The base for the vanished city limits sign at the north end of Sutter Creek on the Highway 49 bypass.

Photo by: Jerry Budrick

Sutter Creek should annex Amador City. That potentially controversial thought occurred to me while I was covering Amador City's most recent city council meeting. Mayor Richard Lynch began that Aug. 21 meeting with the statement, "We are working with only a four-member council - until the election in November." He didn't add, though he could have, that after the election they will be working with only a three-member council, and he won't be one of the three. Lynch has been heard to say that two terms are his and George Washington's chosen limit.

Lynch and incumbent Councilman John Jurisich have chosen not to seek reelection in the fall. This leaves only the other two incumbents, Tim Knox and Aaron Brusatori, who will be joined on the three-member council by unopposed candidate Michael Vasquez. Two seats drew no candidates.

Jurisich doesn't feel that he has enough time to donate. In addition to the council meetings, with their "half-inch of paperwork that you have to read through," each council member is obliged to serve on a number of committees. In Jurisich's case, they are the Amador County Solid Waste Management Regional Agency, Amador Air District Board of Directors and the city's Design Review Committee. The other council members have similar responsibilities.

Amador City is proud of its status as California's smallest city, but pride without hard work just won't get all the jobs done. It may be time to admit that a town with only 208 residents simply can't find enough people with time to give, and the city doesn't have the revenues to pay people to do the work.

These are turbulent times in Amador County. The county general plan is moving inexorably toward its first update since 1973. The cities of Sutter Creek, Jackson, Plymouth and Ione are working on updates of their own general plans.

The Amador Water Agency is planning to build a new water treatment plant that can deliver all 15,000 acre feet of the agency's pristine water to its customers. Either the AWA or city of Sutter Creek is going to provide a sewage disposal system large and modern enough to accommodate significant growth in the Martell area, as well as in an expanded city.

Plymouth has its own water pipeline heading toward town, where developers are chomping at the bit to tap into this new, reliable source.

The Wicklow Way subdivision and Gold Rush Ranch are in late stages of environmental impact review and public comment, with controversy swirling around both projects.

Let's not call it chaos or confusion, but there is a palpable sense of imminent change pervading the county. This may be creating an opportunity for Amador City to take advantage of this political effervescence. The moment may be ripe to drop the fierce individualism and join forces with a logical ally. It may be that the perfect solution to Amador City's difficulties is annexation into Sutter Creek.

The Amador County Local Area Formation Commission recently accepted delivery of a major document called the Municipal Services Review. The MSR refers to "elimination of unnecessary local governments." The MSR also states, "The Local Agency Formation Commission coordinates logical and timely changes in local governmental boundaries." Merging Amador City into Sutter Creek certainly seems to qualify as logical and timely.

The fire department, building inspector and city engineer are already shared, as are the water and wastewater systems. Sutter Creek has departments for public works, streets and utilities maintenance, planning and zoning, and police. Sutter Creek has staff.

The Highway 49 bypass around Amador City and Sutter Creek has unified the two communities into a single zone of tranquility. The smooth, wide, old Highway 49 is a treasure waiting for a worthy purpose. Its two miles of sloping asphalt could become an ideal training ground for runners or bicyclists. Annexation into the city limits would bring all of the city services to bear on this stretch of road. There's also the marvelous Bob Devlin plan for Neighborhood Electric Vehicles. With the old highway inside the city limits, dropping the speed limit to 35 mph would seem entirely appropriate. This would make the new neighborhood of Sutter Creek formerly known as Amador City into the nugget at the northern terminus of Devlin's intricate route from south Jackson.

The county will probably resist loss of the tax revenues from Sutter Gold, but this could be a small step in the direction of the recently touted revenue sharing. Someone has already removed the Sutter Creek city limits sign at the north end of town on old Highway 49. Perhaps that was the first step toward elimination of the line between two natural allies.