Orosco Hearing Postponed

Visalia - The City of Visalia has postponed a scheduled February 19 public hearing and joint session of the council and planning commission to review the Orosco Packwood Creek shopping center plan. "We'd hoped to be ready but it looks like we need a month or two" to prepare the final EIR documents, says planner Mike Olmos. Causing a delay were suggestions offered by a number of comments from respondents to the draft document that Mr. Orosco ought to be forced to mitigate the loss of the 185 acre project by buying ag easement or land on a 1 to 1 basis. "Frankly that's the first time we ever had to deal with the idea of ag land mitigation," says planner Mike Olmos.

Olmos says this and consultant work done by the applicant with the need to respond to each comment offered in the draft is causing a delay in the hearing of the final EIR on the big project that could mean 1 million sq. ft. of retail space on south Mooney.

Besides comments on the effect on ag land of the development, the city got a number of complaints from city property owners and shopping center managers and developers had a consistent tone - adding 500,000 in phase 1 shopping center plan "will have a negative and devaluing effect on existing shopping center space," says a letter sent January 31 from Barrington Realty who owns the Town and Country Shopping Center on Mooney where the new King Buffet just went in.

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County Changing The Rules
Auto Mall Debate Brings Talk Of Tax Sharing

Visalia - Property owner Neil Kasbergen doesn’t fit the image of your typical dirt farmer who having toiled at his spread all his life - by coincidence finds himself if the way of progress. Coincidence doesn’t have anything to do about it.

No, Mr. Kasbergen is a dairyman -one of the larger ones and he doesn’t live on the 150 acres of farmland at the N/W corner of highways 198 and 99 - perhaps a future auto mall.

He lives in Chino mostly, although his son has a ranch near Tulare.

Mr. Kasbergen has a talent for buying land he feels will be in the path of development in the future. That’s why he owns this land and a sizable acreage just south of Packwood Creek on Mooney Blvd. as well land he has owned for many years. Another big retail project is planned there.

Mr. Kasbergen knows that there will come a time the land will develop because development pressure will make it happen. Just maybe 2002 will be his lucky year in both cases.

Kasbergen has hired Visalia consultant Bob Dowds to present a development idea to the county for the 198/99 piece he owns and with the help of developer Craig Mangano and two car dealers in Visalia, the County of Tulare is now clearly ready to listen. The concept: a large auto mall, maybe a truck stop and some fast food outlets.

Just a few years ago the Board of Supervisors citing the general plan turned down a proposal for a baseball stadium at the same site. Now they are changing the rules?

This week the board heard pros and cons for allowing a development plan to go forward on the farmland over the objections of their own Airport Land Use Commission, the City of Visalia and farm groups who object to the conversion of ag land to urban uses.

“We didn’t go looking for this project,” defends supervisor Bill Sanders. Visalia had a chance to work with the dealers. “They were unresponsive,” claims consultant Dowds “trying to shoe horn the dealers into a small spot on Ben Maddox.”

Everybody wins?

Highway 99 and 198 is where the car dealers want to be, says Craig Mangano “and if they go there and there is revenue sharing everybody wins.”

For one thing there won’t be a big battle over the remainder of the Visalia “scenic corridor” - the alternative spots the dealers are wanting to rezone inside the city, mostly along West 198.

Meeting this week the Board of Supervisors appear ready to launch the application that Mr. Dowds wants to make for a general plan amendment and zone change - an “application process” that is only beginning, caution Steve Worthley, chair of the Board of Supervisors. “You could end up with zero after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars” to file the plans, warns supervisor Bill Sanders.

By the end of the public hearing February 5th they decided to wait a week in part because they expect some feedback. “We expect to be badgered,” admitted board chair Steve Worthley.

“Frankly, one reason I wanted to wait a week were hopes the city and county would talk to each other,” confides Bill Sanders “about revenue sharing.” Sanders was completely open at the hearing about the idea of tax sharing, suggesting to Visalia city manager Steve Salomon that a formula could be worked out in which both jurisdictions could share only the growth on new revenues, if the dealers were to locate on the county land (the city keeps the existing sales tax level).

In fact, the County of Fresno has a rule ordering tax sharing in the case of a new annexation - one possible outcome here.

Sanders tried to get Salomon to commit to whether the city would object if the land was in the Visalia city limits? The Visalia city manager’s response was that the dealers are already being offered about 5 locations inside the city now. Some on West 198 are “under discussion” in any case.

Just what do the dealers want? “I get a room full of mixed signals,” says city council member Bob Link - not just from dealers but from everyone involved in this situation - “it’s very confusing”

Salomon says county and city staff “will probably talk” over the next few days about the possibilities favored by at least some council members for tax sharing. “I’d favor taking a look at it,” says Link. Mayor Jesus Gamboa said after this week’s county meeting that he would take a look as well.

A recent city sponsored study showed that if the two dealers who are working with Mr. Dowds - Razarri Ford and Surroz Dodge/BMW - left Visalia, locating outside the jurisdiction, that the city would lose $800,000 a year in sales tax monies.

Some say the county having been whip-sawed by the state on revenues, has no other place to go but this pot of revenue to both boost its own fortune and that of the people.

Spurring conjecture that the county is changing the rules on land development along Highway 99 was the annual “State of the County” speech offered the same morning as the auto mall hearing by chairman Steve Worthley. Worthley suggested that development in the unincorporated areas could help overcome tough times in the county’s rural unincorporated areas and small jurisdictions. Worthley said the county is working on a new general plan that could apparently allow development into places where it is not allowed now.

Supervisor Connie Conway of Tulare says that doesn’t mean they will approve lots of development along Highway 99. “We will be very focused,” where new developments are allowed, she says. On the financial issue Conway says trying to get the money for the county is not her goal in allowing the plan to go forward.

But Tulare city manager Kevin Northcraft says the auto mall idea on 99 “is a bad idea.”

Smart Growth vs. Dumb Growth

“It’s like smart growth vs. dumb growth,” says Northcraft. “Urban development like this belongs in cities,” says Northcraft echoing the comments of Visalia’s Steve Salomon.

“This is part of a philosophical collision between the city and county staff that has been going on for some time,” says Tulare city manager. Northcraft says the proof of what happens when the county develops an urban use is to look at county subdivisions with their lower standards. “The roads, fire hydrants, sidewalks and circulation patterns “are often substandard,” he says.

“We had an argument with the county over some fringe development next to the city and the county allowed a development below the standards we thought were appropriate.”

Conway and Sanders remind us that they turned down a plan for Horizon Outlet a few years ago at Caldwell and 99 prompting the outlet mall to be developed in the city limits of Tulare. That development helped spur a cluster of new investments in the city’s north end that continues to pay dividends today. “I would not vote to approve new development I thought damages a city,” says Sanders.

But if the county wants to develop more of the 55 miles of Highway 99 through the county, it will mean scattering some commercial uses that before may have been allowed only in the cities. The supervisors point to a deal that allowed tax sharing between Delano and the county at County Line Road recently that has resulted in some new development on the Tulare County side. “If we make a deal with a neighboring county, why not do the same with a local city,” says Sanders.

Conway points to smaller jurisdictions in the south county like Earlimart “that doesn’t even have a major grocery store” despite the fact is the size of a small city.

Dinuba’s city manager Ed Todd says he can see where the county is coming from “on urbanized corridors” in the county like 416 between Dinuba and Cutler-Orosi. “If the county came to me and said Walmart might want to locate between the two towns would I look at revenue sharing? I think we would.”

Former mayor of Visalia, Greg Collins says the county is not addressing the land issues involving the 150 acres, noting that the Williamson contract on the property won’t expire until 2010. In addition the Rural Valley Lands Plan has set criteria for converting ag land and he doubts this meets the threshold, a theme echoed by the American Farmland Trust representative John Miller. “There is 7400 acres of land they can develop in the City of Visalia,” he told the supervisors.

But developer Mangano points out this piece in unique being the crossroads of the two busiest highways in the area. “Studies we’ve seen says a dealer like Frank Surroz could expand his sales by 30% in short time,” and attract other car dealers that aren’t in the area now.

Others have suggested that car sales is not an impulse buy dependent on the fact that you drive by the dealership. In fact more sales are being done over the Internet, they point out.

After the meeting Salomon says “it’s clear to me that the board is likely to move forward on the application” but that doesn’t mean it will happen. “It’s not short and it’s not easy” to do such development, he says. In fact the city even as they wait months to see how this process works out may redouble their effort to find a place for the dealers they can live with within the city.

That place is unlikely to be Shirk on 198, however. While the result of a survey of chamber members in town won’t be released for a few weeks one tidbit is that more than half the respondents wanted no development at all at the Shirk/198 interchange. Like always the city must always look over it’s shoulder before it commits to a site.

In fact, there is strong support in town to keep the auto mall in east Visalia healthy - a place the city forced dealers who wanted to expand back then to locate. This week somebody went door to door in Visalia promoting this idea in a leaflet.

Nobody Leaving

Nobody who is at the Ben Maddox auto mall now wants to leave, notes mayor Jesus Gamboa.

At the time (late 80s), Razarri Ford had the corner of Ben Maddox and Mineral King in escrow to develop at that location. Later Mr. Razarri backed out leaving in his current rented spot on Garden St. Mr. Groppetti now owns the corner and says he is happy with the location. Recently Giant Automotive invested millions in a new showroom on south Ben Maddox - a place Mr. Serpa has filed plans for a new showroom as well. Some argue that this is the right place to locate the other dealers. The guys who have to lay down the money - Mr. Razarri and Mr. Surroz, don’t agree.

They say forcing them here cripples their economic chances to thrive limiting both visibility and good access. Even if the city wanted to expand in east Visalia “they are already $8 million in debt,” notes Mr. Mangano, referring to the redevelopment district.

Frank Surroz - also in a rented space on Mooney, wants to build in the next few years and says he is happy with an Akers and 198 plan the city recently floated as the “preferred alternative” by city staff.

The council is studying that plan and will discuss it jointly with the planning commission early in March, says Salomon. That site got selected “because Steve Salomon came to us,” says Basil Perch who works with Craig Mangano. They worked out a trade for some properties adjacent Mangano’s proposed shopping center at Akers that could accommodate 57 acres without crossing Roeben. Mangano would be the developer at this site as well.

The 198 site requires some annexation and is by no means a slam dunk in the city limits with opposition to any car dealers along the Freeway 198 entrance to town by a strong continent. Like Mr. Link says - a room full of mixed signals.

Will the city and county get together in the next few days on a tax sharing plan - perhaps an annexation? There may be preliminary discussion but the general plan process and zone change could take most of this year to allow “plenty of time to have those discussions,” says Salomon.

For the county’s part, Bill Sanders says they want to get the message across to the city that “we want to be your partners in growing the pie.”

“For as long as I can remember, there has always been this distrust between the county and the City of Visalia.”

But city manager Steve Salomon in his remarks pointed out that the city and county have been cooperating on just what chairman Worthley has been talking about - trying to improve the quality of life in Goshen with the hook up of the community to the City of Visalia’s water system.

“That was probably the single most important improvement for Goshen in a long time,” says the city manager helping to lure a major industry Western Meat Packing - a company now being challenged in the court - but a firm that could mean 200 full time good paying jobs.

Indeed the plight of the poor in Tulare County appears to be a bugle call for the supervisors who see Highway 99 development as part of the answer because of the down turn in the local ag economy. Sanders points out that many of the ills of the county are based on the seasonality and low returns ag offers its workforce. The county has been compared to Appalachia when it comes to median income here. But would an auto mall and a few more fast food restaurants help?

Tax sharing to expand the Visalia Industrial Park with Goshen’s industrial park may be a way to cooperate some believe.

While some would question another Walmart on Highway 99, fewer would worry about ag processing along the corridor as has developed in the Tipton/Pixley area over the past few years providing good jobs and added value to commodities already produced here.

Supervisor Jim Maples comments reflect a sea of change in attitudes toward development, land use and in revenue sharing.

“It’s one of the most important decisions in ten year,” he told the roomful at the hearing.

The next hearing will be at the Board of Supervisors chamber at 10:30 a.m. February 12. Reached at deadline council member Don Landers said he was “hopeful something can be worked out” with the county.

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New Downtown Plan For KDDH

Visalia - After more than two years of study on a long range facilities plan Kaweah Delta Hospital Boord says their “clear preference” is to stay and expand downtown in both the near and long term. “That will require a reasonable expectation that we can meet our master plan goals downtown,” says CEO Lindsay Mann.

Mann says the board of the hospital and Visalia’s city council will meet in the next month to go over the plan and see in what ways the City of Visalia can help. The council has been a strong advocate of keeping the major employer in the downtown area and expectations are high that the city redevelopment agency can assist in the plan.

Already the Downtown Property Based Improvement Distrct (PBID) has offered some $600,000 toward a new parking garage near KDDH that would also serve Downtown.

Not wanting to give up on an alternative plan however, Mann says the district will acquire an unspecified west Visalia property soon to use as a back-up for long range use and to develop it “if it is determined through range development objectives can’t be met in the downtown area”.

Mann says he will meet with Visalia City Manager Steve Salomon and Mayor Gamboa to go over an agenda for the meeting next week.

Mann says that the healthcare district has a “Short Term”-under five year and “Near term” – 5 year plan that will likely mean a new facility adjacent to Kaweah Delta in some 3 and half years. That facility could include the new proposed Heart Institute- a major expansion of cardiac services in a collaboration with other groups and hospitals - and more space for surgical services.

To meet both short term and near term needs “we need parking structures ” says Mann-maybe the top item on their wish list.

The hospital figures they need at least one parking garage within the next five years.

Mann says the hospital expects to expand its footprint both north and west of the existing campus. Speculation was that the city could also help with street abandonment if that could help unify an enlarged campus. It isn’t clear if KDDH might want the city hall block for expansion although the city council has said in the past the property could be made available. That would coincide with a plan underway to find a new civic center campus to the east - an effort that is expected to be finalized later this year.

Mann says the five services that need expansion are:
- parking
- heart institute
- surgical services
- maternity services
- emergency services

The decision to move forward comes at a time the healthcare district is under pressure financially yet experiencing increased demand for services in areas like the over worked ER (see story page 3). The hospital actually postponed a planned expansion of the emergency room about a year ago while it continued its facility study.

That study took twists and turns at one time suggesting the hospital needed 400 more rooms in the future and that a major financial push was needed to replace the existing campus. Now the sense is that the hospital can finance expansion over time incrementally – a strategy that makes the Downtown option more attractive. The district had always considered a Downtown vs. “fresh dirt“ option for a new hospital that will require upgrading for seismic rules. But now adding wings like building blocks appears to be the way the they want to go now.

Impatient physicians at the hospital have told Mann about their strong desire to remain downtown and have encouraged the board to move forward finally after this study has dragged on.

Not that the hospital has always got out of the city what they wanted. In the past year they struck out on efforts to derail a rival private hospital at a city council meeting and were rebuffed by awful court press to buy the 30 acres price at Akers and 198 the city has under contract to Westland Development.

Even more recently they tried to pencil in a new hospital site along west 198 in the current scenic corridor study. The city just released their latest “preferred alternative” plan on the development of their 2000 acre area doesn’t include a hospital site. Still this plan is a work in progress and could easily be a subject of negation at the upcoming joint meeting.

It’s clear from Mr. Mann’s pronouncement however that they still seek a site out there as an insurance policy even though that land may not be properly zoned and in the county.

It is likely that if they do buy another parcel that KDDH will work to sell the 100 plus acre they own at Caldwell and Lovers Lane – land bought in an earlier plan to have an eastside medical complex somewhere down the line.

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Ethanol Supporters Watching The Governor

Supporters of a locally grown ethanol industry are watching Governor Gray Davis for any sign he will back down from his commitment to phase out oil-based MTBE as a gasoline additive by the end of this year. As recently as late October there were signals he may do just that - extend the deadline to phase out the additive after he failed to get a waiver from President Bush earlier this summer.

The Governor tried to convince the federal government it didn't need an oxygenate like MTBE or crop-based ethanol added to gasoline to produce clean gas in California. But to no avail. Davis ordered the phase out of MTBE in March 1999 after it polluted ground water throughout the state.

Now state officials appear to be cautionary in their comments about moving forward with ethanol as a 10% additive to gasoline concerned about potential price spikes if there is a bottleneck in supply - something that could potentially happen this fall when Davis is running for reelection.

But support for jump-starting an industry in California from ag waste or home grown crops is gaining steam (see last issue of Valley Voice). Two local companies indicate they were interested in the possibility of an ethanol plant and now add JD Heiskell to that list who have put out the word there is room at their Pixley plant.

Before any major investment is made either in ethanol production facilities or organizing growers to grow crops like corn or sorghum to feed the plant, there must be some "certainty" to issue, says California Farm Bureau spokesman Jack King. "We support the possibility of new crop alternatives to cotton and others for central valley farmers," says King. King says the Farm Bureau has lobbied the Governor in recent weeks to stick with the announced December 31 deadline.

In the past the Governor has supported a biomass based plan to produce ethanol in the state, but now the Governor appears to be wavering on the bigger switch.

Neil Kohler, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association in California who owns a Davis-based company Kinergy Resources, says all arguments against moving forward on a major ethanol program for the state are bogus. "First they said there was not enough supply" but now the Midwest corn growers have assured them there is. "Then they said the logistics weren't there" to deliver the ethanol or the corn to make it here and "that is not true," they were shown. "Then they said the oil companies weren't going to be ready to blend it but oil companies say they are ready."

"The Governor is simply scared of his shadow," says Kohler.

Clouding the issue are concerns that the move to ethanol is simply a give away to the nation's biggest supplier, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), who call themselves "Supermarket to the World".

This week the Sacramento Bee columnist Peter Schrag tried to tie together ADM and Enron and says he expects the move to ethanol will be a boon to Midwest farmers but cost California consumers "close to half a billion a year."

Schrag's estimate comes from concerns that requiring 950 million gallons of ethanol next year could be a production and transportation nightmare. California produces only a few million gallons of ethanol so most would initially have to be shipped in.

But Kohler says he doubts there will be a price spike but wonders why Davis doesn't just order a reasonable phase in of ethanol in some portions of the state cutting the demand in half, for example. The Bee's Schrag says also that environmental groups are against ethanol and that the product when burned "increases the emission of smog producing and other toxic compounds."

Kohler says environmental groups like the Sierra Club and NRDC views on ethanol are "changing rapidly." He says that NRDC that Schrag said was against ethanol as an example just published "Dangerous Addiction - Ending America's Oil Dependence." The study's comprehensive strategy near and short term suggest "significantly expanding the use of renewable, non-petroleum fuels, such as ethanol made form crop wastes, by steadily increasing requirements for ‘renewable content' in gasoline." Kohler says part of the reason some environmental groups have a problem with ethanol is simply that "they don't trust production agriculture" and that charges that ethanol hurt air quality are just wrong. Kohler says the Bee's negative ethanol stance in the past may reflect the Governor's views.

But agreeing with Schrag's ideas are JD Heiskell's Butch Fisher who says the company may want to make ethanol if it pencils out but that producing it here would be more in line with politics than economics. Fisher who worked in the Midwest says political subsidies have more to do with using corn to make ethanol than anything else. The federal government gives a 54 cent a bushel tax break, he says. The economics works out with the subsidies "only if there is cheap corn ad high oil prices," he worries.

Still Fisher has a report that suggests making ethanol in California may be economical since it costs about 15 cents a gallon to ship corn to California to make ethanol. Making ethanol here could produce high quality feed byproducts for the dairy industry providing another revenue stream to producers. Still all the players agree - no one will move until the Governor makes a decision.

Kohler says the Governor could take the middle road by phasing in ethanol as the oxygenate in parts of the state "providing certainty" to new investments so that more of the ethanol could be made in the state. That certainty would help develop a crop base to supply the ethanol plants as well along with biomass options to use waste fruit and green matter to make ethanol here.

Senator Jim Costa is supporting growing the ethanol industry here with a bill that would provide at least $20 million to jump start some ethanol production plants in the state only if they did not exceed a 50% feedstock supply from out of state.

They expect to submit the bill before February 23 using funds that had been set aside for ag energy use, says Costa's aide Dennis Albiani.

State spokesman William Rukeyser, Cal EPA suggests the Governor is studying the situation closely supportive of the renewable energy campaign and California agriculture's strong interest but worried that the move "not sock it to the driving consumers with high prices."

If the Governor gives the green light not just the central valley counties are ready to produce ethanol. Yolo County ag leaders vowed this month to build an industry there an are meeting with their Board of Supervisors February 5.

In the central valley renewable fuel and power production got a hearing last week. One producer company, Sierra Industrial Group who has applied for financing from the California Power Authority suggested that the CPA plan to fund a total of 250 megawatts for biofuels would need 355,320 acres of new crops to feed the power plants.

Ag economist Ellen Burnes of Fresno State says she believes surplus fruit and other ag wastes could provide another source to make fuels and a new source of income for farmers as well.

"We could produce perhaps 30% of the state's needs with surplus crops," like raisins she says. "Right now we have a year's supply in storage."

"We already have the expertise and technology here to make ethanol," she says pointing to Sunmaid for example.

Rukeyser warns that producing ethanol from corn is "water intensive requiring 17 gallons of water to make one gallon of ethanol," he says forcing all California gasoline to have ethanol oxygenate is not "good science" since the industry can make clean gas without an oxygenate. He says that it has been shown that ethanol use is scientifically warranted in winter months to reduce carbon monoxide emissions and as an octane boost required by some cars. Unicol blends all its statewide gas with ethanol right now without any negative consequences.

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Biotech Oranges Under Study

Visalia - Visalia-based Citrus Research Board has launched a study of the use of biotechnology in citrus now that UC scientists have proven that oranges can be genetically modified. President of the CRB Ted Batkin says the organization just launched a task force to take up the issue related to oranges "now that we know we can do it." CRB helped UC Davis fund research completed last year, says Batkin, that successfully moved a gene into citrus in the lab. "The industry wants to be solving problems rather than just let the scientists take the lead," says Batkin who called the fruit biotech task force meeting last month.

Batkin says "the most promising avenue" for the research will be fight citrus disease with "Tristesa being at the top of the list." Tristesa is a disease that can reduce fruit quality and actually kill trees and is a major problem in much of Tulare County. The only cure - pull the infected tree.

"We want to examine the possibility of disease management," says Batkin. Other diseases include some xylella disease brought in by pests like the glassy winged sharpshooter.

Batkin says the task force remains "cautious" about any move toward a gm orange in part because of a high level of "consumer concerns" in the marketplace over other genetically modified crops. "We have some of the same concerns," admits Batkin clearly not wanting to scare the consumer away just in order to help production.

"Bearing that in mind," Batkin believes "the first gm orange to hit the breakfast table may be 20 years away."

The only gm crops widely grown in the valley today is some forms of cotton who utilize a gm seed that is tolerant to weed killer - a boon on the production end but not much appeal to some consumers. A similar controversy is brewing in the lettuce fields. "Round-up vinegarette" joked the Fresno Bee recently.

Among corn growers gm corn is controversial with a number of corn growers pointing out that foreign customers don't want the stuff. A Mideast study announced this week that farmers who use gm crops don't make anymore profits than those who don't.

Others suggest that worries about the process are overblown hysteria. Reports that gm corn killed monarch butterflies turned out not to be true, says these supporters and the whole Starlink controversy caused few people to get ill.

Still the consumer waits to hear why they should embrace the technology. With oranges - the very symbol of good health - the task will be a delicate one.

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Hungry Bug May Have Shipped
In From Mexico

Tulare County - Tulare County's chief entomologist Dennis Haines, says what has been a minor pest for citrus farmers in the past here has exploded both in numbers, plant hosts and levels of damage in just the past few harvest seasons.

The citrus peelminer is mining more than citrus these days, causing damage in grapes, plum fruit and walnuts, cotton, bell peppers and avocados. The change in number and appetite came after the 1998 freeze when the citrus industry here convinced the CDFA to allow in shipments of green oranges from Mexico into Tulare County's packing houses, he says "with live larvae from the citrus fields of Mexico." The critter is a native of the southwest, says Haines and is a pest in the Coachella orange groves where its damage is limited to grapefruit, he says.

"CDFA figured it was a pest we already had and therefore there "was nothing we can do about it." But once established here the pest's population in 1999 and 2000 seasons seemed to explode.

"We may have imported a different type of species of peelminer in the north San Joaquin Valley," suggests Kearney Field Station entomologist Beth Grafton-Cardwell. Now damage that yielded under 3% a few years ago has skyrocketed to damage as great as 70%, says Grafton-Cardwell.

Haines says the population of the pest may have grown when it came to Tulare County because of the wide availability of plants grown here. Desert insects can be opportunists "when they come to a smorgasbord crop like Tulare County," says Haines.

Right now micro biologists are checking the population of imported peelminers compared to the Coachella variety they see if this is a different bug. Haines says the results of the study might be available in the next few weeks.

Particularly troublesome is the fact the pest causes cosmetic damage on two big export items - citrus and table grapes. "It's possible that a live citrus peelminer could be shipped for export" since unlike citrus, the grapes are not washed and waxed.

If the pest is found overseas, that could limit exports, between orange and grapes its better than a $1 billion industry with the profits coming in exports.

Haines says so far no chemical has been found to control the population and introduction of a parasite wasp is just beginning. "Damage is worse where grapes or citrus is near other crops like cotton," he says. Damage to the walnut husks is something brand new, he says. Smooth skinned oranges are most vulnerable to the pest damage.

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Lindsay Vegetable Plant Hopes To Win USDA Appeal

Lindsay - Console Foods has spent only four months in business - eight years in its organizational planning stage and now three years trying to win a second chance to reopen their Lindsay frozen vegetable plant at the former Lindsay Olive facility after the vegetable company defaulted on a USDA backed loan.

Company owner Mort Console has been laboring to get USDA to allow a new loan to be approved with the understanding that the old loan would be paid off to both the lender, Hibernia Bank, and the USDA.

But Console has been thwarted by USDA's acting California Director Charles Clendenin and others in the agency who Console says did what they could to insure the company failed.

It's a strange allegation for an agency whose very purpose is to bring economic development to poor rural areas like Tulare County. In this case the company employed some 500 at least for awhile packing frozen spinach and other greens.

The USDA officials response was to suggest the company was a poor risk. But beyond that there was the implication of wrong doing by Console that has moved this case into the spotlight.

Denied on their new application last winter, the company had been working to appeal that decision and finally got their hearing in San Francisco in early December in a case that will be decided by the USDA Appeals Division hearing officer in the next week.

A transcript of the hearing in which witnesses were mandated to give sworn testimony was prepared and was obtained by the Valley Voice.

Mr. Console hopes to win the appeal forcing the USDA to back a new lender Console has lined up that would be financing the operation of the Lindsay plant that has been shuttered since the summer of 1999.

Last fall the USDA office of inspector general told the Voice the agency was investigating missing money from its original $7.9 million loan. That news came just as Console was working to get this latest appeal heard by the National Appeals Division (NAD) - the agency who will rule now shortly.

Console says he feels the report of an investigation of missing money was an effort to put pressure on his company to drop the appeal which he did not.

In a letter dated January 11, 2002, Console described what happened in this case in which his appeal had been turned down originally because there was this speculation of missing money. Console has a declaration from Hibernia Bank - Console's current lender that Clendenin advised the bank not make a new loan because Console Foods had misappropriated money even though all monies have been accounted for.

That much was evident in the early December appeal process when current USDA national district Bill Hagy said no monies were missing even though this had been a reason why the original appeal had been turned down. When the original appeal was turned down the files to support payment to Hibernia had been left out of the report - Console suggests "purged" by somebody.

Clendenin had recommended that the company be turned down for a new loan to the national office and the national office was under the assumption that the company had not made payments on the old loan. The letter says a memo to the national office that "no payment has been made on the existing B&I (Business and Industry) loan."

Were they relying on a report that turned down Console in part because "the borrower is unable to account for use of funds from the previous loan" as it states in Clendenin's turn down letter?

Put on the witness stand in December, current agency director William Hagy was forced to admit that the statement was not accurate but there were other unspecified reasons for the turn down by USDA for a new loan.

Originally Console had applied for a $10 million loan but at the last minute that was downgraded to just $7.9 million - not allowing enough for working capital says Console. Console says it was Mr. Clendenin who reduced the request for $10 million to $7.9 million.

At the hearing Console's attorney get the USDA official Hagy to agree that cutting the original request down was at least part of the agency's fault for not assuring that the startup firm had adequate working capital.

Mr. Clendenin himself testified at the first day of the all day hearing but according to a USDA attorney "broke down" and was not able to return for more of the hearings.

Mr. Hagy said at the NAD hearing that he had learned of the first time that Console in fact had paid about $1 million on the loan with Hibernia after being under the impression the company had not paid anything during the time they were in business.

The new loan is for $10 million, enough to provide the working capital this time - they hope to allow the company to survive longer than four months.

With the fully equipped plant just sitting there for years, a round the clock security guard team has been at their posts protecting the Hibernia investment - a price tag that has now reached $1 million, sources say - money Hibernia expects to get back from USDA.

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