Changes on South Mooney
Sequoia Mall Sale Nears
Costco Expected to Sell Current Store

Visalia - On the sales block for $30 million for most of the past year, the 24 acre Sequoia Mall is about to be sold to an Ohio based company who plans to renovate it. The mall's current owner, Centro Watt, is said to be just weeks away from a sale of the south Mooney property to Schottenstein Stores Corp. who owns various retail stores nationwide.

A representative of Schottenstein visited with city officials several weeks ago indicating a plan was being considered to remodel the mall and bring in new tenants. “They told us all options were on the table,” says city planner Fred Brusuelas.

Schottenstein Stores were part of a consortium of investors who bought 37 Albertsons stores last year. They own 500 shopping centers nationwide and have stakes in several major retail companies including American Eagle, DSW Shoe Stores, and Value City Department Stores in the Midwest.

“I really can't comment right now,” says VP for leasing, Mark Ungar with Schottenstein Management. Ungar suggested checking back in 60 days.

Schottenstein Management controls over 20 million square feet of commercial and residential real estate nationwide.

The new buyer will buy into a weakened shopping center in the competitive marketplace in 2007 with one key anchor storefront— the former Ross store—still vacant after years of trying to fill it and other vacancies. Centro Watt bought the property from M and H Realty in 2003 for $27.4 million. The property includes the mall and adjacent Tower Plaza with stores Bed, Bath and Beyond and Marshalls as key anchors. Borders and Regal Cinema are major tenants for the mall.

The mall is 220,234 square feet located on what is widely considered the busiest retail corner in the trade area. The mall ownership does not include key anchors of the mall Sears and Mervyns nor several out parcels in the back including Longs, and the former 24 Hour Fitness club space, now vacant. They do own the old cinema building on the far northwest of the property.

In their public notice to sell the Sequoia Mall last March, the company called the investment “under performing” facing tough competition from other retailers locally. Unlike competitor Visalia Mall down the block who enjoys near 100% occupancy, Sequoia mall has room to expand.

Costco Plans

The mall was one of the older properties around town that were clearly hurt by the coming of the big new Packwood Creek center just a block away now nearly built out in the first two phases. Indeed, the next phase of Packwood Creek is about to begin to the east of Lowes where the bulldozers are already grading the land for a new Costco store. The developer is also busy extending two streets that will better connect the new center, Stonebrook and Visalia Parkway.

Costco plans to relocate from their current site not far from the Sequoia Mall when the new store is built. City officials confirm that Costco officials say they plan to sell their current store property to another retailer. “Typically they look for someone who won't compete with them,” says Brusuelas. In other cases former Costco stores have become furniture stores or even a Walmart. Next door the old Home Base store that has remained empty for several years now may have some new interest, says the broker working on it. Smaller tenants at the south Mooney center hope an announcement of new retailers here will benefit them.

The renovation at the existing Costco and Sequoia Mall is good news for the city, says city manager Steve Salomon. “It's my feeling that these people are not going to buy these spaces to sit on them but to bring them back.”

In their prospectus on the sale of the Sequoia Mall the marketer pointed out multiple scenarios to renovate the early 1970s mall including making it an open-air shopping center, bringing in a major new retailer like Macys or even building housing units at the center.

“What they can do will depend on how many of the parcels they don't own they can bring under their control,” expects Brusuelas. With plans to relocate the Longs to Demaree and Caldwell and the closure of the 24-hour fitness center in the back of the Sequoia Mall it would appear there might be a chance to do an expansive repositioning of the mall.

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Tulare County - Space On a statewide and local level, leaders are grappling with the same problem: while the police are catching law breakers, the sheer number of offenders is overflowing both state and local jail cells. It's come to the point that virtually all counties, including our own, are releasing more offenders because of lack of holding space.

On a statewide front, Governor Schwarzenegger is expected to release the latest version of a “prison reform” masterplan in the next few weeks to help solve the overcrowding problem. Both Tulare and Kings Counties hope that announcement will help them pay for more management of law breakers with money to pay for staff to watch over them. But that's been going on for years now and some locals are getting tired of waiting.

This week, leaders from the City of Tulare met with county officials in Visalia to push for at least a partial local solution.

Led by Tulare mayor Craig Vejvoda and city manager Darryl Pyle, the Tulare contingent told the county “we don't want to assign blame but to offer money and manpower” from Tulare and perhaps solicit assistance from other cities to “see that misdemeanor offenders serve time.” In the case of the county there is actually empty jail space at Sequoia Field but the county lacks the resources to get trained staff to supervise more prisoners. “The state contracts for space, why not us?” asks Tulare's Vejvoda.

Tulare Council member Phil Vandegrift of Tulare sounds an alarm. “If there is no consequence for breaking the law, we will have a hard time policing the city. Public safety is number one priority and we asked voters to pass a sales tax increase to help pay for it Measure I.”

Unlike lots of counties, Tulare County actually has some vacant jail space that sits empty even as 50 offenders are released every week. Vandegrift notes the county actually contracts to the state for jail space. But the jail was “built with local tax payer money and the local jurisdictions can't even use it. There are about 100 beds contracted to the state. There are still over 130 beds available but not used by the county because they lack the money to staff them.

“Can the City of Tulare reserve jail space to take care of our own?” wonders Vandegrift, something the county will now look into.

Ishida Optimistic

City manager Pyle says he expects an answer in about two weeks. In the meantime, he expects all the police chiefs in the county may bring the issue to their respective cities to see if a joint effort could keep misdemeanor offenders behind bars and provide a consequence for their action. “The news will get around” that there are penalties for breaking the law, he says.

“We just keep asking our police to arrest prostitutes,” says Vandegrift. “But the prostitutes are back out on the street faster than out police can fill out the booking paperwork.”

A sympathetic Allen Ishida told the Voice after the meeting this week he was optimistic something can work out at least for a shorter term perhaps a year until the county can use the space. Ishida says the county is working to train staff to man the remaining 130 beds at the Pre-Trial facility. “We'll try to accommodate them,” Ishida vows, saying that goes for other cities who might want to offer assistance.

The problem is not just in Tulare County where prisoners are released early because of lack of space. In fact, 33 counties are under court ordered or self imposed population caps and some 18,000 arrestees are released early from jail or avoid jail altogether as part of the population caps, according to the state Department of Corrections.

As far as overcrowded jails in California are concerned, failure of the parole systems appears to be a major factor with 7 out of 10 parolees returning to state prisons or local jails according to the state of California. That's the highest recidivism in the nation.

Last year the California State Sheriffs Association released a report on the overcrowding situation suggests the state needs to come up with a plan that will help counties all over the state facing the same problem. In 2005 139,000 sentenced prisoners and 84,000 pre-sentenced arrestees were simply released.

Half a Jail

In Kings County the Board of Supervisors were able to come up with only “half a jail,” says Supervisor Tony Oliveira after two ballot measures locally failed to raise enough money to build a 306 bed capacity jail. But now administrator Larry Spikes hopes that the state will rethink the prison reform plan Schwarzenegger has been talking about that could allow counties to build and staff space to hold their own prisoners.

Ishida hopes that the state will be helpful but complains Schwarzenegger's last idea in June was not. He is asking counties to take felony prisoners who have three years to serve. “We and all the rest of the counties said there wasn't enough jail space to do that.”

Another issue is the standards that jails must meet, says Ishida. “Do the jail rooms need to meet state mandated standards or set by the county.

Getting Worse?

In a sign that things could get worse instead of better, the Governor's office warns that “If federal judges cap prison populations, local jails will be forced to absorb more offenders. Offenders who would normally go to state prison will remain in sheriffs' custody if a state population cap is imposed. Sheriffs will have to release even more local offenders to accommodate prisoners released from state prisons.”

The Governor toured San Joaquin County jail March 8th and says that “California faces the threat of a court-ordered cap on state prison populations, which are at historic highs. If enacted, county jails will be forced to accept offenders from state prisons, exacerbating already overcrowded jails statewide.”

As an emergency measure the governor began sending some inmates out of state, but last month a Sacramento Superior Court ruled against that relocation effort. The governor plans to make an appeal.

In January Schwarzenegger proposed another alternative suggesting that local jails keep any inmates sentenced to three years of less.

To cut recidivism of high risk offenders Schwarzenegger is proposing to build 10 secure re-entry facilities to help parolees.

The governor's prison reforms will provide local government with $5.5 billion (including $1.1 billion in local matching funds) to construct and modernize local jails and juvenile facilities.

Locally the governor's plan is to expand the state prison at Avenal that houses 7620 prisoners even though it's designed for 2320.

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Visalia - CalTrans-funded widening of Mooney Blvd. to six lanes will start in early 2008, says Visalia city manager Steve Salomon. “They've started work on relocating utilities already,” says Salomon, and once they start on the widening “they plan to do much of the work at night” to keep from disrupting traffic flow as much as possible. Salomon says CalTrans will not start the huge project until after the holidays this year when Mooney is clogged with shoppers.

“Widening Mooney will make traffic flow a lot easier,” says Salomon who says he knows all Vislaians have been stuck on Mooney one time or another.

“Several other projects in the next few years should ease Mooney's burden as well,” says the city manager, including the widening of Santa Fe and the new cross 198 bridge at Santa Fe that will mean there is a cross town north/south alternative to Mooney.

City engineer, Andrew Benelli says Measure R will help fund several connecting streets to Mooney including Walnut, Tulare and Whitendale with local monies, but that CalTrans is expected to have enough to pay for the widening of Mooney since the boulevard is a state highway.

The Mooney widening project, covering 2.2 miles, should take about two years to accomplish. Clearly widening the most important street in Visalia will facilitate commerce along Mooney, the town's biggest sales tax generator.

The $25.5 million project ahs been the top road project in terms of priority for the Tulare County Association of Government for years and was first earmarked for funding 10 years ago, says CalTrans official Alan McCuen. “That's about normal” for highway projects.

The fact that Mooney—Highway 63—is a regional road has meant that like other regional roads in the county, truck traffic has increased markedly over the years. A CalTrans study shows trucks travel as a percentage of total kilometers traveled in the state increased from 4.1% in 1988 to 14.5% in 2004. Highway 198 increased over that time from 6% to 18% and Highway 65 from 10% to 17.6%.

Salomon notes that Mooney will not be as wide as it is south of Packwood Creek since the widening between Packwood and 198 required the taking of private property. “We kind of have to squeeze three lanes, one on each side with the existing right-of-way.”

A separate contractor will plant new landscaping and trees along Mooney.

Benelli says the city is gearing up to accelerate road projects around the community because of funding from Measure R but that the department needs engineers. “We are in the process of hiring three new engineers for the city,” he says after a number of city engineers left for the private sector.

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Porterville - Tulare County Court and city officials were disappointed in January when they learned that the Governor's budget did not include money to build a new courthouse in Porterville. The 90,000 square foot project, budgeted at $81.1 million, is a top priority says presiding judge Joe Kalashian.

But there is still hope the Governor's May-Revise budget will indeed contain funding for the badly needed project, says mayor Cam Hamilton of Porterville. “We're optimistic,” emphasizes Hamilton.

Also, after consultation with local interests, the EDC, Chamber included, “we've pretty well settled on a location”—some 13 acres at the fairgrounds east of Downtown, notes Hamilton. The courthouse would need seven of those acres and now the county is considering a jail that could be housed adjacent to the new courthouse, says chair of the board, Allen Ishida. “It would be owned and funded by the county,” says Ishida, suggesting plans were very preliminary right now.

Hamilton says the new courthouse “is absolutely crucial” and that the county and state have to come to an agreement over the disposition of the current courthouse that the county wants to sell to the state.

The new South County Justice Center would likely attract private investment like law offices nearby and Hamilton says he believes the redevelopment agency of the city could help along 2nd and 3rd Street to make that happen as a revitalization effort.

The state Judical Council has called both the Tulare and Porterville courthouses “some of the worst in the state.” The facilities are “functionally deficient, overcrowded and the worst in the state in terms of security and physical condition.” The Porterville building's two courtrooms seat 72 (including attorneys and court staff), but often cannot accommodate all parties. Consequentially, the public, victims, witnesses, and on-bail defendants must wait in narrow hallways.

“People in custody have to mix with people out of custody,” says Kalashian. The judge believes the Governor's budget may still have about $4 million in the budget but “we really can't go ahead without knowing if the full project is funded.”

In order to consolidate other court functions into the two regional justice centers, the court will divide the functions at the Tulare-Pixley and Dinuba locations into the North and South Justice Centers. The new Porterville Courthouse, to include the entire three-courtroom operation from the existing Porterville Government Center and one courtroom function from the Tulare-Pixley Court, will replace facilities that have poor security, are overcrowded, and have many physical problems.

The proposed new Porterville Courthouse will have a total of nine courtrooms. In addition to the four existing courtrooms to be replaced, five courtrooms are planned to accommodate new judgeships proposed by the Judicial Council. Pending approval, Senate Bill (SB) 56 authorizes the establishment of 50 new judgeships in FY 2006-2007. An additional 100 judgeships are proposed over the following two years. Tulare County is projected to receive an additional six judgeships, five of which will be assigned to the new Porterville Courthouse.

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by Steve Pastis

Visalia - The College of the Sequoias has had its share of challenges in recent years. Enrollment was down. The school couldn't seem to find a way to get a bond measure passed. And as recently as two years ago, contract negotiations between the school and its teachers were very bitter and very public.

From all indications, however, things seem to be on the right track again for COS. Enrollment is up over last year at this time. The school found a way to pass a bond measure. And the leadership of the College of the Sequoias Teachers Association (COSTA) had nothing but positive words to say about the college administration and how current labor negotiations are progressing.

“Actually, things are progressing very well,” said Kevin Piccuito, President-Elect of COSTA. “Everyone seems to be working together and in a common direction and we're very pleased.”

Piccuito went on to praise the efforts of Dr. Don L. Goodyear, who served as interim president of COS, for starting the positive trend and President Dr. Bill Scroggins for continuing it.

“I think the district's approach to negotiations is one that's respectful and employs an attitude of looking for common interests between employees and management,” Dr. Scroggins said. “Our business is a people business. Our faculty are our assets. They're the ones who provide the service to our students.”

Bond Measures

The college put district-wide bonds before the voters in the past few years. None of those bonds were successful. Bond measures were probably hurt by the previous problems between the teachers union and COS.

“There was a lot of negative publicity that accrued for the district and that's bound to affect voters,” Scroggins said. “The fact that not all segments of the college were working together during that period of time undoubtedly had an effect on the inability of the district to pass that bond.”

He explained that although previous COS bond measures received the support of most of the voters, they fell short of the 55% majority required to pass. A new strategy has proven to be more successful, however, after it was noted that parts of the district tend to vote in favor of measures that focus on their interests.

“We decided to divide the district into smaller pieces and go for targeted bond measures,” Scroggins explained, “and to take a piece of the district-wide operation that would serve a particular area and ask just that area of voters to support it.”

This was done in November—and successfully. In Hanford, voters saw the full design and description of the proposed 40,000-square-foot educational facility that would permanently reside in their city, and they approved the measure.

“We did a lot more to share with the public what we were going to do with the money and how we were going to be accountable for the money,” he said. “We had a community support group of over 50 people who worked with us to pass that bond.”

In addition to passing its local bond, COS will benefit from Proposition 1D, the statewide school bond that includes money to expand the college's Tulare Center, its primary expansion goal in that part of the county.

“Our long-range analysis shows that the south part of the county will be quite fast-growing over the next 20 to 30 years,” Scroggins said. “We should be able to get $60 million from 1D to fund the first phase of the Tulare Center. We have an approved proposal for the second phase.

“Our effort will be to work towards three sources of funding for Tulare—1D, the second statewide bond and a local bond in 2008,” he added, saying that plans are to have all the parts of the center completed by 2012.

COS's Tulare Center would have anchor programs in agriculture and technology, but there would also be a full general education curriculum and a full basic skills program. COS's Hanford site will have public safety as its anchor, teaching skills for professions such as police and prison work, and firefighting.

Registration Numbers

Registration is up at COS by 7.9% for the spring semester. According to Scroggins, half of COS's increased spring attendance is due to off-campus initiatives and the other half is due to on-campus growth.

“We have some programs that are drawing the students,” Scroggins said, citing such educational offerings as the electrician training program and veterinary technology. In addition, COS is offering inmate education at the local prisons and 30 classes on high school campuses, increasing to 40 in the fall.

“What we're looking for are high school students who want to concurrently enroll in college classes and make their senior year a step to college,” he said.

Scroggins also attributes the increased attendance to the local economy and all its problems. He believes that the recent freeze and the slowdown in construction have affected COS attendance, but in a positive way.

“When people are not at work, they tend to turn more towards improving skills through education so they are more employable,” he said.

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Tulare County - These 80 degree days in March are telling us something. Continued high pressure on the West Coast may be great for suntans and wearing shorts, but for all of us who depend on winter rains “you can just about count this season out” shrugs Porterville weathercaster John Hibler.

Other experts agree. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released their spring outlook last week.

Much of southern California just experienced its driest fall and winter in more than a century. “With the dry season fast approaching, there are major concerns that drought conditions will not only fail to improve but actually worsen in coming months,” said Doug Lecomte, drought specialist for the NOAA Climate Prediction Center. “The outlook for any significant drought improvement from now through spring looks grim for not only southern California but for much of the Southwest as well.”

The prediction outlook released by the agency shows the likelihood of persistent drought in the US Southwest.

Hibler says this week's storm didn't offer much precipitation and will likely be followed by a continued buildup of high pressure over the next few weeks and continued above normal temps. These temps tend to dry things out pushing more use of groundwater to satisfy plant demand.

“The warm weather is causing” trees to bloom like crazy and farmers are experiencing a tremendous demand for irrigation at a time when we usually build up more water resources,” says Friant Water board member Dennis Keller. “We are heading in the opposite direction from where we need to be.”

A “perfect” spring bloom season will likely mean a big crop of tree fruit and nuts—an early boost in demand for irrigation for as long as there is water. Irrigation demand late in the season will now have to come from groundwater pumping costing farmers and cities more.

The poor snow season has been lousy for ski lodges and now a short season runoff will dampen enthusiasm on the Kaweah and Kings where they love spring rafting.

Indeed, Friant contractors who take water from the San Joaquin River to irrigate land up and down the east side of the valley could see 75% to 65% of normal water deliveries—so-called Class 1—or even less if we don't get more rain soon.

A look at the snow pack in the Sierra gives us a glimpse of how little water content is stored up there that we depend on for irrigation and drinking water. In the Kaweah watershed Giant Forest station at 6600 feet registers just 23% of April 1 normal and much of the snow pack that was there a few weeks ago has melted away. Farwell Gap at over 9500 feet has just 44% of April 1 average with a little over 15 inches of water content compared to a normal 34.5 inches, experiencing daytime temps of 50 degrees F.

Statewide, the March 1 state forecast predicted runoff will be just 55% of average compared to last year when runoff was 160% of average.

Department of Water Resources puts snow melt at 61% on the San Joaquin, 59% on the Kings, 81% on the Kaweah and just 49% on the Tule as of March 1. The runoff forecast to be released April 1 will likely show a worsening of the situation. Only north coast and Bay Area runoff forecast show an 85 to 90% runoff prediction as wetter weather has visited that area.

More Fires

“The National Interagency Fire Center's Seasonal Wildland Fire Potential Outlook for February through June 2007 calls for the potential for significant wildfire activity to be higher than normal this spring over portions of the southern tier of states and northern Minnesota,” said Tom Wordell, Wildland National Interagency Fire Center fire analyst.

As of March 13, there have been approximately 9,748 wildfires encompassing 137,554 acres. This is 112 percent of the average number of fires, and 63 percent of average total acreage to date.

The U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook calls for drought conditions persisting or intensifying through June over much of the Southwest, potentially spreading into portions of Utah and western Colorado. Drought conditions are also expected to persist across peninsular Florida. Some improvement is predicted over the extreme northern Plains as well as portions of Texas and Oklahoma.

The warm weather that hit the state in recent weeks contrasts sharply with the extreme cold temps in January. “It shows California is a land of extremes,” says John Hibler. The low rainfall has hit Visalia as well with the rain gauge showing under three inches for the season—about a third of annual precipitation. “April is going to have to do something special if it's going to improve,” suggests John Hibler. Visalia gets an average of about one inch in April.

The region receives most of its rainfall during the winter months and clearly winter has left the building. The first day of spring is March 20, but already it feels like summer.

Pollution Impact

Also, new research published in Science magazine's current issue finds that air pollution particles, responsible for decreased rainfall in China, may also affect California's water supply.

The research showed California's precipitation losses over the mountains are projected at 10-25 percent, presumably because of pollution aerosols from urban and industrial areas. These losses have not noticeably affected the state's water supply because they may have been masked by an increased trend of statewide precipitation.

The impact of this research suggests that decreased mountain rainfall translates to a net loss of snowpack, loss of water for agricultural use, and reduced hydroelectric power production in the state. Additionally, the California research quantified the losses in stream flows at 15-35 percent of annual flows in major Sierra Nevada rivers. Without man-made air pollution particles, precipitation levels in the Sierra Nevada in the past would have been higher.

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By Steve Pastis

Lindsay - The Lindsay Olive rests quietly out in the parking lot of the Olive Tree Inn in Lindsay. The 1,500-lb. concrete and plaster olive attracts the attention of people who stay at the inn, those who stop at the nearby restaurant and even some of the more observant drivers along Highway 65.

Some people stop to take a closer look at it. Some have their photos taken next to it. Some children even crawl inside it where a concrete or plaster pit should be.

“Most of them don't know that the Lindsay Olives were from here,” said Julissa Bala, who works at the Olive Tree Inn. She answers questions about the olive and then watches people head out to get a closer look, many of them with cameras in hand.

“I kind of wish it was maybe more prominent, more noticeable,” said Lindsay Mayor Ed Murray. “The sad thing is that was one of the major industries we had for a long time, the Lindsay Olives. When you see that olive, I wish it would be more prominent so you could have more of a tourist attraction.”

By the end of next year, things should be as Mayor Murray would like them when the Lindsay Olive finally rests in its permanent location, in front of the city's Cultural Arts Museum. The museum will be at 165 N. Gale Hill Avenue, the site of the current library. This is to happen after the new library is built.

“We want to place it in front and have the story put in front of the olive,” said Robert Tienken, President of the Lindsay Historical Society and the owner of the Lindsay Olive.

The Lindsay Olive was originally designed by Herb Cagley, the Lindsay Olive Company's engineer, and built by its shop foreman, Les Altermatt, for the company's float in an Orange Blossom Festival Parade in the mid-1930s. From there, it rested in storage for years until it was placed in front of the entrance gate to the cannery on Mount Vernon Avenue. The olive survived the fire that destroyed the cannery in 1971.

The olive was supposed to go to the Lindsay Historical Society when the Lindsay Olive Company went out of business in 1986, according to Tienken. He explained that the woman who was handling the bankruptcy told him in a letter that the olive would be given to the society.

“The story is that the olive company went broke,” clarified Tienken. “They had people cleaning up everything out there. They had a man who removed all the olive barrels. They were huge barrels. I think they were 500 gallons made of redwood. He took all of that and they gave them to him for taking them out. They gave him the olive to store. He didn't take it that way and he put it up for sale.

“And he had it out there for several years and I went out and tried to work something out but he wanted $1,200 for it. I said, 'No way. The olive was given to me for the historical society and that's where it belongs.'

“He said, 'That isn't the deal I got with the olive company,' and I said, 'Show me your deal.' He couldn't show me. So we hassled back and forth and next thing I knew I was riding to Tulare and there's a sale by Cairns Corner and there's the olive. And I said, 'Uh-oh, Gotta get this straightened out.' So I went in and talked to the people and they wanted $2,500 for it. I said, 'Well, the olive doesn't belong to you.' They said, 'Well, I bought it.' I said, 'The property doesn't belong to you.'

“It ended up that I gave a personal check for $500 and got the olive back. And we didn't have a place to put the olive. At that time, the new restaurant and the Olive Tree Inn were going in. So we said, 'We will place it there temporarily until such time as we want to move it.' Now we have a place to move it.”

Tienken still has a stack of correspondence about his efforts to get the Lindsay Olive, most of it written on lawyer's stationery. Considering everything, was bringing the Lindsay Olive back to a position of prominence in its hometown worth so much of his time, effort and personal funds?

“It's the emblem of the Lindsay Olive Company, the largest in the world,” he explained. “Most people knew about Lindsay through the olive.”

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Visalia capital projects costs are way up funded through Measure T, the two new police precincts, the northwest fire station and the new public safety building all received funds from the measure passed by voters to increase the local sales tax. The original estimate for the two precincts was $3.8 million but it appears they will cost $9 million. The proposed public safety building was originally estimated to cost $11.2 million but will likely cost $17.7 million based on current building costs. City staff told council they will work to reduce these costs. The public safety building would be funded by impact fee Measure T monies and a $2.7 million contribution from the general fund.

City of Visalia is adjusting its budget in the next year based on the freeze. City sales taxes have risen recently at a 5% clip. But a new analysis projects sales tax will stay flat through the rest of the fiscal year in Visalia due to the freeze although it will grow $.9 million based on growth in the past months. Property tax is up $500,000 as well. Development fees will be down, says the city since new home permits are on a 1000 a year pace compared to last year at 1700 a year. That cuts $1 million for the city's budget projections.

City wants to boost the Mooney Redevelopment District between Walnut and Tulare characterized by older buildings from the 1960s using a $6.5 million bank loan to improve mid Mooney business in Visalia. Without the investment the Mooney district would have no more debt capacity to do projects based on tax increment financing.

So how's the construction market in Tulare County in the middle of a nationwide housing crisis, stock market correction, subprime meltdown and only weeks after a devastating freeze? Surprisingly buoyant in some places. Construction Monitor reported that the value of all building permits in rural Tulare County is over $32.7 million as of March 17, 2007 compared to $26.3 million the exact same day in 2006 and $20 million for the same date in 2005. For the City of Tulare the same day in 2007 yield permits valued at $38.3 million compared to $39.7 million for the same date in 2006 and just $14 million for March 17, 2005 in year-to-date figures. How about Visalia's? Visalia fell big time during the same period to $49.3 million on March 17, 2007 from $119.2 million the same period in 2006 and $67.5 million on the same day in 2005. In Visalia single family homes dropped by over 50% from 2007 to 2006.

Kings County weighs Government Center Masterplan. In mid March, Kings County Board of Supervisors heard a presentation by architect Taylor Teter on a masterplan for Kings County government complex. County administrator Larry Spikes told the Voice the Board decided that they would demolish the old hospital building used by the county since the 1970s and relocate users in the building. Several other buildings nearby are likely to be demolished as well although cost figures need to be gathered. Office of Education will be moving out to Lemoore where they bought the old racquet club in that city. The Board is working on a 10 year plan. Spikes believes new buildings, as they go up, are likely to have solar panels. Tops on the agenda if they tear down the 41,000 square foot old hospital building where to put the morgue? The county seeks to build a new social service building somewhere on the campus.

COS trustees appeared at a Hanford city council meeting the other day surprising some by coming out in support of an application by the private Chapman College to open a school in town. “People though I would oppose it,” says Zumwalt, but “you can't have too much higher education.” Chapman plans to open a large campus in Visalia as well, next to the current Kmart.

Lemoore Boosts Solar Power. This week the Lemoore city council decided to waive all costs for building fees associated with solar photovoltaic systems in the city for the next two years reducing the current fee of over $800 as well as developing a long term program to install solar on existing development.

Downtown Offramps. CalTrans is expected to go out to bid this summer on the westbound Downtown Visalia offramp that should make coming into the Downtown from the east a lot safer in coming years signalizing the intersection and providing two lanes to get onto Court St. And now the city has convinced CalTrans to put $1 million into the eastbound ramp that dumps traffic onto Noble. The ramp is a single lane and backups right onto the freeway at rush hour are not uncommon causing a handful of accidents. An overhaul will add a second lane. The city will put in an estimated $500,000 from Measure R money to make up the difference on the project that may be built in the next year and one half.

City prepares to hire a new consultant for sale of City Hall West to Kaweah Delta. The city seeks to masterplan existing city hall block for medical use with title likely to be held by KDDH after the relocation of the city to East Visalia and construction of a new fire station elsewhere in the Downtown area. Meanwhile, this week the city gave the go-ahead to begin the process of hiring a management team to oversee the construction of the new police and fire administration office at Burke and Oak expected to be one of the first buildings constructed as part of the city center plan.

Traffic-related deaths decreased in California in 2006 from the previous year, according to preliminary California Highway Patrol (CHP) statistics. Highway collision fatalities dropped 9.22 percent to 3,907 people when compared to 2005. Officials indicated the projected reductions in collisions and victims killed are primarily the result of increased enforcement and education in the three main causes of fatal crashes seat belt usage, DUIs and speeding.

Developer Johnny George says he is in escrow on 2.5 acres on Dinuba Blvd. to erect a 30,000 square foot single story office building just south of the health clinic and north of the new Food 4 Less. He is working with a doctor's group on a medical facility there. The sale of the land should close in 90 days, he says.

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