Collins Vows New Run For City Council
Visalia - Thirty years after he was first elected to the Visalia city council as a long haired college grad, former mayor of Visalia Greg Collins says he is now ready to return to city government. “I’m throwing my hat back in the ring,” says the 55 year old planning consultant, ready to run for a seat.
Collins served as mayor from 1987 through 1991 but was originally elected as a council member in 1975 when he was just 25 - fresh out of UC Santa Barbara where he received a BS in biology.
Collins would run in an already crowded field of candidates this round that includes three incumbents for the three seats up on the council.
Collins is announcing his candidacy just days before the close of the filing period August 12. The three top vote getters in the November 2 race will get a seat for the next four years.
Collins shares land use planning views with long time council member Jesus Gamboa who is running again and the city’s “green” council member Greg Kirkpatrick. Together the three could create a green majority that may slow the pace of growth plans in the city particularly outside the city’s current boundaries. This new green majority would change a 3 to 2 vote on a number of critical issues like the auto mall vote in recent years.
Arguably a prime mover with the city’s original 2020 plan emphasis on “concentric growth” Collins has a strong following in old time Visalia in part because he is a Visalia native who went to Mt. Whitney and COS later, a sports coach who grew up in town and through the years has organized an informal but strong political machine. One of Collins big supporters is Mr. Oaktree himself, Alan George who says he plans to work on managing Collins campaign - for him it will be the 5th election for Collins that he has served as campaign chair for.
Collins says he has been thinking about running for more than a year but only recently broached the subject with his wife Dorothy and family in recent weeks. “She is supportive,” says Collins of Dorothy who teaches school at Golden West.
Collins decided not to seek election in 1991 after the completion of the 2020 growth plan for the city, still in place today. But controversy over the Radisson Hotel and the city involvement dogged him and other council members at the time and may have had a hand in his decision not to run for another term. “It was a good idea to step down,” says Collins noting that his own family was just starting out.
Since then Collins says he has been mostly standing on the sideline concerned about Visalia’s growth other than the major grass roots effort in the past few years to fight the auto mall out on Plaza Dr.
In that effort he gathered over 5000 signatures to petition the council for a community vote on the issue only to have the city rule the petition was untimely.
Now that list will be handy as he gears up to win a seat on council where 5000 votes is a good base of support.
As to the auto mall issue still pending in the court of appeal, Collins says he gave it his best shot. “I don’t lose any sleep over how this issue is decided,” says the former mayor.
Regarding how he would look at the city planning process if he wins office, Collins says he would argue the city needs to move “in a new direction” perhaps more the “Portland model of growth rather than the Bakersfield or Fresno model” that seems to emphasize sprawl onto more and more farmland.
Collins says he looks forward to working on the growth of Downtown and Civic Center into the stockyard area on its eastern edge - an idea that Collins pushed for 20 plus years ago.
Not that everyone will jump on the Collins bandwagon. Many argue Collins represents a school of thought that calls for too many restrictions on free enterprise and a “slow growth” approach that could hurt business in this city.
Because of that, some more “pro-growth” council candidates could surface in the next few days as the city decides its future direction.
Masterplan For West 198 Corridor In Works
Visalia - The Visalia city council surprised everyone in the room July 25 in denying an 80 acre general plan amendment (proposed by Margaret Elliott) on the city’s western edge in a 4 to 1 vote. The proposal called for annexation of farmland along Shirk south of 198 to build a 232 home subdivision.
Council member Don Landers - the only yes vote to allow the project to move forward - expressed surprise that council had earlier backed moving the general plan amendment forward rather than await a complete masterplan of the 2000 acre area on both sides of West 198 that includes Visalia scenic corridor.
“This is contrary to what we told the applicant back in 2004,” Landers exclaimed.
But there appeared to be a new tune at the city council on the long stalled masterplan for the West Visalia area.
Rather than accept developer projects piecemeal, the council majority appears to be fired up to finally tackle the entire area. For Visalia this issue has been bubbling for at least 20 years with the pot boiling over sometimes like the 3 to 2 vote to allow auto mall on 198 a few years ago - an issue that is still not settled.
The Elliott annexation discussion comes with a political backdrop of a pending city council election for three seats only a few months away and the rapid growth of the city an issue that may be front and center in the race. A new majority on the council appears to support a masterplan approach that addresses infrastructure and land use not dissimilar to what is going on in the city’s southeast quadrant now.
Mayor Bob Link says as soon as their August 15 meeting, the council will likely adopt setback on both sides of 198 - a conservation/landscaped strip that will be owned by the city both east and west of Shirk. Finalizing this issue will set in motion the rest of the plan, says Link. “We’ve got to get that done first.”
A task force is recommending the city adopt at least a 200 ft setback on three of the four quadrants and on the northwest quadrant the task force is proposing the city acquire all the 30 plus acres between Mill Creek and the highway as conservation/green area as you travel west of Shirk along 198. The council is expected to go along with the recommendations.
At their August 15 meeting mayor Link says council will also likely discuss appointment of a new corridor task force to recommend land uses on the acreage behind the setbacks and the hiring of a consultant to forge a masterplan in an area as far north as Goshen Ave. and as far south as Caldwell.
The future of entryway off 99 into town has been the subject of debate since the mid 1980s when the city council led by Greg Collins pushed for the west Visalia Specific Plan that called for much of the land to remain in agriculture - large blocks of it in the county, not in the city.
Link said he saw the vote against the Elliott annexation as more a postponement of the project rather than an outright rejection joining other council members to say he liked the design of the Centex proposed neighborhood.
Just what effect this decision will have on a recent decision to allow a general plan amendment being proposed by Sierra Village is not clear but appears that project just east of this Elliott plan might be expected to be folded into a masterplan rather than proceed piecemeal as well.
The commission of a masterplan for the area has been delayed for years in part because since the land was in the county and zoned for farming, it did not require a big plan to “preserve” it. But as the state improved West 198 and a major overpass at Shirk was constructed coupled with a home building boom in town - Visalia has changed. Council member Greg Kirkpatrick who rode into office vowing to “save our corridor” says development pressures are powerful now from landowners and developers and a masterplan now may be the best way to plan for this area.
Council heard testimony about the growing traffic on Shirk Ave and danger landowners face from both big trucks and busy commuters on their way to town or the industrial park. In the case of the proposed subdivision along Shirk between Tulare and Walnut the applicant had agreed to widen the road in that area and connect other streets that should actually improve the situation, argued Mike Knopf a consultant for the project.
But that wouldn’t fix the problem up and down the entire stretch of Shirk - a narrow county two land road. Kirkpatrick notes that a recent city prioritizing of road projects for capital expenditure in coming years left Shirk off the list because of pressing needs in the other parts of the city.
“If we put more money into Shirk we will have to take it away from other parts of town,” noted council member Jesus Gamboa opposing the Elliott application.
In the world of 3 to 2 votes on a number of growth issues in the city, it was newly appointed council member Walter Diessler’s comments that were closely watched. Diessler has announced he is a candidate for city council.
Diessler sided with Kirkpatrick and Gamboa suggesting while it may be a matter of time before these lands are developed, that time had not yet arrived and agreeing all mitigation efforts to meet CEQA requirements had not been addressed.
Council member Kirkpatrick led the charge to get the city council to force developers who pave over ag land upon annexation to pay into an ag land mitigation pool of funds to buy easements elsewhere in order to save farmland.
Staff noted the idea had been kicked around but that it would require the city to work with other jurisdictions and the county.
Consultant Mike Knopf made the case to the city council that development in Visalia was moving westward to the Shirk alignment in most parts of the city leaving what might be seen as and island for farmland on both sides of 198 pointing to the inevitability of development.
Just what land uses will be suggested by a new task force isn’t clear. A community survey found strong support to retain ag and big oaks along the corridor. But when it came time to dig into their pocket to buy up land, the majority of those surveyed didn’t appear to want to dig too deeply. But the city uses fees generated by new growth, setback dedications and other exactions that don’t hit the taxpayer directly to fund projects like this over a long period of time.
Those surveyed didn’t have strong support for housing projects in the West 198 area as a preferred land use even though this is what developers have been pushing so far. Instead a new task force may want to masterplan the area with a nod toward open space, clustered development that is highly landscaped and even ag related office and tourist based uses like siting a Casa de Fruita type development, some suggest.
How long will a masterplan process take? Planners say as little as a year and as long as two years.
The Soda Scare
How will future standards affect Visalia schools?
by Richard Mavis
Visalia - Much of the worry about Visalia schools losing money when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plans for banning soda sales in schools take hold—may be mostly unfounded. As it turns out, Visalia Unified and Pepsi have had a healthy, mutually beneficial relationship for some time, and plan on continuing it in the future, say officials.
Leeann Errotabere, director of purchasing for Visalia Unified, says that she has heard nothing from Pepsi concerning a cut in funding. Already, the district purchases about 60% noncarbonated drinks, to 40% carbonated. And even though there are noncarbonated Pepsi brands that wouldn't meet the Governor's new standards such as its Tropicana juices, Propel, and Aquafina Splash--Splash, Pepsi Cola Company has plans for adapting to new standards and maintaining its presence in local schools.
Robert Buerger, Pepsi representative for the Central Valley, says that by the time the laws are in effect, Pepsi should be ready for the transition. A new Sobe line, which is 50% juice and comes in a can, is already in school vending machines. And there are other projects in the works as well, Buerger says, but because nothing is official yet, he is unable to detail them.
The Valley is one of the test markets for the new Sobes.
“We have a very good partnership with Pepsi,” says Drew Sorensen, principal of El Diamante high school. “Our sales have been very good.”
Sorensen says that the transition won't go without a few kinks, but he isn't bracing for disaster. “Sure we would have a bit of a shock if we were to eliminate them entirely” he says. “But I see an growing number of students taking Gatorade as a lunch drink anyway, in the same way as they would a Pepsi.”
He points out that water, Gatorade, and the new Sobes are their highest-selling noncarbonated drinks.
One point that opponents of the new standards advance is that many high school students go to lunch off-campus anyway. The standards would only further drive down sales and funding for school programs and won't keep students from drinking sodas some say.
“Students will continue to go off campus for lunch,” says Sorensen. “We can't stop that. But students that don't already go probably wouldn't start going just for a Pepsi. They go for their lunch. They wouldn't go just to get a soda.”
More likely, he says, students will find their favorites from the drinks offered, and choose from those. That's how it works anyway. But removing sodas won't necessarily remove Pepsi's presence.
“The students are intelligent, they read the newspaper, they know what's going on,” he says. “I appreciate what Pepsi has done, and I think if we continue to offer alternatives, the transition could go smoothly.
Ethanol In California Still Needs Boost From State
Tulare County - As you have probably heard, Congress has passed a new Energy Bill late last week that sets a national renewable fuel standard requiring oil refiners virtually double their use of ethanol in the nation’s fuel supply in coming years. While the news is considered very bullish for ethanol production nationwide, the structure of the legislation is not so clear cut for California’s small but growing ethanol industry headquartered here in the central valley.
To put it short and sweet - Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger has to decide what’s best for the Golden State.
With the start up a national fuel standard, California will no longer need to blend gasoline with ethanol to meet a 1977 EPA mandated oxygenate requirement. It will be left to refiners to blend ethanol with gasoline on a national level but the power to choose just what fuels are sold here falls to the state of California, says Tom Koehler with Pacific Ethanol based in Fresno. The company is working to build two new ethanol plants in Madera and Visalia.
The passage “sets a national policy to grow renewable fuels,” says Koehler and now it’s “up to the state to grab this opportunity to bring in new jobs, ease gas prices, expand fuel supplies and continue to reduce CO2 emissions.”
To Koehler the benefits of producing ethanol in California are clear, but he says if you leave the matter up to oil refiners they make more profit by using oil based gasoline than corn based ethanol. Rather it’s the smaller blender like independent oil marketers who will pass on the savings from ethanol to the consumers. With a lower price and subsidy added in, ethanol is 70 cents lower a gallon than gasoline. That translates into at least a 5 cent savings per gallon at the pump to consumers he figures - if the blender passes it on.
But others feel ethanol is overrated. Senator Dianne Feinstein has been a big critic of the industry for several years at first arguing all the money was going to the Midwest even though a new upstart industry was growing in her own state.
She also claims that the fuel has cost California an extra 4 to 8 cents per gallon. She maintains that ethanol can harm summer air and pushed an amendment in the new Energy Bill that says California does not need to blend ethanol in summer months.
The passage of that language “is definitely not good news,” says Goshen ethanol plant developer Rick Eastman who worries that production at his plant just starting this fall might have to go out of state some months of the year.
But Koehler says Feinstein’s amendment will have no effect on California because it takes effect only in unusual circumstances and as a practical matter the state has the choice of how to deal with its own fuel standard.
Members of the Air Resource Board will put forward a new fuel standard expected by the end of this year, he says. Some in that agency have been critical in the past of ethanol, but Koehler says he is “optimistic” the state agency - with the strong support of Governor Schwarzenegger - will back ethanol use as it seeks to reduce the use of petroleum in California’s gas tanks.
A big issue for the state is how to reduce greenhouse emissions that Schwarzenegger agrees are contributing to global warming. The prime problem here is CO2 emissions. Koehler says the use of the current blend of ethanol in California gas tanks means 3.5 million tons of CO2 is not added to the state’s skies if our fuel was all petroleum based as it was a few years ago when MBTB - an oil based oxygenate was added. It was banned after it polluted groundwater and was found to be a “probable carcinogen.” Koehler says he believes the ARB will allow the flexibility to mix up to 10% ethanol with gasoline in the state when they do their new standard - a percentage used all over the nation except here where it is 5.7% ethanol blend.
A major argument made by the small state ethanol industry is that home grown fuels will help rural economies like Tulare County and Kings County where four such plants are on the drawing board. In addition there is the homeland security issue that would reduce dependence on imported oil. Ethanol also extends the supply of motor fuel when any little blip in refinery capacity in the US tend to make gas pump prices go up.
An unsaid angle to this debate is that the rapid expansion of the ethanol industry has brought an element of competition to the fuel industry dominated by big oil companies. Ethanol on the other hand had some political clout of its own as seen in this Energy Bill because small ethanol producers are now scattered across the nation and found in every state in the Midwest.
On the environmental side, some critics of corn based ethanol argue that the widespread use of corn to make the fuel is causing water pollution from the fertilizer and pesticide runoff.
The California industry wants to grow more of the corn in California where there is not such a runoff problem and indeed want to jump start a cellulose based ethanol industry that uses waste material to make fuel - a plan expected to be implemented at the new Visalia ethanol plant.
Pixley/Hanford Ethanol Plants Moving Forward
Co-gen In Works At Pixley Site
Pixley/Hanford - With the backdrop of passage of a new Energy Bill that just about doubles current use of ethanol in US gas tanks, a local company, Calgren Renewable Fuels, has completed the purchase of their 60 acre plant site at Highway 99 and Ave. 120 in mid July adjacent JD Heiskell’s feed mill.
“The Central Valley of California is ideal for locating an ethanol plant,” says Calgren principal founder, Matt Schmitt. “California refiners and marketers import most of their ethanol requirements from Midwest plants, and California dairy feed companies import protein rich distillers grains from Midwest ethanol plants. We aren’t inventing anything new here, there is a large ready market for both ethanol and distillers grains in California.”
Schmitt says the company will break ground on the fully permitted plant site next month and could be producing ethanol by the end of 2006. The plant has the capacity to make 50 million gallons a year.
Schmitt says the company has renewed an option on 60 acres in the Hanford industrial park next to the IGM feed mill and will shortly file a plan with the City of Hanford to do a full EIR on a similar sized plant there. He says construction of that facility could be as little as two years away.
Both the Pixley and Hanford plants are considered $80 million projects each.
The ethanol industry was given a big boost last week with completion of the Energy Bill that calls for use of 7.5 billion gallons a year by 2012 across the US with adoption of a renewable fuel standard for every state. “That means the US will need at least 75 more ethanol plants nationwide the size of what we are building in Pixley,” says Schmitt. The outlook for California however, is more uncertain (see other story).
The cost to blend ethanol is far cheaper than gasoline prompting an incentive to fuel marketers to blend ethanol at highest-level possible. With oil this week spiking above $60 a barrel, the economics of offering ethanol as an oxygenate to help clean the air look even better.
In addition, Calgren and JD Heiskell have agreed to build a new cogen plant fueled by natural gas that will provide electricity to both the JD Heiskell feed mill and the new ethanol plant, says Schmitt. The added power won’t tax the existing grid or power supply in the area. Next door California Dairies expansion includes a new cogen as well that provides both heat and power. In Hanford Schmitt says they are considering a biomass powered facility to generate electricity for the ethanol plant.
Investors in Calgren suggest the time is right for ethanol. “California has made tremendous progress in reducing its foreign dependence on petroleum fuels by increasing ethanol use from less than 1% of the States gasoline supply to over 5% in just a couple of years,” says recent Calgren investor Larry Gross of Malibu Capital Partners LLC. “We would like to see this trend continue and are pleased at the opportunity to help make it happen,” says Gross.
California refiners and independent marketers are currently contemplating increasing ethanol blends. “The economics for blending higher levels of ethanol are very favorable and we would like to see it happen,” says Walt Dwelle, managing partner of Nella Oil Company who is a strategic partner in the Calgren development. “We’ve been using ethanol in our California fuel businesses since the early 80s and are strong supporters of its benefits. We are looking forward to the day customers can pull into one of our stations and fill up on an 85% ethanol blend, E85 that is commonplace in the Midwest. Its both less expensive than gasoline and significantly cuts vehicle emissions,” says Dwelle.
The California Air Resource Board is currently reviewing certification of E85 storage and pumping equipment. With close to 250,000 flexi-fuel vehicles that can run on gasoline or E85 in the state, there is a great opportunity for California to further increase its use of biofuels and reduce its dependency on foreign sources of petroleum.
The plant will produce over 50 million gallons per year of ethanol and over 400,000 tons of Distillers Grains, a high protein dairy feed. California being the largest consumer of ethanol can also be a large producer of the renewable fuel and provide a much welcome economic boost to rural California. California’s first large scale ethanol plant in Goshen, about 25 miles north of Calgren’s Pixley location, is only a couple of months away from completion.
Ethanol is essentially “corn vodka” and can be readily mixed up to 10% in every car, providing higher octane and stretching perpetually short California gasoline supplies. California refiners and fuel marketers currently blend 5.7% ethanol into their fuel, creating almost a billion gallon per year demand.
California has the highest gasoline prices in the country and nowhere is the effect of dependence on foreign sources of petroleum felt greater than in California. Ethanol use in California helps meet recommendations made by the Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board of increasing non petroleum fuel use to 20% by 2020. The recommendations were made under Assembly Bill 2076 (Chapter 936, Statutes of 2000) that required the Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board to develop and submit to the Legislature a strategy to reduce petroleum dependence in California. The statute requires the strategy to include goals for reducing the rate of growth in the demand for petroleum fuels. In addition, the strategy will include recommendations to increase transportation energy efficiency as well as the use of non-petroleum fuels and advanced transportation technologies including alternative fuel vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and high-fuel efficiency vehicles.
Big Stink Over Cow Emissions
San Joaquin Valley - Dairy industry representatives are ready to make a big stink over a proposed dairy emission factor that will force some 250 dairies in the central valley to get dairy permits from the local Air Board. Once they get these permits dairies will be mandated to cut emissions with best available technology.
This week staff at the SJVAPCD announced their estimate that cows produce on average 19.3 lbs. per year of volatile organic compounds (VOC) a year put them ahead of cars and trucks as the major source of smog forming gases in the valley.
The factor is critical in deciding how much to regulate dairies where 2.5 million cows live. Florez bill SB700 requires dairies who emit over 25,000 lbs. of VOCs per year need to obtain permits.
“No single study looked at all types of VOC emissions that come from dairies,” said Dave Crow, Air Pollution Control Officer for the District. He says they used 15 studies to come up with the estimated pollution level each cow gives off.
Staff of the Air District say they want to start right away to work with dairies on “cost effective controls” for the affected dairies.
But the dairy industry instead appears ready to litigate the number considering it “unscientific”.
They cite California studies of VOC that put the levels of these emissions at 6 lbs. per animal or lower and point to the district’s use of a British study that sets a very high emission factor for a component of VOCs volatile fatty acids or VFA. Fresno State air specialist Dr. Charles Krauter said 75% of the factor’s value was based on the British lab study as opposed to science carried out on California farms. Meanwhile field studies looking for VFAs on California dairies found a barely detectable amount, he says.
Critics say the district relied on at least half the factor’s value based on what the cow burps up as opposed to passes from the rear end from manure or waste, something dairymen figure isn’t a man made problem and therefore should not be regulated.
Now Western United Dairymen will ask the board of the Air District to reconsider their chief officer’s estimate at their August 18 meeting.
The district is under the gun to come up with estimates for this ag sector as they have for all other crops, notes Nisei Farmer League Manuel Cunha. Rather than consider litigation that will just stir up the environmental community Cunha asked the dairy industry to come to some agreement on a compromise number to push the process forward. “You can go back and change the number next year when new science comes in,” suggests Cunha.
Scientists appear split on whether the Air District’s estimate can be supported with Dr. Dave Grant who heads up Kearney Field Station telling the district that the estimate “appears to be based on sound analysis.” Meanwhile UC Davis Livestock Water Management specialist Dr. Deanne Meyer says of the British study the Air District relied on that “applying specific numbers of Mr. Hobbs study to a California condition raises several large red flags.”
The idea that cows are worse than cars when it comes to smog producing gases has prompted plenty of comment around the valley with a number of people suggesting they’d rather be stuck in a garage for a couple of hours with a cow than with an idling car or truck for the same amount of time.
Each side clearly is not about to raise the surrender flag but the Air District is under mandate to come up with a plan of how to keep the EPA mandated air pollution plan for the valley on schedule, notes Cunha.
Poplar Gears Up For More Homes
Poplar - Plans that could triple the population of the southern Tulare County community of Poplar are well under way.
Western Ag Realty, a company specializing in development in rural communities, has plans to build up to 600 homes in the next couple years. More could come soon after.
Kevin Garcia said his company is in the process of buying land for 250 home sites on the northwest sector of the rural unincorporated community and acreage for another 150 homes on the southeastern portion of the community.
Western Ag Realty and its construction company, Pacific Homes Inc., has built or is in the process of developing, a number of projects in the Valley, including Merced, Madera and Wasco and in the desert in Mojave and Barstow. A Richgrove project also is on the board, Garcia said.
He said the Poplar project homes will range in size from l,400 to 2,100 sq. ft. and be priced in the $169,000 to $230,000 range.
The initial two developments cover about 70 acres, he said.
Garcia, a 1981 graduate of Tulare Western High School, said the sewer and water infrastructure in rural areas, like Poplar, makes development attractive to builders.
Mike Clark, president of the Poplar Community Service District and Poplar Redevelopment Board sees the project as a way of not only enhancing the community but also an economic boost.
Garcia says he has been impressed with the community’s “progressive attitude,” calling Poplar one of best areas his company has ever worked with. Clark, who is selling property to the developer, also is president of the Poplar Chamber of Commerce.
With plans for the widening of Highway 190, which goes through Poplar, and funding plans for curbs and gutters under way, Clark says the building of so many new homes should spark business, as well.
Garcia agrees, saying that times are changing, especially in California’s smaller communities. “It used to be that when businesses came to an area, homes came in around them. Now, with rural communities growing like they are, the homes are coming with businesses following them, he said.
What's New
Both Tulare and Kings county assessed valuation of land and improvements show impressive gains according to a recent report from each county. In Tulare County total valuation was up nearly 10% from last year to $20.8 billion up from $18.9 billion the year before. The county valuation has grown from about $14 billion in 2000 about a one third increase over that time. The report shows land values increasing faster with Visalia recording a 13.3% increase in land values and Exeter nearly a 16% increase and Tulare about 13% as well. Outside the cities in Tulare land value increased by a sizable 8.6% the assessor reports. Tulare County grew countywide by 6% last year showing the pace has increased.
In Kings County values surged by $595 million in the latest period to $6.25 billion up from $5.65 billion in the 04/05 period. That's a 10.5% increase up from 6.5% the year before. The assessor Ken Baird said that "many properties subject to the Williamson Act experienced significant gains this year. The increase on Williamson Act properties is primarily due to a lower interest rate, which is required by the State and generally higher crop production and commodity prices used in the calculation of restricted values."
The higher assessments should mean good news for county developments including law enforcement which gets most of the money of the county general fund. The increase in values come as both ag land and city land escalate in value due to demand in real estate activity.
City of Visalia agreed to fund $5000 toward a light rail study to be carried out by TCAG - the association of governments. The city would contribute 12% of the total cost to connect Visalia with Tulare on a light rail route in the future. The study might identify a route and discuss feasibility.
Visalia Teachers Association sent out a letter a few days ago to their membership calling for an August 24 membership meeting that may discuss a possible strike against Visalia Unified. The threat comes as teachers union president Karl Kidlow suggests that "teachers can't afford not to strike" because the district won't budge on health plan increases that teachers are being asked to absorb. The district is offering a 3% salary increase and an 80/20 health plan that will mean teachers have to pay $94 a month. After that VUSD wants to negotiate with teachers over increased health care costs, says board member Mike Lane, although VUTA says the district is not negotiating the increases. Cost for health care at Visalia Unified have gone up in double digits in the past few years averaging about 11% a year. A report is expected to be released about August 12 to be made public 10 days late that gives a mediator's assessment of where the two sides might compromise. If no compromise is forthcoming - Visalia kids could begin the school year at home.
El Diamante will get enough money to build a new swimming pool with funds released where the district sold off excess land on north Mooney Blvd. recently. The pool will be similar in size to Mt. Whitney.
Concern that migratory birds might spread the deadly H5N1 flu virus beyond SE Asia are raised with new finds of dead birds in Siberia. The flu can be passed on to humans and could devastate poultry farms and raise the specter of a pandemic world wide. Since migratory patterns overlap, it could pose a threat to other areas, say scientists. Concern of the potential problem has noted England and other countries to stockpile the only drug known to be effective aging this variety of avian influenza, says federal officials. Tamiflu is used to fight the flu but the government has stockpiled only enough for 2.3 million people. A plan is set to be released this month of how to deal with a pandemic if it begins here.
Eastern Tulare County appears to have little interest in forcing pest control districts to fight mosquitos despite the fact the county appears to be at ground zero for a West Nile outbreak. The Tulare County Grand Jury notes that the eastern portion of the county has no mosquito abatement district and one can't be formed unless two thirds of the voters approve it. The Board of Supervisors tried to get interest in forming a district and offered both the cities of Lindsay and Porterville $10,000 in matching funds to initiate an election. In Lindsay the report notes despite wide circulation of flyers only three people showed up at a town hall discussion and in Porterville 13,000 flyers were distributed and no one came to the meeting. Porterville council voted funds for bat houses that eat mosquitos, however.
Exeter continues to dress up its downtown with plans for a Chamber of Commerce park to be built next to the chamber building along the railroad tracks on Pine St. The two year project will be funded by community donations and volunteer efforts and offer a place for BBQ picnics surrounded by what else - olive and orange trees.
The Stockton law firm of Herum Crabtree Brown have filed a legal claim called a petition of supersedeas to try to halt construction of a new Walmart supercenter in Hanford. The 5th District Court of Appeal is expected to take up the matter in the next few weeks. The law firm was the same firm that helped opponents of the Walmart supercenter in Bakersfield win an appeal to stop a store in that town in mid construction because an environmental impact report was not done properly. Opponents to the Hanford project claim the City of Hanford's EIR on the project was not adequate and have appealed an earlier ruling that suggested the EIR was adequate. The latest petition comes after Walmart decided to move forward obtaining their building permit to move forward despite the appeal. The petition asks the court to decide if there is a likelihood the petitioners appeal would prevail or not that would put a stay on construction. Walmart appears ready to move forward on construction of the new 220,000 sf store off 198 at 12th Ave.
Groppetti/Rotary make a difference: upon the urging of Bruce McDermott Downtown Visalia Rotary Club dug deep this past week to the tune of $15,000 to send 3 year old Delaney Phelps - granddaughter of member Mike Phelps - back to Minnesota for a serious medical procedure. Because she suffers seizures that can be life threatening because of trouble breathing and she can't fly on a commercial jet. So Rotary passed the hat raising enough money to pay for the gas and car dealer Don Groppetti donated his Lear jet to wing her back this past weekend in 3 hours for the life saving procedure.
Big question in Tulare: where will Target and Lowes land? Both big retailers are weighing sites in town with rival sites vying for retailers. This week Browman Development got planning commission approval to site a new Target based shopping center north of the Horizon mall. But Target has made no commitment, says a Browman spokesman. Lowes is also looking for a site with two rival sites - Cartmill and 99 and Prosperity and Hillman each offering sites. Often the two big retailers like to be near each other.
Will Tulare residents step up the plate to upgrade their aging hospital? We won't know until September 13 when $85 million in bonds to finance the new facilities will be voted on. Taxpayers will be asked to pay 36.5 cents per $1000 valuation per year - a little over $70 per year if you own a house worth $200,000. The growing district now serves 60,000 people who will have to agree by a two-thirds margin to fund the bonds for 30 years. Supporters say while other hospitals in the area have closed over the years, the 1951 built Tulare District Hospital has stayed open, ready to serve emergencies from near and far. A major reason to support Measure D, they say, will be an expanded ER with the latest in life saving technology. Without TDH residents will be forced to travel up to 30 minutes for emergency care. They plan to add beds, operating rooms and advanced technology. With a rapid growth projection for the area, the hospital, built when there were only 12,000 people, needs an upgrade now bond supporters agree.
Visalia Mall has some new tenants coming with the opening of Sweet Factory - a new candy store this month, Takken's Shoes and the expansion and relocation of Pacific Sunwear. As of September 1 a casual clothing store d.e.m.o. will be opening as well, says mall general manager Marian Siller.
by Miles Shuper
Tulare County - Tulare County officials are formulating a plan of action to get federal funds to help combat massive marijuana production, most of it on public land.
County Supervisor Allen Ishida last week called what amounted to as a summit meeting of state, local and federal officials in a effort to develop a comprehensive proposal aimed at securing federal funding for increased eradication efforts.
Just how serious the problem is was illustrated in a letter from California's congressional members addressed to the National Park Service.
"We are stunned by the fact in 2004 alone; authorities seized 200,000 marijuana plants worth approximately $800,000 million dollars in a single California county, Tulare."
The letter also states, "Most of these marijuana plants were cultivated, presumably by the individuals linked to Mexican drug cartels, in both the Sequoia National Forest and Sequoia National Park. There are reports that many of these individuals engaged in cultivating plants on these public lands are armed with semi-automatic pistols and assault rifles-unquestionably posing a grave threat to park resources, visitors, employees and residents of surrounding communities. Public land marijuana cultivation has become one of the most profitable moneymakers for these Mexican drug cartels."
In addition to county agencies including the Sheriffs Department, the District Attorney's Office, and the Board of Supervisors, attending were representatives of the California Highway Patrol, the U.S. Fish and Game and Wildlife Service, the State Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
While there is an outside chance that emergency federal funds could be obtained, the group is seeking funding in the 2006-2007 federal fiscal year. No money projection is being made but it is clear that manpower to conduct an even more aggressive and comprehensive eradication campaign.
Sheriff Bill Wittman, whose department has been through budget crises in recent years, along with other county departments, says the strain on resources is critical. Although the National Parks are on are federally owned land, Wittman says, "it is Tulare County's responsibility to maintain the parks, especially for the safety of residents and visitors from around the world. We've got to do the job."
Wittman expects at least 100,000 marijuana plants to be seized and destroyed this year. "We already have taken out about 60,000 plants this year and I fully expect that number to top one hundred thousand." He said "The Mexican drug cartel is trying to overwhelm us."
Statistics bear that out. Just last week California Attorney General Bill Lockyer announcing the kickoff of the 2005 Campaign Against Planting (CAMP) eradication program, cited the pre-season enforcement program already has resulted in the seizure of 300,000 plants "nearly half of them have been found on public lands."
In 2004 CAMP seized a record 621,315 plants worth an estimated $2.6 billion. More deployment teams and more aggressive techniques, especially aerial transportation of officers and surveillance and larger gardens, have resulted in dramatically increased seizure totals, officials say. In 2004 the average raid netted 3,400 plans. In 1994 the yield was 300 to 500 plants per seized garden.
While CAMP is the largest law enforcement task force in the U.S. devoted to solely to assisting local law enforcement agencies with pot garden eradication, the problem is far from being solved. It is simply a matter of big money.
Lockyer added, "California's landscape is being ravaged by the chemicals and the waste associated with these marijuana gardens. The illegal gardens seized by CAMP are contaminating our water, destroying our land and also presenting increased risks for innocent hikers who may inadvertently stumble across one of these garden that are guarded by armed men."
Local officials echo those comments. There have been shooting incidents, local lawmen say. Sheriff Wittman said, "it is clearly evident that the Mexican cartels which run most of the major pot gardens, are becoming more aggressive all the time. The danger of a hiker or anyone else stumbling unto one of these operations is real," he said. Several years ago in Fresno County, U.S. Forest Service officers were shot at when they busted a marijuana garden off Highway 180.
Madera County sheriff's deputies killed a 19-year-old man from Mexico in August, 2000 after he fired shots at them during a raid of a large garden east of Ahwahnee.
Supervisor Allen Ishida, whose efforts are being praised by other local officials, says "The time is right" for putting the ball in their hands of the federal government which owns the land where the illegal gardens are spreading. "It's a major problem, especially in manpower," he said, adding that the Board of Supervisors will conduit an aggressive lobbying effort to help get the pilot program to Washington leaders funds. The Sheriff's Department will be the lead law enforcement agency in putting a detailed plan together.
District Attorney Phil Cline sees first hand the manpower crunch faced by law enforcement agencies. The Sheriff's Department and other agencies are simply being over run trying to combat this pot growing. he says. "This is a huge problem. It's dangerous up there," he said in reference to the gardens in the National Parks and National Forests.
The amount of staff and hours the Sheriff's Department, the DEA, Park Service and others spend on eradication, investigation, arrests and building cases is tremendous, Cline says. The letter to the National Park Service was sent from U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) and Representatives Jerry Lewis, George Radanovich and Marty Bono, put the issue point blank:
"The U.S. Forest Service has not dedicated sufficient resources to tackle this growing problem."
By Miles Shuper
Exeter - A Denver based investment firm has purchased the debt of the bankrupt Waterman's Industries with intent to gain sole ownership of the longtime Exeter based company which appears to be on the rebound.
Daymon Qualls, Waterman company spokesman, said, Galena Capital, LLS, has purchased the debt Wells Fargo. Qualls said Waterman recently paid back about $4 million of its debt. Qualls said Waterman could be out of bankruptcy by the end of the year.
The court allowed Waterman to file Chapter 11 reorganization. Waterman, a 90-year-old firm is a leading manufacturer or of water control gates, valves and equipment.
In February, 2001 Waterman shut down laying off 180 workers, a move which sent economic shock waves through Exeter and surrounding areas where many long-time Waterman workers made their homes. A few months later the company reopened hiring about 50 workers with indications that more would be hired when business improved. Today there area about 70 workers and the company is advertising for at least a half dozen administrative and techno-skilled positions.
Qualls said new contracts with old customers and even new ones halve recently been signed. "Some of our big customers, those who have been loyal to Waterman over the years, are coming back. Right now the company is making a profit," Qualls said.
During bankruptcy proceedings, Waterman officials cited several factors leading to the cash flow problem. Production problems, some resulting from with the shutting down of the Exeter plant's foundry in 2002 and 68 workers were laid off, seemed to have created financial woes. Also cited were poor market conditions and substantial employee and benefit costs along with lower than expected sales.
With production problems and logistics improved, the future looks bright, Qualls said.
Boswell Plans Request Supervisors To Start Boston Ranch EIR
Tulare County - Representatives of the JG Boswell Co. have told county leaders in recent days they expect to file a notice with the county that will start the ball rolling on a study of a new town in Yokohl Valley. Boswell plans to file a letter with the county outlining the project to see if the board would entertain a general plan amendment on land the company owns in Yokohl Valley east of Exeter.
Consultant for the project, Diane Gaynor says officials suggest they will file the request with the county next month in hopes of getting the issue in front of the board of supervisors.
Under county rules relating to the filing of new general plan amendments, an applicant can get an early thumbs up or down on whether the project might be considered by the board of supervisors.
Boswell wants to build a mixed use community that includes not just houses but typical town amenities including a school, shopping and other services, according to several reports.
But the company has not officially released much detail on the project. The company held some focus group seminars in the past year to gauge public opinion on a potential project in the pristine valley. In Exeter the project got mostly a cool reception.
But some say if Boswell can prove he can deliver the water and infrastructure and not tax county resource the supervisors might consider a project under the right conditions.
The request comes just as the county is reworking its general plan countywide trying to decide where to accommodate an obvious surge of new growth.
Kings County - The Center for Race Poverty and the Environment (CRPE) is withdrawing their objections to a Westlake Farms compost project in Kings County agreeing to take $50,000 to cover their legal fees. The agreement was announced by Kings County this week as the target of a lawsuit on the project approved by the board of supervisors last year.
That means just one entity led by attorney Richard Harriman is left in the lawsuit to oppose the big enclosed compost facility. Harriman told the Voice that discussions on a settlement were underway.
A complete settlement would allow the plan by L.A. County sanitation district to spread compost in Kings County to move forward. The project is expected to mean 120 full time jobs.
The sanitation district will buy up to 14,500 acres from Westlake Farms - some of which has been fallow in recent years. The compost will help bring some 4500 acres back into crop land.
Besides the sanitation district paying CRPE $50,000 to drop the suit the district agrees to run their trucks carrying biosolids into the area from L.A. on alternative fuels as well as commercial trucks visiting the site carrying green waste from around the valley. In addition the agreement calls for the sanitation district to fund $30,000 per year of the life of the project to fund a scholarship to West Hills College for students pursuing a course of study related to employment by the compost project.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
August 3, 2005
