MISSION - To provide leadership for a healthy and vibrant business environment and encourage responsible

economic growth that respects Tuolumne County’s quality of life.

Newsletter March 2016 #24 LARGEST BUSINESS ORGANIZATION IN TUOLUMNE COUNTY

Chamber News

Tuolumne County

Chamber of Commerce

Courtesy CalChamber

VIETNAM VETS EVENT

March 25, 2016

Black Oak Casino Resort

APRIL MIXER

April 21, 2016

Gianelli Vineyards

Jamestown

TREE MORTALITY

COMMUNITY FORUMS

Various Dates in April

See back page for

more information

UPCOMING EVENTS

CalChamber Backs Renewed Effort on Federal Water Bill

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein has introduced an updated proposal to provide long-term and short-term solutions to the state’s historic drought. The California Chamber of Commerce supports the effort to move drought relief legislation this year and improve the ability to capture and store

water in wet times for use in dry ones. Feinstein’s proposal includes provisions to allow more water to be captured and stored during the drought, and to promote both the building of new reservoirs and increasing the capacity of existing ones. In introducing the bill, Feinstein estimated that if all the projects identified in the bill were completed, nearly 1.4 million acre-feet of “new” water could be made available. The CalChamber and other business, grower and water groups from the Western states have previously called for action on bipartisan Western water and drought relief legislation. There is a growing consensus that Western water users need every tool available to survive and recover from the current drought and to prepare for the hard, dry years that the future may hold. Water Storage Projects To help store water during wet years for use in dry ones, the bill: • Authorizes $600 million for water storage projects in California and other Western states. These may include both federal projects (Shasta) and nonfederal projects (Sites, Temperance Flat, Los Vaqueros). • Sets deadlines for the federal Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) to complete feasibility studies to allow Calfed storage projects to compete for the $2.7 billion of bond funding that California’s Proposition 1 earmarked for water storage. The Calfed Bay-Delta Program is a collaboration of 25 state and federal agencies to improve the state’s water supply and the ecological health of the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. • Updates U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam operations to increase water supply while reducing flood risk. Emergency Operations Emergency provisions to make water delivery more efficient during the drought include the following. The provisions would last as long as the Governor’s drought declaration is in effect or for two years, whichever is longer. • Improved data to operate pumps at higher levels when no fish are present and reduce pumping levels when fish are nearby.

Continued on page 4

New Member Introduction The Harte of the Kitchen

Located in beautiful downtown Twain Harte, CA at 22966 Joaquin Gully Rd under the Arch. The Harte of the Kitchen is owned and operated by Carol and Allan Hancock. We began our business in June 2011 and expanded to our present location in 2014. We carry an assortment of kitchen gadgets, Swiss Diamond Cookware, Naked Bee lotions and lip balms as well as aprons, towels, cook and bake ware and many specialty items. If we do not have an item you are looking for we would be happy to try to locate the item for you.

We are open 7 days a week. Monday from 10:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

Congratulations to all the Raffle prize winners at our February Mixer

Hosted By: ZOO-PHONICS

Raffle Prize Donated By Winner

Host—Wine Basket

Host—Beauty Basket

Wine & Canvas Carrier

Three Yoga Classes

Inner Sanctum Wine

$40 Dining Certificate, $25 Slot Play

Eagle Castle Wine

Two Pounds of Gourmet Mixed Nuts

Wine Glasses

Gift Certificates & Tea Candle

Hovey Wine

Wine Basket

$25 Gift Certificate

$25 National Hotel Gift Certificate

Tupperware

Half of the Night’s Raffle Proceeds $105

Zoo-phonics

Zoo-phonics

Gianelli Vineyard

Sol y Breath Wellness Center

Let’s Go! Travel

Black Oak Casino Resort

Randy Hanvelt

Jazz It Up Iron-On Sparklers

James Zaiter/Edward Jones Investments

Stephanie Kaiser/Gold Canyon

Signal Service

Academy Mortgage

Chicken Ranch Casino

Cutler-Segerstrom Insurance Agency

Kecia Entriken

Chamber Ambassadors & Our Guests

Casey Dapello

Claudette Runyan

Randy Hanvelt

Nancy Gottschall

Tamelyn Job

Mark Steichen

Mark Steichen

Valene

Glenn Gottschall

Margaret Davis

Mike Sturtevant

Carl Tucker

Tamelyn Job

Char Wrighton

Randy Hanvelt

Linda Eskandary

Thank You To All Who Attended

Website Member Business Spotlight Let’s Go! Travel

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My name is Gina Prock and I have lived in Tuolumne County since 1992. I have a wonderful

husband, Hal Prock, three beautiful daughters, a 10 month old grandson and another grandchild due later this year. I own Micro-Tronics which is an electronic manufacturing company. Hal and I also own Auto Tech & Tires.

We bought Auto Tech two years ago. We provide quality, affordable auto repair. We care about our customers and always do our best to make them happy with our service. We are very involved in the community and try to help wherever we can, especially when it comes to our youth! I am the youth director for our local youth bowling league which is on Saturday mornings at Black Oak Lanes.

Supporting our youth, along with our community, is why I became an Ambassador in 2015. I enjoy the networking and meeting all of the wonderful people involved with our local Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce. I am a member of the Chamber’s Special Events Committee and love to coordinate the silent auctions. Our community is so wonderful about donating. We have a great bunch of people on our Special Events Committee! Just wait and see what wonderful events we will be helping the Chamber put on! If you own a business in Tuolumne County, and are not a member of the Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce, now is the time to join! Come join us at one of our monthly mixers and see what we’re all about!

Gina Prock—Micro-Tronics, Auto Tech & Tires

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January Mixer at Zoo-Phonics

L-R: Katie Edwards, Safari Learning, Our Host, Char Whighton, Zoo-Phonics &

Chamber President, Teri Brockmire

• Allow agencies to keep the additional water they are able to pump during winter storms. • Require agencies to explain pumping reductions due to the Delta smelt biological opinion. The agencies must explain decisions to reduce pumping to protect the Delta smelt based on improved data rather than relying on intuition. • Require agencies to maximize water supplies consistent with applicable laws and biological opinions. Agencies cannot harm fish in violation of biological opinions, but should try to increase water supplies. • Open Delta cross-channel gates more often so that water from the Sacramento River is used to control salinity instead of water released from the Central Valley Project. Three provisions aim to make greater use of water transfers, a voluntary, market process to move water to where it is truly needed. • Extend by five months the period within which water transfers may take place. By making the transfer window the months of April through November instead of the current July through September, water

transfers can be available during the spring planting season. • Allowing 1:1 water transfer ratio, versus the past practice of requiring water users to send more water downstream than can be pumped out. Environmental law and biological opinions still must be followed. • Expediting review of water transfers and construction of temporary barriers. Other Provisions Other sections of the bill provide: • Desalination. Reauthorizes the Desalination Act and authorizes $50 million over five years for desalination research projects, such as improving existing technology, reducing environmental effects of seawater desalination and developing next-generation technologies to reduce the cost of desalination. Also authorizes $50 million over five years for feasibility and design of sea and brackish water desalination projects. • Assistance for drought-stricken communities. Rural and disadvantaged communities with fewer than 60,000 residents may apply for grants through the Bureau to help stabilize water supplies.

• Water recycling, conservation, efficiency. Authorizes $200 million in increased funds for the Bureau’s water recycling and reuse program. Authorizes a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program to label water-efficient products for consumers, similar to the Energy Star program. Authorizes a Department of the Interior program to establish an open system with data on water quality, climate and weather effects, and erosion. The system would be accessible to the public online. • Additional funding. Authorizes $200 million for a loan guarantee program to allow water districts and municipalities to leverage loans and loan guarantees for water projects. Also increases funding by $150 million for the Bureau’s WaterSMART program. • Endangered/threatened fish and wildlife. Authorizes $55 million for short-term, low-cost proposals to protect and assist in recovering endangered or threatened fish populations, including Delta salmon and smelt.

What’s Next—Sen. Feinstein’s bill will be

taken up soon by the U.S. Senate Energy &

Natural Resources Committee, chaired by

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

CalChamber Backs Renewed Effort on Federal Water Bill Continued from cover

4

Addressing the continuing problem of removing dead and dying trees in our mountain communities has been on the front burner for me. Clearly

more needs to be done to aid forested counties with the removal and disposal of dead trees, as well as helping homeowners absorb the cost of removing multiple trees from their private property. Below is a recap of where things stand at this point. In September, I sent a request to Governor Jerry Brown urging him to declare a State of Emergency on the issue of tree mortality. In October, he did just that and convened a Tree Mortality Task Force to determine priorities and next steps on addressing this problem. The task force has been meeting regularly since then. California forests have grown to be overly dense and are suffering from a fourth consecutive year of drought, causing them to be highly susceptible to wildfire and beetle infestation. In December, the Carnegie Institution for Science released a study, which determined that as many as 58 million trees statewide have been impacted by drought or disease. This number far surpasses what was previously believed to be the scope of the problem. The importance of removing dead and diseased trees cannot be overstated. Addressing widespread tree mortality is a crucial first step to not only safeguarding our forest communities, but also in creating a healthier and more resilient Sierra Nevada forest – which provides more than 60 percent of the state’s water supply. There are quite a few issues involved under the umbrella of tree mortality. Some of the more pressing ones are as follows:

Assessing and removing impacted trees. Counties are working with the Office

of Emergency Services (OES), CalFire, the Forest Service, Pacific Gas and Electric as well as other utilities to remove dead trees and prioritize public roads and areas for tree removal.

Disposal of the trees once they have been removed. The sheer number of trees needing to be destroyed is mind-numbing. If left to rot, the felled trees will be nothing more than kindling for the next forest fire. Yet, the number of dead and dying trees far exceeds the capacity of the limited number of mills and biomass plants currently operating. The governor called for expedited action to ensure ongoing operation of forest bioenergy facilities in high fire hazard zones in his Emergency Proclamation on Tree Mortality, yet seven biomass plants have contracts set to expire within the next 2-7 months. Another 13 are sitting idle. We have been working with our state partners and the biomass industry to see what can be done to maintain the viability of that industry.

NEW MEMBERS ADT Security Services

American Quilt Works

Mono Village Laundromat

RENEWING MEMBERS 49er RV Ranch*

AAA-NCNU

Auto Tech & Tires*

Buzz Garvin-State Farm Ins.*

CT Bioenergy Consulting LLC*

California Wood Shavings*

Carl & Charlotte Tucker

Central Heat & Air

Chicken Ranch Casino*

Clark Pest Control*

Comcast Spotlight

Edward Jones - J. Zaiter*

El Jardin Restaurant*

Farmers Insurance*

Friends and Neighbors Magazine*

Frosted Vapors*

Glenn S. Caldwell Ins.*

Go Figure!*

Hohne, Hoyt & Aguilera CPA

JTM Cleaning Co.*

Kamps Propane*

Kelly-Moore Paints*

Mother Lode Property Management*

Randy Hanvelt*

SCORE*

Seniority Lifecare at Home*

Sonora Express Lube & Wash*

Sonora Fuel Depot*

Sonora Smoke Shop*

Standard Storage, LLC*

Twain Harte Vacation Rentals

Wal-Mart Stores, #01-2030*

*Contributor to Chamber Activities

Tree Mortality Update

Tree Mortality Community Forms, organized by Tuolulumne County OES, will pro-vide an opportunity for residents to learn about

the County’s Hazard Tree Removal Plan, with the coordinated efforts of our area partners.

For more information visit the County Website

April 7 - 6 p.m. Columbia Elementary Cafeteria- 22540 Parrots Ferry Rd. Columbia

April 12 - 6 p.m. Board of Supervisors Chambers- 2. South Green St. 4th Floor. Sonora

April 14 - 6 p.m. Twain Harte School Cafeteria- 18815 Manzanita Dr. Twain Harte

April 19 - 6 p.m. Tenaya Elementary Gym- 19177 Hwy 120. Groveland

Questions? Please call 209-533-5511