Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 5-15-12

• Sutter Gold Mining pours a cornerstone for the first Mother Lode gold mine in half a century.

• Mike Sweeney will retire after 23-and-a-half years as executive director of ARC of Amador and Calaveras.

• Jackson City Council directed staff to write an ordinance amendment that would exempt sign companies from the city sign code.

• Sutter Gold Mining touts patience as tours give way to commercial hard rock mining in the Mother Lode.  

Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 5-15-12 - TSPN's Tom Slivick talks with Dr. Bob Hartmann, public health officer, about the hazards of rattlesnakes and poison oak. 

Amador County – A group of mining investment bankers with a major partner from South Africa, via Colorado, the board of directors of Sutter Gold Mining Incorporated held a dedication ceremony Friday for a cornerstone of the Lincoln Gold Mine project, which they hope produces gold by the end of the year.

Stephen Zahoney, vice president of exploration and geology said he hoped the publicly traded company has “as many stakeholders as we have ounces of gold in the ground.” An assessment said between 200,000 and 700,000 ounces could be in the rock of the 3.6 miles of the Mother Lode vein that Sutter Gold controls.

About 120 people attended the cornerstone pouring and dedication on the old entry road to the former Sutter Gold Mine. Board members shoveled concrete into a frame that will be a slab to hold a monument to the mine, and its history.

Supervisor Brian Oneto, in whose District 5 the mine sits, said the project will change a common emphasis on service based economics to a bigger one in the county of raw materials. He said without raw materials, you don’t have computers, which he said contain gold. And “if you want to stay happily married, there’s gold and diamonds out there.”

Oneto said something lacking in Amador is good jobs. His family worked to serve the mines, but not at the mines. He has a picture of his grandfather driving logs to either Argonaut or the Kennedy mine. He said the guys that set this up and get dirty make it work.

Robert Ehlert, senior field representative for Congressman Dan Lungren (R-Gold River), said he saw a lot of pictures being taken, and it was an historic day. He said a lasting image would show the 110 chairs there, because this mine creates 110 jobs. That was important with 12-15 percent unemployment rates across the country.

Sutter Gold Mining President and CEO, Doctor Leanne Baker said she’s only been with the project 6 months but saw the historic significance of the area. Sutter Creek is named after John Sutter, and historic monuments abound on Highway 49. She also pointed out a 150-year-old olive tree across the road, and remnants of a nearby old town and an old winery.

Baker said a monument will be built on the cornerstone they would pour Friday, and “we’ll be doing a lot of celebrating, we hope, in the months to come.”

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Amador County – Mike Sweeney will retire after 23-and-a-half years as executive director for ARC of Amador and Calaveras Counties at the end of June.

His replacement, Shawnna Molina starts June 12. He said: “We’re going to work together through June and she takes over as the executive director on July 1. Molina comes from a long career of nonprofit work, most recently with the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Sacramento.

Sweeney said: “It’s been a wonderful journey. I’ve learned so much from the people we serve, about perseverance, resiliency and sticking to something.”

Arc is a support company for people with developmental disabilities. Sweeney said this fiscal year they have 160 participants in the two counties. Services include supported employment, supported living and transportation for work and play.

Sweeney has been in this field since the early 1970s. In Monterey County he ran Gateway Industries, which served about 80 people with developmental disabilities to find work in landscaping, packaging, and collating. In the early ’70s, he worked in Gilroy, setting up a physical development program at a school. After that he went to Cresent City in Del Norte County and set up the North Coast Regional Center evaluation unit.

Sweeney is a native of Morgan Hill, in the South Bay. He graduated from Live Oak High School with the class of 1970, and recently got his old soul band back together, Sweeney on the trumpet, to play for their 40th class reunion. They played James Brown, Wilson Picket and a lot of soul music. The band played into the early 1970s then he had to get serious with work.

All his old buddies still play music as professional musicians. The lead singer plays with the Chicano All Stars in Santa Fe. Jim Murphy, saxophone player played with Wayne Newton, Sinatra and Lawrence Welk and now plays in Branson, Missouri. His Solid Gold Motown Review is going on a tour of Europe.

For retirement, Sweeney said he may get back into his photography and do more writing. His dad lives in the Midwest and is in his mid-eighties, he said “it will be nice to visit and not have to be in hurry to get back.”

He also thought about “dusting off the trumpet and playing a little bit around here.” He definitely wants to stay busy. He will do some non-profit consulting with the Nonprofit Resource Center in Sacramento. He said there ought to be some benefit for having done this for 35-40 years.

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Amador County – Jackson City Council on Monday directed staff to work on an ordinance to amend city sign code to conditionally exempt sign manufacturers.

Councilwoman Marilyn Lewis requested the Council “review the sign ordinance as it pertains to Merzlak Signs,” and the council focused on a section which limits the size of “noncommercial temporary” signs, “which is how political signs are classified in the city’s sign ordinance.”

City Manager Mike Daly said it has been a topic since October 2010. At that time, Thornton Consolo challenged the displaying of signs at Merzlak Signs. After the city revised its sign ordinance in March, he again brought up the issue.

Consolo was absent Monday, and Vice Mayor Connie Gonsalves said she was sorry this was not handled during the redrafting of the sign ordinance. She said: “This has been a pain in the neck every time there is an election, and I’m sorry the person that caused this is not here because I know we will have to hear about it again in public matters not on the agenda.”

Councilman Keith Sweet said the Planning Commission or the person complaining shouldn’t be “thrown under the bus.” He said the council may be as remiss as the individual who made the complaint.”

Paul Molinelli Senior said: “I think it was my sign that caused the problem two years ago.” He said it is a local shop, with their own gimmick to keep it local, and “if you could help them, I think you should.”

Daly in a report said the size of political signs “is a policy decision of the City Council and can be changed if that is the preference of the majority of the City Council.” He noted that an exemption to allow larger noncommercial signs failed to get a required 4/5ths Council vote in October 2010, and the issue was referred to the Planning Commission.

Councilman Wayne Garibaldi said he could support an exemption for sign shops, but would not support a larger sign allowance. Merzlak asked the council for clarification because city political signs are limited to 16 square feet, while county code allows 32 square foot signs. He wanted to know if when he went to work at 9 a.m. Tuesday that he was not in violation of the code.

The council agreed to hold off enforcement for a week, and set a special meeting for 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 22 to consider a draft ordinance that would make exemptions for sign shops. Garibaldi said they should still hear from the other side, and he also wanted to put a 30-day time limit on signs, so they do not create another problem. He asked Merzlak to meet with Daly and the city attorney on the issue.

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Amador County – Board members and officials of Sutter Gold Mining have waited patiently for Friday, which with placing a cornerstone ceremoniously marked the restart of underground gold mining operations in the Mother Lode after 50 years.

Rick Winters, president of RMB Resources, and member of Sutter Gold Mining’s board of directors, said when permitting is in place, Sutter Gold Mining will have $20 million invested in the Lincoln Mine project in Amador County. He said there was never a very large mine here in the Mother Lode. There were many, many small mines. He said there were 100 mines between Sutter Creek and Jackson.

Winters said Sutter Gold Mining built a solid core team, including chief financial officer Robert Hutmacher. He said “David Cochrane is as good a permitting specialist as I know.” They are merchant bankers and miners, and “by the time we start producing gold we will have $30 million in the project.” He quoted Winston Churchill, saying: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Permitting began in the 1980s, and the business was patient, Winters said, with the property managed by Stacey Rhoads, and mine tours managed by Chris Boitano. Winters said the company purchased half of the mine in 2008 when the gold market fell, and they were suddenly the “major shareholder in an industry that no one had faith in. We did.” They saw success with their Mesquite Gold Mine in Southern California, which is now the state’s biggest gold mine.

They hope to get 400,000 ounces from Lincoln Mine, and if it is profitable, they may expand operations to neighboring lands. Matt Collins, chief operating officer said “today we celebrate the beginning of a new gold mine.” A mining engineer, Collins said “opening a new mine is an exciting time and we are mere months from the first metal production.”

They will focus on the shallow portion of the Lincoln. Collins said they will develop 5 miles of tunnels, move 200,000 tons of rock, and replace most of it. They will produce as much gold as the rock will yield.

President and CEO, Doctor Leanne Baker said the company would try to prove to all of the people in this industry and in this state that they can operate on a sustainable basis for a long, long time.

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