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County Office Ready for Move
Downtown Visalia Block Eyed for New Use

By John Lindt

Visalia - Some 60 employees at the downtown Visalia social services office on Center Street will be relocating to their new office on Dinuba Boulevard next week.

The relocation will vacate the entire county-owned block between Court and Church, Center and Oak and make available the parking lot across Oak.
“We still haven't decided what to do with this block but selling it is a possibility,” says Phil Cox, chair of the Board of Supervisors.

“The city of Visalia would like to see the historic four-story court building retained,” says city Housing and Economic Development Director Ricardo Noguera.
Noguera confirms that a potential developer recently toured the vacant building which was used for welfare administration for years.

“We are not at liberty to say who they are but there is a possibility that the building could be saved and the single-story building cleared for new office use and lofts,” he said.

Another possibility being considered is that another county agency could move into the 1960s era single-story building – around 20,000 square feet.

“We want to see something good happen in this block and not just have it sit empty,” said Noguera.

Keeping the 1940s era structure that fronts on Court may be an architect's dream, but there are still worries that the asbestos problem, the cost of putting in an elevator and reinforcing the old building may add up to a deal buster. Employees who worked there relocated to the county's Mooney site last year.

The move of employees to their new office in the former Fairway Market building should be good news for both staff and patrons with the newly remodeled space and plenty of parking and services nearby, says Cox, who saluted the crew for keeping with a tight remodeling schedule.

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Youth@Work Provides
Life Altering Opportunities

By Steve Pastis

Tulare County - Getting a summer job has been a life-changing opportunity for Issac Sandoval.

He is one of about 1,700 young people who have been put to work this summer in Tulare County in a program paid for by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – federal stimulus money. Tulare County got nearly $9 million to use to help people find jobs, including the summer Youth@Work program.

“I like it a lot,” said Sandoval, who cleans rooms, transports patients back to their rooms and stocks shelves at Kaweah Delta Medical Center. “People are real nice and I'm learning a lot here.”

He said that the program has changed his life “big time.”

“I wanted a career since I've been out of high school,” Sandoval said. “Once I heard that we could work here at the hospital, I wanted to work here. Now that I see what goes on here, I want to be a surgical technician.”

He had planned to enroll in the police academy this summer to become a policeman, but he submitted his application too late. “I'd rather work here anyway,” he said. He has submitted an application to continue his job on a permanent basis.

Sandoval and his wife, Aaron, are expecting a baby in August. Aaron is also employed through the Youth@Work program, working at the district attorney's office.

By the end of summer, the 1,700 young people will have been given jobs in 600 worksites in Tulare County through the program.

“It's going great,” said Adam Peck, executive director of the Tulare County Workforce Investment Board which oversees the program in the county. He expects to have 1,000 kids working at sites across Tulare County by the end of the week.
The young people, ages 14-24, are given jobs, working between 120-150 hours over the summer for which they are paid $8 an hour. “Many of these jobs are entry-level, but they are meaningful,” said Peck. Their wages are paid for with the stimulus money.

Community worksites include The Urban Tree Foundation (UTF), Weatherization Services, horticulture project at the Tulare County Juvenile Detention Facility, beatification projects at local high schools, school nutrition projects and the Tulare County Office of Education Theatre Company. Twenty-nine students have been given summer jobs at Kaweah Delta Medical Center.

“This is the largest needs list we've ever had,” said Belinda Vernon, human resources specialist for Kaweah Delta. “We asked managers of every department what their needs were. Then we looked at the students and asked them what their interests were and what they liked to do.”

Four students were selected for dietary positions at the hospital. One of them, Martin Gonzales, expressed an interest in working in restaurants and was given a job as a catering host for the summer. He works in the hospital cafeteria, hosts on floors, works at cooking stations, stocks food and caters.

“It's a great place to learn,” Gonzales said. “I'm learning a lot of new things.”

Although he is not sure what he wants to do, he said this opportunity will help him get his career off the ground. If his summer job leads him to someday own or operate a restaurant, he said, “I would be happy doing that.”

Earlier this month, 1,400 students went through two five-hour sessions where they learned, among other things, how to create a resume, fill out an application, how to dress and use the right vocabulary at work, and how to conduct themselves on a job interview.

“They would bring in a candidate every 10 minutes and we would interview them,” said Vernon. “It was very exciting to see how they all came in, shook your hand and introduced themselves. It's scary to sit across the table from two strangers and answer questions.”

“We would love to have a project like this next year,” said Bonney Parks, senior program coordinator with C-SET Youth Department, which brings many of the students into the program. She said that the program would continue next year, whether it is again funded by stimulus money or on a smaller scale by the Youth Force Investment Board or the Board of Supervisors.

“They're great students,” said Parks about this summer's participants. “They just needed a chance.”

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Property Owners Need to Act
to Get Out of Flood Insurance

By Rick Elkins

Visalia - Lost in the upheaval that 8,900 parcels of property were thrust into the flood plain and now require flood insurance, is that 7,900 parcels in Visalia were removed.

When the Federal Emergency Management Agency's new flood map went into effect June 16, those 7,900 homeowners were freed from the federal flood insurance bondage, but not unless they act, say city officials.

“I'm one of the happy guys,” said Steve Phillips of Visalia who has paid about $300 a year for flood insurance for his house he purchased in 1996. “That's (being removed) saving me $300 a year. Every year, the flood insurance was also a hassle to get paid,” he explained.

Phillips was one of the lucky ones in paying $300 a year for his flood insurance. Rona Swanson of American National Insurance in Visalia said most of those who had flood insurance were paying $1,200 to $1,500 a year. She said Phillips, like others, may have gotten a break because the elevation of his property was slightly higher, thus at less risk and at a lower premium.

Phillips is still working to have his insurance cancelled and he said no one notified him that his property was being taken out of the flood zone.

“I got notification about the change of the flood zones from the city, but I have never been contacted by FEMA,” said Phillips.

He said he has called the city to verify his property was no longer in the flood zone, then contacted his lender. However, his lender told him they use a third party company to handle flood insurance and they are going by a 2007 map that still shows him in a flood zone. So, he requested a letter from the city that he will give to the lender stating his property has been removed from the flood zone.

However, cautioned Phillips, people should first contact their lenders before requesting a letter from the city because not every lender handles it the same.
“I called the lender first to see if that will work because I didn't want the city to do all that work for nothing,” he said.

Swanson said the 7,900 moving out of the flood zone is good news.
“This is the flip side of the coin. This is happy stuff.”

Her advice is the same as that given by Phillips: “Best thing they can do is go on the city website and do address lookup and print out that they are no longer in the flood zone so they can provide that to the lender,” she said. If they wait for the lender to act, it could take three months or longer.

“The lender then must provide the owner in writing that they are no longer required to have flood insurance. Once they get that, they can request cancellation of their flood insurance,” she added.

“If you're not considered in the flood zone, you can get a cancellation and a refund for it,” was the best news she offered.

When the new FEMA map went into effect last week, roughly 8,900 parcels in the city were put into the flood zone requiring insurance, 7,900 other parcels were removed, another 3,700 parcels remain in the flood zone and more than 29,000 parcels remain outside the flood plain.

Many Still Stuck

There was some good news for a few of the 312 parcel owners who were destined to be in the flood zone with the new map, but were given an 11th hour reprieve.
Some may get a refund of their insurance premium they paid, but for most, there will be no relief.

Swanson said a FEMA insurance representative told her that there is no change in the policy to allow cancellations on Preferred Policies that are in effect now, with FEMA telling her the Preferred Policies are considered “voluntary” and thus they will not refund the money paid.

However, for those people who waited until the last minute and then got coverage…if the coverage has not gone into effect yet and they paid by credit card, there may be hope for a refund, but they must act within 30 days to cancel the policy. Swanson said that window is only open to a few of the property owners.

However, for most of the people in the areas lifted from regular flood zone that played by the book and had their coverage in place well in advance and will have a flood policy in place at the preferred rate until next year, they will need to get a copy of the LOMR to their lender so that the lender will not think they are in a special flood zone and set up an impound or add coverage, should they choose to not renew next year.

For those now in the flood zone that have not purchased insurance, they will be getting a note from their lender within three to five months. Then, the insurance will be at full price – more than double what owners are paying for the Preferred Risk policies.

Swanson said the policy is based on value of home and level of risk and that it is not based on the loan amount, but the replacement cost of the home. And, that cost is adjusted as the cost to replace the home goes up.

“It is a really bitter thing,” she said.

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Many Options for Mental Health Help

By Steve Pastis

Tulare County - People who need help with mental health issues in Tulare County have options. They can talk to their physician, a member of the local clergy or Tulare County Mental Health Services.

“We provide services to adults and children, primarily through Medi-Cal,” said Dr. Cheryl Duerksen, Tulare County mental health director. “We offer services to people with severe and persistent mental illness – schizophrenia or bipolar are two primary examples – and for severe emotional disturbances in children.”

She defined emotional disturbances in children as “when a child is having severe difficulty in navigating their primary environment, family or school.”

Tulare County Mental Health Services receives most of its funding through the state. It also sees some patients under grant funding, but because it does not take private insurance, TCMHS often partners with family services, private practitioners and pediatricians.

“Ours is always the place to call for a referral,” said Duerksen. “Anybody can call and get an appropriate referral, because we may not be the provider of a particular service.”

County Mental Health has been receiving an increasing number of calls about children. “They pick up on their parents' stresses,” said Cheryl Lennon-Armas, clinical director of Tulare Youth Services. “They feel the classroom is a safe place to express their own anxiety.

“We work with teachers,” she continued. “We do psycho-education, teaching instructors about psychological illness and mental health disorders and how they can respond. We tell them why students act that way.”

Local churches and temples also help people deal with hardships, counseling them “in more of a spiritual realm,” according to Marylou Paquette, administrative officer for the Catholic Church of Visalia. “If it's hard for them to make ends meet, we redirect them to agencies that can assist," she said, adding that people who lose their jobs are referred to an unemployment agency and people who need food are referred to the Good News Center.

“When people want to talk to a priest, there's a wide range of reasons,” she said, adding that most of those who call are suffering from physical illnesses, such as cancer. “Generally, we have priests and deacons who are available on site. From there, it's determined if they need professional services.”

First Presbyterian Church of Visalia offers counseling through its Stephen Ministry, which is modeled after Stephen from the Bible, according to Karl Schafer, associate pastor. The church provides one-on-one counseling for members of the congregation, as well as others who seek help. Counselors are members of the congregation who go through an extensive 40-week training course.

“If there is anything beyond the scope of the services we provide, it will be referred to outside professionals,” said Schafer.

A study suggests that the number of mental health issues in Tulare County is above the national average. “The pervasive poverty of the county is an added stressor,” explained Duerksen.

“There's also a lack of awareness of available resources, or a willingness for people to put themselves in a situation where it's known that they are living in poverty,” said Lennon-Armas.

Stress and anxiety manifest through headaches, backaches, stomach aches and insomnia, said Harry Foster, Family HealthCare Network president and CEO. He has estimated that stress is a contributing factor in 70 percent of the visits to his clinics.

“When you are looking at this level of stress and depression, it doesn't mean that someone is mentally ill,” said Janet Paine, director of Integrated Services for Family HealthCare. “People with anxiety, insomnia and headaches are just looking for someone to help them so it doesn't lead to something more serious. In Tulare County, especially with the economy the way it is – people losing their jobs and unable to put food on the table – we're seeing more patients calling for help.”
Family HealthCare Network's behavioral health providers – licensed psychologists and licensed clinical social workers – offer a range of services ranging from behavioral therapy and stress management, to treating chronically mentally ill patients.

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What's New

The city of Tulare filed a signed settlement agreement June 22 with the county superior court over the approval of the Western Pacific Meat Packing project. The agreement was signed by plaintiff Rodger Catron who will now submit a request to annex his 156 acres into the city limits. The agreement says the city will pay up to $11,500 for fees to process the annexation application. With expected dismissal of the suit, the meat-packing project will finally move forward almost 10 years after it was first proposed in the Goshen area – later moved to Tulare after years of court battles. City Attorney Steve Kabot says court dismissal is now certain.

The Visalia Rawhide has been receiving a lot of phone calls from people wondering if suspended L.A. Dodger Manny Ramirez will accompany the Inland Empire 66ers team when it plays at Recreation Park July 1-3. The answer is apparently not. Ramirez' schedule called for him to play three games with the Triple-A Albuquerque team (through today), and spend Friday traveling to California to play four more minor league games. He will return to the Dodgers on July 3.

The Visalia-Tulare-Porterville metropolitan area did not make the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, list of metropolitan areas suffering from the recession. But that is not bad. Many Valley cities did make the list – the bottom of the list. Among the nation's 20 weakest-performing metro areas, four are in the Central Valley: Modesto, Fresno, Sacramento and Stockton. Not a single California metro area made the list of the 20 strongest-performing metro areas. Fresno ranked 99th, Stockton 98th and Bakersfield 97th in March among those with the worst unemployment rates in the nation.

Kingsburg Hospital and Adventist Health leaders are reportedly close to an agreement that would pave the way for Adventist Health to buy the hospital's rural health clinic and acquire the hospital. Adventist Health operates Selma Community Hospital and Central Valley General Hospital and Hanford Community Medical Center, along with 17 clinics in Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties. The terms include Adventist Health buying the rural health clinic for $540,100, leasing the clinic and administrative office space for $1.35 per square foot and acquiring the hospital for $1. The hospital board was to review details of the discussions at its meeting Wednesday. If the board agrees to the final letter of intent, it will set up a series of public meetings to gather input before a final board vote on the sale. A decision to sell the hospital would require board approval and a public vote.

It was all for naught. The special election in the Woodlake Union Elementary School trustee election ended with the same result the board appointed. Frances Holdbrooks, who was appointed by the board earlier this year to fill a vacancy, won the June 16 special mail-in ballot election with 193 votes out of 551 cast. Ralph Chapman III was a close second with 168 votes and Armida Martinez, who had challenged the appointment, finished third with 162 votes.

The Visalia Mall Anchor Blue store is not on the list of 46 stores the struggling company announced Friday that it was closing. However, the Hanford Mall store is on the list. Anchor Blue, a specialty retailer of casual apparel and accessories for the teenage and young adult markets with 177 stores across 12 states, is closing 46 underperforming stores as part of its overall restructuring plan. A store closing sale kicked off Friday. Anchor Blue filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Anchor Blue began as Miller's Outpost in the 1970s.

Jobless numbers remain up. According to the state Employment Development Department 5,200 people living in Visalia were out of work in May, but that is down 300 from May. In Tulare, the number of unemployed dropped by 200 – from 3,300 to 3,100. Overall, the employment picture in Tulare and Kings counties both improved, with Tulare's jobless rate at 14.3%, down from 15.4% for April. In Kings County, the jobless rate for May was 14.4%, down from 15.3% in April. Still, combined, the state reported that 39,900 people were labeled as unemployed in May. However, 238,100 were labeled as employed.

Retailer Eddie Bauer Holdings Inc. has voluntarily filed for bankruptcy protection in both the U.S. and Canada. The Bellevue, Wash. retailer has 28 stores in California, including an outlet store in the Preferred Outlets in Tulare.

Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE) founder Luke Cole died in a car accident in Africa earlier this month. Cole was active in Valley issues including targeting the so called “mega-dairies,” as well as a proposed waste incinerator near Kettleman City that was not built. Caroline Ferrell of CRPE's Delano office is now acting director of the group.

Tulare County has a plan to flatten the old single-story health department building to the north of the main courthouse to make room for more parking, says Supervisor Phil Cox. Some workers, including Blue Cross employees, will have to move.

Local timber industry people said the appointment of Tom Tidwell as the new Chief for the U.S. Forest Service is a positive move. Tidwell has spent 32 years with the Forest Service in a variety of positions.

Tulare and Kings counties got a chunk of cash last week to fight workers compensation fraud. Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced the nearly $30 million in grants to local county district attorneys to help combat workers' compensation fraud, an increase of almost $1 million over last year. Tulare County will get $317,950 and Kings County $282,673.

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County Eyes Deeper Budget Cuts

By Miles Shuper

Tulare County - Tulare County's proposed 2009-2010 general fund budget falls about $13 million short of last year's total, reflecting anticipated slashed revenues and cuts in county spending.

Although the county's overall budget won't be finalized until September, County Supervisors were told that departments will face 7.5 to 11 percent cuts, a hiring freeze will continue, county workers must take a week-long furlough and more job cuts, mainly in the Health and Human Services Agency, are coming when the state's budget issue is settled.

California is wrestling with a $24 billion budget deficit and is looking at taking funds from counties, as well as cities, as one way of helping to balance the state budget.

In presenting the a budget outlook Tuesday, County Executive Officer Jean Rousseau blamed the overall national economic downturn for reduced property and sales taxes, job losses and the squeeze being put on counties by the financially floundering state of California.

Included in the revenue cuts is the estimated $3.2 million the state may or may not return to the county for the Williamson Act, the farm land tax program.

Rousseau outlined a general fund preview, noting that tough decisions must be made.
The current year's general fund is $613.8 million.

The budget picture could get worse, officials caution, if the state yanks or delays more funding in getting its budget mess resolved.

County Supervisors, who earlier had honored a number of county workers as part of their annual employee service awards program, said cooperation by all departments is important in meeting the financial challenges. Supervisors said while the county is facing tough times, its financial plight is better than most others, a tribute to planning ahead to handle the current situation.

Rousseau and Board Chairman Phil Cox outlined the county's financial situation during a public meeting Tuesday night as well.

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