Starbucks Contract Will Double International Paper Co. Jobs

Visalia - A contract signed last fall with Starbucks will help generated an expected 200 more jobs at the International Paper food service division on Kelsey in the Visalia Industrial Park. So says Human Resource Manager Bernice Cruz who says the added jobs by 2010 will double the plant’s employment. As a result, the company will need more warehouse space in the industrial park. They plan to lease from the Allen Group.

In fact the Allen Group will submit plans to build a 250,000, a 150,000 and a 140,000 square foot set of buildings with the city in coming weeks, says the city’s chief building official, Dennis Lehman.

Cruz says the Visalia plant, originally Imperial Cup, will add jobs in phases with the first phase of an additional 50 jobs coming on line in the next few months. “We’re about half way in the training process,” she says. The big contract will require new equipment to be installed at the new plant that churns out paper cups and plastic lids for the food service business including the number one coffee retailer. Cruz says the additional jobs will be phased with planning for the second phase in the early stages now.

International Paper also has a Hanford division that makes containers for the ag industry.

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Tulare County - It's a very dry year in the central valley and farmers, ducks and the rest of us are all scratching for a little more moisture. This week NOAA reported the US experienced the fifth warmest spring on record while California has had abnormally dry conditions (see story page 14). This past winter the Sierra Nevada range received just 27% of normal precipitation. With summer temps reaching the triple digits in June, you may be surprised that water districts are trying to milk those big summer cumulous clouds floating every afternoon over the Sierra to coax a little moisture out of them. As of June 1 Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District, KRCD and Kern WSD are partnering on a summer cloud seeding project using aircraft to disperse silver iodide into the cloud systems, says KDWCD operation manager Tom Weddle. The agency had been funding winter cloud seeding for over 30 years, but this year from June 1 through September 30 the agency will see how much wet stuff they can produce. “Summer clouds tend to carry more moisture than winter systems,” says Weddle, water that can mean immediate runoff to help replenish the ecosystem. The summer seeding often yields hail as opposed to snow in the winter. Carrying out the seeding is Fresno based Atmospherics Incorporated who has been working with Kaweah Delta since 1975.

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by Steve Pastis

Visalia - I really care about the city and I’ve always been interested in politics,” said Amy Shuklian who has just announced her candidacy for the Visalia City Council. “I think I can bring a diverse, fresh perspective to the issues. I know the issues that are going on in the city because I’ve been to every city council meeting for the last two years. I know what’s happening.”

Shuklian, who is 45 and single, was born and raised in Visalia. For the past eight years, Shuklian has been a recreation therapist at Kaweah Delta Rehab Center. Her mother was the membership director of the Visalia Chamber of Commerce for 13 years. Her father was a farmer and growing up, she was a Golden State Farmer in the FFA.

“I grew up here in Visalia,” she said. “I moved away to go to college. I was gone for about 10 or 15 years and came back and really got involved in the community. I started the Dog Park, which really snowballed into getting involved in the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Foundation.”

Shuklian is currently Chairwoman of the Parks and Recreation Commission, Vice Chair of the Parks and Recreation Foundation, President of the Valley Oak SPCA Board of Directors and a council member on the Smart Growth Task Force.

She was asked for her position on land use, a frequent subject at city council meetings.

“I’m not into the annexations as much as they’re talking about, like the Lowery Ranch—there are four areas they want to phase in and first two areas they want to phase in are outside city limits,” she said. “I don’t understand why they don’t use what’s already within the city limits.

“I’m not against growth,” she continued. “I’m not for restricting any kind of growth, but I think we need to take a look at how we do things, not only as we grow, but how we grow  the development of what the buildings look like and all of that.

Shuklian says she is well rounded and interested all of the issues facing the city.

“I’m not running as a knee-jerk reaction to one decision that the council has made,” she said. “I don’t have my mind made up and that’s what I think makes me a good candidate because I’m not going in there with my opinion of the way I think it should be. I want to research the issues, see what’s best for Visalia, see what’s best for us fiscally, see what’s best for us economically, and then go from there.”

How would you have voted on the Oaks Ballpark renovations?

“If I was voting the night that they voted to go ahead with it, I would not have voted yes to go ahead with the plan as it was presented that night. I very much support the Oaks, as I said that night. I attended games as a kid when they were the Mets. I think it’s a great asset to the community for that sector of the community that likes to do that sort of thing  and I enjoy it too.

“My concern with that was that they had an emergency meeting on Friday. They were told to go back to crunch numbers and come back Monday. The numbers were pretty much the same. I think that about a lot of the things that were included in the plan, like the luxury suites, the kids’ zone, I never really got an answer. Are those ‘Major League standards’? They keep saying, ‘We need to put this up to Major League standards or we’re going to lose the Oaks,’ but I don’t know if luxury suites and a hospitality suite and a kids’ zone—and they had talked about a pool—I don’t know if that’s part of Major League standards or if that’s just fluff. So that’s a part of the reason why I would not have voted for it that night.

“And then they didn’t really have a funding source solidified. They said, ‘Well, we could take it from the general fund or we could take it from redevelopment money or we could do this. And then, it could cost 20 percent more if we have to pay prevailing wage.’ So I would have had a really hard time saying, ‘Yes, go ahead with all those maybes and ifs and we don’t know where exactly the money’s going to come from.’”

What is your opinion of the recent Grand Jury findings that are critical of the way the Visalia City Council is handling its finances?

“I don’t know what exactly the grand jury investigates. Do they go to meetings? I have a respect for the Grand Jury and I think they’ve investigated some good issues and brought to light some issues on other things. Unless you’re getting staff reports and going to meetings and listening to the whole discussion, I think it’s really hard to grasp what’s really going on.

“Do I agree with some of the things? Sure, maybe there are some issues, but I’m not really worried about the issues that they are bringing up.”

Even if some decisions put the city in a financial hole?

“They MAY be going into the hole. That’s the thing. They haven’t really gone into the hole. That was presented to the council that night. If we do this and if we do this, yes, we’ll go into the hole. With the ballpark, yes, I think that’s not a good idea. If that’s the potential, to go into the hole, then maybe that needs to be rethought. Maybe we don’t need luxury suites and a kids’ zone and to spend $12 million.”

Why are you at every Visalia City Council meeting?

“I want to be an informed citizen first of all. I want to know what’s going on. It’s easy to sit back and be a Tuesday morning quarterback, read the paper and here’s what the city council did. I started going to the meetings before I ran last time and I didn’t stop after the last election. It intrigues me. I’ve learned a wealth of knowledge from it. I know what’s happening now in the city. I think if you’re running for city council, you need to know what’s going on. If I’m elected, I feel I can pretty much hit the ground running.”

In the 2005 city elections, the top three vote getters were elected to the city council. Shuklian came in fourth, about 1,500 votes short of being elected. She was asked what makes her a better candidate in this election.

“What makes me a better candidate this time is that people come up to me now and talk to me about the issues. I get phone calls. People think I’m on the council. I really think attending all the meetings and the events and activities I have since the last election helps. I was ready last time. I could have stepped in and served well, but I am even more ready now.”

What main issue would you focus on if you were elected?

“Everybody talks about growth and public safety—everybody wants responsible growth and everybody wants a safe city. I want those things. I think I can step in and work on bringing that, but code enforcement to me is a big thing

“Just recently, the city has working on being more diligent in enforcing code. The sign issue for me was a big thing on my last election. I didn’t win the election last time but one of my issues was code enforcement with the big development signs. Even though I didn’t win, it was still an issue for me as a citizen. So I pursued that and worked on bringing that issue to the council.

“I think that (the lack of code enforcement) really erodes our city. I think it erodes the aesthetics of our city. I think it erodes the quality of life. When a place looks bad, people add to it. You have one sign on a corner and everybody says, ‘Well, they put a sign there. I’ll put a sign there.’ I think it brings blight to neighborhoods if people are parking on the lawn and have the canopy on the lawn. I’m really happy that the city is starting to look at that now. That’s something that I brought up in the last election. We have one code enforcement officer. Maybe we ought to have more than one.”

If you had your way, what would Visalia be like in 10 years?

“Downtown would continue to be our center and our core. We would have our East Downtown developed with our Civic Center with parks, trailways and waterways going through it. We would not be growing out fast. We’d have a transit system that serves the working community. I live less than a mile from work, but if I tried to take the bus to work, it would probably take me an hour-and-a-half.

“We’d have beautiful parks and open spaces. We’d have neighborhoods that could integrate with one another. We’d have neighborhoods again. We’d have shopping centers that weren’t just big box shopping centers, asphalt jungles. We’d have better access for the disabled.

“We’d have taller buildings. We’d build more up than out so we preserve the land on the outskirts. Because of the things we do now and over the next 10 years, we’d have better air quality. We don’t have to worry about where our water is coming from and the quality of our water. We’d have a safer community. People need to feel safe when they go shopping.”

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Yokohl Valley - The Tulare County Planning Commission will hear a proposal June 27 to amend county zoning laws to allow a new planned community zone (PCZ) ordinance that would facilitate so-called New Town projects like the one planned for Yokohl Valley. At the same time they will hear the details of the Yokohl community master plan.

County planner Theresa Szymanis says the filing by the JG Boswell Company who are proposing the project would mean modifying the Foothill Growth Management Plan and the addition of the Planned Community Zone and will allow the first look at a draft of the masterplan of the projects as well as its financing plan.

The masterplan and financing plan offer new details on the big project that will likely be approved or not by the Board of Supervisors next year after the completion of the county general plan in spring.

The masterplan points out that the project east of Exeter covers 36,000 acres but only 8606 acres would be developed leaving 26,743 acres in open space. The masterplan suggests they may build around 10,000 units including 9500 housing units. The plan details a circulation system that includes the existing road system in the valley and a new two lane road to the north that would connect to Horse Creek Bridge as well as Mehrten Valley. In this northern part of the project the company suggests they want scattered housing units, a golf course and tourist lodge.

Most of the development is slated for a community village on Yokohl Valley road with nearly 5000 housing units, 27 acres of mixed use, a 300 acre golf course with the town center, as they call it, more than a mile to the east of Highway 198.

The company’s financing report offers a glimpse of the cost of building the big project pegged at $638 million in infrastructure, and on site and off site improvements. The report suggests a typical home could sell for $350,000 conservatively generating over $2100 in annual property taxes. The report argues a community facility district could finance much of the development with the remainder being privately financed.

Boswell has proposed the project would pay its own way and not be a burden on county schools or other agencies, preserve the cattle ranching character of the land, reduce the impact on prime ag land by putting development on less important foothill ground and carry on the architecture found in surrounding communities.

The report estimates the build out population of about 29,000 people.

To get the Board’s approval, the applicant will have to prove consistency with the Tulare County General Plan with a new proposed policy that discourages the development of New Towns “at least to the extent that haphazard attempts at community development away from the established urban centers should be discouraged.” The applicant suggests the project should be judged on its own “individual merits and functions as allowed in the planned community designation to be adopted by the planning commission.

The adoption will be the first test of the project in front of a public body they may very well take a different tact than the Board of Supervisors on the issue.

Most believe the Board will favor the project but the public has yet to be heard from and significant opposition to the project is expected.

Szymanis says a draft of the new county general plan with comments and response to comments could be available for public review as soon as some time next month even though they had not anticipated it would be ready until this fall. She says about 30 comments offered thoughtful points that will be taken into account when the draft is released.

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by Steve Pastis

Visalia - On June 13^th, the Tulare County Grand Jury made public a report critical of recent financial decisions made by the Visalia City Council. The Grand Jury analyzed expenditures for projects including the new seating for the Visalia Convention Center, proposed Recreation Park Stadium improvements, the city’s “Cultural Arts Plan,” the acquisition of the Main Street Theatre, the city’s pension fund obligation, Measure T revenues, Valley Oak Golf Course and legal fees incurred by the city.

“The 2006-2007 Tulare County Grand Jury has seen many recent articles in local newspapers outlining some of the actual and proposed expenditures by the City of Visalia from both General Fund and Measure T monies and wanted further details,” was the reason given in the report for the investigation.

“I think that obviously the Grand Jury has expressed concerns about the city’s expenditures on various items ranging from legal suits to the baseball stadium to the downtown theater to the seating in the convention center,” said Greg Collins, Visalia City Council Member. “All of these expenditures have been reviewed extensively, not only by staff but by the council and the council has agreed to the expenses.”

Among the items cited in the Grand Jury Report:

·  The 2007/2008 Visalia City Budget proposed spending $1.45 million to provide telescopic seating at the exhibit hall. This project is estimated to save $12,000 a year in labor costs resulting from not having to set up as many as 2,000 chairs for events in the exhibit hall.

·  The City of Visalia, after a jury trial, is purchasing the Main Street Theater for $600,000. The city’s own appraisers had valued this property at $385,000.

·  Hetick v. Visalia—decided November 2006. $253,000 in legal fees to defend, a jury award of $568,000 plus $390,000 in attorney fees awarded to the plaintiff.

Collins took the time to respond to some of the specific concerns raised in the Grand Jury report.

“The settlements and rulings by the courts we have little or no exercise over,” he said. “That’s something out of our control. The baseball expenditures are not finalized. The council will review them on an individual basis. We will try to be prudent and conservative in our review of the baseball stadium. The revenue sharing and ticket costs are premature.

“We believe (the new telescopic-style seating) will make the convention center more marketable and provide a better venue for the public,” he continued. “This fits into the budget of the convention center.”

Jacqueline Fletcher, Foreman of the Grand Jury said that the City of Visalia has 90 days from the date of publication (June 13^th) to respond to the findings. “If there’s something in the report that is way off, they can say there’s no validity here,” she said.

She explained that the city will have to tell the judge whether or not they agree with the findings and what they are going to do about it. “If they aren’t going to do anything, they need to make an explanation to the court,” she said.

According to the Penal Code, a government entity, such as a board of supervisors or a city council has 90 days to respond, while individuals have 60 days.

The Grand Jury report concluded, “The City of Visalia is resorting to borrowing money to cover current and future obligations; e.g. pension obligations, while incurring new debt for projects like the Recreation Park improvements. With the passage of Measure T and the recent passage of Measure R by Tulare County, the City of Visalia has one of the higher sales tax rates, eight percent, in the state while its residents are some of the poorest.”

The report’s recommendation is that “The City of Visalia present an understandable itemization of its current indebtedness and planned new debt to its citizens.”

“The Grand Jury is responsible for looking into many items,” Collins said. “I don’t know why they selected Visalia. Maybe some folks on the Grand Jury are seeing that Visalia is spending a lot of money on all these projects and, ‘Maybe we should look into whether they’re spending the money properly.’

“I can assure you Visalia is on very solid ground financially and we will continue to be,” he added.

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by Steve Pastis

Kings County - A nighttime harvest has been going on for several weeks in southeast Kings County and it will continue until the early fall. It doesn’t take place on some fertile Central Valley field, however, but in the salty evaporation basins created by the Tulare Lake Drainage District (TLDD) to manage the disposal of the agricultural drainage water that accumulates underground in its 234,602-acre district.

The district operates 3,365 acres of evaporation basins with an annual evaporation capacity of 14,240 acre-feet. About 13.8 percent of the basins—the high salinity terminal cells at South and Hacienda Evaporation Ponds—have enough concentrated salt to grow brine shrimp.

Brine shrimp is marketable as live and frozen aquarium fish food. In early 1998, Novalek, Inc. began harvesting the brine shrimp and selling it commercially under several different brand names. The harvest, which is conducted primarily at the South Evaporation Basins has varied from year to year, from 125,000 lbs. to 750,000 lbs., with an average of about 375,000 lbs. per year.

“They pay (the TLDD) so much per pound to harvest,” said Doug Davis, TLDD General Manager. “We supply the environment and water, and 100 percent of the harvesting and processing is solely theirs.”

The brine shrimp harvests of south Kings County caught the attention of San Francisco Bay Brands. The company has recently taken over the harvesting from Novalek, Inc. and bought a building on North Avenue in Corcoran which is not yet in use.

Andy Schmidt, President of San Francisco Bay Brand, said that he expects it will take between four and six months to get power for the company’s new Corcoran building, as well as to resolve water storage issues, including spending $10,000 to connect with the city for its water needs.

The harvest season begins in April and shuts down in September or October, so this season, the company plans to continue transporting the brine shrimp to their home office in Newark while they work out the details here.

“The city has a zoning plan in place and has restrictions on harvesting shrimp, water quality criteria  a whole myriad of things that have to be addressed for San Francisco Bay Brand to receive a permit,” Davis explained.

San Francisco Bay Brand’s goal is to be up and running at its Corcoran location by next April, in time for next year’s brine shrimp harvesting season. Davis expects that there will be 13 new local jobs when the company starts processing its next harvest.

The company has plans to increase the numbers of brine shrimp harvested in the Tulare Lake TLDD evaporation basins.

“With the new entity coming in we get to start doing experiments to manage brine shrimp,” said Davis, adding that the goal is to develop sophisticated management systems for expanding their numbers, through such means as nutrient supplements and saline water regimes.

The goal is to consistently produce 700,000 to 800,000 lbs, of brine shrimp annually, he said. “I’m actually pretty excited about it.”

Brine shrimp is not actually a type of shrimp, but rather a type of primitive crustacean that grows to about a half-inch in size. Brine shrimp thrives in inland saltwater but not in oceans, probably because they are vulnerable to attack from predators. Perhaps the best known species of brine shrimp is the Artemia salina, named the “Sea-Monkey” by enterprising marketers who produced Sea-Monkey kits and sold them to kids starting in the late 1950s.

Brine shrimp are actually prehistoric animals that can survive in a dormant stage, according to Davis. “They lay eggs that can stay in that condition indefinitely until the environment is conducive for them to hatch, even through the Ice Age,” he said.

The newly proposed community of Quay Valley has expressed an interest in acquiring water from the evaporation basins. Davis said that any deal worked out with the new community would not hurt or limit the brine shrimp production.

“They have been in contact with us to take our drainage water to run it through a reverse-osmosis process,” he said. “They would use it for potable and non-potable water.”

Davis is quick to point out the many of the birds that visit or nest near the evaporation basins. When he takes the drive to the area, he brings a pair of binoculars that enable him to identify members of the 150 different species of birds that stop by, including ducks, egrets and a flock of 3,000 pelicans.

“We have all kinds of shore birds here as well as water fowl,” he said. “The Kern National Wildlife Refuge is adjacent to the south boundary of our South Evaporation Basin.”

To protect the birds and the property from hunters and others, a strict trespassing policy is enforced. The roads around the basins include sand traps that can quickly have violators up to their axels in sand.

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A Starbucks actually closed in Visalia with the Mooney and Caldwell store shutting their door and folks being told to head a block south to the former Krispy Kreme site for their caffeine fix. In the same outlet is the new Chipotle Grill restaurant owned by McDonalds that recently opened.

Visalia Waiter Race in Downtown Visalia is expected to come back after 10 years. The race, that pits waiters from area restaurants running down Main St., will be held September 29 sponsored by Giant Automotive.

Governor supports High Speed Rail with some help from the feds. At a Bakersfield new conference this month, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he supported High Speed Rail for California but the cost of the project— $40 billion—requires help from the federal government and private interests to add to the $10 billion to be committed by state bonds.

Hanford credit union will announce purchase of the 45,000 square foot Sears building in Downtown Hanford this week in which the credit union will take the ground floor relocating from their other site. The 45,000 square foot building has been on the market for over a year. The firm plans to lease out the upstairs portion of the building, sources say. Announcement by the credit union this week comes after this paper goes to press.

More than 4000 babies a year are born at Kaweah Delta Hospital. In celebration, Kaweah Delta Hospital began announcing the arrival of newborns with the playing of Brahms’ lullaby on Monday, June 11. Babies born between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. will be announced by the playing of the lullaby through the overhead speaker system for the entire hospital to hear. This is just one addition to many newly implemented improvements on the Kaweah Delta mom and baby units. In April all of the mom and baby rooms were converted to private rooms. Patients are guaranteed a private room for their entire stay. Recently added to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit staff were neonatologists Drs. Latta and Reidel. Pediatric Cardiologist, Dr. Anna Coll, and Pediatric Infectious Control, Dr. Francesca Geertsma, also joined the team. For patient convenience throughout the hospital, the lullaby will not be played during the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Coming to a new car and EIR near you—Global Warming. California Attorney General Jerry Brown is pressuring all jurisdictions in the state to start including the issue of global warming in their impact reports and folded into their general plans. The new EIR for the Tulare meat packing plant will now include a new section on global warming and how the projects will mitigate any effects it might have. Likewise at the new car dealership in the near future where you are likely to see a new global warming sticker ranking the car like EPA does for gas mileage from one to ten on the car’s global warming impact.

Google says they are going help fund research in plug-in hybrid technology citing a pilot program converting a Prius to plug-in achieving an average fuel economy of 75 miles per gallon. Google Bay Area headquarters switched on a 1.6 megawatt solar panel that recharges the company’s fleet of hybrids. Meanwhile, Ford rolled out their new E85 hybrid vehicle that runs both on 85% ethanol and is a hybrid electric power unit as well.

Agreeing with councilmember Greg Collins an appeal of the city planning commission approval of a tentative parcel map the Visalia city council asked the property owner seeking to divide up a 12 unit apartment complex to clean up their units before they divided them and put them up for sale. The key issue on the plan to divide the parcel into three parcels is that the parcel was lacking in long term maintenance and was a community eyesore and nuisance with over 50 calls for police service in the past few years, says Collins. Now the owner will have to hire a maintenance company and improve the look of the complex before the council approves a final map allowing the sale of parcels.

Visalia city council will hear several proposals for a new location for the SPCA on city property including a new location close to the airport at an upcoming city council meeting.

“The California Transportation Commission has approved funding for the next phase of Visalia Road improvements,” said Paul Boyer, Farmersville City Council Member, who said that more than $1 million would be heading to the city for the project. “We received the word last week.” Plans call for a slight widening of the city’s main east-west road, with improvements to the intersections, especially Farmersville’s main intersection, Farmersville Avenue and Visalia Road. That intersection will have new lights and left turn pockets will be added. “It will make the intersection a lot safer,” Boyer said. “We have had quite a few accidents there.” Visalia Road also needs repairs, which traditionally had been done by applying a seal, but the city decided to hold off on sealing in recent years in order to save enough to repave the roads. Even if the planned road improvements mean more traffic, Farmersville will be ready. They also just received word that state funds have been approved for an additional officer to handle motor traffic enforcement in the city.

Farmersville is watching the application to develop a 13 acre light industrial area across the 198 freeway from McDonalds and do so in the county. City would prefer to have it developed in city limits and wants the land annexed.

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Visalia - The Downtown Visalia Alliance has unveiled its new logo for use in business and communications. In an effort to create an image representing the feel of downtown, the two organizations that comprise this alliance established a joint effort to develop a logo and identity for Downtown Visalia.

Assisted by the creative talents of Vaneno/Bitney, the group surveyed business owners, property owners and patrons of downtown businesses. What they learned is that when you walk down Main Street in Visalia, the atmosphere feels welcoming and safe. As a result, the new logo reflects the comfortable feeling of being in Downtown Visalia.

“We’re excited to be able to center our new marketing efforts around the feeling people expressed about our downtown,” commented Jan Minami, Executive Director of the Downtown Visalia Alliance. “Our new logo represents that feeling, and will be used to market Downtown Visalia as a destination for shopping, dining and entertainment.”

Downtown Visalians, a non-profit business association formed in 1963 with almost 600 members, focuses primarily on marketing and promotions. Downtown PBID is composed of 72 blocks of property owners (bounded by School, Mineral King, Conyer and Santa Fe) who have contributed over $3 million to downtown improvements since 1998. These include additional parking, traffic circulation, streetscape improvements, maintenance, security and economic development.

Vaneno/Bitney is also involved in developing a new stationery package and a brochure template that will be used for the popular dining, shopping and professional services guides produced by Downtown Visalians.

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By Miles Shuper

Tulare County - Tulare County has joined the San Joaquin Valley Power Authority formed to provide an option for residential, commercial and municipal energy customers.

The authority, composed of 12 valley communities along with Kings and now Tulare counties, says customers will see an initial annual 5 percent savings on their power bills and a cap of 2 percent annual increase through 2015. Nine of the 14 cities and/or counties must approve the contract before the authority can become operational.

The authority will purchase power from the Kings River Conservation District at lower rates than utility companies which will continue to distribute it to authority customers. County Supervisors, who in April gave tentative approval to joining the authority, voted 4-1 last week with board Chairman Allen Ishida opposed. Ishida said he is against the idea of government getting into competition with the private sector adding he has seen too many failures when people get into a business they know little about. Ishida also said having too many partners generally is not a good deal.

Customers in participating areas automatically will be enrolled in the program but have the option of continuing to buy direct from their current service provider, Southern California Edison or Pacific Gas and Electric. Edison serves 80 percent of Tulare County and PG&E 20 percent. The authority, SJVPA, will purchase power from the Kings River Conservation District for more than 300,000 customers. Edison and PG&E will continue to handle the delivery, metering and billing and customer services.

Five cities, Kingsburg, Corcoran, Hanford, Kerman and Clovis and Kings County, already have agreed to the plan. Tulare County’s action brings the total to seven, two short of the required nine needed to implement the authority.  Seven others are in the process of voting to join.

Plans call for the change to be phased in over the next 18 months with the first phase set to begin in November. City and County power loads will be first followed by large commercial and industrial power loads in February, 2008. Medium commercial power loads will be added in May and small commercial, agricultural and residential loads will be added in November 2008.

County officials have estimated the savings for the first year of participation, based on averaged power usage in recent years. Lynn Gregory, senior administrative analyst for Tulare County, says the county expects to save $92,000 on its power bills for county buildings in the unincorporated areas in the first full year. Those buildings include the Bob Wily Detention Center, the pre-trial and juvenile hall buildings, several sheriffs’ department substations and the county yard along with several others.

Residential customers can expect a $60 annual savings, medium commercial facilities users $1,700 annually and large commercial users an estimated $8,000 annually,

Customers have four opportunities to opt out of the authority.

The Kings River Conservation District current operates a 155-megawatt facility at Pine Flat and a 97-megawatt facility near Malaga. The district currently is in the permitting process for a planned 500-megawatt plant in the Parlier area. That project currently is proposed to be operational sometime in 2010.

Southern California Edison and PG&E backed the passage of AB117 which provides for the Community Choice Aggregation allowing local governmental agencies the choices of where to buy power. Southern California Edison has taken more or less of a neutral stand on the county’s joining the authority. PGA supports the venture but has cited concerns that there can be no guarantee of such savings on a long term basis.

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Hanford - A start-up firm, Genesis Foods, Inc., will build a 5,000 square foot food processing plant in the Hanford industrial park, says owner David Leon. The company specializes in foods for diabetics using research Mr. Leon has developed over the years. The company needs to build a USDA approved facility, says Leon, to begin manufacturing in some 8 months. “We’ve already purchased the property,” says Leon who is awaiting approval from the city through the site plan review process.

The plant will house a research lab, office and manufacturing space, says Leon, eventually employing 40 to 50 people. The company bought the land from the Kings County EDC. The site is 2.81 acres at the corner of Industry and 11^th Ave.

Leon says the company uses new sugar like ingredients that can be formulated based on individual needs. Foods include a smoothie type drink and pie fillings as well as others.

Diabetic food is a huge market in the US with over 21 million suffers according to the American Diabetes Association.

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Tulare County - Chances for the passage of a comprehensive immigration bill in Washington late this week have improved since President Bush met with Republicans and Democrats this past week to overcome obstacles to the bill. “We expect it will pass perhaps by the weekend,” says Nisei Farmer League President Manuel Cunha. “We are planning a meeting with growers in Visalia to go over what we can expect this Friday,” says Cunha. The comprehensive plan is expected to include a guest worker provision sought by farmers and a so-called pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers already in the US. The measure has the support of labor and farmers in California folding in the provisions of the so-called Ag Jobs bill.

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Exeter - During what was described as “a very stormy session” at a special meeting of the Exeter Woman’s Club on June 12^th, the members voted to sell their 82-year-old building at 201 North Kaweah Avenue in Exeter.

“We had the vote and that’s what the vote was,” said Exeter Woman’s Club President Bonnie Wells. “We’re all pretty upset.”

She explained that the women of the club, which has been active in town since 1903, have been unable to take proper care of the 82-year-old building, only providing “a minimum of maintenance” in recent years. The main reason is the group’s financial situation which, because of a declining and an aging membership, have seen a decrease in revenues, including the cancellation of the most recent Home Tour, the Exeter Woman’s Club’s main annual fundraiser. And without air-conditioning, the old building is getting more difficult to rent—especially in the summer.

“We managed to keep it painted,” Wells said. “We just spent $800 on the roof, but that’s just a stopgap measure.”

Because the club’s fiscal year ended in May, a special meeting had to be called to decide the future of the Woman’s Club Building. There was an urgency to resolving the issue, according to Wells.

“We can’t pay bills through the summer,” she said.

“It was pretty uproarious to say the least,” said one member about the meeting, adding that it reminded her of watching sessions of the British Parliament on CNN where shouting erupts and the members yell loudly at each other.

“The whole thing was very upsetting because everyone was upset,” she continued. “I thought we were there to vote but it turned out to be a very verbal kind of thing. People were not happy with what was going on. I’ve never seen anything like it in my experience in the Woman’s Club.

“The officers and the board had pretty much made up their minds that they were going to sell—that they had to sell,” she said. “The officers had pretty much thought all they were going to do was call for the vote and it would be decided. When they were challenged, things absolutely fell apart.

“Over 20 years ago, the club was in the same spot,” she continued. “They went as far as to ask the city if they wanted to buy the building but the city just wasn’t in the position to do it. Then it turned around. We had a very successful Home Tour and we built up our membership. In the last few years, however, the club has become ‘a victim of the times.’ Women in general are not joiners anymore.”

The club rejected two recent offers for the building that were reportedly much less than the value of the facility. Each offer had provisions that allowed the buyer to back out of the deal later on, possibly leaving the Woman’s Club with significant expenses.

“I’m one of the members who hopes that a miracle will happen and we can save it, but none of the service clubs has come forth and we’ve been asking for this for over a year,” Wells said.

“We have not contacted any realtor or done anything more about it yet,” she said. “If somebody comes up with some money at the last minute, we’ll rethink it, but we’ve heard that now for three or four months and nothing is coming forth.”

Although the result of the meeting was a close vote to put the building up for sale, the final chapter may not have been written on the Exeter Woman’s Club’s ownership of the building. There is a possibility of another vote on the same issue at another meeting—at least if some members get their way. There are even rumors of legal actions. Whatever happens, however, the club itself will continue, according to Wells.

“The women are the club and we will continue to meet even if we have to meet at a restaurant,” she said.

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Visalia - Salinas-based Far West Distributors will move its company and distribution center to Visalia next month says company spokesman Mark Silvas. “We are a dairy company and it makes sense to move to the heart of dairy country.” The firm distributes and sells dairy products both nationally and internationally says Silvas, products like whey and milk powder to bakers and food makers. The company expects to be in operation in a leased warehouse at 7952 Doe as of July 2. Broker Doug Burr handled the transaction. The firm expects to employ 8 people at the facility some of whom will be relocating from Salinas.