Central Valley Gets First Solar School

Tulare - The central valley is arguably one of the hottest parts of California. But in terms of the use of the sun to produce electricity - projects to harness the power of the sun are few and far between.

But that’s changing rapidly.

This week students, faculty and visitors celebrated the installation of the first solar panels on a public school between Lodi and Bakersfield says Buena Vista school superintendent David Gonzalez at a public ceremony at the school site near Tulare.

Three years ago Gonzalez says he attended an Edison AgTac workshop and got interested in solar energy possibilities. “Why couldn’t we do that here?” he wondered.

Gonzalez became aware of a California Energy Commission program offering to pay a part of the cost of any solar system for applicants. They applied too late to make a 2002 deadline, but got a reservation when the program became funded again. This year they found out the solar panels would be funded with the agency paying about 80% of the cost. The total cost was $222,341 with the school coming up with $44,000.

The system will take care of roughly 80% of the electricity needs of the school and the meter will run backwards - giving the school a credit with the utility whenever the sun shines and power is not needed like weekends and summers.

The equipment being installed by Farmersville builder NBS is guaranteed for 25 years and Gonzales says the deal will save the school district about $250,000 by then. NBS designer Charlie Klint says the system will save the school $12,000 a year on their power bill. Unlike commercial customers that can be paid by the utility under net metering policy, the school can’t make money on their solar panel. “At the end of the year the school and SCE square up,” says Gonzales.

Gonzales says he hopes other schools follow their effort useful also for teaching science to kids. “We have a whole curriculum designed around solar cells,” he says.

NBS’s Klint says the California Energy Commission had some $41 million available for the new year to schools who apply for the systems as of November 10. “But that money is going to go fast,” he predicts.

Solar is getting a new look for other nontraditional users - dairies - to be installed on their large expansive free stall barns providing a new cash cow to dairymen.

Change In Plans

Visalia - What’s happening in Downtown Visalia these days hasn’t been a natural progression of events but is the result of some not so subtle arm twisting to keep Downtown Visalia the center of this fast growing community.

A few years ago Kaweah Delta hospital had been looking at building a new campus both at the extreme western entrance of town and eastern entrance at Caldwell. That changed in a hurry when city council came to the conclusion that if Kaweah Delta left the city core area it would have been all downhill from there. Then downtown instead of being the place for new investment could blow away like so many valley towns have experienced.

Since Kaweah Delta hospital decided to stay in Downtown Visalia some two years ago the decision continues to reverberate in the boardrooms of public agencies, private companies, local developers and medical office users.

Case in point in recent weeks was the announcement by the Visalia Chamber of Commerce board to relocate its planned new office headquarters away from the site they had chosen a year earlier at Stevenson and Mineral King where their big sign remains (see picture) to Santa Fe and Oak St.

Now comes word the Chamber expects to break ground as early as March at the northeast corner of Santa Fe and Oak, says CEO Mike Cully, using the same Mediterranean design they had planned for the other site.

Even as the Chamber does a u-turn on the site just west of Visalia City Hall another group seems to have had a change in plans that could bring a new 60,000 sf multi story office building to the same location.

Orthopaedic Associates have put a plan to build a proposed suite of medical offices at Plaza and 198 on hold while the negotiate with the city over purchase of the land formerly sought by the Chamber, part of a full block owned by the city west of City Hall.

City manager Steve Salomon had written a staff report strongly opposing Orthopaedics plan at Plaza to change the General Plan that would have allowed medical office space. He cited the General Plan’s emphasis on keeping medical services in the core area, an argument made successfully with Kaweah Delta board a few years before.

Sensing the city council would back Salomon - although the project was approved by the city planning commission - Orthopaedic’s Dr. Jim Billys met with Salomon recently to take him up on his offer to look for sites Downtown that the fast growing medical group could use to accommodate expansion.

“We can understand his concept to keep medical offices Downtown,” says Dr. Billys. “They showed a site next to Redwood High we could use with the city building a parking lot behind.” Billys says the medical group’s current site next to Kaweah Delta is far too small and not easy to find.

“We have a lot of patients that come here from Hanford and out of the area. That’s why we were looking at a Plaza and 198 location.”

But he says the block between City Hall and Redwood visible from the freeway might fit the bill. Billys says their current 5000 sf building on West St. “was sold several years ago.” Dr. Billys says the medical group is adding several new specialities and want to move forward on a plan to build new space soon. This week at city council they formerly requested that their Plaza and 198 plan be shelved for six months.

For a clear sign of the planned expansion at Kaweah Delta notice the construction of the new 5 story administrative services building on Mineral King expected to be completed in March. Then follows the demolition of several buildings to the north and west of the hospital to make room for both the new 6 story hospital tower and more parking.

Ironically, some of the Kaweah Delta buildings being knocked down, like the former cancer center, have been relocated to the west part of Visalia near the Lifestyle Center. But the demolition will allow more parking for expansion of Kaweah Delta downtown. Altogether the community bond funded project is about a $100 million development in its first phase, to be completed in the next two years adding some 111 new beds and several hundred more employees to the Downtown campus.

The city itself is in the path of Kaweah Delta’s expansion and already Mr. Salomon is preparing plans to build the first of several new civic buildings on land being purchased from the Union Pacific Railroad at Oak and Burke. The city council has let it be known that the current City Hall block as well as the so-called City Hall West site would be available in the next few years for medical office space.

Already local investors have targeted the City Hall West block for a new building expected to break ground in January at the SW corner of Stevenson and Acequia. A fence surrounds the old apartments at Conyer and Acequia set for demolition plans in coming weeks that will allow for construction of a parking lot there that could help service both the new 15,000 sf Acequia Medical Plaza medical building - to open in July - and a potentially much larger Orthopaedic Associates building facing Mineral King.

Meanwhile, the plan for the new Chamber building will be cheaper for the Chamber to build at its new location in part because the land is cheaper, less land is needed to build on and the city will be offering low cost financing. Already the Chamber has collected more than 50% of the monies needed to build its new Chamber headquarters. The site plan shows space for a second addition to the Chamber building that could be a future Visalia visitors center in conjunction with Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

The Chamber had an agreement with the city to buy the Stevenson lot but the contract to buy had expired after the departure of CEO Ken Oplinger and a long lead time before a new permanent CEO came onboard. Meanwhile, the Chamber board was made aware that the expansion of Kaweah Delta was set highlighting the need for more medical office space nearby when Dr. Tom Daglish informed the Chamber of the need.

That need has spurred Buckman Mitchell Insurance to look at a plan to build a multi-story medical office building adjacent the planned new 700 car parking garage north of the new hospital tower as well.

In addition, the hospital board is considering the purchase of two lots across Noble east of Locust to add 80 parking places now and possible development of medical space down the road.

The coming of more medical office space is likely to set up a domino effect in other Downtown offices and businesses who may find it the right time to think about getting out of the path of this growing medical district considering there are square blocks of land available for new development east of Santa Fe. The city hopes one of those uses is the County of Tulare’s Social Service office. Their current site on Court and Center is likely to be sold as the county seeks space for about 150 employees.

Newly elected supervisor Phil Cox - currently sitting on the city council - says he will make a new county office downtown a high priority. Recently the county said they were abandoning a plan to move the office to the Cigna building out west as the city hopes the building up of the city core area continues.

Just this week WestAmerica bank will close in downtown relocating to a new smaller site at Akers and 198 leasing their former space for McMillan Homes who now owns the building as their headquarters in the central valley.

While it costs more to develop in the city core area than in wide open spaces on the edge of town, the city seeks to encourage multi story development in the downtown and have moved forward on impact fee reductions for such projects in the city center.

Kettleman City - Kings County Superior Court Judge Louis Bissig ruled in favor of Westlake Farms plan to operate a biosolids composting plant on land they own near Kettleman City. The case was decided November 10 on a suit brought by the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment and others challenging adequacy of an environmental study the county approved back in April.

The facility will consist of some 1000 acres that will accept Class B biosolids from LA County that includes biosolids from waste water treatment plants, ag and urban greenwaste.

Westlake plans to sell 14,500 acres to the County Sanitation District of Los Angeles and they will actually operate the composting facility leasing back the land to Westlake that will use the material as fertilizer and soil amendment. Some of that material will be sold as well. The material would be approved only for non-food crops.

Judge Bissig found the impacts on air quality were adequately analyzed in the EIR noting that the composting facility will help provide an alternative to the burning of ag waste in the valley set to be outlawed by 2010 here.

Regarding the mitigation of particulate matter from the project the judge said the county agreed that the impacts might be significant but that it should be approved due to economic and social benefits the project brings.

The project promises to hire 130 employees - most of them full time.

The judge also found the county acted properly in not recirculating the EIR, adequately assessed the project’s cumulative impacts and project alternatives.

Finally the judge addressed the issue of restoration of the Tulare Lake wetlands sought by some of the opponents.

The judge suggested that the “project does not disturb any riparian land, rivers, streams, water courses or wetlands.” But land west of the project is being considered for future restoration.

He sums up by saying the petitioners have failed to establish that the project is not consistent with the county general plan.

Kings County Supervisor Tony Oliveira told the Voice that “both the county and Westlake spent the time to design and engineer this project that will put people back to work” at Westlake Farms.

Westlake owner Ceil Howe said he felt relieved at the judge’s decision but noted that “the opponents have at least 45 to 60 days to appeal” if they wish. Howe says in the meantime they are applying for several more permits they need to get operational - a process that will take a few more months anyway.

If there is an appeal the matter could take a lot longer of course. Howe says he would “visit with our partner” on the project to see if they might want to move forward anyway shouldering some risk in case of the success of an appeal.

He says he hopes that “the Sanitation District could be making compost within a year.”

Howe says one benefit for the valley will be that the new facility will need tons of green waste and wood chips to mix with LA biosolids to allow it to bulk up and aerate inside the big building and outdoors where the compost will be stored. “This will provide a place farmers can bring their wood chips instead of burning their orchards in the open field,” says Howe.

Kings Supervisor Tony Oliveira - who has been critical of other land spreading projects involving sludge - says he believes “Farm Bureau and farmers out there will support this” in part because the days of ag burning are numbered. Oliveira says he sees this project as a sign “that Westlake Farms will go back into business” - from the past few years when long time employees were laid off and much of the land laid fallow.

The enclosed composting facility would process up to half a million wet tons of biosludge mixed with 400,000 tons of green waste. The sewer sludge would be trucked in from the County Sanitation District of Los Angeles County made of 78 cities in LA County.

“We will lessen the emissions that can escape in the atmosphere as it is mixed inside the building with filters,” says Howe noting that a visit to a similar facility in Pennsylvania that the smell was “virtually nonexistent to a farm boy.”

Howe says Westlake Farms is farming a small portion of what they have historically tilled exiting the cotton business in 2002. “We use to have 20,000 acres of cotton and now we have none. We used to farm 45,000 acres of wheat and now we have about 10,000 acres.”

“Now I see how they say California is not business friendly when we have spent so much time and money for nothing. It has been a frustrating experience.”

San Joaquin Valley - Bowing to studies that suggest California could be short on new generating capacity in a few years, PG&E has put out requests for offers for companies willing to provide turnkey power plants that would be owned by the utility as well as contracts to provide power totaling 2200 mw by the year 2010.

Offers to provide the power are due as soon as January of next year with a contract to be executed by June, says the northern California utility.

The news has resulted in a flurry of interest by merchant power companies to possibly build new peaker power plants in the central valley recognizing the widespread assessment that the rapid growth in the central valley will mean that power plants might be needed not far from Fresno.

One company looking to provide a bid is Wellhead Electric of Sacramento. The company already owns and operates four small peaker plants in the central valley as well as a plant in Yuba City and Santa Maria.

Company president Hal Dittmer says his company is making a bid to site a facility at a location with proximity to power lines, availability of gas nearby and location “where you are wanted”.

“In 20 years of the small power plant business, we are happy to say we haven’t got anyone really mad at us,” says Dittmer.

Dittmer says prospects for new power plants in California is better than it was a few years ago when everyone was pointing fingers and lawsuits were going around. In that atmosphere the New York bankers say and rightly so, “Why would we want to lend money to projects in the middle of that mess?” Today the situation has settled down, he suggests.

Dittmer says while some large base load power plants that provide power year round don’t seem to be in big demand by PG&E and others the nimble and cheaper peaker plants that can crank up in 10 minutes are needed The plants typically run only a few hundred hours a year typically during the hot summer months.

The company has two plants along I-5 near the PG&E lines - a possible location for more of these plants.

“Most of Fresno’s power comes from the west,” notes Dittmer. Major PG&E power lines connect Diablo Canyon to the central valley and pathway 15 - the north/south power lines that run along I-5. Merchant company GWF also has several peaker power plants as well in the Hanford and Lemoore area.

Hanford - Walmart’s building plans for its big 220,000 sf superstore are being processed by the Hanford building department with most of the construction plans nearing approval, says city manager Jan Reynolds. “We may be just days away” from final approval that will hand the company a building permit, he says.

The project could break ground before the end of this year - about two years after the company through a Walnut Creek developer first started working with the city on a large new Walmart for the community. A superstore is a Walmart that sells groceries along with general merchandise.

The Hanford city council approved the project and certified the EIR on the development in May by a 3 to 2 vote. The issue has split the community with some fearing the impact of the big discounter on existing stores and businesses in town. Opponents have filed a suit against the council approval of the Walmart EIR.

Issuance of the building permit would put the onus on opponents of the project to seek an injunction in court to halt the project - a strategy that has had mixed results in other jurisdictions where Walmart has seen similar opposition.

In Bakersfield opponents have halted construction of two super Walmart’s in that town with a court decision pending.

City manager Reynolds points out that the existing Walmart store “is very crowded” with volumes of people and goods stacked to the aisles. Plus he says the community will get a first class grocery store that the town needs.

Regarding the existing Walmart store, a developer has the property in escrow and is working to attract several smaller tenants to the building, says Reynolds. “We’ve been looking to some of the smaller box users,” says Reynolds, who would like to locate in the large building.

The new Walmart will likely take about 10 months to construct the 25.5 acre center just west of the mall at 12th St. at Centennial near the new Target shopping center. The project being developed by Walnut Creek developer Bob Roddle who has just four small pads to develop besides the huge super Walmart. The store will be wanting to open in plenty of time for the holiday season of 2005.

Despite plans being filed about the same time, developer Dave Paynter’s Target project has been up and operational in its first phase for weeks now compared to Walmart who because of the controversy will have to wait another 10 months to open. Paynter’s phase two project at the Target center will include several new big box stores including a new PetsMart.

Walmart has proposed to build 40 new supercenters in the state in the next few years and have opened two in southern California and one in October in Stockton, the first northern California store.

Supercenters sell 20,000 grocery items alongside general merchandise. The new store format are strongly opposed by unions and existing grocery stores along with a large segment of the community in any town they open in. Walmart is blamed for hurting small businesses, paying employees too little to live on without adequate health benefits and contributing to a wave of out sourcing of manufactured goods to keep prices low. It argued this big Walmart will continue to take away shoppers from the city’s historical downtown area. Union grocery workers fear the loss of $18 per hour jobs vs the $9 or $10 they get at a Walmart superstore. Each superstore employs about 1400 people.

Behind the scenes attorneys and representatives associated with Save Mart have taken developers who propose Walmart to court to try to slow or halt construction of the projects.

Walmart is well funded and will likely be ready to do battle in court if it comes to that, sources say.

Also this past week the Selma Planning Commission approved preliminary plans for a super Walmart in that town on the way to certifying an EIR on a 40 acre project west of 99. In Visalia there is talk about a proposed supercenter in north Visalia at Riggin and Highway 63 although the city would likely not approve a project there because a local grocer, Joe Gong, is working on plans for a Food 4 Less nearby.

The Gong family owns the Selma Food 4 Less and is opposing the Selma Walmart suggesting they might have to close if Walmart comes in.

Besides Selma and Hanford there are plans in the works for a supercenter in Dinuba, Porterville and Tulare with Porterville being the furthest along.

An environmental impact report done recently for the city of Dinuba suggests that when the retailer comes into Dinuba next year it will take some 8% of sales away from existing businesses in town, some $13.2 million in losses, the study says. But it will add $30 million in new sales to the community, the report said, with a total of over $40 million in sales annually at the new store. The city of Dinuba itself will see $360,000 annually in sales tax revenues - the big draw for any city in approving these big box projects. The Dinuba Walmart will be a general merchandise store to start with - not a supercenter until later.

The city of Fresno is working on a citywide Wi-Fi system and Visalia is planning on using the technology in a more limited way. Both Los Angeles and San Francisco leaders have vowed recently to connect their residents to wireless broadband.

But Lompoc is way ahead of the game this holiday season in installing a wireless broadband internet service for their 40,000 residents ready for use after the first of the year. Lompoc is offering both a fiber optic and wireless infrastructure so you can access the internet with quick broadband service anywhere within the city using your laptop or other wireless hand-held device.

So-called Wi-Fi services are larger versions of "hot spots" provided by retailers like Starbucks to help attract customers. But the internet connection stops working just feet from the hot spot. Citywide, countywide or just district wide service would be a different order of magnitude compounding the number of people and businesses it could reach.

Lompoc already provides electric power to its residents and now residents feel positive about the fact that the municipality will be getting into the cable TV, internet and telephone business as well feel confident that the city would hold down prices and provide better service, according to a city survey. They will charge for the Wi-Fi connection, but the monthly price hasn't been established.

Some other California towns have more modest plans. Encinitas California will be offering Wi-Fi throughout its downtown as part of a rejuvenation effort. Encinitas access will be free. The system involves installation of eight so-called nodes (antennas) to cover an 18 block area.

In Pleasanton California the city has installed a Wi-Fi network for municipal traffic operation covering 75 sq miles. Video cameras at intersections transmitting images to the police headquarters.

At Kaweah Delta Hospital there is a wireless network covering the hospital enabling all approved users to access the internet in this private system. It allows all communication take place in a wireless mode including the transmission of data at the hospital using portable devices.

Visalia information services manager Michael Allen says the city's convention center will soon have a Wi-Fi system and there is some talk of doing a Wi-Fi for Downtown Visalia. Beyond that Allen says he wonders about the cost and maintenance of a full city Wi-Fi plus he questions what the economic benefit might be? He says he would expect to get opposition from private providers like Comcast who now offer broadband in town. But he says he would favor a closer look at the possibilities of a muni-Wi-Fi.

In a town like Visalia where there is a large low income and lower than average percent of the population is neither online nor can afford the more expensive broadband, the argument might be that the city can assist in helping a large segment of the population enter the new century - help them get connected in this new economy. If all you can afford is dial-up the prospect of connecting to the internet 200 times as fast is pretty appealing and a must for today's small business.

Municipalities have faced criticism from private providers in some locations when their plans become public. In Philadelphia in the past few weeks the story has made the national papers with provider Verizon opposing the city of Philadelphia plan to install a wireless network pushing a bill in the state legislature prohibiting any municipality or public entity from getting into Wi-Fi business.

Most promote the idea of municipal wireless systems to further economic development. The city of Lompoc says the current technology offered by cable and DSL may not be adequate in the future. "Today's broadband may be tomorrow's traffic jam" and a city owned broadband network would help the city retain and attract jobs." That's been the argument in favor of going wireless in a big way.

In October LA mayor Jim Hahn announced the construction of a special panel to create a plan to extend wireless internet access to every LA resident. A few weeks ago San Francisco mayor Gavin Newson announced "We will not stop until every San Franciscan has access to free wireless Internet service. These technologies will connect our residents to the skills and the jobs of the new economy. No San Franciscan should be without a computer and a broadband connection."

Across the US demand for broadband service has grown rapidly with the FCC reporting that broadband households have increased 23% during the second half of 2002 and 55% over the full year.

Tulare County - Statewide just 26% of 9th graders can pass a fitness standard test, an annual Department of Education study released in recent weeks shows. State superintendent Jack O'Connell called the results "unacceptable." "We have a long way to go to eradicate the silent epidemic of childhood obesity and poor nutritional health," he said.

As poor as the results were statewide, Kings County reported 28.17% of their 9th graders in all six tests passed. In Tulare County the rate was slightly better at 29.2%. At Visalia Unified the rate increased to 34.6% of 9th graders who met all six fitness standards in the annual test.

The most important of the tests is aerobic capacity where statewide just about half the students were able to meet the standard. In Kings County 53.8% of 9th graders passed the standard in this category, with Tulare at 60.7% and Visalia Unified 60.6%. Aerobic capacity is important because it is associated with reduction of many illnesses and health problems later in life the heart pumps blood more vigorously while running for example.

Other categories in the fitness test are body composition, abdominal strength, trunk extension, strength, upper body strength and flexibility.

A recent study proved that high academic achievement was associated with higher levels of fitness in all grades. Studies in this annual test also show females generally did better than males.

O'Connell wants schools to step up efforts at local schools and is offering deposits up to $10,000 to provide healthier meals, nutritional and special education programs.

Mineral King - Attached to an omnibus spending bill legislation authorizing the owners of some 60 cabins in the Mineral King Valley in Sequoia National Park to continue to lease their cabins and pass that right down to their heirs was passed by Congress late last month. The legislation carried by Congressman Devin Nunes (R-21st District) was long sought by leaseholders - many elderly now who feared the Park Service would end the private enclave in the park without federal protection.

"This fixes a provision of the law that would have soon destroyed a group of historic and rustic cabins that have been a part of our region's history since it was settled," Rep. Nunes said.

Time was running out for the leases now 26 years old authorized as 25 year leases in the 1978 legislation that brought the valley into the national park. As written the leaseholders were now given the right to "own" their family cabin some of which date to after the turn of the century.

The news will effect how Sequoia Park plans for the Mineral Kings in its General Management Plan, says park spokesman Bill Tweed.

"It appears to take away any prohibition on succeeding generations for the cabins," says Tweed. Despite the need to revise the Mineral King portion of the plan Tweed says he expects a new GMP report by this coming spring.

In the parks General Management Plan there appeared to be a move to foster a compromise over the fate of the cabins allowing the structure to stay and forming a district that would allow for both continued private use of the cabins by the founding families and some public use as well. It isn't clear if the legislation will end any discussion of public use. The alpine valley is available only 6 months of the year due to its remote location, 25 mile road and winter weather.

Some criticized the passage of the measure in not getting a thumbs up or down based on its own merits but was attached to a must pass bill without much public disclosure.

Terry Stark is on his way out as general manager for the fledgling California Citrus Growers Association expected to step down after the first of the year. Stark helped mold the organization into an effective management arm for the citrus industry, say sources, helping to return orderly marketing and profitability. To go to the next level they need someone with different skills said an industry insider. A company has been retained to find a new head for CCGA. The organization has its offices in Visalia and is led by a board of directors made up of the major players in the citrus industry.

More flu clinics. Family HealthCare Network is offering a series of flu clinics in December after they purchased some 5000 more doses from the federal CDC. The clinic will be offered December 9, 10 and 11th at four locations. The locations are Visalia on Oak St., Visalia on Bridge, the FHN clinic in Cutler Orosi and the FHN clinic in Porterville. The schedule is 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the 9th, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday the 10th and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on December 11th. The clinic is for high risk patients that include children from 6 months to 23 months, folks over 65 years of age, women who may become pregnant this winter and people with weak immune systems. The cost is $5 for private pay or the clinic will bill insurance including MediCal or Medicare.

Rain gauge in the Sierra still looks good as of December 1 - far ahead of last year at this time. A few samples - at Big Meadow near Grant Grove rainfall total as of December 1 is nearly 12 inches. Last year for the whole year they got 36 inches of precipitation. A good start for two months. At Hockett Meadow above Three Rivers the gauge shows 8.31 inches of rain. Last year Hockett saw just 20 inches. On the Tule, Quaking Aspen recorded 8 inches so far while last year it received 33 inches for the whole year. Sierra temps this week are noteworthy with the low at -5 degrees in Big Meadow on November 28.

Cold temps this week probably didn't cause damage to citrus groves, say industry sources, with wind machines and water run on the trees despite some measurements as low as 25 degrees in some places. Warmer night temps are expected later this week.

Speaking of wind machines, the citrus industry is lobbying the air district to approve the continued use of some 12,000 wind machines in the citrus belt up and down the Sierra foothills. "Just one night of running the wind machine to protect our crops costs the industry $2.25 million," says California Citrus Mutual's Joel Nelsen. The machines that run on propane, diesel or electricity are thought to be a contributor to poor valley air. But without them "we wouldn't have a crop" suggests Nelsen. May be a chance to use clean burning biodiesel.

It's back to the drawing board again for the Veteran's Mural committee after the city council turned down their request to erect a 72 ft wide mural wall along Mill Creek near the county complex. Council members said it was the wrong place. The group will seek another place to erect the mural.

Tulare County fire station will stay open after all now that the state has offered to allow the county to delay $1.8 million in payments to the state for operations at several CDF fire stations in the county.

Despite lots of banter in the press, only former planning commissioner Jim Armstrong has formally applied for the council position being vacated by Phil Cox. Council agreed to appoint for the remainder of Cox's term until next November. Armstrong says he will offer not to run for the same job in the election of 2005. But current planning commissioner Victor Perez says he will apply shortly saying he probably will run for the spot next year. Former council member Don Sharp says he will apply suggesting he wouldn't run again next November. City officials expect a flurry of other applications by the December 10 deadline.