Amador County – Jackson Rancheria Casino Resort hosted the Top Cop Challenge Awards Banquet last weekend and raised more than $17,000 for the Wounded Warriors Project.

The event was held Saturday, May 19 at the Jackson Rancheria Hotel, hosted by Gold Country Firearms and sponsored by Jackson Rancheria Casino Resort and American Legion Post 108. 

Winners of the Top Cop challenge included individual competition winners. First place winner was Jose Arevalos of the Jackson Police Department. Second place was Brian Bila of El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department.

Team competition winners included first place winners Scott Goebel and Steve Kent of the El Dorado Sheriff’s Department. Second place went to Jon Kent and Bob Palk of Jackson Rancheria Tribal Security.

Proceeds from the event, almost $18,000, will benefit the Wounded Warriors Project, which raises awareness and aid for the needs of injured servicemen and servicewomen.

The event was coordinated by Joe Dirickx of Gold Country Firearms. Committee members included Joe Dirickx, Dean Bennett, Curt Campbell, Brad Crisp and Dan Quinn. The committee gave special thanks to Bo Marks, Robert Dalton Junior, Alan Lennox, Ron Olivero, Emily Tirapelle, Julie Sterner and Alissa Hartwig.

Awards were provided by JB’s Awards and Custom Apparel. Music was performed by 10 Gallon Heart. Master of Ceremonies was Jeff Seaton

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – A three-day benefit in June celebrates Amador County’s living history at the Amador County Fair Grounds in Plymouth.

Promoters are holding the event because: “We need you to save our fair.” The events are free, family fun and donations will be accepted.

Amador Home & Lifestyle Show will be held on Friday, June 8, Saturday, June 9, and Sunday, June 10. The Home & Lifestyle Show will have products and services for home, garden and leisure time. It includes home energy saving products, seminars, pest control, crafts, wine, beer and food.

Amador County Fair Aid is Saturday, June 9 and Sunday, June 10. Fair Aid features all day music, a dutch oven cook-off, a rib cook-off, beer, food pairing, a horse show, a horse shoe tournament and kids’ activities. The event will help save the Amador County Fair.

The Amador Sawmill & Mining Association will be “operating under a full head of steam” to run its First Annual Steam Power Exposition, Saturday and Sunday, June 9 & 10. The Steam exhibition, in support of Amador County Fair Aid, includes a 1904 Corliss steam engine, a 1920 Sullivan air compressor, a 1900 steam sawmill, a 1945 Triple Drum steam logging donkey, a 1918 Navy “K” Steam Cutter Engine, and an 1890s Smith & Sayer steam engine.

There will also be unique models and full size steam engines. All three events have free admission and free parking.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – University of California Cooperative Extension Officer Scott Oneto reported to the Amador County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, saying the state’s first multi-county Cooperative Extension office ended the year with a total budget of $3.025 million, of which $1.1 million came from volunteers.

Oneto said the U.C. Extension program created the first multi-county partnership in the state last fiscal year, with $134,000 contributed by Amador County, $148,000 from Calaveras, $144,000 from Tuolumne and $270,000 from El Dorado County. He said the office has worked on researching controls for apple disease and a winegrape virus, evaluating new Christmas tree species, and also did a master food preserving class in El Dorado, that it wants to take to other counties.

Supervisor Vice Chairman Richard Forster asked if the partnership has investigated the Glassy Winged Sharpshooter, a grasshopper that is detrimental to grapes, and has caused million of dollars in damage. He said in a tour of Napa, officials there told him they had released sterile males in the wild, and found that they were helping decrease breeding.

Scott Oneto said the partnership counties have not been infected, but are looking at pest detection. He said his U.C. Extension colleagues are working in areas where the Glassy Winged Sharpshooter are already present, and they are looking at biological controls of the species with pathogens and insecticides.

Supervisor Brian Oneto asked about studies the Extension partnership is doing to look at the effects of cattle on the water source. He asked if, besides cattle grazing, they would also look at the effects of hiking and other human activities.

Scott Oneto said the study will look at hiking, forest service operations, beneficial use of grazing, and all other impacts to water quality in the Sierra, along with sediment runoff and construction impacts.

Brian Oneto said that some people had told him that Mace Meadows looks like a “toilet paper garden,” and that is “not from cattle.” Forster said that deer outnumber the cattle up there. Scott Oneto said the studies would also look at the impacts of deer and human waste on the water quality.

Scott Oneto said U.C. Extension’s “new organizational structure has saved both participating counties and University funds while putting additional savings back into local programs.” The 2011-2012 budget included $590,000 in grants, $450,000 in federal and state funding and $110,000 in fundraising and indirect county funding.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – Sutter Amador Hospital on Wednesday gave local media a sneak preview of the Emergency Department which, pending a state inspection on Friday will be opening to serve Emergency Room patients next Tuesday.

Sutter Amador Hospital CEO Anne Platt and Karen Woods, Emergency Department Director led members of the media on a tour of the new wing, part of an Emergency Department expansion that will eventually increase the ER at Sutter Amador Hospital to 14 critical care treatment rooms, and three full triage rooms.

Department personnel were working to prepare for the inspection, which Platt said should be passed and allow the wing to open. It will give the current six-room emergency department 11 total critical care treatment rooms, which are large enough to allow five specialists in the room with one patient.

The new area also has a central help area, a waiting room with a vending area for more customer comfort, and a triage area.

The new area will be linked to the existing area with a door. The project was not yet fully complete but Sutter Amador Hospital officials wanted to invite the media for a preview because they anticipate opening a large portion of the new Emergency Department to see patients starting next week on Tuesday, May 29 pending our inspection by the California Department of Public Health on Friday.

Emergency Department Director, Karen Woods showed the new department, which includes a large locker room and break room for personnel, something the existing ER Department does not have. 

Platt said Woods will be retiring at the end of June. Platt said this is the second expansion made since she has been here, and the current ER was sufficient compared to the old department, but the new facilities will be that much more better, and are that much more needed.

The Sutter Amador Hospital Emergency Department has treated more than 18,000 patients since 2011, which is an increase of more than 12 percent since 2007.

Platt said the hospital, even with the six-bed ER, is consistently high in patient satisfaction scores, and the Emergency Department physicians’ currently score a 90 percent.

The full expansion of the Emergency Department is expected to be complete late this year or early next year. The square footage will increase from 5,600 to more than 9,000 square feet.

May 29’s anticipated opening will be completion of Phase 3 of the project will include 12 operational patient rooms, including eight new rooms to open, combined with four existing rooms.

It will have a new central monitoring system, and an “eMAP,” that is an “electronic Medication Administration Program.”

Expanded waiting room beside vending machines will have a public restroom, a private consultation room, and easy access from the Emergency Department waiting room to hospital and outpatient buildings.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors directed staff to look at whether a “Tourist Tax” on hotels and motels could be levied on campgrounds on state, federal and utility special district lands that are run by concessionaires.

Supervisor John Plasse said if the county is not able to charge a Transient Occupancy Tax on state, federal and utility camp sites, then Supervisors would be “giving private camp sites another disadvantage.” Supervisors considered a request by several business groups to place a ballot measure to increase the TOT tax on hotels and motels, from 6 percent to 10 percent. The groups asked to apply the tax to campgrounds, which are now not taxed by the county TOT.

Jennifer McGee of the County Counsel’s office said the “transient” definition by state law means visitors staying for less than 30 days are subject to the TOT tax. People staying in cabins for the summer would not be subject to TOT tax if they stay longer than 30 days.

Plasse asked County Counsel Gregg Gillott if the county could apply TOT tax to state, federal and water district campsites if they are run by a concessionaire. Gillot said he was not sure if any are run by concessionaires.

Supervisor Vice Chairman Richard Forster said the concessionaire of East Bay Municipal Utility District told him it is a very competitive market and people shop around and go to the lake with a little bit lower camping rate.

Supervisor Ted Novelli said he heard from Roaring Camp operators concerned about their cabins. Plasse said visitors staying 30 days or more are considered not transient. Gillott said Roaring Camp already collects TOT.

Gillott said he would inventory the state, federal and utility campgrounds in the county to see about operators there. The issue will be brought back for the June 12 meeting. Novelli said they “might have other business people come down to the next meeting to give input.” Language for a ballot measure would be considered on June 26.

In public comment, Terry Nielsen said taxing camping is an expansion of who pays taxes, and why tax people who bring their own shelter? He said why follow Tuolumne’s lead in trying to close the loophole? Amador “can advertise that camping is freer here.”

Novelli said some of that is correct, but with five cities in Amador “all over the map,” with different TOT rates, it gives some an advantage over others. He would like to have them all on the same chart.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 5-24-12 - TSPN's Tom Slivick talks with Scott Oneto, director of the University of California Cooperative Extension office for a review of his annual report given to Supervisors on Tuesday. 

Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 5-24-12

• Amador County Supervisors discuss whether “Tourist Tax” can be levied on state and federal camping areas

• Sutter Amador Hospital will open its new Emergency Department next week.

• The University of California Extension officer reports on the first fiscal year as the state’s first multi-county partnership.

• Amador County Fair plans three-event weekend to benefit the Fair.

• Jackson Rancheria’s Top Cop Challenge raised $17,000 for the Wounded Warriors Project.  

Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 5-24-12

• Amador County Supervisors discuss whether “Tourist Tax” can be levied on state and federal camping areas

• Sutter Amador Hospital will open its new Emergency Department next week.

• The University of California Extension officer reports on the first fiscal year as the state’s first multi-county partnership.

• Amador County Fair plans three-event weekend to benefit the Fair.

• Jackson Rancheria’s Top Cop Challenge raised $17,000 for the Wounded Warriors Project.  

Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 5-24-12 - TSPN's Tom Slivick talks with Scott Oneto, director of the University of California Cooperative Extension office for a review of his annual report given to Supervisors on Tuesday. 

Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors directed staff to look at whether a “Tourist Tax” on hotels and motels could be levied on campgrounds on state, federal and utility special district lands that are run by concessionaires.

Supervisor John Plasse said if the county is not able to charge a Transient Occupancy Tax on state, federal and utility camp sites, then Supervisors would be “giving private camp sites another disadvantage.” Supervisors considered a request by several business groups to place a ballot measure to increase the TOT tax on hotels and motels, from 6 percent to 10 percent. The groups asked to apply the tax to campgrounds, which are now not taxed by the county TOT.

Jennifer McGee of the County Counsel’s office said the “transient” definition by state law means visitors staying for less than 30 days are subject to the TOT tax. People staying in cabins for the summer would not be subject to TOT tax if they stay longer than 30 days.

Plasse asked County Counsel Gregg Gillott if the county could apply TOT tax to state, federal and water district campsites if they are run by a concessionaire. Gillot said he was not sure if any are run by concessionaires.

Supervisor Vice Chairman Richard Forster said the concessionaire of East Bay Municipal Utility District told him it is a very competitive market and people shop around and go to the lake with a little bit lower camping rate.

Supervisor Ted Novelli said he heard from Roaring Camp operators concerned about their cabins. Plasse said visitors staying 30 days or more are considered not transient. Gillott said Roaring Camp already collects TOT.

Gillott said he would inventory the state, federal and utility campgrounds in the county to see about operators there. The issue will be brought back for the June 12 meeting. Novelli said they “might have other business people come down to the next meeting to give input.” Language for a ballot measure would be considered on June 26.

In public comment, Terry Nielsen said taxing camping is an expansion of who pays taxes, and why tax people who bring their own shelter? He said why follow Tuolumne’s lead in trying to close the loophole? Amador “can advertise that camping is freer here.”

Novelli said some of that is correct, but with five cities in Amador “all over the map,” with different TOT rates, it gives some an advantage over others. He would like to have them all on the same chart.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.