State’s First Major Ethanol Plant Under
Construction In Goshen

Goshen - The state’s first major ethanol fuel production plant is underway in Goshen - a town that may carry a biblical name, but is better known locally for its grinding poverty. In the Bible it may be remembered as the land of milk and honey. It may well be what Goshen, California aspires to be as the $10 million renewable fuel refinery has begun construction in recent days.

“We’re finally moving dirt,” says co-owner of the plant, Kevin Kruse who owns the big Western Milling plant astride Highway 99. The foundation for four large fermentation tanks are being laid this week, only days after final approval for the project was received by the company from the Tulare County Planning Commission.

The project, Phoenix Bioindustries, is the first of likely three ethanol fuel plants to be built in Tulare County. The co-owner is Rick Eastman.

The plant is expected to be in operation next spring making 25 million gallons annually of fuel that will be blended in gasoline for motor fuel.

It will be the first major in-state supply for fuel that is blended in all gasoline in California at 6% with gasoline. The new plant will add 18 jobs at Western Milling in Goshen that already employs about 140, says Kruse.

Western Milling is in the feed business and the new ethanol plant will produce 300,000 tons of wet distillers grain - highly prized in the dairy feed business.

The interest in producing ethanol in the central valley comes in part not just because the state needs so much of the fuel but also a byproduct of the process makes a grain for cattle feed. Tulare and Kings counties alone have over 1 million head of cattle as potential customers for the feed. “It amounts to a wonderful symmetry between ethanol and the dairy industry here,” says Rick Eastman.

To help fund the plant, the County of Tulare supported an industrial revenue bond application for the company that offers a lower interest rate than conventional financing. The bonds were issued by the California Statewide Communities Development Authority.

To get their final approval for the project, Kruse and Eastman had to work out emission issues with the air board, other environmental issues with the Center For Race, Poverty and the Environment, building issues with various trade unions and water and noise issues with neighbors.

The plant sits on about 4 and ½ acres just north of the big Western Milling silos along 99 and the Union Pacific railroad. The site is typical in layout of ethanol plants who require a large off loading capability for rail cars since the fuel is made from corn brought in by train.

While 25 million gallons sounds like a lot, the state’s motorists need closer to 900 million gallons a year to blend with gasoline to provide enough fuel for a year. Ethanol is made from renewable sources - some of which may be grown in California so they won’t have to be imported from the Midwest in the future.

For Goshen the new industry will mean economic development. The plant is next door to Western Meat Packing who still hopes to build a state-of-the-art slaughter house adding another 200 jobs. The project is tied up in court but the developer, says he is “ready to go.”

Helping to handle the expected truck traffic from those projects is the new Betty Drive connection to the Visalia industrial park that county redevelopment and the City of Visalia have built.

A second Tulare County ethanol project is the 42 million gallon a year CalGren project near Pixley that is now fully permitted to move ahead as well. “We’re in preliminary negotiations for our financing and expect we will be able to break ground before the end of the year,” says CalGren principal Matt Schmidt. Construction time on the plant will be 12 to 15 months, he says.

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Visalia - Property owners east of Santa Fe in Downtown Visalia will get a chance to vote next month if they want to join Downtown Visalia’s Property Based Improvement District (PBID). The move comes as some organized effort against the plan has surfaced.

To settle the matter a petition will go to property owners east of Santa Fe to Burke and Acequia to Center. If 51% of the commercial property in the district measured by assessed value support the plan, the expanded PBID will move forward, says Downtown Alliance staffer Kelly Hauert.

Already the existing PBID covers some 70 blocks in downtown with a budget of $1.7 million annually based on property owners assessing themselves a tax.

The district provides 24 hour security, graffiti removal and capital improvements like parking and lighting. The purpose of the project is to enhance the area, improve economic activity and ultimately increase property values. The district is run by and benefits those who pay for it.

Hauert says the new proposed district covers 67 properties and 41 property owners - 16 square blocks and about 1.2 million square feet.

The new area would join the existing Zone 2 in the district that pays 23% of costs compared to Zone 1 that pays 77% of costs.

The plan has its critics.

Bud Jackson, owner of Quality Muffler on East Main St., says he heard about the plan to include their property in the district and inquired about the cost. “They told me it would cost $1155 a year to be in it. They said they would clean up graffiti and maintenance and I already do that. We get up early and remove the graffiti around our building, sweep the street and remove leaves. To me its just another tax.”

Jackson says he got a petition up to oppose the project and “got about 90% of the people saying no to the idea.” He says he thought that was the end of it.

Next month’s petition vote would be formalized next spring in front of the city council and the tax would kick in in July 2005.

That would match the timetable for the renewal of the existing improvement district that was implemented in 1998 and would be renewed for a set number of years.

Among other projects the improvement district is paying into a small part of the cost of the new parking garage near Kaweah Delta Hospital on Acequia and Floral. Also the group is considering a $15,000 expenditure to do year-round tree lighting in the downtown and is paying for 8 new highway signs on 198 directing motorists to Downtown Visalia.

The move to expand the district to the east comes just as the city is making major investment in east Visalia as well including plans to build the new civic center in the Burke and Oak St. area in the next few years. The city anticipates the private development of east Visalia that had been known as the car sales and repair part of town with many older and some substandard buildings.

The city plans to develop Mill Creek as an amenity through east Visalia and already street trees have been planted in this old service commercial area of town helping to tie the area to downtown.

PBID supporters feel confident they have the 51% majority needed to move the district forward. Property owners can expect a petition from the Downtown Alliance office sometime in October that they can indicate support or opposition.

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San Joaquin Valley - The news in recent weeks that Southern California has the nation’s worse traffic jams followed by the Bay Area may not be a surprise to anyone. While the image of the slow crawl commuters suffer through daily may be the first thing that comes to mind, it is the never ending caravans of backed up supply trucks that may mean more business, warehouses and factories will spill over the Grapevine in coming years to break away form this stifling congestion.

For better or worse, businesses will increasingly look to the San Joaquin Valley as a supply and manufacturing depot to get goods in and out of both the Southland and Bay Area in coming years.

In the past few decades as LA proper has built out, it has been the expansion of the Inland Empire that has been the relief valve for companies to supply the region. But it’s no relief today up Interstate 10 as the area east of LA has now received a 500% increase in the amount of time spent in traffic per year from 9 hours in 1982 to 57 hours per year in 2002 making this region the nation’s 5th worse urban area for traffic tie-ups.

The rush hour traveler can expect to spend 93 hours a year in LA’s traffic jams, says a new report from the Texas Transportation Institute who issued their findings just this month.

Feeding the truck traffic into the San Bernardino area is the connection to the LA/Long Beach port area for goods arriving by ship that are hauled to warehouses and transfer centers in the Inland Empire with some 35,000 truck trips daily. That number is expected to triple in the next two decades.

Boosting port traffic has been the expansion of global trade and the increase in the US trade deficit as America imports more goods from abroad, particularly Asia.

A recent state report suggest that between 1995 to 2012 the state’s

• Population will grow 40% to 44 million

• Consumption of goods will grow 50%

• Volume of goods moved will increase by 60%.

It’s a scary thought.

As imports of products have surged in the past few years, LA’s two big ports - together the world’s largest - are helping to clog the highways along with old fashioned urban sprawl. Continued traffic through the big port of Long Beach has increased 175% since 1990, says the port authority.

The expansion of the LA ports like the expansion plans for LAX for air traffic, has generated a major outcry from communities nearby - in part due to the air pollution effects the diesel fueled ships cause and recent studies of the impacts on children’s lungs.

Just to get freight in and out of the big ports they plan is push for nighttime delivery of goods to avoid the awful crunch of traffic on the Southland freeways.

To make matters worse, the state’s transportation budget has slowed to a crawl itself as road projects takes a back seat to the state’s need to balance its budget. This comes in a time of record home building in the Southland and statewide.

Historic supply region

Tulare County has already been the supply region for LA just 170 miles away. It has become this with a simple business model - relocation here from more costly locations.

Witness the milk and citrus industry that has grown here as a wholesale transfer of the dairies that once existed in the LA basin that have been pushed out by urbanization. Today the food industry remains Tulare County’s largest economic sector and with gridlock in LA that industry will grow here because companies need the ingredients for their own products. In the past decade those companies have expanded along the main highway and rail corridors of the Tulare Lake basin. Now the ethanol fuel producers will grow along the same corridors in a few years - uniting food with fuel.

But it’s not just food processing and distribution that drive the central valley’s economy. There has been big growth in Kern, Kings and Tulare counties in the past decades in warehouses and light manufacturing facilities that supply the California marketplace like the big IKEA furniture warehouse at the base of the Grapevine.

Tulare County EDC president Paul Saldana expects the central valley’s strategic advantage to be to attract companies who can consolidate facilities in both the Bay Area and Los Angeles here shipping both north and south, the way Best Buy Electronics in Dinuba does. “Dinuba is their western US distribution center,” he says.

One reason why an LA based company (like Big 5) decides to site its distribution hub in the Inland Empire is that their corporate office is there and they can manage their nearby distribution center more easily and put up with traffic, Saldana suggests.

But for a national company with facilities north and south, “consolidation is our best opportunity” to gain the jobs since the company saves big time with one main facility here instead of two more expensive one. Saldana says he expects a steady stream of such consolidations to Tulare County in coming years companies in smaller 50,000 to 150,000 square foot size.

One great advantage for us from both food companies and general merchandise distributors who serve the California market is that it appears less likely they will one day just fold their tent the way many large employers in the central valley have in the past few decades and just go away.

The Allen Group has built more than 700,000 square feet of industrial space at the Visalia industrial park and has several hundred acres available for industrial warehouse users at their Midstate 99 park - a location that offers the opportunity to reach a population of 35 million that’s in a 300 mile overnight shipping radius.

Major retailers have found that the central valley is the right place for regional distribution of their goods including Sears in Delano, Best Buy in Dinuba, The Gap in Fresno, Walmart in Porterville and JoAnn Stores in Visalia.

Stockton’s Plan

If the LA port facilities, along with Oakland in the Bay Area, are clogged, smaller competitors like Stockton are looking to expand their own port facilities to provide an alternative for big ships likely to come into California. That community is seeking to dredge a deeper waterway to accommodate more ship traffic that will connect to the Highway 99-Union Pacific, BNSF and the I-5 corridor. Plans are underway to triple the size of the port that could bring in an additional 130 ships a year. Of course that would draw more truck traffic and all the pollution that goes along with both. Cleaner fuels could spell the difference.

Demand for central valley warehouse space has been shown with the purchase of the old Pirelli tire plant in Hanford now offering over 1 million square feet of space for companies looking for a warehouse away from the gridlock and high cost of an urban area. Not surprisingly this project is winning interest from companies looking to expand based in both LA and the Bay Area as a central point in the state to supply both regions. One company is expected to announce it will open next month in the renovated facility.

The Visalia industrial park has added over 1 million square feet of new industrial space in the past few years, not mainly from food companies, but from firms looking to take advantage of overnight shipping options to both the LA and Bay Area metro regions. Companies distributing a variety of goods from car parts to tuxedos, packaging to computers that fill block after block of tilt up concrete buildings just a mile off Highway 99.

Reaching all of California from Visalia has been the marketing mantra of UPS to attract business to its Visalia hub in the industrial park and has attracted several other competitors to do the same.

A new truck terminal for Knight Transportation will add 100 new jobs for Tulare next year when the terminal is up and running along Highway 99 across from the Farm Show.

Tulare got some good news in recent weeks when a Paso Robles operation announced an expansion to Tulare to make medical devices because the company was having trouble finding people on the central coast to apply for jobs. The increasing cost of living for companies looking to maintain a steady workforce is getting harder in the coastal are as fewer people can afford homes. Again this has become a reason why companies might look at relocation of their facilities to the state’s heartland - one of the few spots you can still buy a new 3 bedroom home for $150,000.

The Allen Group makes a case for our “strategic location” to ship both to northern and southern California markets since all the major highways and rails come together in the southern part of the valley just a few hours away from each major metro region.

If congestion isn’t a good enough reason for relocation - the central valley land cost advantage is convincing here at $1 a square foot compared to $4 a square foot in the Inland Empire and $8 a square foot in LA.

Empty Trucks

One factor cited by the Allen Group as a major reason why the Mid State 99 industrial park is cheaper to ship from than compared to other areas like Ontario or Reno is that there is an imbalance of freight shipped on trucks hauling international freight here from the LA ports, but running empty back to LA. Assuming less than truckfull (LTL) shipping within California, Visalia enjoys a freight advantage over our competitors and shippers here can get a discount shipping into the southland.

Statewide planning to move goods is studying ways to deliver more goods - by rail like Alameda corridor out of the LA port to connect with Union Pacific rail hub near downtown LA. Moving freight by rail has been the plan for the Cross Valley rail corridor recently completed that connects the main UP rail line to the westside of the valley. Plans to put in a High Speed Rail through the valley - with rail stops in the Visalia area - could include shipping of light freight up and down California. A more aggressive plan could have high speed freight trains running on the same line at night if the grades over the mountains are suitable to handle the heavier loads. That wold take the pressure off our highways and air quality problems that these inevitable warehouse relocations bring. In fact, the relocation of dairies from the LA area has forced improved management practices and technology applications that are making the relocated dairies more environmentally friendly and more productive. Of course in part due to regulatory pressure and the public’s demand for cleaner air.

Relocation of industries from the LA area will typically involve application of new technology and practices that will cut their impacts on our own airshed if we demand that.

The upcoming overhaul of county general plan will look at increasing at the Highway 99 industrial corridor with new zoning and infrastructure planned and in place to handle both food and distribution companies who need locations along what we hope is a 6 lane Highway 99 with high speed rail right next door. Putting the two side by side will create a synergy that can’t be matched with the two not together. If you want to have cleaner industries in the future, site them along rail corridors where as technology improves, they can ship more quality and more cleanly. Just one reason why we need a rail stop on the high speed rail line in Tulare County. The city of Visalia thinks that location could be Caldwell and 99. The county already has gained funds to tie 99 to the Visalia industrial park by Betty Drive in Goshen that will mean less congestion and pollution on our own byways. Goshen, like much of the 99 corridor, will be a supply depot and transfer station for much of the goods heading in and out of the big metro areas north and south.

Our economy is based on trade and the government’s job is to ensure the goods move without fouling this big bathtub we all live in.

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Visalia - A giant “Sports World” gym at a former olive plant on Tulare Ave. in Visalia may seem improbable, but stranger things have happened.

The plan was hatched some months ago by Visalia developer Johnny George in a sprawling complex that is planned to be 300,000 square feet - the size of almost three Visalia Costco buildings.

George says the building “will be laid out like a mall” with different venues - soccer, baseball clinics, rock climbing, laser tag - in different parts of the building connected by a corridor. “It will even have a food court just like at the Visalia Mall,” says George who claims to have multiple tenant interest for all space in the building.

The gym will have security, open 6 a.m. to midnight daily, and even have daycare available.

Space for each venue would be leased out. The ambitious project now includes plans for a swimming pool and scuba diving lessons to add to paint ball, go-ped racing, volleyball, batting cages and a teen night club.

George says he and architect Rick Mangini have had several meetings with the city and plan a formal site plan review in coming weeks. Next month he expects to file for a city conditional use permit requiring a public hearing. Mangini is already doing the working drawings for the project says George. George expects to be through the public hearing process by November and could open the doors to the gym by fall 2005.

Visalia architect Rick Mangini says meetings with the city so far “have been positive” and that they appreciate the project could benefit a part of town that needs upgrading.

Mangini says they hope to park cars on all four sides of the big building and tie into the planned city pathway along Santa Fe that will allow kids to come to the new center on a bike or walking trail.

This week George made a deal with an Exeter couple who are buying the former Early California Foods office - a stately two story home on the corner of Tulare and Garden along with a back building that they will relocate to Exeter and restore.

The relocation allows George to add parking at the west end of the old olive plant after the lot is cleared. He also plans parking on the eastside of the building along Santa Fe.

While the building is just 240,000 square feet, George has now designed 60,000 of upstairs space some of which will be used for dining looking down on the action below, says George.

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Three Rivers - After a bumpy period in 2002, St. Anthony Retreat Center has a new lease on life - literally. The Diocese of Fresno has lease-optioned the facility from the center’s owner, the Franciscans of Santa Barbara, who announced they would leave the center they built with their own hands in the early 60s.

The Fresno Diocese’s Bishop John Steinbock intends to exercise its purchase option upon the lease’s expiration in five years. If the $2.5 million purchase is completed, lease funds will be applied toward the purchase price. The lease cost was covered by a donation.

If the Fresno Diocese’s plans gel, proposed new facilities for St. Anthony’s could include a youth camp, lodge, dormitory, conference center, and possibly an amphitheater, along with renovations to the existing structures, many of which are 40 years old. Additional property from the adjacent Craig Ranch may be acquired in order to expand.

In order to consummate the deal, a $28 million capital campaign is underway. The fundraising endeavor is entitled “Our Faith, Our Family, Our Future.”

Potential difficulties may include the ongoing post-9-11 national decline in charitable giving. Moreover, the church’s legal difficulties and resulting diminished coffers due to sexual abuse by priests have hampered the church’s fundraising ability around the U.S. In July, Portland, Oregon’s Catholic Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection on the heels of numerous lawsuits stemming from cases of sexual abuse.

Prior to formal launch in 2005, the campaign initial phase is a pilot program which is being tested in wealthier parishes to identify early influential lead donors. So far, the pilot program has yielded 14% of the Diocese’s goal. Parishioners from the 600,000-member diocese throughout eight counties have promised nearly $3 million to an initial $1 million commitment from two contractors who will oversee construction of the center expansion.

The two lead donors remain anonymous, but are described as “philanthropic men of faith and members of the Catholic Church, according to Father John Griesbach.

Fr. Griesbach was appointed by the Fresno Diocese to run St. Anthony’s last December. However, he already knew the place well, saying, “I used to come to Three Rivers from Tulare [his hometown] with my father to go fishing. I remember bringing the fish up to share with the brothers, while they were building the facility. The retreat was built in the early 60s, with final construction on the chapel being completed in 1970.

About potential changes in the center’s mission, Fr. Griesbach said that the new operators would “continue the mission of providing a retreat environment that is an appropriate setting in which to develop an interior life. “There are no TVs - the environment here is conducive to spirituality and prayer,” he said.

But if the mission and level of services will remain essentially the same for the near future, why couldn’t the Franciscans continue to operate St. Anthony’s? Several reasons exist, according to Griesbach.

One: The Franciscan order - who originally used Native Californians to build their missions beginning 450 years ago -- are distinguished by their emphasis on vocations such as carpentry and other similar skills. In the modern era, these pursuits are no longer as popular as they once were. “The [Franciscan] lifestyle is out of synch with most people’s ideas for career choice,” said Griesbach.

Two: The current Pope’s restrictions and Vatican II Conference proscriptions in the 60s appear to be deterring potential candidates from seeking the priesthood. Additionally, gay men once entered the priesthood because its requirement of celibacy provided a socially acceptable alternative to marriage. But greater social acceptance toward gays has meant that far fewer are seeking that cover.

So the priesthood’s ranks have dwindled significantly, particularly the Franciscans, thus making it difficult to sustain the very facilities they built - places like St. Anthony’s .

But with a new infusion of cash and new energy from the Fresno Diocese, the retreat may have a bright future, regardless. Following a site assessment of the property, a plan will be drawn by the project architect (selected by the contractors, and whose name is so far undisclosed).

Although planning is still in the “dreaming out loud” stage according to Fr. Griesbach, the five-year plan calls for envisioned Spanish hacienda-style designs that will be compatible with existing structures. Preferred materials will be fire resistant, and long-lasting with the least upkeep.

Those wishing to contribute to the St. Anthony’s Retreat capital campaign can call (559) 561-4595, or Joseph Gillmer with the Fresno Diocese at (559) 488-7400.

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Farm Jobs Remain Bright Spot In Kings, Tulare

Tulare County - California produced only modest gains in new jobs in August gaining just 3100 new jobs, but the state's unemployment rate dipped to 5.8% - a three month low. The contradictory trends present a mixed picture of the state's economy base in part on who you ask. The jobless rate is based on a state survey of households as opposed to employers that don't figure in people who have left the job market but adds in people who are self employed like a family run business. The state unemployment rate typically falls this time of year in part because students go back to school.

In Tulare and Kings counties the unemployment rate fell as well, in Tulare to 12.6% compared to 13.2% in August 2003. In Kings County the rate fell to 10.5% compared to 11.4% a year ago.

But overall the EDD reported that payroll employment failed to keep up growth in the civil labor force. In Tulare County the civil labor force over the past year increased 2.3% while the total non farm and farm jobs in the county increased by just 1.8% year to year. In Kings County the labor force - those working or looking for work - increased 2.4% while total jobs increased just 2.3%.

The bright spot for both counties in the report are new farm jobs in Tulare County up 7.4% compared to last year and 4.3% in Kings County compared to August 2003.

August is a peak harvest time for a number of area crops anyway, but the increase year to year shows area farmers have planted more crop land and hired more workers.

Meanwhile, non farm jobs in Tulare County actually fell year to date by about 200 even though there are 4000 new people in the county's workforce. In Tulare County farm jobs were up 2700 from last year.

While leaders celebrate the improved farm job picture, they can't be happy with the lack of new jobs in the non farm area since many farm jobs are seasonal.

However, farm related jobs in food manufacturing saw growth of 5.5% in Kings.

The prestigious UCLA Anderson Forecast this week suggested economic growth in California was tepid countering Alan Greenspan's recent testimony that the economy had "gained some traction."

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Fresno mayor Alan Autry and Orange Cove mayor Victor Lopez will raise the noise level this week about the potential loss of federal canal water after a US judge suggested Friant Dam was illegal. Both communities get water from the big Friant system. Friant Water Users officials traveled to Washington this past week to discuss how they could comply with a possible order to release water down the San Joaquin River although they are appealing the judge's decision. Congressman Nunes' office and local farm officials will be there setting the stage for a big water round table in the central valley, says Congressman Nunes' office. The summit would take up water issues in this the 6th year of a drought in the central valley.

Unhappy with the schedule United Airlines (Sky West) forces Visalia passengers to fly to Fresno at your choice of 1 p.m. or 3 p.m. to connect with other flights - the City of Visalia may be looking for an airline that will be able to generate some interest for the Visalia area passengers. The flights typically take off with 3 or 4 passengers on a 30 seat plane, says airport manager Mario Cifuentes. The airport received notice of an extra $200,000 in funds Visalia can use for marketing or subsidizing flights, perhaps by some other airline. Visalia is an "essential air service" community so the flights are subsidized. But flying to Fresno and on to L.A. isn't exactly what most Visalians have in mind. A number of big airlines, including United, face continued financial problems. Visalia's package express business and private and corporate air business continues to expand with 162 planes based there.

The Visalia Chamber board will meet this week and hear a report from a committee led by President Bruce Nicotero on alternative locations for their planned new Chamber building. Until a few months ago the Chamber appeared to be committed to a Stevenson and Mineral King location. But after a pitch by city manager Steve Salomon offering a location on Santa Fe, the Chamber took another look. This week the board may decide between the two. The city has suggested the Chamber could buy a parcel along the Oak St. alignment east of Santa Fe now in escrow to be purchased by the city. The Garden and Stevenson parcel is also owned by the city. The Chamber has designed a building to be constructed by developer Harvey May that could fit on either parcel. Salomon has suggested one advantage of a Santa Fe and Oak location is the likelihood the National Park Service will have some sort of visitor center there in the future with a planned shuttle service to Sequoia. The Chamber plans a fund raiser later this month for the building that already has some 50% in promised donations or money in the bank to be devoted to the project.

The City of Avenal thinks there may be money in other people's trash. Madera Disposal - owned by Waste Connection - wants to bring as much as 6000 tons of trash per day to the Avenal landfill, currently permitted for just 475 tons a day, says city manager Melissa Whitten. Trash from other counties would be trucked into Avenal offering more jobs for residents and a rental fee that will go into the city's general fund. Avenal has been hard hit by fires in their business district. But Ms. Whitten says things are picking up in this westside community with its own housing boom to talk about. "People are discovering you can still get a new 3 bedroom home for $110,000." The town could also be a likely place to distribute good because of its central location right on I-5. In addition a new truck stop - Hillcrest Travel Plaza - at the corner of I-5 and the Avenal cutoff with some assistance from the nearby city, she says.

September 18 has been set aside as waterway cleanup day in Kings County with volunteers fanning out to clean canals, natural creeks and the Kings River itself, removing litter and other dumped items - especially tires from the waterways.

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How did Tulare County manage to avoid a massive budget hit this fiscal year? Like anyone with a problem like this they borrowed some money. The county is facing a $3.8 million hit not just this year but next year because of state takeaways. However Tulare County has tapped a state solid waste reserve fund set aside to pay for future closures of landfills to the tune of $5.6 million promising to pay it back when the state reimburses the county down the road as Schwarzenegger promised. The governor even cited Tulare County's creativity in tapping the fund in a speech. If Tulare County hadn't borrowed the money there would be a much bigger short fall in the county's budget than the $1.8 million to be borne by the county's fire department. The short fall would result in the layoff of 24 firemen around the county and dependence on volunteers to fight some fires. Maybe it's time for a tax suggests retiring supervisor Bill Sanders.

What's happening to the WW2 mural controversy? A change in the design of the mural will be brought back to city council October 8th. Meanwhile the Visalia Veteran Day Committee who is planning the mural toured spots at Mooney's Grove as an alternative location to erect the mural with Supervisor Lali Moheno getting county department heads who came on the tour to try to speed approval if that's where it is decided to be. The committee was looking at the Buckman-Mitchell building in Downtown. But that building is likely to undergo some major changes when a 4 story medical building goes on top of it. "It's still our top choice," says a member of the Veterans' Committee.

It's taking an "act of congress" for Tipton's Mozzarella Fresca to buy a strip of land next to their cheese making plant from the Union Pacific Railroad. This week Congressman Devin Nunes testified to the need for a private bill since the railroads got the land granted by congress last century. In order to borrow money for the project the title on the land had to be cleared by the US government says spokesperson for Devin Nunes' office. But now, mission accomplished as they will be able to acquire a 20ft strip rom the railroad.

Look for the CalFed bill to pass the Senate in the next few days likely without Devin Nunes' "pre-authorization" language in place. We would first hope to insert that language in conference" says Nunes' press spokesman Justin Stoner. The language would insure if the court studies on upper San Joaquin river storage finds the project feasible that the new dam would automatically be built instead of going through another round of congressional approvals.

What's happening to the Ag Jobs bill in Congress? It's an election year and Bush isn't wanting controversy on his desk before the election. But supporters of the bill (both farmers and labor activists) that would both legalize immigrant farm workers who have been working here and allow farmers to bring more "guest workers" think the measure will pass the Senate in coming weeks but waiting until after the election to bring the matter to the House allowing Bush to sign the bill right after the heat of the election. Kerry favors the bill but Bush faces opposition on the right.

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By Aaron Collins

Visalia - Call it the plague of Locust.

Downtown street resurfacing on Court and Locust has given adjacent retailers enough slumping sales charts to wallpaper their stores. Goodness knows they may have the time on their hands now, what with empty stores nearly devoid of retail lifeblood: Foot traffic.

Customers have been staying away in droves since dirty, smelly resurfacing began in April on the two major north and south thoroughfares through downtown.

Brutal.....this is brutal, said Vicki Whitehouse, owner of Fringe Benefits, a women fashion retailer adjacent to the road work. Whitehouse says revenues are down by 50% since construction began.

"We just had the worst Saturday we we've ever had, and Saturdays are our good days, Whitehouse says.

That doesn't bode well for any new business, let alone Fringe Benefits which Whitehouse opened little more than a year ago. But even long-established local businesses are said to be similarly impacted alongside the road mess, like retail veteran Brown Shoe Fit Co.

Corporate behemoths are not exempt from the mayhem, either. Assistant Manager Brandon Trujillo of the downtown Starbucks says that sales are most definitely down. (Apparently, customers are loathe to snort tarry grime along with a pricey daily caffeine fix.) His store even endured power shut-offs, which forced early closure on some business days.

But when business tanks -- and it has -- retailers like Whitehouse obviously don have the fatty layers of protection of a Starbucks. With corporate pockets as deep as the road to Seattle is long, Starbucks shareholders won see a blip.

Even so, the dust and din continues to drive customers from the outdoor sidewalk perch under the green goddess at Main and Court. Sidewalk tables are a far cry from a scene once full of patrons throughout the day and into the evening. In fact, if you were to sit there now, you wouldn't hear a far cry (or your coffee companion for that matter) due to all the noise from jackhammers, road resurfacers, and yelling construction workers.

Equally regrettable: Retailers have no recourse for the lost revenues. The state doesn't make amends when California Department of Transportation projects result in financial loss to those nearby.

Nonetheless, downtown retailers are not taking those anemic sales figures lying down. Many like Link Menswear are planning or already running major sales, offering significant price cuts in order to attract reluctant customers who were already weary of perceived downtown parking hassles before construction began.

Therein lies much of the problem, according to some in the downtown business community: The dust, smell and traffic snarls are one thing. But shoppers would rather drive around a mall parking lot for several minutes than muster the patience to walk for one minute down a city block to avoid any of the above nuisances.

Curiously, a gameplan for beefing up lackluster sales from all the exterior unpleasantness is a sidewalk sale. This Friday and Saturday, shoppers may be lured by what retailers describe as substantial markdowns.

Fortunately, the news downtown isn't all bad. The farther from ground zero on Court and Locust, the better.

But even close-by, Fugazzi server Gabriel Diaz says that business at this popular downtown eatery has withstood much of the mayhem. Despite its proximity to the orange cone zone, business has help up.

However, Diaz admits that some customers have remarked about parking annoyances, some complaining that the tar smell from outside was impacting their enjoyment of the fine food and atmosphere. Most Fugazzi devotees decide to "bear down and take it," says Diaz.

Unfortunately, the project isn't letting up anytime soon. Despite an optimistic report in the local daily that the end is near, shop owners are being told that the project could linger into November when Christmas sales should already be racking up.

Although paving occurred over the weekend on Court - once again restricting traffic flow - there is still more to be done. Trenching for conduits and sensors, striping and marking all must be completed before that street returns to normal. Additionally, once Granite Construction is finished with the state hand in the project, the City of Visalia is responsible for perfecting the connection where the state project ends and the City street begins.

Like the Queen of England said about 1992 after Windsor Castle burned, 2004 "will not be a year upon which [downtown retailers] will look back with unmitigated glee." Rather than wallpapering with deficits, may 2005 find these weary business owners rolling cigars with hundred-dollar bills.

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