By Steve Pastis
Visalia - Plans for a Wal-Mart Superstore at 1819 E. Noble Ave. in Visalia are no longer on hold. After coming to an agreement with Caltrans over long-standing right-of-way improvements, Wal-Mart has resumed discussions with the City of Visalia about its proposed expansion from 126,783 to 202,104 square feet.
“We submitted (plans) about a year ago, but some things with Caltrans came up,” said Tom Navarro, department leader for CEI Engineering Associates, Inc., the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company that develops many Wal-Mart locations. “Wal-Mart recognized we had not kept up from when the store was built. Basically, they thought they had taken care of all the responsibilities.”
Navarro said that the amount of money “was nothing major” and that things were “cordial” between Wal-Mart and Caltrans. With that matter settled, Wal-Mart and the city are again discussing the proposed expansion.
Wal-Mart's plans were on the agenda of yesterday's Visalia Site Plan Review Committee. The main topic of discussion was ingress and egress – the way shoppers enter and exit the property.
“We've been talking to them for a number of years,” said Fred Brusuelas, Visalia assistant public works director. “They have had neighborhood meetings and meetings with city engineers on their site. Wal-Mart knows what our issues are already.”
Wal-Mart's plans for a Visalia Superstore include a 14-foot wall between the store and its residential neighbors to the south to help contain light and sound. To provide enough parking, Wal-Mart bought additional property directly to the west, with plans for a building on that site to be demolished.
The company recently upgraded its docking area standards and has new guidelines about how long trucks can run while unloading products, Navarro said. New technology in Wal-Mart loading areas allows refrigerated diesel trucks to turn off their engines and still maintain their temperatures.
Wal-Mart's plans include accommodating the needs of the new Social Security office that will be built next door.
“Wal-Mart has indicated that they will allow
access into the property for the Social Security site,”
said Brusuelas. “They see them as a good neighbor.”
Wal-Mart's representatives have shown drawings of the proposed
Wal-Mart Superstore to the city and community.
“They plan to soften the hard lines of the commercial building,” said Brusuelas. “The colors will be earthtones and be more muted. The building will be more in line with a residential neighborhood than with commercial architecture.”
Navarro estimates that Wal-Mart should receive a decision on its expansion plans within about 18 months. This part of the process will involve sending out drafts, dealing with city and community concerns, and making necessary revisions. An appeal period of about a month will follow, during which time, lawsuits are common regarding Wal-Mart projects. Wal-Mart's plans in Selma, Clovis and Delano each resulted in lawsuits.
“There's a lot of attraction with the store size,” explained Navarro. “They're somewhat controversial.”
When Wal-Mart estimates how long a new store or expansion will take, it allows time for legal actions.
“We typically consider eight months or so,” Navarro said. “It depends on the courts.” He added, however, that once in court, “a decision is made pretty quickly, usually within weeks.”
The actual construction phase would “take eight or nine months, once we get going,” he said.
If the Wal-Mart Superstore is approved, there will an increased need to make road improvements not only along Noble Avenue, but to the Highway 198 interchanges at Ben Maddox and Lovers Lane.
“The Ben Maddox overpass will be widened to accommodate more traffic,” said Brusuelas. “That project is already underway.”
He said that improving the 198/Lovers Lane connection is “a long-term issue that has to be addressed. Ultimately, the long-range plan will be to improve the interchange at Lovers Lane and 198, as well as Ben Maddox and 198.”
Wal-Mart still needs to do a traffic study and environmental impact report, as well as address a number of other issues, said Navarro.
By Steve Pastis
Lindsay - The City of Lindsay will soon have its own transit system, as well as a transit center that makes McDermont Field House & Sport Center much more accessible for city, county and Valley residents.
The Lindsay City Council took an important step toward developing the system and establishing the center at its Sept. 9 meeting. The council approved a resolution “to enter into a supplemental agreement with Tulare County Transportation Authority to request funding for a transit station.”
The station will be in front of the McDermont
Field House & Sport Center. Currently, buses to Lindsay
stop at the Save Mart shopping center and downtown.
“We're going to get on the route for the county and
people who don't have other transportation will be able to
visit McDermont on a very convenient basis,” said Brad
Albert, Lindsay city recreation director. “We're very
happy about that.”
When California voters passed Proposition 1B in Nov. 2006, they approved $3.6 billion to establish the Public Transportation Modernization, Improvement and Service Enhancement Account (PTMISEA). Lindsay is to receive more than $87,000 to improve its public transportation.
“Given Lindsay doesn't have any transit, we're looking to start up and go from there,” said Lindsay Assistant City Manager Kindon Meik.
Initial plans were for the city to buy a large bus, but Meik is among those who would prefer to see the city start with a smaller bus that can accommodate 15-18 passengers, along with “a couple of vans.”
In addition to the PTMISEA money, Lindsay has been allocated $200,000 from Measure R funds.
The first phase of the transit center, engineered by Winton & Associates, is currently under construction. This phase includes the curb, gutter and sidewalk.
The McDermont Field House transit center will
include seating and shaded areas. The site will accommodate
buses and vans, and “be off the road to allow children
to exit the bus,” said Meik, who was asked when city
transit would begin in Lindsay.
“We would like to see the initial movement of vehicles
within the next three months,” he said. “It's
dependent on acquiring the vehicles and establishing the routes.
Initially, the routes will probably be very limited –
on certain days and at certain hours.”
Another issue is finding drivers for the transit system. Several
city employees already have licenses to drive similar vehicles.
“This is all new to us so we're putting together plans of how this will work,” said Meik.
Could Hit Valley's Eastside
Tulare County - The drought that has punished the west side of the Valley this summer could spread to the east side this coming season if the combination of predictions of another dry year and adverse court rulings translates into a much reduced supply of water being sent south of the Delta. And, it could mean more pumping of groundwater.
That's the message from a number of eastside water agencies who are preparing for the worst while hoping for the best. They want to spread the word.
“The orange growers of Tulare County have to understand that we have a major stake in the health of the Delta,” says Dan Vink, general manager of the Lower Tule Irrigation District, a Friant contractor. “We are the first exporters out of the Delta” even though all of Friant water supply comes from the San Joaquin River – well south of the Delta.
Vink says other beneficiaries of Friant water, like the cities of Fresno, Lindsay and Orange Cove, are in the same boat. “There will be significant cost to fix the Delta and all of the users will have to step up to the plate.”
About half of Tulare County's overall delivered water supply doesn't come from this county's back yard rivers and nearby runoff. It comes from Fresno and Merced's back yard – the upper San Joaquin River – diverted at Friant Dam into the 150-mile Friant-Kern Canal.
It is that supply that greens up the Valley's eastside dominated by small farms and permanent plantings of citrus, grapes, nut trees and the world's largest dairy milk shed. Depending on weather, the feds bring in a million to 3 million acre feet a year into the Tulare Lake Basin. The state brings in around 1 million to 2 million acre feet depending on northern California weather.
Meanwhile, rivers like the Kaweah bring an average of 300,000 to 400,000 acre feet of water down the hill each year and the Tule's flow is much less than that. Kings River brings in a much larger flow. But add up the federal and state surface water that comes into the greater basin, it is typically more than half the water delivered. These numbers show – without delivery of surface water – we are in a world of hurt.
To give you an idea of how much Tulare County farms and communities depend on Friant canal water, consider that 15 of the member water districts in the 20 member Friant Water Authority group hail from Tulare County.
Meanwhile, in a dry year, we pump more water state water, figures show. In 2001– a dry year – the basin used nearly 7 million acre feet of groundwater in a year when less than 3 million acre feet of surface water was delivered. In a wet year, only 2.7 million acre feet was pumped from the ground.
Altogether, Friant delivers water to about a million acres of farmland on the Valley's eastside. Without it, much of the orange belt would simply be a dust bowl.
It was back in the late 1940s that irrigation pumps on the Valley's eastside went dry along the foothill citrus belt due to over pumping and falling water tables. That prompted the call for more imported water to help maintain and build a stronger farm based economy in the South Valley. The plan has clearly worked, creating the nation's richest ag region. But the plan was set up with a caveat.
Friant Water Users General Manager Ron Jacobsma explains that farmers who hold the water rights to San Joaquin River water in the Mendota/Los Banos area agreed back in the '50s not to exercise it as long as they got the same amount of water – about 800,000 acre feet a year from northern California shipped south of the Delta. These are the so-called “exchange contractors.”
“For the past 50 years there was never a thought this arrangement would be a problem,” says Jacobsma. But today, two years of drought and very low water reservoir levels around the state has set the stage for a possible worst-case scenario. Add to that the regulatory drought – environmental lawsuits and a federal judge's potential rulings to further reduce pumping of water south of the Delta to protect the fish. Last December, the judge's ruling curtailed pumping of water by about 30 percent statewide, affecting residents all over California.
Now environmental problems and a decline in
fisheries in the fragile Delta region exacerbated by two years
of drought have set in motion a possible suspension to this
agreement if supplies that were “exchanged” in
the past aren't there.
To be clear, Jacobsma says he does not expect this scenario
to play out but admits for the first time “it's a possibility.”
Lots of Pumping this Summer
The Valley's Westside has seen the face of drought this year and it isn't pretty. Thousands of acres of crops were left to rot in the fields this summer after the Bureau of Reclamation cut water deliveries to the Westlands Water District. Westlands farmer Mark Borba says farmers tried to save their trees this summer by aggressive water pumping and a neighbor of his says his water table dropped 200 feet.
“We know this is not sustainable” says Borba. But with about 100,000 acres of permanent crops, trees and vines now planted in the district – farmers used every drop to save those trees and their crop when possible. The area's towns have seen a farmworker exodus as hundreds were laid off from formerly permanent positions this summer. Concerned about their water table, Westlands is doing a groundwater study to see how much was lifted out of aquifers this summer. The betting is a lot more than last year's 300,000 acre feet.
Now, predictions that the federal government can deliver from zero to just 10 percent of its water allocation next year are turning a bad situation in Westlands into a nightmare.
Borba says both Westlands and the exchange contractors are dependent on the San Luis Reservoir for their water supply – water that comes from the Delta that is pumped into storage near Los Banos. The carryover of water in this reservoir mirrors the situation in the upper part of the state. Supply in San Luis Reservoir is just 13 percent of capacity (30 percent of normal for this time of year) and Oroville to the north is expected to be at its lowest level in history.
Helping to drive concerns that Friant water may be in jeopardy this coming year are rulings by Judge Oliver Wanger in the past year that cut water pumping south of the Delta to protect the endangered Delta smelt fishery. The judge's ruling last December cut water supplies by 30 percent this year.
This past week, environmentalists asked Judge Wanger to cancel existing water contracts because they don't reflect the dire straits of the smelt in the Delta. If Wanger agrees, that could mean less water coming first to Westlands and Friant that would be next in line if the supply dwindles more.
Wanger is set to rule on a second endangered fish species – the salmon that has been in a decline in the Delta and all over the West Coast as well. An adverse ruling to save this fish could potentially curtail more water moving south.
The water issue is important not just for Tulare County but the entire state that depends on the intricate web of water reservoirs and canals to deliver water from the wetter north to the more arid but populated southern part of the state. Further, California's share of Colorado River that buffeted the state during previous droughts has now been permanently curtailed as that region too suffers from persistent drought.
Without surface water delivered to Tulare County farms, the area's water table is likely to fall fast and furious.
Local walnut grower Tony Langiano says he is having to dig deeper to get his irrigation water. “The water level has dropped 23 percent in the past two years,” Langiano tells the Farm Bureau newspaper, dropping to over 121 feet when it was 52 feet in 1987.
Farmers won't hesitate to run their pumps if the supply isn't delivered by the ditch company. The trees won't wait for an explanation. And our area's water level could plunge fast like in Westlands if everyone is pumping water from the underground pool of water.
Local reservoirs like Lake Success and Lake Kaweah will get replenished, but right now they are at just 7 percent of capacity – basically a puddle of water maintained to keep the fish alive. But even as they fill up with a new supply – the volume can't touch the supply of imported water coming into the basin along with state water that comes into the Tulare Lake area as well as the federal supply. Now, both the federal and state supply is in jeopardy because each faces the same restrictions on moving water south of the Delta.
That's why farmers and farmworkers were up in Sacramento this past summer lobbying hard for a comprehensive water bond that would help fix the Delta as well as add new water storage on the upper San Joaquin River. This was the fourth time in recent memory that legislators failed to come up with a water bond compromise. The latest effort again failed to generate an agreement that could have been on this November's ballot.
Water Bond/Recirculation Issue
Friant and other water agencies point out the bond is needed to store and move water – not just for business, farms and drinking water for all Californians – they need these new facilities to store and move water for fish and wildlife. A larger San Joaquin River reservoir will mean that we can store big winter rains to replenish the groundwater later, rather than let hundreds of thousands of acre feet head out to sea because the reservoir is too small to handle it.
Friant's Jacobsma confirms the idea that it will likely ask its members and others who depend on the Delta to contribute to the cost of fixing it. “We are asking the state and federal government to participate” and we want a seat at the table too. That will require money.
Besides the loss of some water in dry years to the exchange contractors, Friant, as a requirement of the river settlement process, wants to “recirculate” water it sends down the river to restore the river habitat and to help salmon and bring that water back to the district. That could mean 200,000 acre feet of water annually that it needs to recover, says Jacobsma. Friant's firm supply is just about 800,000 acre feet. If the Delta is not fixed, there will be no way to recirculate that water. The settlement agreement is set to go into effect in 2009.
Jacobsma says in the long run, the Valley and the state need an isolated peripheral canal to move water south around the Delta without harming the fish.
Others believe farmers can save far more water than they do today and suggest putting money into a new Sierra dam doesn't make sense but restoring historic Tulare Lake for groundwater storage does. But moving water by gravity form the Sierra to the eastside orchards has some logic to it while it isn't clear how you move water from a big groundwater bank around Corcoran. Instead, eastside districts have invested in groundwater banks closer to where the water is put to use.
By Rick Elkins
Tulare County - Joe Engelbrecht, past chairperson of the Tulare County Child Care Planning Council, has a vision that someday all children growing up in Tulare County grow up ready to contribute to society.
A way Engelbrecht sees that vision coming true is expanding child care to more children to better prepare them for school and success in life.
Engelbrecht was the keynote speaker of the first Legislative Breakfast of the Child Care Planning Council and was speaking to the Tulare County Child Care Needs Assessment 2008.
That needs assessment found that of the 111,343
children between the ages of 0-13 living in Tulare County, a
third of them live in poverty and while 14,000 children are
served in the subsidized child care program, another 10,000
are on a waiting list.
“Needs to increase our county's subsidized child care
needs by 50 percent may seem insurmountable,” said Jim
Vidak, Tulare County superintendent of schools. “Let us
begin today to discuss creative and collaborative ways to address
child care needs,” he urged the more than 200 people in
attendance at Friday's meeting.
Officials said child care has a “significant socio-economic impact on Tulare County families,” and that by increasing the number of children in early childhood education will build a foundation for those children to learn and succeed in life.
“I began to wonder what becomes of the 10,000 who don't get child care,” Engelbrecht said of the challenge facing the county. “I realized that maybe their future is not as bright, that their opportunities are less,” he said, adding those who don't get early education are less likely to graduate from high school and more likely to get into criminal activity and become a tax burden, rather than a positive contributor to society.
The needs assessment found that demand for child care is more significant in some areas than others, such as the small residential pockets such as Plainview, Ivanhoe, London and Seville. There, the rates of teen births, lack of a high school education and single-parent households are higher.
For example, while the percent of teen births countywide is 16 percent, in some of the smaller, outlying communities it is as high as 25 percent. While the percentage of adults countywide with less than a ninth grade education is 23 percent, it is as high as 66 percent in some areas.
“This is a big task,” said Engelbrecht of trying to come up with ways to provide more child care. “It is too big for government. We serve 14,000, but that's not enough. There's another 10,000.”
Supervisor Phil Cox, who serves on the council, said he did not have solutions, but pointed out, “It's not these kids' fault.”
He said the effort has to begin in the home and he offered that training should not stop with the young children, but should include the parents as well.
“Are there solutions? I don't know. We need to do everything we can to make sure those kids and their parents get trained, get help,” he said. “It's not their fault. We can help them and we should help them.”
Child-Friendly Businesses
TPG Consulting – an engineering and transportation planning firm in Visalia – and Visalia Ceramic Tile, Inc. were honored with the Business and Children Award for offering programs and opportunities such as flextime or job-sharing options.
Nominations of the firms were full of examples of how management accommodated the schedules of mothers and fathers with young children. Employees were allowed to work from home in some instances or bring their children to work in others. For employees with older children, management encouraged parents to adjust their schedules so that they could participate in after-school and sports activities. Both firms also made improvements to their offices to accommodate children visiting after school.
By Miles Shuper
Tulare County - A strike by workers unable to reach a union contract with Tulare County looms following a unique and emotional session Tuesday with the Board of Supervisors.
Members of the Service Employees International Union Local 521, which represents about 2,700 Tulare County employees, made it clear that a strike most likely will be called, possibly within a week. No date was set by the union members who had voted overwhelmingly (98 percent) to authorize a strike.
At least 150 union members, most wearing union purple shirts, attended the session with leaders and members asking supervisors to meet their last offer. The county and the union have been at impasse since Aug.13 over wage and benefit issues. In a last ditch offer, the union lowered its demands to a 5 percent raise from its previous 8 percent demand, in addition to several other concessions.
In a press conference before the meeting and during the session, union officials said the county has access to funds, including tobacco tax funds, which the county has used for buildings and other projects. County leadership, the union charges, has mismanaged those available funds and made other poor choices depriving county workers from adequate pay and health care.
Those claims were made in a union publication, “A Crises in Tulare,” dealing with what it describes as “the impact of Tulare County policies and the threat to public services, jobs and the community.” It cites Tulare County's lagging in pay and benefits, high turnover and other issues in comparison to neighboring counties.
After more than an hour in which both sides presented their offers, supervisors went into closed session before voting 4-1 to stick with the county's offer of a 2.75 percent raise, a $500 one-time lump payment on Nov. 18 and some increases in health care benefits. Board Chairman Connie Conway cast the lone no vote after suggesting both sides engage in one final negotiating session.
The county rejected the union's final offer which it claims was at least $17 million more than union estimates.
Immediately after the county's decision, Kristy Sermersheim, local union president, said that since union members already had authorized a strike, it is evident that one would be called but said any decision probably would not be announced for at least a week.
She said. “It is ridiculous to work here.” Responding to the county “moving forward” in bringing lower-end salaries and benefits more in line with other county pay scales, Sermersheim said it is “moving ahead at a snail's pace.” She again cited the crisis of trying to hire and retain employees for critical jobs because of such poor pay.
County officials concede they are far behind other counties and are striving to keep valuable and talented workers from leaving for much better paying jobs.
When asked about the board taking only about 20 minutes in closed session before voting to stick with its offer, she said it was apparent the board used that time to allow County Executive Officer Jean Rousseau time to practice his speech.
That was in reference to Rousseau's briefing to the board on the nationwide and local economic woes and the county's efforts to stay afloat and his recommendation to reject the union's final offer.
What's New
Visalia may soon get another large Hispanic market. Vallarta Supermarkets, with 30 stores from Delano to San Diego, may soon be opening a large market in Visalia. In plans for a large shopping center at Lovers Lane and Nobel Avenue submitted to the city this month, the developer shows a 42,000 s.f. market that he told city officials would be a Vallarta Supermarket. The chain specializes in groceries for the Hispanic shopper and the markets include a taqueria.
New home sales were down 57% in California year over year in July, reports the Building Industry Association. That number is worse in Tulare County where new home sales were down 70% in July 2008, compared to a year ago, selling just 50 homes compared to 167. In the Hanford metro area, sales were just 15 in July, compared to 26 a year ago. Existing home sales are a much bigger factor than new home sales.
Construction improvements of the World War II-era runway at Sequoia Field are finally happening this month after some 10 years of talks, says Supervisor Steve Worthley. “Now we have something to sell,” to possible tenants who might want a location at the county air field north of Visalia.
Jahan Farhang, president of the Tulare County Association of Realtors, announced this week that he was leaving Century 21 Jordan Link & Co. to join Prudential California Realty, the new real estate firm started a few months ago by his brother, Teymour Farhang. The new firm is at the former Avidian Real Estate site at 1410 S. Mooney, Visalia.
Work will soon begin on the Soroptimist Neighborhood Park at Linwood and Prospect now that the Visalia City Council awarded a $633,680 contract to Sierra Range Construction for the project. The park is one of several to be constructed in the next several months.
Old mining pit at Dry Creek quarry will get a bird-friendly makeover in coming months, thanks to Sequoia Riverlands Trust and Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District. The land trust now owns the site and wants to re-engineer and vegetate the site to restore a more natural setting as well as reduce evaporation of water. KDWCD is doing the project that requires an EIR, and plans a public hearing October 6 to discuss the project.
Visalia Community Bank is holding a contest to find 12 historical photographs to showcase in its 2009 Community Calendar. Photographs of Tulare County taken between 1850 and 1965 (excluding family photos) can be entered by the Sept. 30 deadline at any of the bank's five Visalia locations. All entries will be returned.
The Visalia City Council Monday passed a resolution of commendation for Stan Carrizosa, Jr. who just won the “High School Musical: Get in the Picture” competition.
Visalia City Manager Steve Salomon received a 4 percent salary increase in his new contract with the city that was approved Monday night. The new contract is effective July 1, 2008 through July 1, 2009.
City Council in Tulare heard a presentation from Full Circle Energy to build a gasification plant at the city's waste treatment plant that would convert waste into energy including fuel. The company wants to build a plant that utilizes sludge, manure, garbage and tires, converting the waste into synthetic gas. The group would like the entire waste stream in Tulare County diverted from the landfills to provide source material for the patented process.
Kings County appears to be ready to forgo $30 million from the state in return for siting a parolee re-entry facility. Supervisors voted 3-to-2 last week to ask the state for a 30-day postponement on a plan to recommend a site in the county after several public meetings. Hanford residents turned out for the meetings, asking the facility not be built in their back yard. The state had set a deadline of Sept. 18 for locals to recommend a site. The county hoped to use the extra $30 million to expand the county jail. It's not clear if the state will give the county more time to name a new site.
Visalia City Council has gone on record supporting Proposition 1A, the $9.95 billion high speed rail bond measure on the November ballot.
Acequia Conversion Work Scheduled
Work on converting Acequia Avenue to two-lane traffic is expected to begin within two weeks after the Visalia City Council awarded a $550,000 contract to Cruco Construction Group for the project.
Rebecca Keenan in the city engineering department said the project will take about three months and includes a new signal light at Willis Street, modification of three existing signals, a slurry seal of the roadway and then new striping, including a bike lane.
Total cost of the project is placed at $900,000.
Sequoia Mall May Include Apartments
Air conditioned malls – they aren't building new ones anymore. But what about the old ones?
Sequoia Mall owners are talking to the City of Visalia about preliminary plans to remake their troubled mall likely into a kind of lifestyle center that includes residential units. First task is to relocate and build a new two-story movie theater that would allow the mall to bring in another major retailer, say city sources.
The mall owners – a 50/50 partnership that includes Kimco and Schottenstein Properties which bought the mall last year – now own the Mervyn's property purchased last December and former gym space in back, along with much of the rest of the mall – not Sears. The group may have some firm ideas to lay out by next spring.
County Hires New Planner
Jake Raper has been hired as Tulare County's top planner and will take office Oct. 6, says Henry Hash, director of the county's Resource Management Agency.
Raper, who currently lives in Ceres, works with the City of Gustine in Merced County and the City of Wasco in Kern County on a contract basis. He has worked with various cities in the Central Valley.
He takes over the helm vacated with the retirement of George Finney who worked for the county for about 40 years and was the county's planning director for a number of years.
Raper, 64, whose official title will be Assistant
Director Resource Management Agency for Planning, will oversee
long-range planning policies, permitting and have a number of
other responsibilities, Hash said.
Raper, who attended last week's Road 80 ground-breaking ceremony,
said he is in the process of seeking a home in the Visalia area.
Long-Awaited Road 80 Project Officially Starts
By Miles Shuper
For more than 10 years, the phrase “in about two years” was used to estimate the start of the Road 80 widening project.
A groundbreaking ceremony Friday marked the official start of the long anticipated project to eventually produce a four-lane roadway linking Visalia and Dinuba, a major farm-to-market thoroughfare.
Although the work already is underway, the ceremonial
groundbreaking drew a large contingent of Visalia, Dinuba
and Tulare County officials, including Assemblyman Bill Maze.
Local officials were quick to point out the importance Measure
R, the one-half-cent sales tax earmarked for transportation,
played in finally getting the project launched.
“Without the County Measure R funding, this Road 80
project would likely be stalled for another 10 years,”
said, Supervisor Steve Worthley, explaining how local funds
play a key in securing California Department of Transportation
funds which, as a rule, are distributed to areas where local
matching funds are provided.
The current work is the first of a three-phase project and will widen Road 80 from Goshen Avenue to Avenue 328, phase two will widen it from Avenue 376 to Avenue 416, and phase three will widen it from Avenue 328 to Avenue 376.
It is the largest regional project in the county since the Highway 198 expansion. Road 80 is one of the county's most heavily traveled roads. Worthley, whose district includes Dinuba and much of the Road 80 project area, said, “The improvements will make a huge difference in traffic safety and traffic flow.”
Traffic signals will be installed at Avenue 328 and Riggin Road. The Avenue 328 intersection, just south of the county landfill, has been a major concern for drivers, especially during periods of dense Tule fog.
Work on phase one began about a month ago by Lee's Paving which was awarded the $7.85 million contract, about $4.4 million less than the original estimate of roughly $12.2 million. Strong competition among contractors has resulted in numerous jobs being bid lower than earlier estimates, county officials and construction industry leaders say.
Lee McClatchy, owner of Lee's Paving, was among several speakers at the groundbreaking. He noted his headquarters is “just about a couple of football fields away” and said he expects the phase one project to be completed by next spring, weather permitting.
Visalia City Councilman Bob Link and Dinuba Mayor Terry McKittrick were also among those citing the importance of the Road 80 widening.
Relay For Life this Weekend in Visalia
By Steve Pastis
Relay For Life is an event to outrace cancer. Those whose families and friends have been affected by cancer, as well as many other members of the community, will gather this weekend for Visalia's annual Relay for Life event at Mt. Whitney High School.
“It is a time and place where people come to celebrate those who have survived cancer, remember those we've lost, and fight back against a disease that touches too many lives,” said Charaighn Sesock, public relations chair. “The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly one out of every two Californians born today will develop cancer at some point in their lives, and it is likely that one in five will die from the disease.”
Funds raised from this event will enable the American Cancer Society to support local services and resources for cancer patients and their families in Visalia. Funds also support critical cancer research and community education programs designed to teach people how to reduce their risk of developing cancer.
The 24-hour event kicks off with the Opening Ceremony at 8 a.m. Saturday on the main stage, with a survivor's lap on the track to follow. This lap honors those who have defeated cancer. Survivors are introduced, and then walk, run or wheelchair the opening lap. All cancer survivors are encouraged to join in celebrating survivorship.
“The event promises to be a memorable experience for all packed with music, entertainment, important cancer education and games,” said Sharon Allison, Relay For Life co-chair. “Relay For Life is an opportunity for our community to come together and reflect on the hope and spirit of fighting this disease that has impacted all of our lives.”
The public is invited to attend the Luminaria
Ceremony, which takes place after sundown. “This is
a breathtaking opportunity to honor the community's cancer
survivors and remember those who lost their battle,”
said Sesock. “Survivors will have a chance to circle
the track rimmed with glowing luminaries, while the names
are read aloud.”
An emotional closing ceremony will take place on Sunday morning,
marking the end of this relay season and the beginning of
a new one, as Visalia will celebrate its 20th year in 2009.
If you are a cancer survivor and would like to participate, or if you would like to volunteer, call the American Cancer Society at 734-1392, or visit www.events.cancer.org/rflvisaliaca.
COS Establishes Director of Ag Education Position
By Steve Pastis
To oversee the development and growth of the College of the Sequoias ag program at the planned Tulare campus and at the Visalia campus, COS has created the position of director of Agriculture Education.
“Our ag program is critical to serving the largest economic sector in our region, and the college is working diligently to establish a new ag facility at our Tulare College Center,” wrote Dr. Bill Scroggins, COS president/superintendent, in his Sept. 4 report. “The plan is to have someone on board early next year.”
“Because of the uniqueness of the ag program, we're looking for someone who can be the 'manager' of the program,” said Larry Dutto, dean of academic services at COS.
Dutto explained that the director will have to oversee two different sites and two different budgets, “make sure there's a positive cash flow,” keep the curriculum updated and maintain the quality of the program. The new director will also have to manage the transfer from the Visalia campus to the new Tulare campus when it opens in 2012, as well as oversee the construction of the new facility.
The director will also be responsible for building up the program, especially through the high schools, to make full use of the Tulare facility, according to Scroggins.
“We basically have a $500,000 operating budget,” said Dutto, explaining that the budget includes the operation of a 460-acre farm in Tulare, livestock (beef, swine, sheep, dairy and equine) in Visalia and Tulare, a dairy processing facility and a commercial horticulture operation.
How has the program grown so large without a director of agriculture education?
“I've been doing it, but I have other responsibilities,” said Dutto. He added that the new director will need to spend time at the COS Farm on South Linwood in Visalia, and in Tulare when that campus opens. “The president wants the director to be on site to provide support for the program,” he said.
Faculty in the division and the ag advisory committee are currently working with COS administration on the job description for the position.
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September 18, 2008
