Four Power Plants For Visalia

Visalia - Colorado-based Mega-Energy Inc. is proposing up to four power plants for the Visalia area some of which could be on line to meet peak demand this summer.  “People have been very friendly,” says partner Greg Tropsa who has spent some time here.

Tropsa and CEO J. Scoot Hornafius met with the City of Visalia officials in the past two weeks.  “The company is pretty well along on their plan to site up to four plants here,” says Bob Nance planning official with the City of Visalia.

Nance says the company is proposing at least one plant in the Visalia industrial park, another on 198 south of Highway 99 at Rd. 60 where there is an Edison substation, one potential at the Visalia Airport and perhaps one more in the industrial park.  Each plant for sitting on 5-7 acres would generate 25 megawatts bringing the total capacity of the plants to 100 megawatts enough to handle the electricity needs of 100,000 homes.  That’s about the number of homes in Tulare County.

Nance cautions that talks are “very preliminary” but do give some hope that the Visalia area may get both short term and long term relief from the energy crisis that has plagued the state.  Rolling blackouts this week emphasized the point that the state does not have enough generating capacity to meet hot weather demand.

Governor Davis has said he wants to get some 5000 megawatts of new power on line by this summer - a plan many see as ambitious.

 But Mega-Energy’s Greg Tropsa says his company has been attending the meetings to site plants in Sacramento.
“This past week we determined there was enough natural gas supply to meet the needs of the plants,” says Tropsa who met with Gas Co. officials.  The state lead agency on siting new power plants is the California Energy Commission which has the absolute right to permit new plant on an aggressive 21 day permitting schedule.  But Tropsa says they want to be “good neighbors” and plan to run their plant(s) here long term and will go through local permit process.  “Everyone in the state and around Visalia have been very receptive,” he says.  Supervisor Bill Maze has also helped put the firm together with city officials.  The potential plant by Rd. 60/198 is in the County.
 It may very well be that some of the four plants could be temporary “peaker plants” but there appears to be a willingness to build long term as well.  Nance says the intriguing possibility is that a power plant in the industrial park could generate steam as well - being a cogeneration plant that would sell the steam to adjacent companies.  Nance says one possibility is to site a new industrial park around the plant with new companies who would come here because they want steam and low cost power that could be sold by “direct marketing” to the user instead of paying Edison to pass the power through the grid.

That’s exactly the plan in Hanford where GWF Power Systems is planning a 98 megawatt gas fired plant and is looking to attract a food processor next to it.  The steam leverages more economic development.

“Steam can be used to cool similar to the way a refrigerator uses electricity,” says Nance and could be used to provide cold storage for example.  The milk industry uses the heat to dry milk into powder.

Mayor Don Landers says he was aware of the company but that it was early in the game.  “It would be especially encouraging if they would dedicate that power to Visalia,” he says.  “I’ve told Steve (Salomon, City Manager) to explore the idea of a municipal power system or a partnering with a company to provide power to our industrial park.”  This week the City of Fresno and the local hospital up there began a potential joint use study of a new 50 megawatt power plant.

Mega-Energy is working on a couple of projects nationwide including wind power and natural gas fired turbines generating 10 to 50 megawatts.  They inject the power directly into the grid by locating close to a distribution current, says Tropsa.

Another cogeneration plant at the old Dinuba mill will crank up as soon as a buyer for the electricity is nailed down, sources say.

This week power outages across the state were caused in part by the fact that some 3000 megawatts of small power plants were off line for one reason or another.  Many said they could not pay their high natural gas bill due to the fact the utilities have defaulted on paying them.  The GWF plant in Hanford is off line for maintenance this week, says Riley Jones, the plant’s spokesman.

But, he says there is evidence the Governor has become convinced of the need to settle the payment issue for small power producers to get the plants back on line.  Many of the plants have not been paid since December.

That includes small hydro plants on the eastside including the plant at Terminus Dam and Friant.  Riley had complained that the State Department of Water Resources - the state agency who now buys power - would not return his calls.  But this week after the publicity in the local media, Jones says the agency has returned calls and there is discussion of a possible peaker plant to help meet this summer’s electricity demand.

But Edison manager Glenn Cardonella says that besides the problem with small producers, some 8000 more megawatts were off line on Monday, March 19 when the state was hit by rolling blackouts.  He says that Edison’s entire load for that day was 12,500 megawatts.

School officials in Visalia were livid this past Monday when they got no notice of blackouts and couldn’t make  for plans for their school’s day.  But Cardonella says changes in the length of blackouts to one hour may help schools plan for students.  “It would be very hard logistically to exempt schools for rolling blackouts,” says Cardonella - a plan that schools area lobbying for.

Visalia Chamber executive director Ken Oplinger says the state under deregulation has ruled out “private deals” between generators and users and that’s part of the problem.  He believes we need to encourage more generation and free market buyer-seller relationships and that will help get more on line.  “The legislature and the Governor are still pointing fingers,” says Oplinger.  He says the state needs more power generation.  “Texas permitted 22 new plants during the same time California permitted none.”

Locally he says he is encouraged if the industrial park were to gain a power plant but doubts by this summer that the state will get the relief Davis hopes.

One California supplier, Duke Energy, has suggested they did not think California has enough supply to meet expected demand this summer.  Duke Energy’s James Donnell told a conference this week that complaints and investigations that Duke and others were price gouging “were lots of wasted time and energy and money.”  The state will require 66,000 megawatts and we only have 55,000 says US Energy Secretary Spencer Abrams.
Duke Energy plans two 600 megawatt plants in Avenal the Valley Voice reported last issue.

While Kern County generates lots of electricity due to their old oil and steam use Tulare County has only a few very small power plants.  “We have to look at the self sufficiency issue,” says supervisor Bill Maze that should include all types of fuel - even “small nuclear” power, he told the Voice.

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Exeter - Weyerhaeuser Company, the world’s largest private owner of soft wood timber, plans to put some of that product in a vacant Exeter plant to make corrugated boxes used in the ag industry.  The company has purchased the 194,000 sq. ft. warehouse on Anderson Rd. near Exeter and will gear up production in the next two months according to company officials.

The plant will hire only 30 initially but plan to be under full manufacturing mode within the first year hiring 150 to 200 workers.  The company is making an estimated $10 million investment in the big facility that the paper products company is buying out of foreclosure.  The big warehouse was one of the Workman Industries plants that closed.
Weyerhaeuser plans to make tri-wall boxes used in food processing and the produce industry. Visit Costco or Vons and you will see the big boxes used to display watermelons or ship lettuce.  But the boxes have amazing strength, says a spokesman who declined to be identified.

The boxes can be used to ship tomato paste weighing 300 lbs. while the container itself will weigh only 85 lbs.  The boxes can be stacked four high and are about a third of the weight of wooden cartons cutting costs for customers.
The manufacturing plans will work in terms of workers making boxes from roll stock shipped in by rail by San Joaquin Valley Railroad.  Workers will make a wage that can support a family plus full benefits, says our source.  The company’s main local competition is International Paper who recently bought the Union Camp plant in Hanford.  Top management is already at the new Exeter plant  - some of whom have worked at the Union Camp plant.
Officials want to thank realtor Doug Burr who handled the lease/sale of the property for the company and Karen Ford of the Tulare County Economic Development Corporation and area member of the Board of Supervisors Bill Sanders.

Weyerhaeuser already has a small machine shop near Farmersville that maintains packaging equipment.
The company had nearly $16 billion income last year and unlike many other materials based firms, had earnings ahead of expectations.  Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) is based in Tacoma Washington.  The new operation is a growth opportunity for the economy rather than a replacement of existing products, says an area official.  “Our customers are here” from the citrus industry to tomato operations.  “The reason we want to be in operation in a hurry is the seasonal nature of the business,” he says.

That means the company is targeting the coming harvest.  They expect to make more than one million boxes at the new plant this year.

“The day we visited the manager was unconcerned about power problems giving the big Butler building has a natural sky light, it keeps coolness because of good insulation with natural gas powered forklifts and all managers on cell phones.”  The bee hive atmosphere at the plant shows the promise of a major new company for our area.

“It’s taken quite awhile to get them in here,” says broker Doug Burr.  “I’m just glad they picked Tulare County.”

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Supervisor Bill Maze says the project to expand the Artesia Ready Mix plant on Dry Creek and the widening of the Dry Creek Road itself has been stalled for close to two years now because of 11 elderberry bushes along the route.  “We can’t get an answer from the US Fish and Wildlife Bureau of how we can mitigate the loss of these plants” - habitat for the endangered valley elderberry beetles.

He says that “we only recently were informed there was a mitigation bank” that the County could tap into to move forward on the project but that it required purchase of mitigation property in Kern County and maintenance of that site where elderberry bushes grow - in perpetuity.

“We’re lobbying them for a way to remove those plants, especially when there are plenty of them nearby in the area,” says Maze.  Janet Hogan, the County Administrator, says the County would like to offer a mitigation plan locally rather in Kern County.

Construction projects and developments that wipe out wetland and endangered species seek locations to mitigate these takes.  For the third time CalTrans has used Kaweah Oaks Preserve to mitigate projects including takes of elderberry beetles most recently at their bridge widening project near Cutler Park and the widening of 198.  At the site on 198 near Mehern Dr. they plan to wipe out a small wetland and will need to find a place to save or restore wetlands.

That in part has set in motion a plan to expand natural areas that can be used as development mitigation banks in the future, says naturalist Rob Hansen.  “We’ve got a meeting this week at the Kings Tulare line to possibly establish a new preserve,” says Hansen, that could be used for riparian and wetland mitigation needs.

This next month the Sierra Los Tulares Land Trust plan the dedication of the new 725 acre Herbert Preserve on 137 (set for April 7th) between Tulare and Lindsay.  The vernal pool wetlands area cannot be used for mitigation purposes because the land was bought with public monies.  “It would be like double dipping,” says Hansen.

The Allen Group’s big Mid State 99 industrial park in Visalia will displace some wetlands on their property across from Frito Lay and need a place to buy mitigation land in order to develop the land there that is home to the endangered fairy shrimp.  The Allen Group needs to find a place they can mitigate in order to move forward on the development.  The developer has been working with Hansen.

In the meantime, the search in on for other potential preserve land and the land trust is talking with other land owners east of Visalia to possibly buy other natural lands.

“I guess I worry that we’ve become nothing more than a mitigation bank for development,” says activist Brian Newton who sees value in preserving wild lands as an end in itself, something Hansen would subscribe to as well.
A long term hope of the conservationist is to tie riparian corridors together - to have a continuous ribbon of natural lands that will allow species to thrive.  The same effort is happening in the Tule watershed where the land trust is negotiating to add some 4000 acres to the trust near Porterville.

In the case of the Valley Elderberry Beetle who has seen 90% of its historic habitat wiped out in the past century, the only habitat left is scattered locations along the Tulare, Kaweah, Kings, San Joaquin, American and Sacramento river with Tulare County being the southernmost extent.  The reestablishment of species includes replacing the bushes in places like Kaweah Oaks where volunteers keep the weeds off and establish drip lines to keep the bushes alive.

Interestingly, the possible lining of the TID canal involved a taking of some 54 elderberry plants if the canal was lined.  TID was to pay into a Beetle Mitigation Fund to take out the bushes.  “We found out about the fund from TID,” says the County Administrator Janet Hogan.

The beetle lives only in stream side woodlands.  While it’s easy to love big, beautiful endangered species, this little insect has some beauty to it as well.  The bug is scarlet with black spots and has a dramatic pair of curved antenna that match the length of his body.

In related development, the building community is getting behind the notion that they can contribute to the upkeep of local preserves.

Architect Bill Hobbs has completed plans for a new open air classroom/restroom complex that would become the new Kaweah Oaks Visitor Center at the preserve when completed.  Hobbs is lobbying local builders to contribute to the project that would replace the visitor kiosk that was intentionally burned down some years ago.  He is optimistic that the industry will get behind the project.

The relationship between the development industry and the conservation movement in Tulare County has been growing not just because each need one another to get their work done.  Many like Hobbs and builder Mike Lozito serve on the boards of the conservation groups and volunteered their time last week at the annual cleanup of Kaweah Oaks.  The board members come from many private enterprises including farming and the professional community.

Speaking of Kaweah Oaks - check out the preserve’s web site www.kaweahoaks.com.  Volunteer Irene Lindsay has done a spectacular job assembling the pictures and descriptions of the plant and animals you can expect if you visit the place.  On the bird listing you can actually listen to the sound the birds make.  Photography is just spectacular.

For more information about the Sierra Los Tulares Land Trust phone 738-0211.  The land trust owns and manages Kaweah Oaks Preserve, Herbert Wetland Prairie Preserve, Lewis Hill Preserve, Circle J Norris Ranch and Double Eagle Ranch.

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Fleming spokesman Randy Hatcher said he could not comment except to say that the two sides are “in discussions.”  Hatcher said while the big food company continues to move into retail stores, the majority of its income still comes from the grocery wholesale business.

The deal which will become final at the end of April involves two stores in both Visalia and Fresno and one each in Clovis, Hanford and Bakersfield, according to Greg Whitney, vice president of the Whitco, a family owned company, Whitney, vice president of marketing,  said he expects no major changes for the approximately 900 workers in the seven stores.

The sale affects only the Food 4Less stores.  The Whitneys retain the Nickel’s Payless stores in Woodlake and Farmersville and the Whitco Transport Inc. trucking company. Industry sources say Fleming, which already operates about 30 successful price impact stores in Northern California, Utah and Arizona, is in an expansion mode buying its franchised Food 4Less stores from its independent  owners such as Whitco. There have been no indications whether there are negotiations for three other area Food 4Less stores in Selma Madera and Merced owned by Visalian Joe Gong.

Fleming is the number two U.S. wholesale food distributor in the U.S. ranking second only to SUPERVALU. Fleming supplies branded and private-label grocery and non-grocery items to approximately 3,000 retailers, mostly supermarkets, drug stores and speciality stores. It also supplies independent under the company’s’ franchised names IGA and Piggly Wiggly.

Last month Fleming signed a deal to become Kmart’s sole foods and consumables supplier.

Leonard Whitney, who began in the grocery business in 1946, shortly after WWII, opened his first Food 4Less on Mooney Boulevard in 1987, before expanding to Hanford then adding a second Visalia store on Ben Maddox. The net addition was in Clovis and Fresno where Costless stores became Food 4Less stores. A second store was built in West Fresno. The last store was in Bakersfield. Whitney said Whitco had been working on plans to open two more Valley stores, a second Bakersfield store and one in Delano. He said no land purchases had been made.

The pending sale certainly does not take Whitco companies out of the grocery business.  Under consideration is a remodeling of the  Nickels Payless store in Woodlake Plaza, owned by the Whitneys and the operation of the Farmersville store. Whitco Transport, Inc., will continue to operate as a for-hire trucking company as well as for its Payless stores, according to Gregg Whitney. Whitco Transport, Inc. owns 13 truck tractors and more than 40 trailers, he said. A large grocery warehouse in Goshen owned by Whitco Foods might be leased but no decision has been made.

Greg Whitney, who has been in the grocery business since age 14, said the decision to sell the seven stores “was a difficult one but was made because it seemed to be a sound business decision.”  He praised his companies employees who have helped make the local Food 4Less stores so popular due to their hard work and loyal to the company and its customers.  Whitney said he is confident that Fleming will continue to make the stores an important part of the community and provide the same level of service and community involvement.

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Visalia - Visalia Unified’s new northwest elementary school - the only new elementary school that for now will be funded by the state matched with local bond money - could be the first Visalia school with modular construction on all new classrooms.  That’s the word coming from members of the Bond Oversite Committee who visited a Fresno school site in recent weeks using the modular design.  “These are not portables or trailers” cautions Mike Cannon consultant with school facilities Planning & Management, Inc.  The buildings are partially prefabricated off site and put in place when needed.  That’s true with the modern industrial design as well using so-called tilt-up walls to speed construction.

When the modular schools are completed the look of the classrooms is close to so-called stick-built schools, says Cannon.

In the meantime, approval process is vastly sped up, architectural and engineering work is cut and construction time can be as much as 20% less.  The Department of the State Architect (DSA) that often requires months to approve construction drawings can approve modular design plans “over the counter,” says Cannon.

He says the schools could be built for several hundred thousands less using modular design.  The classrooms have a 40 year useful life.  Unlike portables, the buildings are permanently in place and not built to be moved.  The state recently relaxed rules schools must follow on how much of the school site can be built with other than traditionally designed construction.

“We’d be hard pressed to find a reason not to do it,” says Bond Oversite Committee member Debbie Hill.  Noting that it would be the board of trustees decisions in the end.  The classrooms have little similarity to the so-called trailers in place today, says Hill, including none of the current problems plaguing portable trailer classrooms around Visalia.

The groups’ chair agrees.  Ken Oplinger- the Visalia Chamber executive says he wants to convince teachers those modular buildings are not just a saving for the district but a place  teachers will feel comfortable teaching in. “We need to take to take teachers up to see these classrooms.”

Hill says she expects the savings on the new elementary school at Ferguson near Demaree might be able to be used for needed modernization projects around the district.

The new elementary school was the only new construction project (besides the new high school) approved by the State Allocation Board last September when the priority rule for new school construction changed with L.A. schools pursuing successfully for rule changes that clearly moved their projects high on the priority list.

Using the modular design, the new elementary school could be built months earlier than its completion date now set for July 2003.  The new school is one of the top priorities adopted by the board because of the growth in new home subdivisions in the city’s northwest and to assist in taking the pressure off of other crowded northside schools.

Elementary schools have 26 classrooms that with modular design can be laid out in pods and connected with a breezeway if needed.  Other buildings on the campus, like administration and multipurpose buildings, are typically built the old fashioned way even on totally modular campuses.

The use of portable classrooms in California has skyrocketed in the past decade according to the California Auditor General.  In 1991 about 1.2 million attended school in portable buildings.  By 1998 that number increased to over 2 million.  Helping to push school districts to install portable buildings has been the need to repeatedly increase school teaching space to accommodate class size reduction in the K through 3 grades.

While portables have been attractive because they sometimes can be leased by a district and they can be pressed into service quickly, the result has been plenty of schools with a hodge podge of trailers for a campus - some deteriorated and frankly some ugly school sites, admits a recent study.

But that is not the case with to the similar modular designs which as you can see don’t seem to have the same karma.

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Visalia - Pressed by Visalia officials, Senator Jim Costa has offered to put together a meeting here to consider what steps would be need to be taken to establish a four-year college in Tulare and Kings counties, says his spokesperson.  “We said we would host the event in the next six weeks,” says Larry Sheingold.  “We want to be sure to get the rest of the local legislators to come,” says Sheingold.  Visalia mayor Don Landers says he met with Costa last week and was encouraged by the fact Costa was at least willing to hold a meeting to talk about the potential to start up a new college through the Cal State system.

Landers has made the lack of a four-year college in Kings and Tulare counties one of top issues and has written to the governor about the dearth of educational opportunities here.  Landers says he hopes COS officials and Dr. Welty from Fresno State can meet with the legislator as well since COS already has over 400 advanced placement students taking FSU courses at the COS campus.  “My understanding is that all you need to begin the organizational process for a CSU is 500 students.”

Landers has also been working with the University of California system to site a 5000 to 7000 sq. ft. UC Extension center in Visalia and has some encouragement from Assembly member Reyes on that front.  The city offered to house the center in what would be a third floor of the new city transit center.

Sheingold does not offer much hope for quick action from the legislature because so many projects are shelved right now due to the extended energy crisis.

Still, for the first time, Sacramento may look at the fact that Tulare and Kings counties are the last region in the state to get a four year college.  Because of that Landers has said that the two county region faced a brain drain and the glum reality that our kids that go off to college don’t return.

He also pointed out that the County lacked any representatives in Sacramento who actually come from here.  Maybe they struck a chord.

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