Theft Investigation Continues: Fair Affairs In Flux
Interim Ceo Search Goes On; Contractors' Names Surface

Digging Deeper To Pay For Diesel
Are We Heading To $4 A Gallon For Fuel? A Boost For Alternatives

Tulare County - Farmers and truckers are having to dig deeper to pay for what has always been a cheaper fuel than gasoline and easier to refine - good ol’ diesel. But they worry the hole they are digging may be one they can’t climb out of any time soon.

While the rest of us complain about record gas prices in California running an average of $3.24 this past weekend (April 30) according to AAA, the statewide average for diesel is $3.30 per gallon. A year ago diesel was about $2.60 per gallon. This week in Visalia it’s selling for $3.40 per gallon.

Writing to Governor Schwarzenegger April 25, chair of the California Energy Commission asked the governor to take steps to investigate the continuing high price noting that “diesel prices rose 11 cents from the previous week raising diesel fuel cost over $1 million a day” particularly affecting the state’s ag and trucking industries.

Last fall the California Energy Commission estimated diesel demand might grow about 2.8% a year compared to well under 1% a year for gasoline in California. But this year demand for diesel is up about 4% says CEC spokesperson Rob Schlichting. While passenger car motorists can cut their gas use and switch to more fuel efficient vehicles or change their driving habits “diesel is commercial fuel that truckers and farmers have to use to move their goods or get their crop out of the ground no matter what” or no matter the price.

The fact that demand is up may reflect the volume of freight and traffic going up and down the state including the movement of imported goods from our ports and increased exports heading out of the Golden State. Diesel accounts for about 20% of all fuel sold in the state.

More Diesel Vehicles Are On The Road

There is an additional factor - more diesel vehicles are on the road. A recent report showed there were 543,777 new diesel vehicles in 2005 compared to 301,471 five years ago. Buyers say diesel vehicles are more fuel efficient. Ironically, now they have to pay more per gallon than unleaded in many cases.

Diesel has always sold cheaper than gas, notes Tulare County Ag Commissioner Gary Kunkel. “I don’t know what happened.” For farmers, diesel is one of the largest inputs in the production costs.

Farmers paid under a dollar per gallon for diesel fuel for their tractors, pumps and other engines *** the early part of this decade that ran up to an unheard of level of about $1.75 in 2005 with oil price at $39 a barrel. Today oil is going for $70 a barrel but diesel as well as gasoline at the pump has risen faster than oil prices. “These high fuel prices have everybody concerned,” says Brad Caudill, executive director of the Tulare County Farm Bureau. “This is a repeat of what we saw last summer but only more intense this time. We are just getting into the season now and it’s going to have a significant impact on our growers’ bottom lines, especially in a questionable year like this when we don’t yet know how the crops are going to be affected by the strange weather we’ve had.”

Asked what the high price is doing to truckers, Stephanie Williams, VP with the California Trucking Association says the prices are “just killing us.” She blames both the fact that foreign demand for oil from booming countries like India and China are bidding up the price of oil as well as the most political control of the oil companies have over the control of direction of oil, gas and diesel. “Oil companies have consolidated and we’re being raped on the price.”

She says competition is the answer and alternative fuels may be the way to go.

Stop All This Price Gouging

Kings County Truck Lines’ Senior VP Manuel Espanola says “It’s terrible and embarrassing when you have to go back to your customers and ask for more money. But someone has to pay these costs when prices go up 30, 40, 50 cents a gallon every month or two. People don’t want to pay it but if we don’t pass it on, we’ll go broke. When you buy upwards of 5 million gallons of diesel a year like we do, we just can’t survive without passing on these price increases. Our customers know prices are going up but are still upset about it. I think the government should step in and stop all of this price gouging. The profits these big oil companies are making are outrageous.”

Ivanhoe-based Hannah Trucking owner Randy Hannah worries “this is affecting everybody. And I don’t think it’s reached its high mark yet either. I think we could see $3.50 or $3.75 diesel fuel this summer. I hope not but who knows? It would be nice if maybe they can back off some of the federal and state taxes (applied as a surcharge) but I don’t think that’s going to happen. (Currently, there is a 24-cent federal and 18-cent state surcharge on diesel fuel plus 7.5% Tulare County sales tax.) Everybody’s screaming about the oil companies gouging but the government makes more money off a gallon of fuel than anyone else.”

In a report last September a group The Foundation of Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica authored a paper on how big oil and the government were in cahoots in extracting more gas and diesel money from Californians. The report says that increases in the price of fuel are not particularly due to OPEC countries that make up only 20% of oil delivered to refineries in California. California gas prices went from $1.36 per gallon in June 2000 compared to $2.72 in August of 2005 resulting in California consumers paying an increase of $15.5 billion more at the pump in 2005. The group claims prices spiked last summer when during the peak several oil companies exported fuel out of the country. “Oil companies reacted to this softening of profits by exporting an estimated 21 million gallons of CARB diesel to Chile during the month of June, effectively drawing down local inventories,” says the report.

California that applies a sales tax of 7.25% exercised the largest tax increase in the history of the state and resulted in an “implied partnership” between the state and oil companies. With each increase at the pump the amount of sales tax collected per gallon goes up as well. The report concludes that gasoline prices will soon rise to $4 a gallon unless measures can be taken to reduce demand or increase local refining capacity. The group wants consumers to get a rebate.

Writing to the governor this past week CEC Chairman John Desmond proposed an investigation and promised a report to the governor by June 14 on retail prices at the pump for both gasoline and diesel. The governor at the same time released a mandate requiring “bio fuels” including ethanol and biodiesel use in the state to help cut dependency on petroleum fuels.

Governor Schwarzenegger issued the order that says California will produce a minimum of 20% of its own biofuel by 2010 and 40% by 2020. That and other incentives could help fuel a growing home grown drive to make these fuels from waste material and ag crops.

Promote Competition

On the federal level, hubbub over high diesel and gas prices has pushed California Senator Dianne Feinstein to announce support for a bipartisan bill to promote competition in the oil industry. She says the seeds of the current high prices were sown in the 1990s when 8 oil companies mergers cost consumers between one to seven cents for each merger.

According to the California Energy Commission independents used to control about 22% of the gasoline market in California back in 1980. Today that number is down to just 5% of the market with 10 others controlling the 95%. Today the top four are the BP/Arco combination followed by Chevron, Equilon/Shell/Texaco and Conoco Phillips (76).

Among other federal legislation there is a demand for transparency in trades on gas futures. Trading on an electronic platform leaves no audit trail, says Feinstein - important when you are trying to find out if prices are being manipulated she says. “This is what we found in the California energy crisis and I think we’re going to find the same thing here.” Up to 80% of energy trades are done on electronic exchanges like the InterContinental Exchange as compared to the NYNEX where an audit trail is required.

In addition, this past week the President announced support to increase the average fuel mileage American made cars must attain.

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Landmark Hadley Chapel Moving

By Miles Shuper

Visalia - Hadley Funeral Chapel, one of the oldest funeral homes in the area, is moving from its long-established home at 410 W. Center St. as part of a two-year plan to find a new permanent home.

Melanie Martinsen, general manager, said the move to 917 W. Center should be complete by mid-May. The business was established in 1892 by L.C. Locey and joined by Josh Hadley in 1920. It was subsequently taken over by R. Dudley (Dud) and Maxine Hadley in 1948 and became a local landmark at the intersection of Center and West streets. The Hadleys sold the business in 1980. Dud Hadley died in 1984 and Maxine in 1999. In recent years there have been several owners and the business is currently is owned by Mark Mathews and Wiefels and Sons of Palm Springs who own eight funeral homes in California.

Martinsen, who has been in the funeral business for about 15 years, said she opted not to renew a five-year lease with the building's owner, developer Bill Miller of Miller Matejcek.

Miller said “I'm meeting with the city to come up with a plan for the property” which is a block square. Miller says talk right now is for potential office use.

The new site for Hadley Chapel is owned by Visalia businessman, Ray Ransberger, and located about five blocks west of the long-time Hadley facility.

Martinsen said the new location likely will be temporary and she hopes to have a new permanent location, possible a new building, in about two years.

Martinsen said a name change is pending but will include the Hadley name, something she considers important to the Visalia and the Hadley family who played such an important role in the community. The new location will provide a business office, funeral service products and meeting room, but no chapel for services. Preparations will be done at the Farmersville Chapel. Martinsen said arrangements are being made to hold services at the Visalia Cemetery chapel and area churches until a permanent site is established.

In an unrelated funeral business matter, Miller Memorial Chapels announced it will close its Heritage Funeral Services at 603 N. Court Street and merge it with its Visalia chapel adjacent to the Visalia cemetery.

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Another Valley Dam With Seismic Problems:
Kern’s Lake Isabella Has Seepage Issue

Porterville - Recent U.S. Corp of Engineers studies have found Lake Success’ earthen dam above Porterville needs to be replaced in order to meet current seismic standards. Scientists are concerned a major earthquake could bring the 1950s structure down. Now comes word a continuing study at Lake Isabella above Bakersfield has found a problem that also could require a replacement dam.

Corp spokesman Jason Fanselau told the Voice this week that last Thursday they decided to put pool restrictions on the 570,000 acre ft. capacity dam down to a limit of 380,000 acre ft. That would maintain the level at 63% of capacity.

“There have been concerns over seepage in an auxiliary dam,” says Fanselau, “and the decision was made to limit storage until we can figure out what needs to be done to repair it.” The Corps believes for the next five years or more restrictions on how much water to carry behind the dam will insure the seepage doesn’t make the dam unsafe, he says.

That’s exactly the strategy behind the Corp plan to store less water to limit danger at Lake Success in case a big shaker hits.

The precautions on the Kern River water will mean plenty of snow melt is being released downstream some of which could pose problems.

Fanselau says coordination of the large release of unexpected water just since May 1 has forced water authorities to scramble to make room in the California Aqueduct for some of the water that could be sent to Southern California down a bypass canal - a move that benefits the Tulare lakebed interests who already have more water than they can deal with - about 55,000 acre ft.

But sources at Boswell say some of that water should be accommodated just south of the lakebed and hopefully won’t cause damage.

Records of releases from the dam show the hot spell in recent days appeared to coincide with the Corps decision as an inflow of 38,629 acre ft. came into the reservoir and was released - almost 10% of the water in the reservoir. The release caused no flood damage however.

Fanselau says it could be a couple of years before studies would show when a replacement dam would be needed as it was found at Success or whether other technological fixes for a leaking concrete collar over a pipe that carries water to a hydroelectric facility can be sealed. The leakage gets worse as more water is stored, he says.

“This dam was built in 1953 - years before seismic standards and were put in place in 1974. The technology we thought was adequate in the 1950s doesn’t seem to work as well as we thought.”

Watermaster on the Kern, Chuck Williams, says about 200,000 acre ft. will need to be spilled complicating flood releases being sent down the Friant Kern Canal from the north. Tulare Lake interests hope all this won’t be in their lap, but at press time that is very much up in the air. Williams notes, historically and as a practical matter Tulare Lake “is the floodee and we are the flood-er.”

Williams said they got virtually no notice of need to take flood water from the reservoir. He hopes to send most out to the California Aqueduct which would send the water to the Southland. Williams says the snowpack left was about 550,000 acre ft. minus about 180,000 acre ft. that came down in recent days. With the dam already full, Kern water authorities will try to manage this unexpected volume of water.

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Visalia’s Home Inventory Bulging

Visalia - The inventory of homes for sale in the Visalia/Tulare Multiple Listing Service as of May 1 stands at 1541 - four times the number of homes that were on the market as of May 1, 2005. At that time there were just 381 homes listed as active on the MLS.

“The good news is that buyers have lots of choices out there right now,” says owner of Jordan Link Real Estate, Bill Jordan. In May of last year the Visalia market was torrid with roughly five buyers for every listing, says broker Brad Maaske. “Now there has been a complete turnaround with five listings for every buyer.”

The glut of homes on the market can be seen in the number of higher priced homes listed today compared to a year ago, says Maaske. “It was typical a year ago we might see 20 homes for sale over $500,000 in this market but now there are 191.”

Realtors are reporting sellers have to reduce their prices and the question is how much and how fast.

New home subdivisions in Visalia/Tulare markets are reporting “soft sales” says a representative for one of the large builders. “We have rolled back our new home price to what they were a year ago,” he says. That is amounting to about a 5 to 15% decline in the prices seen last year - perhaps a drop of $20,000 in a typical case.

Home builders face a problem from customers who bought new homes last year and now watch builders offering the same houses sometimes with slightly altered floor plans with a lower buy-in price.

Still “they buyers are out there” although the prime mover in the real estate boom we’ve seen here for the past two years - the equity refugee from LA or the Bay Area, the investors and the 1031 exchanges - have slowed considerably agree local sources, since they too are having trouble selling their homes.

Not helping the matter is rising interest rates - up about a full point from where they were last July and rising every day. That has affected adjustable rates more than fixed rates. This past week Freddie Mac said long term rates were the highest in four years. As of April 27, 30 year fixed rates were averaging 6.58 of 0.5 points. One year ago they were 5.78 with 0.6 points.

Still builders are continuing to file permits to build new homes in Visalia during the first four months of the new year having permitted well over 100 homes a month on average so far, the same pace it was a year ago, a record year when 1450 new single family homes were permitted in Visalia. The average price of new home in Visalia in 2006 is $235,000 compared to $193,000 last year and $122,000 in 2000. Ironically, that’s still a bargain in statewide comparisons.

The California Association of Realtors just reported that sales in March were down 15% statewide compared to a year ago. In the central valley sales are down by 24% compared to March 2005. The median price of an existing home was up from the month before statewide but not in the central valley. The median price in the central valley is $350,000.

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What's New

The central valley’s first Super Walmart - selling groceries - will open this month first in Dinuba May 3 and later in Hanford May 17 - each hiring an extra 200 plus workers for the grocery side of the business. Existing grocers in those towns will have a tough new competition in Walmart including Save Mart in both towns, Albertsons (Monte Mart) in Hanford along with several locals who will feel the loss of business.

Unemployment in Tulare County fell to 10.1% in March 2006 compared to 11.5% in March a year ago. EDD figures show the county gained 2600 farm jobs and 1500 non farm jobs in that time. In the non farm category there was a 500 job gain in construction and a 900 job gain in trade - mostly retail jobs. There were declines in the county’s manufacturing jobs and professional and business jobs. A closer look at the numbers shows an actual decline in the civilian job force over that year from 182,600 to 181,700. Those without jobs shrank in that year from 21,100 in March 2005 to 18,300 this March. California unemployment rate is half Tulare County’s number at 5%.

Mineral King Road up from Three Rivers won’t open until Memorial Day weekend says the Park Service, even though warm temps this week will cause snow melt to speed now.

Morris Levin and Son have dropped plans for a Visalia store on Lovers Lane citing the high cost of dirt here. Sources say the city’s transportation impact fees were an eye opener for the Tulare hardware store.

Nisei Farmers League president Manuel Cunha says someone has been impersonating the Border Patrol in a shakedown attempt of immigrants in the Cutler Orosi area and were asking for money after they check the person’s ID. Some farming operations reported worry by workers over rumored border patrol sweeps to add to the high profile protests seen earlier this week.

Design of NW Fire Station/Training Facility Moves Forward. The Visalia council voted for a compromise $6.4 million project to build a new fire station on land the city owns on Shirk and Ferguson as well as a new training facility for the city’s fire department there. “This was in the Measure T supported project” advocates pointed out to the council despite the fact the new estimate is higher. City manager Steve Salomon promised council he would work hard to find potential collaborators, other cities and the county, who might co-utilize the training facility to help bear the cost. “Now that CDF has left the county’s fire department, the county may be interested,” suggested Battalion Chief Doyle Sewell. He told the city council that the department’s fire fighters had no other suitable place to train. City manager Salomon said few other cities can pay for these projects without financing them and that the city was in good fiscal shape. “The city’s debt is less than it was 10 years ago.” Next on the agenda is a potential new fire station in the city’s southeast.

Tulare County was one of the 10 fastest growing counties in 2005 increasing its population by 2.2% and bettering the statewide growth figure of 1.2%. The estimates that the county grew to 420,619 - up from 411,701 in 2004. The report says Visalia grew at 2.9% to 111,680 and Tulare grew to 51,477 up from 49,703 a torrid 3.6% growth rate. Porterville grew by 1.2%. Kings County grew by 1.8% says the report with Corcoran showing a 3.9% growth rate and Lemoore a 3.6% rate. The rural part of the county actually fell in population by 0.1%. Hanford grew by 1.7%. Kern grew by 2.9%. The annual report from the Department of Finance says overall the rate of growth in California slowed.

COS has put the construction of a new gym on hold but has high hopes for another building on the Visalia campus if the statewide bond measure passes this fall. President Don Goodyear says a new Allied Health building, valued at up to $11 million, could rise on the north side of the campus next to the new science building now under construction. The building would take the place of the labs. The building will house the expanding nursing program at the college.

Meanwhile, in Hanford, COS is thinking about floating a general obligation bond in the Kings County district only for November in its joint venture with high schools and city there. Plans to build new facilities are important if COS is going to compete with fast growing West Hills College in Lemoore. A successful bond issue could help build a new vocational center in Hanford, relocated its police and fire academy from Visalia and build a new multi purpose building as well. The college board will decide on a bond in July.

Despite all the excitement over E-85 motor fuel - 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline - it could be years before there enough “flex fuel” vehicles on the road to incentivise oil companies to install E-85 pumps in California. That’s the opinion of Tom Koehler of Pacific Ethanol who believes the bigger move in California will be when the state Air Resources Board allows the sale of 10% ethanol in the state. Governor Schwarzenegger appears to be pushing the ARB to do just that with release of an order to sell 20% biofuels in the state by 2010.

Developer Bill Miller will bring a new mini storage project to Tulare. Storland Self Storage already has three locations in the central valley, says Miller, with Tulare slated to open this fall. He is also working on a site in Visalia. The new Tulare facility is at 1766 Foster Dr.

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Visalia - The Visalia Rescue Mission has purchased a piece of property near the Shelter of Hope, and plans to expand its facilities over the next two years.

Angela Walker, resource development director at the mission, said a group of community members called Friends of the Mission, mostly businessmen and women concerned about the plight of the homeless in the area, raised the money to buy the property.

“We needed more room,” said Walker. “We have been operating a shelter for homeless women and children at 1413 N. Burke, called the Shelter of Hope, since April of 2005. Our current capacity is 15 women and children. Before the end of the summer, we plan to open Phase 2 of the shelter, which will increase our total capacity to 38.”

But Walker said the shelter's current facility, which encompasses approximately 5,600 square feet, is leased through 2007.

“So at the end of last year, we purchased a piece of property adjacent to our Family Center, which is at 835 E. Houston,” Walker explained. “The property we purchased is just west of that facility.”

The mission also owns another parcel purchased in 2000 which organization officials refer to as “the triangle.” Development of the two sites is under consideration by the mission's board of directors.

“As always,” said Walker, “we will carefully study the needs of the community and determine how to best address them with our resources.” Walker said specific building plans for both sites are yet to be finalized.

“We're looking at that new property as a potential site for building a complex for women and children,” she said. “The complex will include transitional housing and a larger shelter, as well as residential recovery facilities and possibly a daycare center.

“When we build, we can take everything we've learned from running these programs and set something up that best serves the needs of our population,” Walker said. “If we could have everyone on the same campus, it would also ease some of our staffing issues.”

Mission officials will hire an architect to draw up potential site plans for the new project, which Walker said could include “two or more buildings.”

Mission officials are looking at opening their new campus by the time the lease runs out on their current facility but stressed that the project was still in the “development stage.” “Nothing is set in stone by any means,” added Walker.

In the one year that the shelter has been in operation, it has provided almost 2,000 bed nights and averages 11 to 12 women and children nightly.

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Visalia - More than a million immigrants and their supporters skipped work, school and shopping this past Monday and marched on dozens of cities from coast to coast, including Visalia and Tulare, where hundreds of marchers, many wearing white t-shirts, turned out to show their support. Billed as "A Day without Immigrants," Monday's protests and economic boycott were intended to influence the debate in Congress over a House Resolution to criminalize illegal immigration and tighten the US-Mexican border. The demonstrations, which were carefully orchestrated and overwhelmingly peaceful, did not bring the nation to a halt as planned by some organizers, but they did signal the continuing resolve of those who favor loosening the country's immigration laws, including those targeted at the 11 to 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S.

“The march went beautifully,” said Graciela Martinez of the American Friends Service Committee, one of the event organizers in Visalia. “Our main theme is legalization and comprehensive worker immigration reform that will not exclude anybody or expand the guest-worker program. We especially appreciate the help of the Visalia Police Department, who expected about a hundred marchers and then responded really well when 400 or more turned out. The entire community came together beautifully for this event.”

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By Miles Shuper

Tulare County - Tulare County Supervisors awarded a $672,846 contract to a Goshen firm for applying traffic stripes and pavement markings for about 1,300 miles of county roads, but not before questioning whether the county might save money by doing the work itself in the future.

Safety Striping Service, Inc. of Goshen was the only bidder for the annual project. Last year the same company did the job for about $398,518 and was the lower of two bidders for the project. Safety Striping has been awarded the contract four of the last five years. The county re-marks about half its roadways each year, alternating between the southern and northern sections of the county. This year the southern section is scheduled for striping and safety marking. The number of miles striped and marked each year is basically the same. There are about one hundred miles more this year than last, according to the specifications for the bid. County officials expected some increase in cost of the job, considering higher material and fuel prices but expressed concerns when this year's winning bid was close to double of last year's.

The bid was awarded by a 4-1 vote with Supervisor Phil Cox casting the nay vote. Cox asked Henry Hash, director of the county's Resource Management Agency, if the county staff had considered doing the job itself. Cox said he questioned the issue last year but never got an answer. Hash said the department has indeed started checking the feasibility of that possibility in the wake of the huge increase in cost this year.

Cox also was critical of the county being put in a time squeeze in being forced to accept the bid to get the project, which often is dependent on weather conditions, especially temperatures. “I think we waited too long to force the issue,” Cox said, adding that he normally supports the county using outside contractors when tasks can be done more cost effectively. “We should have looked at this earlier,” he said.

When Cox asked the price of a striping machine, Hash said preliminary estimates are about $350,000.

Hash estimated that if the county were to do the work, the initial year probably would be more costly but savings should be realized in subsequent years. He said the cost of materials, fuel and manpower will be among the issues studied in coming up with a recommendation.

Hash also pointed out that since oil-based paints are no longer allowed for roadway markings, the use of water-based materials last only half as long.

Dave Preston, owner/operator of Safety Striping, substantiated that a leap in materials and fuel are the prime reasons for the jump in costs of the job. He cited a 25 percent increase just before the bids were due as an indication of how difficult it is to anticipate costs. He said last year his costs for fuel, mainly diesel, was $2.23 per gallon and anticipates it will approach $4 per gallon this year. He also noted that thermoplastics, commonly used in marking and striping, is subject to rapid prices changes due to supplies of some materials used in its production. He said CalTrans now uses 100 percent thermoplastic on all new highways and roadways below the snow level.

Safety Striping, founded in 1950 by Ken Spitler and Ellory Wilson who opened a Visalia area facility in 1953, has done Tulare County's striping and marking ever year, except for about a half-dozen, since 1953.

Preston said he was surprised that he was the only bidder this year and doesn't know why there were no others.

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Dinuba - Odwalla Juice Co. is buying a 30,000 sf cold storage facility from US Cold Storage who is selling two facilities in town. US Cold Storage’s regional manager Rod Noll told the Voice that the sale to Odwalla should close by the end of the month for the facility on Crawford next to the Odwalla plant.

“We decided to put both plants up for sale since we plan to exit the fruit storage business.”

The second larger plant is located on O Street in Dinuba. “A key factor is the age of those two plants,” says Noll, with the Crawford facility being 30 years old and the O Street plant over 50 years old.

Odwalla will be able to store far more product in the facility that will add to their cold storage they have already on site. The juice company, owned by Coke, uses local fruit to make the popular smoothies available at health food and grocery stores.

Noll says change in the fruit business around the Dinuba area played a role as well. “These days you need to be vertically integrated to be in this business” noting that farm companies who grow, pick, store and ship their product have an advantage.

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Visalia - The Visalia Mall's newest major tenant, Aeropostale, officially opened its doors on April 26. The retailer, which also operates a store at Tulare's Horizon Outlet Mall, reported a strong first week of business in its new Visalia location. Aeropostale's remodeled 4,000-sq. ft. space was formerly occupied by Casual Corner.

Zumiez a youth-oriented surf shop has began construction on the 3,551-sq.ft. former location of KBToys and is expected to open sometime in mid-summer, according to Merrie Ann Millar, general manager of the Visalia Mall.

Meanwhile, Hollister & Co, another youth-oriented retailer and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abercrombie & Fitch, has moved its opening date to May 15.

In other Visalia Mall news: The mall's 9th Annual Cruise Night will set sail on Friday, May 19 from 4pm to 10pm. The popular event will include music by Z104.9, an Elvis impersonator, a poker walk and slow drag races. Mall officials also plan to give away a three-day cruise via a raffle.

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