Dried
On Vine Raisins
A Mechanized Future For Ag
Tulare County - Dried on the Vine raisins are revolutionizing the raisin industry and may point the way to a revolution in employment patterns in the central valley in the near future. Tough times in the raisin industry led to the need to cut costs and now may mean far less dependence on an army of immigrant labor to get the crop picked.
It has been described as the single most labor intensive activity in North America. It takes place over a six week period each summer in the valley and involves as many as 50,000 farmworkers working in some 200,000 acres of raisin grapes to dry them in the sun, turn the paper trays and harvest the fruit.
Because the labor demand is so great over a short period - farmers are always worried about a labor shortage. Farmers have pointed to this dilemma as a prime example of why the US needs a guest worker plan to bring in Mexican labor. As it is, much of the workforce already here is undocumented, in part to service this industry.
But all that will change with the coming of dried-on-the-vine raisins. “It’s already taking off” with some 15,000 acres under cultivation today, says Tulare County farm advisor Bill Peacock.
Peacock is helping it to take off by developing an approach with others that allows DOV raisins to be harvested with existing mechanical wine grape harvesters and offering raisin farmers the chance to use the existing trellis systems, cutting the initial expenses over previous DOV raisin approaches.
Using a new variety of grape - “Selma Pete” says Peacock, there are dramatic savings in both cost and in the environment since there is no need for paper trays, thus no issue of burning the wastepaper trays. Since there are fewer passes down the rows with far less cultivation required, there are dramatic decreases in dust, he says.
The new Selma Pete variety of Thompson seedless grapes matures earlier sweetening up when the canes are cut in August. The harvesting is done with a guy on the tractor and fewer farmworkers are needed in the cutting of the canes. Peacock estimates that the labor supply needed to bring in the same tonnage of raisins harvested today at about 20% of the current 50,000 workers.
“We developed a DOV method at Kearney Research and Agricultural Center with financial support from the California Raisin Advisory Board. This method has opened the door for raisin growers to produce DOV raisins. The method’s basis is the separation of fruiting canes and renewal shoots alternating between vine sections down the vineyard row. We call the method WRAB DOV or within row alternative bearing dried on vine,” says Peacock, who wrote a report with Fred Swanson.
Because the yield on the raisin is about double what farmers get on current tray dried raisins, there will be need for perhaps half the acreage we have now and perhaps half the farmers.
Significantly that means we will use half the water raisin farming does today.
The new grape variety is planted on trellises that are harvested in alternate years on rows that are closer together. Some vines are set aside for next year’s crop and some picked this year allowing the new fruit time to develop for next year, says Peacock, helping to increase tonnage.
“We have no choice but to adopt this kind of technology,” says Peacock, because other countries have far lower wage rates than the US. “We have no choice but to become super efficient and to use less labor and resources.” Like the loss of Mom and Pop stores to Walmarts, farmers have to become more cost effective, he says.
The change in approach is coming at a good time for the industry with rising prices for raisins seen here for the first time in several years. Better prices for wine grapes this year - as high as $200 a ton for Thompsons compared to $65 per ton last year, he says.
That will divert more grapes to the wine grape market avoiding a glut of raisins that had driven down prices to farms below production costs.
“We have seen some 30,000 to 40,000 acres of grapes pulled” in the central valley in recent years, he says.
Peacock says table grape growers have great quality fruit this year but only mediocre prices for now. “It used to be farmers made a good living producing far fewer boxes of the old varieties compared to today where there are larger volumes and farmers just hanging on, he laments.
“This will be a revolutionary change for the raisin industry,” claims Peacock and that in turn could challenge the labor needs for farmers in other crops as technology is applied to their harvest needs. Peacock expects the change in the raisin industry to happen over the next few years.
Savings for the farmer are dramatic over tray dried raisins. Harvesting of the tray dried raisin averages about $300 per ton, while mechanical harvest of DOV raisins at 2 tons per acre is $62.50.
Raisin quality tends to be higher as well.
Research on WRAB DOV continues at Kearney along with support by the California Raisin Advisory Board. The research emphasis now is on Selma Pete, an early maturing raisin cultivar developed by Dr. Dave Ramming, USDA plant breeder, and evaluated by Pete Christensen, UC viticulture specialist, emeritus.
Selma Pete is a high producing cultivar that matures two weeks earlier than Thompson Seedless. This allows summer pruning to occur in early August and almost guarantees raisins will be successfully dried on the vine, says Peacock, missing the wet weather that could come in September.
Visalia - Facing what they call “health and welfare issues”, county officials want to vacate the old welfare buildings block (Workforce Investment) in Downtown Visalia sometime soon. The county is negotiating with the owners of the Cigna insurance building on Akers for up to 50,000 sq. ft. of the multi story complex to relocate some 170 employees now housed downtown.
“We have a long term commitment to Downtown,” says Supervisor Lali Moheno, echoing a statement made by Chairman Bill Sanders at the state of the county address earlier this spring. The county’s Health and Human Services agency uses both the old welfare building at 210 N. Court and the single story annex building to service up to 20,000 clients, says Moheno. “I am not sure the new Cigna building will be convenient for the clients but we have to do something,” about relocation soon, she says. “There is nothing available downtown,” at least for now, she says.
The old 1930s built welfare building constructed in art deco style has ADA problems, it is not handicapped friendly and there are reported asbestos problems and possible other health concerns the county is worried about.
Moheno says despite the short time loss of county employees working downtown, the good news is that “up to four different proposals to buy the whole block have been received” some who want to rehab the 4 story welfare building.
The City of Visalia has been working feverishly to keep the county workers downtown by trying to find a location that a developer could build in a build-to-suit arrangement with the county taking a long term lease. Today there is no location the city controls that would work out, although the city considered a site next to the new transit center.
A county contingent met with the downtown Visalia Property Based Improvement District sub committee this past week and told them about the negotiations to relocate to Cigna for now, suggesting a lease was imminent. PBID vice chair Don Sharp told the group “Speaking for the 21 member board of PBID, we want the county to stay downtown” - news that Moheno says had not been properly communicated to the county.
One city council member told the Voice that the county was looking for 50,000 sq. ft. short term for the relocation of the Court St. employees and possibly another 150,000 sq. ft. to be built for a larger group of county employees.
“We still have the commitment to have employees downtown long term,” says Moheno, who represents the Visalia area on the Board of Supervisors.
Just why Cigna happens to have 50,000 sq. ft. - its most recent north expansion - available isn’t clear. No Cigna official was available for comment. City council say they have been told that while Cigna is maintaining its commitment to have at least 1100 employees working, large numbers are “telecommuting”— working from home—freeing up a third of the space at the big Akers office complex.
The news about the county’s apparent plans to leave downtown comes just as the city works on a major plan to revitalize East Visalia, hoping to make the 100 plus acres east of Santa Fe a major new retail housing employment center—“the second half of downtown,” city manager Steve Salomon told a crowd recently.
The city council and planning commission are scheduled to go over plans for East Visalia—that will include a new civic center—in coming weeks. Whether that complex will include plans for a new county building appear to be up in the air.
Ironically, the county has played a major role in the city acquiring former insurance company buildings for their own use, including the old Cigna building on 198 at Chinowth, the former Wausau Insurance building on Mooney and now subleasing space in the new Cigna building. There has been criticism that county eagerness to get new office space cheaply has hurt economic development efforts in Visalia since those big buildings could be used by new private sector firms bringing new jobs to town.
Now there are rumblings that the new Cigna building may be available to the county after the potential new lease is up, putting in doubt a long term commitment to downtown Visalia. The offered rent is said to be very favorable to the county and includes utilities. The Cigna property is being offered through a Bay Area real estate firm - Studley, with negotiations being handled by the county through HHS Director Ron Probasco. Probasco himself met with the downtown PBID group this past week to give them the news about the Cigna lease.
Eric Coyne, assistant to the Board of Supervisors, stated that “any decision on where welfare workers will be temporarily or permanently relocated, will be made by the Board of Supervisors.”
The Board is not expected to act on any lease until sometime in August.
New Orleans Style Fare Coming to Downtown Menu
Visalia - Downtown Visalia, already known for it’s abundant dining fare, will be getting a taste of New Orleans style dinning. Troy Korsgaden, who previously had announced plans for a new three-story building on Bridge Street, near the Signature Theater, said this week that he has leased the ground and second stories to local businessmen who will open a “soft-casual restaurant with a Cajun flair.”
Korsgaden plans to use the top floor of the 10.000 sq. ft. building at the southwest corner of Main and Bridge, as a residence.
The tentative name of the restaurant is the Bourbon Street Bistro, if that name is available, he said. Korsgaden is leasing the two floors to Ken Fitzgerald and Bob Aguilar who plan to offer patrons two kinds of dining. The bottom floor will offer quick meals including take out, something might cater to theatergoers, before and after the movies.
The upper floor will offer a full dining atmosphere complete with a piano bar. The menu offerings, described as having a “Cajun flair,” will be the same in both places. The structure will feature a New Orleans look complete with balconies, similar in some ways to the style in downtown Visalia near the turn of the 20th Century. The site is part of the former Arnold Wiebe car lot at that corner.
Downtown is not the only place where a new flavor is being added to the appetites of Visalians. Fitzgerald, along with several associates, already is building an Irish Pub style eatery, “Doogle McGuire’s, near Akers and Cypress. That establishment is expected to open by the end of the year.
Highway 99 Traffic To Double by 2030
Tulare County - Tulare County’s regional road system is expected to increase its load by an average of 84% by the year 2030, according to a recent study done for the 2004/05 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) by Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG). The finding suggests gridlock on many community routes unless substantial upgrades are made to our roads.
By far the busiest route is Highway 99, which is expected to increase by 100% or more at various intersections south of 198 into Kern County. As of 2002 the average daily traffic count where Highway 190 meets 99 is 41,000 vehicles. But that will jump to 91,400 by 2030 per day, a 123% increase. Other intersections south of Tulare show the same large volume of some 90,000 vehicles a day - about double what they carry today. Heading north on 99 will rise only to 69,000 average daily traffic (ADT) from 51,000 today says the report, an indication that more cars and trucks are expected to be heading south between Tulare County’s major cities than heading north.
Other highways will be impacted as well. Highway 198 between 99 and Mooney should jump 52% to an average daily traffic count of 69,400.
Percentage wise look for a huge jump in traffic on Ave. 416 coming to Dinuba from 99 - up 233% from 800 ADT to 26,000 ADT by 2030. State Highway 65 is poised to jump 40% between 198 to 137, says the study.
The impact on the highway of large trucks particularly on Highway 99 is highlighted in the report. Citing a CalTrans report, Highway 99 truck traffic makes up between 24 to 36% of the total traffic on a route in which up to 84% of the trucks have five axles or more. Most commodities are shipped by truck - and TCAG hopes to encourage more rail traffic.
One ray of hope is that valley congressmen are supporting federal funds to help the state upgrade Highway 99 by adding a third lane through Tulare County sometime in the future - a move that appears critical to any hope of avoiding bumper to bumper traffic on the famous route.
Because of a shortage of funds, TCAG has presented non-Highway 99 projects for funding as follows:
SR-63 (Mooney Blvd) - 2007
Road 80 - 2009, 2011, 2013
Road 180 - 2009, 2010
Plaza Dr. (I/C only) 2010
Tulare IMC - 2006
Scranton - 2010
SR-65 (Porterville) - 2012, 2014
Caldwell (Akers/SR-63) - 2012
SR-65 (Spruce) - 2014
Visalia Rd. (Farmersville) - 2008
Betty Drive - 2012
Another issue unique to the San Joaquin Valley counties is “deferred maintenance” or lack of road rehabilitation funding. In Tulare County, there are over 3000 miles of roads in the unincorporated part of the County. There is over $250 million in deferred maintenance on all unincorporated roads in Tulare County. This represents 1/3 of the total deferred maintenance for the entire Caltrans (state) road system. Of the total County road system, 343 miles are on the Tulare County Regional Road System. The County currently has $20.4 million in deferred maintenance on the regional road system.
TCAG still will conduct a series of public meetings to solicit public input to the RTP. The meetings will be held throughout Tulare County using published public notices that the 2004 RTP will be available to the public for comment. A public hearing before the TCAG Board is planned for August 9, 2004.
From San Francisco To Mineral King
Cable Car Inventor Helped Spark Silver Rush In Tulare County
Mineral King - What do San Francisco and Mineral King have in common? Steep hills to climb and potential reward for those who climb those hills.
The year was 1879 and the whispers were that a new silver mine in the remote Tulare County valley of Mineral King might bring riches. Getting the ore out of tunnels in the side of the 11,500 ft. Empire Mountain was one thing. But transporting it down to the Mineral King Valley floor - a mile down the steep mountainside - was another.
Bringing in a stamp mill, hauled up from Grass Valley, to process the silver into goose egg size ingots on a narrow stock trail seemed all but impossible.
Still another challenge - how to get the booty back down to Visalia - that was equally daunting.
The route of the steep east fork of the Kaweah was little better than a cow path in many sections. So construction of a wagon road was a big deal.
Several very talented and energetic people were about to solve all those problems with capital, expertise and a patented gold and silver fever flowing out of both San Francisco and Visalia.
As author Louise Jackson recounts in her 1988 book Beulah - the owner of the mine, Tom Fowler, had a habit of thinking big. After some years of boom and bust - Mineral King was in a heady mood again.
She describes Fowler’s can-do mentality this way, “With much determination, a great deal of work, even more money, a town, county and state full of friends, a temperament and need for success, a little good luck, a high display of optimism, and a few theatrics for flavor, Tom was making another Comstock.”
First he hooked up with other local entrepreneurs Art Crowley - Louise Jackson’s grandfather - and his father John. They organized the private construction of a toll road over the tough 25 mile route from Three Rivers with the backing by the County of Tulare. Employing toll road economics was the way San Francisco used to build their bridges as well.
The wagon road helped draw some 3000 gold and silver seekers to the alpine valley that year creating all the trappings of a city, saloons, grocery stores, hotels “even preachers” and “almost no women”, says Jackson. The “city” was about the same size as Visalia at the time.
The first cargo to arrive once the road was completed were five loads of mining machinery that arrived in 1879. Tom Fowler worked his new Empire Gold and Silver Mine. As he rode up and down the trail to the mine every day he knew, says Jackson, a mule trail to bring down the ore would be too slow and costly.
Enter the inventor of San Francisco’s cable car, Andrew Hallidie who made climbing hills in San Francisco sitting down possible with his patented continuos wire rope. The Scottish born mechanical genius had been a miner himself in Mariposa County in the 1850s but like so many had been disappointed.
Like a number of famous entrepreneurs of the time, Hallidie made his money supplying the miners. Many of those Mineral King miners chose the Visalia area to settle down once it was all over.
In 1856 Hallidie proposed to a mine owner he substitute wire rope for traditional rope that quickly gave out hauling empty cars back up to the mine. His first wire rope was spliced together, 1200 ft. and 1/8 inch thick, which worked fine for the mine for two years.
It was the beginning of Hallidie’s company based in San Francisco to manufacture the wire rope. The use of wire would later develop in the invention of wire cable cars that run up and down the city by the Bay today as well as wire based suspension bridges around California.
He recalls how he got the idea of an underground cable to move passenger cars up and down San Francisco’s hills. “I was largely induced to think over the matter from seeing the difficulty and pain the horses experienced in hauling the cars up Jackson Street, from Kearny to Stockton Street, on which street four or five horses were needed for the purpose - the driving being accompanied by the free use of the whip and voice, and occasionally by the horses falling and being dragged down the hill on their sides, by the car loaded with passengers sliding on its track.” It first ran in 1873 - a few years before his tramway arrived in Mineral King.
In Mineral King Art Crowley received a letter from Hallidie detailing the costs to ship all the materials necessary to build a continuous tramway up to Empire Mountain. Hallidie told Crowley that he had recently completed shipment of three of his Patent Endless Wire ropeways “all of which are running and giving perfect satisfaction.” He detailed all the parts and materials he would ship to the construction site including ironwork, line rope and castings weighing almost 35,000 lbs.
Without the road the tramway would not have been hauled up to Mineral King. The tramway cost $10,000 to put into service. The two mile line endless cable passed an 8 ft. iron wheel at the mill site and another mile up at the mine. The wire was equipped with creaky iron buckets with the weight of ore coming down the mountain helping to pull the buckets back up to the mine.
Every 200 ft. there were large timber supports - up to 20 ft. tall - to carry all that weight. Hallidie had at least 13 such systems in place in California mines.
According to a paper done by Samuel Thomas Porter, the weight of the loaded buckets also provided a way to haul lumber or even passengers up the hill. The technology proved to be very cost effective and speedy compared to mule pack and was said to be 20 cents per ton. Hallidie also constructed such a tramway at Bodie - today an eastern Sierra ghost town.
Other Mineral King mines were dug with subscribers raising $5 million, $3.45 million and others for $5 million with investor money from Visalia and other central valley towns and San Francisco who helped fuel the boom in California gold and silver rush with capital, technology and know how.
The silver rush ended in Mineral King with investors disappointed but the connection between Tulare County and San Francisco remained.
Much later the connection between San Francisco and Mineral King came full circle as the Bay Area based Sierra Club led the way to preserve Mineral King by including it in Sequoia National Park.
The mining era technology had one other major impact on Tulare County. Engineers familiar with hydraulic mining used their knowledge of pumping water to develop the first irrigation project in the San Joaquin Valley near Visalia in 1854 - one reason why irrigated agriculture started in Tulare County.
Project Safe Neighborhood
Criminals Get More Firepower
by Nicole Hire
With the number of gun related crimes in Tulare County showing a significant rise since 1998, the Tulare County Board of Supervisors approved a grant application submitted by District Attorney, Phil Cline, adding an additional $240,000 to the District Attorney's budget for prosecuting crimes involving firearms.
According to data provided by Don Gallian, Assistant District Attorney, the national trend for violent crimes over the last few years shows a decline, however Tulare County shows an increase. Between 1998 and 2000 Tulare County experienced a nearly 275% increase in criminals armed with guns and the numbers continue to increase annually. Since January 2004, 25 such cases have occurred county wide.
The trend has also increased dramatically in cases where criminals have actually used a firearm. From 1998 to 2000, the number of these cases jumped from just 10 to 86. In the first six months of 2004 there have been 55 incidents where a firearm was used in criminal activity. "The criminal element is armed and more than willing to use the firepower of guns in carrying out their crimes," stated Assistant District Attorney, Don Gallian, in his written report to the Board of Supervisors.
Phil Cline, Tulare County District Attorney stated that the types of crimes committed and the areas in which they are committed are diverse. "There are all kinds of gun related crimes being committed in our county, such as murder, drive by shootings, assault with a deadly weapon and robbery. There are no specific areas in which these crimes happen either. They are occurring in urban areas as well as on country roads," stated Cline. "What we hope this program will do is allow us to focus in on these types of crimes and send a message out there that if you shoot somebody here (in Tulare County) you will go away for life."
The grant, titled, PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS PROGRAM will allow the county to hire two Deputy District Attorneys who will work in conjunction with existing units within the District Attorney's Office such as the Homicide Team, Misdemeanor Team and Felony Team. The focus of these teams will be the successful prosecution of crimes directly involving firearms.
The program will also allow the District Attorney's Office to develop programs that identify the sources of the guns that come into our communities and will give professionals, such as law enforcement, the expertise needed to prosecute cases involving gun violence despite the fact that the victim may not be able to testify or assist in building the case.
This grant would provide $336,000 over the course of three years. Federal funds totaling $240,000 and requiring $96,000 of local matching funds, would increase the firepower needed to impact this increasing public safety issue. The District Attorney's office is working on ways to absorb the local match requirement from within its own budget.
Jim Maples, Supervisor, District Five, commented on the District Attorney's creativity in finding money to absorb the match. "A willingness in these times to seek out a grant that will assist in the mission of the District Attorney's Office without any money coming out of the general fund is to be commended," stated Jim Maples. "Safety has always been a number one concern to the Board, however the funding hasn't always been there to assist the District Attorney in addressing it. Consequently, the District Attorney has a long history in finding grants to assist in implementing programs that help to combat crimes."
The PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS grant was offered through the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice in March of 2002. The District Attorney's Office applied and was originally awarded this three-year grant in 2002. However, due to the fact that matching funds were a requirement of the grant and county budget issues were uncertain, the Board of Supervisors denied the implementation of the grant program.
by Carole Firstman
Food for thought: Tulare County is both the richest and the poorest county in the state of California. How can this be?
Tulare County is the second highest grossing agricultural county in the world, as we lead the way in both dairy and citrus farming. Ironically enough, though, we are also the poorest county in the state, with poverty rates now exceeding those of Imperial Valley.
According to UCLA's California Health Interview Survey, Tulare County has the highest rate of food insecurity in the state, with 41.4% of our population, or 50,184 people, going hungry.
In response to this staggering statistic, a few movers and shakers have put their heads and resources together to start Nutrition On The Go. Foodlink of Tulare County heads and carries out the program, and has enlisted the support of Family Healthcare Network, Tulare County Health and Human services Agency, and Rotary International. Rotary clubs from three areas have joined forces to make a $50,000 contribution possible: Central California clubs from Monterey County to Tulare County, Bay area clubs in the Fairfield-Suisun area, and several clubs in Australia have made contributions.
A Unique Project:
"Nutrition On The Go is more than a food distribution program," says Sandy Beals, Executive Director of Foodlink. Started in February of 2004, the program targets eight communities: Ivanhoe, Strathmore, London, Delft Colony, Goshen, Orosi, Farmersville, and Woodlake.
The program provides fresh produce, cooking demonstrations, diabetes screening, and assistance with food stamp applications. The program is carried out in a series of fair-like events. Cultural sensitivity is of utmost priority to the organizers from Foodlink and Rotary. "Our goal is to do more than give away food," says Nina Clancy. Clancy is the assistant governor for the Rotary area of Central California. She is also the owner of Greenhouse Montessori School in Visalia. "All parents want to do the right things for their children. We are showing the parents of these rural communities how to get their children to eat properly."
Every two weeks one of the target communities is home to a festive event with balloons, music, and bilingual volunteer and staff members. Food tastings and cooking demonstrations usually include salsa or other variations of Mexican food. So far about 12 events have been conducted, servicing about 200 people each time.
A mobile nutrition truck delivers fresh produce to the community. Onsite cooking classes teach participants how to prepare food they may not otherwise be familiar with. This part of the program is especially important, says Beals. "If you've never tried brussels sprouts before, you're not going to take them home for your children if you haven't had the opportunity to taste them and learn how to cook them," she says.
According to Beals, the inexpensive foods that many low income families consume also happen to have the least nutritional value, which in turn puts those same people at risk for obesity and diabetes. In response to this, diabetic screening and referrals are also made available.
English and Spanish-speaking volunteers are on site at each event, offering assistance with the 15 page food stamp application that can be otherwise too intimidating for many to attempt. Beals explains that by helping our county's poor access the funds they already qualify for, it helps keep our tax dollars working within our own community. "If everyone in the county who qualified for food stamps were receiving those benefits, that would be $39 million that would come back to our local economy. This is money that will be spent in our stores, in our community."
As an educator, Clancy is passionate about helping the children in Tulare County. "Hunger is our number one problem. It has social, academic and medical ramifications for kids. We see this in our school systems every day, kids who come from ‘working poor' homes, where one or both parents are working full time for a minimum wage."
Exeter may get a Starbucks in coming months. A developer is working with the city at the corner of Belmont and Visalia Rd. on a proposed center that will include a Quizno's and a Starbucks. The coffee chain will compete against several local coffee places popular with locals.
Now that Bob Piccinini has purchased the Sequoia Plaza (Costco) shopping center in Visalia, what does the Save Mart grocery outlet chain have up its sleeve? While he would love to keep Costco as a tenant, sources say the entrepreneur may well bring a John's Incredible Pizza outlet to the center. The restaurants are huge - over 50,000 sq. ft. in a big-box building as large as a supermarket, several entities will adjoin, including a sports bar, an arcade and a pizza joint. Piccinini doesn't plan to bring in a Save Mart, however. Piccinini has a partnership who owns the chain. He purchased the Mooney shopping center with a partner a few weeks ago.
Visalia will require land owners who want to annex into the city to declare water rights associated with the property as a condition of annexation. The move comes as the city seeks a water source for a booming population in the city. Already the city has put the new policy into effect on a recent request for annexation. The council is set to make the matter formal in their early August meeting.
Artis Hare and Co. will relocate to the new Paloma Development building at 222 N. Garden in October, says developer Harvey May. The new building is on the corner of Garden and Oak St. near the new city transit center. Artis and Hare is a long time Visalia CPA firm and will lease 2900 sq. ft. of the building. Other tenants are TPG Consultants and Paloma Development with some 3000 sq. ft. still available.
Urban Gourmet - wine and cheese store is going out of business in the Mary's Vineyard shopping center. Owner Sonny Martin says a divorce has forced liquidation of the merchandise by July 31. The upscale outlet opened 9 years ago this month. "I hope to reopen the store somewhere in Downtown when everything is resolved in court," says Martin.
Del Taco is coming to Akers and 198 in Visalia. The chain closed its restaurant in front of the Hanford Mall a few weeks ago.
Target is having a Hanford job fair this week in hopes of finding some of the 250 new employees it will need for its new Hanford store. Other big box users in the center could boost that number as well. The new shopping center is next to a proposed Walmart superstore that faces a long legal battle with opponents.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
July 21, 2004
