DiamondXX.net

One inch of rain on 1,000 square feet of roof can generate up to 600 gallons of water. Encouraging responsible rainwater collection is conducive to Tuolumne County RCD’s core goal of enabling water savings and promoting watershed health throughout the region.

Systems with a capacity greater than 165 gallons will be rebated $0.30 per gallon. Systems with a capacity of 165 gallons or less, using rain barrels, will be rebated $1.00 per gallon. Rebates will be calculated based on system storage capacity according to submitted receipts.

In case of emergency, this leg of Stagecoach should only be used as an alternate way out by pickups, SUVs or 4 wheel drive vehicles. The bottom of the creek is now too steep to accommodate most cars and would be a real issue for vehicles with trailers. Because we are in the midst of fire season, your evacuation plan should use an alternate route.

You Road Committee has contacted Copper Fire Dept. to make sure they are aware of this road closure.

Hi neighbors,

I’m changing the way the site announces new articles. You may receive a validation email that asks if you want to be on the announcement list. If you are already on it, you will NOT receive anything, so don’t worry. I will be discontinuing the old way of notifying, so if you are reading this on the site and never seem to receive any emails, you can manually sign up to the Announcements List right on the sidebar over here ——————–>

Cheers,

Jim

At the last Road Committee meeting, Bob Toynbee and Jeane Kennedy took us through some depressing facts. The good news is we have $364,684 in our CSA4 “bucket” – the money we have all paid in through our annual property tax CSA4 fees. The bad news is that the County is pulling money out for a variety of fees that are not providing evident value to us, and that look a lot like things that should be paid out of the general tax revenue. The leaks in the bucket include:

• $1,050 for “A87 Fees”
• $312 for “Assessment Handling”
• $1,713 for Public Works activities including “complaint handling”

So our bucket of funds is leaking. The other depressing fact is that the amount of our funds used to patch, repair, and improve our roads in 2017 – $0. The only reason our bucket is so full is that it’s been near $0 for several years running. So our money is being whittled away on administrating a lot of… nothing.

Supervisor Dennis Mills was present, and put some of this in context:

• The county has been dealing with the aftermath of the Butte Fire, which has diverted a lot of Public Works’ attention. This may be mitigated somewhat going forward, as the county has established that the Office of Emergency Services (“OE” or somesuch) should be attending to the Butte Fire, and Public Works should be freed up to focus on the normal needs of the county.
• Right now DiamondXX is prohibited from using 3rd party contractors to work on our roads. This is to protect the union workers from losing out on work (that isn’t getting done?). The supervisors could change this if they had the political will/backing to do so.
• Even though the OE should be taking some of the burden off of Public Works, the backlog of deferred maintenance and projects will take a long time to work through.

Supervisor Mills said that emails from us are effective in helping Public Works to prioritize our needs. In short, what we need to push for is:

• Establishing a near-term plan to bring our roads back into good repair, so that we don’t have even more and more costly damage.
• Developing a strategic plan for our roads to improve them over time.
• Establishing a way so that we can employ contractors when it makes sense to keep our roads in good repair and get ahead of critical issues.

What you can do:

1. If you haven’t done so already, you should get a little bit ticked off, in my opinion. Our community has done everything asked of us – we have each been paying hundreds of dollars annually into the fund, our Road Committee has been working tirelessly to help the county to get work done (even driving all 18 miles of road with a GPS clicker to map each and every pothole), and many of us have been attending meetings to voice our concerns.
2. Now that you are worked up, fire up your email program and write a NICE letter to Dennis Mills, our County Supervisor, and Tim Lutz, our new County Administrative Officer. Let them know how you are personally impacted – you may be vulnerable to being stranded in a storm or fire, or your vehicles may be banged up, or your home values diminished. And let them know what is most important to you in terms of what needs to change.
3. Be sure you and your neighbors in the DiamondXX are in the loop on Road Committee meetings. Look for the signs by the entrances leading up to meetings, and put your email in the Announcement List box to the right (over here ——————->)

Drive safe – these are the only roads and bodies we get!

Jim

Saturday March 24

10 – noon, Copper Fire Training Room

Agenda

1. Introduction & Role of Advisory Members
2. Active Projects
   1. Sulkey
   2. Stagecoach Bridge
   3. Singletree Bridge
   4. Stagecoach Washout
   5. Stagecoach (West) storm damage
   6. Horseshoe S storm damage
3.  Future Projects? Reserve Fund
4.  Road Fees

Your Road Committee is compiling a list of missing street signs in the Diamond XX so we can order and place them. Please look around and let us know if you see a missing sign and its location. Example: “Horseshoe S”, corner of hwy 4 & Horseshoe S.

Thanks everyone,

Jeane & Bob

Against the advice of the Road Committee, Public Works has submitted to the Board of Supervisors a recommendation that we spend $131,000 to rehabilitate Sulkey Ct. Your Road Committee will be at the Board of Supervisors meeting, Nov 14 to protest this use of our funds. Why? Because there are more critical uses, such as Horseshoe South. Please attend to have your voice heard.

Board of Supervisors Agenda Submittal

CSA#4 Advisory Committee members, Jeane Kennedy and Bob Toynbee, produced the following document as a report to our Supervisor Dennis Mills.

Click image to enlarge and read.