City Seeks Armory Proposals; First Baptist Interested

Tulare - A proposal by a Tulare County developer to build medical offices on four city-owned parcels that include the National Guard Armory on East Cross Avenue has prompted the City Council to see who else is interested in the property.

The city issued a request for purchase and development proposals on June 10 that set a 4:30 p.m. Friday deadline for responses. The action came after the council met in closed session on the medical offices proposal.
“Everyone on the council has had requests from people around town who had said if the city ever sold the property, they would be interested in it,” City Manager Darrel Pyle said. “Each one [council member] was approached by a different entity.”

The city was well-aware, for example, that the Tulare First Baptist Church, which is directly east on the southwest corner of Cross and Cherry Street, was interested in the property, Redevelopment Director Bob Nance said.
“We took it very businesslike and the council said, 'Let's give everybody a shot,'” Nance said.

The Rev. Bob Medcalf, pastor of Tulare First Baptist, said the church would submit a development proposal.
City officials will need at least a week to evaluate and summarize the proposals, which will probably be brought to the council at its July 15 meeting, Nance said.

'Best for Community'

“The issue will be what's the development and is that something the City Council feels will be best for the community,” he said.

Because of its proximity to Tulare District Hospital, the developer who proposed building medical offices said he thought he would have no problem “filling them right up,” Pyle said.

The request for proposals requires would-be developers to work with the city to build a new armory for the National Guard, which leases the existing armory for $1 a year. The new facility would be built to Guard specifications and at city cost.

“We talked to the guys in the National Guard and said, 'Hey, let's say we had an opportunity to build you another big building somewhere, can we get an attachment assigned to Tulare?'” Pyle said.
The advantage of having a detachment here is that one weekend a month a couple hundred people would come to Tulare and buy such things as food and gas, Pyle said.

“If there's going to one [a detachment] in Tulare County, it might as well be here,” he said.

First Baptist

Medcalf and members of his First Baptist congregation are passionate about acquiring the four parcels for the church.
“Who would have a greater use for it than us?” Medcalf said. “Nobody. I feel like we're the natural ones.”

The only way the church can grow and offer the programs it wants to offer for youth, senior citizens and others is to acquire the property, he said. “Our sincere effort always is to the serve the community.”

The church has asked the National Guard in the past if it could rent the armory to use for its youth ministry programs when the Guard was not using the building, but was unsuccessful, Medcalf.

If the church acquired the armory, it would take steps to beautify it so “it will be a much nicer piece of the Cross Avenue corridor,” he said. The armory would serve the students attending Tulare Christian School as well as the youth of First Baptist, he said.

Purchasing the four parcels would allow the church to create more green space and explore the possibility of building low-cost housing for senior citizens or even a center for people with Alzheimer's disease, he said.
Medcalf said he wrote City Manager Darrel Pyle a letter in November, expressing the church's interest in the property should the city decide to sell. The two former city managers also were made aware of the church's interest during their tenure, he said.

He became aware the city was going to consider a development proposal from someone else, when he read the City Council agenda on-line and saw a closed session related to the property, Medcalf said. Church members subsequently contacted individual council members to reiterate First Baptist's interest in the property.
Medcalf said he received an e-mail from Visalia developer Harvey May on June 3, saying he was interested in acquiring the property, understood the church might also be interested and wanted to talk. Medcalf said he has held no discussions with May.

The church has the money to acquire the parcels, he said.

As for the National Guard, he said, First Baptist was willing to provide space on the church campus for its work.
While the city might be interested in a development proposal that would generate more tax revenues for the city, Medcalf said it was important to realize that the property, which includes a ponding basin that the city will eventually fill in, has not produced taxes all these years.

He also said the church has cooperated with the city and served the community in many ways throughout the years.

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Keith Munger ‘Loved Tulare’

Retired businessman Keith Munger popped into the Tulare Historical Museum in the spring after getting a call from curator and executive director Ellen Gorelick, who wanted his sage advice about a problem she had to deal with before she retired.

Gorelick recalls vividly the gracious offer Mr. Munger made to her successors Terry Brazil and Kary Ingram, before leaving that day: “If you girls need me, just call.”

That in a nutshell was Keith Munger—always ready to support and help in any way what would benefit Tulare, his family and friends said.

Joel “Keith” Munger, 87, died June 14, just nine months after his beloved wife, Betty, died. Many who spoke of Mr. Munger, also spoke of her and the couple's quiet generosity and love of community.
“They were a team, that's for sure,” daughter Mary Jane Barwick said.

Mr. Munger was born in Porterville and moved to Tulare at age three with his parents, Charles and Jennie Munger, and three older sisters.

“There's not a time in my life when I can recall not knowing him,” said Gerry Soults, whose family lived near the Mungers. “He was that boy that lived on the other street, that busybody boy that was into everything, but a good buddy of mine.”

Mr. Munger graduated in 1939 from Tulare High School, where he was the band drum major and student body president his senior year.

During World War II, he served the 203rd Coast Artillery Anti-Aircraft Unit in the Aleutian Islands. He later played trombone with the First Combat Infantry Band.

After he returned home, he married Betty Warren, his high school sweetheart, went back to his job at Burnett Lumber Company and became active with the 20/30 Club and the Tulare Chamber of Commerce. He became the chamber's youngest president at age 33.

In 1957 he purchased the financially troubled KCOK radio and in the process of restoring the station to financial health, continued to have an impact on the community as he introduced programming that reached out to many segments of the community.

“He felt the Portuguese people in our community had a need to hear programs in their own language and hear news about their homeland,” Barwick said.

He also worked with the late Msgr. Michael O'Connor to broadcast the local Christmas midnight Mass, she said.
He hosted the KCOK Cooking School at the old Tulare Theater, bringing in instructors from the University of California, Davis, and elsewhere, his daughter said.

Mr. Munger loved the radio business and would do live on-the-air commercials. “They would actually do little skits on the radio,” Barwick said. He later started KJUG radio and was named to the executive committee of the Mutual Broadcasting Systems Affiliated Board.

“From 1955 on, Keith's star began to take off,” Soults said. “He became a leader in the community and successful in the radio business. No matter how high his status in his many involvements, he was always himself, a humble, giving and kind person.”

Tom Drilling said Mr. Munger had “a very, very dry sense of humor and a very soft voice” and liked to keep abreast of what was happening in the community. “If there was anything that went on that he didn't know about, he wanted to find out about it.”

“He loved Tulare and was involved in a lot of things to make it better,” Drilling said, adding that a lot of those things were “behind the scenes.”.

When the Bobby Sox organization needed a softball field, he and his wife donated space near the radio station. Gorelick also said they were quiet but big supporters of the museum.
Mr. Munger served on the city's first draft board, as foreman of the Tulare County Grand Jury and was one of the founders of the Tulare Industrial Site Development Foundation. He was a past president of Tulare Rotary club, where he was recently honored for 60 years of membership.

Graveside services were held June 19 at the Tulare District Cemetery.

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Lunch Sale Will Support Emergency Aid

The past six months has been a period of infrastructure rebuilding for Tulare Emergency Aid Council, which reduced its overhead costs dramatically by selling the building it owned and leasing space, hired a new director and lined up grants to supports services to the poor.

“Our ability to help our clients is very solid now,” Executive Director Fred Hill said.
What is not yet “solid,” is the organization's ability to pay operating costs such as salaries and utilities, which amount to about $60,000 a year, Hill said.

To save money, he and Vanessa Bravo, the other paid staff member, do not even turn on lights or use the heat or air conditioning in the 424 North N St. building they lease from the city for $1 a year.

“We've never even tried to turn them on,” Hill said. “The only power used is for my computer and the freezers.”
With $10,000 in the bank for operational purposes, the staff and volunteers for the non-profit organization, along with Southern California Gas Company, will sell box lunches from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 5, outside Wal-Mart in the Plaza Del Lago shopping center on Prosperity Avenue at Hillman Street.

“Primarily the fund raiser is to keep the doors open,” board President Dan Harp said, adding similar events elsewhere have been very successful.

Harp praised Hill for bringing in more grant money for services and “taking steps to make us more responsive to the community.”

Emergency Aid is working with United Way of Tulare County to take the non-profit from “being a hand-out organization” to one that becomes a “one-stop resource center that effectively triages an individual or family's needs and makes referrals to address those needs,” Hill said.

“We want to do more than say, 'Here's a bag of food. Have a nice day,'” he said.

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Summer Loftis Ready for Miss California
Pageant Finals Saturday in Fresno

By Rick Elkins

Tulare's Summer Loftis, Miss Tulare County for 2008, will be on the stage of the Saroyan Theater in Fresno tonight performing her dance routine at the Miss California Pageant.

Loftis is one of about 45 women competing this weekend for the title of Miss California and the chance to compete for Miss America in January.

“I'm really excited. I'm like mentally worn out, but so excited,” Loftis said last week during final preparations for the pageant, which is open to the public.

“Sorry to sound like such a 'mom' - but it would be wonderful to drum up some local support to come see her,” her mother, Tami Loftis said. “I'm really proud of her. She works really hard for this.”

Competition began Tuesday with an interview, followed by the swimsuit competition Wednesday. Tonight is the talent contest and on Friday contestants will model evening gowns. The 12 semi-finalists will be announced Saturday night.
Girls in the top 12 repeat all the competition – swimsuit, talent and evening gown—and then they chose the top five, who get an on-stage question, Summer Loftis said.

The 23-year-old Miss Tulare County said preparing for this competition has been much more work than preparing for the county pageant.

“I've been working on my interview, making sure I am up on current events,” she said. That 10-12-minute interview can cover almost any topic. “They could ask about your platform, your life. Definitely be prepared for a lot of controversial questions.”

Her platform will be similar to what she had for the county pageant: “Encouraging children with serious and life-threatening illnesses.”

Summer received her master's in psychology and will return to school to get her doctorate in pediatrics psychology. She continues to work at Disneyland, playing Cinderella.

Her talent will be another jazz dance, this time to “There will Come a Day,” a Faith Hill song. “I think it's a little bit more upbeat, more energy,” she said.

As much as Loftis dreamed of being Miss Tulare County as a child, she said she wants to be Miss California every bit as much. “I do. I really do. I'm definitely ready for it to get here. I'm very blessed and excited to have the opportunity.”
Her faith is the source of her inspiration. “I rely on Him for strength and guidance,” she said.

She was also inspired by Heather Whitestone, a Miss America from the 1990s. “When I was a little girl I fell in love with Heather Whitestone,” she said. “She was the first deaf Miss America. I was so inspired by her. She went after her dream. I really admired her courage.”

Loftis graduated from Vanguard University, a private Christian college in Southern California in May 2007.
Summer will find plenty of support from her family. Besides her mother, there is dad, Patrick, and sisters, Jill and Tara.
Also competing for Miss California is Kayla Bradley, 18 of Hanford. She is Miss Kings County.

Competition will begin at 8 tonight and Friday night and at 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are available from TicketMaster and at the door.

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Homemade Explosives Create July 4th Concern

Tulare - Frank Furtaw sat at the desk in his South Sacramento Street office recently and made three sparkler bombs—one of the types of explosives he and other fire investigators fear they will see more of this Fourth of July.

Furtaw then drove over to the rear of Fire Station No. 1 on Blackstone Street, where one by one he set-off the homemade devices, so his staff of code enforcement officers could become familiar with what they look like when they explode and the remains they leave behind.

Each sparkler bomb went off with a different degree of gusto, ranging from a “poof” that followed a long wait to a jolting “bang” that occurred shortly after ignition.

The unpredictability of the explosion is one reason these homemade bombs are so dangerous. “They just don't know how they are going to explode and that's how people get hurt,” Furtaw said.

The sparkler bombs, which are made by bundling a number of illegal sparklers, is just only one of the improvised explosive devices fire officials say are seeing in growing numbers.

“With the advent of You-Tube and internet search engines [which provide video instructions on how to make explosives], young people and others are making these things,” Furtaw said.

Felony Charges

What Furtaw and other fire officials want the public to realize is that not only are these devices dangerous, but possession, selling or using M-80s or cherry bomb-type devices or altering legal fireworks like sparklers or Piccolo Pete's is a felony.
“They're just not toys or play-around stuff,” Furtaw said.

Parents, especially, should be concerned if they noticed their children taking apart state-approved fireworks—so-called Safe and Sane devices.
“Obviously, they've seen something somewhere and they're trying to create something,” Furtaw said.

Another problem the city is seeing is youngsters making bombs out of pool or spa cleaning chemicals.

A parole officer knocking on the door to a parolee's Tulare home recently was startled by a blast that came from across the street. When he turned, he saw a teenager running away and he drew his gun to stop him, Furtaw said.
The parents, unhappy their son was arrested, complained to police later that it was only pool chemicals.

“It's only pool chemicals? It almost got the kid shot,” Furtaw said, adding parents need to realize kids can get seriously hurt or hurt others by fooling around with explosive materials.

Amnesty

Police and fire officials are also on the look-out this time of year for illegal fireworks brought in from other states or countries. Possession or use of these devices is a misdemeanor and triggers a $100 citation for the first offense, Furtaw said.

“There're already rumors of lots of people selling dangerous fireworks out of their garage,” he said.

The public is urged to be on the lookout for these fireworks and turn them into the Fire Department if they confiscate them from family members or others.
The department already has collected about 50 pounds of firecrackers and other devices under the amnesty program.

Separate incidents in Dinuba last Fourth of July involving Roman Candles left two men with serious injuries. One lost most of his left hand and the other lost some of his right hand, said Dinuba Assistant Fire Chief Larry Roberts.

One of the victims had followed the instructions of a neighbor who had bought several Roman Candles and set one off without injury in another community before returning home to Dinuba, he said.

Special Detail

On July 4, the city will again have a special detail of police and code enforcement officers on the streets to enforce laws pertaining to fireworks, Furtaw said.
The thing to remember, he said, is that fireworks must have the state fire marshal's logo on them to be legal and that “if it flies or goes boom, it can't happen.”