Three Rivers Resort Faces Foreclosure Sale
Three Rivers - A foreclosure sale is scheduled for June 4, 2003 for the Shoshone Inn in Three Rivers - a 14 acre riverside resort that opened only briefly in 2001 before it shut the doors - it turns out permanently.
Owned by Three Rivers businessman John Webley who lovingly designed and built a sprawling campus-like grounds on the promise that this would be a 4-star resort with plans for lodging and small convention uses. The development only got as far as a restaurant - and that opened only a few months before Webley dismissed the staff and the place hung out the closed shingle.
Three Rivers residents, while admiring of Webley’s pampered grounds and first class Spanish style architecture, shook their heads at the money and time invested in the project - Webley has been busy on grounds there for a few years before it opened in 2001 - that never go beyond the promise stage.
Bank of Visalia is ordering the foreclosure sale seeking $2.5 million they say they are owed. Records show the bank sent a notice of default in February on three parcels Webley owns demanding the back payments owed in order for Webley to come into compliance on their past due loans. By May - three months later - the bank was allowed to send a notice of a trustees sale in which the entire amount of the note is due along with the costs of the foreclosure itself.
Sources say Webley invested far more than the amount he borrowed from the bank to build the estate-like grounds.
For the past few years Webley has fielded a number of proposals to buy and even discussed partnerships that never panned out, all coming at a time in 2001 through today - of a downturn in the economy including the 9-11 event that has hampered the hospitality industry. Others wondered from the start how he figured there was a market for such an upscale resort in the Central Valley.
Yet even at the 11th hour there is apparently a serious suitor for the complex - Exeter native Aaron Collins - who heads up the Central California Art Institute says he has been negotiating with Webley and feels he has the financial backing of some large southern California art supporters to buy the place for the art museum site. “We have been looking in both Three Rivers and Visalia for a place to build and then this site becomes available.”
Collins says the existing restaurant site would be used both for exhibit space for the art museum as well as a restaurant site for the museum. He envisions perhaps three exhibit halls for art showings along with outside sculpture on display. One of the exhibit halls would be devoted to native art, he says.
Collins says he has the backing of Three Rivers actress Anjelica Huston and her sculptor husband Robert Graham who have helped open doors for the project.
Collins is not one who questions Webley’s vision of a first class facility suggesting many in the Central Valley are used to settling for less than top quality.
Three Rivers itself is a mix of somewhat upscale and somewhat down beat with retirees, hippies and cowboys mixed in for good measure.
The sale could happen before the June 4th sale date depending on a number of factors. On that list may include the fact that if anyone waits until the trustee sale, there is no certainty of a purchase against other bidders. The sale is scheduled for June 4 at 12:30 p.m. on the north steps of Tulare City Hall in Tulare. The bidder has to put down typically 10% of the cost to buy the place at the auction.
San Joaquin Valley - Ok, if you are taking an Italian vacation this summer you don’t like the fact that the euro has now fallen 36% vs the dollar since early 2002. No matter if you are making (potato) chips in the San Joaquin Valley or (silicon) chips in Santa Clara - if you export lots of your US-made product overseas, you are cheering.
This week many of the world currencies have declined some 10% against the dollar since the first of this year. The yen is at a 10 month high against the greenback and the Canadian dollar has gained new strength. All these places are big export markets for U.S., state and valley products.
In fact Canada, the European Union and Japan are California’s largest export markets in that order with each being around a $1 billion market for our farm goods according to the CDFA.
Altogether California exports $6.5 billion in ag goods in 2001 with almonds, cotton and wine being the top ag products.
This past week US Treasury Secretary John Snow signaled a change in policy - now no longer supporting a strong dollar which should not be mistaken, he said for any lack of confidence in the US economy - he commented in a series of sound bites.
So what takes them so long to figure this out? “I don’t know,” says Sunkist VP Mike Wooten who can’t fathom a trade policy that tolerates “year after year of trade deficits with other countries, billion of dollars hemorrhaging out of this country and the loss of whole industries here from textiles to shoes to agriculture.”
Cotton farmers have been begging a Republican administration not to maintain what has been a decade long policy to support the strong dollar value that makes our goods more expensive versus the other countries. Speaking to House committee in July 2001 a National Cotton Council spokesman pointed out that the strong dollar not only means our cotton is not sold as easily overseas, but that the policy has led to a flood of imported cotton and cotton goods coming into the country that has in turn led a wholesale closing of textile mills and clothing makers here.
“In the last 6 months 45 textile mills have closed” in what is expected to be a permanent change in the economy of many communities.
A similar tale is told in valley commodities like olives and citrus where foreign governments have subsidized the export of fruit into the US hurting valley farmers and the industries they support. In the case of Europe, a one-third increase in the cost of them doing business here may dampen the enthusiasm to continue funding this dumping into our markets.
The Olive Growers Council says foreign olives now account more than half the food service market in the US while our olives go unpicked.
Import Surge
In citrus Sunkist vice president Mike Wooten has flaunted American trade policy for encouraging “a tenfold increase in fresh citrus imported in the US in the past decade from $25 million per year in the mid 1990s to $250 million in 2002.”
Spanish Clementines have inundated the US market subsidized by their government taking away much of the East Coast market for valley citrus until some Med flies were found in shipments.
Citrus farmers will improve their bottom line not by just making it more difficult for importers, but by increasing their exports overseas, a key factor in profitability. Citrus Mutual spokesman David Hass says while 40% of California’s citrus is exported - those exports amount to about 60% of the profits in a given year.
There has been an recognized strong dollar policy in place from 1995 through 2002 that has led to weak exports, says a USDA study with wheat exports between those same years dropping 31% in value. Overall US ag exports about 20% of their product - probably a higher market for Tulare County.
Shipments Up
Tulare County’s export bound shipment of fruit is inspected by the County Ag Commissioner each year. The number of shipments heading out of the US to foreign markets - particularly to the Far East - have gone up by about 50% from 1992 to 2002. Much of this is citrus, grapes and tree fruit destined for Taiwan, Japan and Korea.
There is another factor worth considering. If foreign manufacturers who want to ship to the US marketplace - the best market in the world - they may now choose to set up shop in the US instead of paying a higher rate for currency offshore bringing the jobs back to the US as well as improve our trade deficit.
Foreign goods in a strong dollar economy will be more expensive for Americans as a trade off but at least people here will have a job - a pretty good trade off.
Sure, tourism overseas will suffer, but it will be cheaper for foreign tourists to visit the US - again good for our economy.
Of course, it is likely no coincidence that next year is a presidential election year and it is the Bush agencies and their appointees who are pushing down interest rates and the dollar because of the shaky economy.
There is no shakier business than computers these days and chip maker Intel is a good example of a company that makes two thirds of its revenue from sales overseas. The weaker dollar is bullish for the high tech sector as well.
Observers have noticed that our country has been on the verge of losing its economic base no longer providing the basics that people need within our border from bikes to furniture to shoes. Then there have been the predictions of the “end of agriculture” based on high cost that US farmers have vs foreign competitors who now supply the local Vons with fresh summer fruit all year round.
One Way Street
Wooten says he understands why the administration opens our market to foreign producers as proof of its foreign policy to reward allies. “I just don’t want to see this be a one way street - opening our markets for them essentially at our (farmers) expense.”
Wooten says lowering the dollar won’t fix all the problems given that US cost of production is far higher for citrus than many of its competitors. Wooten says California citrus farmers have a $16 per hour cost of doing business on average while the Argentine citrus industry has an average cost of $1 per hour. “That’s a lot to make up.”
Economist Jane Jacobs who wrote The Economy of Cities suggested there is a fundamental principle to a healthy economy and that is not just one who increases exports but one that replaces imports as well with domestically supplied goods. We should fear imports growing to the point that all we have left is to sell one another hamburgers and insurance policies. Growing and manufacturing stuff near your own home and trading vigorously is the foundation for economic well being, she suggests.
Nut farmers in the central valley should be a big beneficiary of the weaker dollar since much of their product is exported and Europe is a big buyer. Fully 70% of California grown almonds are exported.
Visalia - Budget watchers at Kaweah Delta are breathing a little easier this month. Net income of $3.9 million during the Kaweah Delta Health Care District’s third quarter exceeded a budgeted $2 million and last year’s net for the same quarter which came in at just over $500 thousand. “We’re calling it a turn around from a poor performance,” says chief financial officer Gary Herbst, “a performance that didn’t represent what we are capable of.”
The improved bottom line at Kaweah Delta came with a hardy $50 million increase in third quarter revenue - up around 25% over third quarter of 2002 along with expense cuts.
Here’s a few examples:
• The District has now sold Exeter Memorial Hospital - in escrow to the Exeter High School district expected to be finalized in June - a unit that had cost the District about a $1 million loss every year since they owned it in 1998. That hospital struggled with a low reimbursement rate for caring for long term patients there. But the state categorized the moving of the same sub-acute patients to Community Health Center (the old Visalia Community Hospital) as a new site and reimbursement per patient then went from $324 a day to $580 - “adding $2 million to the bottom line,” says Herbst.
• There was a big victory in a lawsuit against the State Department of Health Services on MediCal reimbursement that increased MediCal out-patient reimbursement by 30% - the first increase in reimbursement in a decade, says Herbst.
• The hospital was busier with a high census in the surgical department and renegotiated private insurance plan contracts helped improve the average patient day revenue to $1,391 from $1,073 for this previous year quarter.
• The District improved its collection system cutting the time their accounts receivable days from 120 to 90 - but still below a target level of 63 days. The District’s debt ratio improved to 4.13 compared to 1.81 showing the District’s leverage is not too great.
Last year the hospital was concerned it did not have enough “days cash on hand” based on the investment firm Moody’s ratings which calls for 160 days. But last year the District had just 97 days - improving to 123 days this quarter.
These last measurements are critical to the District plan to borrow money in the marketplace through both revenue bond and likely a general obligation bond this September.
This week the board approved a plan to issue $27 million in revenue bonds by June 24 to build both the new support building and the new cancer and imaging center on Cypress.
Herbst says the bond issue underwritten by Edward Jones and others will be offered in $5000 increments carrying a 4.9% rate for a tax exempt bond and 6.8% in a taxable bond.
The District’s final performance this quarter will be key to how Moody’s Investment Services grades Kaweah Delta. “Last year they downgraded us to A3 with a negative outlook,” says Herbst and there is hope that Moody will upgrade them now before they go out June 30 for the $27 million.
That better bottom line will weigh heavily with the District financial plan to build the big 6 story tower on Acequia in the next few years at a cost that at minimum could be $100 million financed with a combination of savings, donations, revenue bonds and a general obligation bond.
The District did show an increase in employee expenses that includes Workman’s Compensation during the past year with year to date $10 million increases over 2002 numbers ($87.6 million to $97.6 million).
Visalia - Kaweah Delta Hospital will publically bid most of their improvements it plans for its new 5 story “support services” building this summer instead of its original plan to contract the deal out to Westland Development.
Seeking to preserve capital, the hospital administration had moved forward on a plan to have the Mangano brothers build and own the new administrative building being planned at Mineral King and West St. Kaweah Delta would have signed a long term lease.
But on the eve of finalizing the plan, staff is now recommending that it use tax free financing to raise money for the facility requiring the health care district to own the property and a public bidding process, says the hospital’s chief financial officer Gary Herbst.
CEO Lindsay Mann said accounting rules require the investment is accounted for on the balance sheet of the health care district and therefore there was no advantage to any lease.
Unsaid in the discussion is the likelihood that raising funds through a tax-free revenue bond carrying a 4.9% rate may have been too attractive when compared to lease payments the District would have paid the Visalia builders.
Herbst says the low interest rates “make it a great time to be going out for revenue bond financing.” Short and long term interest rates have fallen to 45 year lows this month. The hospital’s brighter financial picture is helping to push the District into going out now to the marketplace for funds to build this complex and the new cancer center on Cypress.
In addition the hospital has taken some criticism in the community from the former plan to build a multi million dollar public facility without competitive bidding.
Herbst says a likely scenario will be to hire the Mangano firm as the general contractors on the $10 to 12 million project while all the sub contractors work is bid out and prevailing wages paid. The role of the general contractor in this case would be to essentially oversee the work. Summaries of the board’s closed door session about the project suggest the board, despite the change in direction, decided to use the Mangano firm to contract the project in part because not using them would cause a 6-month delay in the project and likely delaying the big North Tower project.
Building the support building sooner than later is important because the hospital plans a sort of musical chairs approach relocating departments to the new Mineral King office allowing the clearing of a number of buildings for the new Acequia tower.
Residents Air Dispute on Kaweah South Fork
Tulare County - There’s a nervous tension on the South Fork of the Kaweah River in Three Rivers these days as residents of the narrow valley find themselves watching each other. Divided into two camps, they glare at their neighbors instead of the friendly nod you might expect at a chance meeting at the grocery store. The issue is water for which demand appears to be up and its supply - lately that’s been down - at least in the late summer months.
Three Rivers resident Rusty Crain lays out the issue in a recent letter to the State Water Quality Control Board, “The problem is that there is no water flowing in the lower part of the South Fork in the late part of the summer. The downstream residents cannot do anything about this. When the river is dry, nothing they do will put water into it. The upstream users could reduce the amount of water they consume and allow some to flow in the lower part of the river.”
Crain has been joined by around 140 other locals in a formal complaint to both the SWCCB and to Fish and Game - the later who has jurisdiction over streambed alterations in the state - that targets five long time ditch companies on the South Fork. They point the finger upstream for the drying up of the river both in the late summer of 2001 (14.92" of rain” and 2002 (17.25" of rain) - something Crain says this hasn’t happened since the low rainfall year of 1977 (7.92" of rain). In these years the drying of the river has caused a fish kill prompting the complaints to the state Fish and Game. For some residents downstream, the South Fork is their domestic (washing) water supply.
Looking upstream complaintant Paul Boley finds five diversions of the river by ditch companies who have created dams “and a recent glut of ponds filled with what used to be the river.” Another letter to the SWQCB from Kent and Sandy Owen complains that a “new breed of property owner has emerged. Instead of the old families who have lived here for years and understood the ecosystem, the importance of the river and the reliance on its water by all, human, flora and fauna. We seem to have owners who divert water into huge ponds. They use it to create green pastures and private “parks.” These owners somehow feel the water is theirs to use, as much as they want, regardless of the results downstream.”
Since 1924
Are the ditch diversions legal, is the water they take reasonable - are the water uses extravagant? What about the issue of conserving water?
Dave Bird who is president of the upstream Hardison Ditch Co., a 17 year resident of the area, says their ditch company has been diverting water from the South Fork since 1924. The pipeline of the river supplies water to 8 households and is drinking water for some. He says the water rights show up on the property deeds.
Bird bristles at the thought the ditch company wastes water. “We’ve spent about $20,000 fixing the pipeline over the years that brings water from the river. As far as I know there are no leaks on it.”
At the end of the pipeline Bird owns a pond that receives the water that is used to irrigate lawn and trees and is a haven for lots of wildlife. He says it also provides water supply to fight fires remembering when he first arrived that such a fire nearly tore through the South Fork one year.
A gully returns the excess flow back to the river, he says. The pond is 120 by 40 ft. and some 10 ft. deep.
Is this use reasonable? “Now that the issue has come up we welcome the investigation by the Regional Board.” Bird says upper South Fork property owners used to flood irrigate when he first came to the area and now property owners use thriftier delivery devices. “We have to compromise our water use among ourselves already,” says Bird.
But the critics suggest that no one is regulating just how much water is being diverted by upstream users.
Bird notes that while the ditch companies are being targeted they ought to research growth all along the river including the number in river wells that take water directly from the South Fork.
One new entrant - Steve Braunheim who bought the old Wells ranch in the South Fork and built a new pond and comes in for criticism from the complaintants is defended by neighbor Dave Bird who says irrigating his pasture with rain birds is likely the most effective way to water it and is far happier that the 8000 acre ranch wasn’t subdivided into home sites that would have used far more water. There is controversy over whether the pond is filled by river water, spring or deep wells or a combination. Bird says that despite the size of the ranch, Braunheim irrigates a small acreage only.
Turning It Into Ireland
Others say some users upstream “are trying to turn this place into Ireland.” They also point to the large amount of water that evaporates when you pond it. The complaintants say the diversion is “unauthorized” setting the stage for a regulatory or perhaps legal battle on each of these ditch company sites.
“Just because the downstream users don’t like it doesn’t make it illegal for the upstream people to take the water they are entitled to,” suggests one water expert. “It will have to be sorted out.”
Just this week the RWQCB is receiving the official responses on each ditch company to the formal complaints they have received.
The matter has been played out a couple of Three Rivers Community Services District meetings attended by official from both the Fish and Game and the water board. Charles Rich representing the water board told the meeting that the filing of the complaint and responses from the ditch companies would result in an investigation and hopefully a settlement.
Ditch company representative Dan Morgan has floated a trial balloon settlement that suggests ditch companies on the South Fork agree to take less water in dry years - like an 80% average precipitation taken at Hockett Meadow on April 1 for example - the source of the South Fork up in the Park.
Settlement Premature
But critic Paul Boley says any settlement talks right now “are premature” until Sacramento goes through an investigation. Unlike some streams in which the actual water usage is set out by law, there is no one monitoring just how much water people are using. “There has been no oversite,” says the complaint.
Dave Bird says he wouldn’t be surprised to see a conservation district approach being taken on the South Fork and like in bone dry Albuquerque - if you want to build a new house you have to go out and retrofit 14 existing homes with water saving toilets.
The water issues could turn into a growth controversy on the South Fork given the number of new homes that have popped up in the area in the past decade. But if new growth is the problem on the South Fork, Rusty Crain - who taught geology at COS for 27 years - writes the water board that his calculations show that one upstream ditch company claims the right to use 8.4 times the water than 246 downstream users.
The dispute has focused a bright light on a problem and will likely be sorted out.
Tulare County- Tule Tribal members and federal and state agency members will be meeting this week with water stakeholders along the south Tule River and the Tule River Association to negotiate for a recognized water supply, says tribal elder Alec Garfield.
“We want to update local riparian interests, members of the South Tule Independent Ditch Co. and the Tule River Association who represent water districts below Success Dam where we are at.”
R.L. Schafer who heads the Tule River Association says that negotiation sessions are over the tribe’s reserve water rights that are based on federal law passed in 1998. “We know the tribe has a reserve right to the water but the negotiations are to settle just how much,” says Schafer. “You can do that through negotiation or through litigation,” he says. He says he hopes negotiations will be the path.
Tribal member Garfield says if additional water can be secured “our priority would be to improve the domestic supply for homes on the reservation.” He says there are preliminary plans for a new reservoir to be sited on the reservation that could store water for the tribe’s use. “There are times we don’t have adequate supply for fire fighting.” Garfield says intentions of the tribe is to conserve more water in the future with installation of more advanced delivery system to bring water in from the river.
“We used to have some ditches that we no longer use because there was concern we were wasting water.” All the water delivery system on the reservation is gravity fed.
Garfield says also attending the negotiation session this week will be representatives from the federal BIA, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Justice and Regional solicitor’s office.
Tulare County - In recent months Kaweah River Rock and Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District have forged a plan that would allow more mining at the company’s Woodlake rock quarry while protecting area water supplies, they say.
The issue has been heated over the years in the greater Kaweah delta area with lots of ink in all the local papers.
In 1999 Kaweah River Rock filed a plan for a major 815 acre expansion for their mine along the Kaweah River that was shot down by the Board of Supervisors.
Since then the company has been looking for ways to do a smaller project, says general manager Dave Harrald while meeting the objections of critics have had over reclamation plans that would have resulted in large ponds and the loss of water due to evaporation.
Harrald says discussions between his company and the lead water agency, Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District, has resulted in a plan that is expected to be filed later this summer with the county for a 240 acre project adjacent their current site that “would essentially replace the facility we have now,” says Harrald.
The difference this time is that a technique called dry basin would be implemented creating a barrier between them and surrounding aquifer to cut off any water movement and minimize pumping, he says. The same technique is used to isolate building sites in urban areas. The San Francisco water agency actually uses the same method to do a sand and gravel mine, he says.
“This will have a net water benefit,” says Harrald since the water district can use the dry basin for flood control waters once the reclamation begins. He says the project is called Kaweah South and a full Environmental Impact Report is being prepared to be filed later this summer.
In other mining news, Lemon Cove Granite is seeking a permanent permit for a quarry east of 198. The facility has been operating on a temporary permit to date.
COS president Kim Badrkhan won't be leaving us after all now that a Bay Area college has selected someone else for the position. Badrkhan was one of three finalists for the position.
Good news on the rivers. Runoff on the Tule River now expected to be 85% of normal as of May 13 after repeated storms in both April and May – pretty unusual. Kaweah River is 88% as is the Kings River. Long range forecasts now suggest a La Nina pattern late this summer meaning more precipitation in the Pacific Northwest – good news for more hydro power production.
More good news on the Friant Kern where the Bureau of Reclamation is expected to announce a 15% Class 2 supply of "surplus" water that district can bank in their recharge basins.
What's going to happen to St. Anthony's Retreat in Three Rivers? The retreat has announced it would close this year as the friars are being called to fill positions at other locations. On September 19 the 40th Anniversary Jubilee will be held that will include some of the original members of the crew that actually built the place. The friars will be leaving after that. In the meantime, an appraisal of the property has been prepared that could be used for the sale of the 40 acre property unless the Fresno Diocese can exercise a purchase or potential lease purchase, sources say. If not, the property could be sold on the open market.
The owner of the Visalia Food For Less stores, Fleming Company has given notice to the city of Visalia on May 7th that there is a pending closure of both Visalia stores by May 31 in which 76 workers would lose their jobs. The notice is a federal requirement. The company declared bankruptcy in April 2003. In the meantime, Save Mart is looking to acquire the two and 7 other stores Fleming owns in central California. The case is pending Federal Trade Commission approval. Sources say that approval is likely but that FTC was concerned over the lack of competition in some communities if Save Mart acquires the stores. Save Mart already owns three stores in Visalia and the addition of these two warehouse stores - likely under the Food Maxx banner would bring that to five. Other grocers in town have only one location each now that Young's supermarket - the independent - has announced it would close on Mooney. The Fleming letter to mayor Jesus Gamboa says the company was unable to find a buyer for either their Ben Maddox or Mooney stores.
Kings County is still working on tying Huron to Porterville with a light rail system to complement the cross valley rail being installed now from Huron to Goshen. The light rail would carry passengers utilizing clean burning fuel cell based system accommodating growth while cleaning up the air. Likewise for the industrial rail that could decrease the use of polluting truck traffic. Growth predictions show the Hanford to Lemoore area passing 150,000 population in a few decades from now and the need to provide cleaner transportation will be the only way to accommodate that growth given EPA demand we clean up our air, say officials. By way of emphasis the City of Lemoore has now purchased the old Strathmore Railroad Station and will relocate it to Downtown Lemoore in coming months.
Visalia city council woman Wendy Rudy says she will decide by July whether to run again for another four year term on the council although she appears to be leaning toward not running. She has advised readers on the city web site discussion page that she feels she has accomplished something in her term in office including bolstering public safety and bringing in a fun park for the city's youth. "My mom moved to Oregon and with my asthma and my child's allergies, I'm thinking we could move over there and breathe a little easier." Wendy has been on maternity leave with her new two month old girl Emily now coming to work with her at Welcome Home Realty. Rudy says she is talking to other potential candidates and wants to make sure they will support the program she believes in before deciding. She says she is glad Victor Perez has announced he will run. The election for two seats is this November. Bob Link is expected to run for another term. Rudy says her big concerns in recent weeks has been the state budget - it looks like the city won't be hurt as bad as we thought - and transit - the agency has faced some criticism recently over performance issues.
Mineral King Road in Sequoia National Park will be undergoing construction to repair flood damage. The road will be closed to visitor traffic from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, May 29 near Redwood Creek about 6.5 miles inside the park boundary.
Many of the big oak trees on Visalia's "Scenic Corridor" north of 198 at Shirk Ave. are showing signs of distress due to lack of water. A number of them are already dead due apparently to lack of regular water reaching the root zone on land that recently has not been irrigated because of pending development, says city arborist Dave Pendergraft.
"We just issued a permit to remove 138 trees of various sizes to be removed" by Cambridge Homes who plans a subdivision just south of Hurley east of Shirk along the north Mill Creek channel. Homebuilders working on projects in the area are installing irrigation systems to keep the oaks that will be part of the subdivision, says Pendergraft, at a cost of $100 per tree. The home project will be "mitigating" the loss of the trees by replanting seedlings. Still, it's hard to make up for the loss of 100 year old trees.
What about the remainder? "These trees are hurting now," says Brian Kempf of the Urban Tree Foundation. "They need to get some water on them soon," he says.
The trees along the north Mill bank get only occasional spill water on a typical basis, says Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District senior engineer Larry Dotson. While Mill Creek through town is flowing high this time of year, that water heads through Mill Creek's south channel as it heads out the waste water treatment plant.
"When the land out there was farmed it allowed seepage to let those big trees survive," says Dotson. But as development of the city has moved west, the property owners along the north Mill branch have not farmed the land leaving only the Conservation District with the role to try to "save what's left," says Dotson. "We expect to turn some water from the channel this week," says the agency engineer after receiving a number of phone calls about the sad state of the trees that are Visalia's signature.
It was precisely the same worry over lack of seepage water from earthen canals and potential negative effects on the oak woodlands east of Visalia that ended up scuttling a plan to line the Tulare Irrigation District canal out by Venice Hill a few years ago.
"You can't change the growing environment that oaks are used to," says Pendergraft, which accounts for some big oaks that have managed to survive on unirrigated land for years because they have acclimated to the low water environment.
Even as some work to save the big corridor oaks, a massive tree planting of seedlings is underway led by Brian Kempf who recently got CalTrans to mitigate 1300 seedlings to the effort. The city nursery east of Ben Maddox along St. Johns has gotten so big that both Pendergraft and Kempf fear they are now too big to transport anymore. "We moved some 6 inches in diameter before," says Pendergraft, including 4 to the Visalia Convention Center where the plaza is being relandscaped. "You have to move them in the dead of winter however," says Pendergraft.
As property owners just west of the Visalia city limits along both sides of the 189 corridor anticipate development – the potential end to farming on the land and consistent irrigation loss may seal the fate of the big oaks along the corridor that has been so inviting over the decades, welcoming people to Visalia.
La Sierra High School, Tulare County's only charter high school, will begin a military academy this summer. La Sierra High School is operated by Services for Education and Employment (SEE) and is under the governance of the Tulare Office of Education. La Sierra began three years ago and has an enrollment of almost 300 students, with two campuses in Visalia and one in Porterville.
"Since 1994 we have been running para-military programs which have been extremely successful in changing the lives of our youth," says Dr. Lorene Valentino, SEE Administrator. "We began with a summer project called "Hard Corps" that brought different gang members together and they worked, ate and slept together in the mountains for two months. After the program ended they became the best of friends and continued their education."
In 2001, the project became a year round program that included non-gang members and was renamed "Sierra Corps." More emphasis was placed on education, but it retained its military type training, which included intense physical training, marching drills, strict discipline and the popular "Character Counts" training. "This program has been so effective in changing young people's attitude, behavior and values we need to enlarge the program so more students can be involved," adds Valentino. "That is why we are going to start a military academy to include more youth."
The Hard Corps and Sierra Corps Programs were funded in part by the Tulare County Workforce Investment Board (TCWIB), but that funding is expected to be reduced. SEE has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that will help launch the new school. "We received a $1 million grant, called "Sierra Heights," from the DOL to provide youth with a school curriculum that consists of strenuous physical training, outdoor education, and vocational training in a para-military environment," says Valentino.
"The Sierra Heights Program is for high school age boys who want a different kind of high school experience. The Sierra Heights approach to education is a miliary approach; a lot of "Yes Sir, No Sir," miliary physical training, including marching drills, backpacking and rock climbing in the high Sierras and community service work," adds Dr. Valentino.
Students will be enrolled into La Sierra High School and take core academic subjects to earn credits toward a high school diploma. They will be excused from regular classes to go on camping trips, work on community service projects and learn other wilderness survival techniques. "We have learned from our very successful Sierra Corps Program that some kids who are not very motivated or flirting with dangerous street activities need a very structured environment."
The Sierra Heights program is open entry, open exit, meaning that a student can enroll at any time. There are some eligibility requirements imposed by the DOL and consider family income and legal status. Students enrolled in the Sierra Heights Program can earn up to $2,300 in community service projects. Experienced counselors and outdoor adventure instructors provide continuous supervision and training.
"Sierra Heights is not for everyone, but for the kid who is bored with regular school, or seems to get in trouble without trying, this program just might be the right school to get them to make life-changing decisions that will affect them the rest of their lives," concludes Dr. Valentino.
SEE will be holding several events to inform the public about the new school, beginning with the 2nd Annual Youthfest May 31, at the Sequoia Mall, beginning at 1 p.m. Music, entertainment, food, skate boarding and other activities will be held. In addition, SEE will hold an Open House and Barbecue on June 6 at 12 noon at the La Sierra West Campus, corner of Hurley and Akers Rd. for interested students and parents. For information about La Sierra Military Academy and the Sierra Heights Program call the SEE Youth Program at 733-6730 or visit the office at 1735 E. Houston St., Visalia, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Here and There
Pacific Ethanol has completed purchase of the former Coast Grain mill in Madera this week purchasing the 3 year train loading facility for $5.1 million in a bankruptcy hearing. Players in Pacific Ethanol include former Secretary of State Bill Jones and Visalia's Kent Kaulfuss who owns a 100 acre parcel on 99 and 198. Kaulfuss says that now that the Madera plant site is secure permitting through the air board and local jurisdictions in both Madera and Tulare counties will move forward "in the next few weeks." The company plans two large 35 million gallon ethanol plants - one in Madera and one in Visalia.
In other ethanol news, a potential competitor may file for a special use permit to build an ethanol plant near the intersection of Rd. 120 and Highway 99. Sources say the applicant will be a start-up company called Calgren perhaps in association with a local grain company. Another smaller ethanol facility is being developed by another firm in McFarland.
Fire gutted the Porterville JC Penney store earlier this month and now the community is wondering if the company will rebuild, relocate or not bother. The relatively small 22,000 sq. ft. store is an anchor to Downtown and the business leaders don't want to lose the traffic the store brings in. It is unusual these days to have a department store in a Downtown and so there is speculation the store would find a new location. Brokers we spoke to suggest Penney's is likely to rebuild in town somewhere. One quick option for the store would be to reopen in the vacant Save Mart at Plano and Olive suggest Community Development director Brad Dunlap who expects some sort of an answer from the company this week. The chamber has organized a letter writing campaign.
M and H Realty has sold its interest in the former Save Mart shopping center now anchored by 99 cent store on Mooney to a Fresno trust - Betsy Keller trustee. In addition, M and H - a San Francisco based partnership - has reportedly put all of its 60-plus properties - many in California - up for sale listed with an investment real estate firm. That includes the Visalia Sequoia Mall and Tower Plaza property next to it along with two shopping centers in Fresno and one in Clovis.
Visalia Surgical Hospital is one step closer with escrow on the purchase of a 3.7 acre piece of land and a "week to 10 days off," says David Thoene, vice president for development with FSC Health - the 50-50 partner working to build the new complex along with a number of Visalia area docs. The hospital will be located in the Mission Oaks office development at Akers and 198.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
May 21, 2003
