The Amador County November Elections Race is seeing some new, as well as familiar faces. The final deadline for filing was extended to this past Wednesday at 5 PM. According to the Amador Elections Office, the only change since last week is the addition of former councilmember Keith Sweet as a candidate for the Jackson City Council, which has three open spots. Of those, two are currently held by incumbents running for re-election, and the third will be vacated by Mayor Rosalie Pryor Escamilla, who has been on the Council for eight years. “(Being on the council) is a lot of time and effort,” says Escamilla, “but I’ll still be involved in the issues important to me.” Competing for the three open spots is Jackson Planning Commissioner Dave Butow, appointed-incumbent Wayne Garibaldi, incumbent Al Nunes, and local activists Judy Jebian and Marilyn Lewis.

Three candidates are competing for the two open spots on the Ione City Council. Incumbents Andrea Bonham and Jerry Sherman are being challenged by David P. Plank, a retired marketing director. The Ione City Clerk position will still be held by Janice Traverso, as she is running uncontested, and the City Treasurer Sharon Long is being challenged by Nancy Baldi. In Amador City, all open spots have candidates running uncontested. For City Council, Aaron Brusatori is running for a four year term. For the two year term, Michael Vasquez, a local Realtor, holds that spot. And for City Treasurer, the appointed incumbent Janet Spencer is running solo. Plymouth’s City Council race includes six candidates running for a total of three spots. Current members Greg Baldwin, Jon Colburn and Patricia Shackleton are all running for re-election. Gary Colburn, the brother of incumbent Jon Colburn, is also running, along with Maria E. Nunez and Darlene R. Estey, both of Plymouth. City Clerk Gloria Stoddard and City Treasurer M. Suzon Hatley are both running uncontested. In Sutter Creek, the three open spots for city council matches the number of candidates. Two are incumbents, Tim Murphy and Gary Wooten, with newcomer Sandra Anderson.

And in the School District race, four candidates are competing for three open spaces. PJ Karnaze and Mary Walser are up for re-election, and are running against Deputy District Attorney Janelle Redkey and Wally Upper, a retired college president. Amador Water Agency has four district races occurring, with at least two candidates in each district. In District One, appointed incumbent Madonna Wiebold is challenged by local businessman and engineer Bill Condrashoff. District Two’s incumbent John Swift is being challenged by electrician Gary Thomas. In District Three, Joseph Bonini is running against Don Cooper, a retired agricultural engineer. And in District Four, appointed incumbent Paul Scott is challenged by local activist and business owner Debbie Dunn, and business owner Brent Parsons. And finally, for the Volcano Community Services District, we have Nancy Bailey, incumbent, Terry Grillo, and Jane W. Norcross all competing for a four-year term, and Richard Gorremans running uncontested for a two-year term. We’ll have more in-depth profiles on all the candidates as we move toward the November 4th election.

Two “priceless” maps of Amador County in its infancy were presented before the Board of Supervisors at their Tuesday morning meeting. The separate but equally interesting histories of both the maps and how Amador County had been fortunate enough to obtain them were outlined in a joint presentation by County Clerk Sheldon Johnson and Amador County Museum Curator Georgia Fox. One map dating back to 1904 was discovered in a safe at the County Clerk’s office where it had been sitting untouched for decades. Johnson explained that the map was wrapped in brown butcher paper, and besides some natural discoloration, was in excellent condition. According to Fox, a second map dated 1866 was a gift from Darlene and Bill Duncan, who had been given the map by a friend and were told to “find a good home for it.” Amador County was fortunate to receive the map, as it could just have easily been sent to a larger and more prestigious museum, said Johnson.

During Darlene Duncan’s turn at the podium, she became visibly emotional when she recalled her mother, who was instrumental in insuring the map returned to its proper home. Perhaps as interesting as the story of the journey of these historic documents is there preservation process. Both maps were sent to the Joseph J. Marotti Company, a conservation laboratory in Milton, Vermont. They were then treated and repaired during a painstaking 50-hour restoration process. Each map was ultrasonically humidified and “decidified” in order to “preserve the maps for the next 500 years” said a Marotti Company representative. Supervisor Forster presented the Duncans with a plaque as a token of thanks for their generous contribution. Supervisor Escamilla slyly remarked that he had plenty of space for one of the maps on his office wall, to which Supervisor Forster jokingly replied, “Sir, you’re out of order.” Both maps will soon be available for public viewing at the Amador County Museum.