Evolutions Suffers Storm Damage

Tulare - A $531,000 roof replacement project on the Evolutions Fitness and Wellness Center was just getting started this month when Mother Nature threw a curve ball in the form of what some are calling a 50-year storm.

The storm, which arrived Dec. 17, left in its wake a wet, stinky mess inside the fitness center, some unhappy members who criticized Tulare Regional Medical Center officials for not acting sooner to repair or replace the roof, and equally unhappy TRMC officials who have experienced frustrations of their own trying to get the matter resolved.

“They knew this was an on-going thing,” Carol Domingos said. “It's been leaking since day one. It's just a shame they let it go so far.”

Steve Harrell, a trainer at the center since it opened nearly six years ago, said members expressed concerns and frustrations to him about what they consider a lack of attention by the hospital.

“For what these people are paying for being a member, they should have expectations of being in a safe and clean environment,” Harrell said.

Members and Harrell said the track inside the gym was very wet, several television sets were off because they were dripping water, ceiling tiles were falling in office areas and computers had blown up. There were also reports of damage to other areas of the building, which house several businesses.

“There's not a single [Evolution's] office in the back that hasn't sustained damage,” Harrell said.

“It's negligence,” Domingos said. “I'm sure they have mold in the wall as well.”

The healthcare district has not been negligent under his watch and instead has been working hard to resolve the problem, Tulare Regional's CEO Shawn Bolouki said.

When several members, including Bret Hillman, Paul and Marilyn Atlas and Mary Dlugonski, approached the healthcare district board about 14 months ago and urged directors to repair the roof as soon as possible, board member Dr. Prem Kamboj told them the matter was in litigation and assured them the board was “working intensely on this problem.”

Hired in the spring of 2008, Bolouki said he only became aware of the problem later that winter and subsequently got the architect, roofer, general contractor and others involved to try to resolve the problem without litigation.

Talks Fail

Unsuccessful in that attempt, Tulare Regional's attorney Kris Pederson said the healthcare district filed a lawsuit in April 2009 against the roofing subcontractor George's Roofing of Visalia as well as architect OLC of Idaho and DOW Roofing, which is a subsidiary of DOW Chemical.

DOW has said it has no record of selling the TPO single-ply membrane roofing system for use in the 30,500-square-foot Evolution's project, Pederson said. DOW's attorney Kimberly Kepler of Costa Mesta could not be reached for comment.

“It's definitely their material, but the question is how George's Roofing got it,” Pederson said. The roofing company's attorney, Nathan Ide of Visalia, could not be reached late last week because of the holiday.

Berry and Defe Joint Venture, the general contractor on the Evolutions project, was later added as a defendant in the lawsuit after a tolling agreement expired. The agreement had extended the time limit in which the healthcare district could file a lawsuit, Pederson said.

The problem with getting someone to step up and accept responsibility for the roof has been a lack of insurance coverage and a lack of a warranty on the roof, she said.

Although members are aware of the litigation, several said they thought the healthcare district should have made the repairs and then worried about litigation, but Pederson said that would have caused problems.

“That's called spoiling the evidence and if we did that we would have been held responsible for not allowing the four defendants to go in and inspect and try to correct it [the problem],” she explained.

The parties in the lawsuit are scheduled to hold mediation sessions in January, but that could be delayed as other scheduled meeting dates have been, Pederson said.

Because the legal matter has not been settled, the healthcare district has had to contact the legal counsel for all four defendants every time it wanted to so much as put a patch on the roof, Bolouki said.

In late June, Bolouki announced what he considered an “aggressive” timeline for repairing or replacing the roof and said he wanted to award a contract and complete the estimated eight-week project before the rainy season.

When the contractor started removing the roof, Bolouki said it became clear there was other damage to the building, so other people were brought in to investigate, further delaying the start.

The contractor, Graham Prewett of Fresno, had just removed 3,700 square feet of roofing before forecasts of significant rain were made, prompting the company to apply plastic sheeting over the area, Pederson said.

Because of the sheer amount of rain, the company also tried to reseal all the seams with a tar substance, she said.

City building officials, who had issued a permit for the re-roofing before the rain, went to inspect Evolutions after learning of the damage and found water leaking on electrical boxes, which the hospital district quickly addressed, Chief Building Inspector John Karlie said.

Pederson, who called the situation “frustrating,” said as of Friday, she had not received a damage estimate.

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'Remarkable' Wiedeman Woman of the Year

Tulare - Ellen Gorelick calls Mary Wiedeman “remarkable.” Rhonda Wilbur describes her as “a quiet servant.” And both give enthusiastic thumbs up to her selection as the Tulare Chamber of Commerce's 2010 Woman of the Year.

“I believe Mary is totally deserving of this honor,” said Gorelick, a former Woman of the Year, and one of the people who nominated Wiedeman for the award.

Wilbur, the 2009 Woman of the Year, had never met Wiedeman before she knocked on her front door on Dec. 10 to tell her she had received the honor, but she had read a lot about her.

“She's a quiet servant and you can see that in all the people who had written about her and the things she has done,” Wilbur said. “I just feel really privileged to pass the honor on to her.”

Ten days after receiving the award Wiedeman still seemed amazed by the attention.

“Everything you do is your own reward,” she said. “So when they came to the door … this is shocking!”

Born and raised in Norfolk, Neb. – as was her late husband, Harry – Wiedeman graduated from Sacred Heart High School, attended two years of college, worked, married and gave birth to two sons before she and Harry moved to California.

The family spent four years in both Santa Monica and then Porterville before settling in Tulare, where they raised their five children and started Wiedeman Real Estate.

In the early 1970s, she started her own business, Tulare City Hostess, which welcomed newcomers to town, offering them information and discount coupons related to the community and its businesses.

She did this for about 15 years and, in the process, helped people connect with various aspects of Tulare life.

“Manuel Toledo said I built his AMVETS,” she said, explaining she always told people about Post 56 and encouraged them to contact Toledo, a founding member who was active on local, state and national levels.

When her youngest was a sophomore in high school, Wiedeman enrolled in College of the Sequoias and at age 49, completed the requirements to get a real estate license.

“There were few women in real estate then and I recall bucking the macho mentality of some,” she wrote in a biography. “But I went on to enjoy over 18 years of working side by side with husband, Harry. I loved every minute and am secure enough to think he did also!”

After a 27-year career as a Realtor – the last 10 without him – she retired two years ago.

Her volunteer history is a long and varied one that includes many years of involvement in the PTAs at Garden Elementary, Maple Elementary, Cherry Middle, Mulcahy Middle, Tulare Union and Tulare Western high schools. She served as an officer at two of them.

While involved with her Tulare City Hostess business, she wanted to do more to help new arrivals and so she founded the Newcomers Club in 1977 and volunteered her time to organize speakers, activities and classes.

“I just had them [activities] all over Tulare,” she said.

For more than 40 years she has logged untold volunteer hours with World Ag Expo, the Tulare Safety Council, Catholic Daughters of the Americas and the Tulare Chamber of Commerce.

She became the first woman orange jacket volunteer at World Ag Expo, when it formed in the late 1960s, is a founding volunteer at the Antique Farm Equipment Show and has volunteered at the Heritage Complex at the International Agri-Center.
She and Pat Warmerdam, now of Aptos, were the founding members of Catholic Daughters' Court of St. Gerard in Tulare, which was chartered after they got 37 women to join. The organization has more than 100 members today.

“She has never missed a meeting in 42 years,” Gorelick said.

As a chamber member, she served as membership chair for the organization and was a charter member of its Boosters Club, forerunner of today's Ambassadors program.

A member of the Tulare Safety Council since 1965, Wiedeman has served as president several times.

She has received many honors. She was named Realtor of the Year four times and Catholic Daughters of America's Woman of the Year twice.

In 1996 the chamber gave her its Life-Time Honorary Membership Award.

The History Channel also recognized her as a Community Historian for her work a few years ago in helping veterans record their histories.

In addition to her volunteer activities, Wiedeman facilitates the Down Memory Lane classes at the Tulare Senior Center.

“She does an extraordinary job,” said Gorelick, who reports Wiedeman cajoles and encourages class members to tell their stories. Because of her efforts, many of those stories have appeared in Tulare's daily newspaper, the Tulare Advance-Register.

Wiedeman has four grown children, Jeff, Jim, Lucinda and Jay. Son Jon, her youngest, died in a car accident many years ago. She also has 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

“Life just keeps getting better!” she exclaimed in the book she wrote for her family.

Those who know her are likely to tell you that life keeps getting better for Tulare too, thanks to this energetic Woman of the Year who continues to share her time and talents with her family and the community.

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Ross Elected Mayor; Barwick Vice Mayor

Tulare - Selecting the next mayor proved to be one of the easiest tasks the City Council has faced this year.

When outgoing Mayor Craig Vejvoda opened the discussion by asking who did not want the job, four hands, including his own, shot up.

That left Wayne Ross, a two-year Council veteran, who was elected in a 5-0 vote. Newly-elected Councilman Skip Barwick was named vice mayor in a second unanimous vote.

Ross, who over the past two years had complained about a lack of openness and transparency on the racetrack issue, promised the public would see both over the next two years.

He also thanked Vejvoda for filling the mayor's post for the last four years, a comment that drew a round of applause and standing ovation from the audience.

Ross said he was encouraged to take the mayor's position by long-time Councilman David Macedo.

“OK, big boy, you talked the game for two years, so step up and do it,” he quoted Macedo as saying.

Ross said he also expected Macedo, a former mayor, and Vejvoda to set him straight if he messed up in the job.

“If I think you're out of line, you will get a phone call from me,” Macedo said later, adding he might tease the new mayor in public but would only chastise in private.

While he will hold the title of mayor, Ross noted he still remains only one of five council members and has no more authority than the others.

“My voice is only 20 percent, he said. “The only difference is I get to have the last say, but not the final say.”

Ross' wife, Colleen, and two of his three daughters were in the audience when the vote was taken.

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To Smile or Not to Smile
Policy About Face at DMV

By David Marsh

Tulare - What seemed like an official about face at the Tulare office of the California Department of Motor Vehicles really wasn't an about face at all, only temporary confusion about faces – yours and mine.

The issue: whether to smile or not to smile on that ubiquitous, time-worn drivers' license photo that so many others see as we cash checks and offer proof of who we are.

Who makes the choice? Confused? So, it seems, were the folks at the Tulare DMV who for a period of time recently banned all smiling by those standing before their new cameras.

New cameras, new policy, or so thought the right-minded employees in that office.

Seems there was no real official change of face, or in faces, at all, said DMV spokesperson Jan Mendoza, when reached last week at the agency's Sacramento headquarters.

Mendoza was confused at the perception of an official no-smiling about face at the Tulare office.

“There is no hard and fast policy discouraging you to smile,” Mendoza said. “We do, however, encourage you to maintain a neutral expression.”

She explained that issues with identity theft are behind the about- face in the long-standing tradition of smiling DMV photos.

A call placed by Mendoza to the Tulare office unveiled the reason behind the apparent confusion by the locals. The vendor who recently supplied the Tulare office with brand new photographic equipment for those photos recommended the no-smiling policy for clarity of images. The suggestion became policy, however temporary, at the local office.

Mendoza stated a memo would be sent out immediately to all local DMV offices informing employees that to smile or not to smile is the choice of those standing before the camera and not behind.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles was created in 1915 and has been issuing those licenses, often with smiling faces, since 1958.

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