County may buy units for low income

The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors will host a Tuesday study session on a Behavioral Health Services plan to acquire the 30-unit Hilltop Apartments complex in San Andreas for low-income housing.

The proposal includes the utilization of $639,500 in state Mental Health Services Act funds to provide 25 units for low-income families and five for mental health clients who are now homeless.

“The proposed project is the (mental health program’s) best opportunity to provide MHSA-funded permanent housing for (mental health) consumers and also supports local working families who need affordable housing,” Behavioral Health Services Director Rita Downs wrote in the proposal.    

“The proposed project potentially offers benefits to the County as it continues with the General Plan revision. Other community benefits include local jobs and the avoidance of a foreclosed property and possible blight.”    

The complex at 342 E. St. Charles St. is already in the foreclosure process, according to the proposal, and Behavioral Health hopes to partner with the Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency and Stockton-based Visionary Home Builders to complete the project.   

Mental health clients living at the revamped complex would receive intensive supportive services on-site and on-call as needed, according to Downs.    

The study session is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., after the 9 a.m. regular meeting.    

The board will also consider a draft letter to the Delta Stewardship Council on its controversial restoration plan for the troubled waterway on the morning docket.    

In a letter prepared under the direction of Planning Director Rebecca Willis and Environmental Health Director Brian Moss, county government seeks to learn more about the costs of implementation of the plan and how some of those costs can be mitigated.    

“The primary sources of surface water that feed or effect the delta are rivers that drain the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. Clearly, there is a need to ensure there is appropriate management and protection of the watershed from wildfires, which could lead to post-fire erosion, sedimentation, and water quality degradation in the river systems,” the letter reads. “The Project should include mechanisms to provide essential funding for ongoing watershed management to protect the surface water resources as part of the Delta Plan’s Finance Plan Framework, Policies and Recommendations, and/or Mitigation Measures.”    

The letter also asks the Council to clarify how the plan will address concerns related to the overdrafted Eastern San Joaquin Groundwater Basin, an important water resource in the west end of the county, and whether private wells in the county will be required to be monitored as part of the plan. If so, county officials want to know how that monitoring will be funded.    

The proposed letter also warns that the plan’s land-use map for the Delta watershed will soon be outdated as the county is expected to adopt a new general plan land use document later this year or early in 2013.    

In other business, the board will review:    

• a proposal for a traffic ticket amnesty program good through June 30, offering a one-time forgiveness of half of a fine’s costs if the other half is paid on violations prior to Jan. 1, 2009. The program would exclude parking, reckless driving and DUI offenses and could recapture as much as $358,500 in revenue.   

However, “it is unknown how successful this program will be, therefore it is difficult to estimate what revenues will result from this program,” noted Assistant County Administrative Officer Shirley Ryan.    

• an annual report from the county’s Mental Health Advisory Board that includes recommendations to launch a “mental health court” with alternatives to jail time for certain offenders and the hiring on a Behavioral Health Services clinician dedicated to serving elderly residents with serious mental illnesses.    

• a $15,000 draw on contingency funds to make emergency repairs to antennae used in the Sheriff’s Department radio system. A contractor’s analysis showed damage in the antennae and cables at the Blue Mountain, Fowler Peak and Sierra Vista repeater sites that have caused extremely poor reception in some areas according to Sheriff’s Sgt. Rachelle Whiting.