Artist Atkinson dies

Mary Jane Genochio over at the Calaveras County Arts council just emailed the news that artist Robert Atkinson of Vallecito has died. Atkinson created amazing jewelry and other objects. I once had the good fortune to visit his studio in Vallecito during an arts tour. It was in a small barn and was filled with an astonishing array of sculpture and other works that reflected Atkinson’s deep knowledge of how to work with the Earth’s minerals.

Atkinson was more than an artist, however, because he also helped others to develop their abilities. He was a founder back in the 1980s of the Calaveras Arts Council and gave thousands of dollars to fund art scholarships for local students. Had he lived a few more days, he would certainly have been present at this week’s gallery showing and awards for high school works at the Arts Council gallery in downtown San Andreas.

There will be a reception and awards ceremony for the 13th annual Art Spirit High School Juried Exhibition at 1 p.m. Saturday at the gallery, 22 Main St., San Andreas.

Atkinson was 89. He died about 1 p.m. Wednesday.

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Additions to Calaveras CAO office

Tuesday, the same day that the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors directed county department heads to begin planning for 17.5 percent budget cuts in the coming fiscal year, supervisors also approved spending $244,510 a year to add two positions in the County Administrative Officer’s office. That predictably triggered outrage.

“You are going to start here and vote on increasing staff in one department and tell the rest of the county you are taking pay cuts,” said Jim Turley, president of SEIU Local 1021, the largest union representing county workers.

Supervisors somberly listed their reasons: First, when they hired Boyce last year, they agreed to give her the staffing she would need to do the job. And a study found that virtually all other counties have at least twice as many top-level administrators and analysts to handle policy making and number crunching.

For a while now, the County Administrative Officer’s department has had a total of three employees: The CAO, an assitant CAO, and an account technician who takes care of paying bills and other clerical work. The bottleneck has been at the CAO and assistant CAO level. For years now, constant state budget changes and extra work to respond to state and federal grant issues have eaten up all the time for Assistant CAO Shirley Ryan, who is the county’s top number cruncher. That means Ryan hasn’t had time to tend to other duties, which include everything from special projects (like starting a Parks Commission) to reviewing the internal budgets of county departments.

The consequence has been clear. Going back several administrations, to Bob Lawton (who was CAO before Boyce) and to Tom Mitchell (who was CAO until the fall of 2007), there has been a pattern of an overwhelmed CAO’s office unable to respond quickly enough to a rising tide of pressing issues. The fate of Proposition 40 funding is a case study: California Voters approved a parks bond in 2002. Calaveras got allocated $1.2 million. But because Calaveras has no parks department, it fell to the CAO’s office to figure out how to appropriately spend it. Now, up against a deadline, Calaveras appears to be just barely spending those funds before they disappear, and that only thanks to the help of volunteers. I’ve seen the same happen over and over with other issues. The board of supervisors will order the CAO to make something a priority, and then the priority that the board had ordered the month before gets pushed aside. Then, years later, frustrated supervisors ask why they don’t yet have a noise ordinance, or a dark sky ordinance, etc.

I’ve often found Shirley Ryan working late at the office, and similarly in her few months as CAO Boyce can often be found there after hours, or during weekends and emergencies (such as the snow that shut the government center) when almost everyone else is gone.

Supervisors said they recognize this pattern. And they want the CAO’s office to be able to respond quickly when the feds or the state offer a grant with a short application deadline. They want the CAO’s office to respond quickly to changes in the county’s economic fortunes. Boyce seems likely to either deliver what they want or to die trying. It is worth noting that the Calaveras County Health Services Agency, which Boyce formerly headed, is helping to ease the fiscal crisis in other departments because under Boyce Health Services had set money aside that could someday be transferred to other departments. Note also that Boyce has taken a voluntary 10 percent pay cut.

Now, supervisors say they want Boyce to have an adequate team to bring her approach and meticulous planning to the entire county government.

Supervisor Steve Wilensky voted four years ago against increasing pay for the county’s top administrators. Tuesday, he joined the unanimous vote in favor of paying the $244,000 a year necessary to hire two additional positions: a chief assistant county administrative officer and an administrative analyst.

“This proposal before us is not only a good one, but it may not be enough,” Wilensky said.

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Rainy day humor

On a rainy morning, during difficult times, it’s good to see that a public employee who works for the Calaveras County Sheriff’s 911 call center maintains a sense of humor. I know reading this item from yesterday’s call log brightened my day.

The item was called in at 8:58 a.m. Tuesday to report a road hazard at Hawver and Gold Strike roads in San Andreas. The log entry read simply:  CHICKENS IN ROAD UNKNOWN WHY THEY WERE CROSSING

It makes me imagine a conversation that went something like this:

 DISPATCHER: “911. What’s your emergency?”

CALLER: “There’s chickens blocking the road at Gold Strike and Hawver.”

DISPATCHER: “Are the chickens dead or alive sir?”

CALLER: “Alive. They’re crossing the road, like I said.”

DISPATCHER: “Why are they crossing the road sir?”

CALLER: “I don’t know.”

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Senior Center tri-tip dinner

Sharon Neckel emailed  me today with information on the 4th annual dinner to raise funds to keep the Calaveras County Senior Center operating. As most folks here already know, the senior center has been scraping by in recent years.

 This is the only fundraiser of the year for the senior center. It will be held at 6 p.m. March 26 in the San Andreas Town Hall building on Church Hill Road. Funds raised support  the daily Lunch program and other activities at the Senior Center over on Mountain Ranch Road.   

Tickets are $25.00.  There’s a no-host bar the first hour and then dinner is served at 7:00 p.m. There will also be entertainment by Dan Elzig and Steve Johnson. Bring extra cash for a raffle and a silent auction.

For tickets or information, call the Senior Center at (209) 754-3967 or Sharon Neckel at (209) 754-0930

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Positive steps toward downsizing Mother Lode government

Calaveras County Supervisor Steve Wilensky this week mentioned several efforts now underway to downsize government in the region by merging agencies that now provide the same function in different counties.

First, it should be said that the Lode already has some of this. There is one joint powers authority, for example, that handles the collection and distribution of child support payments for Calaveras, Amador and Alpine counties. That means only one office and one administrative staff instead of three. Now, Wilensky says, Tuolumne county is considering joining the JPA to lower its costs.

Wilensky said talks are now under way on merging the two separate community action agencies that serve four Mother Lode counties. Community action agencies are a legacy of 1960s-era anti-poverty programs. They channel federal dollars to things like after-school programs, housing for the homeless, emergency food and youth centers. Right now, the local agencies are a crazy quilt, with each agency serving counties that aren’t contiguous. The Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency serves Amador and Tuolumne counties. The Calaveras-Mariposa Community Action Agency serves Calaveras and Mariposa. Wilensky said a merger is possible by December, and that he expects it could both reduce administrative overhead and increase federal funding to the area.

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Five ways to do good in the Lode

Mother Lode community groups are raising money and collecting food for a variety of causes. Here’s a roundup:

**The Relay For Life (raises money for cancer research) will be March 6 at the The Terrace Plaza shopping center, corner of Vista Del Lago Drive and Highway 26 in Valley Springs. Toyon Middle School students represent a significant number of the runners who are seeking sponsorships. This year the Curves gym at Terrace Plaza will hold a rummage sale and Quilts of Valor, a local Valley Springs quilting group, will raffle off a quilt. To register for the Relay for Life run/walk, call (209) 754-4256 ext. 4222, or (209) 772-3399, or e-mail dustyn@calaveras.k12.ca.us

**The Calaveras County Grad Night Foundation has struck a deal with local recycling centers. When you recycle at centers in San Andreas and Valley Springs, you can give the manager your receipt and say “Give it to Grad Night,” and the foundation will receive the revenue. The group creates safe, alcohol- and drug-free graduation parties for local high schools. The Calaveras County Grad Night Foundation also needs volunteers to do everything from decorating to chaperoning and cleanup. Information: Sissy Cagliaro at (209) 770-1748 or CHS Party Coordinator Darcy Lambert, (209) 286-1812.

**It doesn’t cost a thing to visit Daffodil Hill in Volcano. The property at 18310 Rams Horn Grade is the home of the Ryan family, which opens it to visitors who want to see the daffodil bloom that typically peaks in late March and April. The Ryans expect to open in mid-March, although the place closes during rainy weather due to slippery paths. Anyway, the Ryans announced they and volunteers added 16,000 new bulbs last fall. That and the relatively robust rains this winter mean that it should be a spectacular bloom this year. Although no admission is charged, both cash donations and volunteers are welcomed. Hours are generally 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. once Daffodil Hill opens. (209) 296-7048 for daily updates

**The Calaveras Follies is coming up April 17 at Frogtown. This is a formal dinner at which various prominent people in the county dress up in funny costumes and lip-synch to popular songs, generally provoking a lot of laughter. The goofyness goes to benefit the Calaveras Youth Mentoring Program, a Big Brothers/Big Sisters-style program that pairs caring adults with youngsters who need a friend. The $50 per person tickets to the follies raise some money, but business sponsors are also part of the event’s success. Call Donna Shannon at (209) 754-4997 for sponsorship information or visit online at calaverasmentoring.com.

**Calaveras Unified School District in March will conduct a food drive for The Resource Connection Food Bank that serves Calaveras County. Students and staff will be doing the work of gathering non-perishable foods.

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Time Bandit to strike Valley Springs

Don Urbanus just emailed me a summary of this year’s Friends of the Library melodrama, which opens for three weekends of performances starting Feb. 26. This year Don did not write the script. Marty Tedder is the author, and here’s a summary of Marty’s plot line:

Seymour Destiny, a poor Valley Springs inventor, somehow builds a time
machine that can take him into the past.  Ponce C. Scheme steals the machine
to make the past more to his liking so that he will be rich in the future.
Ponce finds his own great, great grandfather whom he tries to enlist in his
awful scheme.  Poor Faith Child Hogan becomes a pawn in this deadly scheme
where her ultimate fate might wind up with her in two pieces.  Who will save
the poor young widow?  A bragging drifter named Lucky?  The slow-witted
father of the two young Schemers?  Old Gimpy the miner?  Faith’s two
squabbling sisters?  Or perhaps the local sheriff? 

Tickets and information: (209) 772-1000 or (209) 772-0591. Tickets also available at Health Habit.

 

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Calaveras jail project could be victim to state financial woes

The California Correction Standards Authority overnight posted the contract template that will govern AB 900 jail construction agreements with the various counties, including Calaveras and San Joaquin. It turns out Calaveras leaders are right to worry that the whole deal may fall apart because the state government may be unable to sell the bonds that are supposed to pay $26 million of the cost in Calaveras and $80 million in San Joaquin. What follows is an excerpt from the contract. Note that here the word “Board” refers to the State Public Works Board. The word “Department” refers to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation :

The State’s participation in financing the Project as part of the AB 900 Financing Program is entirely conditioned on the Board’s decision to issue the Bonds and its ability to complete the sale thereof.

 

The State (including without limitation the Board, the Department and the CSA) shall not be obligated to provide any financing for the Project if the Board, in its sole, reasonable discretion, determines, for any reason, it should not or will not be able to provide the authorization to seek an Interim Loan or issue and sell the Bonds to finance the Project, including, but not limited to: lack of suitability of the Project‟s configuration or Site for a lease revenue bond financing or local funding that is incompatible with an issuance of lease revenue bonds by the Board, the current condition of financial markets or the state‟s ability to obtain access to the financial markets at reasonable rates as determined by the Board, adverse outcomes to any legal challenges, or inability to receive opinions and certificates customarily delivered in connection with its issuance of lease revenue bonds.
 

 

If you’d like to look at the construction agreement and other documents online, go to http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Divisions_Boards/CSA/CFC/AB900_Program.html

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Kindness goes viral

Kindness seems to have gone viral this year in Calaveras County.
Organizers of the 15-year-old Seeds of Kindness campaign say that this year they’ve ordered a record-breaking 23,000 ribbons for Kindness Week, which begins Monday (Feb. 15). The blue ribbons are traditionally given to people who are caught being kind. Those individuals, in turn, are encouraged to sign the ribbon and then look for someone else doing a good deed to receive the ribbon.
The event this year has spread far beyond Angels Camp, where it was invented. Calaveras County officials this year declared Kindness Week a countywide event, and most elementary schools also have Kindness Week programs. Still, 23,000 is a lot of ribbons in a county whose entire population is only 46,000.  That means it would be possible — if everyone in the county does something kind — to cover the entire population and have only two signatures on each ribbon when the week is done. And that includes infants whose mommies will have to sign for them.
Fortunately for any Calaveras curmudgeons who want to be left out of the kindness crusade, those ribbons are spreading out to surrounding communities this year through participating banks with branches in places like Stockton and Lodi.
Meanwhile, Seeds of Kindness founder Jim Bergantz of Angels Camp paid out of pocket to make sure there were enough ribbons to meet the demand.
“We still need about $2,700 to pay for the additional ribbons, signs and bolts of kindness light blue ribbons,” Bergantz said.
Donations checks should be made payable to C.C.O.E. (that stands for Calaveras County Office of Education)  with a note “kindness fund”  on the memo line
then mailed to Seeds of Kindness at PO BOX 677  Murphys,  CA 95247 Information: www.theseedsofkindness.com

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Calaveras Sheriff’s race

I’ve been hearing a lot of speculation in recent months about the campaign for Calaveras County sheriff. Dennis Downum, the current sheriff, plans to run for re-election. He’s being challenged by Gary Kuntz, a former sheriff’s lieutenant who got laid off last summer as part of budget cuts. Some folks say they think Downum is weak and likely to lose. They cite two factors:

1) Downum led the campaign to build a new county jail, including winning passage of a local bond campaign and landing state funding. But now the county faces shrinking revenues and has no plan yet for how to pay the extra millions each year required to staff a larger jail. There’s some rumblings that the project should be scratched as financially-irresponsible before heavy equipment starts moving dirt this summer.

2) Kuntz has Supervisor Steve Wilensky’s campaign machine behind him. Wilensky in the last several election cycles has defeated Downum allies who competed with Wilensky for the District 2 supervisor seat. Wilensky also backed Russ Thomas, who four years ago took the District 5 seat away from Victoria Erickson, Downum’s niece.

Yet even some Kuntz supporters have admitted privately that Downum has several key strengths: Downum is a skilled, experienced politician and a strong public speaker. Kuntz, in contrast, is genial and well liked but reportedly hasn’t performed well speaking before groups.

One way to gauge a race early in a campaign is to see who is supporting each candidate with donations. Downum had not yet filed a semi-annual campaign finance report when I checked at the county clerk’s office today. But Kuntz had and one donor named signaled that Kuntz is getting respect from at least some folks with ties to law enforcement: Sally Tuttle, the mother of Calaveras County District Attorney Jeff Tuttle, gave $100 to Kuntz.

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