Farmers Complain More Than Usual
So Much For Valley's "Natural Advantage"
San Joaquin Valley - My friend told me a story that goes: "Do you know the difference between a whiney farmer and a whiney dog at your front door? The answer: "At least the dog stops whining when you let him in."
My friend insists many farmers are "professional whiners" but I'm not so sure. The fruit basket of the world - the San Joaquin Valley - a place many have sworn was particularly blessed by God - one of the few Mediterranean climate regions of the world with its own "natural advantage" is today, with the exception of a few crops, in a world of hurt.
It is payoff time, the middle of the harvest season in the San Joaquin Valley when local farmers should be buoyant, upbeat. Instead, many are glum and glummer.
"I used to think we were so good we could export ourselves out of any jam," says westside farmer Mark Borba. "We used to swagger around" and "talk about how we could feed the world." He says "I was a free trader" and supported the deregulation of agriculture, the "Right to Farm" legislation that was passed in 1996 that said essentially - bring on the world and phase out those price supports on grain, cotton and dairy.
Instead, in 2002 California's speciality fruit farmers - who have prided themselves not to take direct subsidies over the years (except perhaps for water) - for the first time are asking for federal subsidies that could total $1.5 million from Uncle Sam to keep the farms afloat for another year. Meanwhile, subsidies to the traditional farmers - mostly in the wheat growing region - have skyrocketed as global competition and retail consolidation has set in.
With its diverse base of crops and above all its incredible hydraulic water delivery system - laid out and organized in neat networks of canals, ditches and headworks - irrigated agriculture in California has been and is the envy of the world - a cornucopia of crops that observers have felt kept us insulated from the troubles of a one-crop state like Kansas dependent on Mother Nature for water and disaster in some other place - in order to thrive.
But the Valley has been so much the envy as the "whole world's orchards" that others have copied it the way the Japanese Honda company copied Detroit in the 50s. Now the milk pours forth from New Zealand, the grapes, olives and avocados from Mexico, the raisins from Turkey and oranges from Argentina supplied to the world 24/7. And nobody seems to care where the stuff comes from as long as it fills the grocery store shelves.
Valley growers, who until recently bragged about productivity and expertise, are seeing worthy competitors all around the world and governments who aren't ashamed to back them up with huge subsidies. A look at these "top ten" valley crops - crops under intense pressure - will give you a flavor why it's not just farmers who are "whining" but many who know the economy here is in the end - still dependent on the circulation of the farm dollar in town making the wheels go around.
Here's a look at our Top Ten local crops under pressure (in no particular order).
In Olives California olive growers (Tulare County produces about a third of the state supply) are feeling the weight of European Union imported olives subsidized to the tune of $2.65 billion annually. That figure comes from a recent Economist analysis that says Spain and other EU country farmers are paid a subsidy no matter how much they produce. A newspaper there recently reported that another 40m Spanish olive trees were coming into production on top of 300m already bearing there and 500m across the rest of the EU. The Economist suggested that "this boom in plantings means that Europe is well on the way to being an olive oil lake." Despite calls to change the way the subsidy is structured, the EU recently extended the current subsidy for another three years.
In Cotton the Valley's biggest crop by acreage faces Depression era prices based in part on a larger than expected production out of China. Cotton acreage in the Valley this summer is expected to be almost 100,000 acres smaller than last year and is likely to fall again if prices don't improve. A strong US dollar is hurting exports of US cotton textiles as well reducing demand for Valley cotton. In the past 12 months 44 US textile mills have closed according to the American Textile Manufacturers Institute. California cotton growers will depend on a subsidy from Uncle Sam to pay their bills this year.
Cotton farmer Mark Borba says even with the federal subsidy the low world price this year makes it likely cotton farmers will be 10 cents per lb. under the cost of production.
Grapes Nowhere is the glut of grape vineyards in the Valley clearer than the raisin industry where farmers have been crying the blues. "When this season is done I believe there may be 400 raisin farms for sale," says Manuel Cunha of Nisei Farmers League, commenting on a news report that Pearson Realty has a record number of farms for sale this summer.
"When you go to the coast and see all those 2 and 3 year old vineyards growing east to Paso Robles and all the way down Highway 101 to Santa Barbara, you will know why we are looking at an oversupply," says Tokkie Elliot who isn't too high on tree fruit prospects either. "Peaches and plums are dead, it's just the body hasn't stopped twitching."
The good news is that this summer the raisin crop is likely to be as much as a third smaller than last year in part because many growers pulled up their vineyards and the crop is somewhat smaller. Despite dropping prices for wine grapes, Allied Grape Growers expects a 1% increase in wine grape production this year. But the scary news is that this represents 458,000 acres in the state with about 110,000 acres non bearing - coming into production. Allied Grape Growers recently reported that new plantings of wine grapes in the south valley were down, however. Pressing grape growers in the central valley was a price drop of 22% last year compared to the year before. Juice grapes prices dropped last year $276 a ton in 1999 to $124 a ton last year. Table grape growers are already complaining about this 2001-02 year since they are harvesting their crop right now. South valley growers are complaining that prices for their early grapes are lower than last year hurt in part by high retail prices and the overlapping of the dessert grape harvest from Arizona, Cochella and Mexico with the south valley's July grapes. In March 2001 Cochella growers complained that Mexican growers were dumping their table grapes here.
California grower Jack Pandol closed their Cochella Valley operation if favor of a joint marketing arrangement with Mexican growers recently. Could that happen in the Delano region too? Alliances with Mexican growers to bring product into the US is also happening in olives and in avocados where Mexican production could someday doom this subtropical industry in the state as well. When Dole left the valley the suggested they still wanted to supply fruit to the US but from outside the country.
Grapes that ripen late in the season could enjoy better prices, hopes Fred Lagomarsino, a Tulare grape grower. The industry is counting on a boost of exports to Asia this summer and fall where 80% of our table grapes exports head.
Prunes California prunes are still being carried over from last season with 110,000 tons left over from their 2000 harvest. This year prune growers are likely to put out 155,000 tons. The Prune Bargaining Association is paying $4.50 for every tree that is pulled out of the ground with the industry looking to reduce production by about 20%. Prunes face higher production costs this year since it takes natural gas to dry the fruit.
There is a surge of small plums onto the market caused by hot weather in May that stunted fruit sizes, sending more small plums to market. Farmers say they're losing as much as $4 on every box. A Western Growers Association price index shows farmers earning 36 cents a pound for plums that retail in Los Angeles for $1.17.
Oranges hurt by the freeze damage, small crop size and then small fruit size the orange industry here - historically the number two crop in Tulare County citrus in the south valley is clearly under pressure with the orange groves declining in value according to a recent survey by the California Chapter of American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers who quote prices falling from $10,000 an acre in 1995 to $6,500 in 2001. This spring area Valencia oranges faced low prices and tough competition with other imported fruit. Many expect older Valencia groves to be pulled even as new tangerine varieties come into production here. Just last week Paramount Citrus said they would close an orange packing plant in Clovis they bought from Dole when that company left the citrus business in California.
Tomatoes Processing tomatoes have been in oversupply since 1999 when some 329,000 acres were produced - much of it in the west side of the Valley. That year over 13 million tons were produced. Last year that dropped to 10.3 million tons and this year there is hope for a smaller crop at just below 9 million tons. Already the processing tomato crop is coming in at the new Contadina/DelMonte plant in Hanford where the season will run through September. Tomato growers were hurt last year by the bankruptcy of one major player in the industry - TriValley Growers went belly up. Last year TriValley took 750,000 tons of tomatoes but paid growers only 60% during their last year of operation. Yields are down 25% over last year along with lower prices.
Apricots are another oversupply situation with the Apricot Producers of California estimating that some 25,000 tons of fruit on the trees won't even be harvested. This in part because of foreign fruit coming in at a cheaper price from places like Turkey (dried apricots). "They devalue the currency 25% overnight and hurt our European market," says grower Mark Borba. Many apricot growers were affiliated with TriValley and got burned in that deal. Instead of trying to meet competition in the dried fruit market more growers are heading back to the fresh market but there is still a glut of small apricots selling to a world marketplace with more choices than ever.
Sugar beets is another westside crop that no longer pays because of a glut of product. World prices for sugar are far lower than US prices where the support price boosts production. By 2008 Mexico will be allowed to send in as much sugar to the US market as they want. The only California sugar producing plant in central or northern California is west of Fresno. Acreage is now half what it was just a year ago when Sprinkles closed a number of plants. A spokesman of the California Sugar Beet Growers says prices this year "are at a 20 year low."
Corn like all field crops in the US is suffering with low prices and some growers plant only as a way to improve their soil. CDFA estimates the size of the California corn crop will drop some 21% this year as cost of production goes up based on energy, water and the cost of labor all heading higher. Corn prices for 2000 were $80 a ton compared to $120 a ton in 1999 for corn grain. Most goes to cattle feed. Perhaps a healthy ethanol market could provide a new market for corn growers.
Garlic is another valley produced crop that faces pressure from Chinese production coming into the US at costs lower than state growers can compete with. While there is a tariff on Chinese fresh garlic there's none on garlic powder where many westside growers supply product to. The Chinese are delivering garlic powder from China at 60 cents a lb. It costs westside growers $1.10 a lb. to produce the same stuff, says grower Mark Borba.
In his book "The Fruits of Natural Advantage" by Steven Stroll, the author points out that the valley has specialized in crops that appeared could not be grown successfully in other locations in an environment that appeared to have a natural advantage - sandy soils, rainless summers and Sierra rivers that catch the Pacific rains in winter creating the impression that this was a region unlike any other - "so highly favored" for raising fruit. But he points out getting that perishable bounty to market was the hard part. Today grower Tokkie Elliot blames the government for forcing growers to market "hard red fruit" to sell because of marketing orders instead of the stuff his wife buys at the local farmers market here, sweet and dripping with ripeness.
The situation in the Central Valley is such that leaders are pushing for a high level visit, probably a public hearing, with Secretary Ann Veneman herself early this fall to lay out the critical issues particularly the trade issues, says Nisei Farmers League President Manuel Cunha.
Visalia - Kaweah Delta District Hospital will hear a consultant report August 23 suggesting how the district can best plan to grow the hospital to the year 2030 - build a new hospital or add on to the old one Downtown. The Innova Group will make an initial presentation on two options at an August 9th meeting.
The hospital's Chief Financial Officer, Gary Herbst, heads the facilities task force looking to make a recommendation to the full board on a decision that could come as soon as the August 23 meeting.
Herbst says the two options are:
1. Development of a replacement hospital at a new site - the so-called "clean dirt" option. Herbst says this option "has no address" and could theoretically be placed anywhere including Downtown. "For example, we could build a new hospital west of the existing one clear to Conyer," says Herbst. Other locations could be district property at Lovers Lane and Caldwell or out on Shirk and 198. The group's recommendation will not offer a specific site on this option, however, but on the best approach to take to both meet the seismic upgrade needs of the hospital and adding more bed space for the future. Herbst says the projections are for as many as 899 beds by the year 2030.
2. Option two would "rejuvenate the downtown campus," says Herbst, staged over ten year increments adding new wings and towers heading north of the campus with some buildings as high as 8 stories, he says. He says there will be need of coordination with the city to do this kind of expansion "because of the need to close off Acequia for extended periods" and other logistic problems. This option would allow the "flexibility" of adding on incrementally and deciding by the year 2020 whether to build a new acute care hospital right where the existing towers are now. "We may not need that many beds in the future," suggests Herbst, and by postponing out the increases up to the year 2020 before building a new full hospital would allow that flexibility he says.
Herbst says the price tags for both options are about the same, $400 million. "Of course they don't tell us where we are supposed to get that kind of money," says the CFO.
Board member Sue McCallister says she hasn't made up her mind on whether the hospital would remain in Downtown but doesn't think "there is any interest in moving it to the stockyards" as has been suggested by some. She says she expects a preliminary decision on which alternative will go forward at the Thursday, August 9th meeting of the task force that includes all the KDDH board members.
With the consultant group offering a vision of how to build and stagger the improvements at the hospital without necessarily identifying the location, the political hot potato of where this new complex will be is left in the hands of the board. Of course, if they pick option two it is clear downtown's largest employer will be there for decades to come.
Kaweah Delta Adopts 11% Budget Increase
Visalia - Pressured by higher costs, Kaweah Health Care District has adopted a $213 million operating budget for 2001/02 about a month late. "This the second year in a row we fell behind," says Chief Financial Officer Gary Herbst, forced to make difficult decisions to keep the district in the black.
The budget is some 11% higher than last year. Helping to drive up costs "has been the extremely tight labor market," says Herbst forcing a 15.5% increase in the average hourly wage paid at KDDH now up to $18.31 over four years ago. Those same rates have risen 11.8% in the past two years. "It's not just RNs anymore, but all clinical personnel" that are in short supply, says Herbst, forcing the district to pay more to retain the talent they have.
The district's capital budget is $10.5 million - the second highest in District history with much of that going into new technology including radiology, surgery video systems, imaging equipment and others.
The district is forecasting an $8.9 million "profit" some of 4% which over half will come from investment earnings.
The district's Memorial Hospital of Exeter will likely lose money again this year at -2.2% or 22,000 for the year. Still that loss at MHE last year was over $1 million.
Average daily patient census at KDDH was 345 compared to 329 last year. The hospital is seeing far more patients on an outpatient basis up 121% from 10 years ago ad projecting a 10% increase this coming year.
Still, inpatient days in the acute care hospital has increased by over 50% since 1996 mostly due to the success of the cardiac programs.
KDDH received a gross patient revenue increase of 12.2% or $434 million. MHE is projected to increase revenues by 17% from nearly $30 million that includes a 5% price increase July 1.
Helping to drive up the hospital's costs is a 14.4% increase in employee benefits along with a 12% increase in health care provider rates.
If employee costs aren't enough, Herbst says, utility costs for the district are going up this fiscal year 33% or $1.5 million.
Fewer Print Jobs
Closure of Standard Register Part of Nationwide/Local Consolidation
Tulare County - The closure of Standard Register in Porterville announced last week means the loss of another 200 high paying jobs for Tulare and Kings counties. But viewed as an industry - the business form industry and printing itself has contracted in a big way over the past decade. Consider the major employers who used to employ in the thousands here when the Central Valley was considered the right place to set up printing operations because of its relatively low costs and non union labor.
Standard Register closed its plant they had in Hanford a decade ago resulting in the fact that many of those employees were transferred to the Porterville facility. Now that too is gone. Porterville lost their Jostens print plant that had more than 200 jobs as well.
In Tulare there used to be Reynolds and Reynolds that shut down. A few years ago giant Sequoia Pacific near Exeter shuttered their plant with a small election division still remaining rattling around in a giant building over on Anderson Ave. That plant used to employ more than 400 workers and now has a skeleton crew with two presses.
In Visalia Moore's Business Forms has downsized as the company's stock has taken a beating. It employs about half the number of people it did 20 years ago. "When they do hire, it's usually temp positions," says a reliable source. Within the last year the company sold off one of the divisions that used to be in Visalia - elsewhere.
"It's the paperless office," says former EDC president Bill Evans. "People are doing on their PCs what it took a printing plant to do" in the past. Indeed, the business form industry nationwide has contracted because small businesses and large are producing their own business forms on their computers. Evans says in the other printing fields like wedding invitations and cards "people can make their own high quality announcements" on their computers" a trend that could affect printing operations like Taycal in Visalia.
Helping to push a company like Standard Register to close their Porterville facility is the prospect of higher costs in California due to the energy crisis here. Porterville city manager Guy Huffacre has said that the closure of the long time employer came as their monthly energy bill skyrocketed from $50,000 a month to $160,000 a month.
Still the key factor for us is that consolidation of Standard Register like the other printing industries that have closed here is a nationwide, even global trend fueled by technology that allows people to do what it took a specialist to do before. Standard Register announced July 19 that they have closed 21 production facilities and laid off more than 1600 people on their way toward a goal of reducing its workforce by 2400 as part of the company's renewal plan. The company says it is now focusing on its "less paper strategy" helping businesses with digital on demand business forms and e-documents. "It doesn't make sense anymore for us to cut down trees to make documents to put into file cabinets," says Evans since so many documents can now be stored electronically and printed out on demand.
Other Tulare County printing operations may not be immune to this technological change including Jostens American Yearbook since small school districts with a jet printer can make their own yearbook far cheaper than having it professionally printed. At Yearbook staff that used to layout the yearbooks on Compugraphic machines are not as numerous since many schools can layout their own pages on a PC or Mac.
It's not just print shops that use less paper, but banks who require less, gas stations who use less because you swipe your card at the pump instead of signing for it inside.
Unlike the 1970s when Tulare County development officials sought to attract the big printing plants here away from the urban areas to help overcome the seasonal cycle of the ag economy with steady year round work, today no one is targeting this industry.
"It's like being in the buggy whip business," says Evans. Consolidation has happened, of course, in the newspaper business as well. It used to be every town had a paper and print shop printing it, the Alta Advocate in Dinuba on a big flatbed press in the back room, for example. The Alta Advocate is no more. But the Tulare Advance Register is now owned by Gannett and the paper is no longer printed in Tulare but in Visalia. The Lindsay Gazette used to be printed in Lindsay, but no more. Now all the Mineral King Publishing papers are sent to Sanger to be printed. Newspapers are heading into the electronic era as well with web sites offering the latest news as well as the newspaper - on paper. One of the few "newspaper presses" left in Tulare County is right here at the Valley Voice.
Tulare County - Tulare County got a huge wave of immigrants in the past 20 years according to the US Census. Of the 72,000 foreign born people in Tulare County, the Census Dept. estimates that 25,000 came here in the past ten years and about 2/3 of that total have come here since 1980. Most are Hispanics from Mexico who came in part through the Immigration Reform bills of 1986 and later. Of the 72,000 foreign born that have entered Tulare County, the Census Dept. estimates that 51,500 are not citizens - meaning their participation in the civic life of the County is limited. Clearly many are here legally helped by the 1986 law under which 2.7 million illegal aliens, mostly from Mexico, were given legal immigrant status.
But now a proposed Amnesty measure could legalize 1 to 3 million Mexicans who live in this country without papers who may qualify. A part of the high level negotiations with Mexican president Vincente Fox it appears likely that some measure offering legal residency will be debated in coming weeks and likely pass. Fox plans to come to the US in September and President Bush hopes to offer a plan to the Mexican president.
Complicating the issue is a push by employers - farmers here for example - to liberalize a Guest Worker program to bring additional workers who would pick crops. Last January labor and growers proponents appeared to work out a compromise deal on this issue that would have allowed guest workers to come to the US legally allowing growers to have legal workforce instead the situation they have now. But that compromise broke off when immigration deal in Congress was scuttled by Texas Senator Phil Gramm who doesn't want guest workers to be allowed to remain in the country.
With the coming visit of Fox and the issue top on Bush's agenda, farmers and labor interests are squaring of again over the guest worker issue. This week the UFW and labor advocate Rep. Howard Berman introduced legislation that would allow 500,000 US field laborers to adjust their immigration status competing against a rival bill by Senator Larry Craig supported by the Farm Bureau.
The biggest hurdle, says farmer advocate Manuel Cunha of the Nisei Farmers League, is that growers would have to pay the "average wage" in the state that could be according to the UFW more than $7 an hour compared to the minimum wage of $6.25. Labor officials have long argued that "there is no labor shortage" in the Central Valley and paying the higher wage will pressure farmers to hire locals before they bring in a new workforce.
Congressman Cal Dooley opposed the Craig bill and will be in the district next week in Fresno Aug. 6 and in Bakersfield Aug. 9 to air out the issues. Meanwhile Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas) still stands in the way of allowing guest workers to remain here permanently even as Bush looks for some middle way. Gramm argues that Mexico must rejuvenate its own economy.
Berman's bill would allow illegal farmworkers who work in the US at least 90 days in the last 3 out of 4 years to receive permanent status. The Craig bill suggests a threshold of 150 days in each of four years during a six year period - hoping to keep the worker in farm work before their status is adjusted. In the Berman bill immediate family members are eligible but not in the Craig bill.
Without a new compromise over Guest Workers the immigration reform impact here is less clear.
However, the wave of immigration from Mexico to the Central Valley is likely to increase not decrease. Not since the wave of Dust Bowl immigrants came to California in the 1930s has the area been impacted so. Between 1935-40 Tulare County's population increased by 38% and Kern County by 63%. They too were "migrants" who settled here and changed the flavor of Tulare County forever.
Now Tulare County according to the 2000 Census is nearly 51% Hispanic. Whatever color or origin, many immigrants are poor. Census figures show a statewide high of 40% of children below the poverty line, and unemployment rate of 14% in the middle of harvest season. Hospitals are going out of business because they can't handle the workload of a poor population without adequate reimbursement and our schools are overcrowded.
With 50,000 of our residents non-citizens - that means they aren't voting and remain in the civic background. Will adjustment of status allow immigrants to hold their heads high buy homes and start businesses, send their kids to college and run for city council? Or will a Guest Worker program bring an endless supply of temporary workers that will dry up the work of the people already here and help inflate what is a large underclass here.
Those are tough issues that will affect Tulare County in the next few years.
San Joaquin Valley - The EPA, the state Air Board and its own citizens want clean air in the San Joaquin Valley. The EPA is in the process of reclassifying the San Joaquin Valley to a "severe" non-attainment area for the one hour ozone standard. To help clean up our own air the San Joaquin Valley Air Board recently approved new Smog Check II programs including Visalia that will help reduce 3 tons a day of ROG (reactive organic gases) and NOx emissions - precursors of smog.
But last week David Crow, executive director of the Valley Air Pollution Control District, wrote the California Air Board that while the Valley is ready to do their part to clean up smog, the Bay Area should as well considering their industrial and automotive pollution flows downwind in the Valley.
Even as Valley bronchial asthma is twice the national average and the American Lung Association lists our own Tulare, Fresno and Kern counties as some of the worst in the nation with some of the lowest per capita income to manage these health concerns, the Bay Area is exempt from doing Smog Check II test on their cars.
Even as farmers are being asked to cut air pollution and the government considers whether to regulate emissions from farms in the future, Bay Area's 4.5 million vehicles could be carrying out the same emission test as Valley residents will now be mandated to take - a move that could cut another 9 tons a day of ROG and NOx.
Studies over the years have determined smog from the Bay Area makes up from 10 to 30% of the Valley's bad air problem and car owners from the Bay Area - typically far better off than their downwind neighbors - should be able to cut their own pollution.
The new EPA mandate will push the Valley to cut emissions by 30% - a painful slash for an area trying to attract new industry for jobs.
Farmer Manuel Cunha says "it will take the legislature" to mandate that the Bay Area follow the same rules the Valley does and pleading to the Air Board won't be enough.
Just exactly how much the Bay Area contributes to our problem will be clear when the Central California Ozone Study is complete.
Besides tuning up their cars, the upwind counties the Valley Air Board is asking the state Air Board to make the Bay Area follow the same rules we must on aqueous solvent degreasing. The Bay Area board currently exempts engines less that 250 HP by the Valley Board is asking that rule be lowered to 50HP like it is on other air districts. Regarding New Sources of Air Pollution the Bay Area rule is less stringent than the Valley's. For example, the Bay Area has a trigger now of 15 tons per year for new polluters but the Valley's more stringent rule is 10 tons per year.
The Valley Board points out that since we are under the gun by the EPA to show how we are supposed to meet the new 30% reduction by May 2002 - the Bay Area needs to adopt Smog Check II that takes up to two years to implement. The Valley will be expected to reach their 30% cut by 2005 under the current schedule. That means decreasing hundreds of tons of home grown pollution as well shaking our finger at the folks to the north.
World-Wide Sires Sold
by Miles Shuper
Visalia - The sale of World-Wide Sires Inc. a privately held company and an international leader in export of bull semen will be finalized next week, according to company officials.
The company, to be known as World Wide Sires, Ltd, will remain in Visalia and maintain its headquarters at Mission Oaks Plaza at Highway 198 and Akers, according to Bill Schouten, who will become the CEO of the new company. Schouten, who has been with the company for 15 years, served as vice president of marketing. World Wide Sires was purchased by a partnership of two other industry leaders, Select Sires of Ohio and Accelerated Genetics of Wisconsin. No sales price was announced. WWS has annual sales in excess of $15 million.
Bill Clark, who founded the company in Hanford in 1971 and served as president, will retire along with Rich Denier, executive vice president and general manager. Schouten has been appointed to lead the new company. World Wide Sires is the leading exporter of U.S. livestock semen and has represented U.S. Studs Accelerated Genetics and Select Sires in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Oceania. It does not trade in North or South America.
WWS markets the top two bulls in the world according to the International Type Production Index (TPI) list released by Holstein Association, USA. Marketed by WWS,. the two bulls anchor the most complete sire line-up in the world, according to a company news release earlier this year.
Schouten said the only change in local operations will be the transfer of the shipping department, a one-person operation, to Ohio.
WWS moved to Visalia in September of in 1997 building its headquarters which anchor the Mission Oaks Plaza.
Porterville Carpet Maker To Expand
Porterville - Porterville's Royalty Carpets will expand their plant in the next few months adding more than 42,000 sq. ft. to their 200,000 sq. ft. facility already there. Plans for the expansion have been filed with the city.
Plant manager Dennis Johnson says the Irvine-based company already employs about 210 workers and would add at least another 30 jobs with the expansion. In business in Tulare since 1978, Royalty Carpets is one of the West coast's largest independent manufacturers of carpet. The Porterville facility spins yarn that is shipped to Irvine where it is woven into carpets.
Johnson says the "good news" of the expansion comes just when Porterville received the bad news of the coming closure of Standard Register right next door to the yarn mill. "We're facing higher electricity costs in the state just like Standard Register did," says Johnson who understands that the higher power prices were a factor in the closure of the printing forms plant.
Johnson is concerned about a pending bill in the legislature that would benefit Edison but rise power rates for large users like Royalty by 40%. He says he hopes the legislature does not pass SBX278. Johnson says besides the electricity problem, he is concerned with the fact that it remains hard to get good workers for their plant "people who want to show up for work." on.
New Housing Units Up More Than 50% In Kings County
Kings County - New single family homes being built in Kings County jumped 40% for the first six months of 2001 compared to a year before. Some 304 new single family homes received permits through June 2001 compared to 223 for the first half year of 2000. Also, 44 units of multiple family were permitted in 2001 and none the year before. Adding the two that's a jump of more than 50%.
In Tulare County total units went from 833 to 910 in the latest half year. Values increased from $140 million to $157 million for the first half of 2001.
According to the Construction Industry Research Board the state level of building has fallen 23% from the year before in residential units and the total sales has declined over 14%. Still single family permits statewide are up 9% from the year before for major MSAs. Year to date the San Joaquin Valley is up 14% on new housing units while southern California and the Bay Area are both down. The Sacramento area continues to boom up 19%.
Wings Over Tulare County
by Tiffany A. Breen
Tulare County - The generation of today is often incapable of putting a realistic face on the not too distant struggle that was the Second World War. Today the men who fought for the freedom of the world are associated with Tom Hanks and Ben Affleck because they are the stars brought to the collective memory of the magicians of Hollywood. The real face of war is to be found on those brave men and women who gave their lives, sacrificed their comforts, or worked in the manufacturing industry to help protect the sanctity of the freedom enjoyed by the Western world. Over eighteen thousand of the brave souls who beheld the horror of World War II began their journey into battle in Tulare County as cadets at either Sequoia or Rankin Fields.
Sequoia and Rankin Fields were primarily training schools owned by civilians. These schools provided Army Air Corps Cadets with their first sixty hours (or nine weeks) of basic flight training and were the initial step in becoming an aircraft pilot.
The need for civilian owned schools arose in 1939 when Europe went to war. At the time that the war began the Army Air Corps had the resources to train only 750 pilots a year. The idea of starting civilian owned training schools to help defray the costs and increase the capacity of the Army Air Corps was initiated by a man named Hap Arnold. Under his guidance the War Department issued contracts for a total of sixty-two civilian owned training schools in the United States. Twelve of these primary schools were in California and two were in Tulare County.
Tex Rankin, the president of the Motion Picture Pilots Association, signed a contract to open a training center in December of 1940. By February 1941 training flights began at Mefford Field outside of Tulare while construction began on Rankin Field. To build the school the residents of the city of Tulare raised $300,000 to help defray the costs of procuring the land and initial construction of the buildings.
On March 17, 1941 Rankin Academy, located east of Tulare, opened its doors to its first class of cadets. In October of the same year Sequoia Field began operating outside of Visalia.
The proprietors of Sequoia Field were Lloyd and Gladys O'Donnell. Lloyd, a pilot, inventor and the operator of an aviation school in Long Beach owned the first airplane manufactured by the Claude Ryan Company. Gladys O'Donnell was herself an instructor having taught at the Civil Aeronautics Authority. She was also a famous aviatrix and the first woman in Long Beach to obtain a pilot's license. In 1937 she was the winner at the Amelia Earhart Memorial Race in Cleveland.
Sequoia Field began operating with a class of eighty-four cadets and over one hundred and twenty instructors. Rankin Field had one hundred and forty instructors. The cadets, or "dodos" as they were called when they arrived at flight school, were trained in the air at a ratio of one instructor to each cadet. That instructor would be the cadet's own personal teacher for the entire nine-week training period. On the ground, cadets had aerobic training and went to aeronautic classes taught by civilians. The training was very rigorous and the cadets were subjected to a quiz during class almost every day.
The cadets who trained at Rankin Field were taught to fly in one of two hundred Stearman Biplanes. At Sequoia Field the first two cadet classes flew Stearman PT-17 biplanes, but all subsequent classes flew PT-22s produced by the Ryan Aeronautical Corporation (as Claude Ryan's company became known). The PT-22s were nicknamed the "Maytag Messerschmitt" due to the washing machine sounds produced by the aircrafts' engine.
The schools facilities were run by Army officers and, aside from training, the services provided to cadets included mail, mess, medicine. At Sequoia Field the motherly advice and attentiveness of Mrs. Feleay was provided free of charge. The Commandant's secretary, she also sewed buttons, listened to woes, and found articles lost by cadets.
Entertainment was provided for the cadets and included performances by Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and in the summer of 1943 a revue performed in Tulare Union High School's Auditorium starring Jack Webb. Webb wrote and directed the show while training to be a pilot at Rankin Field. Jack Webb did not become a pilot but he did go on to become one of televisions' most famous and beloved cops, Joe Friday of Dragnet.
Rankin and Sequoia Fields were in operation from 1941 to 1945 and in the course of this time the two schools turned out a combined number of over 18,000 pilots. Nationwide a quarter of a million pilots were trained at civilian owned schools and at their height the schools were turning out pilots faster than aircraft could be produced for them to fly. Among those trained were two Congressional Medal of Honor winners, Captain Darrell R. Lindsay, a graduate of Sequoia Field, and Major Richard Bong of Rankin Field. Tex Rankin's son Dale, also graduated from Rankin Field and went on to fly P-38s over France. Dale was killed in 1944 in a dive bombing attack on a railroad in France a few weeks after the D-Day Invasion. He is buried next to his father who was himself killed in an airplane crash in Klamath Falls, Oregon on February 23, 1947.
Tragically, World War II claimed the lives of more officers who fought in the sky than those who battled it out on the ground. By the end of the war, 23,897 aircrew officers and 12,773 ground officers had given the ultimate sacrifice for the war effort. Not to be forgotten are the 34,578 army officers who were missing in action (of those 28,746 or 83% were Army Air Corps Officers).
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Sequoia and Rankin Field the men who trained at those facilities have been invited back to Tulare County for a Reunion Celebration that will occur from September 27th to September 30th, 2001. Included in the festivities are a number of events open to the general public, and among these are a History Forum at the newly refurbished auditorium of Tulare Union High School. There pilots will discuss their war experiences for an audience and a film crew that will document the evening for posterity's sake (the program will be aired on local access station belonging to Media One). There will also be the opening of the Toledo Military Collection at the Tulare Historical Museum, a non-denominational prayer service, followed by the dedication of the Captain Darrell R. Lindsay Memorial Park at Sequoia Field, and a book fair and author's lunch on the grounds of the Tulare County Museum in Mooney Grove Park. At the Book Fair a number of World War II pilots will be on hand to sign autographs and books.
For more information about the Sequoia/Rankin 60th Reunion Celebration please contact any of the following organizations: The Tulare County Museum (733-6616), the Tulare City Historical Museum (686-2074), The Visalia (734-5876) or Tulare (686-1547) Chambers of Commerce, or The Tulare County Veterans Service Office (733-6474).
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
August 1, 2001
