Visalia's Lumberjack Will Close

Visalia - The parent company of the Visalia Lumberjack will close and liquidate all of their 73 stores including all 12 in California over the next few months. The liquidation of the Payless Cashways chain based in Kansas City was announced August 29. The company is negotiating with two companies to buy the merchandise and hold a going out of business sale within the next few months. Earlier it had hoped some interim financing could keep the doors open, at least on some outlets.

Payless Cashways announced a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing June 4 and hoped to reorganize allowing some of the stores to remain open. The filing was the second such bankruptcy in 4 years.

But with this latest announcement all stores will close and the remaining 5000 employees, including some 65 in Visalia, will lose their jobs.

The company stock has fallen from $3 in February 2000 to one cent August 31.

The store operated under several names in 17 states. Stores in Bakersfield, Clovis and Fresno will shutter as well. A few months ago the chain had 8000 employees and 128 retail stores. In their most recent financial report the company said revenues fell 39% during the first half of the year hurt by bad weather and tough competition from both Home Depot and Lowe’s recently. The company lost over $58 million during this period.

Another competitor, Home Base, closed their doors including a store in Visalia leaving more market share for Home Depot and Orchard Supply who sell some of the same products. Lowe’s has said it wants a Visalia location and is lobbying the city council for a spot just south of Packwood Creek on Mooney Blvd. being developed by Don Orosco. They are pushing the developer to move the project forward to open next year.

Lumberjack followed some other retailers to a south Mooney location past Mooney Grove accessible to Tulare along with Visalia area shoppers in the mid 1980s. But today Tulare shoppers can reach the larger, more modern Visalia Home Depot store in just about the same travel time.

The tough competition in the home improvement marketplace has hurt some small town hardware and lumber stores in the past decade and now another major retailer as well who wasn’t as well capitalized as its larger competitors.

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Face-Off Over Private Hospital

Visalia - Kaweah Delta Hospital has appealed a Visalia Planning Commission approving of a conditional use permit for a 20 bed private surgery hospital - a partnership between approximately 25 Tulare and Kings doctors and Fresno Surgery Center.

Now the Visalia City Council will hear the appeal likely in early October. Among other things the appeal suggests that the impact on public health was not properly assessed as required under CEQA. Aside from the technical issues Kaweah Delta’s new CEO Lindsay Mann says the private surgery hospital “will have a $3 million hit” annually on Kaweah Delta’s bottom line. Surgeries are a profit center and help “cross subsidize” many nonprofitable programs delivered by Kaweah Delta to the community.

The figure is far higher than a study commissioned by the proponents of the private hospital that shows only a $500,000 “bottom line impact” on KDDH from approximately $8.2 million to $7.7 million revenue in the year 2005. Proponents of the Visalia Surgical Hospital says their project will help stop the current leakage of patients out of town. Also, as customers of medical equipment and business supplies, they will contribute some “$12 million to the Visalia economy.”

But Kaweah Delta suggests the new hospital will mean “more have-nots” coming to Kaweah Delta even as “more haves” go to the Visalia Surgical Hospital.

“Despite their claims they take MediCal patients the average hospital in the state sees over 18% MediCal and Fresno Surgery Center on which hospitals modeled, see under 1% MediCal.” Mann says part of the issue with the physicians partnering with Fresno Surgery is the matter of docs on-call to the emergency department. Some of these physicians won’t take calls at the ER and “will give up their privileges at Kaweah Delta” if this center is built, says Mann.

“That could mean more of the load to be taken by the rest of the physicians.

Most importantly, a loss of $3 million “might mean we can’t invest in many of the unprofitable services we invest in now because of the great community need,” says Mann including Alzheimer day care, pain programs, breast center, renal service and adolescent services and threaten programs like the mobile doctors office and the Good News Clinic that the hospital currently funds.

But Dr. James Billys points out that Kaweah Delta itself assumes there will be major growth in the medical marketplace over the next few years with estimates that bed counts needed to serve the people here could reach over 800 with less than half that available now. Visalia Surgery Hospital is only proposing to add 20 beds.

Billys points to high levels of patient satisfaction at the Fresno Surgery Center recognized in recent days by the PEP-C project, Patient Evaluation of Performance, in California, in which FSC got three stars while most valley hospitals including KDDH got two stars. “It looks like we picked the right partner,” says Dr. Billys.

Visalia Surgery Hospital is modeled after the private, hotel-like environment seen in the Fresno Surgery Center with a high one-to-three nurse-to-patient ratio.

Tulare District Hospital administrator Bob Montion says the proposed private surgery hospital in Visalia “will affect us too,” but “we have decided the best approach is to compete and increase our own patient satisfaction levels.”

Now the Visalia city council even if they are sympathetic with Kaweah Delta’s situation may be hard pressed to find a legally defendable reason to reject a health care project on land properly zoned based on the fact the competition will hurt Kaweah Delta.

Lindsay Mann says he still hopes there is some middle ground on the surgery hospital noting that they, too, see a market for such a center. Kaweah would like to partner with physicians but there is a strong sense this particular group wants to be independent.

How will the city council handle this hot potato coming just as KDDH is finalizing its decision on whether to expand in downtown Visalia as the council is hoping or relocate the hospital to as yet to be identified “new dirt.”

While the district is leaning toward expansion downtown, Mann emphasizes that the decision has not been made.

Recently Mann, Steve Solomon city manager, and Don Sharp representing the Downtown Visalians Alliance wrote a letter to our Senator asking them to support a $6 million expenditure for new parking garage downtown.

In addition Sharp wrote a letter to Solomon in mid August suggesting the Downtown PBID district was holding some $650,000 most of which was to be used “to keep them downtown” by buying lots next to the KDDH core area for more parking. In addition to that, businessman George Ozounian has suggested to some that the parking lot along Acequia in the block he owns might work for a parking garage near KDDH.

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County Gains Clout In Congress

Tulare County - Tulare County would be represented by one Congress member if a new district - proposed ironically by Democrats in Sacramento - holds forth and the state gets a new 38th Congressional District. The proposed district covers all of Tulare County and much of eastern Fresno County. About 58% of the population is in Tulare County.

The designation comes as a result of the 2000 Census in which the state gained one new congressional district - now up to 53 seats. The 38th appears to favor Republicans and may have come about through some horse trading in Sacramento over a new seat in L.A. that would favor Democrats. The Republicans end up with the same number of seats (20) while the Democrats would gain one - a formula that smiles on incumbents who after all were the ones who drew the maps. Portions of

Tulare County are now represented by three Congressmen, all who would continue to represent neighboring areas with this new seat open - having no incumbent - encouraging a rush of politicians to suggest they might be interested.

Visalia Mayor Don Landers who had lobbied Sacramento to allow the county to have one representative in Congress was “ecstatic” hoping to gain political clout in Washington. “All I did was write one letter to the Governor,” says Landers - a Republican. “My hope would be we would end up with someone from Tulare County.” Landers had long suggested that Tulare County have its own Assembly seat - something that appears to be happening as well. New boundary lines for the state Senate also give Tulare County a triple political coup.

While the new redistricting lines have been proposed, we may not know until mid September if the current boundaries will be adopted. The Governor is expected to ratify the decision by the end of the month. The primary for the next election would be next March.

That the district favors Republicans can’t be doubted. The registration advantage is 47% Republicans to 38% Democrats with around 11% Independents. For the past decade Tulare County has turned Republican after it was nearly 60% Democrat for decades (61% in 1960). But in the last election the new district’s larger cities, Visalia and Clovis, went 2 to 1 for Bush even as he was losing the state. All five members of the Board of Supervisors in Tulare County are registered Republicans.

On the other hand, both eastern Fresno and Tulare counties have a growing Hispanic population that continues with a 43% population but far lower in the voting registration.

The Hispanic voter tends to be Democratic, but there is a huge number of Hispanics in the county who are not even citizens - much less registered to vote.

Names mentioned as likely aspirants include: Republicans - Chuck Poochigian, State Senator from Fresno; Devin Nunes, USDA office from Tulare County and Mike Chrisman, Edison Regional Manager from Tulare County. The favorite is Poochigian who is the strongest politically, but does not have roots in Tulare County - the district’s population center. Some of his fellow Republicans say they won’t run against Poochigian if he decides to be a candidate.

Many candidates for office are able to persuade would be competitors that running against them would be a waste - part of the posturing that goes on in times like this. Tulare County Sheriff Bill Wittman has no opposition this next race after two potential rivals dropped out, for example.

On the other hand, some believe the district has a good opportunity for a middle of the road/conservative Democrat given the surge in Hispanic population here in the last decade.

Not that the Latino voters are sure bets to vote Democratic “the GOP will be out there fielding their own candidates and signing up Hispanic voters,” suggests Joe Altschule a local Democrat.

Indeed the Republican party is working to field new Brown Republican faces - guys like Rich Rodriguez who lost to Cal Dooley. Visalia city council candidate Joe Rigo Trevino is being pushed by GOP interests as a new kind of Hispanic Republican.

“For us it looks pretty bleak in the short term” unless some ideal Hispanic candidate who is Democrat who has broad appeal - “a guy like Fresno’s Juan Arambul,” says Altschule. Altschule says the name he has heard as a likely candidate from Tulare is Chrisman. “I wish he was Democrat but he seems well qualified.”

Mike Chrisman told the Voice this week “I am considering both a run for Congress and for the Assembly. I should make up my mind in the next 10 days to 2 weeks.” Chrisman says “Tulare County has been waiting a long time for this” with now a good chance for a Tulare County based candidate for Congress and the Assembly. In the Assembly seat nearly 70% of the population is from Tulare County. Chrisman says he wouldn’t mind running a Republican primary “where we could debate the issues” and expects because of the strong Republican registration that “the big race will be the primary.” Expect candidates to raise $750,000 to win, he says.

An increase in new registration is likely with immigration reform, some believe. The latest census estimates there are 70,000 Hispanics that aren’t citizens living in Tulare County alone.

Democrat names that have been tossed around include Visalia vice mayor Jesus Gamboa and Porterville city council member Virginia Gurrola and former VUSD board member Louie Montion.

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Tulare Plant Will Begin Construction

Tulare - US Cold Storage bought 60 acres of industrial land more than a year ago but because of the “complexities of the deal”, not to mention a full blown energy crisis in the state, the building plans were not sealed until this week. “We are breaking ground in the next few weeks on a new 86,000 sq. ft. dry storage plant, part of a 600,000 sq. ft. cold storage facility” for the long term, says VP for the California Region, Rod Noll.

The company plans to invest around $70 million at the site upon building out, he says, and add some 125 employees.

On the remaining 30 acres, US Cold Storage is talking to potential food manufacturers to locate a plant, potential customers for the firm’s vast dry, frozen and cold storage business. “The fact that we are bringing in a rail across Levin in the industrial park and the proximity of Highway 99 makes this a choice location,” says Noll.

The first phase of the project is expected to be built by next February - a dry storage plant for powdered milk relocated from a facility they now rent from Land O’ Lakes. That facility is being converted into the new cheese and protein plant on Paige.

The first phase of the new US Cold Storage plant will employ 20.

The California energy crisis helped spook expansion plans in the state as companies evaluated what was happening earlier this year. Noll says the company brought in temporary portable power at the existing 200,000 sq. ft. US Cold Storage plant in Tulare after threats of blackouts concerned the company. But now the crisis “seems to be behind us,” says Noll.

US Cold Storage stores, packs and ships goods for food companies. The Tulare plant, run by plant manager Brian Ford, has maxed out its building phases prompting the company to look for new land to expand on a block to the west of their existing facilities. The company has major facilities in Fresno and Bakersfield. The firm is owned by the Squire Group of London, England.

Part of the expansion that took some time to complete were talks with the city of Tulare, the city redevelopment agency, the Tulare Industrial Site Foundation and the railroad over the cost to do infrastructure, including the new rail spur, sewer line and the extension of Walnut Ave. into the property - the former General Foods land.

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Visalia Talks To Cal Poly

Visalia - Cal Poly San Luis Obispo officials last week toured the new Heritage Complex in Tulare as part of discussion with the AgriCenter over a possible satellite campus in the central valley. “They met with them in the afternoon but they had tea and crumpets with us in the morning,” says Visalia mayor Don Landers who would like to see the college establish such a center in Visalia.

“We showed them the new Bustamante Center operated by Visalia Unified” that would have the space and high tech equipment including video conferencing needed by such a facility.

Cal Poly has had discussions with the Tulare project in part because AgriCenter general manager Gary Shultz is working to make educational offerings - particularly ag based instruction - part of its high profile International Trade Center cluster. The Heritage Complex, too, has space and high speed Internet capability.

But Shultz says one potential roadblock is the proximity of the Tulare Airport to any future college campus. While Cal Poly wants to start with a limited class offering in the area, it may well expand to nearby portable buildings setting up a potential conflict depending on how you interpret it. Consultant Lynn Dredge says the colleges themselves have to define if there is a conflict. The county has a policy of not having schools near rural airports. “We’re going to have to have some discussions with the airport folks,” says Shultz.

Landers for his part, has made attraction of higher education to Visalia one of his top priorities. He has lobbied Sacramento to fund a UC Extension center in Visalia at a new city owned building under construction next year. The AgriCenter is part of a new effort to attract a federal empowerment zone to be announced in January and building more educational opportunities is part of the package. COS has joined with the AgriCenter in part because it hopes the zone will help pay for a new sewer line that would connect to the new COS campus east of Tulare. That campus was sited to the east of Mooney and north of the AgriCenter in part because they wanted to out of the airport fly zone in Tulare.

Tension over the future of the Tulare Airport helped scuttle an expansion plan at AgTAC in Tulare a few years ago and some mending of fences appeared to smooth the issue out. But now the AgriCenter has a new master plan that covers hundreds of acres that would be developed in the future right off 99 meaning that more urban uses are headed for the airport area. In fact, the city is marketing the old airport hanger area next to 99.

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Travel Agents Get Squeezed

By Miles Shuper

Visalia - Major airlines are trimming commissions to travel agents who say they have had enough of that and are trying to do something about it.

Last week local travel agencies joined hundreds of others in closing their doors for two hours in what they called a "Nationwide Day of Awareness." With their copyrighted battle cry of "Without a travel agent, you're on your own," travel agents claim the airlines are driving them out of business by cutting their compensation and raising their costs.

Christine Rowan, owner of Christine's Travel in Visalia and Christine's United Travel in Hanford, said the major carriers "just keep cutting and cutting and we keep doing their work and they are not paying us enough to even cover our costs. We can't do it for free."

On Aug. 17 American Airlines and its recently acquired TWA affiliate announced they were cutting travel agent compensation to flat fees of $10 for a one-way ticket and $20 for round-trip tickets for flights within the U.S. and Canada. The payments had been $50 for round trips and $25 for one-way. Airlines already had trimmed the compensation from a 10 percent pay back to 5 percent. A week after American's cut United and Delta joined the action and other airlines are following.

The American Association of Travel Agents (ASTA) action, called Operation CARE (Campaign for Agent Rights and Equality), was geared to "raise awareness of the airlines attempt to deprive consumers of their preferred method of purchasing air transportation and their only source of neutral price and service options. Travel agents are crucial to ensuring that consumers continue to have access to a range of travel options and that competition in the airline industry is preserved."

Tami DiGirlamo, manager of First Value Travel in Visalia, said a $2,000 plus first class round trip ticket used to bring the agency $200. That was lowed to 5 percent with a $50 cap. That same ticket now will garner only $20, far from being enough to pay costs.

"We have been shafted by the airlines one too many times," she said, adding that travel agencies are pushing more tours, cruises and packages instead of dealing with air travel alone.

Barbara Berkson, manager of Lewis Travel, called the latest cuts by major carriers "bully tactics" charging that the airlines don't care how much the cuts cost travel agents and are, in fact, "trying to eliminate all kinds of competition" by running travel agencies out of business. "How anti-competitive can you be?", she questioned.

Selma Evans, a veteran of more than 32 years in Visalia, can attest to how hard it is for agencies to stay afloat. Visalia Travel, founded in 1959 by the now deceased George Richardson, closed its doors on Friday, July 13, of this year. Evans now works at Lewis Travel with Berkson.

"Unless you are big, big, big in the agency business or have a tremendous volume, it is almost impossible to survive." she said. Evans said at one time agents got up to 15 percent on airline tickets but the cuts started coming in the 1970s. Even at 5 per cent, agencies could at least break even on the sale of high dollar tickets but the current caps of $10 and $20 just doesn't cut it.

Evans said most all long-time clients are loyal and don't mind paying a service fee which most agencies now charge to make ends meet. She agrees with her fellow Visalia agents that selling travel packages and cruises is about the only way to stay in the black.

Meanwhile, Berkson and others are sending off letters to Sen. Diane Feinstein seeking her support of a bill to protect airline passenger rights as well as protect for travel agents. being sent by hundreds of travel agents, support for passage of a bill to protect travel agents is sought.

Rowan, Berkson and DiGirlamo and Evans all agree that even with many travelers using the Internet to make flight arrangements, many still use travel agents to confirm or double-check facts.

DiGirlamo said it is common for people to surf the Internet, then come in with a print out and ask us agents to confirm it or double check to see if the info is correct. "We do the work and don't get paid, "she said, adding that those who buy on the Internet get electronic tickets and have nothing tangible at the air port.. "You are stuck with no recourse," she said, adding that so many flight delays, cancellations, and over booking the consumer is too often left nearly helpless.

Rowan agrees saving that travel agents are crucial to ensuring that consumers continue to have access to a range of travel options and serve as the only neutral source of information and counseling regarding an "incredibly complex array of fares and services.

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Three Rivers Rest Stop To Begin Construction

Three Rivers - The long time plan, spearheaded by the Three Rivers Historical Society, to build a Rest Stop - Visitor Center in Three Rivers appears to be nearing the construction stage. TPG vice president engineering Marcai Vierra says the group's funding is already in place from the federal government will be tapped by December and bids will go out to start work on the 3 acre center. "We expect to have about a 120 day construction period," says Vierra meaning the new complex could open to the visitors for next summer season.

The visitor center will include the remodeling of the historic Bequette House just south of the Historical Society Museum on 198 and the construction of a modern rest room facility as well. "We hope to have kiosk signage as well" directing visitors to sites on the way to Sequoia Park. The house dates from the turn of the century.

Helping to push the project forward was recent agreement by the county to allow the use of long term maintenance to be sorted out over the next few months. The county is the lead agency on the project and there is some talk the local CSD may become involved.

The new center would be adjacent the town's museum (now with its statue of Paul Bunyon in place) providing both culture and comfort to the visitors of this foothill community.

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Medical Groups Fund Nurse Lab At COS

Visalia - In need of some $57,000 to upgrade a skills lab at College of the Sequoias used to train new nurses, the college applied to the state for the funds earlier in this year but because of the energy crisis and budget cuts, the program was turned down.

Enter board member of the Tulare County Medical Society, Dr. Charles Boniske, a group so worried about the nursing shortage in Kings and Tulare counties they figured they had to do something themselves.

"We approached Kaweah Delta and asked for $15,000, Sierra View $5,000, Tulare District $5,000 and Adventist Health in Hanford $5,000 and kicked in the remaining $27,000 from the Medical Society." "Now they can get their new lab" key to training skilled nurses.

"We want to get the word out to everyone that nurses, even those with a two year junior college education, can make good money, $25 an hour to start, and get across that nursing isn't just a female thing." That includes visiting our high schools to get the message out to consider nursing, he says.

COS offers a 4 year degree as well, where LVNs can upgrade their skills to the RN level.

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