Winter Road Closure Could Shut Sequoia Resort

Sequoia National Park - Already stung by trip cancellations from the typical fall influx of European tourists to Sequoia Park, the concessionaire of the new Wuksachi Lodge - Delaware North is considering closing the 100 room resort this winter if the park service doesn't follow through on efforts to keep the Generals Highway open to Fresno. "The Park Service knows how we feel," says general manager Tom McFadden, "but they haven't given us any indication one way or another," he says. In the past the NPS has said they didn't have funds to plow the loop road.

Already the concessionaire has closed some services at Lodgepole that would usually be open this time of year because of a 60% falloff in business at Lodgepole.

National Park spokesperson Peggy Williams told the Voice this week that the Park Service is "considering the request" on maintaining the road during the winter months. However, Williams says that the concessionaire has a contract to provide year-round service. "We are doing nothing differently than we have in the past," says Williams, maintaining the road between the two parks but allowing it to close during the dead of winter. Over the past few years the road has been closed one year for 20 days, one year for 60, and another for 100 days depending on the extent of snowfall, she says.

Williams says a meeting between the concessionaire in Kings Canyon and Sequoia as well as other interests is looking for ways to make it happen. Williams acknowledged that "recent events have hit tourism nationwide" prompting a high level look at the issue here. New parks superintendent Dick Martin may make a decision in a matter of days.

At the nearby Wuksachi Lodge vacancy is not that bad because the company did an $89 a night advertising blitz in the Los Angeles market after the September 11 terrorist attack spooked travelers from climbing aboard airplanes.

Nearby Three Rivers - the gateway to the Park - is feeling the pinch as well. "My business is off 65 to 70%," says Tom Marshall who heads up The Reservation Center in town bringing tourists and available rooms together. Marshall says European visitors typically account for about 20% of their business this time of year, so it is more than this group who is deciding to stay home during this unsettled time.

Marshall is a vocal member of the Three Rivers merchant group who is also lobbying the Park Service to keep the loop Generals Highway open this winter and has enlisted the help of Congressman George Radanovich's office to help the Park Service find the funds to keep the 7000 ft elevation road plowed between Grant Grove and Wuksachi.

"If you add this problem with a continued delay in opening the Giant Forest Museum you have fewer visitors coming to the park this winter," he says. The Park Service had hoped the museum would be open in July but it still isn't open and there is no opening date set.

Regarding upkeep of the loop Generals Highway road between Wuksachi and the Grant Grove the Park Service historically hasn't kept the road plowed during heavy snowfall months. That keeps travelers from visiting Wuksachi from the Fresno route up Highway 180 limiting the visitation. Delaware North has been lobbying the Park to encourage more winter recreation uses and improve winter access to help boost the profitability of their investment and encourage expansion of more rooms and services. The lodge has been open only one season after the removal of more than 400 rooms in the Giant Forest area over the past few years to protect the Sequoia trees.

Congressman Radanovich's aide, Debbie Hurley, told the Voice that Radanovich's office has been working on a multi jurisdiction solution to the road clearing problem. She says the state - CalTrans - may enter the picture in part because clearing the road would open up the forest between the two parks to recreation along with business at both National Parks, private business in the national forest include the popular resort Montecito Sequoia that is also snow bound each winter and has difficulty getting customers to their lodge. In addition Hurley says visitors can't access snowbound recreation play areas during the winter because the road is closed. She says she is hopeful a solution can be found.

Sequoia visitation spikes in the summer for a few months but most of the year the place is pretty quiet.

Regarding the fact that the museum is still not open, the Radanovich aide says opening the museum is clearly a part of the mission of the NPS and hopes it won't remain closed all winter.

Regarding Giant Forest Museum Williams says there is a dispute between the Park Service and Buddy Jones Contracting of Visalia over whether the parking lot the company built is complete. Jones told the Voice that he completed the parking lot across the street from the museum months ago but that the Park Service had brought out two different punch lists of items to complete the work but there is no agreement yet on whether the job is acceptable.

Jones says "I'm very proud of the work." Jones was the contractor on the restoration of the Giant Forest area that removed a million sq. ft. of asphalt and around 300 buildings to protect the Big Tree's shallow root system. The Museum is the old market - one of the few buildings that were restored and expected to be the main visitor information complex in the famed Giant Forest. But now this dispute has kept the doors shut despite the fact the place was to open about mid summer. Rumors were that the park will now wait until spring to open it. Jones says he "made some mistakes" on the job but that he feels they have been corrected.

Marshall says while Three Rivers business is starting to come back, visitors aren't coming from as far away as they used to.

Indeed, there is a 34 million population within a day's drive of Sequoia Park and a very small percentage of that number have ever seen a magnificent Giant Sequoia. "This is just a wonderful opportunity right now," says Marshall, "for locals too."

The falloff in foreign visitors has hit big Visalia hotels, the Radisson and Holiday Inn, hard say management officials, each with a large number of available rooms this week. Meanwhile other areas are hurting as well including Las Vegas where the $1.2 billion Aladdin casino filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Friday. Fewer visitors to Visalia hotels is causing empty tables at Visalia Downtown restaurants as well.

In California and the nation the tourism industry and the state itself is pushing more nearby road trips to make up for skittishness about flying. Governor Davis announced a $5 million marketing plan in the past few days to get Californian's to travel around the Golden State. In San Francisco over 35% of the hotel and restaurant workers have been laid off recently.

The Visalia airport, too, felt the slowdown with commercial flight operator Sky West who offered passengers to LAX American Airlines cut the number of daily round trips from 3 to 2.

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Private Surgery Hospital Gets OK

Visalia - An overflow crowd at city council chambers heard Kaweah Delta Hospital lay out a strong case to deny a conditional use permit to a private surgical hospital based on its bottom line impact on Kaweah Delta. But it wasn't strong enough to persuade the council to deny the permit who heard impassioned pleas the suggested "Visalia should have a choice of where to get health care." The council voted 5 to 0 to reject KDDH's appeal of a Planning Commission approval for Visalia Surgical Hospital.

Currently Kaweah has no direct competition for most of its hospital services and Dr. Jim Billys, a partner in the new 21 bed hospital, suggested that the much larger Kaweah Health Care District had its hand in scores of medical ventures including a number that were partnered with out of town companies. "We want to do a small thing here," says Billys in following the model of Fresno Surgery Center, their 50% partner in the project. Billys cited high patient and employee satisfaction surveys to show that such a "hospitality based" center like surgical this hospital would prove popular with Visalians.

Kaweah CEO Lindsay Mann says he doesn't dispute the private hospital approach is a good model, but that collaboration with Kaweah Delta rather that partnering with an outside group would be the best off all worlds. Kaweah says virtually all the profits in their system comes from surgical procedures and claimed at the meeting that if the new private surgical hospital took away 20% of the surgical uses in town that would have a 30% impact of Kaweah's bottom line. KDDH may show a net income of $8.2 million, some $4.8 million of that goes to pay long term debt.

While a study commissioned by the new surgical hospital suggested the fiscal impact on Kaweah Delta during the first full year of operation would be around $500,000, KDDH chief financial officer Gary Herbst says private pay patients carry the Medi-Cal and Medicare patients who pay less and that the private surgical center would take the cream off the top leaving the tougher less profitable cases in the laps of the public hospital.

If the new surgical hospital took 50% of the surgical cases from Kaweah it would take $3.6 million from the bottom line or 76% of all the net income from Kaweah, they suggested.

In addition, KDDH raised the issue of docs on call implying the 25 local doctors all partners with the new surgical hospital - all specialists - may choose to drop their privilege at Kaweah leaving the remainder of physicians on staff to carry the load in the ER. Only a few specialists in some fields are available to handle emergency cases. To retain privileges at Kaweah, the docs must take call. But Dr. Billys suggested that in the case of Fresno Surgery - the model of this project - out of 300 physicians there was only 1 that had withdrawn privilege from the community hospital there. Pressed on this issue Billys said physicians "would continue to cover the ER."

Billys made the point that the surgical hospital was small by comparison to Kaweah with 21 beds compared to 358 and the Kaweah was often full. In addition he pointed to plans to expand the bed count as high as 893. "This is a David and Goliath issue," one speaker told the council. Billys pointed to the fact that given the location of the proposed surgical hospital in the Mission Oaks office park, that "this is as large as the hospital will get" at 21 beds providing assurance that there will be limited competition to Kaweah.

That idea struck home to council member Jim Harbottle who said if Kaweah was not ready for some small competition now, when would it be ready?

Council members emphasized that this was essentially a land use issue meaning that there needed to be a higher threshold of expected harm coming from the approval of this project from them to vote against it.Council member Bob Link remembered when "Visalia Fair was about to open and Downtown merchants had to become better at what they did and have succeeded." Wendy Rudy suggested that the council "had to set aside their emotion" and make this land use decision. Jesus Gamboa emphasized the fact that "competition is good" in health care too. Mayor Don Landers said he would agree making it a 5 to 0 vote.

The new hospital still has to go through years of permitting through the state before it can begin construction. Dr. Billys says the project will employ over 100 people.

The purchase of land from Bill Clark will likely help fill Mission Oaks office park with other medical specialties.

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Kaweah Delta Ready To "Move On"

Visalia - Kaweah Delta Hospital CEO Lindsay Mann was disappointed by the city council action this week to turn down the district hospital's appeal of a plan by a private physician group to site a 21 bed surgical hospital. The council voted 5 to 0 to deny Kaweah Delta's appeal of an earlier Planning Commission permit approval. Disappointed by not bitter, recognizing that "the city council had some tough choices to make and we accept their decision," Mann says the district is ready to "move on" saying that they would not challenge the private hospital's approval in court.

"We would like to have it (the surgical hospital) be a collaborative effort," says Mann, an idea pushed by some city council members at the meeting this week turned down with a terse "no" by lead partner Dr. Jim Billys after being asked if there was any chance to negotiate with KDDH.

Now the hospital returns to the many other matters on its plate this fall including an expected decision by the board "within the next few months," says Lindsay of long term plans for Kaweah Delta.

The latest news on that is that the hospital's task force met with KDDH medical staff on their options September 24. Lindsay Mann reports that the staff consensus was that the hospital not try to manage two hospital sites preferring to develop "in the downtown area" - a suggestion that will be weighed by the board.

Mann says plans to expand Kaweah Delta's busy emergency room - approved by the board some months ago - "remains on hold while we decide the long term facilities issue." The hospital is expecting as many as 55,000 to 60,000 ER visits this year, says CFO Gary Herbst, even as more hospitals are closing their ERs. The number of new visits "are startling" says Herbst.

Also planned in the Downtown area, the new Heart Institute - a joint venture with Tulare and Hanford hospitals as well as local cardiac surgeons has hired a consultant John Goodman and Associates to push the project forward.

As a result of the city vote allowing development of this new competitor for Kaweah Delta - at least for short stay surgical procedures - Kaweah itself continues to study the prospect of opening such a facility themselves, says Gary Herbst. A task force headed by Dr. Victoria Gerkin is looking at adding a surgical hospital to the Cypress Outpatient Surgery Center.

Lindsay Mann says the hospital will now have to "reevaluate programs" the district offers that require a subsidy given the fact they expect a reduced bottom line from the new surgical hospital once it begins operation in 2004. "We won't wait until then to make some changes," says finance chief Herbst. Lindsay Mann says the district could focus on "fiscal viability and quality of service."

Herbst has shared the fact the hospital might very well go for a general obligation bond to help pay for millions of dollars of expansion plans for the hospital and physicians think a downtown location will have a better chance of getting community approval. Herbst says one idea being kicked around is to build a new hospital "to the west" of the existing campus "like the city has encouraged us to do" that allows building to go without such a major disruption of the existing hospital campus. The hospital has said the choice was between rejuvenation of the downtown campus and "fresh dirt" - or a new site. But really there "could be fresh dirt downtown," says Herbst. On the other hand, the consultant group (hired by the District) has layed out a long term plan that essentially rebuilds Kaweah Delta without buying much more land than they have today.

Visalia city councilman Bob Link who has been vocal in supporting a revitalization of the Downtown campus idea says "there are tools we can use downtown like redevelopment" to help expand downtown. In addition the city is applying for a $6 million grant for a parking garage/helicopter pad to help KDDH manage patients and traffic - the biggest obstacles downtown. "Some wonder how we can manage 20 years from now when we have over 800 beds" in a tight urban area, says Herbst.

Apparently we won't have long now to wait for the board of KDDH to make a decision.

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Farmers Want To Know...

"Where's My Fiscal Stimulus Package?

Tulare County - The Bush Administration is balking at a large subsidy program in the latest farm bill package in Congress while word of a large overall $75 billion "stimulus package" to boost the rest of the US economy seems certain. Of course billions so far have been handed over to the airlines to keep them afloat. Add to that the uptick in spending for our military. But this week in the US Congress it appeared a bipartisan Farm Bill that would have cost $167 billion over 10 years would not pass muster with President Bush even if passes Congress.

Key to the Republican president's opinion is the pressure from the conservative wing of a party not to return the big subsidy policy of the past led by a new analysis by Secretary Ann Veneman herself.

"Many of the programs funded since the 1930s proved not to work well or not at all," she reported. In an about face in philosophy by 1996 Congress reduced ag subsidies from about $9 billion a year to $4 billion a year supposedly racheting down the Depression era price supports.

But the heartland and valley of California too is hurting in 2001 even before the shock of terrorist attacks slowed the entire economy.

As the nation eyes return to the values of Americans - Willie Nelson holds forth with a rendition of "This Land Is Your Land" - at a Farm Aid concert last week that called on the federal government to renew government help for farmers like they did for the steel and oil industry in WW2. "It's war time again, let's bring it back," said Nelson.

Some valley farmers say there is crisis in valley agriculture and most say they do need government help. "I think there is a security issue for America," says Manuel Cunha. "The two things we need to protect are our military and our food supply." "A shipment of foreign produce with the anthrax virus into the US could wipe out a huge number of people," he says. "We need to say to grocery chains that they should stop buying imported food from the US right now."

Consolidation in retail chains and the fact that more imported food is coming in the US has been a major target of California agriculture. Safeway just agreed to buy US grown lamb and not just Australian lamb recently although just how much is not clear. The surge in imported citrus may slow this week with a judge's decision to stop imports of Argentine citrus because of lack of study over pest threats. This summer central valley melon farmers didn't make money because of a surge in imports of melons and the fact that retailers set the price on produce too high to move the fruit, they say.

Farmers here want better inspection of Mexican produce that doesn't have to meet the same high standard the US growers must meet.

The upshot is that many California farmers would be happy if the federal government took a more activist role in maintaining a level playing field for producers and forgo big subsidies.

Still the bottom line is that US farmers must get paid for their product. Farmer Tony Oliveira has a new book coming out called "2025" a fictional tale that takes place when we must import virtually all food because there are no local farmers. The book suggests the US could be held hostage under these conditions. Again the word "security" come to mind.

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Devin Nunes To Run For Congress

Tulare County - Tulare County dairyman Devin Nunes will quit his USDA job to run for Congress in the new 21st District he announce this week. Considering the Congressional District is 47% Republican to 38.5% Democrat, the March primary is expected to be the big race. Nunes has the support of supervisor Bill Sanders who says he has decided not to run after all. "I'm hoping we have a good chance to elect a Republican Congressman from Tulare County," says Sanders, "with the support I see coming to Devin, I think he can win."

Two Fresno area Republican candidates have suggested they might run, former mayor Jim Patterson and current Assemblyman Mike Briggs. The district covers all of Tulare County and the eastern portion of Fresno County. Some 57% of the population is from Tulare County, however.

California's Governor Gray Davis signed the new United States 21st Congressional District into law last Friday. Devin Nunes is the first candidate to announce his intent for this seat. "Devin has the experience and local support to represent all of Tulare County and a large portion of Fresno County on Capital Hill," said local farmer John Corkins.

A native of Tulare County, Devin Nunes is currently serving his second term on the College of Sequoias Board of Trustees. In April Nunes was appointed by President Bush to serve in his Administration as U.S. Department of Agriculture State Director for California. Devin Nunes resigned from his Federal position on Tuesday to pursue full-time his campaign.

As a local dairyman and businessman, Nunes understands agriculture and the issues facing our Valley's rural communities; "I understand the issues behind business and agriculture...I've grown up with them and lived with them all my life," said Nunes. "Government has to be run like a successful business," Nunes continued.

As an elected leader Devin Nunes has a thorough understanding of trade, water, education, and unemployment issues that challenge the Southern San Joaquin Valley. According to Tulare County Supervisor Connie Conway, "Devin understands our issues first hand. I'm happy to have someone from our area in this position."

At 28 years old, Devin would not be the youngest noting also that Bill Jones was elected to office when he was under 30 as well. "I wasn't too young for President Bush to appoint me to his job," he notes, and George Radanovich was elected in his early 30s. Nunes says he expects to raise about $400,000 to be competitive in the upcoming race.

Sources say Fresno candidate Jim Patterson is shopping for an apartment in Visalia so he can run from this district as well.

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Maze Will Run In New Assembly District

Tulare County - Supervisor Bill Maze of Visalia will run for the new 34th Assembly District, Maze confirms this week. "I've got the full endorsement of all the Board of Supervisors," says Maze who is serving currently as chairman of the board. Maze is a Republican in a district with over 72,000 Republicans and 60,000 Democrats the district is 32% Hispanic and 58% white, that includes about 70% of Tulare County. The district also includes Inyo County and portions of the desert region of Kern and San Bernardino counties. Maze is a farmer and building inspector by profession and has served on the Board of Supervisors for 9 years.

The 55 year old Maze says his top issues will be ‘the critical issue of water and the preservation of private property rights." Because of the strong Republican voter edge, the March primary may be Maze's biggest election although to date he has no announced opposition.

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Mining Projects Resurface

By Miles Shuper

Woodlake - Officials of Kaweah River Rock are leaning toward another try at expanding their surface mining projects in the Woodlake - Lemon Cove area along the Kaweah River, but this time on a down-sized scale.

David Harrald, general manager of the company, cautioned that no final decision has been made and said it probably "would not be until around the first of the next year" if a permit to mine rock, sand and gravel is sought.

A central issue is the claim by KRRC and other companies that if project expansions are halted, the Valley will face an even tighter squeeze on available construction materials.

In June, 1999, Kaweah Rock finally lost a 13-year battle to expand its excavation site and to establish a concrete batch plant on 815 acres contiguous to and southwest of the existing KRRC site. site east of State Highway 245 between Avenue 332 and the Kaweah River. That project was to extend over a 30-40 year period on the site commonly referred to as the Hannah Ranch..

When the Tulare County Board of Supervisors finally rejected that plan, largely in part because of its size, there were indications that a scaled-down proposal might gather more support.

If KRRC does opt to take a smaller bite in its expansion plans, county officials will find themselves facing two similar surface mining projects in 2002. with two companies claiming that the Valley is facing a critical building materials shortage if they are not allowed to expand their operations.

RMC Pacific Materials, Inc., formerly Lone Star, which operates a similar sand and gravel operation about three miles from KRRC's current site, already is seeking to expand its mining on 137 acres of a 496-acre site with reclamation to a lake and grazing land. A rock crusher is proposed in conjunction with other on-site mining activities.. Last month a hearing on that application was continued by the Tulare County Planning Commission until Dec. 5. That project site is north of 216 between Dry Creek Drive and Highway 198 about one mile north of Lemon Cove and is referred to as the Stillwell Project. RMC Pacific hopes to mine up to 11.5 million tons of rock, sand and gravel producing roughly 6.5 million tons of marketable product. All overburden and waste materials would be stored on site to be used in final reclamation. The proposal states that annual production from the site would not exceed one million cubic yards. Screened and processed material would be trucked to the existing RMC Pacific plant for final processing via 25-ton road trucks making up to 300 trips per day.

In a separate but related issue, county supervisors this week directed staff to investigate the complaints of a property owner that the current RMC Pacific operations are damaging water supplies for his citrus and farming operations.

They said they would hire an independent investigator to see if damage to neighbors property has taken place.

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New High School Brings Boundary Changes

Visalia - The opening of the new El Diamante High School next year has prompted a reorganization of the feeder school boundaries at VUSD. A 28 member committee has been working since February on a plan that would reorganize just where elementary and middle school students go to high school in light of a number of factors. Assistant Superintendent Caryn Lambert and Redwood Principal Dan Leppek co-chaired the committee that is ready to offer recommendations to the Board of Trustees at their meeting Oct. 9th.

"We've narrowed the options from around 12 to 2 plans," says Lambert after numerous school site meetings around town. The group weighed factors that include the ethnicity of the schools, the socio-economic mix, transportation issues and assumptions that include a minimal disruption of current boundaries. Lambert says a key principle of the group has been to "keep the pathways continuous through middle and high school" meaning that elementary schools feed each middle school which feeds the high school. So for example, La Joya, being near El Diamante, would feed that high school, Crestwood, Goshen, Linwood and Veva Blunt students would feed La Joya.

The major difference between the two options is whether Pinkham kids go on to Golden West as they do today, or whether they go on to Mt. Whitney, a proposed option (Option D). Under this option Pinkham students would go on to Divisidero and on to Mt. Whitney.

Since the change could effect current Divisidero and Valley Oak 7th and 8th graders, those kids will be given the choice between whether to attend current or new boundary rules.

One factor in the reorganization is the ethnic mix of each high school. Under current conditions, Mt. Whitney is about 54% white. Depending on which plan is adopted takes it to 42% white or 37% white, Redwood falls around 30% white under both options while El Diamante which would start with its first 9th grade class only next year would fall in at about 55% white. Visalia's Hispanic population has been growing over the past decade while the percentage of white students overall has fallen.

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