Money Goes Missing at the Fair
Fair Officials “Disheartened;” Police Have Few Leads

By George Lurie

Tulare County - More than $15,000 is missing from gate receipts from the 2005 Tulare County Fair and now questions have arisen about why fair officials waited nearly three months to file an official police report of the theft.

Although the 2005 fair ended its run on September 18, the police report was not filed until December 2 of last year by fair CEO Candace Patterson, who said last week that the missing funds were discovered “a week after the [2005] fair closed.”

The issue of the missing gate receipts -- not made public until the fair board’s February 2006 meeting -- is sparking memories of the controversy that ensnared the fair’s former CEO Phyliss Harmon, who, in 2001, was ousted from the board and charged – but ultimately found not guilty – of misusing fair funds.

Patterson’s explanation for the lag in filing the police report: “What we were doing was following the guidelines set by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).”

The CDFA is the state agency charged with overseeing fair operations.

“After the discrepancy was detected, the initial thought on the part of the fair people was that it was some sort of bank oversight and not necessarily theft,” said CDFA spokesman Steve Lyle. “Basically, they thought the bank made a mistake.”

But after bank officials investigated and found they had not made an error, CDFA auditors were called in. “They went down there during the first week of November and determined that the missing money was most likely due to theft,” said Lyle. “We recommended the fair contact the District Attorney’s office, but from what we understand, the DA would not take the case.”

“We have not received a request to investigate any theft out of the fair that I am aware of,” said Assistant District Attorney Carole Turner. “Generally, in most cases, local law enforcement is the first investigating agency.”

Tulare Police Captain Tom Munoz confirmed that TPD is looking into the fair’s theft report. “We have interviewed several employees and reviewed records supplied by the fair management,” Munoz said. “At this time, there are no suspects and very few leads.”

Munoz said all of the missing receipts were in the form of cash.

“We’re trying to determine at what point in the process the receipts disappeared,” Munoz said. “We’re asking that anyone with any information about the missing money please contact the Tulare PD.”

“Because it’s an ongoing investigation, I don’t know how much I can say about it,” said Patterson, who is on medical leave but plans to return to work as soon as she gets an OK from her doctor.

According to fair records, Patterson is paid $89,000 a year to oversee the operation.

“Any time that you have funds missing, it’s of grave concern,” Patterson added. “It’s something we wish hadn’t happened, but it did happen.”

Patterson called the admission process to the fair -- $7 for adults; $4 for seniors and kids -- “pretty much a straight cash business,” adding: “There are a lot of internal controls in place every step of the way because of the gravity of handling such large sums of money. But when you are handling large amounts of money, unfortunately things can happen.”

According to fair records, a total of about 86,000 people attended the 2005 Tulare County Fair, generating nearly $400,000 in gate admissions.

All of the fair’s finances are audited on a yearly basis by the CDFA.

Peter Alvitre, appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005 to head the Tulare County Fair Board -- also known as the 24th District Agricultural Association – confirmed last week that multiple investigations into the alleged theft are currently underway.

“It would not be appropriate for me to comment in detail before those investigations come to a conclusion,” said Alvitre, who, like his fellow board members is not paid to attend the organization’s monthly meetings.

“We’re still attempting to get our arms around the issues,” Alvitre said. “Once those come to conclusion, I think we can have a very open and frank discussion. As a board, I can assure you that we will be pressing for conclusion of this as soon as possible.”

Referring to the fact that he and a number of others have just recently joined the fair board, Alvitre said: “The new board wants an absolute appearance of transparency. There’s five fairly spanking new members and we have a significant amount of issues to address and come up to speed on just to understand the workings of the fair.”

Alvitre and other board members are scheduled to meet next on April 12. Patterson said that she is hoping to get “medical clearance” from her doctor to attend the April board meeting.

“I am pleased that the general public is going to be advised about [the missing gate receipts] because they certainly have a right to know,” said Alvitre.

The CDFA is in the process of preparing its own report on the missing money. “Our investigation should be finalized during the next couple of weeks,” said Lyle. “We will then issue a report that will become public record.”

Patterson, who has been CEO of the fair for four years and formerly worked at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in event management, said fair officials are “reviewing all of our policies and procedures to make sure something like this doesn’t happen in the future.

“When you take your responsibility as seriously as we do, something like this is disheartening,” she added. “I wish I could say where the money went, but I can’t. Now we have to pick up and move on.

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Goshen Ethanol Plant Changing Hands

Goshen - Phoenix Biosystems, who partnered with Western Milling to build the state's first major ethanol plant, is selling its interest in the plant to an investor group, Malibu Partners, confirms Rick Eastman, who oversaw the development of the plant for Phoenix Biosystems.

Malibu has taken over the management of the plant that continues to run with staff in place. Principals with Malibu Partners did not return calls for comment. The deal to sell the stake in the 25-million-gallon plant is expected to close next month say sources.

Meanwhile efforts to ramp up the plant to 45 million gallons in the next year are underway. Demand for biofuels nationwide has exceeded supply despite a plant building boom that has been going on for several years.

In recent weeks a plan to end use of the substitute oxygenate MTBE gasoline nationwide has spurred fears of an ethanol shortage and a spike in ethanol prices on the futures market. Pioneer ethanol producers like Pacific Ethanol used to have trouble getting bankers to listen to them when they explained why building an ethanol plant in a rural part of California was a good idea. The company headed by former state politician Bill Jones has now attracted big time investment in recent months including Bill Gates. This week the company stock continued to soar almost 300% over what it was offered for less than a year ago, bid up investors despite the fact the company has not produced a drop of ethanol.

“There is a kind of a gold rush mentality right now,” says Rick Eastman who says he prefers quiet deliberation when deciding when and where to build an ethanol plant.

The same mentality is biding up the price of ethanol shifting the blame for high gas prices in the public's view to ethanol despite the fact Saudi Oil at $68 a barrel may have a more to do with it.

Pacific Ethanol was an interested buyer in the Goshen plant but the deal to buy it went south months ago with Pacific privately saying they were disappointed in the way the plant was performing.

Pacific Ethanol is planning to build a new plant across from the Visalia Airport beginning later this year besides a Madera plant that will be completed this summer. Near Visalia, that means there will be at least four ethanol plants up and running in the next few years.

Malibu Capital is no stranger to ethanol being an investor in the Calgren project near Pixley that is expected to break ground as early as next month. Malibu California who is apparently changing their name to Actra, says on their web site they have plans to run five biofuels plants making 175 million gallons of ethanol and 80 million gallons of biodiesel.

Calgren now owns a second site for another plant in the Hanford Industrial Park says spokesman Matt Schmitt who says the company finalized the purchase of 58 acres at Idaho and 10th in recent days. The plant proposal will file an EIR process over the next year through the City of Hanford.

In Visalia there is new interest in ethanol at the City of Visalia. City council member Greg Kirkpatrick says he is lobbying the city fleet manager to buy flex fuel vehicles that can run on E-85 85% blend of ethanol with gasoline. There are some 200,000 such vehicles in the state right now and the promise by the big automakers to produce more soon.

This week the State of California weighed in with a new action plan to reduce greenhouse gasses in the state by use of more biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel, in the gas tanks of California cars and trucks. The Govenor released his Climate Action Team Report April 3rd, that set a goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020. The plan calls for implementation/undergo 46 measures that include the use of alternative fuels.

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The Last Picture Show

Visalia - Visalia developer Johnny George has purchased the 11-acre Mooney Drive-In Theater property and plans to convert it to upscale offices. “We hired a demolition company” to remove the old theater probably late this summer, he says. George owns the complex The Works next door. He says he plans 145,000 sf of garden-type offices at the site. The site will include one-, two- and three-story offices, he says, with a pad out front for a restaurant.

George bought the property from the same Bay Area family who owned the Visalia theater complex in Downtown that is being purchased by the City of Visalia through condemnation.

The Mooney landmark twin theater was built in 1948 and remains one of less than 20 drive in movie theaters still open in California and a place many grown-ups in Visalia will remember fondly—the way they remember Mearle’s Drive-In from their youth. The place has wandering peacocks who apparently help clean up the popcorn. The Visalia theater remains a highlight for some families who travel miles to watch a screening on occasion. The other Visalia-area drive in east of town closed years ago as people flocked to big mega cinema complexes instead of roughing it outside in the elements.

The Porterville drive in theater closed last year. Bakersfield and Fresno have none, although they each had 4 or more operating at one time. In Hanford the Kings Drive In remains open 7 nights a week.

Drive ins have had several good things going for them - cheap entrance fees, free refills on popcorn from the snack bar (can you imagine this at your mega cinema?), and of course this was the preferred make-out place for teens.

George says the entrance to the new office complex will be further to the north than the existing theater driveway, providing more landscaped room for the big veteran’s mural going up on land between The Works and the movie theater. This week Lemoore based Navy personnel were doing concrete work on the site of the mural.

George also purchased the former Lumberjack property nearby last year and is converting it to other uses including a portion for a church. Also he purchased the former canned goods building and expects to rent it to the county.

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Northside Shopping Centers Face Design Hurdles

Visalia - Plans for three large big box shopping centers in Visalia’s north side face new scrutiny by a city council excited about retailers coming to an underserved area but demanding the proposed centers connect to and fit into the existing neighborhoods.

“Council wants a more village-like design rather than just more of the same,” says City Planner Fred Brusuellas.

Visalia developer Craig Mangano is proposing a 17-acre shopping center at the northeast corner of Riggin and Demaree zoned Community Commercial anchored by a new Lowe’s store. Mangano says he was blindsided by a hastily called study session with a negative staff report, a study session that he was given little notice of nor an opportunity to address the council. We had our whole team present but we were not invited to speak, says Managano. Mangano says he heard no criticism of the scale of the project before the meeting in front of council in the past few weeks.

Lowe's would build a 135,000 sf store with added garden center that tends to dominate the 17-acre center prompting several council members to wonder if Lowe's would be willing to downsize to better fit the center. Within the next two weeks, Lowe's and city official are planning to meet to see if something can be worked out.

The issues are the same with any big box plan, says Mangano, they require lots of parking. This week a different developer Donhue Shrieber filed a site plan for a twin shopping center at Dinuba Highway and Riggin with a Home Depot on one side of Dinuba Blvd. and Target on the other with several other store fronts on each side.

Mangano says the issues on Dinuba Blvd are the same as Demaree. The council needs to decide if they want big box stores on the northside or they dont.

City Council Member Greg Kirkpatrick says he wont send the message that big box stores are not welcomed but that the design of the center needs to be well integrated with the neighborhood. The center needs a better design says Kirkpatrick, something that he feels can be worked out. He described the parking as atrocious and a sea of parking spaces. The center requires nearly 900 parking stalls.

Bob Link say he understands the big retailer may not be willing to downsize.

Council Member Don Landers said, I think we are sending absolutely the wrong message to the business community that Visalia is not business-friendly. Ive heard of several other potential projects where businesses are considering locating in the county rather than the city because they dont want to deal with this sort of attitude.

Landers does not think that Lowe's will scale back its proven business plan to accommodate Visalia.

Landers does believe that a Lowe's or some type of hardware store on the northside makes sense. Why should people from that side of town have to drive all the way across the city and create pollution and traffic jams just to buy a hammer or a stack of two by fours?

Mangano pointed out that Home Depot is on a smaller 13-acre site at Demaree and Caldwell also zoned the same community commercial. These days the big hardware stores serve areas not whole regions says the developer, meaning homeowners on the northside cut pollution because they dont have to drive to the south part of town to get building supplies.

Council member Collins says he would be in favor of a neighborhood shopping center at the site, more of a Fig Garden approach, he says. If the design was right he says he would however consider voting in favor of a center with a Lowe's store.

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City Eyes Ag Land Exchange

Visalia - The Visalia City Council-meeting in a study session-approved the concept of an ag land exchange in the case of the Williamson Act cancellation. That could mean more farmland is converted to subdivisions because it is in the path of development, other lands locally could be permanently preserved in an easement exchange program.

Not only is the council behind the idea, developer Andy Mangano who is proposing the 570-acre Lowery Ranch project in Northwest Visalia says his company is willing to think outside the box and has already met with the California Department of Conservation and hired an attorney to move the idea forward. We go a positive reaction from the Department of Conservation, says Mangano.

Mangano says the program would be modeled after an easement exchange program in Livermore that helps mitigate the loss of farm land by developers paying into a fund that buys permanent easements on other farm parcels, meaning the exchanged land will remain in agriculture.

The Lowery Ranch is a 570 acre masterplanned community north of Riggin and west of Demaree that has a Williamson Act contract on it that has been filed with a notice of Non Renewal.

Phase one of the projects is a 126 acre portion within city limits. Once the masterplan is complete a cancellation fee is required paid to the Department of Conservation in Sacramento where it is deposited in the states general fund.

Instead, under the Visalia plan the cancellation fee would be used by the City of Visalia to be a source for local ag land mitigation, to buy easements where urban growth is not contemplated long term. In this case the cancellation fee is $406,250 that would to toward the new easement program.

To facilitate the concept city officials met with Secretary of Resources Mike Chrisman in February to go over the idea and a draft of the plan is now being circulated.

City Council Member Greg Kirkpatrick who has been a staunch proponent of this idea says this could mean the city has a new mechanism to buy easements on the scenic corridor where the city council is working on an ag land preservation plan. Assistant City Manager Mike Olmos says large portions of the citys 129,000 boundary has land in the Williamson Act that could be subject to the new rule once its in place.

Just how much land will continue to be annexed by the city, most of the Lowery Ranch is not yet in the city limits nor the big SE master plan area, remains up in the air, pending a council discussion of just how much is developable and is within city limits now.

Mr. Olmos says a report on that issue would be ready in weeks. Council Member Greg Collins has said he wants to see how many acres of land for infill is available before he approves anymore annexations.

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Adventure Park Will Not Serve Alcohol
City Council Overturns Planning Commission Decision

By Robin Kaufman

Visalia - In a unanimous vote, Visalia City Council members this week just said no to alcohol sales at Adventure Park.

Following a lively public forum held at the Convention Center to accommodate the overflow crowd, city councilors did not uphold the Visalia Planning Commission's earlier approval of a permit to allow beer and wine sales at Adventure Park.

The Apr. 3 Visalia City Council meeting drew a divided crowdCthe Adventure Park's 53 investors as well as those who support an alcohol-free amusement park in Visalia.

The teetotaling debate began brewing on Feb. 27 when the Visalia Planning Commission approved the Adventure Park's application to serve alcohol, a decision based in part on a survey of similar facilities.

Then, on Mar. 2, the Rev. Mark Wilson, of Sierra Baptist Church, submitted a formal nine-point appeal of the conditional-use.

In the appeal Wilson requested that the city council deny the amended permit on the basis that the decision was not supported by the evidence in the record.

At the most recent city council meeting, Interim Police Chief Bob Williams was required to make a recommendation on the conditional-use permit.

Williams said the police department had received many emails, faxes, letters and phone calls in favor of keeping Adventure Park alcohol-free.

The family fun park, located on Cypress Ave., just south of Hwy 198, has been open since December 20, 2004.

Those in opposition to the sale of alcohol at the fun park included local students, Tulare County Superintendent of Schools Jim Vidak, and Dr. Jim Kooler of Friday Night Live -- an alcohol and drug prevention program offered through the Tulare County Office of Education.

The public testimony at the city council meeting B which was characterized by Mayor Jesus Gamboa as courteous and respectful -- lasted about two and a half hours.

Adventure Park investor Mike Robinson led a succession of speakers who argued against the nine points outlined in Wilson's appeal.

Adventure Park investors characterized the public outcry as "fear mongering" with "leaps of logic."

Phillip Jones, an Adventure Park investor, stated: "A 10,000 square-foot restaurant can't support itself" without the sale of alcohol.

Wilson countered that the Adventure Park's application to sell beer and wine was an "inappropriate business decision."

Developer Craig Mangano, who was instrumental in the early stages of bringing Adventure Park to Visalia, recounted: "When we got the original approval, alcohol was an issue."

According to Mangano, there was an understanding that Adventure Park would be given one year to see how it performed and the door would be left open for the business to make an application to serve alcohol.

Before the council made its ruling, Planning Commissioner Sam Logan, who did not speak publicly at the city council meeting, tried to justify the commission's granting of the permit amendment. Logan asked, "Is it fair and equitable to restrict one business when the city owns entertainment parks that sell alcohol? The focus is on one small business, yet we're not talking about restricting other pizza parlors."

Logan said he supported the permit amendment for the sake of consistency. "I'm not judging this on my personal beliefs; I'm basing this on what we're already doing in Visalia," he said.

Councilman Don Landers, who was on the city council when the original conditional use permit was granted, recalled that the city had sold the property "with terms and conditions attached to it. I think the council at that time made it abundantly clear: We do not support alcohol," said Landers.

Landers also drew a distinction between Adventure Park and Chuck E. Cheese in their differing permits: "This happened as a result of a conditional use permit [for Adventure Park]...we do not have the ability to say no to Chuck E. Cheese."

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Tulare County - Kaweah River Rock's plans to move its operations to a new site B where it can continue to supply building materials B have hit a bump in the road, but owners remain determined to continue.

Judge Paul Vortmann of Tulare County Superior Court last week issued a ruling in response to an appeal of the county's permit to build the plant. The ruling takes Tulare County to task on several procedural issues.

Dave Harrald, general manager of the Woodlake-based operation, says owners are disappointed, but they are confident that the issues raised can be addressed through a focused supplemental Environmental Impact Report document. Harrald said that the company is ready to start on addressing the issues in Vortmann's ruling, which he said dealt mainly with the deficiencies of the air quality impacts and several other issues. Once the judge's concerns are met, Harrald said, the company could reapply for a permit before the Board of Supervisors. Harrald said at least a year would be lost in Kaweah River Rock's plans to eventually move to a new site.

Harrald estimates that this delay will cost consumers in Tulare County as much as $10 million more per year.

"Tulare County's schools, homes, roads and sidewalks will require 1 million ton of sand and gravel per year from this project," Harrald noted. "Shipping from distant plants, rather than right here in the county, will add $10 to each ton purchased. That means $10 million right out of homebuyers' and taxpayers' pocket books."

Kaweah River Rock's current site in Woodlake is nearly depleted, and the aggregates industry warns that Tulare County has an inadequate permitted supply. Without a new local permit, all building materials will have to be shipped in from outside the county, generating additional truck traffic, air pollution and wear and tear on Tulare County's roads.

"The aggregate shortage is now real!" Harrald said. He said that they will continue to supply current customers, but are will not be able to take on new customers despite the growing demand of sand and rock.

"What we are seeing here in Tulare County with the opposition to this type of operation is not unusual," he added. "Now, instead of NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) we have BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything). How are we to build the schools and homes our children and grandchildren need?"

Petitioner's argument here is mainly that the wrong baseline was used for County's analysis. The court agrees.

The County's air quality analysis does not provide any information on operational emissions from the mine because the County improperly compares the proposed gravel mine with the existing mine to determine that the proposed gravel mine's impacts are less than significant.

In the EIR, the County recognized that the gravel mine would produce on-site reactive organic gas (ROG) emissions, Nitrogen Oxide emissions (Nox), Particulate Matter with aerodynamic diameter equal to or less than 10 microns (PM-10) and Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs). However, the County did not provide any calculations of impacts nor did it present any modeling of mining-related impacts.

Rather, the County determined air impacts from the gravel mine would be less than significant because (1) the proposed gravel mine would use updated, more productive, onsite off road equipment compared to the existing mine; (2) the proposed mine would have fewer annual operating hours than the existing mine; and (3) KRRC would obtain air permits from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution control District to operate the jaw and cone crushers, impact crushers and rock washers. None of these justifications excuses the County's failure to actually analyze impacts from the proposed project as required by CEQA.

In addition, the County does not provide any information on the types of equipment that will be modernized nor does it provide calculations to support its conclusions that with the modernized equipment there will be less than significant impact. The only air quality mitigation measure supported by information was the new mitigation for air quality requiring the KRRC to decommission one diesel-powered Caterpillar Tractor and replace it with one electrically powered conveyor belt. The County presented calculations supporting this requirement illustrating that it is possible to do so. However, no other information was provided. The County's conclusory statements do not provide the information and analysis required by CEQA.

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Tulare County - Impact On Florida Could Be Huge Tulare County remains the top citrus producing county in the state and headquarters for the Visalia based Citrus Research Board (CRB). Supported by the state's citrus industry the CRB is watching the potential decline in the citrus industry in Florida very closely, says Ted Batkin president of the CRB.

Between successive hurricanes, several killer diseases and expanding urbanism and high land prices may mean the Florida citrus industry could shrink by one half according to a recent University of Florida study. "It's just a matter of how fast that happens," suggests Batkin noting the diseases - primarily citrus greening disease found in Florida last September - is a major concern in California.

The prospect of a smaller Florida citrus industry also offers an opportunity for California which doesn't have some of the tropical problems Florida has including hurricanes but also diseases that tend to come from tropical areas.

Florida and Brazil produce 80% of the world's orange juice and the most recent events in Florida caused the loss of 100 million boxes in production the last year has sent orange juice futures doubling in the past year.

California has a small juice market but the higher returns are good news to our citrus industry that target the fresh fruit market, but send small-sized fruit to be juiced.

Batkin says although the greening disease has been found only recently, the bacteria -spread disease has migrated to some 13 counties. A small insect called a psylla spread the bacteria that is rampant in both Asia and found in Brazil as well. "Once they find it you have to knock over the whole grove," says Batkin, and the likelihood is that you won't replant citrus, he says. Florida's orange industry has always bounced back after freezes killed trees but this time it could be different.

A Florida study says the industry could fall to as low as 123 million boxes down from a high of 220 million boxes as the result of these several factors including the diseases - canker and citrus greening.

If the Florida orange industry is on the decline. The Brazilian citrus industry is getting pressure from sugar planting needed to make ethanol for the world market. The upshot could be Brazil may not take up the slack that is left by declining Florida orange production.

Batkin says citrus screening was brought into Florida by someone bringing budwood from the old country - likely Asia. Global travel is carrying these diseases, he says.

Of course that too could happen in California and that's why the CRB has made the likely coming of the disease to California and Tulare County a high priority.

But Batkin and the CRB do have a plan and that is to plant or innoculate trees that are resistant to citrus greening. "We are using the last medical research done on people to come up with a strategy we can use to ward off disease in plants." Batkin says there will be biotech solutions to the problem that does not necessarily mean genes will need to be altered.

This research is moving forward rapidly says Batkin with the first order of business to be able to identify citrus disease far more rapidly than is done today. In the case of citrus greening that takes years that can take two or three days a leaf test could be developed that gives a result in 30 minutes.

The research Batkin is working on will require a "public private partnership" since it is public travel that is bringing in these diseases that is affecting the state's citrus industry.

Tulare County has over 100,000 acres of citrus under production and generates about $550 million in gross crop revenue annually.

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Visalia - Visalia developer Johnny George has purchased 100 percent interest in the former Early California Foods olive plant on Tulare Ave. that has some 240,000 sf of space. George had been working with the former owner on a plan to use the huge complex for an indoor sports pavilion called the Pinnacles, even paying to have extensive plans drawn up and talking to potential tenants.

But the project proved to be too costly, says George who blames the city for not cooperating in a plan he says would be good for the city's youth.

Instead George has bought out the former owner and will lease out most of the space to industrial-type users including 80,000 sf to a statewide fund-raising group. ‘A fundraising' will consolidate all its operations in the building in July and build a 12,000-sf cold-storage facility within its walls, says owner Bruce Farnsworth of Three Rivers. "We want to control more of our operations instead of outsourcing them," says Farnsworth. The 26-year-old company will employ at least 40 people when it opens and up to 100 within a year, he says. The company works with schools to do local fundraising, providing products to sell including food products like frozen cookie dough or ready-to-eat pretzels. The company has a catalog of items kids can pick from and ‘A Fundraising' packages the items for individual student and delivers to the schools. That's what they will do in Visalia along with staging all the delivery at the Tulare Ave. plant, says Farnsworth.

Besides this company, George will relocate his own companies, George's Roofing and Westwood Distributing, into the building, relocating them from the industrial park.

George says that altogether, "I'm pouring $3 to 4 million" into the remodeling of the long-vacant plant. He hopes one-third will be leased to public storage – where firms like Kraft or any member of the public can lease storage space.

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By Miles Shuper

Goshen - With lots of development underway or on the horizon, the prospects of Goshen becoming an incorporated city are improving.

That's the consensus from a Goshen Business Roundtable last week as community leaders and county officials, especially the Local Agency Formation Committee (LAFCO), shared ideas about the prospects of the community of 2,400 becoming incorporated. With three major builders planning about 2,500 new homes, a major shopping complex and a downtown business area and industrial development increasing, Goshen could likely generate enough taxes to support incorporation, according to George Finney, representing LAFCO. A major feed mill, an ethanol plant going into production, three mobile home sellers and an expanded Harley-Davidson store are among the factors adding to Goshen's recent growth.

Bill Hayter, of the County's Resources Management Agency, who has been working with Goshen leaders, agrees with Finney's assessment, adding that Goshen's access to Highway 99 will continue to increase its growth potential, in terms of both industrial and commercial considerations.

Major projects, including projected widening of Betty Drive and an estimated $30 million to $40 million crossing of Highway 99 -- most likely an under crossing - as well as other road and highway projects will have major impacts on Goshen's growth.

Finney suggested Goshen consider hiring a consultant and commissioning a basic feasibility study on potential incorporation as a first step.

Hayter estimated it would take three to five years for such a study to become a reality and around 10 years before an actual incorporation vote might happen.

Although no formal study area has been designated, county officials are looking at a roughly seven-square-mile area, bordered roughly on the west along Road 56 to Road 60, east to Road 76, north to Avenue 320 south to Goshen Avenue (304) to Camp Drive to Highway 198. The parcel includes the area commonly known as West Goshen. For years there has been talk about incorporation or annexation by the City of Visalia. But most of Goshen leaders and other residents have favored incorporation or remaining unincorporated.

Cheryl Smith of the Goshen Planning Committee, told those at the meeting, "We don't want to be annexed into Visalia. We want to incorporate," adding that although the county has been helping on many fronts, becoming a city is a goal worth pursuing.

Because Goshen isn't in the sphere of influence of the City of Visalia, a number of actions would have to be made to allow any annexation. But, with growth a major issue among Visalia's city officials and city council members, annexation very likely is a dead issue.

Road repairs, sidewalks, curbs and street lighting are some of the major improvements Smith says are needed.

Incorporation would require a vote of residents, following approval by LAFCO of an application resulting from a petition by residents or a request by the Board of Supervisors.

Finney said petitions require signatures of 25 percent of property owners or signatures of those owning 25 percent of the property in the designated boundaries.

Voter approval requires a simple majority.

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Tulare County - After spending a few weeks in Washington last month California ag leaders led by Nisei Farmers League president Manuel Cunha believe they made headway with key senators over the immigration debate and Ag Jobs. Tops on that list is the approval by Senator Dianne Feinstein of a five year pilot plan that would allow agriculture to be first in line to use guest workers. "It took seven years to convince her," says Cunha stating that EDD reports showing a big decline in the state's workforce in recent years was proof there was a legitimate worker shortage in the fields.

Cunha says the House immigration bill that is "enforcement only" has no chance in the Senate and predicts even as Republicans appear split in the Senate over whether to allow guest workers or allow some of the illegal residents here to earn citizenship that there will be 60 votes for a compromise bill that will allow both guest workers an "earned adjustment" of the existing illegal population. "If Republicans try to block this they will be voted out of office," predicts Cunha who typically speaks no evil of the GOP.

As this paper goes to press Democrats are pushing for a vote in the next few days. Cunha says the final bill will call for tougher border enforcement, employer sanctions, but allowance for 800,000 ag workers here illegally to stay, work in ag and work toward citizenship. He says the region's farm economy won't survive without the workforce.

While the public sees the children of immigrants marching in the streets-that may drive the Democratic base-farm leaders worry about the survival of our economy and that may have weighed more heavily with skeptics like Feinstein.

Even when this passes the Senate with President Bush's support there needs to be compromise in the House for some version of Ag Jobs to become law.

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