Council Wrestles With
Hot Potato

Visalia - The Visalia city council and planning commission will sit in a joint study session forum Monday, January 28 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Convention Center to discuss the development options on West 198 including plans for an auto mall. The session will include at least a half hour public comment portion, says mayor Jesus Gamboa, allowing comments on the direction the council is taking for a possible annexation and land use plan for the 2000 acres between 99 and Akers.

Pushing the process are the needs of two Visalia car dealers who are considering 150 acre Highway 99/198 site outside Visalia city limits. Their application to change the County General Plan will be heard Tuesday, February 5th by the Board of Supervisors who appear ready to allow a plan to move forward.

This week County staff recommended approval of the applicants request since the site is "contiguous to the Goshen urban development boundary and within Visalia's urban area boundary." The same site was considered for a baseball stadium but rejected by the same board in May 1999. The County report suggests the possibility the development could be folded into an upcoming change in the Goshen Community Plan. The city, in a letter says they would provide written comment on the plan before the hearing.

In trying to meet the dealers needs for freeway exposure in the city limits the consultant to the city for the West 198 project offered three scenarios at a public meeting this week for a 198 auto mall showing an option at Akers/198, Shirk and 198 and Plaza and 198. The city fears loss of as much as $800,000 a year in sales tax returns if the dealers exit the city.

Weighing the pros and cons of a new expansion of the city westward an economics consultant study laid out the problem frankly.

Whatever uses you decide to put in the big corridor area - retail, new homes or office - takes away from another part of town. Further, the city's 2020 growth plan allows for accommodation of growth for years without throwing open this mostly ag land to other uses.

This week the city, struggling with tough choices, tried to come to a consensus on how to treat "open space" in the corridor - how to maintain the scenic entrance to town long cherished by the community and still develop it. Furthermore - how to pay for open space if it's not to be farmed?

About 30 citizens met this week to discuss the issues coming up with plans to pay for the open space perhaps through increase of developer fees and even a possible sales tax increase. There was further debate over whether farming in the corridor area was feasible in the future with at least two property owner/farmers represented suggesting it wasn't and one who said she wanted to maintain her pecan orchard. The largest farmers on the corridor, Elliott Farms, have said they would just as soon keep farming.

Others say you can't have this open space and walking trails along the creek with an orchard next door that gets sprayed with farm chemicals and has further farm liability problems. "When the trees die - we won't replant" one representative told the group, "it's not viable anymore."

Clearly there was a strong contingent for keeping the 2020 plan the way it was adopted - reflected by one opinion offered to keep much of the land in ag even though it is brought into the city.

Many feel that whatever the case, "the property owner needs to be compensated" for the loss of their property to open space set back.

These complicated issues won't be solved in the next few weeks. But the fact the city is tying its deadline need to rezone for an auto mall to the long range development and land use planning for the scenic corridor puts a tension into the process that may yet have strong political implications in this city if the council doesn't craft a creative solution.

Ironically, one dealer told the Voice he thought the best solution was to annex 99/198 into the city to allow the auto mall and leave the scenic corridor hot potato to be resolved later. Former mayor Don Landers likes the idea of an auto mall at Akers/198 leaving the remainder of the scenic corridor issue to a later time as well.

Already in recent weeks former mayor Greg Collins had applied to be on the planning commission after some 10 years out of the political arena - pulled his name from consideration after the most recent council/planning commission joint session, appeared to favor commercial development along portions of the corridor.

Now Collins is organizing a meeting of concerned locals set for 5:30 Monday, January 28 at the Tulare County Farm Bureau - just when the city is completing its West 198 meeting across town.

Most observers sensed a back pedaling on the momentum to zone the corridor for a proposed mix of new homes, commercial center and new institutional use.

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Why Not Farm Ethanol?

Tulare County - California ag producers are taking a closer look at making crop-based ethanol for motor fuel as the state phases out of the oxygenate MTBE. Governor Davis has said the additive that has fouled water supplies around the state would be completely banned by the end of 2002.

While the State of California tried to get a waiver from using an oxygenate in reformulated gasoline, President Bush denied the request last summer. That leaves ethanol as the additive of choice and a demand in the state that could add up to 600 million gallons of ethanol as soon as next year, says a recent Farm Bureau report.

"There is a substantial federal subsidy at 51 cents a gallon," says State of California EPA official Bill Reukeyser. "Farmers and distillers have to work with oil companies to ensure they capture some of that," he notes.

Right now there is a 150 million gallon market for ethanol in the state, he figures, with the state's producers making only a tiny fraction of that, 5 to 7 million gallons currently, he says.

Even without the MTBE phase-out figured in, ethanol is used in winter months to help reduce carbon monoxide, says Reukeyser who doesn't think California needs an oxygenate - an argument President Bush has rejected.

Ethanol is already blended in Union 76 gas in the state.

Oxygenates such as ethanol and MTBE are added to gasoline because they help reduce emissions from vehicles and displace toxic components of gasoline. Oxygenates reduce exhaust emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC), carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen and toxics, and are particularly useful in reducing emissions from off-road vehicles and high emitting vehicles.

Clearly the market for transportation fuel is a good one. Most ethanol has to be shipped in from the Midwest. The upshot is that local production enjoys a competitive advantage since it doesn't have the transportation costs.

But the Midwest has an advantage too. That's where most of the grain, particularly corn, is grown - the source for much of the ethanol. That corn is largely grows without irrigation - something the valley can't rely on.

The Midwest already has the feedstock and fuel making infrastructure to supply California they say with 34 existing ethanol plants and 11 new ones under construction in part because of the expected boom of supplying the California market.

Reukeyser notes that making ethanol from corn is water intensive as well requiring 17 gallons of water to make one gallon of ethanol in the distilling process.

Little corn is grown in California but with a ready market at hand couldn't farmers who are growing cotton now that costs 75 cents a lb. for a market that is only 35 cents a lb. - grow motor fuel for California cars?

Japan too is taking a similar road as California announcing in December they would consider blending 10% ethanol with gasoline to help their cars cut tailpipe emissions. Japan is a huge market but can't supply its own ethanol. Some countries like Brazil use a higher ratio of ethanol (derived from sugar) to gasoline. 24% now.

Corn producers are marketing an 85% ethanol 15% gasoline blended E85 as the "alternative fuel" of choice.

One local company watching the situation closely is Western Milling in Goshen says owner Kevin Kruse "We've looked at the possibility of a 25 million gallon plant at our 33 acre site in Goshen,"says Kruse that could require 250,000 tons of corn to feed it.

The byproduct of processing the corn would be distiller's grain, highly prized in the dairy business. Western Milling is already in the business of shipping in corn and making feed at their site on the Union Pacific line in north Goshen. "We figure it would take only 7 acres to site a plant and we already have a receiving station," he says. Railroad access would be critical for receiving shipments from such a plant. "It's a potentially big project and we probably would need a big partner" in such a venture, he notes.

Uncertainty over how big the market is and whether the federal government and state governments will continue to favor ethanol production are some of the uncertainties.

Kruse says California currently grows only enough fed corn for the animal industry to supply about a week's worth of demand.

Vice President of the Institute for Local Self Reliance, David Morris, recently said "California grows enough corn to supply 50-100 million gallons of ethanol. It has sufficient quantities of fruit wastes to produce another 100-200 million gallons. And it has enough organic wastes like tree trimmings, yard waste, rice straw and the like to produce another 400-600 millions gallons a year.

"Five years from now every rural county in California could be home to one or two biorefineries, enterprises which like their petroleum counterparts produce not only fuel but a wide array of industrial and non-industrial products.

"The ‘carbohydrate economy' is a term I coined back in 1983 to describe an economy whose industrial raw materials are grown rather than drilled or mined.

"There are plants that are converting vegetable oils into lubricants and foams. Others are converting sugars into competitive high-quality plastics.

"Anything we can make from a hydrocarbon we can make from a carbohydrate."

"Three times before history, environmental concerns led the federal government to reformulate its gasoline. Three times before the oil companies chose a 100 percent fossil fueled alternative that created more problems than it solved. Today, for the fourth time, the federal government is demanding changes in our transportation fuels. Let's not make the same mistake. This time we should make sure that a renewable fuel is the additive, and in the long run, the fuel of choice," says Morris.

"I think it would be foolish not to explore the opportunity," says Visalia farmer Eric Shannon. "With ag suffering the way it is we need to figure out a way to keep our employees working." The Shannon family farms wine grapes and cotton - both facing depressed prices right now.

Tulare County supervisor Bill Maze who is also a farmer agrees that "this is the only real alternative we have," saying he recently met with Chevron executives and they were talking about the need to blend ethanol into gasoline in the state. Maze was actually an investor in a planned 21 million gallon ethanol plant that was to be sited in Selma in the late 1970s. "The oil companies drowned us out" at the time. But the plant "got axed by Jerry Brown," Maze remembers.

Another Tulare County company is assessing the opportunity as well. Visalia-based Wood Industries, who owns a 100 acre farm along the Union Pacific lines at 198 and 99 and has had long time plans to make ethanol at the site. "It seems we were about ten years too soon" when they worked on the idea with Amoco - the oil company back in the late 80s, says company president Kent Kaulfuss.

"We would probably not use corn but perhaps grain sorghum that yields well but doesn't require so much water to grow," he says. It has a second benefit, he believes. It doesn't increase the price of corn to compete with cattle feed.

"What we would like to do is set up a small demonstration project to show it can be done" with waste feedstock like gin trash," he says. Kaulfuss is working with a team of interested people on the idea. He says he envisions a small plant making 5 to 50 million gallons a year with the idea to make it competitive with the price of gasoline and not dependent on the subsidy the federal government is offering right now.

That worries farm leaders like Manuel Cunha about investing in an ethanol industry that carries with it uncertainty and dependent on government largess to support it. "Look what happened to the biomass industry" now that the government can't afford a subsidy to keep the biomass plants operating even though the effort helps clean the air. Farmers can take their green waste and orchard chips to the biomass plant or it goes up in smoke in the valley. But Kent Kaulfuss says the difference will be that ethanol plants should be able to pencil out on their own.

Tulare County's new Ag Commissioner, Gary Kunkel, says he remembers lots of talk about ethanol perhaps 8 years ago but says if some of the uncertainties are cleared up, local farmers would be ready to supply a market. "It's a short cycle of investment (growing corn or other feedstock) it's not like trees where you have to wait for years," he notes.

Tulare County is actually the largest corn producing county in the state with more than 100,000 acres planted each year - largely for cattle feed. With cotton prices so bleak, farmers may be willing to try something new if somebody will get out there and lead a parade.

Some believe an ethanol revolution isn't enough - we need to grow much of here. "I don't think we want to look at train loads of corn being shipped into the valley. Look at the emissions issue," says Manuel Cunha. That's why the effort should be to grow it and transform it here.

Air emission problems in building an ethanol refinery might be a problem, says one company official who wonders if the Air Board will make it difficult to build a facility here even if the purpose of the plant is to clean the air.

There is another issue - homeland security. "Today we import more than half of our oil from some of the most unstable regions of the world. Events since September 11 highlight the danger in turning a blind eye to oil dependence. Our biggest challenge is to reduce the amount of oil we use to run our passenger vehicles," says the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) announced that Red Cavaney, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute (API), will give the keynote marketing address at the RFA's 7th Annual National Ethanol Conference: Policy and Marketing.

Panels will discuss the role ethanol can play in enhancing homeland security, the outlook for ethanol in California, ethanol logistics and transportation, legislative issues, and much more.

Mr. Cavaney will address the conference at 8:45 a.m. PT, on Thursday, February 28, 2002. The conference will be held at the Lowes Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego from February 27 to March 1, 2002. For more information or to register, please visit: www.ethanolRFA.org/nec.html.

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So. Valley Wine Grape Farmers
Get No Respect

San Joaquin Valley - You know you've hit bottom when buyers offer only $75 a ton for grapes when you need $150 per ton to make money. It's clear your region is getting "no respect" when North Coast grapes average price moves higher to $2220 per ton average in 2001 even as San Joaquin Valley wine grapes fall below 2000 levels. "South valley Chardonnay grapes brought in on average only $120 per ton," says Visalia grower Eric Shannon "below cost of production."

Meanwhile, the percentage of local grapes expected to be sold on the spot market continues to rise as wineries refuse to contract with growers for grapes they don't want.

Maybe it's not fair to say we're stuck in a Ripple region in a world that wants Cabernet Sauvignon, but the San Joaquin Valley is facing an economic crisis likely to cause "wrenching change" says a new report authored by Reynolds Economics of Moraga California - a report that at least offers a new approach.

Based on interviews done with 45 respondents in the south valley after their disastrous end of the grape crush, economist Bob Reynolds says the report "Winegrapes in the San Joaquin Valley A Business Facing Economic Crisis" was commissioned by the California Association of Wine Grape Growers (CAWGG).

"It's not like grape growers have a lot of attractive alternatives to switch to," noted Reynolds with nod toward the continuing cotton crisis. With low prices signaled by the buyers (wineries) this most recent season Reynolds says "supply of varietal grapes has caught up with demand."

"I think Mr. Reynolds pretty much nailed it,"says grower/vintner Vincent Caccitore whose company grows about 2000 acres of wine grapes from Kingsburg down to Pixley where their company winery is. Caccitore is critical of big wineries who instructed the growers a few years ago to graft the new varietal grapes but "now they have abandoned them," he believes.

The report offers valley grape growers a choice - either produce quantity for the sugar business - making grape concentrate used as a sweetener - tough world wide competition at low margin prices or "focus on the wine market." To succeed at a that we would need to transform the region dominated by growers who typically farm many crops along with grapes to growers who focus on the wine market and build a regional identity here in part by working more closely with vintners.

South Valley wine grape growers typically grow grapes for quantity not quality and compared to other regions most grapes lack the desired flavor characteristics nor do the red varieties have the intense red color other regions produce, says the report.

The valley's dominance in the wine grape market has fallen in recent years. In the 1980s it counted for 2/3 of grapes crushed and today it is still 51% of the statewide crush.

But in recent years with a huge volume of new grapes planted on the Central Coast the value of our wine grapes fell from about 35% of the state's total in the mid 80s to only 25% by the late 90s.

The backbone of Valley wines in the 1980s were the so-called jug varieties with fully 85% of the grapes being no-name varieties including thousands of tons of Thompson seedless grapes. At the time varietal grapes accounted for only 1% of the crush, says the report. By the 1990s the crush of new varietal grapes, Merlot, Chardonnay and Zinfandel, boomed now accounting for not 1% of the crush here but 35% of the crush.

Thompson seedless fruit now goes exclusively for juice concentrate if it doesn't go for raisins - both options now in oversupply.

With oversupply in varietals planted on the Coast and elsewhere in California, there is less demand for varietals grown in the Valley. Helping to boost oversupply is increasing production of wine world-wide. "Everybody wants to sell wine here," says the report (referring to the US market). Imports have risen to 22% of the wine sold in the US the highest level since the early 1980s.

Wine grapes cover 2.9 million acres in Spain and 2.3 million acres in France and 2.2 million acres in Italy while the entire US production sits on less than 0.9 million acres in the US. The French really do enjoy their wine consuming an average of 16 gallons per person compared to a world average of one gallon per person. Consumption seems to be highest in Catholic countries so it is no surprise that the California industry was begun by the Catholic missions in California.

Despite the fact that Valley growers switched to varietals many don't do a thorough study of the wine industry needed to continue to survive, the report states. Instead, most grapes are overproduced with growers leaving too many grapes on the vine. Vintners complain that the grapes tend to be:

• Over-irrigated - Flood irrigated for maximum production rather than precision irrigated for flavor an color development.

• Over-pruned - More canes than will sustain quality wine production.

• Over-fertilized - Nutrients in excess of amounts needed for quality and flavor.

Local wine grape growers responded to the criticisms by noting that "I do all these things to improve quality by can't deliver because the winery is jammed. Then, the grapes go to hell."

While it's more difficult to produce high quality grapes for wine in the warmer climate of the south Valley there are encouraging results says the report - but preliminary.

To accomplish profitable returns the south Valley needs to build a wine industry here, says the report, possibly forming an organization to help build an industry support group that in turn builds a regional identity for valley grapes focused on best practices.

The big difference here compared to other wine regions, says Mr. Caccitore, is that the south valley did not evolve with a network of small wineries who work on quality. "You can count the number of wineries - mostly very large - in the south valley on your hand," says Caccitore and then "look over to the Central Coast where there are 200 small wineries."

Caccitore's case may be made for others to follow, having established his 1 million gallon winery in Pixley 3 years ago.

"Working with Fresno State University proves the valley can produce fine quality wines that can compete," says Caccitore.

Caccitore's solution: get the government to understand the problem of the industry here in order to offer low interest loans for growers to convert vines and build new small wineries. Also he would have the government reduce the surplus grape supply over the next few years through purchase of the oversupply to help in the transition.

Mr. Caccitore hopes to do similar business plan in olive oil at the winery as well. He had plans for a tasting room that will still happen, he says although the plans have been postponed given the downturn in the wine economy recently.

Instead of growing for high volume the consultant suggests a model that includes dialogue between vintner and grower, also among wine producers and sets up demonstration vineyards and small lot fermentation. The group would identify grape varieties that would improve wine quality and work to promote new locally based wineries.

It's a big change from the jug wine days. But if this industry is to survive, growers need to pull by their own bootstraps but they need help.

Agreeing that the industry may need some short term assistance is Eric Shannon who suggests USDA follow the model being used in raisin and prunes paying growers to pull vines to reduce the supply. He also agrees with the report that forming an organization would be a good first step. "We can't keep losing money," says Shannon whose family grows about 2000 acres of wine grapes currently - all in Tulare County.

The changes that may be needed to survive require attention to detail and a craft approach to production perhaps not unlike what is happening to a number of small cheese makers in the Central Valley who decided to move away from a bulk commodity shipped elsewhere to smaller batch, hands-on transformation of the product including innovation and experimentation aimed at the ultimate consumer. Adding value to either grapes, olives or milk by transforming the raw product into to wine or cheese ultimately transforms the economy here as well and helps make Tulare and Kings counties literally a place you would want to offer a toast.

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Land Trust Highlights Alternative Homes
In Three Rivers

Three Rivers - Sierra Los Tulares Land Trust has organized a three home alternative house building tour in Three Rivers for Saturday, February 2. The newly built homes have been completed recently with one design using rammed earth, another built with straw bale and a third with foamed concrete techniques. "These homes show remarkable innovation using natural materials," says Mary Becker Wells who helped organize the tour. All emphasize energy savings and use of recycled materials and were built and designed by local craft people.

Foamed concrete home: located on Dinely Drive. This home features a shell made with cement/stucco that is nontoxic and includes cabinets made from almost all recycled materials. The home is heated by tubing that runs through the home and is highly energy efficient. The home is owned by Anne and Bill Haxton who is the builder.

Rammed earth home: built by Pete Crandall of Crandall Construction, this home on the South Fork used the earth on the property to build large adobe like walls. Crandall says this is his second rammed earth home having experimented with his own South Fork home. "The pneumatically compacted walls are 18 inches thick - plenty of thermal mass" to moderate the temps, he says. Solar panels are attached to poles 400 feet from the home that rake in the sun's rays to provide power. The home is owned by Terry and Barbara Jones. The home is not connected to the electricity grid.

Straw bale home: located on Kaweah Drive, this historical home was transformed with rice straw bales covered with cement stucco that provides excellent insulation. Using a combination of high tech and photopholtaic systems the home has a very low electric bill. The home is owned by Tom Chess and Sharon Sheltzer with tenants Dan and Carol Keiffer. Dan is also the builder.

Ms. Becker Wells notes that all the homes cost the equivalent of what new homes without the innovations might cost but that the savings come in energy bills.

All are designed and built with the guiding principles of maximum energy efficiency, non-toxic or low-toxin building materials, creativity, comfort and price. Tour the buildings; talk with the owners, builders, and an architect; and experience grid-free heating.

To register, call (559) 561-7125, option 3. The cost is $20 for members of the Sierra Los Tulares Land Trust and $25 for non-members. Meet at Valley Oak Credit Union, 40870 Sierra Drive (Highway 198), Three Rivers, at 8:30 a.m. for car pooling; approximate return time is 3 p.m.

For more information on the Sierra Los Tulares Land Trust, please visit the website at www.sltlt.org.

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Census Numbers Paint Gloomy Picture Of Tulare County

Tulare County - The US Census released their American Community Survey figures in November 2001 including selected communities in the US based on 2000 census analysis. The picture it paints of Tulare County isn't pretty, at least by some measures.

The survey ranks various measurements including the fact that Tulare County's educational attainment ranks near the bottom of all counties surveyed in the entire US.

Only 12% of Tulare County's population has a bachelors degree or better ranking second lowest nationwide to one county on the Mexican border in Texas, Hidalgo County where the number is 11%. Other Valley counties are only a little higher. In the same category the US average is 25% with many counties with a population mix of 40% an higher with a BA degree figuring people over 25 years of age. Nearly 18,000 are enrolled in college currently.

In the mirror category of those with less than a high school diploma, Tulare County again ranks higher - near the top nationwide in this survey with 38% compared to only 18% nationwide. Youth 16 to 19 were surveyed and 11% said they were dropouts.

Tulare County ranked poorly in other categories as well, including median income and poverty rates - 35% of children under 18, 45% of female householders - about 24% - double the US average.

Tulare County has a larger percentage of children in the population mix than most places with 34% of its population under 18 compared to a US average of 26%. At the other end of the spectrum only 9% are over 65 in Tulare County compared to 12% nationwide.

The ACS survey shows that some 35,000 residents receive public assistance including 7,700 who receive a mean $6,200 in Supplemental Social Security income, 9,100 who get a mean of $4,800 and some 12,034 who get food stamps. In our schools some 21,000 get free or reduced price school lunches.

In Tulare County the survey showed that there are some 66,000 owner occupied units and 43,000 renter occupied units. The median value in 2000 was $99,000. Some 10% of owners don't have a mortgage.

The County is now over 51% Hispanic and some 78,000 residents out of the population of 362,000 were born in another country. About 35% of the foreign born population of Tulare County came here since 1990, says the survey.

A snapshot of the family units in Tulare County show only 54% of the housing units are occupied by traditional families while 24% are "other families" - typically single parent - and 18% are people living alone.

Forty five percent of the people surveyed said they spoke a language other than English at home. In that group 45% said they did not speak English very well.

Many Elderly Are Disabled

In the category of disability fully 14% of the population sixty five years or older reported a disability while that number rose to 43% of the population in Tulare County who is 65 or older.

While we might think agriculture remains the largest employer, it's not. Service employs 36% of the population while ag employs a distant 17%. Retail trade employs 12% and only 9% are employed in some kind of manufacturing.

The survey showed that many farmworkers were employed only 1000 to 1500 hours in a year, compared to a full time equivalent of about 2000 hours a year.

Tulare County and South Texas may be in the same ballpark on the number of poor, but it was South Texas that walked away with an empowerment zone designation announced by the USDA earlier this month winning over Tulare's application. Some believe we may be on the same level on paper but not when it comes to political clout. The zone offers tax breaks to employers who hire in the zone. Only this year will Tulare County get its own representative in the Assembly and have a larger stake in a new Congressional seat. Maybe that will make a difference.

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Domestic Violence - A Cycle Of Abuse
By Johanna Sevier

Alic Stoops doesn't remember holding a knife to his wife's throat and threatening to watch her bleed to death.

He also doesn't remember telling his children to come to him for drugs.

However, after being arrested and sentenced to attend anger management and substance abuse classes, Stoops was forced to examine his life.

"I didn't want to come to class. I thought it was stupid. I was really, really angry. Subconsciously, I would listen, but I wasn't trying to take it in at first. Then it started coming to me and I started to want to change," stated Stoops.

After a year of attending classes, Stoops considers himself a different person. He no longer uses drugs, maintains a healthy relationship with his family, and describes himself as an incredibly happy person.

"I wouldn't trade a million bucks to go back and live the rest of my life in the dysfunctional way that I did. Honestly, there's no amount of money," claimed Stoops.

In the anger management class, Stoops traced the roots of abuse back to his childhood. Like many abusers, Stoops learned to be abusive by watching his parents.

The childhood memories, the childhood hurts, a lot of emotional abuse, a lot of physical abuse, a lot of alcohol and drugs. I'd get the heck knocked out of me. And when I cried, I was told to shut up. I wasn't allowed to show my feelings. If I got hurt, I wasn't allowed to cry," recalled Stoops.

He grew up thinking that abuse was normal.

"It's like animals. Animals, they watch their parents and they teach them skills. And they replicate their mother's actions. And that's what we're doing. Subconsciously, we don't realize, but that's what we're doing. I believe what you put in your minds is what you give out," stated Stoops.

When Stoops was a child, he wondered why his parents were violent. After many recent conversations with his mother, he now knows that their parents were also abusive as part of a pattern carried from generation to generation.

"You have the right to stop the cycle in your family. You don't have to carry it generations down. It's my choice. And everyone has the right to make that choice," claimed Stoops.

Before trying to stop the prevalent cycle of abuse in his family, Stoops only came home when he wanted money to buy drugs.

"My job was to hunt drugs. My wife worked. She supported my habit. I right up left my family with nothing but a ramen noodle. Sometimes not even that," remembered Stoops.

He used meth for thirteen years on a daily basis.

"A day without meth, for me, was a day without life. It just consumes you. It's a self-gratifying drug. It's all about self; it's a selfish drug. And you destroy everything," stated Stoops.

Stoops remembered behaving like a "pit bull" toward his wife.

"I was every ugly thing you can think of. I would say, ‘You can't do anything. You're ugly. I don't know why I married you. I want to divorce you. I'm going to take the kids. You're never going to see us again.' And she didn't do nothing to me except love me," stated Stoops.

Stoops refused to feel guilty about his behavior, prior to being arrested.

"I was not going to take the blame for anything. It was all her fault. It was all her fault I was using drugs. You know, it was sick, but that's the way I thought. I would blame her, like ‘If you weren't so controlling then I wouldn't have to leave,'" explained Stoops.

However, when attending the court-ordered classes, Stoops was forced to examine his own behavior.

"I need to look at me. Not at anybody else. I've got to find me. And nothing else is going to change until I change. The dysfunction in my family won't get any better until I change," explained Stoops.

After learning how to recognize his feelings, Stoops accepts responsibility for his actions.

"It's awesome - becoming healthy, being able to express yourself. And it works. I believe that I was one of the most dysfunctional people on this earth. I'm constantly working on myself still. And I think it's a never-ending process," explained Stoops.

Stoops realized he can make a conscious choice about whether or not to be angry.

"I can only take care of Alic today. That's the only person I can take care of. It's my choice, the things I do. Someone said, ‘Do I make you angry?' and I said, ‘You know what? It's my choice to feel, to be angry or not to be angry.' And that's awesome," said Alic.

In anger management class, he learned how to cry.

"That's something guys aren't used to doing. But, it's OK to express our feelings. Society says it's not OK for men to cry. It's refreshing to cry. There's something powerful in crying. Don't get me wrong, I don't go around crying all the time. But, if you stuff your feelings, you're going to eventually get angry and have animosity," said Stoops.

After years of abuse, Stoops wonders why his wife didn't leave him.

"Before, it was you go to your world and I'll go to mine and if my world's messed up - you're going to reap the harvest of it. Now, we just talk for hours. I love her with all my heart," commented Stoops.

Though Stoops now takes responsibility for his actions, he can't help but notice societal factors contributing to spousal abuse.

"If we watch TV, Ricky has the final say over Lucy. It's bred in us that man has the control. And a woman is less than the men. And that's not the truth. The truth is that's what society bred in us and our families. Now, I'm watching TV and I tell my wife - "Look at that! Ricky's just throwing that domestic violence all over the place." And something so simple that we all laugh about. But I see so much on TV that makes me freak out. It's all around us," he explained.

Now a deeply religious man who sits down with his children to ask them about their day, Stoops serves as a teacher and a role-model for his whole family.

"There I was - an on the street hoodlum, the lowest of the lowest in my family, I felt. And now, all my family calls me for help. That's awesome," said Stoops.

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Albertsons' New Store Is A Go

Visalia - Albertsons will build a new 50,000 sq. ft. combination Savon Drub/Albertsons grocery store at Demaree and Noble in Visalia, later this year. Mr. Jimmy Uhlmann, property owner of the shopping center that includes the existing Albertsons says he get a call from the corporate office Tuesday, January 22 confirming the approval process.

The new store would replace a much smaller 30,000 sq. ft. store at the center that currently includes only a Kmart as its other tenant. Uhlmann says Visalia will be the beneficiary. "Albertsons has 20 years experience supplying groceries to Visalia and now they will be able to offer a new much bigger store to serve the area," he says. Uhlmann says the company has a backlog of development projects that might keep construction from moving ahead right away.

The site of the new store is the former Montgomery Ward property - the western portion of it that was recently demolished.

Uhlmann has expressed confidence in the longevity of Kmart at the center saying it is a profitable high volume outlet of the company. Still Kmart announced a bankruptcy filing this week as their stock slid to only 60 cents. The company said it would not close any existing stores while it worked its way through bankruptcy.

Besides these developments, the center has as much as 300,000 sq. ft. of space available for development. One pad has been secured by Perkos for a new restaurant expected to break ground soon.

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Visalia Plant To Close - 81 Jobs Lost

Visalia - Visalia will lose 81 jobs when long time employer Stanley Bostitch closes its doors in the next few months. The company at Shirk Ave. at Goshen in the Visalia Industrial Park makes fastening supplies including staples and nails used in the construction industry. Famous for staples, Bostitch is now owned by publically traded Stanley Works - one of the nation's largest tool makers.

The company announced in October they expected to lay off some 10% of their workforce in the next quarter.

The company advised the City of Visalia this week of the closure. The firm once was one of the largest employers in the industrial park but in the past decade had a smaller contingent of workers down to around 40 in the 1990s.

The company told the city that they expect to transfer some work to other plants they own and to Mexico. The law says the company must give a city 60 days notice if they plan to close. Employees at the plant were told of the closure Wednesday.

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