Amador County – The Central Amador Water Project service area was asked to conserve water Saturday morning, after a power outage knocked out the water pumps that feed the Buckhorn Water Treatment Plant.

Power was restored by early afternoon, but not before the agency requested voluntary water conservation in seven Upcountry water service areas, as power was lost during last week’s storm.

Pacific Gas & Electric had 7,000 or more outages in the Amador and Calaveras areas, and crews were working to respond to the outages in the utility’s 70,000 square mile service area. A PG&E power outage map on Tuesday showed outages from Eureka to Bakersfield, including a large cluster in the Bay Area. Locally, West Point appeared to be the closest area without power.

Amador Water Agency General Manager Gene Mancebo said besides power problems, the AWA had communications interruptions, with phone line downs, as the phones are used to remotely activate and deactivate the pumps, which carry water from the Tiger Creek to the CAWP treatment plant at Buckhorn. The agency notified customers to conserve water.

He said the agency had “some critical water shortage issues Upcountry because of the power outage.” Upcountry water areas affected, included customers from the Pine Grove, Sunset Heights and Jackson Pines area, all the way up to Pine acres, Pioneer, Rabb Park and the Mace Meadow area. All were asked to conserve water usage until power was restored.

“We are scrambling,” Mancebo said Saturday morning. “We have been scrambling with generators, but it is very difficult to get to the large pumps, to get water up to the treatment plant. We have power at the plant, but we don’t have any way to get the water up there.”

He said: “Of course the gravity supply line would help this issue. And we’ve got communication problems, phone lines are down that turn the pumps on and off as well.”

Saturday in the early afternoon, Mancebo said “PG&E was able to restore the power to our pump stations so that we can start producing water at the Buckhorn plant,” and they lifted the conservation request.

“I think this is just one more issue of why that gravity pipeline would be great to have in place,” Mancebo said. The pipeline would replace the pump system with a gravity-fed underground pipeline.

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Amador County – The Amador Regional Planning Committee is scheduled to select a vice chairman this week, and could also discuss what to do about a road project for Highway 49.

The Regional Planning Committee meets 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23 at the Jackson Civic Center. The committee has three agenda items, including election of officers, that is, an election of a vice-chairperson.

The committee could also get a follow-up presentation from Ed McMahon on a recent “Your Town Workshop.” The committee is also scheduled to continued discussion of a “plan of action for the Highway 49 Project.”

Committee members also may give reports on their activities in their respective jurisdictions or areas, and to request items be placed on future agendas. The committee will also set the agenda for its March 23 meeting.

Committee members include Jackson Councilman Keith Sweet, and his alternate, Mayor Connie Gonsalves. Mayor Tim Murphy represents Sutter Creek, and his alternate is Councilwoman Sandra Anderson. Sandy Fuller represents the city of Plymouth, and her alternate is Mayor Greg Baldwin.

Member-at-large is Renee Chapman, and her alternate is Brian Jobson. Amador City is represented by Councilman Tim Knox, whose alternate is Mayor Aaron Brusatori. Pine Grove Civic Improvement Club is represented by Lynda Burman, and the Upcountry Community Council is represented by Rebecca Brown.

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Amador County – A bill first introduced last year by Congressman Dan Lungren was approved and sent forth from the Ways & Means Committee last week, and with 270 supporters in the House of Representatives, potentially moving it closer to final approval.

Senior Field Representative Robert Ehlert announced in an e-mail Thursday that the bill is “poised for passage.”

The bill, which would repeal part of the Health Care Reform Bill, and repeal legislation that requires 1099 tax filings with the Internal Revenue Service by businesses and non-profit organizations for purchases of good or services in amounts larger than $600.

Last Thursday (Feb. 17), the Committee on Ways and Means approved the bill introduced by Congressman Dan Lungren (R-CA). The bill is titled: “H.R. 4 – The Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act of 2011.” The bill was first submitted last year, then resubmitted again this session, after growing support, including support from Democrats.

Ehlert said the “bill will repeal the burdensome 1099 reporting provision enacted in 2010,” and he issued a statement from Lungren upon his “hearing the news that his bill was one step closer to final passage.”

Lungren said: “I was pleased to hear the Ways & Means Committee swiftly marked up my bill and brought it closer to a vote in Congress. Burdening small businesses, who are the real job creators of our economy, with additional tax filing requirements, hinders growth.”

He said: “When I introduced this bill last year, I wanted to remove roadblocks so entrepreneurs could worry about growing their business not keeping their heads above water. Today was a victory. Momentum for passing this bill is on our side.”

Ehlert said Lungren’s bill “repeals the onerous new Form 1099 information reporting requirements that were imposed on small businesses to help pay for the Democrats’ Health Care bill.” He said more than 175 organizations and small businesses support the 1099 repeal.

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El Dorado County – El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department announced discovery of nearly 250 roosters in a cockfighting operation in Garden Valley, and the arrest of two men.

El Dorado County Sheriff’s Spokesman Bryan Golmitz said deputies stopped a vehicle for minor traffic violation about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 13 in Diamond Springs. Deputies noticed “a box in the rear of the pick-up, which appeared suspicious to them.”

Golmitz said: “Deputies inspected the box and located two roosters inside. Both roosters appeared to have incurred injuries consistent with cock fighting.” A vehicle search revealed several “slashers,” used in fighting roosters.

The driver, Saul Cuevas Ayala, and passenger Rogelio Reyes-Higareda, were arrested for possession of bird fighting equipment, possession of a fighting game cock and conspiracy. Both were booked into El Dorado County Jail. ¶ At 1 p.m. that day, deputies and El Dorado County Animal Services served a search warrant at the Ayala residence at 4325 Brush Bunny Lane in Garden Valley. During service of the warrant, several items related to cockfighting were located and collected as evidence.

Nearly 250 fighting game birds were found at the residence in Garden Valley, and all were euthanized. Investigators found the birds with fighting implements, and other evidence of cockfighting.

El Dorado Animal Services Chief Henry Brzezinski said it appeared to be “a significant operation,” and “typically, large amounts of money, drugs and weapons are involved in cockfighting matches.”

He said there “are also often other crimes and violence associated with these activities,” and it is “definitely a situation we want to address if we suspect it is happening.”

Cockfighting is illegal in the United States, and is a misdemeanor in California, with penalties including jail and/or fines up to $5,000 for a first offense, and $25,000 for a second offense. Brzezinski said states surrounding California consider cockfighting a felony, and “this may be one of the reasons why we are seeing more cockfighting operations here.”

Brzezinski said “hidden cockfighting operations” are “more common than most people realize.” He said the birds are “bred” to be “aggressive by injecting them with powerful chemicals, stimulants and hormones, and by subjecting them to inhumane training methods.” Before fighting, a “slasher” knife “is attached to one of the legs of each rooster and the birds are taunted into fighting one another until one usually dies from its injuries.”

None of the birds connected with the Feb. 13 raid could be saved, Brzezinski said. “The birds were humanely euthanized because they were either in bad shape physically or their behavior was too aggressive for them to be rehabilitated.”

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Amador County – About 40 people attended an economic forum in Plymouth last week, with the state director of USDA Rural Development as the top guest.

Plymouth Interim City Manager Jeff Gardner said Dr. Glenda Humiston presented findings of a series of statewide forums on rural development held across California in 2010.

Gardner said the crowd included different organizations, talked about resources and ways to collaborate at county and city levels.

Humiston pointed out one big thing about the USDA is its widespread geography over which it must preside. She said California has 13 regional offices in its 58 counties. A comparable area in southeastern United States, in the same square mileage, has 400 counties and 400 field offices.

Gardner said money is allocated accordingly, and “it is hard for Congress to get their head around the fact that we need stuff out here in California,” and in Amador County, which is still classified as a rural county.

He said Humiston is looking at how money is spent and trying to turn it around. There is money for large urban areas and for very poor rural areas, but that leaves out rural areas of 20,000 to 30,000 population, like Amador County, which kind of fall through the cracks and miss out on funding.

Gardner said the meeting gave good information, and helped get people in the room talking to each other, exchanging cards, and looking for ways to interact and work together.

Humiston said the forums last year showed a common problem in rural areas, that a lot of time and resources are spent, and in many cases, those efforts are being doubled, and tripled sometimes around a county.

Humiston said USDA is opening a regional center in Livingston with state-wide, and federal resources to help drive a regional concept and approach to attack problems. The Livingston office opens Feb. 25.

Gardner said the report had innovative information on agricultural economics aimed at rural areas, developing resources, production, technology, small mobile meat processors, aggregate sites and shipping hubs for small farmers.

Gardner said he found it very informative, and a lot of people who don’t spend a lot time talking to each other listened to people. There was a lot interaction of people talking about ways they can interact and help each other with common goals.

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Amador County – Plymouth City Council and Planning Commission last week discussed the status and details of two housing developments in an information workshop.

City consultant Richard Prima said developers Reeder/Sutherland have finished the Environmental Impact Reports for its Zinfandel and Shenandoah Ridge residential subdivisions. He said the city has “comments from agencies and we’re working on responses to those.”

Prima is working on 13 pages of “Conditions of Approval,” which are so lengthy due to a lack of recent history of development and construction details in the city, due to a moratorium. He said they must document conditions being approved, and should get design guidelines to serve as zoning because the area to be annexed is not currently zoned by the city. A “development agreement” also must be approved.

Part of the process will be establishing an assessment district, or Community Facilities District to fund infrastructure. Bob Reeder, partner of Reeder/Sutherland, said with the wide spread of homes, they are “looking at a cost per lot to us somewhere around $100,000 per lot,” for infrastructure.

Reeder and Stefan Horstschraer showed design methods to preserve “tree canopy” with homes plotted using a hand-held Global Positioning System unit while on the property. He said they intend to have 2,000- to 3,000-square-foot homes on lots of one-quarter acre, up to a full acre in size. The average lot size is one-third of an acre, in Zinfandel, with 360 homes planned on 365 acres, and 140 acres of open space, Horstschraer said.

Reeder said phasing was market driven, developers are realistic, and “there’s going to be a limit to the number of homes you can sell, even in a good market.” He said they “do not need the prices to come back to the peak of 2005.” He said: “I got very nervous when prices got that high, because I didn’t think it could last.”

He said it was optimistic to hope to start building in two years, and he cited Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as looking for a 10 percent recovery to show the housing market was “really back on its feet.”

Mayor Greg Baldwin asked about home design standards, and if these would change if the subdivisions are sold. Prima said design guidelines in the project will be imbedded in building standards.

Asked about agricultural buffer zones, and Horstschraer said: “We started our discussion with neighboring agricultural owners well before the General Plan,” and all but one owner has made an agreement on buffers. The one hold-out is developers JTS Properties.

Councilwoman Sandy Kyles asked if the council would hold separate public hearings on the projects, and Councilman Jon Colburn said the attorney has recommended that they be kept separate.

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