Report: Fire Captain, Engineer Bear Primary Responsibility

By George Lurie

Visalia - On Thursday, the Valley Voice was allowed by a confidential informant to review the report by Fresno private investigator Scott Nelson into the city's response to the Jan. 13 plane crash at Visalia Municipal Airport. Excerpts from that report follow:

"…the report of an aviation accident by a member of the public at an individual fire station is an extremely rare occurrence…Furthermore, there is apparently no departmental policy requiring that the company captain personally receive reports of emergencies provided by persons responding to the individual fire stations…"

"Although it was clearly Captain (John) Wafford's command prerogative which ultimately led to the failure to respond to the witness report of the accident, the facts indicate responsibility for this failure must be shared at some level by Engineer (Shane) Yoder…As the only member of the department to have contact with the reporting party, Yoder bore a substantial duty to obtain all the information about the accident that Mr. Ludlow could reasonably provide, and then to accurately and completely convey this information in the proper context to Captain Wafford."

"With respect to [Firefighter] Jimenez, the examination revealed he was occupied in another part of the fire station when Engineer Yoder's contact with Mr. Ludlow occurred…Jimenez himself never had any contact with Mr. Ludlow…[and] evidence indicates Jimenez played no active role in the decision-making process."

Battalion Chief Charlie Norman also takes some heat in the private investigator's report for "not disclosing this information (about the witness report of the crash) up through the chain of command." (Norman has received a written reprimand related to his handling of the incident.)

"The investigation revealed no direct evidence which clearly indicated the existence of an intentional failure to disclose, or that an actual cover-up was attempted. This is not to say that such did not occur or was not attempted, but simply that the investigation is inconclusive in this regard."

"There is no direct evidence to indicate that members of the Visalia Fire Department conspired with one another to intentionally avoid disclosing the prior witness report of the aviation accident up through the chain of command. Similarly, no direct evidence exists to indicate they attempted to engage in a cover-up in hopes that the prior report of the witness would not be revealed."

The report concludes: "Fire Captain John Wafford bears primary responsibility for this failure…Although it may be said that Engineer Yoder could have done more to relate details of his contact with Mr. Ludlow through the chain of command, it appears he technically acted consistent with departmental policy and his training by notifying his immediate supervisor of his contact with Mr. Ludlow in a timely fashion. Thus, the quality of his report to his immediate supervisor notwithstanding, there does not appear to be any obvious failure on the part of Engineer Yoder in this regard…Firefighter Thomas Jimenez bears no personal responsibility for this failure."

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Crash Inquiry: Firefighter’s Attorney Says More to Story

By George Lurie

Visalia - More than six weeks after the first fatal plane crash in the 79-year history of the Visalia Municipal Airport, there are still more questions than answers, especially about why firefighters at a fire station next to the airport failed to respond to an eyewitness report of the Jan. 13 incident, which claimed four lives.

Three Visalia firefighters remain on paid administrative leave and city officials are promising to release more information about their investigation into the incident soon.

Assistant City attorney Alex Peltzer said Wednesday morning as the Valley Voice was going to press that part of the city's “internal review process” had been completed. “That will allow us to release certain information in the next few days,” Peltzer said. “But there are still some administrative appeal rights and so the case law dictates that we can't make all of the information public yet.”

Visalia attorney Richard Rumery, who is representing one of the firefighters involved, said this week: “I'm of the opinion that a lot more of what is going on here should be made public.”

But Rumery said he understands the position of city officials, who have stated repeatedly since the day after the crash, that because the incident involves “personnel matters,” the release of certain key details regarding the firefighters' involvement must be handled “with sensitivity” and according to the standards of employment law.

“I can say,” Rumery added, “that in terms of my client's side of this, there is much more to the story than has been reported so far.”

Airport manager Mario Cifuentez, responding to a call from concerned family members, returned to the airport around 10:30 pm on Jan. 13 and discovered the plane's wreckage while searching the fields that surround the runway.

A subsequent National Transportation Safety Board investigation confirmed that the Piper Twin Comanche piloted by Visalian Bernard “Bernie” Sinor crashed short of the south end of the runway and that Sinor, 67, his wife, Betty Ann, 57, and their two grandchildren Jorjanna McKeah Plumlee, 6, and Kyndal Crystine Plumlee, 3, of Brentwood, all died upon impact.

Four hours before Cifuentez discovered the crash site, Geoff Ludlow saw the plane going down as he was driving past the airport and reported it to firefighters at Fire Station #3, which is located just east of the airport runway.

“I just happened to be rounding the corner and saw the plane bank hard and hit the ground,” said Ludlow, 42, who runs a Visalia-based nonprofit Christian ministry.

Ludlow, who has been interviewed extensively by NTSB officials and investigators from the fire department and city manager's office, said that after seeing the plane go down, he “went to the fire station and rang the doorbell. One of the firefighters came out and I described what I'd seen.

“It was dark and once the plane hit the ground, you couldn't see anything,” he continued. “There was no smoke or fire. The firefighter I talked to outside the station said they had not received any calls about a plane going down and said that sometimes planes 'come in real hard.' He asked me: 'Are you sure you didn't see something like that?' But eventually, before I left, he said: 'We'll check into it.'”

Ludlow said that he was “pretty shook up” when he reported the crash and didn't get the name of the fireman he talked to.

“When I left, I assumed he took me seriously,” Ludlow said.

After leaving Fire Station #3, Ludlow drove around the airport's perimeter for a while. “I couldn't see anything, which I thought was odd,” he said.

Eventually, he left the scene in order to pick up his children.

Ludlow still has no idea why airport firefighters did not respond to his report and wishes that he had called 911.

“The weeks since the crash have been pretty difficult,” he said. “The [Sinor] family has been very gracious toward me and my family. This was a huge tragedy and I can not even imagine what they must be going through.

“Obviously, something went wrong that night,” he added. “With an event like this, there's a lot of misinformation and second-guessing. I don't want to put any fuel to that at all.”

Cifuentez still does not know what personnel were on duty at the airport fire station that night and why they didn't respond to the eyewitness report. “And right now, I don't want to know,” he said. “I am purposely staying away from the personnel aspect of the investigation.”

As a result of the crash inquiry, Cifuentez said that airport officials have posted a number of new signs at the airport and on the front door of Fire Station #3. The bright red signs offer instructions on how to get assistance locating lost or overdue aircraft.

“I think our airport emergency plan was already pretty solid,” Cifuentz said. “The new signs will provide the public with more information about what to do after hours in the event that they see trouble or are waiting for a flight that's overdue.”

The morale at Fire Station #3 remains good according to several firefighters working there this week.

“We all look at each other as brothers,” said one. “We've got three people out on administrative leave here and we're just as anxious to know what's going on as the rest of the city."

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Disturbing Trend: Big Spike in ‘Drug Babies’ Born in County

By George Lurie

Tulare County - A significant increase in the number of drug-exposed infants born recently in Tulare County is causing concerns among area health officials.

During the past two years, the number of so-called “drug babies” born at the area’s three hospitals has shot up by more than 40 percent.

“This is a very serious and alarming trend,” said Mary Ontiveros, division manager for maternal child health services in Tulare County.

Like many healthcare professionals, Ontiveros believes the nationwide methamphetamine epidemic is partly responsible for the increase in drug-exposed infants – sometimes called “crank babies.”

Hospital and healthcare workers call the babies DEIs. Some are reported to child welfare services shortly after they are born but many others slip through the system’s cracks and are not being identified until they reach school-age.

“The only DEI statistics we’re getting are the ones based on those caught at the hospital,” said Nancy Loliva, media specialist for Tulare County’s Department of Health and Human Services. “By law, we have a protocol with the area’s hospitals to identify whether or not an infant has been drug exposed. All three hospitals have signed off on that protocol,” Loliva added. “But it’s not a perfect system.”

Recent statistics are alarming: From July of 2003 through June 2004, area hospitals reported 192 DEIs to the county’s high-risk infant program. From July 2004 through June 2005, reported DEI cases rose to 269 – a 42 percent increase.

So far this fiscal year, which still has five months to run, some 168 DEIs have been reported to the county’s Child Welfare Services.

Kaweah Delta District Hospital CEO Lindsay Mann recently toured the Intensive Care Unit with his top pediatric staff and received an update on the severity of the DEI problem.

“Babies born addicted to methamphetamine face lifelong mental and physical impairments. It’s a real tragedy,” said Mann.

Mann recently asked Congressman Devin Nunes for extra Congressional funding to help educate the public about this problem.

Staff at Porterville’s Sierra View District hospital also confront the problem on a daily basis.

“We are definitely seeing an increase in drug-exposed babies born at the hospital,” said Lucie Garcia, a spokesperson for Sierra View.

Garcia said nurses at Sierra View have “few if any clues” before an infant is born that the mother used drugs.

“We offer pre-natal classes at the hospital,” said Garcia. “But we can’t screen mothers for potential drug use. That is something their primary care physician would have to do something about.”

Garcia said hospital workers have only one option when they encounter a drug-exposed infant.

“Any time a newborn tests positive for drugs,” she said, “we have to report the case to Child Protective Services. Then the county takes over from there.”

When CPS is notified of a DEI, a case worker is immediately dispatched to the reporting hospital. Depending on the circumstances, CPS case workers have the option of temporarily removing the drug-exposed infant from its parents’ custody. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.

Loliva said that about a year and a half ago, in response to the increase in DEIs, the county started the Prenatal Substance Abuse Ad Hoc committee. “That group is looking at ways we can create more awareness about the dangers of exposing infants to illegal drugs as well as to legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco.”

The county received a grant from Tulare County First Five to create the Outreach for Healthy Pregnancy program, which helps county health officials promote media awareness about what some are fearing could become a DEI epidemic.

Billboards began going up around the county last March which read: “Mommy to be, be drug-free.”

The theme, according to Ontiveros, was actually developed by a group of mothers in drug recovery programs.

Also last year, radio ads also began popping up on stations around the county promoting healthy pregnancy and prenatal behaviors.

“We’re still trying to figure out how we are going to use this grant to reach more people,” said Ontiveros, who noted that intervening early in a mother’s pregnancy “is the key to halting this disturbing trend.

Getting to women before they ever get pregnant and helping them understand that using any kind of substance – including alcohol or tobacco – during pregnancy can have “significant, detrimental lifelong effects on their infant” is one of the keys to reversing the recent trend, Ontiveros said.

“Unfortunately,” she added, “statistics show that almost half of the pregnancies in the state are unplanned.”

A recent study by the California Department of Health Services reported that some 46 percent of pregnancies statewide are unplanned.

And the DEI problem is not limited to the poor and undereducated.

“This is an issue across a wide variety of the socio-economic spectrum,” said Ontiveros. “One recent survey revealed alcohol use among pregnant women was highest among college graduates. Another study released within the last year showed that, nationwide, as many as five percent of all pregnant mothers test positive for meth.”

Drug-exposed babies suffer from a wide variety of serious ailments including heart and brain problems, distorted facial features and severe developmental delays.

Babies born to mothers who use methamphetamine, cocaine or other “hard” drugs during pregnancy are two to six times more likely to be under weight at birth and 40 times more likely to die in their first month. And those babies who do survive are at increased risk of life-long disabilities including mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and visual and hearing impairments.

“Meth use by the mother creates many of the same problems in infants as alcohol abuse,” said Ontiveros. “And most people who are abusing illegal drugs are also abusing alcohol.”

Ontiveros said the DEIs, after they are born, are often extra sensitive to touch and sound and are hard to physically comfort.

Motherhood is a serious undertaking, Loliva said, and the alarming increase in the number of DEIs is a problem that can only be solved if mothers “choose to act responsibly and put concerns for the health of their baby before their own desire to use and abuse drugs and alcohol.”

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Farm Milk Prices Spiraling Down

Tulare County - Farm milk prices have been spiraling down in recent weeks says CEO of California Dairies Gary Korsmeier. He fears deteriorating prices could last months or more likely extend through most of 2006.

"It could take that long to correct them."

Korsmeier says there is just too much milk being produced right now with the nations milk supply up 5.4 percent for the year. “We used see to that kind of expansion just in California.”

In California dairymen produced 5.1 percent more milk in January 2006 than in January 2005 according to the CDFA partly due to warm weather, ideal for making milk.

The drop in commodity prices just since January 1 has been dramatic with a 25 cent decrease in barrels of cheese and likewise for butter, now at, near or below government support prices and over 45 cents below a year ago.

Cheese is selling for $1.10 per lb this week and butter is $1.15, each a low not seen in three years. Inventory in cold storage has increased.

Korsmeier says the average price dairymen got in 2004 was $13.89 per hundred weight, compared to an average of $13.17 last year and predictions of as low as $10.50 in 2006. He is quoting the so-called overbase price. The $10 level is reminiscent of the tough period for dairymen in 2002/2003.

The news affects Tulare County where milk is the number one commodity.

The old joke seems to fit that when the dairymen get high prices for milk they want to produce more and when they get low prices they want to produce more.

The permanent solution was for the big diary co-ops who produce the most milk to join to together to retire cows a plan they have followed through on three times in the past year and will likely do again.

Korsmeier says the nationwide group Cooperatives Working Together, which includes California Dairies, will meet next week to come up with a plan to boost prices. That could mean paying dairymen for the exports of the dairy products to help clear inventory.

Dairymen are adding cows to their herd and coaxing more milk out of Bessie as well. California added 33,000 cows in the past year and an average cow produces an extra 55 pounds of milk.

Dairymen have used various technologies to increase their production over the years and there is new technology that could bolster production as well.

Some dairymen give their cows the growth hormone rBST to make more milk. UC Davis dairy economist Bees Butler says about 30 percent of California dairymen use rBST on about 50 percent of their cows.

A long standing dispute over the use of the hormone developed in part through the University of California Davis was resolved this week with UC Davis getting $100 million royalty and 15 cents per dose through 2023 from Mansanto.

Dairy broker John Grimmius says he fears a technology that will allow dairymen to select the sex of their young, choosing heifers of course and that will produce an oversupply of milking cows in the future.

CDFA has accepted a petition to study the so called make allowance price for the milk. A hearing is set for June. The petition would cut produce prices by 43 cents per cwt. The Dairy Institute of California representing private cheese plants argued that after an average 3.6 percent increase in milk production yearly since 2000, the states milk processors are unable to absorb more. The 3.6 percent increase amounts to 1.2 billion lbs of milk each year that needs a home. But they say only one new plant is being built in the South Valley (California Dairies in Visalia).

The Dairy Institute says a deteriorating business climate in California and high energy and business costs here have driven up the expense to open cheese plants providing a disincentive to expand.

But that same climate is hitting producers too, argues Western United Dairymen. The one two punch, lower market prices and an extra 43 cents taken by the processors will cause many to go out of business fears WUDs Michael Marsh.

"It looks like a rocky ride ahead", says the California Dairy Alliance, the group that represents the states big milk co-ops. The good news is that producers have had two fat years when they could have paid down debt and saved up for this down period we are now entering.

For the Tulare and Kings County economy, this isnt good news as local dairymen tighten their grip on their wallets. Of course the processors, they seem to be in the same boat.

If there is one trend that seems to define the commodities market in recent weeks its volatility. Whether its metal or natural gas, wild swings, down for now, are unsettling the market. Consider a basic commodity natural gas used for farm fertilizer, heat and making electricity pretty basic things. Natural gas futures have plummeted from nearly $15 per MMBTU to $6.50 this week, a 150 percent drop.

Dairymen can be thankful milk prices have fallen only about 80 percent from their high on the Chicago Mercantile exchange since April of 2004.

It makes it difficult to run a dairy when your commodity is on a roller coaster ride. Thats why dairies sometimes welcome government intervention. If your natural gas well isnt making money, can shut it down one weekend and crank it up the next. Bessie on the other hand, nor your banker, wont consider that arrangement.

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Ishida Joins Conservancy; Pushes Expanded Recreational Opportunities

By Claudia Elliott

Tulare County - Supervisor Allen Ishida is Tulare County's first representative to the Board of Directors of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, a state agency established by legislation signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in September of 2004.

The primary purpose is to allocate funding for environmental preservation while providing support for economic sustainability across 25 million acres from the Oregon border to Kern County.

The conservancy board includes six county supervisors, one each from the six sub-regions of the Sierra. Tulare, Kern, Fresno, and Madera counties comprise the South Sierra Sub-Region. Early last year a supervisor from each of those four counties met in Visalia to determine how the area would be represented on the board. By drawing, they determined that the counties would rotate representation in the following order: Fresno, Tulare, Kern, and Madera.

Because the conservancy was new and the legislation provided for staggered terms, the first term of representation for the South Sierra Region ended in December. Fresno County Supervisor Bob Waterston was on the board through last year, participating in some of the early organization.

The legislation creating the conservancy provides that the county supervisors who sit as representatives of the Sub-Regions must represent areas that include land within the conservancy. Other members of the board include appointees of the Governor and legislature and representatives of other state and federal agencies.

Following the most recent meeting of the board, held Thursday, Feb. 23, in Sacramento, Ishida said he had discussed the board's earlier activities with Waterston and learned that not much happened last year as the agency was still in its organizational phase. Meetings were held in each of the Sub-Regions, including a meeting in Fresno, and an executive officer was hired.

At the most recent meeting, the board selected Auburn as the site of its interim headquarters. A number of communities around the state tried to lure the agency, which is expected to have 20 employees and $3.9 million average annual budget. Tulare County was not in the running for the headquarters location because it did not meet the criteria of proximity to Sacramento.

Ishida said he didn't know what to expect prior to the meeting.

“It looked like there is a local government focus,” he said. “I'm glad for that.”

During the legislative battle to form the conservancy, a compromise was reached to include elected officials from the Sierra counties on the board. As Ishida noted, the influence of the supervisors showed during the recent meeting, although the Senate Rules Committee's representative on the board, former Sen. Byron Sher, made a case for requiring projects to be funded to be “regional” rather than local in nature.

A speaker before the board, Elizabeth “Izzy” Martin of the Sierra Fund, an organization which played an important part in sponsoring creating of the conservancy, told members that it's important to include the “users” of the Sierra, including residents of Los Angeles and San Francisco. She asked the board to look for ways to get input from these people in their deliberations.

Ishida said he disagrees.

“The people in the individual watersheds [of the Sierra] need to have input, not LA or San Francisco,” he said.

He noted that more work needs to be done locally to ensure that Tulare County and the other counties of the South Sierra region get their share of funding. Locally, he said he expects that the Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG) could become involved.

One of the areas Ishida hopes the conservancy may help Tulare County is in providing grants to help expand recreational opportunities in the mountains.

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With Train Traffic Up - Time To Double Track Says Mayor

San Joaquin Valley - The ports of California are humming with ships lined up just offshore qued up to unload their cargo.

With imports into the Golden State breaking records and a healthy export market to the Far East using the same ports to ship out, ground transportation is backed up too.

Train traffic is up significantly in California, says Lena Kent, spokesperson for BNSF Railway, one of two major rail companies in California. “Three years ago we were sending 30 trains a day up the valley. Today that number is about 50.”

Because of the volume of traffic, BNSF has invested in double tracking the main route through central California both north and south of Hanford. Likewise in Fresno, the company is double tracking around the Fig Garden area to allow freight trains to continue to run rather than wait on the side track while Amtrak passenger trains go by. CalTrans is paying $13 million to build the extra track.

But on their main line through the valley - Union Pacific has not persued double tracking to any degree, says Kingsburg mayor Leland Bergstrom, despite a major increase in train traffic on the line that runs up Highway 99.

“I am watching 125 car train go up and down the valley,” says Bergstrom who claims some trains are 2 miles long. Bergstrom sits on the San Joaquin Valley Rail Committee as an advisory group to CalTrans. CalTrans is a partner with the federal government funding the Amtrak passenger services in the state. Bergstrom has been lobbying the local advisory group and CalTrans to pressure the Union Pacific to double track their line with some public funds to help pay for it - if they allow passenger trains to run on the UP (Highway 99) line. Union Pacific who bought the line from Southern Pacific in 1996 has resisted the idea.

“The eastside of the valley is where the large population is,” says Bergstrom and over in Hanford “they don’t want any more trains.”

While some hope California will approve a High Speed rail line through the central valley, Bergstrom says we could have passenger service and better freight movement sooner if monies were allocated to double track the UP line.

While attention has been pointed at the effort to upgrade Highway 99 to three lines on each side little has been made of the need to upgrade train service that could help de-clog Highway 99.

One sign of hope, Bergstrom is lobbying CalTrans on its plan to upgrade the segment of 99 between Kingsburg and Goshen in the next few years to include a new crossing for trains over the Kings River that would allow double tracking both to the north and south of the river. CalTrans interim director Alan McCuen confirms they “are studying the issue.”

Bergstrom says all of the cities up and down 99 are supportive of his effort to get Union Pacific to allow passenger trains on their line. He says he is working with Congressman Jim Costa - a rail buff himself - to shake some money lose to provide the incentive UP might need as well as some political pressure.

Union Pacific is making rail improvements in some of their hubs and have added double tracks and even quadruple tracks in some segments of their nationwide line - the nation’s biggest. The company website says as much as a quarter of their rail traffic originates in southern California.

Both rail companies have seen rail traffic boom even as they have seen record profits to go with it. Union Pacific’s 2005 net income was up 70% while BNSF net was up 93% in 2005.

Union Pacific spokesperson Mark Davis says for the past several years the railroad has experienced about a 5% increase in carloads each year. He says the company is carrying more lumber, bricks and intermodel cargo cars unloaded from ships, cars and car parts. Davis says the goal is speed transportation to releive the crush of freight. But it’s happening slowly. The average train is running in the 20 mph range that includes waiting at stopping points. “Over 400 miles we can deliver faster than trucks,” claims Davis.

Asked if Union Pacific would listen to leaders in the central valley who are requesting the railroad consider allowing Amtrack on their rail line perhaps with some public funds to help double track, Davis says the company “is open to dialogue” on such joint ventures that have been implemented elsewhere around the nation. He suggest local leaders contact the Union Pacific Sacramento office.

Nationwide 40% of the nation’s freight moves by truck. In California trucking has dominated the freight traffic with about 68% by loads according to the University of California 2001 study. But in recent years as port traffic in LA and Oakland has boomed nationwide companies are having a tough time finding enough truck drivers. State highways are clogged.

Bergstrom says since the early days of Southern Pacific “they never let Amtrak come in” on the 99 corridor even though “the fare box is here,” the population centers along that same corridor. That has been the argument the city of Visalia has made to the High Speed Rail Authority as well. Bergstrom says he believes a station near the Visalia airport can act as an Amtrak train station as well as a potential high speed rail station in the future. He believes more effort to use the tracks to move freight in this smoggy valley is inevitable.

Bergstrom says whatever state bond issue ends up being approved includes improvement in the rail infrastructure of the state.

As to double tracking, BNSF has recently completed 12 miles on both sides of Hanford and is working on 3 more miles, says spokesperson Len Kent. “We’re not trying to make room for more trains, we’re trying to accomodate the traffic we already have,” she notes.

Train movement is affected by miles of go slow orders that the engineer has to follow because of the flood of traffic up and down the line.

Concerns about air pollution from older locomotives has pushed Union Pacific to order 60 new low pollution locomotives of the LA basin says a news release of the company this month. The Air Resources Board says an agreement with Union Pacific will create a 20% reduction of particulate emissions by June 2008.

The San Joaquin Valley Rail Committee who meets monthly in one part of the valley or another, gets a regular dose of slow train service to work up their dander for their upcoming meeting. The minutes of the latest meeting says several members taking Amtrak were supposed to leave Bakersfield at 3:45 but didn’t do so until 4:55. Fresno supervisor Bob Waterston opened the meeting noting it was an hour late blasting on-time performance of the rail companies.

One non-profit group, Growth Options of the 21st Century (Go21), recently made a presentation to the Valley Rail committee telling the group the public needs to support train transportation alternatives, saying that by 2020 there will be a 67% increase in freight nationwide - double that in California, but Rail Committee members say they want to accomodate more freight movement if the trains agree to also carry passengers.

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What's New

Kaweah Delta Health Care District is complaining loudly about Bush's proposed 5 percent cut for Medicare. CEO Lindsay Mann points out that older people "will have trouble in the future" finding a physician to treat them in some specialties. They are seeking Congressman Devin Nunes' help.

Speaking of Nunes, the Congressman is helping spearhead a drive to save the 144th Air National Guard Wing in Fresno from the budget ax. The squadron guards the west coast air space. Nunes is circulating a petition to all of the state's congressional delegation.

The City of Visalia code enforcement has been busy rounding up stray development signs in the public's right-of-way around the community. But realtors are livid that some "overzealous" enforcer is working on Sundays removing realtors "open house" signs B ones that realtors pull off a few house later. "These things cost $35 a pop," says one. One can imagine a room full of the signs over at the City Corporation Yard. One problem: while city will let you have them back, they all look the same.

Developer Johnny George says he is negotiating with the county on a building he is buying - the 21,000 sf old Canned Goods building is on South Mooney. Sources say the place maybe where their county plans to relocate employees from the four story welfare building on Court Street. The county wants the people out of the old building before the summer heat.

Mr. George is ready to throw in the towel on his proposed Pinnacles Gym in the former Early California Foods Olive Plant. George is in escrow to buy a 100 percent stake in the huge complex to close by April. But he says a lack of cooperation with the City of Visalia has soured him on his ambitious plans for a youth oriented indoor playground. "We would have hired 120 people," says George. Stating his plans now will be simply to use the space for warehousing. The staffed center could do a lot more than a sports park with grass and a backstop George says. Everyone he has talked to encouraged him to move forward, "The city put obstacles in my way," he shrugs.

Northside prediction: the corner of Riggin and Dinuba Blvd will be as big and important as Caldwell and Mooney on the city's south side in the future, says Community Development Director Fred Brusuelas. The city has been meeting with Cal-Trans to plan what will be a major intersection located on Highway 63. A developer plans a big box retail complex that will include a new Target store and other major retailers.

Fresno based Diversified Development is filing building plans this month for a 550,000 square feet industrial building on Plaza Drive south of Goshen Avenue. Construction is expected to be completed late summer says Diversfied's Marcus Pignotti. The building will be the third largest in the Visalia industrial park. Diversified Development is one developer that builds prior to a final commitment from a tenant. But sources say Diversified has a major tenant for the majority of the space in the works. Pignotti says the company has room for three more buildings totaling 442,000 square feet, meaning this phase of the Plaza park there is around 1 million square feet. Diversified already has the three completed and tenanted buildings on Plaza. The remaining four will be just east of the current buildings. MCS Frames is the latest tenant to land in this busy industrial park.

Visalia Adventure Park would like to add beer and wine to its pizza buffet but the issue may go to the Visalia City Council now that the city's Planning Commission has given its blessing. Sources say an appeal to the council is likely. City Council member Don Landers opposed the park serving beer and wine before it opened, but will wait and see how the Visalia Police Department advises the council on the impact. The park management proposes to keep the alcohol in the buffet area only, not in the arcade. Race track patrons who want to race cars will have to take a breathalyzer test.

IVEX, a subsidiary of Forest Resources will move to a new 40,000 square feet industrial building owned by the Allen Group, ADI Coast Partners. The company manufactures single sheet corrugated sheets used for packaging and industrial size rolls of paper also used for packaging. They employ 14 people and will relocate by April 1st.

The City of Visalia isn't the only entity in Visalia in a legal dispute over an eminent property acquisition. While the city is close to finalizing its take of the Visalia Theatre property, Kaweah Delta is filing their eminent domain take for several buildings from the Lipson Family Trust to make room for the Northern Expansion of the hospital. CEO Lindsay Mann says the dispute is over the value of the land and expects the matter to be finalized soon.

February new home permits in Visalia numbered 63, down from 183 in January.

COS will get about $480,000 from Enron as a result of a lawsuit. Enron reneged on an electricity contract and the settlement is a result of a lawsuit COS participated in with other community colleges. COS will likely use the funds to boost the retirement fund for faculty. Officials expect the funds in the Fall.

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Tulare County - Sunkist elected a new board of directors at their annual meeting in Ventura last week amid signs that its largest member by volume, Paramount Citrus may be considering new options. The Chairman of the Board David Krause stepped down from his board position but remained on the board as three other Paramount representatives left the board, taking the Sunkist board down to 23 members. Krause would not comment for this story. The resignation of the Paramount members comes as Sunkist looks for a new president to guide the cooperative after President Jeff Gargiulo announced his resignation earlier this year. He will be leaving in June.

Paramount Citrus makes up about 20 percent of the volume of Sunkist and remains the largest citrus grower in the US.

Paramount and its owner Stewart Resnick have reportedly been unhappy with some of the direction that Sunkist has headed. Last fall they lost a vote to the sell the company's sister firm, Fruit Growers Supply timberlands, in a close vote and early this year apparently gave up on a plan to restructure the corporate governance at Sunkist. By coincidence or not, it was after this decision that Mr. Gargiulo announced he would step down.

Sunkist board members are tight-lipped about what is going on. One member told the Voice that "it's no doubt Sunkist is going to remain a cooperative" rather than move toward some sort of stock ownership corporate structure as several other ag co-ops have in the past few years, notably Diamond.

At their February 23rd meeting, the co-op's 12th annual gathering, Sunkist elected Nicholas Bozick of Mecca, CA to replace Krause.

Local growers that serve on the Sunkist board in 2006 are Mark Gillette of Dinuba, Vice Chair Lee Bailey of Orange Cove, Russ Katayama of Orosi, David Krause of Orange Cove, Martin Mittman of Porterville, Dick Neece of Porterville, Kevin Riddle of Orosi, James Schieferle of Strathmore, Randy Veeh of Visalia and Al Williams of Dinuba.

The Paramount representatives who left the board without replacements being named were Roberta Cook of Dixon, Gary Cusumano of Valencia and James W. Boswell of Pasadena.

At the annual meeting Gargiulo struck familiar chords as he told the crowd of citrus growers that status quo is not an option in a dramatically changing marketplace.

"History is littered with well-known brands that resisted market dynamics and perished in the wake of competitors old and new," said Gargiulo, who last month announced he would not renew his management contract next June so he could spend more time in a build-out of Napa Valley winery, Gargiulo Vineyards. "Sunkist needs to continue help you anticipate and plant the right varieties, implement best practices and apply emerging technologies.

"Our future is all about alignment B aligning Sunkist growers and packers with our customers and end consumers; aligning the citrus industry in the west to grow the citrus category."

For the first time since 1998, Sunkist's gross revenues reached $1 billion in 2005 (up $30 million from 2004).

In other news, expecting expanded sales of peeled and sliced citrus fruits, the Sunkist Growers cooperative has created a joint venture to market their convenience products. At its annual meeting in Ventura, Sunkist announced a partnership with Salinas-based Taylor Farms, which markets salads and fresh-cut vegetables. Sunkist's chief executive told farmers that the venture forms one response to what he called a dynamic fluid marketplace for citrus fruit.

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Visalia - The Visalia City Council will hear a staff report on the availability of single family lots and other zoned residential land within the city limits at their March 20th study session. Community Development Director Fred Brusuelas says staff will report the number of lots available within the city limits with acreage of land not yet subdivided but zoned for homes to give the council a snapshot of how much inventory is available to builders.

"I don't know if we have three years' or 20 years' worth," says Council member Greg Collins.

Some months ago one estimate showed as many as 7000 lots available for development. Recently the city has been permitting at a rate of 1500 homes a year, far outpacing the average from a decade ago, which was closer to 800 to 1000 home a year. It is anticipated that a slower pace for development is likely this year compared to that of 2005.

But Collins notes that rezoning more retail and commercial property for mixed use could mean more units within the city limits than the inventory numbers suggest.

One option has been that the city work to limit growth to the 129,000 population boundary by accommodating 165,000 people within that boundary B the next threshold boundary in the 2020 growth plan. The upshot would be Visalia would increase its density of housing units in the future as this land is filled in.

Whatever the city staff study shows, Collins and perhaps others will be pushing to halt annexations of new land into the city for housing until the inventory is used up. Coincidently, at the March 20th study session, the council will be asking for ideas to plan the next large "master-planed community" says Brusuelas, Lowery Ranch, being proposed by developer Andy Mangano. The land for the project was annexed into the city at Riggin west of Demaree, more than a square mile of development.

Taking what seems to be a page right out of the Collins guidebook for smart growth, Mangano will present a master-planned community that is "pedestrian and transportation friendly" with bikeways that will lead to a nearby school site and a waterway within a linear park. The master plan includes a small commercial center for the neighborhood says Mangano.

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Visalia - Last Tuesday at exactly 12:01 a.m., Visalia's Radisson Hotel officially became The Presidian.

But don't get too used to calling downtown's eight-story, flagship lodge by that name.

This fall, even as the 201-room facility undergoes a $7 million renovation courtesy of its new San Antonio, Texas-based owners, the hotel will once again be renamed, becoming California's newest Marriott.

"We're really excited to have acquired this property and now be in Visalia," said Drake Leddy, president of Presidian, at a press conference outside the hotel the day after the property closed escrow. "This is going to be a pretty special place."

Proclaiming that his company believed in "not chasing where everybody has already been," Leddy called the Central Valley "the next major area for development in California" and vowed to work with both city officials and area residents to solicit input on how the hotel can be upgraded and improved.

"We don't pretend to know everything," Leddy said. "But in the communities where we have hotels, we try to be good corporate citizens."

Presidian has developed and provided construction management services for more than $1 billion in hospitality and entertainment projects around the country including a number of Hilton Hotel properties.

The Radisson, which first opened in 1991, had been owned and operated by Albuquerque, N. Mex.-based Heritage Hotels and Resorts.

Sale price and other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Leddy said he was initially attracted to Radisson deal, in part, by Visalia's "centralized location within California" as well as the area's "relatively affordable cost of living."

Although the company plans to begin renovation work immediately - "about 25 rooms at a time," according to Leddy - the hotel will continue to be open for business.

Standard room rates are expected to be set at about $125 a night at what will be the area's only "four-star" hotel.

On the first day of the new ownership, front desk clerks at the former Radisson were already answering the phone: "Thank you for calling The Presidian Hotel."

Leddy said the Marriott flag would be added to the hotel "sometime between mid-September to mid-October."

"We are looking forward to becoming active partners within Visalia to promote the community as a top destination in California for both business and leisure travelers," said Chip Young, Presidian's vice president of operations.

As far as the new hotel's relationship with the city and its adjacent convention center, Leddy said he thinks as many as 60 new groups could contract to use the convention center as a result of the upgraded hotel facilities.

"Our operation is going to be very compatible with the convention center," said Leddy. "We're going to fill that sucker up on a regular basis."

Leddy said company officials also have plans to temporarily close and remodel Bolo's Southwestern Grill, the restaurant located adjacent to the hotel's lobby.

"The restaurant is still up in the air right now," said Leddy. "But most likely, we are thinking that we will convert it into a steakhouse."

Joe Kuhn, who previously was general manager of the Presidian-owned Hilton Garden Inn in Rancho Bernardo, is the hotel's new general manager.

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By Miles Shuper

Visalia - Tulare County officials are working to attract a Pacific Rim based agricultural plastic-based waste recycling company to Sequoia Field, the county-owned airfield north of Visalia.

The company, Yours Sunflower, hopes to lease 20 acres of a 40-acre former dirt and sand borrow site the northern edge of the 300-acre Sequoia field site.

Bill Hayter, airport manager who has been working with the company based in London, England and Beijing, China, could bring 45 to 65 new jobs to the county, Hayter said. The company has five recycling plants in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Hayter said the proposal is unique in that a Pacific Rim-based company would jobs to this area.

Hayter said the County must apply for the Economic Development Block Grant by March 15. The issue will go to Supervisors March 14. The grant funds, up to $30,000 per job created, would be used for site improvements including infrastructure. Current plans call for the other 20-acre portion of the borrow pit to be used as a ponding basin.

Hayter said there is "a huge need" for recycling plastics used in agriculture with only about 5 percent of it now being recycled. The rest goes to landfills or is disposed of in other ways, Hayter said. Items include seed bags and other packaging, PVC pipe, drip irrigation systems and shading materials, among others.

The Tulare County Farm Bureau also has been involved in attempting to attract the company to Tulare County, one of the top-three agricultural counties in the world.

Hayter said the county also is working on seeking other block grants which could be used to update and improve the North Hanger Two other companies one which is involved ink transportation, including aircraft and trucks, and the other, Renaissance, an aircraft manufacturing related firm are still interested in using the North hanger.

The county is also seeking block grants for hanger and airfield improvements.

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Tulare - Tulare needs a new water tower for the industrial park area says city public works director Lew Nelson. "We're suggesting construction funds for a million gallon water tower in the capital budget," says Nelson. The new tower to be located somewhere near Paige and 99 would improve water pressure in the industrial park, decrease insurance rates there because the increased fire fighting capacity of such a large supply of water.

The proposed tower would be just under 7 times the capacity of Tulare's famous 150,000 gallon water tower near the high school. "This one will be visible from Highway 99," suggests Nelson, enabling the city to use its large size to display a Tulare monument sign. Nelson says the tower could cost about $1 million and would be similar to the big water tower in Dinuba's industrial park. Not on stilts like old tower the new tower would be a large cylinder. Nelson says recently one of Tulare's cheese plants had to cut production for awhile because of lack of water pressure.

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