Tulare - Once the 2030 General Plan is adopted, the city will consider a request to pre-zone and annex 292 acres south of Hosfield Road for a light industrial park, which city officials say could employ 3,500 people when completed.
V-F Inc., a Visalia corporation working in conjunction with Morgan Enterprises, has selected the site for an industrial park because of its “great access” to Highway 99, said project manager Jason Pausma of West Coast Construction. West Coast is owned by Bill Morgan.
“It could probably reach 30 million people by truck because it's centrally located,” Pausma said.
Senior city planner Bonnie Simoes said the proposed industrial park would be on both sides of South Laspina Street and is expected to include primarily warehouse-distribution uses in 22 to 30 buildings totaling about 4.12 million square feet.
The project was on the Planning Commission's agenda in early March, but was pulled after the city received a letter from Gordon Nipp, vice-chairman of the Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club. The club protested the attempt to pre-zone the property and begin the annexation process before the general plan was adopted.
Ag Land Offsets
The organization also called for the city to prepare environmental documents specifically for the project and to offset the loss of agricultural land by requiring the developer to acquire conservation easements on three acres of equally good farmland for every acre converted to urban use.
Since then, Planning Director Mark Kielty has recommended the city adopt a policy in its land use plan that would require an agricultural conservation program, including conservation easements. No ratios were proposed.
Pausma said V-F does not have anyone signed up for the park, “but we figure it could be built up over the next 10 years.”
The project is obviously a plus for the city because it will generate a huge number of jobs, he said.
Remaining Competitive
The city has seen a decline in the availability of vacant industrial land and wants to bolster its supply to remain competitive in the quest to attract more businesses, Simoes said in her staff report.
City water lines run along Laspina just north of Elk Bayou and will be extended to the site, she said. As for sewer, a main is just south of the bayou, about 1,000 feet away, and could serve early phases of the development.
“The city is already initiating design and right-of-way acquisition of a major industrial sewer trunk line extension that will ultimately service this entire area,” she said.
The City Council is expected to adopt the updated land use portion of the 2030 General Plan at its April 15 meeting. The V-F proposal, requesting the property be pre-zoned for light industrial and annexed to the city, is expected to go back to the Planning Commission on April 21.
Tulare Artist Designs from Heart
Working with rubber or acrylic stamps, paper, markers and other crafting tools is a passion that unleashes her creativity.
“I feel like I put everything I can into what I make,” Duke says. “It comes from within.”
And what comes from within is good—so good she has worked on the design teams for several companies that sell stamping products, has done on-line tutorials for hobbyists and even has a fan club in Ireland.
For Duke, who has a fulltime job in another field, the demands on her time are becoming greater as more companies invite her to join their design team or do a guest spot.
She always has loved paper crafts and was heavily involved in scrapbooking 14 years ago when husband, Jim and his daughter, Breia, told her one day about a woman who made greeting cards and brought her a sample.
“I can do this,” she recalled thinking.
One of a Kind
After working with the craft for awhile, she signed up to be a Stampin' Up demonstrator and for four years went to parties at homes, where she would show the hostess and guests how to make cards.
“They were very pretty, but I wanted more,” Duke said. “I'm a one hit wonder. I only make it once.”
Then she found out about the Split Coast Stampers Web site.
“Through this site I was invited to be part of a design team,” she said, adding the six-month stint gave her a lot of exposure as she created six projects a month that were posted at splitcoaststampers.com.
She now has a one-year designer commitment with Spellbinders Paper Arts at spellbinders.us.
“We had to try out, submit a resume and different projects,” Duke said.
She also has a six-month design contract with Crafty Secrets and several other guest designer commitments.
Her blog at www.lindaduke.typepad.com and her exposure on various company and affinity sites has made her and other designers well-known in stamping circles, a fact she only fully realized when she attended a four-day Craft Hobby Association convention in Anaheim.
“It's amazing how you walk into the Anaheim Convention
Center and you're known,” she said. “People were taking pictures
everywhere because they know us.”
Then there is the Irish fan club. A tutorial she did awhile back on a Web
site based in Ireland so impressed a group of Irish women that they formed
a fan club and keep in touch with her on an on-going basis.
Perks Not Pay
Duke, who is best known for her three-dimensional and vintage designs, works out of her home in a bedroom she has converted into a studio and equipped with hundreds of rubber and acrylic stamps, magazines, papers, markers, paints, fabrics, a sewing machine, computer, scanner, camera and studio lights. (She has to photograph her finished products and e-mail them to the companies where she has design commitments.)
While she does not get paid for her design work, she does have access to everything a company has in its product line and sometimes there are other perks as well. In January, for example, Spell Binders paid for her roundtrip airplane ticket and accommodations in Phoenix so she could become certified with its products.
Duke's love of art began as a youngster. “My dad was a great artist to me,” she said. “He was always painting and sketching and I always tried to copy what he did.”
She studied art in college, hoping to become an animator, but before she finished she went to Europe for three years, where a local artist taught her to cast and paint ceramics. She later worked for Duncan Enterprises in Clovis for many years as a certified ceramics instructor. After she joined the National Society of Decorative Painters, she also took tole painting classes from many of the top instructors in the nation, she said.
But it is stamping that has captured fully her imagination.
“My hope is when I retire I can have a profession in this…not only teach but make a living,” Duke said. “I want to design my own stamps…my own dyes…different products.”
No Farmers' Market, But Concert Series to Expand
Tulare - Following two years of poor attendance, the Tulare Chamber of Commerce has decided not to organize a weekly farmers' market in Zumwalt Park this summer.
“It was a financial decision,” Chamber President and Chief Executive Officer Jennifer McCoun said. “The chamber put a lot of money in it for two years. It was a money loser.”
The market was held on Wednesdays in conjunction with the summer concert series in the park, which city officials have announced will expand this year.
After the first series of markets in 2006 failed to produce acceptable crowds, the chamber stepped up its promotion of the event and brought in a bounce house and other attractions.
“It started out really good, but by the end it was down to just a handful of exhibitor participants,” McCoun said. “They didn't feel it was worth their while.”
The poor attendance is hard to understand, because many people had said they wanted a weekly farmers' market, she said.
“This isn't the first time it's been tried,” she added, noting the Tulare Improvement Program had the same problem with attendance when it held a series of markets years ago.
Ray Baradat, recreation supervisor for the Tulare Recreation, Parks and Library Department, said the concerts series will feature one or possibly two more performances than last year.
Attendance at the concert has slowly improved over the years, Baradat said. “More and more folks are coming out.”
The concerts are held from 7:30 to 9 p.m. The schedule is as follows:
· May: College of the Sequoias Jazz Band, May 14; Tule Brass Band, May 21; and Soundwave, May 28.
· June: Loose Change, June 11; St. John's River Boat Jazz Band, June 18; and Grits, June 25.
· July: Tulare Community Band, July 4; The Spirals, July 9; The Grassless Traveled, July 16; Filarmonica Portuguesa de Tulare, July 23; and Ruffage, July 30.
Soroptimist Honors Two Women
Tulare - Linda Long, founding director of the Light House Rescue Mission for homeless women and their children, recently was awarded Soroptimist International of Tulare's Making a Difference for Women Award.
The group also presented Tulare resident Heidi Airoso, who is enrolled in the Visalia Adult School's licensed vocational nursing program, with its $550 Women's Opportunity Award to help her reach her goal of becoming a registered nurse.
Both women were recognized at the organization's March 19
awards luncheon.
The Making a Difference for Women award is given to someone who has made
a significant contribution toward improving the lives of women in the community.
“When the doors opened in September, 2006, the Light House rescue Mission was a shell of four apartments with bare walls and no furniture,” Soroptimist President Sue Ann Hillman said. “Linda painted and solicited donations to turn the sterile apartments into homes.”
'No Idea'
When a woman and her children come to the faith-based mission founded by the Tulare Association of Churches, Long helps them “to transition from hopeless, homeless despair to a functioning family,” Hillman said.
During their 30- to 60-day stay at the mission, Clark guides and counsels the women, making sure they live by the rules, help with the cleaning and cooking in the house, look for employment and housing and establish a routine for their children.
She also organizes activities for the children, classes for the mothers and coordinates the staff that operates the facility 24 hours a day, Hillman said.
“I had no idea that this is where God was going to put me,” said Clark, who thanked the club for the award.
Rhonda Wilbur, a member of the mission's board, described Long as a quiet “servant” who is deserving of the award.
“People like her aren't always out in front, but they are serving the people who need to be served,” Wilbur said.
'Hooked on Nursing'
The Women Opportunity Award is presented to a woman who has primary responsibility for supporting her family and is enrolled in or has been accepted into a vocational training program or an undergraduate degree program.
Airoso, the mother of two college-age sons, became the family's primary wage earner in April 2006, when her husband of 21 years died unexpectedly only three days after the death of her father.
After deciding she needed a career and not a job, Airoso said she made a life-changing decision. As a child and young adult she had aspired to become a nurse, so she applied to the LVN program at the Visalia Adult School and was one of 60 candidates selected out of more than 500 applicants.
She is on schedule to graduate from the LVN program in July.
Once she graduates, Airoso plans to enter a bridge program so that she can
become a registered nurse.
“I'm absolutely hooked on nursing,” she told the
Soroptimist at the awards luncheon.
In a letter supporting Airoso's application for the award, friend Beth Nunes
described Airoso as an “extremely strong and determined” woman
whose faith in God and sense of humor has helped her overcome hardship.
“It is this determination and faith that makes Heidi the loving, compassionate and generous person that she is,” Nunes said. “I know that if I was ever in the position to need someone to care for me, it would be Heidi that I would want at my side administering my care.”
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
April 2, 2008
