Sunkist Weighs Stock Ownership

Founded as a cooperative in 1893, Sunkist Growers Inc. ranks as one of the top food processing companies in the nation with sales just under $1 billion. But facing a world of global competition and global sourcing of citrus, the board of directors of the co-op, owned by 6,500 California and Arizona citrus growers, is considering a change in the company’s organizational structure from a co-op to a potential stock ownership business.

One member of the board who has requested anonymity, confirms that on Wednesday, January 18, the board will discuss the idea, which is favored by some directors of the board. The meeting comes after this paper goes to press.

But several Sunkist officials, including vice president Mike Wooten, deny there is any such discussion going on. “You can take that question off your list,” Wooten told the Voice. Still multiple sources inside Sunkist say the matter is hush hush but confirm how the 113 year old company will be structured in the future is on the table.

If such a move takes place, it would follow last spring’s conversion of Diamond Walnuts to stock ownership. Diamond Foods stock is now traded on the financial markets.

In 2001, Calavo, a grower owned avocado cooperative, polled its membership who approved a change to a for-profit corporation by an overwhelming 90-percent vote after some 77 years as a co-op. The company stock is publically traded on the NASDAQ.

The issue in front of the 27- member Sunkist board may be hotly contested, sources say, with large members like Paramount Citrus owned by Stewart Resnick - the nation’s largest citrus grower and packer - said to be in favor of a stock company while some small growers and smaller packing houses are leery of a change. The board voted against a proposal a month ago to sell off the co-op’s Fruit Grower Supply timber holdings in Northern California to maximize its value in a closely watched 15 to 12 vote that clearly divided along similar lines – it’s been described as “the little guys vs. the big guys.”

One issue likely to be of concern to some area Sunkist suppliers is the continuing trend of sourcing fruit overseas to ensure customers a year- round supply. Sunkist faces a shrinking number of big supermarket buyers for their fruit or face the prospect of them going elsewhere. On the other side, some Sunkist growers and packers fear the dominance of the larger packers in California and worry that buying fruit from other sources will be at their expense.

A similar concern was heard in the Diamond Foods conversion. Proponents made the argument that stock ownership was a more flexible business model and owning stock equity allowed the value of one’s holdings to be tangible. The stock you hold can be bought and sold. Also converting from cooperative allows the company to raise cash for investment without tapping the growers, an issue at Sunkist where they plan some big promotions in the future. The argument will surely be raised that converting to a stock ownership company from a cooperative will allow Sunkist to grow.

Sunkist is a federated form of marketing co-op with both growers and packing houses tied to growers. The co-op structure has four levels: the grower, the packing houses, the direct exchange and Sunkist Growers Inc. There are some 51 packing houses and 18 direct exchanges. Growers, packing houses and directs all enjoy membership and have a share of the company.

Cooperative proponents note the original vision of Sunkist was straightforward – to market the members’ produce – particularly citrus varieties like lemons and oranges. Membership is limited to growers and cooperative associations of growers who typically own packing houses. Only members can serve on the board that hires the company president – in this case Jeff Gargiulo – to provide the leadership and make recommendations.

That’s just what Gargiulo was doing in recent weeks - sources say - lobbying packing houses to consider a structural change in how the business is organized.

The benefit today for small growers is the very real feeling they own a piece of Sunkist - something that may be lost if it is converted to a stock structure.

Sources say it isn’t clear if the board votes to end the cooperative structure which kind of stock ownership will be selected. For example, the board could chose a mutual type stock ownership instead of publically traded corporate structure.

Clearly it is the well-known Sunkist trademark that has helped the value of the company grow over the years. In 1952, the co-op changed its name from California Fruit Growers Exchange to Sunkist. Many believe that today’s battle is who will control the Sunkist trademark in an era when branding is everything.

The Sunkist trademark was developed in 1907 – a symbol of quality and health that seems to be associated with California as well.

One clear negative from the small grower point of view is that under a stock company the cooperative would no longer be obligated to take the growers’ fruit. The upside: Sunkist quality could improve. “It will raise the bar on quality,” says an industry representative.

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The Last Days of a Local Dynasty

By Cassandra Queen

Hanford - The Imperial Dynasty Restaurant in Hanford's historic China Alley will close its doors in mid-February, ending more than a century-old family business. The closing also marks the end to yet another great Chinese dynasty.

In Chinese history, a dynasty is a ruling family that passes control from one generation to the next. The longest Chinese dynasty lasted more than 800 years, while the shortest-lived lasted only 15 years. The ancient Chinese believed their ancestors in heaven had chosen their leaders and supported their rulers because of what they called the “Mandate of Heaven.”

According to family member Camille Wing, five generations of the Wing family have worked at the restaurant. Two of the family members owner and chef, Richard Wing and his sister Harriet are looking toward a long overdue retirement when the restaurant closes its doors at the end of this month. The two, both in their 80s, are part of the third generation of Hanford's Wing family.

Camille, who's also a member of Hanford's Taoist Temple Preservation Society, but no longer works in the restaurant, explains that it was Richard Wing's grandfather, Gong Ting Shu known by the Anglo name Henry Wing who first entered into the restaurant business when he began a small restaurant in the early 1880s, known then as Mee Jan Low (English translation: "Beautiful and Precious Restaurant"). This first Wing family restaurant occupied only the upstairs, central part of the block on which the Imperial Dynasty now resides. Gong Ting Shu passed away in 1923 and his son, Gong Chow Wing Richard Wing's father sustained the Wing family business.

In the 1930s, Gong Chow Wing like his father, he was also known as Henry Wing closed the Mee Jan Low and opened the Chinese Pagoda Restaurant on the corner of China Alley and Green Street. As you enter onto China Alley and gaze up at the corner of the building, the old Chinese Pagoda neon sign is still there. Take a few more steps and you'll see a smiling, fat Buddha statue standing at the entrance of the now-closed restaurant. Just a few more steps and you're at one of two entrances into the Imperial Dynasty Restaurant.

In 1958, the Imperial Dynasty was opened next door to the Chinese Pagoda. Through the purchase of bordering properties, the restaurant continued to occupy most of the building. According to members of the Wing family, by the late 1950s the Wings owned all the property on China Alley except the Taoist Temple and two properties across the street, Numbers 13 and 13 ½, which are now owned by the Taoist Temple Preservation Society.

Today, the restaurant is more than a historical landmark. If you ask patrons from near and far, they will tell you that the restaurant's legacy comes from a combination of its unique cuisine, its engaging environment, and most notably, the Wing family.

Richard Wing' had a remarkable career, which isn't limited to being a restaurant owner and chef. Before he entered into the restaurant business, Richard served as chief aide to General George C. Marshall from 1945-47.

“During the war and after the war, Richard traveled to Europe and learned a lot of interesting things about other cultures, other cooking. He was able to come home and practice what he'd learned,” said Camille Wing.

Richard Wing is credited as being an innovative, small-town chef who is well-known for creating culinary delights that are a fusion of Chinese and Continental (French) cuisine. Wing is said to be one of the originators of this cuisine, which was referred to "Chinois" beginning in the 1960s. The name may sound familiar, as Wolfgang Puck has a Santa Monica restaurant of the same name, described by some dining guides as a “Franco-Chinese” eatery. Wing is also legendary for his nine-course gourmet dinners for which reservations were required one to two weeks in advance.

In 1980, Richard received an invitation to prepare a special dish for the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan. According to family members, Richard had to decline, in part because his leaving for the Washington, D.C event would have meant closing the restaurant doors to its everyday customers, to the already existing reservations.

In addition to his culinary genius, Richard Wing knows his wine. The restaurant used to have an extensive, award-winning wine list until the Wings stopped restocking their on-site wine cellar in preparation for closing.

“Customers used to always want to take a walk through the wine cellar because of the selection of wines there,” added Camille Wing.

The vaulted ceilings and walls of the Imperial Dynasty are dressed in Chinese antiquities and artifacts. Newspaper and magazine articles, as well as numerous awards, line the walls of the entryway, telling the historical tale of the restaurant and its owners. The most fascinating accounts of the restaurant's history, however, are the stories told by the fourth- and fifth-generation Wing family members, who like the generations before them, attentively and graciously tend to their nightly guests.

Fourth-generation family member, Sherrill Harris of Visalia, explains that the restaurant is more than a workplace for the Wing family. According to Harris, “This is where all of our family meets.” Her daughter, Erica Harris, also of Visalia, started working at the restaurant every weekend beginning at the age of 15.

Erica, who also works as a registered nurse, says that she has memories from helping out as early as age 10, which is the same age her mother started working at the Dynasty. “There are three generations here now,” Erica recently said during one of her shifts at the restaurant. “When I started here, it was my mother, my sister, my grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins…when we have family come from out of town, they come here first because they know they'll always find their family here.”

Jennifer Wing of Hanford adds, ”This [working at the restaurant] is our daily bonding. Day in and day out, seeing each other.” Jennifer, also a fourth-generation Wing, says that it's easy to recount all the good memories of working at the Dynasty. “My favorite,” she imparts, “was when Bing Crosby was here and went upstairs to play the baby grand piano and he sang Pennies from Heaven to my Aunt Mary.” According to Jennifer, the restaurant has had its share of celebrity diners.

The Imperial Dynasty in Hanford much like Chinese dynasties of the past has many loyal followers, or simply “customers” to the Wing family. Ralph Tucci, the Executive Director of the Hanford Conference and Visitor's Agency, enjoys sharing his firsthand experience of assisting visitors who have come from all over the globe to visit the restaurant. He also notes that many San Joaquin Valley residents ride the train from Fresno or Bakersfield to have dinner at the Imperial Dynasty. There are also accounts of groups of businesspersons traveling from the East Coast to dine at the restaurant, tales of people traveling by car, train or plane to experience what Tucci describes as “an event.”

According to Hanford businessperson, Ed Broadus, a returning customer for more than twenty years, “This is the place to be and be seen if you're from Hanford.” Broadus describes the food as “amazing” and points out that the Wing family “always remember who you are and your drink of choice.”

Tucci describes eating at the Imperial Dynasty as a “real special event.” He said that he hopes they'll postpone closing until just after Chinese New Year's. “Now I look back and realize that I haven't eaten there as much as I should have. The days of the [Imperial] Dynasty as we know it, will be gone. It's been an icon and lot of it's him [Richard Wing].”

Richard Wing and his sister Harriet are just a few weeks away from retirement, but they are currently experiencing “an encore” because the Dynasty's closing date originally scheduled for the beginning of January was pushed out to the middle of February.

“It's time to retire and there's no family member to take over and no buyer,” Tucci succinctly stated.

Harriet, who has managed the Dynasty since its opening, is also the “backbone” of the family, according to Camille Wing. “She keeps the family together,” said Camille, adding, “She tells me that the first thing she's going to do [when the restaurant closes] is sleep.”

As they've been anticipating the restaurant's closing, the last couple of months have been “emotionally overwhelming” for the family, according to Arianne Wing of Hanford, who is also a fourth-generation Wing. She says that her family is grateful to the restaurant's customers. “People have been coming and telling us all these lovely stories…their own history of all these years they've spent with us,” recounts Arianne. “It just makes me realize how fortunate we've been…it's just nice to be spending these last months with so many friends and family and I wish we could thank all the people who have been so loyal to us all these years. We're seeing three or four generations of [customers'] families going through here ourselves.”

Regardless of when the Wing family closes the Imperial Dynasty's doors, its legend will live on in the stories told by five generations of Wings and the scores of delighted customers who passed through its doors.

The Imperial Dynasty is located at 2 China Alley in Hanford. The restaurant is open for dinner at 4:30pm Tues-Sun. For reservations, call 559-582-0196.

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Tule Tribal Attorney Leaving

By Claudia Elliott

Springville - The sometimes controversial attorney for the Tule River Tribal Council, Sam Cohen, has taken a job with another Indian tribe.

Cohen said last week that he has accepted a position as Tribal Administrator for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians in Santa Barbara County. He said he would start his new job this week and would continue with Tule River on several projects.

A number of messages left for both Tule River and Santa Ynez Band officials to confirm the information went unanswered by press-time this week.

Others, including Tulare County Supervisor Jim Maples reported that they have heard that Cohen is leaving Tule River for a job with the Santa Barbara County tribe.

Cohen began working with the Tule River Tribal Council around 1998, and eventually became lead in-house counsel. Although his work for the tribe included all facets of tribal business, he became known to the general public of Tulare County when he represented the tribe in its efforts to gain community acceptance of a move of the tribe’s Eagle Mountain Casino from the reservation to tribal-owned land along Highway 190 near Lake Success.

Although Cohen was busy throughout 2003 and 2004 trying to build community support for the casino move, the recall of Gov. Gray Davis and election of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003 brought changes in the state’s approach to Indian gaming. Schwarzenegger’s efforts to renegotiate Tribal Compacts and other factors clouded the Tribe’s hopes for moving the casino, and negotiations between the Tulare County Board of Supervisors and the Tule River Tribal Council stalled.

Because the Highway 190 property was not put in trust for the Tule River Tribe before a certain date, federal law concerning Indian gaming requires approval of the Governor and the Secretary of the Interior before a casino can be operated on the land.

Under Gray Davis, it appeared that the Governor’s approval could be obtained with a showing of local support for the move. Part of Cohen’s work for the Tule River Tribe included meetings with local groups and individuals in an effort to gain such support.

Cohen was also working with county staff to determine what the county would want the Tribe to do, or perhaps fund, in order to offset impacts of the proposed move.

Fifth District Supervisor Maples said Tuesday that the county saw no reason to continue the negotiations once it received a letter from Schwarzenegger’s office which Maples said showed that the governor was not in favor of the move.

“Over the years the county has worked with Sam, but unfortunately the rules and regulations for moving the casino are set at the state level and not the local level, so we were unable to help him,” Maples said.

He added that the Board of Supervisors has “great respect for the Tule River Tribal Council and look forward to working with whoever replaces Mr. Cohen.”

Cohen came under fire from some Springville area residents in late 2002 and early 2003 when he was seeking a resolution of support from the Springville Chamber of Commerce. Membership in that organization is open to all and Cohen brought a busload of tribal members and casino employees to a meeting of the chamber, passing out chamber membership applications and cash for the $30 membership fees to them.

A group organized to oppose the casino move, Citizens Against Proliferation of Gambling Casinos, claimed that Cohen was trying to “buy” the chamber’s vote.

That group made the news in March 2003 when it refused to admit Cohen to a meeting in Springville. One of the leaders of the casino opposition group, Kathleen Morgan of Springville, said at the time that she would not allow Cohen into the meeting because he had been disrespectful of her.

Eventually the Springville Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors passed a resolution of support for the Tribe’s efforts to move the casino to Highway 190, but the resolution included a number of requirements.

Cohen also worked closely with the county to set up the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund in Tulare County. He said Cohen “has done an excellent job of making sure grant applications were brought before the Tribal Council in a timely fashion and that sponsorships of grants from the tribe were presented to the distribution fund committee in a timely way.”

The grant program is funded by revenue paid to the state by Eagle Mountain Casino and provided close to half a million dollars to fund various county and other local projects last year and more than $400,000 the previous year. This year’s review cycle will begin soon.

“When we found out he was leaving we asked people to get their grant applications in early,” Hamilton said. He said he has enjoyed working with Cohen.

“He’s one of the few West coast lawyers who knows about Indian gaming and tribal law,” he said. “His shoes are going to be a bit more difficult to fill than some might suspect.”

Cohen’s legal work for the Tribe has also included review of property acquisitions including the purchase of two large ranches that adjoin the reservation. Efforts to take that land out of participation in the Williamson Act and put it into trust for the tribe continue. He has also been involved in fee-to-trust applications for tribal land at the Porterville Airport and along Highway 190.

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By George Lurie

Visalia - With California’s proposed high-speed rail project officially in limbo, Tulare County’s chances of securing a stop on the bullet train route appear -- like the project -- to be going nowhere fast.

In his recently unveiled 2006-07 budget, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has allotted just $1.298 million to fund ongoing operations at the California High-Speed Train Authority (CHSTA) – a relatively paltry amount that will allow the agency to keep its doors open but effectively, at least for the time being, derails any immediate plans to secure rights-of-way and begin constructing the high-speed intrastate train system.

Once a strong supporter of the bullet-train plan, Schwarzenegger appears to have cooled on the idea in recent months and will try to convince state lawmakers to scrap a $9.95 billion high-speed rail bond measure already on the November ballot in order to clear the way for his massive, $222.6 billion public works program.

“There is money there (in the governor’s most recent budget) to keep our office open and keep our staff here but there are no funds for the program,” said Carrie Pourvahidi, deputy director of CHSRA. “It’s disappointing. At one point, the governor took a bold position, saying that he wanted to do something very visionary for the state looking forward. We thought this project would be part of that plan. Obviously, it isn’t.”

While the mood at CHSRA is downbeat, proponents of the high-speed train, including City of Visalia officials, are not ready to throw in the towel.

“We faced this hurdle last fall when the governor said there was no money for the project,” said Visalia City Councilman Bob Link. “But I am not sure until the budget is adopted whether or not the governor will be successful in leaving that out…My perception is it’s not a done deal yet. There continues to be a real strong effort by people in certain parts of the state to create a high-speed rail system. My assumption is that there is going to be a high degree of lobbying to keep the project funded, at least at some level.”

Link confirmed that the city remains willing to fund a study to examine the feasibility of locating a bullet train stop “somewhere in this area between (Highway) 99 and the Hanford. Where that will be exactly, I don’t know. But we’re still a strong advocate for bringing high-speed rail through this area and will continue to voice those opinions.”

Visalia’s Assistant City Manager Carol Cairns echoed Link’s guarded optimism. “The desire and interest to be involved in the project on our part is still there,” said Cairns. “There is just a lot of infrastructure stuff the governor is trying to get going right now.”

Securing the funds to widen and improve Highway 99 through Tulare County is also, Cairns said, “a very important project for the city. What happens, when money is tight, is that you have competing interests and sometimes one project has to be given up to keep another one moving.”

State Finance Director Mike Genest said on Jan. 6 after the governor’s proposed 2006-07 budget was announced: "We could not afford the entire package of infrastructure (in the governor's plan) if we did the $10 billion for high-speed rail. We did not see (high-speed rail) as being affordable in a 10-year cycle."

Since its creation in 1996 by the state Legislature, CHSTA had been moving forward with plans to build a 700-mile high-speed train system serving Sacramento, the Central Valley, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Orange County and San Diego.

But the system, projected to cost between $33 and $37 billion, can not be built unless voters statewide approve a series of ballot measures.

Projected to take up to 10 years to complete, the train system could ultimately service more than 68 million annual passengers by the year 2020.

With trains operating at speeds up to 220 mph, travel time from San Francisco to Los Angeles would be just under two and a half hours.

In December of 2004, a contingent of Visalia city officials, including then mayor Link, traveled to Los Angeles in order to lobby authority board members for a Tulare County stop on the train’s proposed route between Fresno and Bakersfield.

As proponents of the project have fought for funding, city officials have continued to try to sell CHSTA board members and legislators in Sacramento on the idea including Tulare County in the bullet train plan.

“By the year 2025, we are expecting to have pretty close to a million people living in the Tulare-Kings Counties area,” said Link. “High-speed rail would be a boon for the entire region. It would help to get some of the cars off the road and positively impact the air quality here. And it would open up a tremendous amount of new options for people living in this area in terms of quickly getting to and from both Southern and Northern California.”

Most of Tulare County’s other elected officials agree. But without support from the governor and state lawmakers, the ambitious project could become a casualty of Sacramento’s next budget cycle.

Last year, the governor killed a proposal to create funding in the 2005-06 budget for a $650,000 “alignment study” of the train’s proposed route between Fresno and Bakersfield. That study would have looked at Visalia’s viability as a stop along the route.

“We were hoping that we would get funds this year to do the alignment study but none were made available,” said Pourvahidi.

If the high-speed rail project gets back on track, Pourvahidi added, “The alignment study will be completed before project-specific environmental work begins.”

Supporters of high-speed rail have vowed to try to put some funding for the project in whatever public works’ bond measure emerges from the Legislature this session.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, has introduced a $12.8 billion bond measure (SB 1024) that includes $1 billion that could be used to begin buying right-of-way for the trains.

Perata’s bill is currently being debated on the floor of the state Senate and has given officials at CHSRA a reason to hope.

“A billion dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to the project’s overall cost,” said Pourvahidi. “But if it’s approved, it would allow us to continue to keep the project moving forward.”

Visalia Assistant City Manager Cairns added: “Like a lot of folks around the state, we’ll be watching SB 1024 very closely.”

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What's New

Attention Spruce Ave. commuters! CalTrans and the County have heard your cries and will fund a new signal at Spruce Ave. and Highway 198 near Exeter. Working to erect the signal will start in July, says a CalTrans spokesperson. It's not clear when the work will be complete. The road - Ave. 204 - is a main commuter route from the Lindsay area and Porterville to Visalia and Three Rivers.

Tulare's Oak Liquidators will be relocating February 1 at the Village Shopping Center anchored by Albertsons, says shopping center owner Phil Mehan. The furniture store will take 23,200 sf next to Albertsons now that Fashion 4U has moved out. At the current Oak Liquidators shopping center, Longs is building a new store a block to the east leaving that center without two major anchors in coming months.

After some 20 years, grocer Joe Gong has closed Fairway Market on Tulare Ave. in Visalia. Gong told the Voice they had no final plan for what would happen to the 27,000 sf building, but sources say Best Buy Market owners are taking a good look at it. Gong will likely close the last Fairway market on Dinuba Highway once he builds a new Food 4 Less store in late summer of this year. Grubb and Ellis is marketing retail space in Mr. Gong's new shopping center planned just to the north of the existing Dinuba Ave. store on the new intersection at Ferguson. Gong had a third Fairway on Houston that closed down some years ago and is now the SEE & Co. complex.

Visalia car dealer Don Groppetti has agreed to buy 4 acres on S. Ben Maddox from Frank Serpa, the two confirmed to the Voice this week. Groppetti told the Voice he will use the lot for a dealership relocation, but says he hasn't made up his mind if that will be where he puts his Downtown Ford dealership. He plans to relocate the dealership sometime later this year. Groppetti owns all three lots now on S. Ben Maddox across from Giant Automotive. Serpa says he doesn't need the land right now and is contracting on building a new dealership in Hanford on 198 at 12th Ave.

Talks between Renaissance Air and the County over leasing a hanger at Sequoia Field will likely bear fruit helping efforts to rejuvenate the old county airport north of Visalia. Renaissance Air wants to use the old hanger to do a manufacturing line and will pay to fix it up, says supervisor Phil Cox. The airport is in line for some federal money - $2.5 million - to repair the taxiway and then the runway as well as erect a security fence.

Work will start on a 7 ft. sidewalk between the small farm worker towns of Cutler and Orosi on Highway 63 in a few weeks, says county redevelopment director Bill Hayter. Funding for the multi year project would enable pedestrians to walk all the way from one town to the other without being in harms way.

Walmart plans to supply its new Dinuba store with groceries around April, says Dinuba city manager Ed Todd. That would make Dinuba the first Super Walmart operation here, although Hanford's Super Walmart may open around the same time. Also scheduled to open in our area - the Visalia Super Walmart at the existing Noble Ave. site later in 2006 and Tulare at a new location on the south side of 99 once an EIR is approved on the project. In question is a planned Super Walmart in Porterville. Further down the line - a Lemoore Super Walmart.

Ivex Packaging who broke off from Alcoa's Reynolds Packaging division recently is relocating to 7530 Sunnyview in the Visalia Industrial Park leasing 50,000 sf from the Allen Group.

Fresno developer Diversified Development - John Bresford has filed plans for four more industrial buildings to the east of his Plaza Ave. developments. One is a huge 550,000 sf tilt-up building that could begin construction later this year. Bresford usually doesn't put up buildings unless he thinks he can fill them with tenants.

B. Dalton Bookstore has closed at the Visalia Mall after the holidays and KB Toys next door to the bookstore is also leaving. Rumored to be looking at the larger space - none other than Abercrombie and Fitch - the teen clothing store with those posters of topless men models. The same company also runs Hollister - a slightly downscale version that could be coming. If you have a teen shopper - hold on to your wallet.

Downtown's first new medical building Acequia Medical Plaza - a 14,000 sf 2-story complex at Acequia and Conyer, will open later this month. Owned by KEDB Investment, the office will be the new home for Dr. Larry Nava, Dr. Tom Cook and Dr. Joy Torakawa with some 700 sf still to be leased, says broker Doug Burr.

The city has hired a Fresno private investigator to look into the Visalia airport fire station's lack of response to an air crash report last week. Employees involved in the case were put on administrative leave and findings are expected to be presented to fire chief George Sandoval. A crash of a small plane that killed 4 people was reported to the fire station at 6:45 p.m. But no one apparently responded. The wreckage was found by other city personnel after a family member called councilman Don Landers. The wreckage wasn't spotted until 10:15.

Visalia city council voted 4 to 1 to build two new police precinct stations despite cost overruns. The north side and south side precincts will cost $7.2 million. Council member Greg Collins suggested building just one station for now because the city will have to borrow from the general fund. But city finance chief Eric Frost suggested the city's Measure T funds and increased public safety impact fees paid by new development will pay back $4 million borrowed from the general fund.

Visalia city council voted 4 to 1 to annex 160 acres north of Riggin into the city for use by heavy industry to add to the Visalia Industrial Park. Collins questioned the fact that a portion of the property was not properly protested as it is in the Williamson Act. City officials say the land is needed to serve a lack of large parcels in the industrial park. One 1.2 million sf distribution center has looked at 100 acres there. The company would reportedly hire 400 if they landed in Visalia.

Tulare civil engineer Mike Lane will release a report in coming weeks regarding flooding in several northwest Visalia subdivisions. Lane says so far he has found construction of a basin not complete - partially filled in so it could not handle storm water even though a large geographic area drained to the location with a 48 inch pipe. "It looks like a due diligence problem," Lane told the Voice. A rain storm dropped more than 3 inches on Visalia overwhelming the city's capacity to hold the flood water and damaging some homes. Westland Development who built one flooded subdivision - Cobblestone - hired Lane to study what happened. The city is making their own assessment of the reasons why - but some say mother nature is to blame. Probably enough blame to go around.

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by Tom Wells

Kings County - Government-speak certainly is interesting. That's especially true when it's heard by someone with a vested interest in the subject under discussion. In this case, that person is the deputy director of the Kings County Association of Governments, Terri King. And the subject is the Highway 198 project, which would create a four-lane expressway from Highway 99 to Highway 43, just outside Hanford.

Late last year, King attended a meeting in which the California Transportation Commission, the state Caltrans headquarters and Caltrans District 6 (based in Fresno) held a teleconference about upcoming projects within that jurisdiction. The teleconference included a reference to the Highway 198 project: no funds have been made available by the state for construction of the expressway during the next State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) cycle. Translation: absolutely nothing will be done in that regard until the end of the decade, if then.

King says she was the only stakeholder to show up at that meeting and technically shouldn't have been allowed in, but the state Caltrans head found her initiative admirable and granted her access on the proviso that she simply be a quiet observer. "I was just that," King told me, "until the subject of the Highway 198 project came up. When they said that no money had been allocated for the expressway for the upcoming STIP, I just had to ask a question."

The KCAG deputy director was given permission to speak and inquired if the lack of funding changed the status of the 198 expressway plan. King says she was assured that it didn't: it wasn't being taken off the District 6 list of to-do projects nor had it been officially delayed. It was simply in suspended animation, so to speak, for lack of funding. One could also read that to mean a lack of priority at the state level, as well.

Since that time, the Kings County Association of Governments has been struggling with the idea of what to do with the monies they are getting from the state for the 06/07-10/11 STIP cycle of funding. The money had been allocated for local road rehabilitation with the hope that it could be diverted to the Highway 198 Project to supplement state funding and get at least part of the expressway under construction in the very near future. But with the state deciding no money will be forthcoming for 198 for the next five years, the funds can be spent on local road rehabilitation or other projects within Kings County.

King said the whole board of KCAG met recently and chose to use the $13.3 million that would have gone toward the expressway in ways that might help facilitate the construction of that project when the state finally commits some monies to it. So KCAG turned its attention to Phase I of a proposed three-phase approach to constructing the Highway 198 Project, upgrading the freeway interchange at 12th Ave. or doing the same at 19th Ave.

To quote King, "There's no way we could afford to add enough to the $13.3 M to be able to do a Highway 198 Phase I on our own and 19th Ave. isn't that busy yet." That left 12th Ave. as the project of choice. She says that with all the development on the west edge of Hanford, that interchange is already becoming a bottleneck. So KCAG will program funds to begin construction of an upgraded interchange in 2010.

The total cost of the project is expected to be $15 million, with the difference made up by mitigation fees from Hanford's coffers. The $13.3M from the state will be used for the design, environmental impact report, right-of-way and construction of the 12th Ave. project. King says they'll program about $1.5 million for design of the new interchange at 19th Ave. And since the state requires counties to reevaluate and reprogram their transportation plans every two years, anything leftover in 2008 (next reprogram year) will be set aside for possible use in Phase I of the 198 expressway construction.

Now the 06/07 to 10/11 STIP cycles includes more than $20 million in funding for Kings County transportation improvement; that leaves about $9.5M unallocated. So what's that all about? According to King, it's being used as a carrot for the state, being left for use in 2010 when the next STIP cycle budget planning begins. It would be offered to Caltrans as matching funds providing the state starts kicking in monies for the long-needed and long-awaited expressway construction. She says the ramping up of the 12th Ave. interchange is also aimed at the state as an act of good faith, indicating Kings County's dedication to upgrading its major east-west highway. And that's only if the budgetary reprogramming of '08 or '10 doesn't take away that pot of nearly ten million dollars.

To those who would fault KCAG and Caltrans District 6 for not going ahead and trying to work around the state budget restraints, King says: "We're not forgetting about the Highway 198 Expressway Project; we're just trying to get the state to do its share." Let's hope the stakeholders succeed in reaching their goal and that it happens sooner rather than later.

UPDATE - January 12, 2006

This article was written at the beginning of the month. Since then, Gov. Schwarzenegger has released his proposed budget for 06/07Ba document that included some $2.3 billion dollars for transportation projects. So how, if at all, does this largesse based on unexpected state revenue affect the Highway 198 Expressway Project?.

I turned once again to Terri King for an answer. She explained that the budget draft would transfer Proposition 42 funds into the Transportation Congestion Relief Program and the State Transportation Improvement Program cycle (06/07-10/11) for use on lists of transportation construction projects. Assuming that $2.3B survives the budgetary process, funds earmarked for the 198 project would continue to flow (like the nearly $14M from the last STIP cycle that's been reprogrammed) and that would increase the chances of Kings County actually receiving the monies promised so that Phase I of construction could begin in 2010.

Unfortunately, there are some big snags. First and foremost is the rising cost of construction. The original estimate of $33M is expected to nearly double by 2010. Also, we must remember that the budget adopted by the legislature and signed by the governor may be drastically different from this draft proposal, and that could mean a partial or even full loss of the $2.3B.

And then there's the wording of Prop. 42 (known as the Transportation Congestion Improvement Act) that allows the governor to divert TCRP funds for non-transportation uses in times of fiscal emergency. Gov. Schwarzenegger has invoked that power in the last two budgets, which is why this budget proposal's restoration of Prop. 42 funds is so important. Yet the state's financial situation could worsen by next year and he might decide once again to use those monies to balance the budget. That's why legislation has already been proposed to amend the state constitution to remove the fiscal emergency language from Prop. 42, making it illegal for those gas tax and other transportation-related revenues to be used for anything but transportation.

Put simply, says King, the best-case scenario for the impact of this proposed budget on the Highway 198 Expressway Project is that construction of Phase I might really get started in 2010. Better late than never.

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Visalia - A hearing will be held Jan. 24 at the Superior Courthouse in Visalia to try to settle a dispute between Kaweah River Rock and a local environmental group suing to stop the company's "South" project in Woodlake.

The focus of the dispute: a proposed new gravel mine designed to produce a million tons per year of aggregate over a 20-year lifespan.

The project, approved on a unanimous vote by the Board of Supervisors in June 2005, is being opposed by Valley Citizens for Water, who claims the County -- and supervisors – have been remiss in following the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

"Under CEQA guidelines, it is the responsibility of the county to prevent irreparable harm to the environment and protect citizen's health, safety and welfare of communities in the vicinity of Kaweah River Rock's proposed aggregate mine," stated a press release issued by the group this week.

The environmental group, which will be represented at the hearing by Caroline Farrell, an attorney with the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, is charging that commissioners made last-minute revisions to the project without allowing the public adequate time to comment.

The project's slow start is frustrating to David Harrald, Kaweah River Rock's general manager.

"We are awaiting our day in court but view this suit as just another delay," Harrald said this week. "Unfortunately, this comes at a time when the availability of aggregate is already very short."

Harrald said in recent months contractors, builders, owners and public agencies including the County have all been scrambling to secure aggregate for their projects.

"These delays are costing a lot of people a lot of money," he said.

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Visalia - With great excitement, the Southern Sierra Cyclists and Trisportbike Visalia Cycling team announces the return of organized, sanctioned bicycle racing to Exeter and Visalia, California with the historically sought-out Sequoia Cycling Classic on 18 and 19 March 2006.

The Sequoia Cycling Classic started in the late 1980's and quickly became part of the most prestigious and competitive races that draw the best participation by professional teams. Historically, the race drew top U.S. and international riders including teamates of Lance Armstrong (America's Seven-time Tour de France champion), Bobby Julich (3rd place in the 1998 Tour de France), Davis Phinney (one of cycling's greatest sprinters of all time), Roberto Gaggioli (winner of over 2,000 career races), Alexi Grewal (the 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the Road Race), and many other elite cycling athletes.

This event consistently drew enormous crowds of spectators who lined the streets of downtown Visalia and proudly welcomed pro and amateur racers into host families' homes in the community. Coverage by the Visalia Times-Delta, the Fresno Bee, the Valley Voice, and Channel 30 News of Fresno offered positive publicity and promotion for our sponsors and the community.

The Sequoia Cycling Classic will include a weekend of racing where amateur and professional racers, triathletes and even recreational riders will race against the elements and others. After an exciting Time Trial on Saturday morning in which the cyclist will face the "Race of Truth", Saturday evening will draw racers, their families and friends to downtown Exeter for a block party in anticipation of Sunday's Criterium. Sunday's criterium race will feature an .8-mile course loop where eight heats of amateur and professional racers will compete for prize money and merchandise as they navigate the streets surrounding downtown businesses, restaurants and public venues such as Wildflower Café at speeds up to 35 mph. A central "plaza" area will draw spectators to the center of the course, where they'll find a food court, vendor displays, outdoor tables and great spectator views of the day's races. Race announcers will simulcast the race's adventures, advertise local business sponsorship and entertain spectators.

Families are needed to host many of the professional and elite cyclist traveling from all over the Nation to compete here in our beautiful valley. To volunteer to be a "host family" or to volunteer to assist the race organization, please email sequoiacycling@hotmail.com

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Visalia - An experiment of solar proportions takes wing beginning this month at Visalia Municipal Airport. The goal of the experiment: to garner enough energy from the sun to partially operate one of the airport's key buildings.

For the past several months, city officials have been supervising the installation of two sleek arrays of shiny black solar panels at the airport.

One hundred and fifty panels were mounted on top of a new parking lot canopy immediately west of the Business Aviation terminal; 21 panels were attached to a new awning on the south side of the terminal facing the airport's runways.

San Luis Obispo-based Deventec, Inc., a solar contractor, was awarded the contract by the City to install the 30,000-watt system.

City officials are hoping the "photovoltaic energy generation system" will provide at least half -- and possibly as much as two-thirds -- of the power necessary to operate the business terminal, which is located adjacent to the main terminal.

Both the awning that was added to the south side of the business terminal and the sleek, Darth Vader-black parking lot canopy, erected above a row of parking spaces between the business and main terminals, also serve as a shade structures, doubling up on the effectiveness of the energy-generating panels.

If the power-generation experiment proves to be a success, said Sharon Sheltzer, project manager for the City of Visalia's Community Development Department, additional solar-powered energy systems could be installed at other appropriate City-owned facilities across Visalia.

Presently, according to Sheltzer, Visalia has plans to partner with the Tulare County Housing Authority to provide photovoltaic energy generation to a workforce housing development.

That will help to reduce utility bills for lower income residents, said Sheltzer.

The airport project's total cost was $260,000. But because the solar system qualified for a rebate of $84,000 from the California Energy Commission, which was funded by Southern California Edison, not state taxpayers, the city's solar energy experiment comes with a tab of $175,000 – an investment city officials calculate will be paid back within 13 years.

"With the exception of minor maintenance costs," Sheltzer said, "the units can be expected to continue to provide free electricity for many years after the point (it pays for itself)."

On a partly sunny afternoon on January 4, Airport Manager Mario Cifuentez and Sheltzer, followed along as Neil Lahey and Joel Weiss from Deventec explained how the photovoltaic system operates.

Then they switched it on.

"Each array of 195-watt panels is arranged in strings and connected by eight-gage wire," Lahey explained. "They feed one of six inverters, which convert the DC power generated by the panels into AC power to run the building's systems."

The panels come with a 25-year warranty – "although they should last 40 to 50 years," Lahey explained. "Although every component of the system is weather-proofed, it's a good idea to pressure wash the panels whenever you can," Weiss added. "Their efficiency decreases slightly when they get dusty or dirty."

Sheltzer said city officials directed Deventec to design a system that would fit in well with the airport's existing architecture. "We wanted a flight theme in the design we chose," she said, motioning toward the wing-like array of panels. "We're very pleased about the way it turned out."

Airport Manager Cifuentez said that three rows of T-hangers at the facility will also be powered by the new solar system. The T-hangers accommodate seven to eight aircraft each.

"If this works out and the return on investment is what we expect or better," said Cifuentez, "we could very well decide to expand this type of system at the airport."

The city-owned airport operates as an Enterprise Fund and is not supported by General Fund tax dollars. "

All of our revenue is generated by the airport's operations – land leases, fuel sales, hanger rentals and other user fees," Cifuentz explained, "and we're hoping this new (solar) system can reduce our overall energy dependence."

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