Collins Seeks to Boost Infill
Hold Development Line at Visalia City Limits

Visalia - In a letter to fellow council members and planning commissioners, Visalia city council member Greg Collins is proposing what he calls an updated “infill strategy that will raise the bar” to hold the existing line on new home subdivisions until the city reaches a higher population threshold.

“Right now we have several development lines besides the city limits,” says Collins, including ones set in place in 1991 at the 98,000 population line, 129,000 population line and 165,000 population line.

Collins' proposals would be to throw out these designations and stick to the city limits as a development line allowing no new annexations beyond it until we reach perhaps 150,000 population. Right now the city is about 110,000, he figures.

“Staff crunched the numbers and told us we could accommodate a population of about 165,000 within the city limits,” says Collins citing updated city figures. Those figures show the city has plenty of empty lots available for development, he believes, without going beyond the city limits. Specifically the city of Visalia has:

4409 tentative lots for single family homes
2920 final maps for single family homes
746 tentative lots zoned multi family
64 final maps for multi family

Besides that, Collins says the city has nearly 900 acres of vacant residentially zone land within the city limits which equals about 3600 lots at 4 lots per acre.

That totals just under 11,800 lots available for new residential units without moving the boundary, he figures.

To further boost development infill in the city Collins is proposing a second major change to the policy—offering a 10% density bonus to owners of tentative maps—half for the developer and half to be devoted to affordable housing. “For example, if someone had a 100 lot subdivision in a tentative map, they would have an extra 5 left for development and 5 to develop for affordable housing.”

“I am looking for a way to jump-start more affordable housing in town,” Collins says about the idea.

Collins ideas are expected to be taken up by council and the planning commission when the meet in a joint study session in late February.

A supply of just under 12,000 lots might be expected to last at least 8 years if the city developed at a 1500 home a year pace, although in early 2007 the housing market in Tulare County has clearly slowed (see chart).

Collins initiative is the first time he has pushed to formalize how the city council and planning commission will address how the city grows in the future offering specific change to how the city's general plan will operate.

Expect complaints from some property owners who will likely say they played by the rules with the city's existing 2020 policy with its population growth lines. Under Collins new plan almost 400 acres outside the city limits but inside the 98,000 population growth boundary would not get the chance to develop for years. They are likely to argue these growth restrictions limit choice.

Collins says his trigger mechanism would be that once population reaches 90% of the 165,000 threshold or about 150,000, new lands would come into the city limits. At current growth rates that could be in 12 to 15 years depending on how fast the valley grows. Collins point is that the city will remain more compact gobbling up less farmland.

Not included in Collins figures are plans by the city to promote several thousand homes in the greater Downtown are over the next decade.

Council member Don Landers says he hasn't seen the Collins letter but would argue for caution considering “lots of people made lifetime plans back in 1991 when we adopted the current growth plan.” He says he is not opposed to the idea but wants to “assess the impact of the decision before we change the plan.”

Landers acknowledges that the town has grown spectacularly in recent years before slowing down today. “We have had a perfect storm of growth adding together low interest rates, interest in landowners in developing their land and demand by national builders in developing new subdivisions. He says he understands about a third of all the real estate activity came from speculators but that things now have cooled considerably.

Visalia has projected a 2.4% growth rate but has been consistently behind that number, he believes.

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By Steve Pastis

San Joaquin Valley - A mysterious ailment is killing off bees in Tulare County and across the country. Given the name “Colony Collapse Disorder,” the new disease has wiped out bee colonies in 21 states so far.

The loss of bees in the Central Valley is expected to have a negative impact on crops such as avocados, cherries, plums, alfalfa seeds, pomegranates and kiwi. The bee shortage may hit almonds the hardest during the time of year when half of the country's commercial bees are brought into the state to help launch what should become a $1.4 billion dollar harvest. Even more bees will be needed over the next few years as California almond production is expected to expand to more than 750,000 acres by the year 2010.

“I've lost over 2,000 bees over the last two months,” said David Bradshaw, owner of Bradshaw Honey Farms in Visalia. He had about 4,200 bees but is now down to less than 2,000.

Recently, he was visited by research teams from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Montana. The teams took samples to study and dissect them to see if there is any common denominator. Bradshaw isn't looking for a quick answer from the researchers though.

“When you work with a university, they tell you, 'We'll look into it and let you know in a couple of years,” he said.

In the meantime, Bradshaw has his own theory. “I think a certain type of pesticide disrupts the nerves that send signals,” he said. “Bees are bugs and I think that bees lose their memories. They get confused and can't find their way back home.”

The recent freeze may have played a factor also, according to Bradshaw. “The bees have been weakened to where the bees couldn't keep themselves warm and they died from the cold weather,” he said.

“They go out looking for food, run out of energy, chill and die of exposure,” he said. “They don't have the colony to keep them warm.”

The problem started on the East Coast late last year, according to Bradshaw.

“Beekeepers are always hauling bees from other states. Unfortunately, we bring in all the ailments with them and they spread to our bees,” he said, adding that he recently brought in bees from North Dakota and Arkansas.

Eric Lane, of Eric Lane Apiaries in Terra Bella, reports losing 80 percent of his bees. Not all of them are dead though. About 20 percent of those are still buzzing, but incapable of doing any work.

Lane was also visited by researchers from the two universities who have taken his bees to study and dissect.

“The University of Montana looks for bacteria, and Penn State looks for viruses,” he said. “They have no idea what they've got. I do my own microscopic work even though I don't have fancy letters after my name. I've been touting the problem since 2001. I described exactly what was going to happen to bees in California.”

Lane places the blame for the problem squarely on the shoulders of Bayer, the manufacturer of imidacloprid, a nicotine-based product that was approved for use in California in 2003.

“On the surface, it looks like it would do the job well,” he said, “but the first year they used it in France, the entire French bee industry collapsed. Bayer gave the beekeepers a total of $70 million, even though the company said they weren't responsible. As a result, the French decided not to sue and the possibility of its use was left open, even though 16 countries have banned it. One research article after another around the world has come up with imidacloprid as the culprit.”

Lane has spent a great deal of time studying bees and documenting the problem.

“When an adult bee goes out to forage for pollen, by the fourth day the bee loses the ability to smell,” he said. “Even in the middle of a (fragrant) flow, they are guarding the front door (of the hive) as if they don't know it's there.

“Young bees do their normal duties around the hive for five days. Then they go and fill up with nectar and realize they don't know where home is. Old bees hang around hive but eventually wander off and die. Young bees fly off and never come home.

“Bees dance to tell other bees where the food is. They walk and wiggle, and we have worked to decipher it. They'll say, 'Fly out at 35 degrees, turn left 70 degrees, go over a fence and that tree is good for food.' Now, their dance is a quarter too fast and jittery. Bees don't go where they are supposed to go. The dance has been corrupted.

“Bayer is right. It doesn't kill the bees, but is so wounds them that they can't continue,” he said.

Lane said that termites are very similar to bees and that a Bayer product that kills them with imidacloprid explains on the package that not all the termites will be killed directly by their product. Those that survive will be killed when the product “confuses and distresses the colony to cause them to be killed through other diseases.”

“They have the guts to say that about termites, but not about bees,” Lane said.

Bayer makes $1 billion in the U.S. and $500 million in Europe by selling imidacloprid under 20 different names, such as Admire, Provado, Merit, Marathon and Gaucho, according to Lane. “At Home Depot or Wal-Mart, 90% of insecticides are by Bayer and imidacloprid is the active ingredient,” he said.

“There has been independent research on the effects of Gaucho by many different countries and most of their observations tend to agree,” Lane said. “What they have concluded is that imidacloprid is basically harmless through the plants life cycle, right up until it begins to flower. At that time, it absorbs high levels of imidacloprid and stores it in the pollen and nectar. These high levels tend to have an adverse effect on the honeybee. In the adult, it destroys the olfactory system, leaving the adult bee unable to differentiate between the smells of plants. This severely curtails the bee's ability to forage and honey production goes way down. Brood, fed on Gaucho tainted nectar and pollen, reaching the field bee stage, goes out to forage and cannot find its way back to the hive. It appears to have lost its homing instincts. This, of course, causes the hive strength to go down rapidly.”

Lane also commented on the local use of imidacloprid.

“Tulare County actually pumped imidacloprid into lots to fight the glassy winged sharpshooter which has the ability to destroy grapevines and other plants,” Lane said. “I believe the chemical is the root of the cause and if we don't turn it around, it's the end of bees in California.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Eric Museen, of the Department of Entomology at the University of California Davis, is skeptical about placing the blame on imidacloprid.

“I suppose that it may be possible in certain places, in certain conditions, but the loss is across the country, some places where bees wouldn't encounter any pesticides at all, much less this specific one,” he said.

“The company got a severe black eye in France because when seeds of sunflowers with imidacloprid came into bloom, they were toxic to bees,” he explained. “But the question is when they would encounter enough of the material in the field. Not too many tests were done, but in those that were, for all intents and purposes, the material was below the level of detection or miniscule. From the point of view of the company that sells it, they thought that gives them a clean slate.

“They also proved that a tiny bit made the bees' memories a little bit better, but that much more intoxicates them and they can't get home,” he added.

Part of Museen's skepticism about placing the blame on imidacloprid is based on his awareness of recent bee history.

“This problem isn't brand new. It's something we had before,” he said. “We had the phenomenon in the mid-60s and then again in 1975. These new chemicals weren't on the market then.”

For the current problem, Museen instead suggests the possibility of malnutrition. “The honey crop in 2006 was real real low,” he said. “There was not enough honey so perhaps there was not enough pollen, not enough food for the bees.”

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By Steve Pastis

Tulare County - “These salary adjustments are long overdue as a first step to attracting and retaining health care professionals in the effort to turn the prisons around and improve the quality of care for inmate patients.” --- Robert Sillen California's 'Prison Health Czar’

We've had nursing staff go to the prisons,” said Rick Elkins, Director of Public Information for Tulare District Hospital. “Five to ten have left to take jobs with a huge increase in pay.”

“We've had people going to work for the prison system,” said Harry Foster, CEO and President of Family HealthCare Network, who blames the California prison system for a shortage of doctors, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists and dental health professionals in the Central Valley.

“They have created a major problem for organizations such as HealthCare Network,” he said. “We strive to stay competitive with salaries but cannot because the prison system is offering twice as much to physicians.

“It isn't that we underpay our physicians,” he continued. “Our starting pay is the median salary for physicians, but the state prison system pay is twice that. We would have difficulty paying that and staying in business.”

Two years ago, a federal judge took control of the California prison healthcare system, and the Central Valley may soon pay the price. Changes in the state prison system have resulted in dramatic pay increases for healthcare professionals. This has caused many to leave community-based hospitals throughout the state to work in prison hospitals. While this created staffing challenges throughout the state, nowhere is the problem as serious as in the Central Valley with its abundance of correctional facilities.

In February 2005, following the largest ever prison class action lawsuit, Federal Judge Thelton Henderson ruled that California's prison healthcare system was in violation of the U.S. Constitution's protection against cruel and unusual punishment. He appointed Robert Sillen as Special Receiver and gave him “unprecedented powers” to oversee the changes and order the improvements to the healthcare system that the state of California “has failed to provide.”

Among Sillen's first goals was “Raising medical staff salaries to competitive levels to improve quality care, fill vacancy rates and increase continuity of care by reducing reliance on costly temporary agencies.”

Apparently, the raising of salaries has been very successful for the California prison system. Prison hospitals have been attracting healthcare professionals from all over the state and country, including many from Central Valley hospitals and health centers.

Foster said that the Family HealthCare Network has positions that are not currently filled because of a shortage of healthcare professionals in the Central Valley, even though the company recruits on a national basis.

“Every community-based healthcare provider has this problem,” he said, “and it's not because we don't provide competitive salaries. It's difficult to get candidates. There are spousal considerations such as if the spouse can find a job, the quality of air, the scores of the school systems.”

Not everyone who takes a job a prison stays there for long, according to Elkins. “It's a difficult place to work,” he said. “You don't have the loving families there who care about their loved ones.”

“Professionals will come into the area because of the salaries and are turned off by the prison system and then go elsewhere,” Foster said. “That is why the prison system has to pay so much.”

A retired operating room nurse serving on the board at Sierra View Hospital in Porterville recently ended his retirement to take a job at a local prison, according to Elkins. He was enticed to go back to work because of a salary of about $105,000.

“They're dangling a pretty big carrot over there,” Elkins said. “They pay $25,000 to $40,000 more than most facilities.”

Meanwhile, things are progressing well with the staffing of healthcare professionals at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga.

“We've done a lot of hiring,” said Healthcare Manager William Alvarez, who explained that the facility has been hiring nurses because the new pay rates have already been determined. There is only a basic pay range so far for physicians, and there is not even that for mental health professionals.

As a result, some physicians are working on a contract basis at the prison until the pay rate is set for their profession. This puts them “first in line” for the permanent positions, according to Alvarez.

Some of the healthcare professionals at Pleasant Valley commute from unusual places. “We've got people out on the coast or L.A. or San Francisco. We have got them coming from Texas and Arkansas. People commute. The people who live in Texas fly in for four days, so they qualify as commuters.

“If you look to attract a pool of physicians, you have to get them from the Bay Area, Los Angeles or another metropolitan area,” he said. “There are very few here in the Central Valley. Our nurses are more from the Central Valley or the Central Coast, places like Paso Robles and Atascadero.

And he disputes the claims that prison healthcare careers have a high turnover rate. “The majority of them seem happy at their jobs,” he said. “We have a whole orientation program. We educate them about how the system works.

“We have done well,” Alvarez said about the hiring effort at Pleasant Valley. “The salaries made a significant difference on our ability to recruit.”

“I don't think the public clearly understands the problem,” Foster said. “We can't compete with unrealistic salaries.

“The important things is to educate the public about this because, for example, the City of Porterville is entertaining the idea of building a state penitentiary hospital for older prisoners without consideration to the marketplace,” he added.

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Tulare County - NOAA's Climate Prediction Center has changed its prediction and outlook for this winter big time suggesting now the season from March through May 2007 will be relatively dry and warm in central California in marked contrast to their prediction just months ago.

“El Niño conditions have continued to weaken over the past few weeks,” says a February 15 release from the National Weather Service who in November noted warming equatorial waters in the Pacific suggested a likely moderate El Niño effect this winter and a wet weather pattern that goes with it.

But warm subsurface temperatures have decreased since December, says the most recent report, and now NOAA is indicating a possible El Nina during the second half of the year.

All of this gives little comfort to the central valley ecology and economy that depends on rain and snowpack each year—almost all in the winter months—to thrive.

So far this year snowpack has been lagging way behind historical averages, says a UC sponsored website, as of January 30th the snowpack on the upper Kaweah is just 43% of historical average.

The state Department of Water Resources in another report February 1 showed statewide precipitation is just 55% of average while Tulare Lake Basin is just 40% of average. Snow water content on the upper Lake Basin is just 35% of average, says the report.

Visalia has received just 2.4 inches of rain for the whole water year and under 1.5 so far in the new year. Visalia on average records about 3.6 inches of rain in January and February and clearly we are less than half of that average.

Last year at this time precipitation was 130% of average statewide, the state climatologist says in his report noting that almost half the water year remains and there is significant carry over in the state's reservoirs.

But in a sign of how things can change, the state report points to a Climate Prediction Report issued January 31 that suggests “above average rainfall for all of California”—a report that now has been summarily thrown in the waste basket. The latest precipitation predictive map shows the Southwest receiving below normal rainfall now through May but much of California still has “equal chances” for wet or dry weather.

If it turns out to be a dry year it would match 2004 when the Kaweah runoff was just 55% of average.

It turns out January 2007 was the driest on record for the month at several California stations reports the state. In the state's executive summary of February 13, 2007 the Southern Sierra has just 8 inches of water content which is 44% of average and just 31% of April 1 average.

Drier conditions on the upper San Joaquin River will clearly affect how much water will be delivered for the irrigation season down the Friant Kern Canal with the latest prediction from the Department of Interior being just 50% of Class One supply.

That low supply prospect could affect how much water is delivered to farmers even if it snows heavily in the next few months, says water engineer Dennis Keller, because of agreements over Mammoth Pool which SCE controls. SCE would be able to keep more impounded water for electricity this coming season that would not reach farms this irrigation season. “There will be some negotiating over the issue,” says Keller.

A possible dry year on the San Joaquin River has prompted water contractors to ask the Bureau of Reclamation to do an exercise in just what would happen to water supply if full restoration of the San Joaquin river, scheduled to begin in 2012, was in place, says Keller.

Water content in the Huntington Lake area is just over 10 inches compared to an average of over 15 inches historically. Total storage of water in the upper San Joaquin is over 200,000 acre feet lower than this time last year.

On the Kaweah as of February 14, 2007 water content at Kaweah Gap stands at 11.2 inches compared to 34.5 inches April 1 average which is just 32%. The Kaweah average is even lower—25% according to the Friant Water Authority website.

Porterville weather caster John Hibler says he fears “we are going into a drought period” with the last several months of a high pressure ridge off the coast of California. “That has resulted in anemic storms, and relatively dry weather here and extremely cold temperatures back east.”

Hibler says the central valley could get some rain this Thursday, February 24. “It's our best shot,” Hibler says, although the area got some rain prior to the Farm Show. “it stopped raining just in time for the doors to open” to World Ag Expo.

In the last issue of the Valley Voice a Scripps scientist predicted that the El Nino would be a no show this winter and apparently the guy did a little better than the NOAA weather casters.

A dry year would be bad news for just about everybody, including fire fighters, farmers and foresters looking to fend off pests in the Sierra, to name just a few. The fact of the matter is that everyone and everything that needs water will feel the problem particularly if the latest forecast for warmers temps is a right one. A recent study detailed in the Valley Voice reports that Sierra trees dry out faster in warmer temps making them susceptible to disease and pest attacks leading to increasing tree deaths.

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Tulare County - The California Air Resource Board is set to meet in April to set new standards for California motor fuel looking to reduce the hydrocarbons that flow from our tailpipes. The end result is an expected boost in the amount of ethanol blended in California gasoline in coming years as well as other biofuels like biodiesel and biomethane.

Instead of targeting the vehicle makers, this time the target is the fuel itself, says Daniel Sperling a UC Davis expert that just joined the California Air Resource Board as a member of the board of directors in January.

“It is impossible to make and burn gasoline without giving off greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide,” said Sperling, noting that transportation fuels account for 41 percent of California emissions of greenhouse gases.

“We are going to give California's fuel producers incentives to reduce those gases in the manufacture of conventional petroleum fuels and also to supply alternative fuels that produce fewer greenhouse gases.”

Sperling is co-director of the small team of University of California experts charged with drafting California's new Low Carbon Fuel Standard. The team includes two other UC Davis energy experts and a co-director from UC Berkeley.

Schwarzenegger signed the executive order for the new fuel standard in a ceremony at the Capitol. While specifics of the standard will emerge in the next several months, Schwarzenegger has already stated its central objective: to cut the “life cycle” or “well-to-wheel” greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels by at least 10 percent by the year 2020.

Sperling said producers' options include: improving the efficiency of their production methods; blending petroleum fuels with biofuels like ethanol; and buying fuels and emissions credits from suppliers of cleaner “alternative” fuels such as electricity, natural gas, hydrogen and biofuels.

The intent, he says, is to create a market for greenhouse gas emissions in a way that stimulates innovation and reduces emissions in an economically efficient manner. Additional benefits of this program are increased fuel diversity, reduced oil imports and improved energy security.

The governor's order to reduce carbon in fuels is the first major step in implementing AB 32, a landmark law passed in fall 2006 by the state legislature. It requires California to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions from all sources, not only transportation, by one-fourth by the year 2020.

Sperling and his co-authors are expected to draft and deliver their Low Carbon Fuel Standard to the California Air Resources Board by April, where it will then undergo public review and board revisions.

It is expected that California's program will be a model for the rest of the world as well.

The ARB seeks to both clean the air and reduce greenhouse gas emissions implicated in global warming. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide mostly from burning fuel and about half from cars and trucks as well as methane from dairy cows, both the biggest target to help us reduce just how hot it gets out there.

Greenhouse gases from burning fuel, wood, coal, etc. remains trapped in the upper atmosphere creating the so-called greenhouse effect that is already raising temps creating a host of problems, more smoggy days, rising seas and pest outbreaks to name just a few. Pushed by Governor Schwarzenegger and new state laws, the ARB is proposing a tighter fuel standard that will reduce hyrdrocarbon emissions, says Fuels Manager of the ARB Steve Brisby.

Currently fuel makers in California blend ethanol at a 5.7 percent average statewide that helps meet the current standard. But the new low carbon standard will ask fuel makers to cut carbon emissions and the easy way to reduce the amount of carbon emissions is increase the amount of ethanol.

“We've found that ethanol blended with gasoline does increase some hydrocarbons that emanate from car hoses, for example.” Ethanol advocates say this problem is overrated and that newer car hose systems reduce those emissions. But the ARB's Fuel Manager Brisby says that increasing the amount of ethanol in each gas tank won't increase those hydrocarbon emissions it will reduce them because we are blending less gasoline and more of the biofuel.

“We believe fuel makers will add more ethanol to blend in California once this new standard is adopted,” says Brisby.

The bottom line of going to a 10% ethanol blend in California from the current 5.7% average is that the state will need an extra 700 million gallons of ethanol to add to the current 950 million gallons we use annually already.

California is the first state that will mandate as low carbon standard that could push the need to 5 billion gallons by 2020 in California about what the entire nation produces right now.

Right now state producers make under 100 million gallons of ethanol a drop in the bucket in terms of the expected alternative fuel needed.

Turning Manure to Cash

Ethanol is non toxic and biodegradable and replaces toxic gasoline components like benzene which is a carcinogen.

Unlike fossil fuel, ethanol is renewable coming from plants that can be grown year after year unlike scarce fossil fuels. A 10% blend of ethanol can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12 to 19% compared to conventional gasoline, according to Argonne National Lab. It also cuts particulates from conventional gasoline by 50% - particulates that are implicated in lung disease. Using ethanol cuts carbon emissions by 20%.

Efforts to cut methane emissions from livestock will mean a boost for alternative biofuels like biomethane captured from dairy digesters the reason we have seen an explosion of interest in helping farmers meet new air standards and profit from it in selling power and biomethane to power and gas users.

At the most recent farm show two valley based companies announced plans to join with ethanol producers looking to use biomethane from dairies as a renewable energy supply.

The technologies for converting dairy manure to biomethane are already used at several landfills around the United States and elsewhere. Sweden has made significant investments in biomethane and is developing the capacity to meet 20% of its vehicle fuel demand with biofuels. Already, Sweden has 17 plants producing biomethane and runs 7000 cars and buses on it.

Currently, methane digesters are used on some US dairy farms to trap the methane released from cow manure and generate electricity. Right now 12 digesters are now operating or under construction, which will generate about $1.6 million in electricity enough to power 2000 homes. This process will also help divert more than 400,000 tons of manure from 36,000 cows.

These biomethane digesters can be upgraded to convert dairy manure to biomethane, which can be used in place of natural gas to fuel buses and other vehicles.

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News Analysis by John Lindt

San Joaquin Valley - When irate visitors from the Bay Area and L.A. descended on the Tulare County Board of Supervisors earlier this year to protest the potential construction of a dairy near the rural town of Allensworth, they came to complain about the only thing arguably the valley has going for it economically—cows and crops.

California's big urban areas on the coast have fresh air blowing in their area from the sea every day, and sport universities, sprawling factories, shipyards and oil refineries to employ their people. We get the air from those refineries and factories blowing into our region every day. We do have a pollution problem, mind you, and much of it self-generated.

But now a state of California policy to cut global warming may actually benefit the valley economy, clean our air as well as help our urban friends to avoid predictions of being flooded out by melting glaciers sinking Oakland for example, thanks to our little ol' crops and cows.

That legislation would mandate a cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2010 both at the fuel pump for our cars and trucks and at the power plant pushing investor owned utilities to produce 20% of their electricity power from renewable sources by that year. Together the new green state policy is stimulating a flurry of potential projects that will need the wide open space of the San Joaquin Valley to make happen.

Already in Tehachapi the state's largest wind farm is under development and in central California there are plans for production form a dozen new biofuel plants that have spurred the rural economies here and promises to spur new plantings of field crops grown by local farmers to provide at least some of the feed stock. These are new ethanol plants all over of California that will provide 20% of the fuel of the state in a matter of a few years. The use of the fuel will help cut greenhouse gas emissions and other hydrocarbon pollutants that foul everybody's air.

Now in the past few months three separate firms have announced plans to tap manure—a major source of methane that is greenhouse gas and a big perception problem in the valley. It's the stink and flies that this group and plenty of others have complained about. The new dairy-based entrepreneurs promise to use the methane derived from manure to power an ethanol plant. It can be used to make electricity and or used as a natural gas substitute to provide heat. In recent months PG&E announced the purchase of the "real natural gas" to light 50,000 homes. Now a Visalia group and a Bakersfield group are talking about launching "dairy energy parks" that will both mitigate the possible problem and provide a source for boilers used in all kinds of industry. Now manure can make ethanol using methane derived biofuel as the source in a closed loop process.

In the end the cows can make heat and electricity and not just milk.

Dairymen will be motivated by both the carrot and the stick as new regulations mandating they cut methane emissions are closer. The end result should be dairies could be models of environment stewardship with folks looking to locate near them to use the power and heat they produce rather than be as far away as possible. Heat from the proposed dairy could be piped out at Allensworth Museum State Park as well as power to light up the exhibits. Now that would be a win win.

On the power front, we are feeling the benefit of new incentives that could result in power projects in Tulare County using renewable sources, (see story) instead of relying on other areas to send us the power we need.

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A Visalia company is expected to expand their operations in town leasing a 600,000 square foot warehouse. The unnamed company is negotiating with two industrial builders for the space.

Several real estate surveys demonstrate how people are buying houses these days—take a guess—with less money down. A California Association of Realtors survey found 21% of all home buyers financed their home 100% compared to the year 2000 when just 4.5% of all buyers paid no money down. For first-time homebuyers the trend is even more dramatic—over 40% made zero down payments on their home purchases. The Association's national survey found similar results citing an explosion of no-down payment options offered by lenders. This helps get people into their first home but also leads to particularly high foreclosure rates—a trend we are seeing across the nation and locally.

Visalia Sports Park is nearing completion but won't open for use until August to allow the turf to build up for summer and fall play—especially soccer. The park is 83 acres but only 48 acres being built now with the development of 10 soccer fields—3 with lights, a new playground, BMX racing track, group picnic facilities and parking for 300 cars. Speaking of play, Recreation Park stadium's owners are busy renovating the park this spring before the opening of play in April. When completed, Tom Seidler, President of the Oaks, says the stadium will be available for Redwood High baseball games when feasible.

VUSD board member Mike Lane has suggested two likely names for new elementary schools to be built in Visalia over the next few years—names you will recognize—Annie Mitchell and Emmanuel Hernandez. The public is invited to contribute to the school naming process.

A proposed new city on I-5 near Kettleman City got mostly a favorable hearing for its first public meeting in Kings County. The crowd of about 100 heard a report that boosted the new town—Quay Valley Ranch—offers a chance for 17,000 new jobs for Kings County. “This will create the kind of jobs we need,” says John Lehn, CEO of Kings County Economic Development Corporation. “Without it I don't see how we can get these types of jobs.” Senator Dean Florez echoed the idea. The proponents must prepare a full EIR on the project. The company says they expect to get their water from McCarthy Farms east of the planned community.

Kings County is supporting an application by the Tachi Yokut tribe near Lemoore to expand their land under trust by about 1000 acres, says supervisor Tony Oliveira. The application to add more land to the trust is being made to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Adding more land would protect the potential to expand development like housing in the future says Oliveira.

Visalia city council took up a Craig Mangano project on Plaza Dr. that would likely be a new larger location for Fresno Pacific College who has outgrown their Akers facility after just a few years.

What does the city council want to see on Visalia's Scenic corridor? The majority favor “ag enterprises” around the Shirk/198 interchange. Now farmer Tokkie Elliott has proposed a combination office/fruit stand that looks like a barn. He submitted the plan to the county (the land is still in the county's jurisdiction), who has referred the issue back to the city to get their input. Council is expected to weigh in on the idea. Council member Collins says the project has merit if the land surrounding it remains in ag.

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Tulare - From the workplace to the dairy parlors, people are talking about widespread rumors that Montreal-based Saputo Cheese and Land O'Lakes are in talks and Land O'Lakes may sell its big start-up cheese and whey plant CP International to the Canadian company. LOL spokespersons have declined to return several phone calls by deadline.

One knowledgeable source says he understands the cut and wrap plant on Bardsley is also part of the deal.

Perhaps not by accident, this week is the annual meeting of the Land O'Lakes cooperative and all major LOL personnel are in Minnesota for the meeting. A Saputo spokesperson declined comment.

The talk got more serious this week when management at the CP International plant in Tulare who employs about 300 workers posted a notice of an important meeting a meeting that was cancelled then this Monday. A number of employees believed that the meeting was to announce the change of ownership, which is the news that has been circulating.

Saputo already has a plant in Tulare and the company appears poised for growth in the US where it is a major player. According to their most recent financial results, CEO of Saputo, Lino Saputo Jr., suggested the company was considering expansion of its operations in the US and may be in the market for acquisitions. Like CPI, Saputo makes mostly Italian cheeses. They have 13 plants in the US.

Ironically, this is not the first time that rumors have circulated about negotiations between Land O'Lakes and Saputo. LOL put out a news release in October 2003 denying any discussions were taking place after rumors hit a fever pitch.

Built in 2002 and expanded in 2004, CPI on Paige Ave. is now one of the largest cheese plants in the nation making 6 million pounds of cheese daily. Originally built for $150 million, the expansion cost the company $40 million. Land O'Lakes started the company with a partner, the Japanese firm Mitsui, but later reportedly bought them out.

Like other cheese makers, LOL started a second company in part because they wanted the new plant to be non-union and it is. Leprino has two plants in Lemoore, one union and one non-union as well.

CPI has been a source of frustration for Land O'Lakes due to high start up costs and bugs to get the plant operating smoothly. The company makes mozzarella cheese and whey which is the protein source in the Tulare company's name.

Sources say these days the most valuable commodity is the whey which has gone up in price several fold in recent years and is exported. The cheese market on the other hand has been challenged. LOL reported lower overall dairy food sales in 2006 from $3.9 billion in 2005 to $3.4 billion in 2006 due to “depressed commodity prices,” says an

LOL report. Barrel cheese was down 16% last year and block cheese down 17%. “This puts considerable stress on producers as well as on our cooperative, particularly our manufacturing operations,” says the February 15 financial report to members.

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