Forcible Rapes Rise
by Gabriel Alexander

Tulare County - Forcible rape rates went up 38.1% in Tulare County between the years 2001and 2002 according to the California Crime Index. Nationwide rape rates, however, remained about the same between the years 2000 and 2002 according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Assistant District Attorney, Carol Turner, suggests that perhaps forcible rape rates went up because more victims felt comfortable reporting to the police.

“Sexual assault is more reported now because of the education of the public and the way we’ve tried to make it easier for someone to relate what happened,” Turner said. “We’re not accusatory, and officers are more skilled in using questions that aren’’t leaded.”

Despite advances, rape still remains an under-reported crime, said Jennifer Noelani Boteilho, Prevention/Volunteer Coordinator at The Rape Crisis Center in Visalia. The Rape Crisis Center is a private, non-profit organization that offers free counseling and services to Tulare County victims of sexual assault. They work closely with the DA, local law enforcement, and the hospital, meeting with them every two months to discuss issues dealing with sexual assault in the county.

The Rape Crisis Center averages 30 cases a month, according to Boteilho, and sometimes only half of them are reported to the police. Some of the female victims feel that the rape was their fault so they keep it to themselves.

“There’s a myth out there that people ask for it,” Boteilho said. “Sometimes risky behavior is involved-maybe the victim had been out drinking. There’s a lot of guilt and shame and if only’s. If only I hadn’t gone there or done this. They think that the case won’t go anywhere in court, so why bother?” Boteilho tells these women that it isn’t their fault. No one asks for or deserves sexual assault no matter what, and should access proper legal procedures.

“If the victim was drinking or on drugs, it does not prevent us from proceeding with a case,” DA Assistant, Carol Turner, said.

Male victims also feel insecure about reporting what happened to them.

“With men, sexual assault is even more under-reported,” Boteilho said. “They worry that people will think they are a wimp.”

Children who are victims of sexual assault confront their own obstacles when reporting to police. The child knows their assaulter the majority of the time, according to Boteilho. They’re threatened with, “Don’t tell or I’ll kill Mommy and Daddy.”

Most sexual assault victims know their assailants, and the crime usually occurs in one’s own home, Boteilho said. The Rape Crisis Center rarely encounters the stranger in the dark alley scenario.

“People think that the only people to be aware of are strangers-the big stranger danger thing,” Boteilho said. “Really 90% of sexual assault comes from people we know.”

Lieutenant Salazar, head of the investigations of violent crimes with the Sheriff’s Department, sees many cases where the victim knew the assailant.

“Either they were friends, knew each other from before, or were a girlfriend or a boyfriend,” Salazar said.

Although rapes often occur in one’s own home, predators take advantage of the Valley’s sparsely populated areas.

“People are taken to orchards,” Boteilho said. “That makes it challenging to find the crime scene.”

Two of the three rapes Lt. Salazar worked this year involved rural areas. One victim was taken to residences in Cutler, Reedley, Dinuba, and Orange Cove. Another victim was left in a ditch in Three Rivers.

If driving at night in less populated areas, use concern, says Lieutenant Perry, Public Information Officer for the Sheriff‘s Department. The gas tank should be kept full; if you use a cell phone to call for help, state where you are immediately because cell phones don’t give out locations; if your car breaks down and a person offers to help you, don’t get out of the car. Instead roll down the window, and ask them to call for a tow truck.

“Maintain control of what happens,” Lt. Perry said.

Even if all precautions are taken, someone could still be a victim of rape.

“Often we hear people say, ‘‘I’d never let that happen to me. I’d fight no matter what,” Boteilho said. “But no one can know for sure what they would do in that situation. It’s hard to say what you would do if a gun was pointed to your head.”

In April 1994 Karen Watkins was getting ready for work when she heard someone coming up the stairs. She thought her husband had forgotten something on his way to work and had come back, but it was a stranger with a knife stolen from her kitchen. Throughout the following rapes, she tried to pacify his paranoia. When he noticed from the window a neighbor watering his yard, he asked repeatedly, “Do you think he saw me?” Watkins assured him with phrases like: There are a lot of rentals around here. We don’t know our neighbors very well. Eventually he left, threatening to return, but the police found him and he was sentenced to over 400 years.

When Watkins told people what happened, they would ask her, “Why didn’t you fight?”

“They thought that because I didn’t put up a struggle it wasn’t so bad. I wasn’t beaten. The first question people would ask me was, ‘‘Did he beat you?’’ They think that if you’re sexually assaulted, you’re beaten, there are outward bruises and marks.”

“There is a myth out there that a victim must be crying hysterically, cut, stabbed, but most victims we spend time with have very few physical injuries,” Boteilho said. “The emotional impact is devastating. People won’t be supportive of a victim because they don’’t fit their idea of a victim.”

It turned out that Watkins decision to be passive saved her life. The assaulter had been on amphetamine, and was an especially dangerous case according to his probation officer.

“If I had put up a struggle he probably would’ve killed me,” Watkins said.

Tulare County DA Phil Cline says the fact this area has so much methamphetamine use may figure into the high incidence of forcible rape since it stirs a sexual urge that can’t be quenched.

It is impossible to come up with the best response for a rape situation. In another case, told by Bill Troendle who teaches women’s self defense, a woman was approached by a stranger while she was walking along a canal bank. Instead of running, she charged him. He was caught off guard and took off.

Even though each situation varies, a woman can lessen the chance of an attack by avoiding risky behavior, according to Boteilho.

“It doesn’t mean it will never happen, but it will be less likely to happen to someone who is not engaging in risky behavior,” Boteilho said. “In the 12 to 17 age range we see risky behavior that can lead up to an assault. Often alcohol or drugs are involved-drinking alcohol in a park with people they don’t really know, or going to a party with someone they’ve only known a couple months.”

If someone is raped, they should call 911 or The Rape Crisis Center’s 24-hour hotline, 732-RAPE immediately. The victim should not take a shower, brush their teeth, use the restroom, eat or drink because those activities could wash away important DNA evidence.

“With the advent of DNA we can pinpoint exactly who it was,” Turner said. In order to preserve evidence, the victim should get to a hospital right away. Even if time has elapsed after a rape, Boteilho encourages victims to call The Rape Crisis Center for free counseling and services even if the case doesn’t go to court. “It’s more difficult to prove as time goes by--it becomes a he said/ she said thing, but still do it,” Boteilho said. “There is a high chance of rapists re-offending. If another accusation comes up, you could be called back as a character witness. Ultimately we want to stop someone else from getting hurt.”

---

AgriCenter Interchange Boosted

Tulare - An offer to donate land for a new freeway interchange near the Tulare AgriCenter has boosted chances CalTrans will approve a new project there in the near future. “We are leaving any long term decisions in the hands of the locals for a plan in that area,” says CalTrans administrator Alan McCuen.

After CalTrans engineers closed the “K” St. offramp off 99 a whirlwind of community meetings put pressure on CalTrans to provide a solution to the lack of access to south Tulare businesses.

This week, city manager Kevin Northcraft said an engineer with CalTrans has come up with both a short term and long term plan. In the short term, CalTrans agreed to push the timetable to run a frontage road from Ave. 200 to “K” St. now cut to a 3 year timetable. Northcraft says that remains “unacceptable.” He says “we think they can cut it down to two years.”

But regarding a long term plan, Northcraft will be recommending to the city council Oct. 7th to support the plan to build a new freeway interchange at Commercial Ave. next to AgTac that would access both the “K” St. area and the AgriCenter with a new diamond interchange.

Last council meeting, consultant Lynn Dredge speaking in for his client Manuel Faria suggested Faria would donate the land necessary to lay out an interchange and would even make whole Ag TAC if any of their property were impacted. Faria owns land on both sides of freeway 99.

“I think the offer has helped build momentum for the new interchange,” says Northcraft noting that with an exemption that could be granted by CalTrans, the city would not be “losing anything but gaining a new interchange.” The exemption would be needed because the proposed interchange would be 0.8 of a mile from Paige instead of a full mile. But if the exemption is granted, state money earmarked long term for Paige would be switched over to this new interchange without loss of any of the access ramps on Paige.

The next step would be for CalTrans and the city to develop a freeway agreement, says McCuen. Northcraft says the city may apply for TCAG money to do a Project Study Report that would lay out just how the new interchange would develop and is footprint. “We’ve already done some preliminary work a few years ago on this option,” says Northcraft.

That would enable the property owner, the AgriCenter and any potential developers to site what could be major new development for south Tulare – perhaps even a Harris Ranch or another first class hotel to help continue the momentum of the expansion of the AgriCenter area.

Expect to hear news from Washington through Congressman Devin Nunes that some sort of financial help to make all this happen sooner than it would otherwise happen.

Dredge, who attended a city/CalTrans meeting on the project last week says he believes the new interchange could be both the short term and long term solution for the area.

“If we put the same energy into the interchange as we put into the westside frontage road” the project could satisfy the needs of “K” St. businesses and open up substantial commercial development opportunities on both sides of the freeway says the former Tulare city manager.

Dredge says several hundred acres of open land on the westside of 99 at Commercial could be developed and on the eastside the entire open space area near the AgriCenter would be attractive.

“We’ve already had some developer interest including from a mid-size hotel but they want to now where and when an interchange might be built.”

Farm Show general manager Gary Shultz pressed Cal Trans if they could build a diamond interchange in the same time they could deliver the westside road – in three years – and a CalTrans engineer suggested it could be done. That would make the full interchange option as quick or nearly as quick a fix for the problem saving the several million that would be spent for the frontage road.

Besides a hotel and restaurant with the success of the Heritage Complex office space is seen as reason enough to build more offices in the area. “The Heritage Complex is now 100% full,” Dredge says.

Dredge says that if the decision is to concentrate on the short term fix of a westside road, the momentum to do the full interchange will be put off and perhaps not happen until 2020 or so and all the benefits that could go with it.

Tulare City Council will have the last word on this project.

---

Ag & Labor Agree On Immigration Bill

California - A bill introduced in Congress a few weeks ago and hailed by both California farmers and labor supporters like the UFW seems headed for President Bush’s desk for a signature.

It appears five years of tough negotiations between the two sides has paid off and most agree that Congress will pass the measure although some conservatives are vowing a fight.

The agreement between polar opposites like liberal Ted Kennedy and Republican Senator Larry Craig of Idaho is clearly a bipartisan approach to the need from both camps - cheap and ample labor for agri-business and new potential membership for the farm workers union hoping to sign up some of the 500,000 illegal aliens already in this country that will become legal residents through an “earned “ amnesty program.

Farm advocates like Nisei Farmer’s League President Manuel Cunha who helped broker the compromise, says the guest worker provisions of the “Ag Jobs” bill will make it easier for farmers to import Mexican farm workers to pick the crops through a organized process instead of farmers and workers alike “being forced into an illegal underground system”.

While business interests were at the political table - the affected communities, public services, and John Q. Public all likely to be impacted by any increase in immigration - didn’t appear to be represented at the closed-door bargaining sessions.

It was the 1986 Immigration Reform law that appeared to set off what may be called a flood of immigrants coming into the state in the past two decades.

That a tide of mostly poor and uneducated Mexicans has swept across a 2000 mile border into the US by both illegal and legal means in the passing decade is clear from census numbers for the US, California and Tulare County.

There are now over 33 million foreign born in the US according to the Census Bureau – half the population growth in the country last year. Of the 1.6 million that came in last year, over 1 million of them were from south of the border. Half the 33 million in the US entered the country since 1990 - the highest rate in the nation’s history.

Tulare County got a huge wave of immigrants in the past 20 years according to the US Census. Of the 72,000 foreign-born people in Tulare County, the Census Dept. estimates that 25,000 came here in the past ten years and about 2/3 of that total have come here since 1980. Most are Hispanics from Mexico who came in part through the Immigration Reform bills of 1986 and later.

Of the 72,000 foreign born that have entered Tulare County, the Census Dept. estimates that 51,500 are not citizens - meaning their participation in the civic life of the County is limited. Clearly many are here legally helped by the 1986 law under which 2.7 million illegal aliens, mostly from Mexico, were given legal immigrant status.

That the influx of folks – an estimated two thirds of whom never graduated high school – has an impact on our communities, schools, hospitals, and the public safety, even urban sprawl and air quality can’t be denied. The budgets – the carrying capacity if you will – of all our resources are strained.

Consider that in the next few months, Visalians will be asking to pony up extra for building a new hospital where ER visits have gone through the roof, a bond to build new schools and an extra sales tax to supplement the Visalia Police Department due to all the calls for service.

The apparent inability of the U.S. government to control its boarder has affected Tulare County, helping to maintain its status as one of the poorest counties per capita in the nation. The Christian Science Monitor just ran a picture of an old shack in Tulare County with kids on a swing to illustrate poverty in America last week (on cover).

That’s why to the degree any new amnesty programs would replenish these same social and fiscal sores deserve a closer look.

Visalia school board member and writer Mike Lane pointed out the dilemma in a recent essay sent to the Voice. He notes that none other than Cesar Chavez campaigned during the 1970's to curb illegal immigration since it undermines wages and working conditions for people” already in the country. “Open borders tend to ‘flood the labor markets,’” he writes.

They also flood hospitals, schools, jails, roads, etc. Further, many don’t seek to enter the assimilation process that other immigrants have gone through – full American citizenship and striving to be fluent in English.

Today about half of California residents are immigrants or children of immigrants. Statewide there is an estimate that there are 1.6 million undocumented Mexicans here.

Selma farmer and writer Victor Davis Hanson who recently penned the book Mexifornia, points out that the flood of new immigrants to California has bankrupt the entitlement industry, impacted our law enforcement system – about one quarter of jail inmates are illegal aliens and one third of drug arrests (Mexican Cartel) involve them. We are the meth lab capital and Sequoia Park is turning into pot farms as this goes to press.

Hanson suggests farmers – who argue they must lower their costs “to compete globally” might do better if they offered better wages. “Somewhere around 1970 the free market simply ceased to work.” You can draw people back if you are willing to pay enough, he suggests.

Others suggest the problem remains that some two thirds of immigrants don’t have a high school education making their assimilation into our economy that much harder. Special programs are required. Moving up in American societies requires at least fluency in English, yet in the 2000 census, more than 50,000 residents of the county said they “didn’t speak English very well.” Our schools must carry the additional load without the additional tax base.

Health Care Impacted

Poor people don’t have health insurance and thus our medical delivery system is impacted. It is no surprise that in the past year, so many hospitals in the central valley have closed and visits to Kaweah Delta’s emergency room – the place poor people come when they are sick – doubled their annual visits in just a few years.

Consider this simple fact. Immigration here is impacting growth. The Voice reported that in the past ten years, more people moved out of Tulare County than moved in. Only 34,000 moved in (54,000 moved out) during that same time the census reported that legal immigration into Tulare County numbered about 26,000 accounting for most our growth when you add all the births.

It is the sheer volume of the influx that’s swamping our public services and the lack of concerted movement toward full citizenship by many new arrivals that creates worry about any new immigration “reform” program.

On the other hand, offering amnesty could take these residents out of the shadows some argue, allowing them to more fully participate.

Control Of Border

There is the fear that whatever the merit of a legal amnesty program and a guest worker plan that promises the “guest” will leave when the work is done that the U.S. can’t seem to control it’s borders. The American public longs for a more traditional and moderate immigration influx and the fact the U.S. government doesn’t give locals the tools it needs to handle this crisis – that gives some pause.

You offer us more poor people and yet there is no offer of a 4-year college. Only bigger Walmarts.

But school board member Mike Lane says the latest “Ag Jobs” bill is a middle ground in the search for a proper immigration policy. The proposed bill is supported by Cal Dooley and Devin Nunes representing both sides of the aisle. Lane says only a limited number of guest workers will be allowed under humane conditions and at a wage no less than that of better than prevailing wage. He suggests that “these workers could then return home to their families without fear.” Obviously the terrible loss of life of desperate people crossing the border and sometimes meeting tragedy is heart wrenching. Some 1800 have died since 1998.

Will the programs induce more immigration? That is the question. The Ag Jobs bill has the guest worker provision built in that allows farmers to bring the workers in an organized and legal way to pick the crops if they can show a local worker shortage. They have the added burden of paying for their housing as well. The bill apparently has no provision for healthcare, however.

The second part of the bill calls for a “earned amnesty” of undocumented people already in the U.S. To receive that “adjustment of status” they must have worked in agriculture in the past 12 months and must continue to do so for a number of years.

Keeping Families Together

These undocumented workers can apply to have their immediate family also admitted into the program as well without a work requirement – an idea that is supported by Cal Dooley as a way to “keep families together.” Clearly this could add to the numbers of new residents in a place like Tulare County where the farm work is.

"We've been negotiating many years to try to get a workable guestworker program that Democrats and Republicans could support," says Farm Bureau President Bill Pauli. "This is a compromise package. It is not perfect for either side but it is a major improvement from the status quo."

Included in the final legislative package is a three-year freeze of the 2002 Adverse Effect Wage Rate, a wage rate that is higher than local prevailing wages. The AEWR is designed to attract domestic workers, but Pauli said that in most cases it does not. He adds that it "substantially increases the cost of getting crops harvested."

Pauli says the AgJOBS bill would also attempt to simplify and streamline the current H-2A program by replacing the complicated and time-consuming labor certification process for demonstrating that sufficient domestic workers are not available. Under the AgJOBS bill, the employer agrees to comply with the wages, benefits and other standards of the H-2A program, to advertise job opportunities in the local labor market and to give preference in employment to qualified domestic workers.

Still, the question is – Will the enclaves of workers in Orange Cove, Cutler-Orosi, Delft Colony, Goshen, Woodlake, Lindsay, Woodville, Cotton Center Richgrove, and the rest of the barrios be better off when the new program goes in or will the poverty and 50% unemployment figures just pile higher?

Tulare County has received waves of immigrants that swelled the local population during the Dust Bowl when the population increased 38% from 1935 to 1940. That wave has been assimilated and in fact many have joked the children of those “Okies” now run Tulare County.

---

Call Center May Hire Laid Off
Budget Workers

Lemoore - The bad news last week was that Budget Rent-A-Car will close its Lemoore call center next year laying off some 350 employees. The parent company Cendent Corp. purchased Budget last year out of bankruptcy. Budget announced the closure of a Toronto call center as well as Lemoore in order to cut debt, the company owner said. Shocked employees were taken back by the sudden decision to axe their jobs as were local officials.

“It was a surprise to all of us,” said John Lehn who heads up the Kings County EDC. Budget had originally chosen Lemoore because it fit their community profile, says Lehn, of being near a military base and community college. Budget has remodeled a leased supermarket in Lemoore to the tune of $6 million and still has 10 years on the lease. Layoffs at the Budget center will begin in December.

In the mean time, there was surprise good news that came out this week just as suddenly. Jack Tomberlin who co-owns E and J computers says he will hire 250 employees to service a contract with major computer makers like Hewlett Packard, Dell, and Gateway. Tomberlin showed up at the Budget parking lot to tell bummed out employees that his company was hiring. “We tried to get the Budget building for our call center but they won’t be completely out until later in March,” says Tomberlin.

Instead, Tomberlin says he is leasing 7000 sq. ft. at 216 W. 7th St. in Hanford - the former Census office – and will be begin work November 28th. “We’ve hired three people this morning,” he says.

Tomberlin says he recently moved to the area from Oklahoma bringing his company and a few employees with him. Tomberlin says employees will be working three shifts to handle as many as 4000 technical calls a day from computer users. No matter that the employees don’t know much about computers, he says. They will be offered a one-week training course and will rely on a technical team for more complicated questions that their computer screen can’t handle.

Jobs at the new center will start at $7.50 during the training period and move up to $8.50 per hour after that. Managers will make $9.50 per hour. He says he needs a sales team of 20 as well.

Tomberlin says he would still like to use the large Budget building in Lemoore since its furnished and wired – completely set up for call center use.

Tomberlin says he will field calls on his cell phone at 381-6344.

---

Apples Go Way Back in Springville

by Peyton Ellas

Springville - During this year’s 23rd annual Springville Apple Festival, October 18-19, visitors will be able to work up a sweat in the 5K & 10K "Apple Run", buy T-shirts with apples on them, and browse arts and crafts booths --many with apple-themed gifts. There will even be apple-pie-baking and pie-eating contests.

In fact, the only thing visitors may have trouble finding amongst the downtown booths and events are Springville-grown apples. Even the majority of the pies, butters, strudels, and breads for sale won't contain a trace of apples grown locally. This wasn't always the case, but the factors causing this are ones that echo the history and progress of the region and are reflected in almost every aspect of life in the rural West today.

The Festival started as an idea to "showcase the area's locally grown apples," according to this year's Festival Committee Chairperson, Phyllis Taylor. But it was also intended to be a fundraiser for the Club. No one can argue that the weekend, drawing an estimated 30,000 visitors to the town whose year-round population hovers at around 1800, has been a tremendous success at raising money. By renting space for arts, crafts and food booths, the Springville Chamber of Commerce has been able to sponsor the annual summer Community Concert Series, as well as donate funds to several area organizations such as the Springville School and the Junior Rodeo. A success to the organizers, however, does not necessarily mean success for the apple growers.

Although the factors that contribute to apple production in the area are largely out of the control of the Springville Chamber of Commerce, at least one local grower, Rivendell Orchard's Margaret Phillips, wishes more were done to at least offer encouragement and support.

Phillips, who started planting trees in 1993, grows organic Fujis, Galas, Gravensteins, Newton Pippins, as well as two types of pears. She began her efforts, she says, in part to support the Apple Festival, but she has been frustrated over the years by the lack of support in return from the organizers of the event. Although, many of her current customers, have come through sales she has made at previous festivals, she may not have her organic apples for sale during this year's Festival.

"If I has enough apples after filling current orders, I may have a stand on the private property of the Springville Inn," she says. Her production level down this year, she adds, "I don't have enough apples for all my customers!"

Jan Cosard of Beer Creek Ranch, the largest orchard in the area, also says that they have a lighter crop this year and “they may not be selling apples as late in the season as last year.” The Cosards along with family members the Hunts, who sell their apples primarily from their stand on Highway 190 west of town, have been growing apples at Beer Creek for 37 years. Apples have been grown in Springville, however, far longer than that.

The first trees were planted in the hills above Springville almost as soon as the first settlers came. Fur trapper and hunter Frank Knowles settled in the area in 1861 and almost immediately began growing apples on his property to feed himself, his fellow trappers, and the later settlers.

As Margaret Phillip says, “This place was founded on the lumber industry and cattle ranches. These people had to eat. Apples were a great crop to grow because they could be eaten fresh, but also dried and made into jams and syrups.”

By the time the survey of 1878 appeared, Knowles was homesteading 160 acres of apples and other crops. A look at the Tulare County Historical Atlas map of 1892 shows dozens of orchards dotting the hills above Springville along the Tule River and Deer Creek. In 1884, A.M. Millinghausen homesteaded the land that Phillips now farms, and according to her, cuttings from Frank Knowles’ trees were used to start the Old Buckhorn Ranch orchard. Unfortunately, this orchard, like many of the others have been, according to Phillips, neglected and no longer produce viable apple crops. Other old orchards have been allowed to die out or have been removed to make way for housing.

These two factors have combined to reduce Springville's once-vigorous apple production. Land is more valuable these days for housing, and the scarcity of affordable water makes anyone involved in crop production intrepid souls these days.

In the late nineteenth century, water flowed in the two main rivers year-round, providing free irrigation for the thirsty apple trees. As Phillips says, “Apple trees need water.” Phillips herself, along with the neighboring Penwell Orchard, is currently involved in a water dispute with other growers; a decision in Phillips' complaint is expected to be released by the State Water Resources Control Board in the coming week. Once resolved, Phillips says, she is confident she will be able to produce apples in sufficient quantities to sell to local residents and visitors.

Currently, the majority of Rivendell apples are shipped throughout California to “long-standing, regular customers,” who are loyal to Springville-grown organic apples. Even so, she says, she will not be able to supply all her customers, such as Ciderhouse Foods, producers of the locally famous "Barb's Apple Cider Syrup" and "Barb's Best Apple Butter," with as many apples as they want.

In the meantime, Phillips fills what orders she can, and still swears by Springville Apples. “This area is an excellent spot to grow apples,” she states. “Apples need time to rest, a good dormant period.” She has, she says, a perfect cool spot between the forks of the Tule River and Deer Creek, so that even though her orchard is lower than many others, her three acres and 100 trees can provide fruit that is sweet, crisp, and delicious.

Next door to Rivendell, the Penwell orchard, which started at the same time in a joint venture, still produces commercial apples, although, according to owner Mary Ann Penwell, they currently provide apples mainly to the Porterville Union School District, SCICON, and to Ciderhouse Foods. Although Penwell also will not be at the Festival this year, she says it is more for personal health reasons than for production loss.

"I used to make strudels and so on with my apples for sale at the festival," she says, but this year will be unable to do so, although she says she still expects to sell her apples at Visalia's Saturday Farmer's Market.

Penwell also cites the lack of water as a leading cause for apple orchard loss. The trees, which are accustomed to receiving water all summer from the two rivers that border the property, have definitely suffered from the current water-delivery problems. The orchard's production is down by "about half" says Penwell, although she hopes that in the future her 300 trees of Summerfields, Fuji and Gala apples will return to production expectations.

That leaves Beer Creek with the task of providing most of the apples for sale to visitors at this year's festival. According to Jan Cosard, they will have apples in time for the Festival, and probably through November. Asked if Springville apples are worth the drive up the hill, Cosard answers an immediate “Yes!”

“Apples need cold,” she states firmly. “Springville apples are crisper and sweeter than valley-grown apples.”

On the 20-acre Beer Creek Orchard, the Cosard and Hunt families grow Red and Golden Delicious, Arkansas Blacks and Granny Smiths, at an elevation of about 4000 ft., an ideal spot, says Cosard, to grow perfect apples.

What about all those apple pies for sale? The S.C.C. itself bakes more than a thousand, and other organizations also will be baking and selling these and other deserts. Visitors should be aware, there will not be many, if any, local apples in them.

We would like to use local growers for the apple pies," says Phyllis Taylor. "But our apples, as with the other major ingredients, are donated through other sources." It is not clear if local producers would donate apples if asked, but given recent trends, they may not in fact be able to produce enough apples to make such a donation. That leaves Ciderhouse Food's syrup and butter as the best chance to enjoy food products from Springville apples.

Carol Manning, owner of the Springville based company, says they prefer Rivendell's organic apples, but she purchases apples from both Penwell and Beer Creek Orchards when Rivendell's production is down, as it is this year. In addition to selling at "Pacific Treasures" in Visalia and "Among Friends" in Porterville, Barb's Best products can also be found at a booth during the festival and year-round at "Grandma's Porch" in downtown Springville.

Linda McIntosh, owner of "Grandma’s Porch," which specializes in gifts and home-decorating items, feels that despite the reduction in apple production over the years, apples are still an important part of the Festival and to the area.

“The entire Festival is centered around apples,” she says. “There are apple pies, apple jam, and apple-themed gifts for sale.” McIntosh, who fills her own shop with many apple-themed items in preparation for the festival, agrees with Taylor that by continuing to call it the Apple Festival, the organizers do highlight the apples in the area.

“There needs to be some theme," McIntosh continues, "And the apples up here are delicious. The festival is a great segue into fall and harvest season. It draws people who enjoy the fruit and decorating with an apple theme. It also gives people an excuse to come up to the foothills and have fun.”

Echoing these sentiments is Apple Run organizer Rick Mitchell, who believes the event, while being these days more of a "Springville Festival," nevertheless still relies at least in part on what apple production still remains.

"The apples are a good theme to rally around," he says. Mitchell, who has created his own "Legends of the Apple Run," mythology over the past five years, feels the weekend's primary role is for fun, saying it "allows visitors to enjoy the foothill region and the arts and crafts displays."

Today, Springville apples remain as tasty as those produced by Frank Knowles and A.M. Millinghausen. And with some effort they can still be found for purchase. The scarcity of water, however, and the value of land for housing development are forcing many growers to curtail or cease production.

Perhaps apple orchards are one of the last vestiges of the old timber-driven economy, when resources were abundant, and no one dreamed of 30,000 visitors in one weekend.

---

For Olive Growers.. Prices Are The Pits
Lowest In 20 Years

Tulare County - The Olive Growers Council and Musco Olives – the state’s largest packer – came to an agreement on 2003 crop prices in the past few days. The good news is there is a deal, but the bad news is that prices are lowest in about 20 years laments Adin Hester, president of the Olive Growers Council.

Last year’s average return for Manzanillo variety olives was $687 per ton and this year the average will likely be about $450 per ton – down about 35%.

It compares to prices growers were getting in about 1980, he says. “Our costs are 2003" however, he notes.

The low price came as last year was a large crop and this year’s crop is bigger than expected. In the backdrop is the continued flooding of the U.S. marketplace with foreign olives. Tulare County remains the largest olive growing county in the state with about 60% of the production in an average year.

Olive canners have fled however and today there are none left in the county with Musco having bought out the last one – Early California Foods in Visalia.

Hester says he complained about how NAFTA would hurt U.S. produce “back then and nobody listened.” But today many of the state’s other commodities are under intense price pressure from foreign imports.

Foreign olives now dominate the U.S. food service like pizza sales.

This year large Manzanillo olives – about 80% of the county’s variety mix – will bring in $500 per ton while small olives fetch $400. Large Manzanillos last year averaged $775 per ton by way on comparison.

“This is a difficult year to negotiate olive prices for Olive Council members and the California olive industry,” said Hester of Visalia. “There is an imbalance of inventory, the foreign shippers continue to invade the U.S. market with substandard product and we have a large olive crop ready for harvest. With such burdensome conditions, it was extremely difficult for the growers and Musco Family Olive Company to come to terms. After many weeks of discussions and intense meetings, it was our decision to seek the help of someone experienced to break our bargaining impasse.”

The Olive Growers Council Board of Directors voted to file a complaint with the California Secretary of Agriculture’s office to request conciliation. This was approved by the Secretary and an expedited hearing was held in Sacramento where, after a long day of negotiations, the arbitrator placed the final offer on the table which was accepted by both parties.

---

What's New

The new owners of the Green Acres airport land De Anza Properties are out trying to put together a new shopping center for the Demaree frontage between Goshen Ave. and Houston Ave. The company has purchased the commercial acreage but has not completed the acquisition of the bulk of the land where large new home development will be sited. That's coming next month.

But they are wasting no time talking to possible grocery tenants for the site including Vons. Vons may be ready for a new store nearby soon, given their biggest competitors, Albertsons and Save Mart. each have new stores opening soon to open near Vons' current Mineral King and Chinowth location. Making this new site interesting is the rapid growth in the city's northwest. Not a likely prospect is Ralphs who has not done well with their standard store format. Only the large warehouse FoodsCo. stores – appear to thrive. Sources say Ralph's stores in the central valley are for sale and no Ralph's expansion here is planned.

Freedom Communications, Inc – publishers of the Porterville Recorder and 27 other daily papers – will decide which of 7 different bids for the company will be accepted when their board votes October 1. Bidders include Gannett - publisher of the Visalia Times Delta and Tulare Advance Register. If they get the bid, Gannett would own all three local dailies and could merge them cut costs. Both recently launched competing Spanish language papers for starters. Word on who won the bid should be out just as the Valley Voice goes to press.

State Senator Dean Florez is targeting diesel emissions from train locomotives in the Valley that contribute to high levels of particulate matter pollution in the valley. EPA must mandate cleaner fuel for all off-road vehicles and trains Florez wrote the EPA.

Having received the blessing of the Springville Chamber of Commerce the Tule Indian Tribe will try to work things out with Tulare County in coming months concerning its plan to relocate Eagle Mountain Casino to Highway 190. The tribe's attorney confirms they would like to negotiate a local jurisdiction agreement that would call for payment for services in lieu of taxes that would be offered by the tribe to Tulare County similar to what the Tache Yokut Rancheria near Lemoore agreed to with Kings County. "We're negotiating with Tulare County" attorney Sam Cohen says. In effect the discussion will go public October 21 in front of the Board of Supervisors beginning at 1:30 p.m. The Supervisors will hear from both proponents and opponents of the relocation plan that has divided Springville.

Porterville City Manager John Longley is hoping an appeal to the state not to close the California Conservation Corps off Highway 190. The camp employs some 14 professionals and provides training and community projects for the area, he says. No word on whether the appeal might be successful considering the state's budget woes.

Tulare County's Air Quality Summit heard Dr. Kevin Hamilton from community Medical Center in Fresno who offered his views on the link between air pollution and increasing incidences of asthma and ER visits followed by a roundtable discussion for the solutions to the problem here with local leaders. The Visalia Chamber sponsored the event. The group promised to bring back to both the Chamber Board and community some actions that could be taken. Kaweah Delta physician Dr. Bill Winn who attended the roundtable say his biggest concern is the impact of small particulate matter that can enter the interior of our lungs. Dr. Hamilton showed statistics that there has been a steady increase in asthma cases seen in Fresno schools, a rise in ER visits due to asthma with half the cases of respiratory related ER visits are typically related to asthma-and a pattern of more ER visits when a particulate matter is worse. His advice for particulate matter pollution-worse in the fall and winter - don't go outside ‘til after noon.

---

The old Merryman's Station restaurant on highway 198 near Exeter is likely to get a new operator/buyer. The vacant landmark restaurant had been for sale for more than a year for $1.2 million but a few months ago, the property was foreclosed on by the lender, says broker Laura Walheim of Zeeb. Now it is back on the market for $500,000 and Walheim says she is working with two prospective buyers. The 7500 sq. ft. eatery has been a restaurant on and off for over 20 years. The site was a stop on the old Visalia Electric Railroad when it operated from 1906 through much of the century.

Broadcaster Harry Pappas says he will step down as president of Pappas Telecasting handing the baton over to Peter Chrisanthopoulos who has headed up Pappas' Azteca America business. Harry Pappas will remain CEO and chairman of the company he founded with his brothers. The Visalia based company is the largest privately held commercial TV broadcaster in the nation in terms of U.S. household coverage, the company says, including 20 stations around the country and our own Channel 26. A news release says Pappas' role will now focus on charting the company's strategic direction. Mr. Chrisanthopoulos will headquarter in New York. Sources say Pappas is putting younger talent in place to take the load off management some of whom is nearing retirement, as well as the day to day load off of Mr. Pappas' shoulders himself.

Probably not related, but Pappas- owned First Value Travel has closed its Downtown Visalia office relocating all business to is west Main st. office by the courthouse. Pappas has recently decided to sell his two Main st. houses near the courthouse as well. Both sport new ‘for sale' signs.

Pappas is no longer a partner in the Azteca America Spanish language network but retains ownership of some stations that carry the Mexico-based network's programming. Litigation between Azteca and Pappas was settled over the operation of Pappas-owned Los Angeles station with Azteca now leasing the station and Pappas paying off a loan to Azteca he received to buy it. U.S. law forbids foreign ownership of TV stations. Not that Pappas telecasting has stopped moving forward to expand its holdings. Sources says Pappas is in final negotiations to buy Channel 59 in Fresno - the WB channel from Sanger Telecasting. He currently leases the channel.

---

---

Are we going too fast or too slow to clean our air? Who should decide? Can California promote tougher rules on air pollutants than the federal government? And who should pay? These are some of the complexities we are facing as we seek affordable solutions to cleaning the valley's air.

Just last month Governor Davis signed a series of air quality bills including one that phases out open field burning by agriculture. But the law (SB 705) doesn't completely ban the burning of all material until 2010 although open field burning is outlawed in June 2005 and orchards by 2007.

Open field burning puts about 24 tons of pollutants into the valley air on a daily basis, says the author of the bill Dean Florez.

But a Companion bill (SB704) provides some more immediate relief however, that law provides some $6 million as a subsidy to biomass facilities that take materials from ag fields, orchard chippings typically and use them in their boilers, capturing over 90% of the pollutants that would otherwise escape into our air.

Biomass plant owner Kent Duysen of Terra Bella-based Sierra Forest Products says the money is enough to take care of about 35% of the open field burning that happens in a typical year.

"We haven't had the program in place for the past year, says Duysen. The funds are for biomass operations this fiscal year in order to have an immediate effect on our air, the bill says.

The program is an incentive to biomass owners to take ag waste from chippers who contract with farmers to clear their fields. Biomass plants can buy urban waste wood daily from residential building sites (delivered) for about $18 per ton, says Duysen, while they must pay about $28 a ton for age waste hauled to their plants. The subsidy allows the chipper to make his money and hauling costs while the farmer's cost remains the same as if he burned the waste, he explains - about $150 per ton. The farmer has no incentive to burn it and the extra $10 in public subsidy results in an air quality benefit.

Still, biomass plants that once dotted the landscape in California are endangered, says Duysen. Since the cost of producing electricity for them remains higher that some other sources "we need a long term contract " for power, says Duysen – something he says he might get from Southern California Edison soon.

"We're in negotiation now," says Duysen. SCE must buy some of its power from renewable sources like biomass.

SB 704 also mandates biomass plants take significantly more ag waste (at least 10%) than they have prior to 2001, says Duysen.

Recently, a wood recycler bought the Dinuba biomass plant with contracts from residential builders from L.A. The purchase fueled fears that less ag waste would be burned at the plant while more urban waste was trucked into the valley to be burned.

If a long term contract makes the biomass plant more financially healthy through the utilities it could be rate payers instead of just tax payers that help farmers carry the load long term. In any case, open field burning will be banned and farmers will have to live with it and it could cost them some money.

---

---

Return to Archive