Community Answers Emergency Aid's Call

Tulare - Two month after financially-strapped Tulare Emergency Aid put out a call for help, the city, Redevelopment Agency and other non-profits have stepped forward to help the organization, which serves thousands of needy people each year, mostly children.

A plan in the making that would have Jesse Herrera, owner of the Iron Grip, purchase Emergency Aid’s building and allow the non-profit to move into the former Papa Joe’s building on North N Street. There it would pay only a $1 for the first year and $1 month thereafter until the Tulare Redevelopment Agency decides to demolish the building.

The agency board approved the lease agreement on Oct. 10 and Emergency Aid program director Chris Burrows said local churches have agreed to help the organization move by Nov. 1.

In the meantime, the city, United Way and the Salvation Army would help the Emergency Aid board devise and execute a strategy to move the organization to a permanent location, which would also include a thrift store to provide a much-needed income stream.

The ball got rolling to help Emergency Aid after program director Chris Burrows and board President Dan Harp met with City Manager Darrel Pyle.

“They said, ‘we’re having a tough time making our rent payment,’” Pyle said. “They had more building than they needed or could afford.”

Emergency Aid officials told the Tulare Voice in early August  that it pays about $1,634 a month to the Greater Tulare Foundation, which had loaned the organization money to buy its building on the corner of L Street and Inyo Avenue.  In addition, the non-profit pays $2,334 monthly for payroll and $745 for utilities. An annual audit costs about $2,000.

Emergency Aid can spend only $18,000 of the $70,000 in grant money it receives on administration, officials said. Donations from churches, individuals and others vary from month to month and the non-profit has, on more than one occasion, been unable to cover its overhead or meet payroll.

Shortly after meeting with Emergency Aid officials, city leaders learned Jesse Herrera, owner of the Iron Grip Gym, was paying the Redevelopment Agency $1,500 a month rent for space in a former warehouse on the future library site on Cross Avenue and M Street.

They also learned the agency wanted Herrera out of the building and was offering him temporary space in the former Papa Joe’s, which has a large walk-in freezer they thought could meet Emergency Aid’s needs.

Herrera’s business was one of several businesses displaced after a downtown South K Street fire in 2006 damaged his storefront, which has not been repaired.

“We just put those two entities together,” Pyle said, reporting Emergency Aid said the Papa Joe’s building would work for them and Herrera said he was interested in purchasing a permanent location for his business.

Vice Mayor Phil Vandegrift, who use to own the building Emergency Aid now occupies, was involved in the talks and is interested in helping Emergency Aid find a permanent home and finding a consistent revenue stream so the non-profit doesn’t have to spend so much time fund raising.

“Emergency Aid is poorer than the people it serves,” Vandegrift said.

(The letter of intent to purchase the Emergency Aid property indicates Iron Grip’s Herrera will pay Target Realty, which Vandegrift owns, a $4,000 in commission over time, which Target will assign to Emergency Aid at the close of escrow.)

What the non-profit needs is an 8,000-square-foot building, half of which would be warehouse and the other half storefront, where it could operate a revenue-generating thrift shop, Vandegrift said.

Capt. David Scott of the Salvation Army said he would help Emergency Aid set up a thrift shop, he said. The Salvation Army’s thrift shop closed here many years ago.

City officials also want Emergency Aid officials to go through the management assessment program United Way offers non-profits to help them evaluate their operations and ensure their viability.

“Maybe every non-profit we contribute to should go through this,” Vandegrift said after United Way’s Ernie Hernandez outlined the program for the City Council on Sept. 18.

Emergency Aid’s Harp said the city’s plan “is going to be a lifesaver for us.”

Pyle and others are happy the city, Redevelopment Agency and other organizations are able to help.

“There was support and recognition of the service they provide and the value of it,” Pyle said. “If they’ve got the support of Capt. Scott and of Ernie Hernandez, the future looks bright.”

In addition to providing food and emergency utility and rent assistance, Emergency Aid also assists clients with nutrition education, free coats for children and emergency shelter.

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Downtown Focus of Nov. 13 Design Meeting

By Dave Adalian

Tulare - City officials want to forge a new future for Tulare’s downtown, and they’ll be looking outside City Hall to find leadership and a vision for a renewed effort to revitalize the area.

The Tulare Chamber of Commerce, working with the city, has scheduled a community meeting with planning consultants Robert Richmond and Bill Howard from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, at the Tulare Senior Center, 201 North F St.

At a joint meeting of the Tulare City Council, the Planning Commission and the Redevelopment Agency held Oct. 2 and billed as a study session on a new direction for development downtown, city officials listened as Richmond and Howard told how San Luis Obispo spent the last two decades turning its sagging downtown into a lively, high-density center for entertainment, business and even living space, all fueled by the work of community members.

The pair has been traveling around the state promoting a similar vision for other cities—including Visalia, Modesto, Riverside and Clovis—and say the paradigm could work here as well. All that is needed to get the ball rolling, they say, are a community-driven plan and way to get that message out.

“To get this started you really need to look at this from a marketing standpoint. It’s developers who will make a difference in the end,” said Richmond. “Start with promoting your city. Start with a plan. I can’t emphasize enough you need a marketing deal ... to attract a master developer.”

Richmond described how a group of architects, businesspeople and city officials in San Luis Obispo came together to bolster a downtown slowly strangling as its major anchor businesses closed up and moved to other parts of town.

The city began the rebirth by planning a series of public aesthetic improvements, such as burying utility wires and lining their streets with trees. They followed this with event planning and a marketing campaign designed to improve their city center’s reputation, and eventually a series of meetings among the city’s various community members that led to the formation of a detailed vision for what they wanted San Luis’ downtown to become.

The ultimate result of these intense design meetings, termed “charrettes” by consultant and former CalPoly professor of urban planning Bill Howard, was a marketing tool in the form of a poster featuring artists’ interpretations of what San Luis’ downtown might become.

The poster, which was given to all new businesses that opened in the downtown area and available for sale as a souvenir, was essential to building pride and thus participation in the plan to see its downtown bettered, Howard said.

While the development plan the poster represented was never formally adopted by any agency, many of the ideas were eventually put in place, including a sweeping remodeling of aging buildings and the attraction of large retailers to an area not traditionally their domain.

The poster, Richmond said, can still be seen hanging in businesses throughout San Luis’ downtown.

“All this development spurred more development,” he said.

During the Oct. 2 meeting’s public comment period, the idea of Tulare following San Luis’ lead seemed to have appeal. Downtown property owner Lee Myers spoke in favor of beginning improvements as soon as possible, starting with plans the city has already formulated in the hopes this will lead to further improvement later.

“Let’s do a project at a time and work with what we have,” he said.

Myers was particularly taken with the prospect of adding housing downtown.

“More people have approached me about the residential [occupation] than the commercial,” he said.

Give it Time

Planning Commissioner Chuck Miguel, however, hoped that if the city embarks on a sweeping revitalization it be allowed time to bear fruit.

“When I look downtown, we’ve started a few projects and abandoned them when they didn’t work right away,” he said.

Miguel also said he was in favor of a higher density downtown and improvements in the area’s appearance. He also felt Tulare was equipped to make such a plan work.

“With all the cultural things we have here, we can find some way to get people downtown,” he said.

Mayor Craig Vejvoda was also ready to pursue a new direction downtown.

“I believe we are ready to start this,” he said of forming a new development plan. “I believe we need a process.”

Richmond, whose firm acts as paid facilitators for such charrettes, estimated planning the new direction for Tulare’s downtown could be completed “easily” in nine months to a year, and stressed that as broad a coalition of community members as possible would produce the best result.

City manager Darrel Pyle said he wanted such planning led by members of the community who weren’t already affiliated with the city, adding that a high level of input from business would be of benefit.

“Agency-driven [planning] may not result in the best program,” Pyle said. “I think we should start with the [Tulare Chamber of Commerce] who have a conference room we could use, and start a plan and establish an agenda.”

Commenting on the enormous scope of such an undertaking, Pyle said, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

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'Sweet, Sweet, Sweet Man' Turns 103

Tulare - Looking quite dapper and happy as he celebrated his 103^rd birthday with a group of friends, A.J. Spencer did not mind sharing his birthday wish.

“I be wishing that me and all my friends can be here for another year’s birthday,” Spencer said before the start of one of several parties  people threw to help him mark another milestone year. His birthday was Oct. 9.

Spencer, who lives in the Salvation Army’s Silvercrest apartments, said little has changed in the past year and he is still able to ride his scooter to visit the gravesite of his beloved late wife, Verna, who died in 1999, and to take care of other business.

“Me and that scooter are having a ball,” Spencer said, adding he rides it more than ever since a price increase in the city’s Dial-a-Ride system went into effect.

He still reads scripture daily, a practice that has taken a toll on his favorite Bible—he has three—which he said is in need of tape so it doesn’t fall apart.

He marveled at the amount and variety of food his friends had prepared for his party.

“I won’t have to cook nothing from now until New Year’s,” he said chuckling as platters of  turkey, shredded beef, spareribs, beans, gravy, cornbread, stuffing and other delights arrived.

Among those organizing the party were Richard and Georgia Montgomery and Chris and Chrissy Beck, who had helped Spencer find the documents he needed to qualify for Silvercrest and then helped him furnish his new home.

George William, a friend for 45 years, came from Lancaster to celebrate with Spencer, who called upon him to say a blessing before the meal. Friends from St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church were also present, but another group of well-wishers from Southern California called to say a fiery wreck that closed a portion of Interstate 5 during the weekend made it impossible for them to attend.

Marge Allen, Steve Cunningham and Marilyn Coreia, who work for the Tulare Cemetery District, also came for the celebration, although they and several other employees had thrown Spencer a pizza party in honor of his birthday about 10 days earlier.

“What a party that was. Yes, Siree,” Spencer said.

“Mr. Spencer, I think, doesn’t know a stranger,” Coreia said, adding he has stopped in to visit the cemetery staff for years, whenever he visits his wife’s grave. “Everybody loves him. The guys call him pops, but I have to call him Mr. Spencer.”

Coreia said Spencer is “wise and inspirational and very spiritual,” words frequently used by others to describe their much-loved friend.

“He’s a sweet man—a sweet, sweet, sweet man,” Coreia said.

Spencer was born in Texas, grew up in Oklahoma and later worked in Texas and Arizona before moving to California and eventually to Tulare in about 1940.  He and Verna built a two-bedroom home on S Street and lived there many years. They later moved to Arizona for 18 years because of her ill-health. He returned in 1999 to bury her and in 2000 to live. He is a retired construction worker.

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Youths Play Greater Role in Cancer Relay

Tulare - Chairwoman Trish Arnold said the 2007 Tulare Relay for Life was “awesome” in many respects— including the number of people who stayed the full 24 hours.  One of the things she is especially excited about is the number of students who became involved either before or during the relay.

The American Cancer Society, which receives proceeds from the event to further research and provide services to cancer patients, provided local organizers with a list of committees needed to put on a good relay, but Arnold added an additional one—schools.

Cathy Mederos and Denise Douglas took charge and the result was a greater involvement this year by youths.

“It was huge,” Arnold said.

More Tulare Union and Tulare Western high school students were involved than in the recent past, forming teams that raised money for the cause.

“They were very, very well-behaved too,” Arnold said. “Everybody on the steering committee commented how easy the event went with all the kids there.”

Elementary and middle school students were involved before the relay.

Figuring many parents would not want their middle school students out over night, eighth grade AVID teacher Sherie Altermatt and other Live Oak Avid and leadership teachers organized a on-campus, four-hour mini-relay earlier in the week.

About 150 students in AVID and leadership classes participated, with many giving up the movie and treats they had earned because of good test scores.

““They all felt that walking was better than watching a movie,” eighth grader Gumaro Rodriguez said. “This is a really great opportunity to help those in need. My family has actually been affected because of cancer and I was trying to help out.”

Classmate Diana Jiminez said she did not know anybody with cancer.

“I just did it because I thought it was the right thing to do,” Jiminez said.

At last count the students had raised about $1,200.

While the money is great, Arnold said her main reason for wanting more youth involved was to create more awareness of cancer and an understanding that “life is bigger than just me.”

Over at Mulcahy Middle School, members of the  California Junior Scholarship Federation and students in teacher Sarah Albright’s physical education class prepared about 1,500 white bags that were used in the dramatic luminaria ceremony held Saturday night to remember those who have died from or are struggling with cancer.

“They’re doing the labor; they’ve been just awesome,” counselor Marlena Sanchez said Friday afternoon.

Other schools, including Roosevelt, Wilson, Cherry Avenue, Sundale and Oak Valley, raised money or helped in other ways with the event, organizers said.

The total raised by this year’s relay is not yet known, but could be announced by the end of this week, Arnold said.

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Flu Shots Offered

Tulare - The Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency will offer flu shots for eligible adults on Nov. 14 and 15 in Tulare.

Eligible are: people 50 years and older; adults with chronic health conditions, including asthma and diabetes; and adults who live with or care for the above two categories or who live with or care for children under the age of five.

Additional clinics for other groups will be scheduled and announced later.

The Tulare clinics are as follows:

· Nov. 14, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Tulare Senior Center, 201 North F St.

· Nov. 15, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., St. Aloysius Church, 125 East Pleasant St.

There is no out-of-pocket cost for people with Medicare Part B or Medi-Cal cards, but they must present their card at all clinics. The suggested donations for those without Medicare of Medi-Cal coverage is $5.

For information, call one of these toll free numbers: (800)-321-2462 or (800) 834-7121.

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