Motor Sports Project Questioned

Tulare - While a motor sports complex proposed for 700 acres adjacent to the International Agri-Center could bring thousands of jobs and visitors to town, not all Tulare residents support the project.

The project proposed would include a one-mile NASCAR super speedway with seating for 50,000 to start; a quarter-mile drag strip with seating for 39,800; a conference center with seven hotel/motels; a recreational vehicle park; agribusiness, business technology and amusement parks; a fire/police substation; and other amenities.

“I definitely will fight it,” said Charlie Boghosian, a business owner who also has a gated residential development under construction about 1½-miles from the proposed site.

“I think it's too close to residential,” Boghosian said. “It's a great thing to consider…but I think it needs to be located five to eight miles out of the city. Even Tagus Ranch would be a great place for it.”

Many people who live in the area have called him with concerns about the project, he said. The city has carefully planned its future and city leaders have had great vision, but “I think they're blinded by this proposal.”

Mitch Choboian, a Tulare realtor who plans to move into Boghosian's gated development, said Tulare residents need to decide what they want the community to be and investigate how the project will impact the city.

Councilman Richard Ortega has said the project will change the face of the community forever, but the community must decide if that is what they want, Choboian said.

He said, for example, that he was showing homes recently to a doctor who has decided to live in Tulare because he likes smaller bedroom communities.

“More people are coming here because of that,” he said.

The race tracks will bring in a lot of out-of-towners and create noise and congestion, he said.

Paul Daley, developer of the residential Sunrise Estates which is near the motor sports site, said he has heard some talk about the project but not a lot.

“Some say it's great; others say they don't like it,” Daley said. “Guys tend to like it more than ladies.”

He said he would like to visit a racing complex similar to what is proposed for Tulare to see what the noise is like.

“I think it [the project] is great for the city, but I'm a little concerned about the location: the noise, traffic, the light,” he said. “I think the traffic and light can be mitigated. I don't know about the noise.”

Natalie Picanso Oliver, who lives on Road 124, said she would like to see a different type of project go on the property proposed for the racing complex.

“What about the rodeo circuit?” Oliver said. “That would be more ag and not as noisy.”

With the new high school under construction in the southeast and a new elementary school planned, she thinks a sports complex that provides playing fields for all three high schools is another good idea.

“I know it [the motor sports project] would bring a lot of money in, but is that everything?” Oliver asked.

She said she plans to go to any meetings or public hearings about the project.

Steve Stafford, who does not live near the proposed motor sports site, called the plan “the dumbest thing ever devised” because of the noise, pollution and the number of visitors who he said will come into the community “trash and leave.”

He also is concerned with taking agricultural land out of production and putting in something that is going to add to the pollution, he said.

Mayor Craig Vejvoda said he is aware of the controversy and emphasized the council has not made a decision on the project.

“There's a lot of discovery that needs to happen,” Vejvoda said.

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Epps and Conway:
They're All About Service

By Julie Fernandez

Tulare - Friends rarely find Tulare's 2006 Man and Woman of the Year with their feet propped up doing nothing.

That is not the lifestyle of Willard Epps or Connie Conway, two high-energy people who have given tirelessly of themselves to a community they love.

Epps, a Tulare Fire Department battalion chief, and Conway, Tulare's representative on the Board of Supervisors, will be honored along with Adair and Evans and Morris Levin & Son, the small and large businesses of the year, at the Tulare Chamber of Commerce's Annual Awards Dinner on Friday, Jan. 26. Tickets, which are $32 for chamber members and $40 for non-members, are available by calling 686-1547.

The honorees were surprised over a two week period with visits from a delegation of former award-winners bearing the good news. The Tulare Voice will feature the Man and Woman of the Year in this issue and the Businesses of the Year in its Jan. 3 issue.

Willard Epps

When he was coaching Willard Epps at Tulare Union High School, if someone had told Ross Gentry that the quiet and talented basketball player would grow up to be a Man of the Year, he would have believed him.

“The qualities he's shown as a fireman and citizen are not surprising to those of us who worked with him as a kid,” said Gentry, assistant superintendent for instruction for the Tulare Joint Union High School District.

He has a story to illustrate his point. “I was a special education teacher and one of our students was a kid who was just fascinated with our athletic teams—he followed our sports team,” Gentry said.

One day he stepped outside of his classroom and saw what looked like a fight brewing across campus.

“I ran over there and I saw this kid and some other kids,” Gentry said. “Willard had just gotten there. He saw some kids harassing the kid and he stepped in and protected him. And he made them know this was a friend of his.”

Epps, a native of Oklahoma and one of 10 children, moved to Tulare from Texas in his sophomore year in high school. His parents had divorced a few years earlier and when his mother and siblings moved to Tulare, he stayed an extra year in Wichita Falls, Texas.

In Texas, schools were integrated but society in general was not.

When he arrived, he was surprised when his brother Marcel took him to his white friends' homes.

“Are you sure we're supposed to be here?” he recalled asking.

He played football, basketball and ran track at Tulare Union. Gentry said he was one of the best athletes he's seen in his 38 years with the district.

Epps played forward his senior year, the year the basketball team won the valley championship.

Former teammate Jim Hinsely, now a Tulare County sheriff's lieutenant, said Epps' only problem was he wouldn't get angry “even when he was fouled.”

From Tulare Union he went to Wichita State University in Kansas, but stayed only a semester.

“After living in Tulare, to go back into an environment where you couldn't be around certain peopleI couldn't take it,” Epps said.

After getting an associate of arts degree at College of the Sequoias, he married Debbie Murphy, whom he met in high school, and went to work for the Alpha Beta grocery store for 10 years.

Then, at age 28, he was hired at the Fire Department, where he has continues today.

“I'm excited to go to work every day,” he said. “I really enjoy my job.”

Throughout the years, Epps has spent untold hours working with youngsters in a variety of sports programs offered by the city and other groups.

Nearly 20 years ago he started the California Express Track Club with five or six kids, working to help them qualify for national AAU competitions.

“We'd practice and if they made it to nationals, I'd fund raise [so they could go],” he said. “I can only tip my hat to this community, because every time I went out, I was never turned down.” One year the club, which has 75 to 100 members, had 27 kids qualify.

“He's there for the kids and he'll do what it takes to help kids participate in activities,” said John Beck, superintendent of the Tulare City School District.

In addition to his work with the track club, which is now under the umbrella of the Tulare Youth Service Bureau, Epps is the newly elected president of the city school board.

“Again, what you see is a very quiet man,” Beck said. “But he has very good decision-making skills. He takes his time. He explores options and he's not afraid to take a stance. He'll do whatever it takes to make the education and life of kids a good experience.”

Epps also serves or has served on the boards for Tulare Youth Services, the Tulare Community Health Clinic, Tulare Emergency Aid Board and Pop Warner Football. He has also coached at Tulare Union, Tulare Western and College of the Sequoias.

“Willard is a personal role model for Tulare,” said Mike Leoni, executive director of the Youth Service Bureau. “He's the fireman everybody knows. Everybody in the community respects him. Everybody comes up and hugs him. He's got that kind of personality people enjoy being around.”

His long-time friend Hinsely agrees Epps is an outstanding role model.

“You don't find too many people as genuine as Willard. He walks the talk. They [the chamber] couldn't have made a better decision.”

Epps, 51, and his wife have two grown children, a son and a daughter.

Connie Conway

Connie Conway describes herself as “a worker bee” and few who know her would disagree. Certainly not the four former Woman of the Year title holders who chose her for the honor.

Even if she is not on a committee, when she shows up for a fund raiser she always takes an active role, whether that means serving food or working the bar, they said.

“She's done so much for the community,” 2005 Woman of the Year Dolly Faria said.

“She inspires others to promote Tulare,” Lynn Lampe said. “I think she represents us to a lot of potential businesses and investors and is well-recognized. She has brought Tulare a lot of value.”

Ellen Gorelick, another former Woman of the Year, said Conway represents the city and county well with her statewide activities and “she really represents all women very well.”

Conway was attending a Board of Supervisors meeting when the group of former award-winners arrived with flowers and an announcement of her award.

Their arrival caused a slight bit of panic for Conway, who is careful to read agendas and prepares for meetings.

“I just thought, 'Oh, my gosh, do I have the wrong agenda.' I saw Ellen [director and curator] of the Tulare Historical Museum and thought, 'Is there a museum thing on there? Did I miss something? How did I blow this?'”

When she realized what was happening she was nearly speechless.

“I'm very, very honored but really stunned,” Conway said. “How cool is that people want to award you for something you really love.”

To say Conway, 56, is blessed with an abundance of energy is almost an understatement. Her alarm clock goes off at 5:30 a.m. and she is always up to turn it off,” she said.

One recent day she was cleaning her swimming pool when it rang.

“Why lay there [in bed] if you're not sleeping,” she said.

She said her high-energy level comes from both parents.

Her father, the beloved and late John R. Conway, became a county supervisor in 1980 and served until his death in the early 1990s.

“People tell me they thought nobody could do more than my Dad,” she said.

Her mother, Margaret, whom she describes as “totally amazing,” still works fulltime at Tulare District Hospital.

Conway's life as a supervisor is a never-ending round of meetings in the county, Sacramento and Washington D.C., appointments with constituents and appearances at local events.

Her tendency to take on tasks she's not scheduled to do does not strikes her as odd. “It's just if there's something to be done, you just do it; that's the Tulare way,” she said.

Conway is the immediate past president of the California State Association of Counties and she recently became a member of the board of directors for the National Association of Counties.

She is also co-chair of the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, a group of 18 business and government leaders and eight state Cabinet secretaries. She is also past president of the San Joaquin Valley Rail Committee.

“She is known for common-sense leadership and she is never worried about shaking up tradition,” her friend Steve Griffiths said in his nomination letter.

When she served as chairman of the board, she proposed and led the charge to create a management plan to guide the county into the future.

“Quite honestly, a lot of the bureaucracy in county government resisted this approach,” Griffiths said. “But Connie, with the support of her fellow supervisors persevered. By the end of the year five county department heads had chosen to retire or to pursue new opportunities, giving Tulare County's government the strongest opportunity for renewal in decades.”

Tulare Mayor Craig Vejvoda said Conway has been a role model for him.

“It amazes me how she handles herself,” he said. “She will need to make difficult decisionsdecisions people might not likebut in the end they still like her. It's a remarkable trait.”

Conway's list of volunteer activities is lengthy. Prior to her election in 2000 to the board, she served on the Tulare Redevelopment Agency Board of Directors. She also has served as president of the Tulare City Historical Society, a trustee for the Tulare Hospital Foundation, a director for the International Agri-Center board and director for the chamber. She was one of the founder's of Leadership Tulare, a chamber training program for future leaders.

Conway previously coached American Youth Soccer and the Tulare Sharks teams and was a founding member and secretary of the Tipton Community Athletic Board.

“She has offered vision, enthusiasm, creativity, energy, compassion and conviction to every endeavor, Griffiths said. “And humility. Her resume carries dozens of official titles. But she is best known as Connie, a relentlessly dedicated public official who demonstrates her integrity by working seven days a week to serve her constituents.”

Conway, 56, is the mother of two grown sons and has one grandson.

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Light Industrial Use Proposed for Matheny Tract

By Julie Fernandez

Tulare - The city could earmark Matheny Tract, a county neighborhood of about 300 homes in southwest Tulare, for light industrial use when it updates its general plan next year.

Vice Mayor Phil Vandegrift, who suggested the idea at a joint City Council/Planning Commission meeting in late November, said the move could help eliminate the blight in the area, a belief shared by at least one other council member.

If the City Council does change the land use designation to light industrial and the county honors that decision, then no new residential development could occur in the neighborhood.

“If one of the [house] trailers moves off a lot, they cannot put another one on it,” Vandegrift said.

He painted a grim picture of the neighborhood, saying it includes dilapidated housing, people “hiding from the law” and failing water and sewer systems. “We've got some things going on out there we don't want to even know about,” he said.

Asked how this would affect people whose property is well kept, Vandegrift said: “What's in it for the people who have respectable houses is blight will be stopped.”

The Matheny idea arose during discussion about the preferred land use map that emerged after a consulting firm held four community workshops and the public gave opinions about how it wants to see the city grow through 2030.

The preferred growth map designates for future annexation and industrial development about 2,700 acres that are in the county but within Tulare's planning area.

Such a move would substantially surround Matheny Tract with potential industrial development, allowing heavy industry to the north and light industry to the south, and the neighborhood would become a new county island.

The city could not unilaterally annex the are as special state legislation now allows it to do with long-standing county islands.

Instead, under a proposed policy that the Tulare County Local Agency Formation Commission is considering for newly created islands, the city would have to survey Matheny property owners and annex the area if a majority favored doing so.

Long-time observers, including Vandegrift, believe any move to annex the area would make many Matheny residents unhappy.

“But if you're going to change for the good, you have to expect some people are going to be unhappy,” Vandegrift said. “You can't have islands that are free zones for any and all types of questionable activities.”

In addition to the area's water and sewer woes, he said the county is having “one heck of a problem” providing public safety services to the area and there appears to be little code enforcement.

“At some point, some level of government has to be responsive,” Vandegrift said. “I did not sign on [for the City Council] this time around to avoid problems. I've seen problems that existed there 30 years ago.”

Mayor Craig Vejvoda said he does not know what the City Council will decide about Matheny or how he will vote.

“There's going to be a lot of things on the table,” Vejvoda said, adding one of the first things the council will have to find out is how the county would react to a new land use designation for Matheny.

Councilman Richard Ortega said he thinks Vandegrift's idea could improve the area.

“We all have to agree the quality of the residential in there is less than desirable,” Ortega said.

Ortega and Vandegrift said that designating the land for light industrial could make residential property that is in good shape more desirable to people who want to have a small business and their home on the same property.

“We would set the tone for private investment and therefore bring the value of the properties up,” Vandegrift said.

Industrial land

Bob Reynolds, economic development director for the Tulare Chamber of Commerce, said he is pleased with the amount of acres the preferred land use plan has earmarked for light and heavy industrial development.

“It's more than we asked for,” Reynolds said.

The lack of industrially zoned land—especially large parcels—has concerned Reynolds and others involved in attracting new industries to town.

In June, when he addressed another joint meeting of the City Council and Planning Commission, the initial drafts of the plan included only 650 additional acres of industrial zoning.

That was not enough, he said, explaining that in the prior 30 months, requests for large industrial parcels had totaled 1,657 acres. He called for a minimum of 1,000 acres and an additional 1,300 in reserve.

Reynolds and others identified specific parcels for industrial development in 2004 when a task force was formed to address the problem of dwindling industrial acres. At that time, less than 100 acres of “buildable” industrial/manufacturing land was available.

Today there are 623 undeveloped industrial acres within the city and only 190 acres of those are for sale, Reynolds said.

Ortega said he too is pleased with the amount of land the preferred map designates for industrial use.

“We don't want to be caught in the same position we are in now,” he said.

Strong interest from property owners along South I Street prompted the City Council begin the annexation process for 485 acres from Bardsley Avenue to south of Paige Avenue. The process will include preparation of a specific plan and an environmental impact report for the area.

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City Land Sale Upsets Utility Board

Tulare - The Board of Public Utilities is upset with a plan to sell 66.5 acres of city land adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant to a meat packing company.

Commissioners said the issue is not the meat packing operation, which is expected to bring 300 jobs to Tulare, but selling land when the city may have to turn around in the future and buy more for the sewer plant.

“We've never considered this excess land,” Commissioner Darlene Jensen said, adding she has heard, instead, conversations about the need for more land.

“It just doesn't make dollars and cents sense to me,” Jensen said.

Commissioner Scot Hillman's motion to support the City Council's decision to sell the land to Western Pacific Meat Packing, if certain conditions are met, failed on a 1-4 vote. The vote does not change the agreement the city has with Western Pacific.

Normally, the matter of selling wastewater treatment land would have gone to the commissioners first and then to the council, which has the final decision in such matters.

Public Works Director Lew Nelson apologized to commissioners for not thinking to bring the matter to them first so the council could have the benefit of knowing their position.

Nelson also said the land proposed for sale was not critical to current or future sewer plant operations.

“Whose idea was it to pick this site?” Commissioner Ron Quinn asked.

City Manager Darrel Pyle said the company came to the city with the project and the city suggested the site. Nelson said the company wanted to be within the city limits but as far away from residential development as possible.

Quinn also questioned the decision to sell the land for $510,000, which he said is much less per acre than the company would have had to pay if they bought farm land anywhere else in the area. Pyle said the price of $8,100 an acres was based on an appraisal.

Market value and appraised value are two different things, Quinn said.

His major concern, though, was the city might have to go out and buy more land if area farmers who are currently taking treated wastewater to irrigate crops decide to stop.

Nelson later said agreements the city has with these farmers make it unlikely that will happen. They are required to give the city “a long lead time” if they are going to quit taking the water and they would have to reimburse the city for installing the pipe line that carries the water to their properties.

“That would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for each of these farmers,” Nelson said. He also said the city is lining up additional property to use if this should happen.

When Commissioner Gary Johnson asked if the city was going to need more land eto expand the treatment plant, Nelson said the plant would never expand to the property that the city has agreed to sell.

He and Pyle explained later any expansion would have to take place directly south because the plant's headworks are in the middle of the existing plant.

“You would first use the motorcycle track,” Nelson said.

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