COS Could Get $58 Million for Tulare Campus

By Julie Fernandez

Tulare - How soon Tulare will get a college campus could hinge on the fate of a state bond measure, which College of the Sequoias officials have learned would provide $58 million, $22 million more than originally promised, for the long-awaited Tulare campus.

Proposition 1D, the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006, will be on the November ballot and would earmark $1.5 billion for community colleges.

When the Tulare project was placed on the state funding eligibility list in 2005, California Community College officials said the COS district would get $36.28 million for the Bardsley Avenue and Road 132 campus.

COS and local officials were elated over news of the increase.

“The moneys available to build have been adjusted to match actual [construction] costs,” Rod Frese, COS vice president for administrative services said.

As before, infrastructure and parking costs are not covered and funding for them will have to come from other sources. In 2005 those costs were estimated at about $3 million.

COS decided last year it would sell off about 100 acres of the 500-acre campus site to raise about $9.5 million to cover these and other costs bond money will not cover.

First dibs on buying the land went to governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations, but no deals were made during the required 60-day period.

“I think we're getting pretty close to putting it on the open market,” Frese said.

The $58 million would build phase one of the Tulare project, which would include the main building, with 53,092 square feet of classrooms, laboratory, office, library and cafeteria space, and a farm power shop building.

“We will have a functioning campus in place,” Frese said.

Mayor Richard Ortega, who served on the high school district board for many years, said word of the increased funding was “great news.”

The City Council is a strong proponent of a Tulare campus as have been their constituents, who three times supported bond measures that would have provided funding for a Tulare center and for major improvements to the Visalia and Hanford campuses. Opposition from Visalia area voters led to the defeat of all three.

Even though Visalia is only a few miles away, local educators think having a campus in Tulare would make it possible for more students in the city and South County to attend college.

“Visalia is close, but it isn't if you don't have transportation and public transportation is difficult to arrange schedules by,” said Howard Berger, superintendent of the Tulare Joint Union High School District.

Many community college students work, complicating matters further, Berger said.

“The closer the college, the easier it is for them to juggle all the elements,” he said.

Under the COS board-approved timetable, construction of the main building for the Tulare campus would begin in 2009-10 and be completed in time for the 2011-12 school year.

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Meat Packer Would Employ 300 Here

by John Lindt

Tulare - Western Pacific Meat Packing, which spent more than six fruitless years seeking a permit to build a state-of-the-art meat packing plant in Goshen, has switched the proposed location to the nation’s dairy capital – the city of Tulare. Within a half hour drive from over a million head of cattle, the facility would turn old dairy cows into hamburger.

“I’m done with the county and I’m done with Goshen,” says company owner Rod Balcao. “We’ve been told we will get a lot better reception in Tulare. So far that seems to be true.” Tulare is “the right spot in the middle of the largest concentration of cattle anywhere in the United States and close to big consumer and export markets.” Balcao says lots of meat comes into California from the Midwest carrying a big freight premium.

Balcao is from Chino and owns Chino Livestock Auction. He has spent years lining up investor financing for this big project and has been frustrated at how both bureaucracy and litigation has stalled this effort.

300 Jobs Promised

This week the city of Tulare took the first step to accommodate the meat company that could bring more than 300 steady jobs to town. The city council approved as a consent item the launching of an environmental study to redesignate 83 acres at the northeast corner of Paige and Enterprise from “public use” to “industrial.”

The site is next to the city’s waste treatment plant. Quad Knopf consultants of Visalia will carry out the study which will be a full EIR. Balcao says since the project is virtually the same as was proposed in Goshen, the study should be straight forward.

The meat packer has been working with the city for months to move forward on the project and last week company officials were in town looking to hire team members to plan, build and operate the slaughter house and packing facility.

Balcao says he has hired former cattle consultant Tony Brady to be CEO of the company and will hire up to 15 people to be key members of the team.

Besides the slaughter house and packing plant buildings there will be a separate cold storage facility that will operate independently, says Balcao.

Proposed in Goshen back in 2000, the start-up company slogged through three years in planning and government approvals and as much time in litigation that today is still not resolved despite completion of a full EIR, all county approvals and near completion of the appeal process by neighbors to the proposed facility in Goshen.

Even today the neighbors, Doreen Caetano-Jungk and Diana Gruber, continue to fight the project complaining that a water study done to satisfy approval of the Goshen ethanol plant is faulty – a water plan the Goshen meat packing facility needs as well for its final court hearing still unscheduled. County officials fear a new lawsuit against the county over the water study even though they believe the study’s conclusions are accurate. But if this project goes awa, this issue could be moot. Still the neighbors expect, as they might, that some other large industrial type use will likely locate on the same 55 acres if the meat processor doesn’t.

Valued a few years ago at $32 million, the plant is expected to be one of the most modern meat packing plants in California, and the first plant of its size in Tulare County. Today most of the dairy cows processed for meat head out of Tulare County for processing. Today there are much tighter rules and higher standards on the processing of meat. The proposed facility will be totally enclosed, processing 1000 cows a day.

Balcao says a SCE study of the project showed for every job at the meat packing plant it created another five spin off jobs as a result. That would put the economic impact at the plant at about 1500 jobs.

The plant won’t be the first slaughter house to operate in Tulare. You will remember that Coelho Meat Co. operated a smaller plant in town until it burned down some years ago.

For Tulare the plant may help draw other food processors to the area attracted by a nearby supply of hamburger meat. The big cold storage facility could draw other meat products.

New Technology

Commenting on the project in the past, the new state-of-the art equipment being planned for the facility should be much less noisy and cumbersome than some of the equipment in older meat packing sheds, said Jim Sullins, county director for University of California Cooperative Extension in Tulare County. "I think a lot of people are worried about odors and noise, but if they build it state-of-the-art, I think a lot of people will be surprised about how clean it can be," Sullins said.

Unlike meat packing plants that were built in the 1940's through 1960s, which were run on hydraulic equipment, today’s newer electronic technology is much quieter and more efficient, Sullins said. "There have been tremendous breakthroughs with packinghouse equipment, including everything from breaking equipment where they cut the bones right down to the electric deboning knives. This makes the work safer, cleaner and faster and workers have a lot better working conditions," Sullins said.

A new meat packing plant should help boost the meat industry's margin even more in Tulare County, Sullins said. "Any time in agriculture when you can keep your value added process local, whether it be a meat packing plant or fruit packing plant or a chemical distributor or a tractor sales company, it gives you an economic advantage because you don't have to truck the product as far and it helps you keep the money within the county," Sullins said.

Whether Tulare residents will object to the location of a slaughter house – state-of-the-art or not – remains up in the air although its leaders are clearly excited about the plan. City planners are bracing for some opposition but don’t know how much. The site is a large one and located next to the treatment plant so it will be hard to complain about an odor, one could argue, although Balcao will tell you odor impacts will be small. But the site is not all that far from the rural enclave the Matheny Tract.

Meanwhile, Balcao has sent out a letter to prospective buyers that his 55 acres in Goshen is for sale.

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Healthy Japan Opens its Doors to Tulare

by Robin Kaufman

Tulare - Healthy Japan restaurant in Tulare's Village shopping center has been open for a little over a month and according to owner, Katalina Park, business is booming without even advertising.

“That's a really good sign,” said Park.

Park and her husband, Philip, also own the award-winning Tokyo Teriyaki Sushi and Rolls in Visalia. Her uncle owns Tokyo Garden in Visalia, and in all, her extended family runs eight Japanese restaurants in the Valley.

Chicken, beef, salmon, vegetables, soy, rice and noodles are the staples of the Healthy Japan menu. “Our theme is healthy food,” said Park.

According to the World Health Organization's Disability-Adjusted Life Years ranking, Japan rates first in the list of the world's healthiest countries with a life-expectancy rate of 74.5 years, while the United States ranks twenty fourth with a life-expectancy rate at 70 years.

“We have the best miso soup in the whole wide world!” said Park. Miso is high in nutrients such as manganese, vitamin k, protein, zinc and copper.

Framed posters on the walls of the Healthy Japan restaurant extol the virtues of ingredients in Japanese dishes such as seaweed and soy.

“Soybeans are very good for you, especially for women. It's the best thing you can eat and eat and eat and eat!” said Park.

Park particularly likes the flavor of steamed soybeans or edamame, as the dish is listed on the menu. “Personally, I don't like beans, but soybeans I eat,” said Park.

Many customers recommend Healthy Japan to their friends, according to Park, citing a Tulare teacher who, on his second visit, brought three more people and on his third visit, brought eight other people.

Park said she also sees many Japanese people come in to the restaurant, and takes that as an indicator of the quality of food Healthy Japan serves. Park and her husband are Korean and also have Korean barbeque ribs on the menu.

“You'd be surprised how many Japanese people there are who like Korean food,” said Park.

For Tulareans who are unfamiliar with Japanese food, menu terminology like tempura, sushi, teriyaki, gyoza, udon, yakisoba and edamame may seem foreign, and conjure images of plates full of raw fish. “We don't have that many items that aren't cooked,” said Park.

Customers can choose from twenty-two types of sushi rolls, most of which feature either cooked shrimp or crab. Over half of those are specialty rolls with flavors created by the Parks themselves.

The menu above the counter has many pictures of the various dishes and Park has staffed her Tulare restaurant with experienced workers from her Visalia store.

“The girls are good at recommending things that people like,” said Park. “I think we have very good variety.”

Quality is also very important to Park. “Everything's made fresh daily,” said Park. “We emphasize cleanliness, presentation, all that good stuff,” said Park.

One of Park's business goals is to turn Healthy Japan into a franchise business.

“I think it's very important to believe in what you make.” said Park. “I back up our food 110 percent. I mean if you don't believe in yourself, how can you run a restaurant?

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City Gets Plans for Two Hotels

Tulare - A Southern California developer has plans to built two hotels on vacant property behind the Mountain View Shopping Center, which will bring 150 new hotel rooms to Tulare.

Sagar Kumar, of Hollywood, has filed site plans with the city showing a Holiday Inn Express and a Candlewood Suites on the 5.6 acres site on Hillman Street, adjacent to the northbound Highway 99 on-ramp. Both will be three stories and feature 75 rooms.

The projects are not expected to go to the Planning Commission for approval until at least late September, Planning Director Mark Kielty said.

Kumar heads up a growing company started by his father and uncle 25 to 30 years ago, said Rick Amerine, a broker with Commercial West Associates of Fresno.

“They're expanding pretty aggressively throughout the San Joaquin Valley and Texas,” Amerine said.

Tulare already has well over 500 hotel rooms and will soon see the opening of a 68-room Microtel Inn and Suites. A sign is also up further down Cherry Street indicating a developer still has plans to build a Hampton Inn.

Asked why his client had decided to add 150 more rooms to the mix, Amerine said: “They've done their studies. They've done their homework.”

He also said Candlewood Suites is an extended-stay hotel, a concept that has not been pushed much in the area. The studio and one-bedroom suites include fully equipped kitchens among their amenities.

Candlewood, like Holiday Inn, is part of the InterContinental Hotels Group. The first Candlewood opened in Wichita, Kan., in 1996.

George Serpa, who with his cousin owns the land that the Southern California company will lease for the hotel projects, said this is the last of the original 40-acre ranch site that his father and uncle owned.

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Four Seek Two Council Seats

Tulare - A fourth candidate entered the City Council race before Friday's deadline and the hospital board and high school district contests also picked up new candidates.

Derek Thomas, a correctional officer who ran in the 2004 City Council race, has decided to give it another try, joining Mayor Richard Ortega, Councilman David Macedo and firefighter Randy Dennis in a four-way contest to fill two seats.

Two doctors, pediatrician Prem Kamboj and ear-nose-throat specialist Lonnie Smith, have joined the race to fill two seats in the Tulare Local HealthCare District. Board Chairman LeRoy Trippel and Victor Gonzalez are the incumbents.

A physician here for 28 years, Kamboj said he feels a sense of duty to the community to run for the board and wants to be part of the planning for the new hospital and of establishing a “center of excellence,” where families can continue to seek medical care.

“I feel so passionate about it, I moved my residency here,” he said. He lived within the district for 17 years before moving to a farm outside the boundaries and now has established a home near the hospital, he explained.

Smith could not be reached for comment before deadline.

Elva Strawn, a community health technician, has joined the race to fill three seats in the Tulare Joint Union High School District. She will face board president Adrian Holguin and trustees Craig Hamilton and Steven Lessley.

In the Tulare City School District race, incumbents Phil Plascencia and James Henderson are unopposed. Pat Hillman, Tulare's representative on the Tulare County of Education is also unopposed.

In the College of the Sequoias Ward 2 race, incumbent Sue Shannon faces competition from Tom Berrey, Sesar Carreno, an educator, and Ted Gill, a wealth advisor.

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High School Boundary Options Unveiled

Tulare - High School District trustees will redraw district boundaries to include the third campus, which is expected to open in 2008-09, but not before the community gets a chance to review and comment on three alternatives.

Maps illustrating the options are already circulating through City Hall and the real estate community and the board has scheduled public meetings for 7 p.m. on both Wednesday, Sept. 6, and Thursday, Sept. 19, to gather more public input.

“Each of these, I think, is appropriate, but someone may come in and say, 'You haven't thought about this. This housing development is going in here. You might want to make this adjustment,'” Superintendent Howard Berger said.

Ken Reynolds of School Works, the consulting firm that developed the options after studying district demographics and meeting with district officials, will attend both public meetings, Berger said.

In developing the boundary options, criteria called for:
· Distributing the student populations among the three schools relative to each's capacity.
· Balancing socio-economic and ethnic make-up.
· Keeping students in their own neighborhoods as much as possible.
· Boundaries that could be maintained for perhaps 10 or more years.

The neighborhood concept is one foreign to the district in recent years because of the dramatic difference in capacity between Tulare Union and Tulare Western high schools, Berger said.

With three schools, the district can get closer to keeping students near their homes and reduce the complaints from parents asking why they have to drive by one high school to get to their child's assigned campus, he said.

The three options, generally speaking, divide the communities on a north/south diagonal. All three would assign students living in the following areas as follows:
· West of Highway 99 and north of Cross Avenue, Tulare Western.
· West of J Street between Cross and Inyo avenues, Tulare Western.
· West of West Street between Inyo and Paige avenues, Tulare Western.
· East of Oakmore between Cartmill and Tulare Avenues, new high school.
· East of Mooney between Tulare and Bardsley avenues, new high school.
· East of Highway 99 between Bardsley Avenue and the southern boundaries of the district, new high school.
· East of Highway 99 between Cartmill and Cross Avenues, Tulare Union.
· Mooney to J between Cross and Bardsley avenues, Tulare Union.
· Inyo to Paige avenues between J and West streets Tulare Union.

Residents who live in the Matheny Tract would attend either the new high school or Tulare Union, depending on which map is chosen.

In all three configurations Sundale, Tipton and Pixley school students would attend the new high school; Buena Vista students would attend Tulare Union; and Oak Valley students would attend Tulare Western.

Which school students from Palo Verde, Waukena and Liberty attend will depend on which alternative is chosen.