Tom
Monday, 30 August 2010 06:23
Amador County News TSPN TV with Alex Lane 8-30-10
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News Broadcast Videos
Monday, 30 August 2010 06:17
Board of Supervisors Pre-Agenda Report with Richard Forster 8-30-10
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Amador County Board of Supervisors Reports
Monday, 30 August 2010 06:12
Plymouth hears AFPD, Ione presentations on city fire service
Amador County – The Plymouth City Council leaned toward a 3-2 renewal of a fire services contract with the Amador Fire Protection District last week, but directed staff to prepare a comparison of offers from AFPD and the City of Ione. AFPD Chief Jim McCart and Ione City Manager Kim Kerr gave presentations on costs to offer fire services in Plymouth. The council leaned toward AFPD, with councilmembers Patricia Shackleton, Mike O’Meara and Jon Colburn saying they liked the leverage they would get with their funds and extra manpower AFPD would keep in the area. Vice Mayor Greg Baldwin said he would prefer to have the renewed pride of a city-operated fire department, which a contract with Ione Fire Department could help the city move toward. Plymouth City Manager Dixon Flynn said it might be helpful to have a summary, which he did not make before the Thursday, August 26th meeting. He said he “wanted to get a bottom line from both departments, and we have that now.” Flynn said a $239,000 a year subsidy from AFPD would be hard for us to make up,” and Ione cannot offer that. Kerr said “Ione is not going to supplement services,” and “what you pay for is what you are going to get.” She said $110,000 annually would get Plymouth a paid full-time firefighter during weekday daytime shifts. It would also include volunteer backups, along with per-call firefighter coverage overnight and on weekends, similar to a system Ione is now using. She said the numbers could be negotiable, but she recommended keeping the same salary and benefits that Ione Fire Department uses. Firefighter pay would be $42,000, with benefits, taxes and retirement another $25,000. AFPD would have a paid fire engineer at station 122 in Plymouth 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and a paid firefighter at the station nine hours a day, five days a week. Both estimates took into account Measure M firefighting funds. Kerr said it would be about $90,000, and McCart figured it at about $104,000 annually. AFPD’s $369,000 annual budget had Plymouth paying $129,000. Less the Measure M funds, it would be about $25,000 a year. McCart’s proposed contract was for 10 years, with three staff members around the clock, and an additional weekday, daytime staff member. Colburn said he liked the idea that they could also borrow funds from AFPD to complete the upgrade of the Plymouth firehouse. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Fire
Monday, 30 August 2010 06:10
Supes discuss alternatives for Ridge Road Signal & Merge Lane project
Amador County - The Board of Supervisors last Tuesday discussed design alternatives for the Ridge Road Signal & Merge Lane project at New York Ranch Road, and directed staff to return with more plan alternatives. Barbara Belvoir, Senior Project Engineer for the Public Works Department, said the project provides for a widening of Ridge Road lanes in both directions including a left turn lane onto New York Ranch Road with a flashing beacon safety light system. In 2006, the Public Works Department constructed the original phase of the improvements based on a design by Stantec. The project’s budget is based on two $900,000 grants from Caltrans and a local share of $434,000. The total estimated project cost is currently $2,234,000. Bill Williamson, Senior Project Manager for Stantec, said safety and visibility are top concerns for the project because “we still have the complication of a lot of trucks and vehicles moving through the intersection with the potential for broadsides.” He said the project currently includes two alternatives, with the second providing more visibility at an additional cost of $5,000 to $7000. Alternative 1 aligns with the topography and fits the funding of the existing project, while Alternative 2 widens the road to four lanes and allows for longer acceleration and deceleration lengths. Supervisor Richard Forster said “the main question is, do we have the extra $5,000 to $7,000? To me, that makes the decision pretty easy.” Supervisor Louis Boitano noted that the Jackson Rancheria had chipped in for the cost of two previous road projects and wondered aloud if they would be willing to contribute “since the bulk of the traffic will be generated by them.” Belvoir said “one of the main people (at the Jackson Rancheria) who was helping us get the funding is no longer there.” Forster recommended conferring with the tribe on the matter. Belvoir said it will cost “an extra $200,000 for another 125 feet of additional site distance of which we don’t have funds for.” Williamson said that “for the sake of budget control, we only worked with Alternative 1.” Another staff member in the audience said it would cost roughly $50,000 to create a detailed analysis for Alternative 2. One of the Supervisors main concerns was at the road’s curve. The board unanimously agreed to direct staff to return in the next few weeks with a cost estimate for both alternatives including additional curve modifications for safety. Boitano said “one of the insurmountable problems all along has been the neighborhood up there, and,….had we done this Alternative 2 in the beginning, we wouldn’t be here talking.” He said the neighborhood didn’t want full stoplights and consequently the board is visiting the issue for the third time. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Local
Monday, 30 August 2010 06:08
AWA quarterly budget shows expenses down 74% from 2009
Amador County – Amador Water Agency board of directors received a quarterly budget review last week, seeing reductions in expected revenue. General Manager Gene Mancebo said “the cooler weather has affected revenue.” Finance Manager Mike Lee’s report for the quarter ending June 30th showed net capital revenue was $6.7 million, down 8.4 percent from last year, while operating expenses were down $1.2 million, or 74 percent since last year. Lee said “operating salaries and benefits were above budget” because the “salary budget was reduced $200,000,” and “capital salaries were down significantly.” Board President Bill Condrashoff asked why salaries were only down 4.45 percent over last year, after staff was cut by 25 percent. Lee said the agency “reduced the salary budget by $200,000,” the equivalent of four positions. Condrashoff said Amador Water System salaries and benefits were $200,000 over budget, asking why it was “so far over” in “just one system.” Director Gary Thomas said it was also the agency’s largest system, and cuts were only for part of the year, with some employees leaving at mid-year, in December or January. Mancebo said some position vacancies were spread throughout the year, and early retirements also were spread out. Director Terence Moore said the reductions likely would show more at the end of this budget year. Director Don Cooper said he thought they “considered this” when they did the current budget. Mancebo said there is a difference in the rates for capital project salaries, such as work at Gayla Manor, and operation and maintenance salaries, such as pipeline repairs. He said they could make projections for salaries for specific employees, such as capital or O&M work, and break down every project into tasks per employee. But if actual work did not happen that way, it would not match the budget. Mancebo said the agency is looking at using a different format, and different software. Lee said “we don’t have the budget software wherewithal” to give more explicit detail, and buying new budget software would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. He said he uses an Excel spreadsheet to combine the nine different systems, which end up in the budget report with attachments of 25 different worksheets. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Water
Monday, 30 August 2010 06:05
Volcano Communications assists $46.6 million broadband expansion
Amador County - Volcano Communications Group (VCG), part owners in the Central Valley Independent Network (CVIN), and in partnership with the non-profit Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), has been awarded $46.6 million by the federal government’s stimulus program through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act The Central Valley Next Generation Broadband Infrastructure Project (CVNGBIP) is designed and developed by CVIN, a consortium of eight independent telephone companies which includes Volcano Telephone, Calaveras Telephone, Sierra Telephone and Ponderosa Telephone. VCG will participate in the construction, operation and ongoing maintenance of a 1371 mile fiber optic network which will traverse an 18 county area comprised of the western slope of the Sierras, and portions of the Central Valley. The new network will extend from Bakersfield to Yuba City and will provide much needed fiber optic commercial broadband services to K-12 schools, community colleges and universities, libraries, public safety, and all levels of government agencies. Additionally, the network will extend services to residential and business locations throughout the region. Local counties include Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Tuolumne, and Mariposa. The partner organizations together share an immense amount of expertise in the deployment and operation of advanced communications and network services throughout California. CVIN, LLC is a joint enterprise comprised of affiliates of eight Independent Telephone Companies located in central and northern California. These companies cover over 7,000 square miles and operate more than 1,700 miles of fiber and have vast experience in providing broadband services. Many of these companies are over 100 years old. On behalf of nearly all of California's K-20 research and education community, CENIC currently owns and operates the California Research & Education Network (CalREN), an ultra-high-performance fiber-optic network infrastructure consisting of nearly 3,000 miles of CENIC-owned fiber extending from the Mexican border to Corning and San Diego into Arizona which is the largest and most robust statewide optical network for education in the nation reach nearly 10 million K-20 students, faculty, and staff. “This is precisely the type of government and public partnership that has so successfully developed our nation’s infrastructure. Just as the build-out of the Federal Highway System enabled the flow of goods throughout our economy, so too will this network enhance the flow of the Information Super Highway in California”, said Sharon Lundgren president of Volcano Telephone. VCG subscribers will benefit directly from increased broadband capacity, higher reliability, and potentially lower cost services. Additional information regarding the CVNGBIP project can be found at www.cvngbip.org. Via Press Release This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Local
Friday, 27 August 2010 06:15
AWA looks into extension, fee credit transfers from Wildflower owners group
Amador County – New owners of the Wildflower Subdivision in Ione have asked the Amador Water Agency board of directors for an extension on will-serves, and to look at the possibility of fee credit transfers from the previous ownership group. The AWA board directed its legal counsel to investigate the agreement and determine what the board and the owner can and cannot do with the fee credits, which were awarded to the past owners’ group for building a two million-gallon storage tank that would serve the Wildflower Subdivision. Wildflower Investments LLC (the new owner) requested that it be able to apply the credits for building the storage tank to debts of that new company. AWA General Manager Gene Mancebo said the transfer of credits required that the AWA board “must approve and acknowledge that assignment of credits to the new owner.” Mancebo said the AWA previously has extended conditional will-serves for a certain period, but they would have to pay $1,000 per “Equivalent Dwelling Unit” to make those extensions. He said Wildflower Investments LLC would like to have that extension for the Wildflower Subdivision, and the company wants to use the fee credits to pay for those extensions. Mancebo said that apparently was not allowed in the agreement with AWA for fee credits earned by building the storage tank. He said the agreement with original property owner, Ryland Homes, “has this assign-ability clause,” and the agency does not see that as unreasonable, but “wants to make sure that the paper trail is all correct,” as “part of our due diligence, and our assignment to the attorney.” He said the AWA “board is concerned about money,” and how it “can get more cash flowing.” The extension fee was not anticipated when the agreement was struck with Ryland, he said: “It was kind of a one-time extension, and the fee that our board had come up with if someone wanted to extend it was not in the agreement.” The Ryland agreement, in part, made a provision for extending conditional will-serve commitment for 201 lots in the Ryland property, if final maps for the lots were recorded by 2009. Mancebo said staff recommendations on the issue would likely be back to the board for its September 9th meeting, but it could be pushed back to October. In an engineering staff report, John Griffin recommended that the “board authorize use of fee credits in the amount of $201,000 for extension of the (conditional will-serves).” Griffin said that authorization would “reduce the fee credits to $1,971,563.” Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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News Archive
Friday, 27 August 2010 06:12
AC Fair to be featured on PBS Fair series
Amador County - Huell Howser, television personality best known for California’s Gold, says he wants to “sneak preview” six episodes of a new series he produced called California’s Golden Fairs throughout the month of September. The original plan was to roll out the series in the Spring of 2011. The popular PBS travel show host was reportedly so impressed with the project that he decided to preview six episodes on PBS stations in California. The first episode to air will feature the Amador County Fair, where he interviewed CEO Troy Bowers and a host of others on the longstanding popularity and history of the local event. So far, Howser has been to eight California Fairs including Riverside County Fair, Calaveras County Fair, San Diego County Fair, El Dorado County Fair, Alameda County Fair, Marin County Fair and the Nevada County Fair. “In addition to the three fairs remaining to be featured, Huell Howser Productions will produce a compilation episode focusing on the rich history and relevance of all California fairs,” said Bowers in a release. The series will promote the awareness, importance, and relevance of California fairs. “We are grateful for the sincerity and energy Huell has put into this series and the wonderful people who participated to help make California fairs the respected and important community assets they have become,” said Bowers. The Amador County Fair episode airs on KVIE on Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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News Archive
Friday, 27 August 2010 06:17
Ione Police initiative proponent says complaints include 2008 incident
Amador County – A long-time critic of the Ione City Council and the Ione Police Department said this week that he is trying to save the city money by doing away with the IPD. Jim Scully, who lives in unincorporated Amador County, led a signature drive to place on the ballot a “petition for an initiative that proposes to transfer law enforcement services from the city of Ione Police Department to the Amador County Sheriff’s Department.” Scully told a Sacramento TV news station that it was about trimming the city’s spending. It was also about three complaints he had with Ione Police’s handling of three separate cases. Scully said in one incident, a family he knows went to Ione Police Department three times to get additional information logged about a case. Scully said if the family did not have a law enforcement background, it would not have been logged. He said it “shows the council cannot properly supervise the chief, and he cannot properly supervise his men.” Scully said the first case was from 2003 and took three years, and a grand jury investigation before the IPD called the victim and made a report of a crime. He said it was called a “non-commercial trespassing” case, while five attorneys he has consulted told him they would call the crime “1st degree burglary.” Scully said another of his complaints stemmed from a vehicle accident report. His friend’s van was parked outside a house when it was damaged by a driver who said he fell asleep, a passenger tried to wake him, and he hit the van. Scully said the Ione police report did not identify the passenger, and no statement was taken. Also, the driver’s information included an old address and an old phone number, making the man unreachable, and no insurance information was taken. He said there was $7,500 worth of damage done to the van. Scully said the third of his complaints centered on a case in which a parolee broke into a house and roughed up a man. He said the report had errors in victim statements. Scully said the third case happened in 2008. He said: “March of 2009 was when I submitted the complaint that they have ignored.” He said the same police officer “turns around and does the same thing to friends of mine.” Scully said the police chief even named a crime victim in a memorandum on one of the issues. Ione City Council will discuss its options on Scully’s initiative at its September 7th meeting. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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