The
Big Cheese Will Get Bigger
Leprino Will Add 225 Jobs in Lemoore
Lemoore - Just months after the CDFA increased an allowance for the higher cost of manufacturing dairy commodities in the state; Colorado-based Leprino Foods has announced a plan to expand their huge Lemoore West mozzarella cheese plant by an additional four million pounds of milk a day in coming years—a 67% increase in their current production of 6 million pounds.
As the town’s largest employer, expansion at the Lemoore
West plant will take employment from their current 530 workers to an additional
175 by February 2009 and an additional 50 by 2015 a total of 755 at one of two plants in
Lemoore, the company has reported to the city of
The plant built in 2003 operates 24 hours a day 7 days
a week.
Leprino Senior Vice President
Mike Reidy comfirmed
the city application noting the company is “early in the CEQA process
in ramping up the plant” to 10 million lbs a day of milk which the facility
was originally designed for.
When the new plant expansion opens in February 2009
the company will be using 142,350 square feet of new facility added to
their existing 519,000 square feet facility just off
City planner Holly Smyth says the company will carry
on two other expansions phased in 2011 and 2015 to add a total of 245,550
square feet over three phases.
“The immediate need is a traffic study,” says Smyth, that may be ready by August she figured. At that time
the matter will go to the Lemoore Planning Commission. The traffic study
will assess the impact of 159 new daily trips of trucks bringing the total
truck traffic around the plant to 430 a day.
The big plant is also serviced by the San Joaquin Valley
Railroad but increases in train traffic are not believed to be major.
Smyth says she has no dollar value of the project as
yet but that the current site is already valued at some $350 million.
“We’ve been told that construction time will be about nine months.”
The Lemoore West plant sits on about 100 acres but
the expansion will accommodate about 60 acres of the land, says Smyth
so there will still be land for the future. She says some of the land
will be used for ponding for pretreatment of the waste water before it is sent
to the Lemoore sewer facility.
Said to produce enough mozzarella cheese to cover 800,000
pizzas a day, the plant also makes whey protein and lactose.
The news comes after concerns have been raised in California
that the high cost of manufacturing cheese here was making it prohibitive
to build new producing plant capacity. Last year the
Representing the processors the California Dairy Institute
pointed out that few new producing plants have been built in the past
few years. A Kraft spokesman told the CDFA that the company was shifting
production away from
CDFA argued that the state’s dairy industry has been
increasing milk production by a 3 to 4% clip each year and said they were
concerned that dairymen would continue to need a home for their milk if
the expansion was to continue.
In recent months California Dairies has started construction
a new plant in
Dairy consultant Gary Korsmeier,
formerly executive director of California Dairies, says the make allowance
put in place last year by CDFA amounts to an extra 40 plus cents per hundredweight
of milk paid to processors. He says the math on that is an extra $24,000
a day based on six million pounds of milk processed in a day at the Lemoore
plant currently. That amounts to an extra incentive of $720,000 a month
for the company above what they were offered in 2006. That’s just on the
volume of milk that runs through the plant currently six million pounds a day. Now they plan
to increase to 10 million pounds a day.
He says CDFA added over 40 cents per cwt to the 4b
milk price in the state which is
about half the milk produced in
Of course milk prices were in the doldrums in 2006
but are flying high today to near record levels as the world price of
all milk commodities have skyrocketed. Fueling the increase is global
nature of dairy products now and a drought in
Said to be the worst drought in 100 years down under,
the extreme weather has caused a hike in farmer suicides news reports
suggest.
Korsmeier told the Voice that added capacity in the central valley from California Dairies, Leprino and perhaps Blue Ribbon Dairy will bode well for the continued development of the dairy industry in the central valley for years to come. California Dairies supplied some four million pounds of milk a day to Leprino in Lemoore through a contract with Dairy Farmers of America.
Power
to the People?
Tulare County Joins Valley Power Authority
60,000 Customers
in Tulare County and All of Kings County Will Have
New Local Electricity Provider Later this Year
Tulare County - With the guarantee that customers will save at least 5 percent on their power bills, the new San Joaquin Valley Power Authority made up of 14 municipalities in the central valley, is nearing actually delivering power to area residents as soon as November of this year. The Authority would replace PG&E and Edison as local electricity providers in all of
Altogether the Authority would deliver power to 360,000 electricity customers in the valley including residents of the city of
Orth says the decision to allow Tulare County to join
the 13 other municipalities was made after the Authority board decided
that Tulare County’s additional load—some 60,000 customers would not delay
the application for final approval from the CPUC nor cost the group more.
“It helps us to spread costs over a larger base of customers,” notes Orth.
Still for final approval cities like Lemoore and
In Corcoran a few nights ago, a PG&E representative
argued that the 5 percent rate reduction was not guaranteed. But Orth
says the 5 percent cost savings is a condition that the Authority
has set for itself “or it won’t go forward.” In addition PG&E asked
if it were true that the Authority planned a 500 mw gas fired power plant
in Parlier was still moving forward. Orth says
the project is moving forward and they will file a permit application
to build that plant by mid June with the California Energy Commission.
Orth notes there is some opposition
to the plant in the Parlier area, but promises that “if there are any
negative health effects associated with the plant, we won’t build it.”
Orth says the “base load” plant is needed to produce
more power in the central valley and that the location was picked in order
to use Parlier city waste water to cool the plant cleaning up nitrates
that would otherwise be a pollution problem for Parlier and clearly that
city’s need to expand their wastewater treatment plant.
Asked in Corcoran by PG&E if the Authority will
have a 20 percent renewables portfolio like
all utilities in the state, Orth says indeed they will and they are reviewing
600 megawatts of local renewable projects
solar, wind and biomass right
now after a RFP went out. “We expect to announce a memo of understanding
with a 30 mw solar project in our area very soon.”
To meet the 20% threshold the Authority will need to
contract with over 300 mw of green power that Orth hopes will largely
be produced locally a huge jumpstart for renewable projects in the central
valley where relatively few projects have originated in recent years.
Until recently negotiations with private utilities have been lengthy and
arduous to the point that some developers for renewable projects have
thrown up their hands citing the rules that the private utilities have
on how power is sold metering rules that in the end make many local start
up ventures difficult to pencil out. But now the state’s 20 percent renewable
mandate has PG&E, SCE and the Power Authority all hungry to make deals
as on new green power projects.
The Authority will need about 1600 mw of power to provide
electricity with more than half produced by the combination of the new
Parlier plant and the renewable projects. Orth says
there is a probability of about 5 mw of “low flow hydro”. Large hydro
projects these days are nearly impossible to get approved suggests Orth.
Already KRDC owns Pine Flat hydroelectric power plant (165 mw) and a peaker
plant in
Orth says “in stark contrast with PG&E, Edison
has been very cooperative with the program “that was made possible some
years back by change in the PUC rules allowing such “community choice
to move forward.”
The Authority plans to contract with a middleman Citigroup
Energy to contract with other power makers to bring in enough power. Orth says like other
utilities, the Authority will not contract with coal-based plants to provide
the electricity.
“Our priority is to provide as much of the power in
the valley” says Orth in part because the longer the power has to travel
the more it costs. In addition, producing the power locally helps the
local economy.
Orth says the current schedule calls for the Authority to take over as electricity provider for all municipalities on the board as of November of this year with large private users in the Spring of 2008 and all residents being hooked up by the Fall of 2008.
Theater Co-Ownership
By Steve Pastis
Visalia -
“The church did send a letter saying they were not
going to go forward with joint ownership of the theater with the City
of
The church is withdrawing from an arrangement which
would have made it a half-partner in the building if it was to pay half
of $600,000, the assessed value of the building, according to City Attorney
Alex Peltzer.
“We agreed that we would finance about 75% of that,”
he said, “but they would still have to put up their share.”
Now, as the sole owner of the
“We have got to make improvements to the building,”
Peltzer said. “We also want to decide what the use schedule
is going to be. We’re going to talk to Enchanted Playhouse to see if they
still want to rent it.”
In 2003,
At about the same time, Enchanted Playhouse, which
had rented the building for several years
and still does, made an effort to acquire the property but was
unable to raise the necessary funds. The non-profit group gained the support
of the Visalia Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Visalia. The two civic
organizations and others were able to convince the Visalia City Council with some reluctance to acquire the theater through the process of
eminent domain.
Eminent domain is the right of a government to take
a private property for public use, with just compensation. The argument
presented was that a children’s theater was an important part of the community.
The city offered $300,000 as “just compensation,” despite
the fact that the church had offered $600,000 for the building and maintained
that a deal was in place based on that price. In early January, after
a two-year legal battle, a jury set the price that the city should pay
for the building at $600,000.
“I supported eminent domain only after the Visalia
Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Visalia supported it,” said City Council
Member Don Landers. “I agreed reluctantly. I don’t like to use eminent
domain except regarding essential city services like the right of way
for roads.”
So now the final curtain has apparently come down.
The City of
“I wish it didn’t have to go through all the legal issues,” Landers said. “It was a tremendous expense that the city had to incur."
'Amazing' Golf
Course Project to Solve
Dinuba's Water Problem
Dinuba - Ridge Creek Golf Club, a $27 million,
18-hole championship golf course and residential development on the
western edge of Dinuba, is creating a lot of local excitement among
“This golf course will literally put
Dinuba on the map and give people yet another reason to visit and stay,”
said City Manager Ed Todd.
“We’ve really got an amazing project
going on here,” said Deputy City Manager Dan Meinert.
“There are so many interesting aspects to this project.”
“The primary purpose of the golf course
is to be a recipient of several millions of gallons a day from our water
treatment facility,” Todd said. “It will help us get rid of processed
water and bring an amenity to our community that does not currently
exist. It will also provide housing choices not currently offered.”
The residential development around the
course will consist of three separate golf course-oriented neighborhoods
with five different types of housing. Nearly 400 home sites are planned,
including townhouses, patio homes, traditional single-family detached
homes, large-lot single-family detached homes and resort cottages. A
tentative map for residential development has been approved by the city
and proposals from developers to build homes are being requested.
When it opens in May 2008, the course
will serve as the city’s Reclamation Conservation Recreation Project.
It is expected to provide the solution to Dinuba’s water problem by
using the water that accumulates from the disposal of processed wastewater
at the nearby Wastewater Treatment/Reclamation Facility.
The course’s extraction wells will pull
water that has built up underground around the reclamation facility
and use it to irrigate the golf course. The water will also be used
to create wetlands and be available for other recreational uses.
Ridge Creek Golf Club, designed by John
Fought, known for designing some of the top golf courses in the world,
is currently under construction on
“We’re getting ready to grass the first
three holes,” said Todd. “We’ll grass two or three holes a week. We
should have it grassed by mid-August at the latest. The landscaping
is done at the same time. They like to go in with the equipment and
move on. When they’re finished with a hole, they are pretty much done
with it.”
Construction on the maintenance facility
and electric cart barn is expected to start in the next two weeks. Work
on the clubhouse should also begin soon.
“We’re in the process of finalizing
plans and designs for the clubhouse,” Todd said, adding that the clubhouse
will be done in three phases.
The first phase is to build a temporary
pro shop and a bar and grill. Plans in the second phase include moving
the pro shop to its permanent location and expanding the bar and grill
to include a dining area. The third phase will be the addition of a
large restaurant area that will accommodate social gatherings of up
to 200 people.
“There is nothing of this caliber in
the area,” said Todd. “This will be a much longer course, similar to
St. Andrews Course in
Course architect Fought explained that
he wanted to “add a lot of contour” to the greens and fairways. He designed
bumps and rolls similar to those at St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf,
and at the Heathland courses in
“
The golf course, to be managed by Kemper
Sports, Inc., will feature one of the longest par fives in
“For those who don’t golf, there will
be other things for them to do,” Todd said. “For those who do golf,
it will be one excellent golf experience.”
Even though the Ridge Creek Golf Club
will take almost a year to complete, there is already a lot of interest
in the project.
“We get about five calls a week from people who want to know when lots will be available,” Meinert said.
Arson Fires Keep County Crews Busy
Tulare County - Since Memorial Day weekend, four
fires, three apparently the work of arsonists, have kept county and
U.S. Forest Service firefighters busy.
As of early this week, the largest blaze,
just west of the Tule River Indian Reservation, has blackened just more
than 2,000 acres.
On Memorial Day weekend, the fire near
Horse Creek at Lake Kaweah near Three Rivers and a blaze along Highway
245 north of Woodlake both were set, says Cal Fire Battalion Chief Paul
Marquez. The
The latest blaze, called the Goldledge
fire in
No injuries had been reported of Tuesday
afternoon as firefighters kept close watch for predicted strong winds,
especially around the Tule River Indian Reservation fire, which was
under control and 85 percent contained. Cooling temperatures in mid
week were expected to help crews in their control efforts.
The first of the arson fires burned
about 50 acres near Boyd’s Grade, north of Elderwood.
The Three Rivers blaze drew the most
attention as holiday lake-goers including campers, boaters and swimmers
were treated to front row seat as helicopters dipped water from the
lake. Campers and others were forced to move back as the fire crews
fought the flames.
Investigators say no suspects have been identified but investigation into all three of the fires is ongoing.
What's New
Northside shopping center. Sources say that along with Target and
Home Depot, several large retailers are talking to developer Donohue
Schriber about joining the party. Those include
WinCo,
the employee-owned warehouse grocer has just opened in
Bear shot on Valley’s Westside.
A black bear weighing about 200 pounds was shot by Fish and Game on
Westlake property near Stratford on the Valley’s Westside May 16, reports
land owner Ceil Howe. The bear may have come into the area from the
other side of I-5, speculated an official. Fish and Game was unable
to tranquilize the animal and feared for the public if it ran toward
Highway 41.
New poll finds support for Governor’s
infrastructure proposal. The poll was done by the Public Policy
Institute. In January, Governor Schwarzenegger emphasized the importance
of funding additional infrastructure projects and proposed a new $43.3
billion bond package to increase funding for education facilities, corrections
and prisons, water shortage and flood control, and courthouses. More
than six in 10 adults (67%) and likely voters (64%) favor this new bond
plan, as do majorities of Democrats (71%), Independents (64%) and Republicans
(60%). Support has increased since our January survey (63% all adults,
58% likely voters). Central Valley (71%) and
Three Rivers may get a new Entrance
Sign to the foothill community. The Tulare County EDC will make
a presentation to the local chamber June 13 at 6:30 p.m. at the historical
museum in Three Rivers. All received designs will be presented.
Mortgage rates continue to creep
upward with the latest Freddie Mac survey for May 31 averaging 6.42%
with 0.4 points on a 30 year fixed loan. They are up from 6.37% May
24 and 6.21% on May 17 and 6.15% May 10. However a year ago it was 6.67%.
An assembly bill to ban dairies around
Allensworth passed this week without
an “urgency” designation too late to block a dairy that goes in this
year. But there are three lawsuits pending against the project including
one by the state attorney general. Meanwhile the property owner is awaiting
an appraisal of the property that could lead to an offer from the state
parks to buy the land precluding his dairy from locating there. Waiting
in the wings is supervisor Connie Conway with an idea to set up a mitigation
bank in
Single family home permits spiked
upward in May to 123 new units, according to the city of
Industrial Park annexation will
come back to
Supervisors honored Dr. Lorene Valentino
this week for her 30 plus years of service to youth and the greater
low income community. They cited her works setting up job training,
teen parenting, English language training and her work helping welfare
recipients get jobs pointing to her “phenomenal dedication and commitment
to others.
First meeting regarding the proposed
63 million gallon Great Valley Ethanol plant to be located in
the
Survey Underway to See Tristeza Spread
Exeter - A survey is underway to determine the infection level in citrus trees in a half mile area around UC Lindcove Field Station where some 50 citrus trees were discovered to have the citrus disease tristeza (CVT) in recent weeks. “This is serious” says Beth Grafton-Cardwell director of the research center. “If we don't clean it (CVT) the field station will be gone from the face of the earth.”
She told neighboring property owner that the Lindcove facility is known “as one of the finest citrus research stations in the world.”
Tristeza is spread by aphids that infect citrus trees that can cause the decline in productivity for the tree. Growers have for years funded an agency that fights the disease using the only cure available—cutting down the tree for which growers are compensated.
But large pest control district —Tulare County Pest Control District—has opted out of the grower funded Central Valley Tristeza Agency and has not eradicated trees or even surveyed around the Lindcove Station for years.
Now the survey will tell us just how widespread the problem is near the research station, says Ted Batkin who heads up the California Citrus Research Board. “We should know by mid June,” he says. The last test was done in 1999.
One implication of the spread is that the station is likely to double the size of its screened in foundation block of trees that provide budwood to the industry, he says. The industry would pay for the effort that would protect those trees from the roaming aphids.
Another intriguing possibility is that there is now interest by some growers in setting up a separate pest control district north of Exeter splitting off from the Tulare County Pest Control District whose leadership is adamant against re-joining the Central Valley Tristeza Agency.
“I'd say chances of TCPCD changing their minds about joining the eradication effort are slim and none,” says Batkin.
Wanted: Airline
to serve small but profitable
Visalia - Once again,
“We were notified by e-mail and a telephone
message from Mesa Airlines,” said Mario Cifuentez,
II,
“While they do have a contract with
the Department of Transportation, it’s not like some contracts where
you are bound,” he explained. “Typically, the excuse the airlines will
use is, ‘It’s no longer profitable to serve these markets under the
terms in the contract.’”
The Department of Transportation has
still not issued a hold-in order, however. A hold-in order requires
an airline to ‘hold in’ and maintain service until a request for bids
process is complete. These orders are good for 30 days at a time and
are issued every 30 days as necessary.
Cifuentez
expects that over the next month to six weeks, airlines will submit
proposals to serve
With 700 to 800 passengers flying to
“There’s a market demand here for passengers
who want to go to
Airlines, however, have to look beyond
the profitability of one city when they make their business decisions.
“They have to look at the market as a whole,” Cifuentez
explained. “Airlines are based on a system where we might have been
making money and some of these other cities may not have made any at
all. Small markers can’t stand alone.”
Fuel prices have increased dramatically
and there is a shortage of airplanes
and even pilots. “We’ve seen several delays when pilots
have timed out,” he said. “They can only fly so many hours and they
reached their maximum hours and they couldn’t move on.”
Even with all of the challenges faced
by the airlines and especially by smaller airports, Cifuentez
is still optimistic about the future of Visalia Airport, which he says
serves about 600,000 people, from south Fresno County to north Kern
County, and through Tulare and Kings Counties.
“We’re an extremely strong market,” he said. “I think our business community is starting to step up. They are starting to use the service.”
County Gearing Up to Impose Impact Fees
By Miles Shuper
Tulare County - Although they
have been anticipated for quite some time, it now appears that impact
fees are coming to Tulare Countypossibly within
three months.
Developmental impact fees, commonly
referred to as public facilities impact fees, are a popular way of financing
public facilities based on the premise that new development should pay its fair share of the cost.
In late 2005, the county hired MuniFinancial,
a
Supervisors actions last month set the
ball rolling on the implementing the fees by voting to circulate the
plans for 45 days for public comment by cities and other interested
parties. County staff already is meeting with city officials around
the county. Projects such as pubic safety, libraries and other projects
which serve residents in cities as well as unincorporated areas can
be funded with impact fee monies.
Allen Ishida, chairman of the board
of supervisors, who, during his “State of the County” talk in January,
cited the importance of implementing the fees as soon as possible, said
local governments need equitable sources of funds to support the needs
brought by growth. The
Impact fees which are attached to the
cost of new homes, commercial or industrial buildings can only be used
to offset the impact of the new development on existing county services.
The county already has one impact fee
for developers of new subdivisions to establish special district to
pay for future road maintenance.
To collect fees, agencies, such as a
city, council or water or school district must show a nexus between
the amount of fees collected and the cost of the services provided.
Counties cannot make a profit on the fees, but they can be used for
a variety of services including pubic safety, including public safety,
parks, libraries, roads, fire protection and storm drains, county officials
pointed out.
Although impact fees have been discussed
for several years, county supervisors have been somewhat cautious among
concerns that imposing them might slow down development in some areas.
Supervisors have endorsed the impact fees more readily in the last two
years stressing that growth in
The board’s action two weeks ago, allows
for 45 days of public comment by cities and other interested parties.
The county staff already has begun talks
with city officials throughout the county.
County Administrator Brian Haddix
and his staff have been negotiating with city staffers to workout the
details of the county’s implementing the fees.
Basically, cities are being asked to collect fees which can be shared with the county for services and projects benefiting city and non-city residents. County impact fees are reduced according to a formula reflecting those services paid for by the city residents.
by Miles Shuper
Woodlake - After 15 years in Woodlake,
Dr. Steve Tietjen has accepted the position
of superintendent of the
Tietjen spent
13 years as superintendent, serving both the high school and elementary
school boards and the children of Woodlake, Stone Corral and
Joe Hallmeyer,
president of the
Hallmeyer described
Tietjen as a “very passionate individual and dedicated to
the students, parents and community of Woodlake” who was not afraid
to make changes and to challenge students and the community. Hall Meyer
said Tiejten will be missed.
During Tietjen's
administration, the community passed two bond issues, a new school was
constructed, new gyms were built at the high school and middle school,
a new pool was built and all the schools were modernized.
Steve said he is most proud of the accomplishments
his staff has made in the teaching of reading to English as a Second
Language students and preparing students for college. In 1995, Woodlake
adopted the “Success for All” reading initiative which uses the latest
research to design effective reading strategies around the students
who struggle to learn to read.
“The program is used in preschool through
fifth grade and Woodlake Elementary Schools have made tremendous growth
in the area of reading comprehension for English learners,” he said.
Tietjen credits
staff with “making the real changes” which have brought positive attention
to Woodlake. “Change is hard to embrace, especially when we have been
raised in one set of circumstances and now find ourselves in a completely
new set of circumstances. But if public education is to thrive in the
21st Century, we must find new ways to motivate students, and the threat
of a test score is not it,” he said.
In 2002, Woodlake High was recognized
on the national level by the AP College Board, the organization that
administers the SAT test as a “
Other accomplishments during Dr. Tietjen's
administration included supporting the opening of the Assistance Service
Dog Education Center as a TCOVE program, bringing the Golden Valley
YMCA to Woodlake to run the community recreation program and the after
school programs as well. The Y program coordinator, Laura Armstrong,
recently received notice that Woodlake High was one of seven high schools
in five Valley counties to receive an after school grant.
Tietjen also
assisted the community group, Woodlake Pride, in obtaining the property
on which the
Tietjen says,
“In these times of NCLB when only test scores are valued by the authorities
in
Being judged once a year by a test score
is not the “real world” by any means, being able to communicate effectively,
express yourself and value the expression of others is a skill needed
by all those who enter the workforce or participate in our democratic
form of government, he said.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
June 6, 2007
