Golden West Stadium Will Get Full EIR

Visalia - Visalia will get a new 3000 seat sports stadium next year but not until the city and Visalia Unified carry out a full Environmental Impact Report on the project.

That’s the word from assistant superintendent Mark Fulmer who says after parking and traffic concerns were voiced in the community the district and city decided to carry out a full public review of the plans and impacts allowing for formal public input.

“We want everybody to feel they can have their say,” says Fulmer, even though some impacts may not be able to be mitigated.

Fulmer says the district plans are likely to be heard in October or November with hopes that construction of the stadium would be completed by late fall 2003.

Earlier plans have been modified as coaches, community members and the board of the district have gone over tentative plans for a multi-phased stadium.

The stadium would be designed to play soccer, football and track, says administrator Fulmer.

To accommodate parking the district is looking at a few options that include paving the dirt parking lot in front of the Golden West gym, using the land at the corner of McAuliff and Houston for a parking lot and even relocating some of the district maintenance offices on Lovers Lane for more parking.

Fulmer says one plan to help move traffic would be to reverse traffic flow on the fire lane at the north end of the campus on game days.

In addition, VUSD is working with the city on having a controlled and lighted intersection in front of the Golden West gym as well as construct turning pockets. Fulmer says the city is already widening McAuliff between the bridge and Houston as well as the city plans to connect McAuliff to Mineral King.

Regarding the lighting, Fulmer says they are planning pointing the lights to the west so that not just the stadium but the big practice field to the west are lit at night.

Fulmer says goal of the district is open the stadium in time to meet some of the extra load put on the new high school sports teams who “need a safe place to compete.” As it is, the town has only the one stadium for what will now be four high schools.

The new stadium that goes by the name of Visalia Community Stadium is being designed by Teter Consultants. A recent report suggested the 3000 phase one project could add another 1500 seats in phase two. The preliminary cost estimate for the project is a total of $1.5 million in direct funding and $464,000 from community groups. Long range construction would cost another $2.8 million putting the total for the project at $4.8 million. Community groups could potentially help fund additional bleachers, a scoreboard, ticket booths, a press box, a PA system and sports lighting.

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Celebrating New York One Year Later

by Ed Smith

With the one year anniversary over now, it seems things have moved on from those dark, heavy, glued-to-the-tv days of mid-September last year, when we all felt the need to do something...anything. But what could we possibly do?

The feeling was akin to having a good friend in the hospital after a terrible accident. We’re not doctors or magicians. We couldn’t make it better. All we could do for our sick friend is send cards or flowers, you know, just be supportive.

That’s it! We would send New York a get well card. New York was our sick friend. You see, just a few weeks before that evil black cloud enveloped lower Manhattan, my daughter, who was 10 at the time, and I, spent a sunny, happy father-daughter day there. We watched a sunset from the top of the Empire State building, we climbed up inside the Statue of Liberty, and we rode a bus through the area that shortly would become known to the world as “ground zero.” Erica embraced the grandiosity of the city and declared it a “special place.”

The card would reflect that happy time. We bought a poster and folded it in half like a greeting card. We put a couple of photos of Erica that day, with the twin towers in the background on the cover. We decorated it with New York stickers, and letters spelling out, Get Well NY, from CA. We spent the next few months gathering signatures, from fellow students at Valley Oak Elementary School in Fresno, and “Mayor Bubba,” Alan Autry) and Police Chief Jerry Dyer. We brought it here to Visalia, where it was signed by the mayor and much of the city council. We traveled to Oakland and waited outside the giant oak doors at city hall listening to “Mayor Moonbeam” (former Governor Jerry Brown), discussing a needle exchange program. He signed it simply, “Peace.” One chilly evening we stood in the ally at Fresno State while Pat Hill’s Bulldogs tackled the card after practice. We sat listening to squeaking sneakers in the north gym, where Jerry Tarkanian’s Bulldogs also signed it. We folded more posters into the card and added a media page where many local personalities from radio, TV, and newspapers signed it. We had over 300 signatures and notes in all to help our friend, New York, feel better. The plan was to send it to then Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Just maybe, between funerals, he would have time to browse it.

But when we heard he would be in California to campaign for Bill Simon, we arranged to present it to him in person. The Simon rally took place in Sacramento. We were placed in the receiving line near the plane with the “other dignitaries.” When the most popular man in America finally stepped off the plane to a cheering throng, and tv cameras focused in on our little line, Erica said, “I’m nervous.”

When he got to us, we explained about the card and he looked solemnly at the photos and gave Erica a hug and a kiss, a moment we would re-live a week later while watching the 6:00 p.m. news on KSEE 24.

So we had done our little deed and it felt good. But the memory of that wonderful day in New York, was still tarnished. Every time we would see the city in tv shows or news, or commercials, instead of smiling, we just felt bad.

So this year, a few weeks before 9/11/02, we went back to reclaim that happy memory. We flew over that still magnificent skyline and touched down at La Guardia just in time to catch a cab through rush hour traffic (an experience not to be missed). It whisked us through the throbbing chaos to the sanity of our mid-town hotel.

We would celebrate the city. But first we would pay our respects to ground zero. We rode the subway with a loud singer, a louder preacher, and oblivious reading natives, and emerged on Fulton St. to find a man telling a small gathering of his experiences on that incredible day. we listened a while then walked over to the fence. Inside was that all too familiar scene, that infamous seven story deep hole. We walked much of the perimeter with several other camera-toting tourists. They all seemed respectful and quiet, scenes from “that day” probably running through their minds like they were mine. There was the iron beams found in the rubble in the shape of a cross with a flag on it. There were all the informal memorials here and there, fences decorated with old curling yellow paper notes, and stuffed animals. We walked down Wall St. past the Stock Exchange, still dressed in it’s huge American flag, to Trinity Church where we immersed ourselves in the calmness of a classical piano concert. It served as a soothing and symbolic transition from grieving to celebrating. We were moving on.

There are so many ways to celebrate New York City, even if you do love Pace Picante Sauce. In three days we: helped promote the U.S. Open by joining in the tossing of tennis balls back and forth across the road in the kinetic illumination of Times Square at night. We rode a 4-story Ferris wheel inside the flagship store of Toys R Us. This, of course was next door to ABC studios, where Erica, the next morning displayed her home made sign in the audience of Good Morning America. After the show, those of us who got to go inside, met Charlie Gibson and the gang.

The next day we visited their competitor, the Today Show, where we joined the foot-stomping masses in Rockefeller Plaza to watch the show and a live performance of the Dixie Chicks, who are indeed a little bit like Pace Picante sauce. Erica held her sign high. It said “Matt, I love your haircut!” We saw a sign somewhere in the crowd from Visalia. After the show we took the NBC studio tour and visited the sets of Saturday Night Live, and Conan O’Brien. We had lunch at a restaurant called Mars, where we entered through a spaceship and were served by Martians.

We walked down Fifth Avenue, past Radio City Music Hall, all the way to the Empire State building, once again the tallest building in New York, and certainly the high point of last year’s trip. From our perch at the top, we heard sirens, lots of them. They were coming from all over the city. People became quiet, and I imagined I wasn’t the only one thinking that it must have sounded somewhat like this to the people who were up here on that fateful September morning. It turns out a construction elevator fell 30 stories and killed two people a few blocks from our hotel.

Later we saw Beauty and the Beast, in a charming old Broadway theater, and on the last day we met my mom and sister for lunch at Tavern on the Green, and rode a horse and buggy past the building where John Lennon was shot, and into Central Park while we shot green videos. Yes, green ones. And I’m not talking about the trees in the park. Are faces are green. Green like the martians in the other restaurant. But it gave us some good laughs later.

They drove back to Massachusetts and we continued our celebration on the last night with a romp through the toy super store, FAO Schwartz, which has everything but a 4-story ferris wheel. We said goodbye to New York on a smiling, sunny Sunday morning in a bagel shop while our cab to the airport waited outside our hotel around the corner.

Except for some memorials downtown, and the occasional public service announcement on local tv, telling where to go if you are still having nightmares, it appeared that New York has come along quite nicely. And although it will always be difficult to think of the city without at least a passing thought of 9/11/01, we got what we came for, enough wonderful memories to suppress those thoughts.

Thanks to all who signed our card. And If the people from Visalia who were in the Today Show audience on 8/23/02, are reading this, give me a call, 734-6357.

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Local Heroes Honored At Policeman’s Ball

By Miles Shuper

Visalia - Police officers and citizens involved in the May 16 shootout at Mineral King Plaza which took the life of a robbery suspect and an innocent bystander were honored in a Celebration of Our Hometown Heroes at last week’s inaugural Visalia Police Officers Ball.

Presentations included the Medal of Valor to Police Officer Greg Byerlee who was instrumental in stopping the robbery in the face of personal danger. The honor is the highest commendation awarded by the department.

Two other VPD officers, Russel Gauger and Brian Davis, three dispatchers, Pam DeLong, Monica Cisneros and Kimberly Erickson, and an off-duty Tulare County Deputy Sheriff, Carl Newman ,were honored along with private citizens for their heroic efforts at the Vons supermarket site along Mineral King Avenue. Chief Jerry Barker, who made the presentations, said each recipient went far beyond the call of duty despite facing extreme personal danger. Without their quick and heroic actions the situation could have been much worse, he said.

An estimated 400 persons attended the event at the Holiday Inn where in excess of $10,000 was raised for the police department’s D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistence Education) Program.

The shootout erupted as two male robbers, dressed in women’s attire, attempted to flee from a clothing store near Von’s. The robbers were confronted by officers Byerlee, Davis and Gauger who were having lunch at a nearby restaurant and were alerted by the robbery-in-progress.

One of the robbers, Carlos Landois reportredly opened fire and a Visalia man, Jeffrey Donaldson, 26, was killed when struck by a bullet as he dinned with his family at the Arby’s Restaurant a short distance from the holdup. Landois was killed in an exchange with officers. The other man, identified later as Jose Herenandez, Landois brother, fled in a van which had been stolen. Hernandez was arrested the next day in Utah. He has been charged with murder.

Smalley, a Von’s employee, received his commendation for his quick action in jumping into the robber’s vehicle which was then driver-less but still moving. He stopped the vehicle before anyone else could be hurt or property damaged.

Deputy Newman, who was off-duty at the location, provided immediate aid and comfort to Donaldson and wife at the Arby’s Restaurant.

Jeff and Nancy Jones were honored for their actions prior to the event but which helped officers in their investigation. While banking at Mooney Boulevard office, the couple noticed the peculiar actions and dress of two men prior to the crime. The couple followed the suspicious vehicle and took a picture which later identified the suspect vehicle. The Joneses contacted police when they learned of the robbery and shootout.

Other awards given at the event included:

Agent Jason Salazar, police officer of the year; Sgt. Michelle Figueroa, Latino officer of the Year, Pam DeLong, communications operator of the Year, Jon Bassett, reserve Officer of the year, Ray Moore, volunteer of the year, and Luma Fahoum, winner of the COPPS (Community Oriented Policing Problem Solving) award.

Patrick Lozano, of the Citizens for D.A.R.E., which co-hosted the event with the Visalia Police Association, said plans call for the event to be held annually not only to raise funds to support D.A.R.E. but to honor officers and citizens would go the extra mile for their community.

Provident Mortgage was the title sponsor for the Police Officers Ball. Wells Fargo Bank was a major sponsor.

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