Local
Measures Leaders Ponder What Went Wrong
At The Polls
Visalia - Although we don’t know the final vote count yet - the three Visalia area measures - each raising taxes - either lost outright or are clinging to life support as we go to press - a few weeks after the March 2 election.
Like three fat men trying to get into an elevator at the same time, critics say they have only themselves to blame for none of them getting in. Adding the state tax propositions, local voters appeared to have choked at the prospect of government reaching a little deeper into their pockets.
The players have been busy Monday morning quarterbacking in recent days.
The COS bond issue went down to defeat falling far short of the 55% majority needed as did the Visalia Unified measure finishing somewhat better at 52.5%, still not enough to pass. Measure T, the City of Visalia sales tax increase, may yet pass depending on a few absentee ballots yet to be counted. This one will require a two thirds majority. Tulare County Elections Department says it will be at least next week before those final votes are counted.
This week leaders from all the affected agencies pondered the meaning of the results and plotted their next moves.
Although they could - none of them are ready to do a “repeat” in November - the next general election.
Separate Areas - Separate Bonds?
At COS board member Bob Line says the COS board will meet in April to post mortem the results. He says he personally doesn’t see a ballot measure being put back on November even though to give the district the best chance they must offer a bond at a general election to qualify for a 55% threshold rather than face a two thirds vote.
Line says the district is giving serious consideration to having each area of the big COS district vote on separate measures that would benefit only that area. Hanford/Kings County would vote on expansion of the COS Center there and Tulare would vote on the new Tulare campus for example. This might be easier to pass. Kings County voted by more than two thirds for the COS bond compared to less than 51% in Tulare County. The city of Tulare has supported the last two COS bonds. If they decide to do this to put it on the ballot they must get permission from the local Board of Supervisors and decide as soon as this June.
COS president Kim Badrkhan points out that COS did get some good news this most recent election with the passing of state proposition 55 - it didn’t pass in Tulare County but it passed statewide requiring just a 50% plus majority.
COS has been waiting for 15 years in line for state funds that will now go to a new gym to be built in the next few year on the last piece of green grass near the softball diamond on the campus. “We’re going to be maxed out for space,” says Badrkhan. That’s part of the reason why the college wants to expand at the other district sites.
Why did the COS bond measure lose? All the leaders suggest a flood of bond measures overloaded the ballot this March with a significant group simply saying no to everything. Others point to continuing strife at the community college between faculty and administration. Other say Visalians did not understand why voting to expand Tulare and Hanford’s campus was a good idea for Visalia, says Line.
Line says it’s possible COS, who lost three bond issues, will go to Certificates of Participation (COPs) funding as an option to raise the matching funds needed to build in Tulare and Hanford. Matching funds are necessary in order to “move up” the line to qualify for state monies, he says.
Back To Portables?
At Visalia Unified, chairman of the board Mike Lane says his big disappointment is the lose of $16 million in state funds earmarked for Visalia that will expire this summer without matching monies for the local district. “We knew it was going to be difficult with all the other bonds on the ballot,” says Lane. He says the district’s strategy now is to decide how to use developer fee monies that have been collecting with the construction of new homes in town to either use a big chunk - perhaps as much as $4 million - to match state funds for another elementary school, or use the developer fees “to buy portables to meet the growth needs in all parts of the district.”
Asked if he thought the price tag for the proposed El Diamante swimming pool at $5 million was too much for the taxpayers to chew on right now, Lane says the district still is working on grant for $2.5 million to help build the aquatic center with the help of the City of Visalia. Critics had argued that the pool could be built for millions less. “Maybe it could be scaled back,” says Lane.
Some, like activist Jerry Jensen, say the district needs to better tell its story to the public emphasizing that this administration is not the Gonzales administration that remains in the public perception.
City Surplus?
Regarding Measure T - the one quarter cent sales tax - Visalia council member Don Landers says informal polling had the measure passing easily in late February and thinks some were swayed by a Sunday-before-the-election front page Fresno Bee article suggesting the city had a “$63 million surplus in the budget” and wondering why they needed a sales tax increase?
Landers says the article didn’t give the other side of the equation. The $63 million was the balance in the bank and a look at the other side of the ledger includes over $30 million in long term debt - mostly the Convention Center and capital designations for projects like the new civic center and sports park, over $9.2 million is budgeted for employees retirement and so on. Add up all the debt and the city has commitments amounting to $64.2 million.
He says the fact the city has built up monies by using their funds wisely over the years noting that “we are fiscally conservative.”
This past Tuesday the Bee ran another story on the “surplus” starting out with the line that “what looks like a surplus on paper isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.” True enough, but the new lead on the story comes two weeks after the election.
This week the city had a study session on the budget going over the finances in detail - and the paper wrote a new article adding the other side to the ledger, the bottom line quoting city finance director Eric Frost. The upshot, instead of having $63 million the city has a $17.3 million deficit.
Landers says he understands that many people are “fed up with taxes” but notes the city gets just 14 cents of every dollar of property tax. “They are paying a lot of money but not coming to the city,” he says. City staff is down 20% per capita to the population they serve compared to 10 years ago. He defended the plan to charge a one quarter cent tax “paid by the people who come here from all over to shop here” and not just by Visalians.
The Visalia leaders say they want an ongoing revenue stream to pay for increasing the town’s public safety not “one time money” that is in the bank today and once spent will be gone.
Tulare - With the news that the USDA will expand testing across the nation for mad cow disease, UC Davis - Tulare director Jim Cullor expects the center to participate in the testing program. “We should hear in the next few weeks,” says Dr. Cullor as California is assigned to carry out sampling of the presence of BSE in cattle. “We are in one of the largest concentrations of cattle in the US,” notes Cullor and the lab is set up to carry out such testing. There are several million cattle within commute range of Tulare.
On March 15 USDA Ag Secretary Ann Veneman announced details of an expanded surveillance program for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopthy based on the recommendations from a recent panel of international experts. The increase would step up the testing of cattle in the US by about 10 times. Sampling would take place over a 12 to 18 month time frame.
The USDA news release says samples would be collected from some 40 slaughterhouses that handle 86% of the annual cattle processed. They expect the sampling will start in June.
BSE is thought to be a problem primarily in animals over 30 months.
The release says besides processing the samples taken through the USDA lab in Iowa they would rely on a network of labs around the country. Already USDA and CDFA food safety tests are done at the Tulare Center. The government says they will soon approve a rapid test to be used at the labs to screen for the presence of BSE - a test widely used throughout the world.
The step up in surveillance for the disease comes after a Washington state animal was found to be infected with mad cow and its meat entered the food chain in January. USDA has now changed the policy ensuring that the animal tested for mad cow won’t be sent to market until the test confirms they are safe. Last year the USDA tested only 20,000 animals our of some 35 million slaughtered.
Also the USDA is now studying when to allow private meat packers to test their own meat before it is sold. Previous to this USDA has refused to allow anyone but themselves to test. In California legislators have introduced a bill asking for the state CDFA to carry out such testing.
Many countries, including Japan, say they will not open their markets to US been until all cattle sent to them have been tested.
USDA believes the presence of mad cow in the US is very low. But assuring the public with an active surveillance may ease fears both here and abroad.
Not a downer?
The man who actually slaughtered the only cow that has tested positive for mad cow disease last year and set in motion a change in USDA policy, spoke to state senators in Sacramento last month telling them the cow was not a downer after all. David Louthan said the cow which tested positive for BSE wasn’t a downer, but “could have overrun anyone in this room” he told a joint committee on mad cow disease. USDA policy at the time prompted the test because the inspector classified the cow as a downer. He said he killed the cow because it was acting wildly and he feared it might hurt other downer cows. He said he was glad he did kill it because it triggered the test for BSE. He says he was laid off from the meat company because he told the news media that the infected cow had already been consumed. “I got whistle blower’s disease,” he quipped.
Louthan says now he is happy to eat beef, but favors more testing of cows. USDA officials conceded last month that the cow might have gotten back up. USDA promised an investigation.
Critics say evidence suggesting otherwise raises questions about the USDA’s credibility and highlights the need to test apparently healthy animals as well.
“There’s a culture in the industry that is fostered by an inappropriate relationship between the government and the cattle industry,” said Susan Solarz, a biology scholar-in-residence at American University in Washington, D.C. “There are so many people with ties to cattle in decision-making positions in the USDA that there is basically an unofficial agreement to not test more animals. If this was not a downer, then it means that the USDA’s policy was seriously flawed,” she said.
The new tests announced this week will be on random healthy animals.
Livestock Feed Test Will Guard Against Mad Cow Disease
Tulare County - Work done at the UC Veterinary Center in Tulare in collaboration with UC Davis has resulted in a new test for feed users to see if it contains any of the banned ruminant animal DNA. Feed containing parts of ruminant animals can cause mad cow disease.
"This test provides feed processors and regulators with a powerful tool for protecting livestock and consumers from mad cow disease," said Jim Cullor, a veterinary professor who led the team that developed the test at UC Davis' School of Veterinary Medicine. "It combines speed, accuracy and molecular biology attributes that are not available in any of the existing analytical tests for livestock feed."
The highly sensitive analytical test that detects minute amounts of animal-protein contamination in livestock feed has been developed by a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, in hopes of better protecting the nation's food supply against mad cow and similar diseases.
The test uses DNA analysis to identify protein from ruminants -- cows, sheep, goats and deer -- in feed products intended to be eaten by other ruminants. The use of ruminant protein in livestock feed has been banned in the United States since 1997, because evidence suggests that livestock feed containing material from the carcasses of animals infected with mad cow disease can transmit the disease to healthy animals and, in turn, to humans.
A paper reporting development of the test is now under review by a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The University of California also has filed a patent application on the new procedure, which might be available for commercial use late this year.
Prion Diseases
Mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), was first recognized in Great Britain in 1986. The epidemic of BSE that followed involved more than 178,000 cattle there and spread to other European nations.
BSE is caused by misshapen proteins called prions. The prions cause disease by triggering a slow-developing chain reaction of similar protein mutations. The prions eventually accumulate in the brain and cause debilitating neurological symptoms and death. Sheep and goats are vulnerable to a prion disease called scrapie, deer and elk to chronic wasting disease and cows to mad cow disease or BSE.
Slightly more than 150 humans, worldwide, have contracted the fatal prion disease called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, most of these cases occurring in Great Britain. It is believed these people became infected with prions by eating meat from cows that had BSE.
New Feed Test
Up until now, federal regulators have used either microscopic analysis or more rapid antibody-based tests to monitor feeds for contamination. Both types of tests have their drawbacks. The microscopic analysis, which looks for bones, hair and muscle tissue, is a tedious process that can take days to perform. The antibody tests are much quicker, but may fail to detect contamination if it occurs at levels lower than 1 percent.
To overcome both the time and accuracy problems, the UC Davis researchers used a technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which makes it possible to replicate selected stretches of DNA and accurately identify them. This is a technique that has been commonly used for more than a decade in a broad spectrum of studies.
In this project, the researchers spiked seven different cattle feeds with predetermined amounts of meat and bone meal from cows, as well as meal rendered from fish, sheep, and poultry, and dried blood from pigs and cattle. DNA was then extracted from each of the spiked feed samples and replicated via PCR.
Further developments are allowing the test to detect ruminant DNA contamination well below 0.5 percent by weight.
One of the hurdles the researchers had to overcome in developing this test was the presence of "inhibiting substances" that occur naturally in the uncontaminated feed. These compounds interfere with the sensitivity of the PCR process, yielding false negative results. The researchers were able to identify these substances and chemically treat the feed samples so that the PCR tests would yield accurate readings.
In addition to Cullor, the UC Davis research team included staff researchers Mary Sawyer, Wayne Smith and graduate student Gabriel Rensen, as well as Bennie Osburn, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine.
This research was supported by grants from The Bernice Barbour Foundation, the California Dairy Research Foundation and Ms. Lorna Talbot.
All Aboard For Sequoia Park
Visalia - A meeting held this week between the National Park Service, City of Visalia and other area agencies could launch a plan that would use the city’s new transit center as a “way station for Sequoia travelers,” says spokesman for Congressman Nunes’ office Justin Stoner. Nunes and the Park Service invited about 25 officials to the meeting in Visalia looking to explore a “potential partnership” between Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and other jurisdictions including Visalia as the Parks seek to offer more transit connections.
The workshop is focused on organizing a Gateway Community Transit connection to the park - the first of a series of workshops organized by Nunes. The Park Service is seeking to expand its bus transit operations to the park to address both the congestion and air quality issues.
The Park Service noted that while it can offer transit service within its boundaries, it needs a partner to complete the plan.
Visalia city manager Steve Salomon has been supportive of the project that could utilize parking areas for private cars near the transit center from travelers visiting Visalia and wanting to take day trips to the park. Visalia would clearly benefit from its role as a tourist hub for the Sequoia visits helping to fill its hotels and restaurants.
Porterville Moves Closer To Eastside Growth
By Peyton Ellas
Porterville - The Porterville City Council took a step closer to residential development in the Rocky Hill section of the city March 9, 2004, as it approved a three-year water treatment and storage plan. At a cost of $8,550,000, the project will increase water capacity by treating contaminated wells, developing ways to bring new wells online faster, and constructing water storage tanks primarily in the Hillside Eastside area.
The storage tanks, to be constructed on the foothills near the local historical landmark known as Rocky Hill, is just one of the several ways the City Council has been, since 2000, attempting to encourage growth on that side of town in an attempt to stem the loss of agricultural land to housing on the city's Westside, which has experienced a housing boom in the last five years.
Current city well production is at 12,500 gallons per minute (gpm), far below the maximum daily demands of 16,000 gpm for a city the size of Porterville, determined by a 2001 study done by the Public Works Department, according to Public Works Director Baldomero Rodriguez.
Rodriguez points out, however, that this maximum capacity level in practice only affects the city for a very short period of time each year.
"We go through this shortage only in the summer, typically only in July and sometimes a week or two in August," he says. At those times, "People start calling us up, asking what's wrong because they notice their pressure is less."
At the target capacity, he says, the water pressure would not be affected even during peak summer months. And although the study is based on a city population of 42,000, near Porterville's current level, Rodriguez says the 19,000 gpm would also be adequate for additional residential development on the city's Eastside.
"Even 100 houses would not affect the capacity that much," he says.
A City Council subcommittee on Hillside/Eastside Development previously determined that several steps were necessary for growth to occur in the 1,400 acres around Rocky Hill. Among them was the necessity of constructing at least one storage tank in "Zone 1" of the foothill region, which "encompasses the Granite Hills High School area and which has been the focus of development proposals to date," according to Committee documents.
Zone 1, with an elevation of 520-580 feet, will instead, according to the plan just approved, be provided with two storage tanks by October 2005. Rocky Hill "Zone 2", at 580-640 ft elevation level, will have a storage tank constructed by October 2007. Another storage tank will be constructed on Martin Hill, in the city's central region, by December of 2007.
The city will also, according to Rodriguez, "Continue aggressive well-drilling." One new well is already under construction, and a consultant has been hired to design the next five wells.
This, as Public Works officials reported that yet another current water well is fluctuating near over-contamination for perchloroethylene, commonly called PCE or "perc." This well may soon need to be shut down, which would bring the total of offline wells to four. One well is already offline due to PCE contamination, and 2 wells are closed due to overly high levels of nitrates. The three offline wells, if operational, would add an additional 1,500 gpm to the water supply.
The project adopted by the Council also contains a water treatment plan to deal with this problem of polluted groundwater supplies. The construction of a PCE Well Head Treatment facility by March 2007 is the first stage in this element of the plan.
This facility, at a cost of $1,400,000, will be located near Highway 65, Harrison, and 4th Streets, adjacent to the Save Mart Center on Henderson Avenue. PCE, a contaminant often associated with dry cleaning facilities, is also found as part of manufacturing and auto repair facilities and is not uncommon wherever urbanization has occurred, according to David Stuck, Senior Hazardous Substances Scientist with California's Department of Toxic Substances Control.
Perchloroethylene is often also used as an industrial degreasing agent. Even though such degreasers are used in enclosed units, leaks are not uncommon, according to Stuck.
"You don't have to get too much on the ground to seriously contaminate the water," he says. "The slightest leak on the floor will go right through the concrete and into the soil."
The construction of a surface water treatment facility to combat nitrate contamination will be completed by August 2007. Nitrate contamination is a prevalent danger in city and private wells throughout the Valley, as it is often associated with the use of agricultural-industry chemicals.
Previously, the City Council adopted motions to further assist and encourage development in the Hillside Eastside area. After a Community meeting in July 9, 2002 to elicit participation by the public, the Council adopted plans to lower developer's fees for the Hillside Eastside area, defer payment of developer impact fees to final permit issuance, offer developers "Westside development rights" as credits for building on the Eastside, and to develop a Modified Development Standards code amendment policy. This policy would allow developers to build sidewalks on only one side of the street, increase street light spacing, construct narrower streets, and may be a way to retain the rural setting of developments, which are planned to be no denser than one unit per acre, the lot size of the popular Montgomery Ranch subdivision east of Porterville.
The Council has yet to determine how the city will pay for the water treatment and storage plan. Proposed methods include taking loans and issuing bonds, in order to prevent the expenditure coming from the general fund.
Judge Has Questions On Auto Mall
Visalia - The judge in the closely watched Visalia auto mall case says he is “inclined” to send the matter back to the city council to clean up aspects of the approval of the project that the city failed to change. He asked the city again to explain why they did not alter the open space and West Visalia plan at the same time they did the General Plan Amendment change on the 70 acre parcel from ag to service commercial. He is expected to make final ruling in the next few weeks.
Judge Paul Vortmann ruled on the merits of the challenge by the Save Our Corridor committee’s suit against the City of Visalia approval for the Visalia Auto Plaza at Plaza and 198.
Vortmann, in a 6 page decision seemed to find merit with both the arguments of the city’s attorneys and petitioners asking them to file new briefs due March 15 on questions he raised.
Vortmann sides with the city’s argument that the city’s failure to amend the West Visalia Specific Plan didn’t disqualify the city’s general plan approval process. However, the judge appeared to agree with corridor group that failure to amend the West Visalia Specific Plan and the Conservation Open Spaces Recreations and Park Element of the General Plan may have created an “internal inconsistency” in the General Plan. But Vortmann has decided that it would not invalidate the General Plan.
Vortmann asked “If the court finds an inconsistency between the General Plan and the West Visalia Specific Plan and the Conservation Open Spaces Recreations and Park Element, is it proper for the court to remand this back to the City to mandate that it change the West Visalia Specific Plan and the Conservation Open Spaces Recreations and Park Element to be consistent with the General Plan, as the Petitioner argued at the hearing, even though the court will not invalidate the General Plan? And if this is proper, what effect does it have on the Visalia Auto Plaza project?”
Vortmann also said he was “inclined to find an inconsistency” in the plan in these circumstances.
Still the question remains - what effect does this have on the Visalia Auto Plaza project?
If the city must go back and fix these inconsistencies, the project appears to face a new round of hurdles. The city would have to hold a public hearing on the change to the General Plan on the project. Again the corridor people could challenge the matter at the public hearing process and even carry out a new initiative petition theoretically. But the judge could rule while the city does have to reopen part of the General Plan process the approval of the zoning issue is a done deal and therefore the petitioner could not challenge the zoning issue.
Former mayor Greg Collins says his reading of the judge’s ruling “certainly sounds encouraging” but the judge’s final decision will tell the tale. It could come in days or weeks.
A disappointment to the supporters was the withdrawal by the corridor group of the second suit against the city because they did not allow the referendum on the auto mall to go forward. Apparently it did not pass legal muster.
In their pleading to the judge this week, the city’s attorney suggested there is no evidence that the General Plan is “internally” inconsistent with Conservation Open Spaces Recreations and Park Element. As the West Visalia Specific Plan the city argues a city’s General Plan is not required to align with a specific plan which is subordinate. It says the fact they gave notice they would amend the WVSP prior to the EIR completion (but then did not) is a technicality. In Charter cities zoning is not required to be vertically consistent with General Plan, the city maintains. Finally if the court does require the city to go back through the approval process, the decision “would have a serious negative effect on the project and on the City of Visalia.”
Collins says if a new initiative is launched to allow voters the chance to cast a ballot the corridor group will decide whether to include just the auto mall or the entire corridor in the initiative.
Collins has said their group would challenge projects in the works for housing along the corridor being proposed. “Otherwise we have to come down here every six months to fight another battle.” The last time the group launched an initiative they gained enough signatures but filed the names too late to meet a deadline.
If the judge does remand the approval process back to the city it has the effect of delaying the project for at least several more months. The builder hoped it would be operating by June of the year after this approval last August by the city council on a 3 to 2 vote.
Opening the General Plan process again could set in motion a council vote and like the movie “Ground Hog Day” - a petition drive could be launched. The corridor committee’s attorney, Richard Harriman, also plans a challenge to the parcel map transaction later approved by the council.
WestAmerica Bank Plans Move To Akers
Visalia - The Downtown Visalia WestAmerica Bank branch will relocate this October to Akers and 198 in a smaller facility being built near Walgreens. The planned move comes as builder McMillin Homes, who already leases space in the downtown building, has the property in escrow, confirms those knowledgeable about the transaction. Escrow is set to close in July.
A McMillin spokesperson declined to comment.
Staff at the bank are aware of the plans. The new location - a cluster of new development on Akers “should be convenient for many of our customers like doctors and lawyers,” says a WestAmerica staffer. “We don’t need all this (8000 sf) space. There are just 7 of us.” Other bankers aren’t surprised by the relocation because WestAmerica deposit base has declined in the past decade.
Shrinking Market Share
According to the FDIC web site market share report shows that deposits at WestAmerica as of June 30, 2003 was just over $32 million, down from $36.4 million as of June 30, 2002, $51 million in 2000, $63.4 million in 1998 and $86 million when it was still Valliwide Bank in June 1996.
In 1996 it was the number 4 bank in Visalia with a market share of over 9%. That has dwindled in 2003 to under 2% market share as of the latest report.
Valliwide bought the bank from a local group of investors who built up Mineral King Bank before selling it to Valliwide.
If WestAmerica is shrinking, McMillan Homes isn’t, as one of the most active homebuilders in Visalia. The company had been leasing space in the south end of the building - at Johnson and Main - expanding when WestAmerica closed the drive thru service last year.
A look at bank’s market share according to this latest report shows Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Fremont Investment and Visalia Community Bank as the top four banks in town regards market share.
Visalia appears a very rich city with total deposits of all FDIC insured institutions at $1.8 billion compared to $1.02 billion in June 2000, an increase some bankers can’t believe. Much of the increase showed up at Wells Fargo Bank from 2002 to 2003 pushing it ahead of Bank of America as Visalia’s biggest bank.
Valencia Acreage Plunges
California Valencia orange acreage plummeted 12,000 acres statewide last year according to a new California Agricultural Statistics Report. In the Central Valley some 5500 acres were pulled out of a total of 45,500 acres - about 12% in one year.
The steady decline in trees is translating into a crop expected to be 28% below last year. The good news from the survey is that the average fruit size is slightly larger now ripening on the trees.
Farmers have been complaining that they have been losing money on Valencias for the past few years.
Citrus Research Board head Ted Batkin says the primary reason the Valencia variety has been in a decline in recent years is the decision by FDA some years ago to not allow in-grocery store juicing machines after the Odwalla scare over apple juice. "That wiped out over 30 million cartons annually," says Batkin, about half of that from California.
Batkin says the industry is working on new grocery and motel juicing machines that will receive FDA blessing, that could in a matter of years return the juicing orange's popularity although it make take years for the production to catch up now that trees are being pulled.
Batkin says many growers are replacing Valencia's with easy-peel Mandarins or late Navels.
Cost Of Steel And Building Materials Soar
California like the rest of the nation is being hit by the rising cost of building materials including lumber and steel, this spring, that may end up hurting development prospects for new jobs in Tulare County. "Steel prices are going up weekly," said builder Basil Perch. "The cost of a $2 million project is now about $150,000 higher than just a few months ago," he says. Like other contractors, Perch says, he can't get a firm price for heavy steel beams until it is delivered.
"There's a lot of uncertainty in the marketplace" right now confirms Larry Montgomery of the Allen Group's industrial division in Visalia. The upshot is that "contractors can't make firm commitments." He says he expects higher prices in the future but steadier.
The price of scrap steel is seen as a bellwether for steel with scrap steel selling for about $120 a ton in December 2003, $210 a ton in January and $270 a ton in March. It was just $77 a ton in early 2001. The price of other metals from copper to aluminum - all used for building as well - is also up.
Perch says one project - the new Kaweah Delta support services building is safe since the Mangano Company that Perch works with, bought the structural steel for the 5 story building four months ago even though it won't be needed until later as the new building goes up this April.
Kaweah Delta's architect, Mike Williams, says the cost of both steel and lumber are causing problems with projects both now and those planned in the future. The increasing cost of lumber raised the price of the new Cancer Care Center breaking ground in Hanford this week from a budgeted $1.6 million to $2 million.
Lumber prices on the futures market were at $225 per board/ft. in March 2003 compared to $360 today. Strong building activity across the US along with Defense Department purchase of lumber for Iraq, the southern California home rebuilding effort after the fires are all said to be factors.
He says the healthcare district's concern is with the $60 million expansion scheduled for the next two years that could face big budget problems as the price of steel stays high. "We have a consultant to do a bid-ability review on our budget projections that were done back in September 2003. We're looking at construction inflation," says Williams.
Williams believes the higher cost of building materials may be due to the hot real estate market. But many blame China for the hike in steel prices since that country uses about 30% of the world's steel.
An organization called the Emergency Steel Scrap Coalition says the increase in steel prices is coming from US surplus of scrap steel being exported to China at $450 per ton compared to $150 per ton here. A few days ago the House Small Business Committee held a hearing on the increase in metal prices was hurting the small US manufacturers and threatened job creation. Chinese steel consumers receive a subsidy.
At the House Committee meeting last week, small business owners asked the government to slap an export tax on steel and steel scrap to slow exports. The President dropped steel tariffs in December that most thought would ease prices for US manufacturers. But US manufacturers face increased prices instead. Not just builders but auto makers and other manufacturers of trailers and RVs says prices could rise.
California suffers from the fact that in the case of both steel and lumber - lots of it being supplied by more out-of-state producers than a decade ago forcing us to depend on suppliers further away competing in a global marketplace.
McMillin Homes regional director Joe Leal notes a possible "band wagon effect" in a hot real estate market in which customers are ready to pay more for product. "You have to really watch your suppliers and material prices," he says. In that sense, there is the prospect of rising prices in the market where demand is so great.
Farm Jobs On Decline? Yes and No
Higher labor costs and improvements in mechanisms may cut the number of farm labor jobs in the future. But in the past decade the number of farm workers has increased in California, says a UC Davis study that suggests the state could get along perhaps with less - doing more work.
UC Davis researchers say farm employment rose about 16% in the 1990s to 1.1 million in 2001 even though the average annual employment on California farms actually fell from 408,000 in 1996 to 388,000 in 2001. The difference was that more farmworkers were around doing fewer available jobs. The study shows farmworkers as measured by distinct social security numbers reportedly increased 19% from 91 to 2001 even though both farm production and farm service employment was down 5%.
The study suggests ag production during the past decade has increased markedly with acreage up 17.6% and production in tonnage up by 18.5%. Rising yields, the survey says, means that between 1996 and 2000 31% more tonnage of vegetables were produced on the same acreage.
The study suggests that California farmers needed more labor to pick those labor intensive crops - both fruit and vegetables with an increasingly high number of unauthorized farmworkers typically hired through labor contractors (see chart).
Farm labor contractors paid the lowest average wages - $4,385 in 2001 - much less than the average $11,518 paid by vegetable farmers to workers they hired directly.
The study also shows that while a little over half of farmworkers worked for only one employer, about 25% held two jobs and 11% three jobs and about 5% - four jobs.
The research in the study based on figures from EDD show that most workers are employed on the average farm for fewer than 1000 hours a year.
In 2001 the study says there were 2.8 individuals employed in ag for each year-round equivalent job in ag.
The study concluded that the large number of workers doing part time work provides an opportunity. "The findings suggest that it may be possible to employ a smaller total farm workforce, with each worker employed more hours and achieving higher earnings."
Can the citrus pickers of the winter be the grape pickers of the summer and wouldn't their wages improve if they were hired by the farmer?
The working paper was published by the state's Labor Market Information Division "California.
It was published in August 2003 and authored by Akhtar Khan, Philip Martin, and Phil Hardiman.
It can be found on the State EDD web site or in the latest edition of California Agriculture - a UC Davis publication.
Biz Notes
Nissan of Visalia recently received the Owner First Award Of Excellence from Nissan Motor Corporation for 2003. Nissan of Visalia, a member of the Groppetti Automotive Family, shared this honor with 135 Nissan dealerships nationwide. Criteria for winning the Owner First Award of Excellence include high marks based on customer satisfaction surveys for service and vehicle and parts sales, as well as sales penetration, actual retail parts sales and Security+Plus, which is Nissan's extended service contract. Nissan also evaluated personnel training certifications and facility standards of dealerships eligible for this award.
Walmart battle goes on. Walmart opened the first of 40 new super centers planned for California near Palm Springs in recent weeks. In Bakersfield this past week opponents of two Walmart superstores won a Fifth District Court of Appeals suspension to all construction on a shopping center. Opponents are being assisted by the same attorney who also does work for Save Mart of Modesto - a grocer - has a vested interest in seeing the new superstore thwarted. Walmart won a round in the most recent election in Contra Costa County where voters turned down a measure that would have banned big box stores that sell groceries. Walmart spent a reported $1 million to qualify the initiative for the ballot. Sources say Walmart will follow a similar strategy when they are turned down because despite all the bad press about working conditions and the closing of rival businesses people want the chance to shop at the big stores. Opposition to stores in our area has surfaced in Visalia, Dinuba, Hanford and Lemoore. City officials are torn over plans for these super sized retailers since they can do around $3 million a week in business.
The new Carrols Tire Warehouse at Tulare and Mooney is a welcome site to the city who was wondering if the corner would ever clean up. This is the 10th location for the locally owned tire company in the valley. The location replaces a much smaller Tulare facility, says general manager Kevin Burford. Some 12 people work at the new store - up 5 since the move. The company was recently named the 47th in size in the nation.
What's New
The Visalia Moore-Wallace printing plant is growing slowly confirms its HR department, adding about 30 jobs since last September. The company has gone through two mergers n the past few months - now final. Concern was that the plant would shut down. But instead it is growing.
The largely vacant Svenhard's Swedish bakery plant in Exeter may get a new co-tenant in coming months says a bakery spokesperson. "Nothing is confirmed yet," he says, regarding news that the company would lease out a portion of the huge facility to another firm. Svenhard's main bakery is in Oakland and the Exeter facility houses only an office. Svenhard's bought the plant in the Exeter industrial area when Candlewick Yarn shut down. But they never have been the big employer people thought they would be. The new company could add some needed jobs to the Exeter area however. Exeter has been hit by job losses at both Waterman and Nash de Camp in recent months.
Early hot spell this month could portend a long hot summer this year. Long range forecasts for the NOAA Climate Prediction Center shows the West Coast in hotter than usual temps through this fall while precipitation this spring may fall below normal. A high pressure system continues to keep storms to the north of most of California just when hopes for some precipitation. Europe is hoping it doesn't repeat last year's record hottest temps in 500 years a report says. The National Weather Service in Hanford predicts dry warm conditions to extend past this week. Some temps have been record breaking for this time of year. The warm temps are speeding the melting of snow in Giant Forest and elsewhere where about half the snowpack has melted in the past few weeks. The good news on those temps - your local strawberry patch is likely to begin selling fruit sooner than usual. Cotton planting could start earlier.
Shouldn't be long now before there is an agreement between the feds, state and county to reopen the shuttered pre-trial facility. Chair of the Board of Supervisors, Bill Sanders, hopes to make an announcement at the March 30 board session. The deal will probably include both state and federal prisoners to be housed there with help for the county to pay the cost to reopen the unused jail building.
Short handed county planning department is short one more top staffer with department veteran planner Mary Beattie forced out, sources say. Beattie offered her resignation to stunned planning commissioners at the most recent meeting. Her boss was Doug Wilson who just retired. The planning department has been on the board's radar screen because of charges that they can't get the work out. But recent reports suggest the picture is improving.
Lemoore Air Show is set for March 20 and 21 with gates opening at 7:30 a.m. both days. But the show doesn't begin until 11 a.m. See the famous Blue Angels.
Not just tilting at windmills? Tulare activist Don Manro's long campaign challenging the City of Tulare's EIR on their expansion won a victory of sorts this past week when the 5th District Court of Appeals overturned the 4000 acre expansion approval that had been approved by a lower court. The expansion includes land the city already has under development and the new COS campus. The city did not appeal but will try to make amends when it overhauls the general plan this next year. The city has to pay Manro's court costs. He acted as his own attorney.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
March 17, 2004
