Cartmill Shopping Center OK'd

Tulare - The Lagomarsino Group has won design approval for Tulare Towne Center, the large shopping center it is proposing for the 72-acre site it owns at the northwest corner of M Street and Cartmill Avenue.

Because of planned improvements to the Cartmill interchange and the need to construct a ponding basin on the northeast corner of J Street and Cartmill, the center will be built on 62.7 of the acres.

Plans call for 707,000-square-feet of mixed use development that would include retail stores, restaurants, and two hotels, the Planning Commission was told at its Aug. 17 meeting. Plans also call for 2,562 parking spaces.

“This is a significant commercial site within the community that is virtually ready to go,” said Charles Clouse, principal of TPG Consulting, who represented the property owner and Paloma Development, the developer.

Access to the center would be from both Cartmill and J, and M Street would extend north across Cartmill to become one of the main entrances to the center, principal planner Bonnie Simoes said in her report.

The plan assumes that Caltrans will select the city's preferred alternative for the reconfiguration of the Cartmill interchange. It also takes into consideration the realignment of J for the planned grade separation at the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.

The shopping center would not be built until both of those projects are completed, Simoes said.

The grade separation, which would occur first, is expected to begin by June 2010. Construction of a new bridge across the freeway and other improvements to the interchange are expected to begin in 2011 and take approximately 24 months to complete, Simoes said.

Asked by Commissioner Richard Nunes whether the AM/PM station would “go away” with the proposed new development, Clouse said it would continue with improved access. “We have virtually reunified all the property,” he said.

Planning Director Mark Kielty said it is possible the city will have to purchase the station and mothball it for a year or more, while work on the interchange takes place, and then put it up for sale.

He estimated the cost to the city would be about $5 million.

“There's no way around that?” Nunes asked.

“It doesn't look like it,” Kielty replied.

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Del Lago Lake: Time to Go Fishing

Tulare - Building Tulare's first park lake had it challenges, but now the job is done and it is time to go fishing.

Youngsters ages 15 and younger and those who are developmentally disabled or wheelchair bound have a chance to participate in Del Lago Park's first fishing derby Saturday at the lake.

Registration will begin at 7 a.m. and the two-hour derby will kick-off at 7:30 a.m. Phase two of the park, which includes the lake, will be dedicated during a ceremony at 10:30 a.m. The public is invited.

The city originally stocked the lake with just 750 fish. But after officials announced plans for an opening day derby, San Joaquin Valley Fisheries of Sanger contributed another 300 fish and an outpouring of community donations allowed the city to purchase an additional 1,200, said Milt Stowe, parks, recreation and library director.

“There were some special challenges in designing the lake,” Stowe said. “We never had a lake before in our parks but we brought in a specialist … who had built several lakes at golf courses.”

The lake and some of the structures related to the filtering system were redesigned at one point and the decision was made to line the lake with a thicker liner to prevent silt, which grows on the top of soil, from getting into the filtering system, he said.
McMillan Homes, which built many of the homes in the Del Lago residential subdivision, constructed both phases of the park. Phase three will include more landscaping and shade structures over playground areas.

The Mill Valley landscape and architectural firm of Royston Hanamoto Alley and Abey also worked on the project.

The lake holds about 2.2 million gallons of water that cannot percolate into the ground because of the liner. The amount of evaporation that takes place is equivalent to that which would take place if turf had been planted instead, Acting Parks Director John Cook said.

Parks Director Robert Doi, who recently underwent a heart transplant at Stanford Medical Center, remains keenly interested in the project and Cook said Friday he planned to take him photos of the project on the weekend.

The city received $1,000 from Skip and Mary Jane Barwick and $500 from McMillan Homes to stock the lake. Other donors included Don LeBaron and Janet Heath, Tulare Rotary, J.D. Heiskell Co., Ward Stringham, T.F. Tires, Noon Kiwanis, Lane Engineering, Bender Properties, Land O'Lakes, Bret Stuber, Craig Vejvoda, and David and Kimberly Flora. Waters Po-Bass Plus is providing prizes for the derby.

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Copter Crash Injures
Michelle Nunley

By Rick Elkins

Tulare - Michelle Nunley, principal of Tulare Union High School, was listed in good condition Monday at Las Vegas University Medical Center after she was injured in a helicopter crash Friday in rural Nevada.

Tulare Union High School District Superintendent Howard Berger said he was told Nunley was expected to be released from the hospital Monday and be home later that day.

According to reports, Nunley, wife of Greg Nunley, suffered fractured vertebrae and other injuries, most of them minor. She was injured when the helicopter in which she was a passenger went down around 3 p.m. Friday about 25 miles west of the small town of Tonopah, between Las Vegas and Reno in Nevada.

Nunley was following the progress of her husband, who was driving in an off-road truck race. That race, which began Thursday, is 1,000 miles long from Las Vegas to Reno.

Also injured in the crash, but not seriously, were the pilot and another passenger.
Heather Elick, vice principal at Tulare Union, said everyone was concerned for her well being. “We're just, of course, worried about her health.”

Nunley was named principal of Tulare Union in 2006, replacing Berger, who was promoted to superintendent of the high school district.

“She's doing well,” Berger said Monday. “I'm glad nobody was killed and that all are doing well. I think everyone is relieved. You think the worst when you hear it was a helicopter crash.”

The Vegas to Reno Off-road Race the Long Way, the official title of the race, is a grueling three-day event. It began Thursday with the Vegas to Tonopah leg. On Friday, the 285 trucks, cars, motorcycles, utility vehicles and quads raced from Tonopah to Hawthorne, some 366 miles, said Don McDermott, Pahrump Valley Times sports editor.

According to Ian Gregor, communications manager for the FAA Western-Pacific region, Nunley was a passenger in a Robinson R-44 helicopter that was acting as a chase aircraft during the road race when it crashed under unknown circumstances in a ravine. The helicopter was badly damaged.

He said all three people on board were taken to a local hospital initially.
Gregor said the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash.

The helicopter is registered to Dooley Aviation Inc. in Arizona.

Nunley has worked in the Tulare high school district for many years. She served as assistant principal at both Tulare Union and Tulare Western, did an internship at the district office and was principal of Sierra Vista and Countrywide schools.

She and her husband live in Tulare. Greg Nunley is the developer building the exclusive Tesori subdivision here.

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Four Homeless
Teens Pose Challenge

By Julie Fernandez

Tulare - The young men are from Wasco and the young women from Fresno and for the better part of a month, the four have been living in Zumwalt Park during the day and early evening and sleeping in Tower Square or elsewhere at night.

Their presence has not gone unnoticed and city code enforcement officers are receiving calls from people who don't like the fact they are there and worry about what they might be doing.

This is a story about them and how the city is trying to address the situation.
Larry Bergstrasser, 18, and his brother Sean, 19, arrived in Tulare on June 29.
“I had my girlfriend bring us as far north as possible,” Larry Bergstrasser said, adding she had barely enough gas to get home when she dropped them off here.

Bergstrasser said he has been living on his own since age 16 because of disagreements with his father and graduated last winter, a semester early, from Wasco High School.

“I loved it; I was involved in everything,” he said, reporting drama, Tomorrow's Leaders Today, band and sports, most recently soccer, were among his extra-curricular activities.

Prior to leaving Wasco, Bergstrasser was living in a mobile home with a woman who told him he wasn't paying enough and had to leave, he said, adding she also refused to allow his brother Sean – who had been living with their parents – to move in.
Finding a job in Wasco was tough, he said, reporting the community has a high unemployment rate and more than 500 people applied for a recent construction job.

That's why he headed for Tulare, where he and his brother also have tried unsuccessfully to find permanent work. They have food stamps and have done odd jobs, including working for the Methodist Church and for a woman on Blackstone Street who needed her trees trimmed and her weeds pulled, Bergstrasser said.
Army Bound

With jobs scarce, the brothers decided to follow the lead of their 21-year-old brother who is an Army Calvary Scout in Germany and they have enlisted in the Army – a fact city officials have confirmed.

Bergstrasser, who said he eventually wants to become a lawyer, said he has to report to duty at Fort Knox in Kentucky on Aug. 31, but his brother must wait until later this year because he needs to get a waiver because of a dog bite.

His plan is to send his brother Sean money after he starts receiving an Army paycheck, so he and the girls will have a place to stay.

“I told him he can go anywhere and to find the cheapest place, so I have a home too when I'm on leave,” Bergstrasser said.

The boys' father has told Chief Code Enforcement Officer Frank Furtaw he hopes Sean will move back home until his induction date and Furtaw said Sean also appears willing to move to the Visalia Rescue Mission once his brother leaves.

Furtaw said this has been a tough case, because the teens have been unwilling to use Visalia Rescue Mission. But because there is “a light at the end of the tunnel – the army,” the city has treated them with kid gloves because this is their chance to get off the street.

So when Larry Bergstrasser was arrested and accused of breaking a sprinkler head in Zumwalt Park – he says he threw a bucket on the head to give him and his brother more time to move their stuff to another location – the city spoke to the court and decided not to prosecute, Furtaw said.

Meanwhile, he and his officers maintain frequent contact with the brothers, whom he describes as very respectful. “This has the writing on the wall to being a success story,” he said. “The city needs to make sure we do our part to bring resolution to it."

Death of a Mother

Kayla Melendez, 19, and April Lemos, 18, said they moved to Tulare when Melendez' mother, with whom they lived, became ill and was hospitalized.
“We moved here to be with her mom's friend,” Lemos said. “Then her mother passed away and we were kicked out.”

They were accused of “mooching,” she said, adding they have been unable to find work.

During their first week on the streets, they said they walked around at night, scared to fall asleep.

They meet the Bergstrasser brothers in late July at a movie night in the park. “They bought us pizza, because for like a whole week we hadn't eaten much,”Lemos said.
The girls –who have five dogs – said finding a safe place to sleep at night is difficult and Melendez said she had a scary moment when she was awaken by a man by the clock tower in Tower Square who woke her up and said he could get her money.
Furtaw said that's why he worries when he sees the youths on the street.

“The longer these kids stay in this predicament, there's more potential for them to be introduced to illegal activity or to be victimized,” he said.

The brothers and young women allowed a 49-year-old woman to join them for awhile, but Furtaw said Monday the four ditched her last weekend after Larry Bergstrasser suspected she was stealing the pain medicine he was taking for a dental problem.

“That's another example of how kids can become victims,” he said.

Lemos said they tried to get into the LightHouse Rescue Mission, but the shelter did not take animals and because Melendez could not urinate, she was accused of being on drugs.

(Linda Long, shelter director, said the girls have not been to LightHouse and that if a homeless woman cannot urinate for a drug test, “we wait until she can.”)

Furtaw said Monday he is continuing to try to find a place for the young women to stay and was going to check with the Visalia Rescue Mission to see if it had a place for women.

“We were having a pretty good life until her mother died, because we had a place to stay,” Lemos said.

Melendez said she never thought she would be in her current situation.
“I use to give money to the homeless,” she said.