck with less than 50,000 miles, though the Kenworth has 74,000 miles. The truck also had a 13,200-pound front axle, instead of a 20,000-pound axle that was sought. The truck complies with California Air Resources requirements for 18-speed diesel trucks.

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Amador County – The Amador County Unified School District this week received a report of the district and Office of Education’s financial status, and heard that staff is working to get $1.3 million from its tax district.

Interim Chief Business Officer Teresa Ryland discussed revisions in a report, saying the “major change to the budget is due to the Basic Aid status of the District,” reflected in “revenue and other designations of the budget revisions.” She said District staff has found that Amador Unified is a Basic Aid district. After the revisions, she said the district’s “unappropriated ending fund balance” would be $833,000.

Ryland in the report said staff has been working with Amador County and the California Department of Education “to determine if the District is an excess tax district or basic aid district,” and it was determined it is a Basic Aid district. She said per education code and revenue and taxation code, “the district is entitled to all of its property taxes, excluding” the Educational Revenue Augmentation Funds, “and that amount is greater than the district’s calculated revenue limit.”

She said: “Receiving this year’s proper entitlement should happen automatically as the year is still open. However, we have received resistance to the County reopening last year’s property tax distributions, even though the correct distribution would have been to increase the district’s allocation by $1.3 million.”

Ryland said: “We will continue to work with the County, CDE and whomever else is necessary to assure the district receives its fair share of funding.”

She planned to give the Board of Trustees a detailed explanation of the changes at its meeting Wednesday. Ryland said “revenue limit changes reflect the Governor’s ‘Plan B,’ or tax extensions not passing this summer. In the district’s case, however, the maximum loss of revenue limit funding is the amount by when the district is Basic Aid.” She said “at this time, that is almost $900,000, instead of over $2 million if the district were not Basic Aid.”

The Board also was to consider removing a “high school computer literacy requirement” for graduation and “replace it with industry relevant technology electives for career pathways.”

Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti in a staff report said: “Computer literacy must move into this century and encompass all of technology.” She recommended the elimination of the computer literacy requirement. She said Amador County Unified is “one of the only districts in the region to have a computer literacy requirement for high school graduation.

Chapin-Pinotti said the change would “allow more room for all types of Career Technical elective” classes.

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Amador County – The Sutter Creek City Council voted 5-0 Monday to sell 10 units of the city’s wastewater treatment plant capacity to the Amador Water Agency, at a total cost of $54,000, to help the agency meet demand for a new company in Martell.

City Manager Sean Rabe recommended the sale of the 10 “Equivalent Dwelling Units” worth of capacity to the AWA, saying he “asked City Sewer Engineer Grant Reynolds to analyze the city’s ability to provide the additional capacity.” He said “city staff believes the plant has enough capacity to sell AWA the 2,000 gallons per day and recommends doing so.”

Reynolds in a memo to Mayor Tim Murphy and the City Council said that in 2009, under the direction of former City Manager Rob Duke, and with the assistance of City Planner Bruce Baracco, city staff “created a spreadsheet showing the committed capacity of the city’s wastewater treatment plant.”

Reynolds said the city is permitted for 480,000 gallons of sewer plant capacity, and has 15,580 gallons of capacity available. He said AWA requested purchase of “wastewater treatment plant capacity to accommodate sewage disposal for a new business in the Community Service Area Number 4 business area,” in Martell.

The council approved a resolution that held the purchase terms. It said the AWA requested the purchase of “2,000 gallons per day of additional sewage treatment capacity from the city of Sutter Creek’s wastewater treatment plant.”

The resolution said the agency sought the equivalent of 10 “single family units,” or 196 gallons per day each, and a current agreement signed with the county and with AWA sets the connection fee of $5,300 per unit. The 2,000 gallons equal 10.2 units, setting the cost of the sewage capacity connection fee at $54,060.

The resolution said “prior agreements between the city, the AWA and Amador County … set the equivalent flow for a single family residence at 196 gallons per day.”

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