Super Walmart Heading To Eastside Of 99 And Cartmill
Boost For Cartmill Crossing Mega Shopping Center

by John Lindt

Tulare - Big boost for Cartmill Crossing—a planned 130-acre mega shopping center—with news the developers have snagged the Super Walmart project to their side of the freeway. Walmart had been working with the Lagomarsino family on a proposed retail center on the west side of Highway 99 at Cartmill Avenue. This is the first tenant Cartmill Crossing developer Ben Ennis and partner John Henry have been able to land after losing Target which has decided to build its giant new store at Mooney and Prosperity.

The news came from the city this week that engineers for Walmart have relocated their site plan to the Cartmill Crossing location on the northeast corner of 99 and Cartmill. Work on an EIR for the Walmart project has begun but will not focus on the new location, the city has been advised. The new site plan will be shared with all agencies reviewing the EIR, Planning Director Mark Kielty said.

“We’ve got Walmart on our site now,” Henry said this week, “although we are still finishing all the documentation.” He said the location of the new Super Walmart will draw customers from as far away as south Visalia and help put the shopping center on the map as a regional draw.

Ennis and Henry have been working with Walmart to consider their location as opposed to the rival site west of 99. Going in their favor might be the critical mass of the shopping center at 130 acres, which increases the likelihood the proposed center could be Tulare’s top regional shopping center in the future.

With Walmart aboard, Cartmill Crossing likely will attract other big retailers not yet in Tulare. “My understanding is that they are working with JC Penney as well as Walmart,” says mayor Rich Ortega. Henry says indeed they are as Penney, after years of little expansion, is following the lead of other retailers and looking for more locations.

“We hope to attract JC Penney and Kohl’s” says Henry. Kielty says “if they keep this up I wouldn’t be surprised if Costco would decide to build a second store in the area” besides Visalia. Ortega says maybe even Gottschalks would consider the site, considering Tulare is gaining a reputation as separate and strong market with its own identity in part because of the outlet mall. This too is on the grow with a new owner vowing to double its size just a few parcels away from the Cartmill Crossing location. “Those shoppers come from far away and they have to pass right by our front door,” notes Henry.

In other related news, Target has decided to plop down a store just a few miles from their Visalia location. Kielty says building plans for the 175,000-square-foot Super Target are being filed with the city and work on the project could begin in 30 to 45 days. The store, like the Super Walmart, will sell groceries along with general merchandise.

2008 Construction

Meanwhile, the existing Walmart store in Tulare is in escrow to an unknown developer who will try to divide it up among at least two retailers. The 129,000-square-foot store is well located near the new Lowes and Home Depot and is likely to fill up when Walmart exits, says an informed source. That could be a while considering the likelihood of a legal challenge to Walmart’s plans similar to those that have occurred in other towns.

The growth in the commercial square footage in Tulare ought to be a wake up call for Visalia who may no longer count on its dominance in the retail arena in Tulare County to keep growing, although both towns seem to be booming with expansion of commercial space.

New retail is a big deal with cities because it provides so much to their general funds for sales tax dollars. Visalia takes in nearly $20 million in annual sales tax revenue.

Henry says Cartmill Crossing could reach one million square feet in the future. That could put it in the same category as Packwood Creek or, Henry says, more a Riverpark in Fresno. “We want to be a lifestyle center with people strolling around shopping at our stores.” He says he hopes to attract smaller retailers to complement the big ones, he says. Henry says he expects shopping center approvals, including the annexation , to be in place by 2008 when construction will begin. Some stores could open in six months after construction begins, depending on weather.

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Treasures 'Rescued' Before Fire Destroys 100-year-old House

by Julie Fernandez

Tulare - A blaze fire officials said was likely started by transients destroyed the vacant Sturgeon home on East Tulare Avenue, but not before many of the treasures in the 100-plus-year-old house were rescued.

The home, which sat east of Foster Freeze adjacent to Highway 99, had been scheduled for demolition before the Sept. 1 blaze, so owner Paul Daley, who purchased the house after John Sturgeon's death in 2005, had given several people permission to remove items of value.

“We actually looked into restoring it, but it was so old and the floor plan wasn't modern,” Daley said, “It would have taken a lot to try to refurbish it.”

Moving the house, which Daley said probably was built in about 1890, was impossible because of its adobe double-brick walls.

“It would have crumbled if they had tried to move it,” said Frank Furtaw, Tulare Fire Department's fire investigator, who spent 12 hours digging through the rubble after the blaze.

“We worked with the Historical Society, Phil Vandegrift, Don LeBaron and anyone we could think of who might want to take out things,” Daley said.

LeBaron and Vandegrift salvaged vintage French doors, windows, lighting fixtures, a built-in buffet with a beveled mirror, Douglas fir flooring, 8-foot tall stained glass windows and other items.

“We are going to harvest all its vital organs and vicariously restore it elsewhere,” Vandegrift said while the “harvesting” was still in progress.

“It was an incredible house the way it was built,” LeBaron said.

Michael Stowell, the city's library director, who also works with historical preservation issues, said the house was not rated in the city's 2005 survey of historical buildings but had been designated a Priority 3 structure in a 1987 survey.

“I don't know what that was based upon,” Stowell said. “He [the 2005 consultant] dropped a lot of properties from the list.” Priority 3 buildings are considered the least important architecturally or of little or o historical significance.

Special meaning

The house had special meaning for Tulare resident Mary Lou Wills. Her family moved into the home in the 1930s when she was 12 years old and her brother was 9 and lived there for about 30 years.

“I was married there,” she said. “That was a great old house when we left it. There were some features that were kind of fun.”

“We had a telephone booth,” she said. “You'd go in and shut the door. It was really great for teenagers.”

The house at one time had a porch that included an oak-boxed chain toilet, she said. It also had a cooler pantry in which food items were kept cool by air coming up from the basement.

One of her most vivid memories was when the fireplace became filled with bats. “They came down one night in the living room and into the kitchen,” she said. “They were all over. You can't imagine how awful that was.”

Her fonder memories include a gazebo in the front yard, a big rose garden in front of the other little house on the property and a strawberry patch.

Furtaw said the 9:15 p.m. fire that destroyed the home started in the basement, which was packed with boxes.

“Was it intentional? Usually transients don't want to destroy their safe house,” he said. “It could have been intentional or accidental. Both are possible.”

Transients were an on-going problem, Daley said. “We kept chasing them away and after we'd leave, they'd come back.”

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Sewer Plant Costs Soar; Rate to Increase Again

Tulare - A shocking new cost estimate is causing city officials to re-think plans to construct a new industrial plant that would double the city's wastewater treatment capacity.

A treatment plant that could handle 12 million gallons per day (mgd) day was originally estimated to cost no more than $40 million, but Parsons of Pasadena, the firm designing the project, recently told officials the actual cost could be as much as $87 million.

“There's no good news on this,” Public Works Director Lew Nelson said.

That is especially true for the city's residential and commercial customers, who officials said could see a 21 percent rate increase for three consecutive years if the city issued bonds for an $87 million plant.

City officials, the designer and industry representatives are in agreement the city should forego the 12 mgd plan in favor of an 8 mgd plant. The existing plant has a 6 mgd capacity.

A scaled-back plant would cost an estimated $65 million and still require a rate increase of about 10.5 percent for three years as previously approved and 8 percent for the fourth and fifth years, City Manager Darrel Pyle said.

Complicating matters further, the city will have to go through a new process whereby every property owner is notified in writing about the increase 45 days prior to a public hearing. If 50 percent plus one of the landowners object, in writing, then the board cannot raise the rates, Nelson said.

The bond company is requiring the city to go through this process because of a July 24 California Supreme Court ruling in which justices concluded water rate increases were subject to the provisions of Proposition 218, he said.

While that ruling doesn't mention sewer rates, the bond company wants to make sure nothing will interfere with the city's ability to pay off the bonds, which will also include $10 million for two major sewer trunk lines, Nelson said.

News of the higher cost estimates and need to raise rates again did not sit well with board President Wayne Hinman.

“I hate to look like a fool,” Hinman said.

Nelson said the original $40 million cost estimate came from Carollo Engineers in Fresno, which prepared a master plan in 2003 that called for a retrofit of the existing plant. Parsons said in this latest report a retrofit, as opposed to a new plant, would also have exceeded the $80 million mark.

Industry representatives, who had wanted a 12 mgd plant to provide capacity for future expansions at their plants, now favor paying a connection fee for additional capacity, Nelson said. New industries would also pay that fee.

An 8 mgd plant will accommodate the new meat packing company that wants to come to Tulare, as well as Kraft, which plans to bring its Visalia plant operations here, and CPI and Saputo Cheese expansions of which the city is aware, Nelson said.

“But if somebody else comes along, we're headed to full again,” he said.

If the city's need goes beyond a 8 mgd, consultants have said the city could probably use the existing plant as well, blending the discharge water with the new plant's to meet discharge requirements. The city is under a state cease and desist order because the existing plant does not meet those regulations.

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Chris Souza Retiring After 35 Years

Tulare - After serving as executive assistant to four Tulare city managers and having a front row seat to the workings of city government for more than 35 years, Chris Souza will retire on Sept. 29.

“I had not planned to retire for awhile,” said Souza, who is 60 and began working for the city on Feb. 1, 1971. “But it's time to give another generation a chance to come in and see what it can do.”

Roxanne Yoder, former Visalia city clerk, is Souza's replacement.

Souza, a Tulare Western High School and College of the Sequoias graduate, actually began her career as executive secretary with the Tulare Chamber of Commerce. From there she went to the Alameda Chamber of Commerce for a year and then to a tri-county economic development agency in Madera for two years.

She moved back to Tulare after the death of a sister-in-law and applied for an immediate opening in the city manager's office. “I actually always wanted to work for a local government,” Souza said. “I always felt local government was the most responsive form of government. It's one of the few forms of government you can actually get something done fairly quickly.”

When she started with the city, a major focus of both the City Council and the Tulare Redevelopment Agency was the Alpine area where, she said, “people were living in abject poverty with dirt floors.”

The redevelopment plan was controversial but both the council and agency director held firm and “did something wonderful for the people in that area,” Souza said. “They really had to bite the bullet. Those people were being threatened. It was a courageous thing. It was phenomenal.”

Souza has worked with dozens of council members through the years and has developed “a great respect” for anyone who takes on the job. “They do it for $10 a month and they put in hours and hours.”

The late Norman Griesbach, who served as mayor in the 1970s, was among her favorites.

“He was there when the redevelopment issues all came up,” Souza said. “He was there for creation of the Tulare Industrial Park. He would say, 'It's going to be tough, but we have to do it.' He reminded me of a softer version of Tom Hennion [the late long-time editor of the Tulare Advance-Register].”

There were others she admired as well, including Bob Moore who, she said, “was very knowledgeable and knew that things had to be done,” and Thelma Gomez, who “had a great compassion for the people of Tulare.”

Many who saw Souza in action admired her work.

“Chris was and has been just a remarkable, remarkable individual to work with,” said former city manager Lynn Dredge, who worked with her for 24 years. “Her devotion to her job and to her duties, her skills, and her personal integrity are just beyond reproach and just extraordinary. She was the first one in the office in the morning and the last to leave city hall during the day.

“Although she never sought any limelight, she was just an integral part of just about everything that happened in city government and a number of things outside,” Dredge said. “I can't imagine City Hall without Chris there.”

After she retires, Souza said she wants to work on her house, travel and do volunteer work. She already has started an 8-month course to learn more about her Catholic faith. Her only concern? “I haven't done homework in about 40 years,” she said.

If the skills and dedication she displayed while working for the city are any indication, she need not worry.

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Caltrans to Plant Nearly 200 Oaks at Avenue 200

Tulare - When the South K Street extension project is completed, Caltrans plans to plant nearly 200 oak trees and Boston ivy at the Avenue 200/Highway 99 interchange.

This comes as good news to Tulare residents who for years have complained about the dreary landscaping along Highway 99 through the city.

“It sounds very ambitious and exciting,” said Francene Hill, a member of the City Tree Committee. “We say the more the better.”

Laurel Barton, management analyst for the city Parks and Recreation Department agreed.

“So much of 99 is so plain,” Barton said. “It's nice they are doing that in our area.”

Caltrans project director Phillip Sanchez said he expects workers will complete construction of the South K Street extension to Avenue 200 in early October and then the planting will begin.

Plans call for 97 Valley Oaks and 94 Coast Live Oaks along the east side of the freeway. Because they will be 15-gallon sized, they should grow to a good height within 10 years, Barton said.

The low-maintenance but striking Boston ivy will be planted along a sound wall. “This is something that turns brilliant red in the fall and drops its leaves,” Barton said.

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