Grant to Help Fight Rising Crime

Tulare - Getting a $1.17 million COPS grant to fill four frozen positions is expected to help the Tulare Police Department battle the rising number of thefts and assaults reported this year.

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in Washington D.C. notified city officials on July 28 that Tulare had received the federal recovery funds, which will pay salary and benefits for four sworn officers for three years. The city is obligated to cover costs for a fourth year.

Competition for the grants was keen.

“We've heard that only one in seven applicants got granted,” Police Chief Roger Hill said.

The grant will allow the department to reinstate its Problem Oriented Policing (POP) team, a multi-faceted unit that police Capt. Tom Munoz said will operate out of the modular police buildings on the Mulcahy Middle School and Lincoln Elementary School campuses.

The grant news comes as statistics for the first six months of 2009 indicate the steady downturn in crime the city had seen since passage of the Measure I sales tax increase in 2005 has come to a halt. The tax enabled the city to hire many more police officers.

Police filed 267 more theft reports in the first half of 2009 than they did during the same period last year. They also saw 84 more assaults, 23 more burglaries and four more robberies.

“I think the economy has a lot to do with that,” Munoz said, explaining that in hard economic times thefts and assaults typically increase.

Family Services, a non-profit agency that serves battered women throughout the county, reports it has seen nearly a 40 percent increase in demand for services in its domestic violence division in the last six months.

The trend is mirrored nationwide and those who staff domestic violence hotlines report most callers are indicating financial stress has made their situations worse, the organization's summer newsletter said.

The Police Department's POP team is essentially a crime prevention unit that works not only on matters related to gangs or drugs, but on “quality of life issues” such as abandoned vehicles as well, Munoz said.

In the past, they also have joined with other community policing officers in engaging students in afterschool sports, games and tutoring, he said.

To help stem the rise in crime, Munoz urged residents to take the same precautions they do around the holidays, when thefts also tend to increase.

“Don't keep packages in plain view; don't leave purses in your vehicles or, if you do, hide them,” he said. “Thefts are primarily crimes of opportunity and people who are prone to do that will look for an opportunity.

Recruitment for officers to fill the four positions is expected to begin this week. Munoz said the department is looking for men and women who already have completed the police academy and are working for another agency.

The department would like to make job offers within 60 days and have the new officers on board within 90, he said. “It's kind of an aggressive pace, but I think we can do it.”

Clinic Plan to Centralize
Services Moves Ahead

Tulare - Tulare Community Health Clinic's plans to build a center that would house most its medical services under one roof has taken a step forward with the City Council approving a zoning amendment and supporting its request for a general plan change.

The Planning Commission also has granted a conditional use permit for the project, which is proposed for four acres west of the strawberry stand on the northeast corner of Cartmill Avenue and Hillman Street. A public hearings last month uncovered no staff or public opposition.

Final approval of the clinic's request to change the city's 1993 land use designation from urban residential to community commercial rests with the Tulare County Local Agency Formation Commission.

“Right now we're trying to find ways to finance the land purchase and build,” TCHC Chief Executive Officer Graciela Soto-Perez said.
88,000 Visits

A federally qualified health clinic that logged more than 88,000 patient visits in 2008, Tulare Community plans to apply for federal stimulus money this month and is also looking for non-governmental financing. In 2008, the clinic received a $250,000 grant from First 5 Tulare County for the land purchase, which Soto-Perez said must be made by Dec. 31.

The cost of constructing the new clinic depends on the financing source. With federal money, which requires payment of prevailing wages, the estimate is between $14 million and $15 million, Soto-Perez said.

Tulare Community currently offers general medicine, specialty, dental and women's services in The Village shopping center at 1101 North Cherry St. and pediatric services at 1186 East Leland Ave. A mobile van provides services on various high school campuses.

Clinic officials are working with Greg Nunley and the Great Valley Land Company on the new project. In addition to the medical clinic, Nunley is proposing a phase two, which would include 13,500-square-feet of medical office space, which the clinic could use, if needed.

“It's a handsome building,” Planning Commissioner Chuck Miguel said after reviewing concept drawings of the new clinic, which show a two-story, 45,000-square-foot structure. “I generally don't like modern buildings, but it's a handsome building.”

(Clinic officials said last week they might have to abandon the two-story concept to reduce construction costs.)

While supporting the proposal, several commissioners said they thought the proposed location might be too remote and the clinic would be better suited for the downtown, which would offer patients easy transit access.

About three years ago Nunley made an unsuccessfully attempted through the Tulare Redevelopment Agency to locate the clinic in downtown Tulare.

“We tried to negotiate the deal and we were pretty much told we were not welcomed with this project downtown,” Nunley told commissioners.

“It sounds like downtown missed the boat on that one,” Miguel said.
Staying Busy

Soto-Perez said the clinic has remained busy at all its sites, although a cutback in Medi-Cal services for dental care could reduce the number of patients seen in that office.

No layoffs are planned, “but I don't know what the future holds,” she said.
When the clinic lost the services of four pediatricians who left to open a county clinic last summer, Tulare Community lost about 500 of its 9,000 young patients but has gained new ones since then, Soto-Perez said.

“Our pediatric load has gone up every year,” she said.

The clinic hired pediatrician Dr. Jorge Rivera last September and two physician assistants and a family practitioner have helped him carry the pediatric load, she said.

A second pediatrician, Dr. Patricia Olise, is expected to start this month and the hiring of two others are pending their securing a California medical license, she said.
Soto-Perez reports other healthcare providers hired in the past year include:

• Dr. Ahmed Rashed, who is American board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology. Rashed is based in Porterville but treats clinic patients and has privileges at Tulare Regional Medical Center.

• Dr. Prasad Reddy, a psychiatrist who is expected to begin seeing adult patients this month.

• Rosandra Soleno, a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in marriage, family and children counseling. She was hired in April.

Among the grants the clinic has received is one that will allow it to continue its annual screening of 1,300 kindergarten students in the Tulare City School District and at Oak Valley, Palo Verde, Tipton and Sundale schools.

Another grant will allow the clinic to hire a registered dietician to provide nutrition services to pregnant patients and new mothers.

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Pet Center's Barnes 'Grateful' for Move

Tulare - Moving Tulare Pet Center from a warehouse-type building on South J Street to a smaller one at 236 East King Ave. was not something Sheri Barnes wanted to do, but she'll be the first to tell you that she is glad she did.

Barnes, who started the business 25 years ago this summer on the corner of K Street and Cross Avenue, appears to truly enjoy her new location, where she is offering for the first time pet grooming services and a dog boutique.

“I'm so grateful for the experience,” said Barnes, who admits she thought about retiring – she turned 60 in January – when the Tulare Redevelopment Agency told her it wanted to buy her building to make way for a new shopping center that a developer is proposing along J Street.

But then she looked at the amount of inventory she had and listened to her customers. “They begged me, 'Don't close, don't close, don't close,'” she said.
So she didn't and forged ahead as, in her words, an “unwilling participant” in redevelopment.

“The people of Tulare need to know that redevelopment was very good to me,” Barnes said, giving special credit to redevelopment specialist Heather Franklin.
“I was well informed. I was well treated and they were very accommodating,” she said.

She also said landlord Jim Pidgeon and property manager Paul Bankston have been great to work with and have allowed her to make many changes in the building.
“Tulare can be so good and I'm so positive,” Barnes said. “My glass is half-full, not hall-empty.”

A Challenge

Now all this doesn't mean the move wasn't a challenge.

Barnes and Taressa Best, one of her six employees, worked 60 days straight – often 10 to 15 hours a day – giving the building what she calls the black and red “Texaco” look, installing shelving using a Pepsi can as a leveler and making other improvements, while the rest of her staff kept the business open on J Street.

“This couldn't be done without my loyal employees down there working out of boxes,” she said.

With the help of employees, family and friends, she moved her inventory – including fish, snakes, birds and other animals – to the new location on Nov. 1.

The grooming business, which Laura Faria operates, was added three months ago, an outgrowth of the occasional flea baths the pet center would do.

The next thing she knew she had 10 people asking if they could bring their animals back the next week, said Barnes, adding 30 people already are taking their animals in every other week.

The doggie boutique has proven popular even in these difficult economic times and Barnes' inventory even includes designer clothing.

“We're ready for Christmas,” she said.

Barnes' employees are like family to her and naturally share her love of animals, she said.

In addition to Best, there is James Smith, a teacher who works school holidays, summers and weekends at the store and has been on board since he was 16 years old.

Ronnie Ochoa has worked more than 10 years for her and Linda Driver has been with her for 20 years. Heather Canning, who worked for her as a high school senior and is now married and the mother of three children, returned to work at the store three years ago.

Then there is daughter, Megan Barnes, who is 18 and a recent high school graduate. Her first day “at work” was when she was two days old.

Her mother happily reports Megan recently expressed interest in continuing the business when she does retires.

“I love the animal part of it and the interaction with the people,” Megan said.
Barnes also said she is very grateful to her husband, David, who has given her tremendous support over the years.

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Advance-Register Staff Relocates to Visalia

Tulare - The remaining employees working out of the Tulare Advance-Register building on East Cross Avenue have moved to the parent company's Visalia office, but publisher Amy Pack said the paper's editor and two reporters will continue to cover the community.

Because the recession has hit hard newspapers – which rely on advertising for revenues – it has been widely assumed this is a cost-saving action, but Pack describes it as an “efficiency move.”

“We are investing in technology that will continue to change the way reporting works,” said Pack, explaining that even though the reporters' home base is at the Visalia Times-Delta office, they will spend most of their time in Tulare and file their stories from wherever they are in the community.

She stressed the company has no plans to abandon Tulare.

“As long as Tulare residents want news about Tulare, we plan to give it to them in print, on-line and on mobile devices,” Pack said.

Four people, including an office assistant, worked out of the large metal building at 388 East Cross Ave. until the move on July 27. Doors to the office were locked to the public months ago when the remaining display and classified advertising staff moved to Visalia.

The property – on the northwest corner of Cross and M Street – is across the street from the new Tulare Public Library, which city officials say they hope will spark development of vacant properties along Cross to the north and the Pine Avenue corridor to the south when it is completed next year.

Pack said she is not actively trying to sell the Advance-Register property, even though potential buyers have expressed interest over the past seven years.

The company – Visalia Newspapers Inc., which is owned by Gannett – will continue to use the building for distribution and storage, she said.

Oldest Surviving Business

Although it was not the first newspaper in Tulare – at least three preceded it – the Advance-Register is the community's oldest surviving business, founded on Dec. 21, 1882, as the Weekly Tulare Register.

According to historical accounts written by the late Tom Hennion, who served as editor from 1945 to 1980, Tulare historian Derryl Dumermuth and others, Tulare was a railroad town of fewer than 2,000 people when W.A. Black and G.C. Cox published the first issue.

J. W. Shanklin and A. J. Pillsbury purchased the paper in July 1883, although Shanklin sold his interest to Miles Ellsworth a short time later.

Hennion described Pillsbury as “dynamic and outspoken” and said that under his leadership the paper outlived two other start-ups in that decade – the Democratic Free Press, started in 1894 and the Tulare Weekly Standard – founded in 1887.
On Aug. 1, 1887, the Weekly Tulare Register became the “Tulare Register,” a daily newspaper.

Brothers Tom and Jess Jones founded the Tulare Advance on March 3, 1903, around the same time that Henry A. Charters, the Register's printer, became part-owner and eventually sole owner of that paper.

On Jan. 1, 1926, Patterson D. (Pat) Nowell, who had purchased the Advance from the Jones brothers, also bought the Register from Charters and the merged publication was called the Tulare Advance-Register.

Percy and Maxine Whiteside posed a major challenge to the publication when, two years later, they introduced the Tulare Times, which steadily gained readership. When Nowell gave up the Advance-Register, the Whitesides purchased it at auction.

The paper moved to 233 North K St. on Oct. 17, 1935, and reported that its 44 employees comprised one of the largest staffs of any newspaper in the area.

A new challenger, The Tulare Bee, arrived on the scene in August 1939 as a weekly and later became an afternoon daily. It continued publishing until January 1951.
Meanwhile, the Whitesides continued operating the Tulare Advance-Register until Nov. 13, 1945, when they sold it to John P. Scripps Newspapers.

The sale marked the first time the paper was not wholly locally owned, but Scripps granted Hennion editorial independence which he practiced aggressively, leading successful campaigns to:

· Create a hospital district, which resulted in construction of what is today Tulare Regional Medical Center;

· Clean up the city's notorious Front Street, with its brothels and gambling.

· Levy a city sales tax, becoming one of the first cities in California to do so. Opponents launched a partially successful advertising boycott in an unsuccessful attempt to get Scripts to fire Hennion. Convinced the tax was a way to spread the cost of government among property owners and non-owners, voters approved the tax 2-1.

When Hennion retired in 1980, David Ellis became editor, serving until his death on Dec. 1, 1990. John Irby then served one year as editor.

After 48 years as a JPSN paper, the daily was sold on April 26, 1993, to Visalia Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Visalia Times-Delta.

While it was widely rumored the new owners planned to close the Advance-Register, that did not happen. The staff, however, was immediately downsized and further cuts followed over the years. The paper is no longer printed on the premises, as technology makes it possible to electronically send pages to Visalia for printing. The Advance-Register and Visalia Times-Delta also operate a joint Internet Web site.

The newspaper has continued to publish as a daily – converting in recent years from an afternoon to a morning paper. It has had seven editors over the past 16 years.

The current editor is Mike Hazelwood, a Tulare native who has been at the paper's helm since mid-2006.