City, School District
Discuss Packwood Fate

By Rick Elkins

Visalia - The City of Visalia and Visalia Unified School District are discussing what should become of Packwood School now that it is no longer being used by the school district.

The school is on Avenue 280, southwest of the city's wastewater treatment plant.
The school's existence as an elementary school ended several years ago, but until last year it was used as Packwood Charter School. It and Union Elementary are two of the oldest schools in the county. They were both established on Aug. 8, 1865.

Packwood School was vacated last year when the Charter School was moved to old Union School campus. Students at the old Union School now attend the new Annie R. Mitchell School.

"The city has expressed an interest in what to do with it," said VUSD Superintendent Stan Carrizosa. He said they are having discussions with the city staff on what the city might want to do with the site, which is outside the Visalia city limits.

"The district is assessing it. We just don't know if we're ready to sell it. We could work with the city on a joint use," said Carrizosa.

Visalia City Manager Steve Salomon said the school is bordered by city property on the north and east. He said the city's interest would be related to the operations of the wastewater treatment plant to the northeast or to the farming that surrounds the school. He said there is some potential for a joint use of the school with the school district, but he said nothing specific has been discussed.

The school district has been removing all the portable classrooms from the site, leaving only the permanent buildings.

The school served as a rural kindergarten through eighth grade school for nearly a century. According to Tulare County Schools – 100 Years, a history written in 1961, both schools began as single room, single teacher schools. According to the history, Packwood School District for a while included the school at the historic Tagus Ranch. The two were eventually combined at the present Packwood site where students first got their water from a well and tin cups, noted the history book.
For about the past 10 years, the school served and a charter school for seventh through 12th grade students. Carrizosa said enrollment was less than 100 students.

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Sales of Homes Up In September

Tulare County - More than 370 homes were sold in Tulare County in September and local real estate brokers say 2008 is on track to be a very good year as buyers take advantage of low interest rates, low prices and a magnitude of choices on the market.

"Sales are way up because prices are way down," said Brad Maaske of Realty World. "We're absorbing inventory really fast."

According to DataQuick, which monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts, Tulare County saw 372 homes sold in September at a median price of $175,000. While sales are up, prices are down. The price is off 24 percent from a year ago when the same homes were selling for $230,750.

"A lot of what we are selling is distressed property," said Maaske, explaining that is homes that are in foreclosure or the bank is selling the home at a reduced price.
Bill Jordan, owner of Jordan Link in Visalia, said he has seen a leveling of prices for several weeks now and if the area is not at the bottom in terms of price, it is very near.

However, low interest rates, low prices and plenty to pick from have brought out a lot of first time buyers, he said.

"Now is an optimum time to buy for first time buyers," said Jordan.

Maaske said sales this year will be very near to what they were in 2004, and that was one of the better years for local real estate, but not as good as the housing boom years of 2005 and 2006.

Sales of existing homes were up throughout the state in September over last year. They were up 65 percent in the Los Angeles area and 45 percent in the Bay Area. For the month statewide, sales were up 6.1 percent from 37,988 in August and up 64.8 percent from 24,460 in September last year. California sales for the month of September have varied from last year's record low to a peak of 69,304 in 2003, while the average is 45,035. MDA DataQuick's statistics go back to 1988.

Of the homes that resold in September, 51.1 percent were foreclosure resales statewide, meaning they had been foreclosed on at some point in the prior 12 months. That's up from 46.9 percent in August and 12.6 percent in September 2007.

In Tulare County, another 883 homes were foreclosed in the third quarter, an increase of 48 percent over the same period last year. In Kings County, the number of homes foreclosed was 140, up 30 percent for the same period of 2007.

Maaske said 70 percent of the buyers who are in trouble borrowed more money than they could afford. "Seventy percent of the foreclosures are refinances. Few are foreclosures of purchases," he said.

"A lot of people took loans who couldn't make payments. They went out and paid off credit cards, bought cars, boats and motor homes. They never changed their spending habits," he explained.

While the prices have dropped, Jordan and Maaske both said the average price of a home today is still much higher than in 1999. "The median price of home in Tulare County was about 100,000 in 1999. Today it's probably $175,000."

Still, it's a bargain and it is much cheaper to buy an existing home than a new home, the two realtors said. That is why the new home market has not rebounded and neither expects that to occur until late 2009 or 2010.

Also, it is not a seller's market. "There are not a lot of people selling homes to move up," said Maaske.

Jordan said sales began to pick up in the spring and sales have not really leveled off. He sees sales strong into next year.

"What's driving this is we're seeing a lot of first time buyers and investors," he said, adding that many buyers could not afford a home a few years ago when prices skyrocketed, but today homes are more affordable when combining price and interest rates. New time buyers make up more than 60 percent of the buyers.
The statewide median price paid for a home last month was $283,000, down 6.0 percent from $301,000 for the month before, and down 34.2 percent from $430,000 in September a year ago. Around half of the drop in the median is due to depreciation, with the other half due to shifts in the types of homes selling, and how those homes are financed.

The typical mortgage payment that homebuyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,337. That was down from $1,428 in August, and down from $2,046 in September a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, mortgage payments are back to where they were in early 2001.

The median price of a home in Visalia in September was $190,000, $185,000 in Tulare and $160,000 in Porterville. Compared to a year ago, those prices are off 23.85 percent, 17.41 percent and 20.99 percent, respectively. Jordan said on homes that are priced low, especially under $100,000, they are getting multiple offers. Of those, about half come from investors looking to turn a profit in a few years.

Maaske said while inventory is still high and foreclosures are still high, he sees the number of foreclosures dropping after March or April. "This time next year and it will be an entirely different story.”

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Record Turnout Possible for Election

By Rick Elkins

Tulare County - If registration, returned absentee ballots and requests for absentee ballots are any indication, then Tulare County could top 100,000 voters Nov. 4 in a single election for the first time.

"Top 100,000? I think it's possible. There appears to be a lot of interest," said Paul Sampietro, Tulare County elections division manager.

High interest in the presidential race, several high-interest state ballot measures and several strong local races could be the tipping point, putting the county over the 100,000 vote total. The most voters to turn out for a general election in the county were 99,509 in November of 2004. That year, the turnout was 70.1 percent.

The modern record turnout percentage-wise was 77.1 in November of 1980.
Already, a record number of people have registered to vote this year – 146,207, topping the previous record by more than 3,000 voters. Republicans still outnumber Democrats – 66,740 to 51,769.

And by Monday, the elections department had received 22,000 vote-by-mail (absentee) ballots and Sampietro said the office had been receiving between 400 and 500 requests a day for absentee ballots. He said they usually get only 100 to 200 requests this time before an election. Tuesday was the last day to request a ballot in the mail. In 2004, 38,249 county residents voted by mail and that number should be exceeded this election.

In all, Sampietro cautiously predicts a turnout between 60 and 70 percent. "I'd say closer to 70 percent, maybe higher. There are a lot of factors that bring down turnout," he said, adding there have been a lot of elections lately and that could be a turnoff to voting. Another factor is always the weather – good weather a good turnout, bad weather and voters tend to stay home.

If the turnout is 70 percent, then that will mean 102,000 residents voted.
In the February primary, the county had 9,000 ballots to count after the final count election night. Of those, 3,000 were provisional ballots and 6,000 late returned absentee. Sampietro expects even more this election and that could delay final results on close local races for several days.

Voters locally will decide two state Assembly races – the 34th and 30th seats – as well as the 21st Congressional race. Locally, COS has two bond measures – separately in Visalia ($28 million) and Tulare ($60 million), there is a $3.3 million bond measure in Terra Bella and there are several contested city council, school board and special district races.

Sampietro says the county elections office will post its first results right after the polls close at 8 p.m. and he hopes to have a final tally – minus those late ballots – by 11 p.m.

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Local Dreams and Deals
Whipsawed by World Economic Winds
Mearle's Developer Pulls Out; Three Rivers Resort in Escrow

By John Lindt

Tulare County - The world's economic crisis has whipsawed the hopes and dreams for Tulare County businesses, both collapsing pending deals and allowing others to move forward.

The huge decline in markets has dried up financing options in a number of cases, leading to the decision by a potential developer of the vacant Mearle's Drive-In at the Mooney entrance to Visalia to pull out. Seen as the very symbol of Visalia, the popular restaurant closed in September 2006 and now stands as a sad spectacle to the state of the local economy.

Behind the scenes, restaurateur Doug Cavanaugh of the successful 44-unit Ruby's Diner chain had been working with local realtor Valerie Aivazian to restore the Mearle's Drive-In and even keep the name despite the fact it would be a Ruby's Diner.

Cavanaugh had tentatively agreed to lease the restaurant from owner Ralph Kazarian Jr. with plans by Cavanaugh to bring in limited partners to bring the old girl back to life. Cavanaugh and Kazarian had agreed to most terms, says Aivazian in a letter of intent when a few weeks ago Cavanaugh, returning from a trip to Europe, told her that his line of credit has disappeared.

"That was two years of work down the drain," says the local realtor. "I talked to Sonny Kazarian and told him the deal was off. He said he would wait until next year and try to lease it out."

Kazarian had been working with a few other potential users but no one who would have poured the million dollars needed to restore the 1940s diner to her former glory. With the restaurant business one of the hardest hit of local businesses by the economic downturn that has now hit worldwide – the U.S. stock market is down over 40 percent this year – it may be awhile till we sit at the counter at Mearle's drive-in again.

Meanwhile, at the entrance to another Tulare County town – Three Rivers – there is some good news this week. Investors look to operate the 4-star resort Shoshone Inn, built in 1997 and operated only a few months, and now have the 14-acre riverside site in escrow, confirms realtor Diana Glass. "This will be some very good news for Three Rivers," suggests Glass, declining to give more details on the expected sale. Helping to make this deal happen – the drop in real estate prices in California and the popularity of Sequoia Park to foreign visitors – may have made this property cheap enough to take a chance on. Original asking price was well over $10 million and the latest asking price was about half that. Over a decade of nursing the landscaping and simply watering the grounds may have finally paid off.

"Three Rivers and Tulare County haven't been as hard hit as some California economies like Bakersfield with real estate down there over 40 percent, says newspaper publisher John Elliott of the Kaweah Commonwealth. "We are in a holding period while we wait for things to sort out but I am thinking it will be business as usual in Three Rivers next year.”

Visalia's economy will come back, suggests realtor Bill Whittlach who is marketing the empty Vons grocery store in Visalia. "We have several ethnic and specialty store operators who are taking a look at the site. It is very attractive and it's clear from interest that there is market for existing buildings around town. Parties are suggesting that they are waiting until after the election to make up their mind." Among the other possible tenants for the site – the exclusive Trader Joe's market chain Visalians have been wishing for.

No More Money Blvd.?

News that Mervyn's will close its Sequoia Mall store in coming months along with the liquidation of the entire chain has a silver lining too, says economic development specialist Ricardo Noguera of the City of Visalia. "I talked to the owner of the Sequoia Mall and this is an opportunity for them to buy another parcel at this mall for future development." Noguera expects the owner to file a plan to move the theater at the mall to develop into new uses next year.

That may be a tall order, given the weak retail picture that faces us even as we come into the usually busy holiday period. Once the pride of the local economy, the home-grown Gottschalks chain faces a potential liquidity crisis with its stock selling this week at about 50 cents per share now delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because it fell below the $1 threshold. The company is appealing the ruling but says its capitalization has fallen below $25 million.

Could there be another giant empty space next year on what has always been Visalia's "money boulevard?" It appears the doom and gloom has fed on itself and that Tulare County residents will continue to shop at the mall. If this space is not filled by Gottschalks, it will be filled by its successor. Not to worry – shopping will continue.

On the negative side, Circuit City is facing a tougher future but the Visalia store – in an empty shopping center – is said to be profitable. Still "I think the chain is toast," says a knowledgeable source. Meanwhile, Best Buy electronics is doing great.
Even though there is a recession nationwide, Wal-Mart sales, Ross sales and other discounters are showing gains. Target, which just opened new stores in Visalia and Porterville, continues to do OK. The new Sportsman Warehouse in north Visalia opened Wednesday near the new Target store.

"Consumers are trading down" is the theory oft mentioned.

For Tulare County's car dealerships, the future may be tougher. Again the winds that whipsaw this key sector are blowing into the Valley and affecting us just the same.
Just this week, the California new car dealers association reported sales in the third quarter are down 19 percent compared to the year before. Those declines are cumulative to the 11 percent decline in the third quarter of 2007 compared to 2006.

"Consumers are staying on the sidelines in droves," says the industry report. But declining gas prices in the past months may put more change in the consumer's pocket and help restore some confidence. Still, consolidation in the world car business will likely hit the local economy, too.

Talks between Chrysler and GM on a possible merger will mean more jobs lost in this key industry. This week, the National Automobile Dealers Association estimated that 700 new car dealerships will close this year up from 430 last year. There are some 20,700 dealers currently. Tighter credit along with consumer reluctance and high gas prices have hit the Valley's car dealers hard this fall. Like retail sales, car sales are a key ingredient for retail sales tax, the mainstay of cities' general funds.

Other major deals are pending and may still move forward despite the credit crisis, say local officials. In Tulare, several huge projects including the motor sports complex, a new power plant, a new meat packing plant, several food company expansions and a new mall are all likely to survive once an expected calming of the waters happens – if it happens.

Key to the economic revival will be the housing sector. This week there are signs that we are clearing the built-up inventory of foreclosed homes in Tulare County that will allow a recovery. Local realtors say 2008 sales will be about the 2004 level and bargain prices are helping to rekindle a housing market.

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Exeter Establishes Criteria for
Historical Buildings

By Steve Pastis

The Exeter City Council was expected to approve criteria to designate city "buildings, structures, objects and sites" as historical at its Tuesday night meeting. The main criteria include that a building be more than 50 years old and associated with important events or persons in the city's past.

"As I read the resolution, it lays out some guidelines," said Exeter Mayor Ted Macaulay, adding that the resolution allows the Council to decide on historical designations on a case-by-case basis.

"It has to be a building that has some significance to the history of Exeter, but just because it's 50 years old, that doesn't mean it has to be designated a historical building," he said. "Sometimes people don't want the designation.

"We were approached by (local historian) Chris Brewer in regard to designating the old Bank of America building as a historical building," said Macaulay, adding that Souza Construction, Inc., the Farmersville-based general and electrical contractor which owns the 106-year-old Bank of America building at 196 E. Pine St., sought the designation.

"There are a few buildings in Exeter that will be requesting it," said Liz Beshwate, office manager of Souza Construction, who explained how the historical designation changes its plans. "With our restoration, we won't need such things as a handicapped ramp in front."

She said that the ramp would be put up on the side of the building because a ramp at the front would require the removal of the stone stairway built in the 1930s.
Beshwate agreed that the historical designation can make renovating old buildings less expensive, but stressed the other advantages.

"Aesthetically it looks nicer and keeps with the way it was in the past," she said. "We just want to bring back the beauty it once had."

"It's very important for historical buildings to have some flexibility," said Brewer, adding that buildings designated as historical have a modified set of codes. "But we also know that builders and architects aren't going into this to destroy or damage the building. They are going into it to recreate the environment of the old building."

Cities and counties can designate their buildings historical, states have their registers of historical sites and there is a National Register of Historical Places. According to Brewer, everyone in California follows the state codes.

The two-story building at the southwest corner of Pine and E Streets was constructed in 1902 as a Bank of Exeter building, according to Brewer. It later became a First National Bank before that institution merged and moved in with the Citrus Bank at the northwest corner of Pine and E Street. The 196 E. Pine building was vacant before being remodeled by Bank of America in 1937. Bank of America has since moved its Exeter branch to 100 E. Pine St.

Souza Construction has already received approval from the Council to do a "soft demo" (as opposed to using a jackhammer) on the plywood over the second story windows. The company expects some more progress to be made over the next two weeks, according to Beshwate.

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What's New

Ross For Less, a clothing discount store, may be coming to the Orchard Park Shopping Center on North Dinuba Blvd. Also, Sportsman's Warehouse opened in the center last week and has a Nov. 1 grand opening planned.

Some good economic news. Gas prices have finally dipped below what they were a year ago and all indications are they will go even lower. As of Tuesday, the average price of a gallon of low-grade gas in Visalia-Tulare-Porterville was $3.068, although you can find gas for less than $2.80 a gallon at some stations. A year ago, gas was $3.230, while the high for the year was $4.666 on June 23. Diesel is also down. On Tuesday, it was $3.407, compared to $3.436 a year ago and the high of $5.244. Crude oil was just above $63 a barrel on Tuesday.

Visalia may be getting another medical marijuana dispensary. The city's site plan review looked at an application for a new dispensary at 1101 Center, Suite C. Central Cali Caregivers made the application.

Workers Comp Rates Going Up? California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has agreed to a 5 percent increase in the benchmark for determining workers compensation costs to reflect higher medical and claims adjustment costs to the system, it was announced last week.

Tulare County ranks 35th and Kings County 109th among the nation's 3,145 counties with the largest numbers of Hispanics, according to a new report examining the growth of the U.S. Hispanic population by the Pew Hispanic Center. The rankings are based on the percentage of Hispanics to total population based on 2007 numbers. The report stated Tulare County has 239,066 Hispanic residents (28 percent), while Kings County has 71,812 (27 percent). Los Angeles County, with more than 4.6 million Hispanic residents, ranks first in the nation.

The WinCo shopping center at Demaree St. and Caldwell Ave. will be getting a small walk-in medical clinic. Documents have been filed with the City of Visalia for the 2,400-square-foot facility by Dr. Jim Princeton that will be located on the west side of the shopping center.

Sales of Gottschalks' stock on the New York Stock Exchange were suspended Monday because over a consecutive 30-day trading period, the company's average global market capitalization was less than $25 million. Gottschalks appealed the ruling, but it did not stop the suspension. During the review, the company will take all necessary actions to have its common stock quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board and will consider all available alternatives, a company statement said. The company's stock finished trading Monday at just 37 cents a share, an all-time low.

The State Controller's office made the first Proposition 42 payments to local governments in two years on Oct. 16. Visalia received $296,712.97 from Prop 42, also known as the Traffic Congestion Relief program, which was under scrutiny in this year's budget negotiations as part of the potential legislative borrowing scheme from local government. It was later scrapped, due largely to staunch opposition from cities.

The Big West refinery in Bakersfield has finally won approval to expand. The company agreed to several new conditions, including one that requires an independent safety audit of the refinery's operations and equipment before the expansion can operate. The $700 million expansion is expected to nearly double the facility's gasoline and diesel output and create 100 new jobs.

For the first time in a while, the Visalia Planning Commission had no projects before it Monday night. The agenda was made up of presentations, but no planning projects.

Provost and Pritchard Engineering Group has moved into its new location at 130 N. Garden St. The engineering firm is holding an open house from 4-7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13.

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Visalia Schools Eye
New Charter School

Visalia Unified School District continues to move forward on plans to convert the Tulare County Occupational Vocational Education center on South Mooney into a charter school.

VUSD Supt. Stan Carrizosa said the upper grade school would focus on three areas of vocational education – advanced manufacturing, building trades and criminology. He said the district has already identified 100-150 students who would fit into the programs and that the school would start, tentatively in 2010, with 50 students.
"We're working with COS to take a look at design and career technical programs," he said.

Carrizosa said the TCOVE building is perfect for the programs they want to offer because it is already a vocational center and the lease for the building comes available in 2010.

City Moving Forward on
Downtown Development

The City of Visalia intends to interview two developers who have expressed an interest in the downtown city block along Acequia Avenue west of City Hall West. Ricardo Noguera, housing and economic development director for the city, said they are hopeful the developers will build medical offices, "hopefully a hotel" and some mixed-use residential.

The city has received two proposals for the block bordered by Stevenson and Conyer. He said the interviews will take place before Thanksgiving and if it all goes according to plan, construction on that area could begin next year.
"It would create a venue for both visiting medical professionals and for families visiting patients," Noguera said.

He added the city advertised for proposals last year, but didn't get much a response.

ARB Unveils Rules to
Reduce Big Rig Pollution

The state Air Resources Board released Friday its draft regulations affecting diesel engines.

The proposed regulations, if adopted at the board's December hearing, are designed to clean up emissions from the estimated one million heavy-duty diesel trucks that operate in California beginning in 2010. The rules are expected to impact more than 400,000 trucks registered in the state, as well as about 500,000 out-of-state vehicles that do business in California, and over a half million trailers.

If approved, truck owners must install diesel exhaust filters on their rigs starting in 2010, with nearly all vehicles upgraded by 2014. Owners must also turn over engines older than the 2010 equivalent according to a staggered implementation schedule between 2012 and 2022. Further, long haul truckers must install fuel efficient tires and aerodynamic devices on their trailers that lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy.

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