There is seldom a dull night at Plymouth City Council meetings. Last Thursday's meeting was anything but, unless having the audience socializing for more than an hour in front of City Hall on a balmy evening during an impromptu closed session counts.

Amador Water Agency General Manager Jim Abercrombie and Engineering Manager Gene Mancebo had come to the meeting, intending to present the agency's side of a developing controversy over Segment 6 of the Plymouth Pipeline Project. After the council's decision to move the pipeline discussion from late to early on the evening's agenda, the council further decided that it would need a closed session prior to any such discussion. This led to a clearing of the council chambers and the hour outside.

Upon calling the audience back, City Attorney Heather Kenny announced that there was nothing to report about the closed session. Mayor Jon Colburn then announced that the agenda item billed as discussion and possible amendment of the contract between Plymouth and the AWA was tabled. At this point, Abercrombie and Mancebo departed.

Other agenda items were given ample consideration.

Long-range planning fees, proceeds of which are intended for use in preparation of future general plan updates and other long-range plans, were adopted unanimously by the council members. Cost of the long-range planning was estimated to be $1,228,000 over a period of 20 years. To determine the amount of the fees, the planning department extrapolated data from the California Department of Finance's E-4 Population Estimates, in concert with the city's general plan land use element table.

By these calculations, planners have determined that there are expected to be 7,950 residents in the city by 2028. To reach that number of people, it will be necessary to provide 2,767 new households. Calculating backwards from $876,534.12, the residential portion of the total cost, planners arrived at the recommended fee of $316.78 for each new household.

Fees for commercial and industrial development were adopted on a per-acre basis: $2,086.97 per commercial acre and $2,081.40 per industrial acre.

In other business, the council decided to add its support to the November ballot measure requesting voter approval of a half-cent increase in the local sales tax. The focus of the tax measure is to assist in the transition of the existing fire departments from volunteer departments to paid departments.

Councilwoman Pat Fordyce wanted assurance that Plymouth will be getting its $50,000, the same as the county's other fire departments. Councilman Greg Baldwin, who has been deeply involved in the process leading to the ballot measure, provided that assurance by pointing out that the Plymouth Fire Department has been working with the Amador Fire Protection District. The department will retain its own identity for purposes of monetary allocation.

An Amador County Chamber of Commerce request for transient occupancy tax funding was denied.

Water and sewer rate rollbacks were approved, as an indirect result of delays in completion of the Plymouth Pipeline Project.