In recent letters to the editor some have taken issue with the position of the Amador County Association of Realtors to support the Gold Rush Golf Ranch and Resort project.

Members of the community need to know that ACAR Board of Directors had tracked the Gold Rush Ranch Project for more than three years and only after review of the substantial financial impacts and consideration of the overall value to the larger community did the board take public action.

Gold Rush Ranch has the potential to provide significant financial footing for the county - without undermining our quality of life - at a time when such opportunities are few and far between. The project will generate substantial tax benefits to the County, Sutter Creek and local schools. The project will generate new permanent employment opportunities - past the construction period. Some might argue the projected 15 year construction period is itself a measure of permanent employment! It is estimated that Gold Rush Ranch and Resort would become the County's eighth largest employer upon completion. At a time when the community has been galvanized to prevent the current economic challenges from ravaging our community, Gold Rush Ranch looks all the more promising.

Despite criticism to the contrary, the 161 members of the Association and the individual members of the Board of Directors are first and foremost members of the community who care just as passionately about the quality of life issues that make Amador County the place we want to call home. It is as citizens first that the Association supported Measure M last fall to fund additional fire safety services in the County - and before that Measure L in 1996.

It is because we call Amador County home and our commitment to its future that we voted, unanimously, to support the Gold Rush Ranch and Resort.