County Down to Last Ditch Efforts
to Save East Side Line
By Miles Shuper
Tulare County - While Tulare County officials have decided to cut off talks to purchase 30 miles of rail tracks between Strathmore and Jovista from San Joaquin Valley Railroad, negotiations continue in efforts to preserve the rail corridor.
Tom Sparks, a member of the Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG) and the county's chief rail negotiator, said SJVR has indicated it plans to begin ripping up the 30-mile rail segment starting in October.
Sparks said TCAG members have approved officially breaking off talks with Rail America, the parent company of San Joaquin Valley Railroad. A letter to Rail American is being drafted, TCAG officials said. Sparks said, however, negotiations with Union Pacific, which owns the right-of-way on the Strathmore to Jovista line, are continuing. If the corridor can be preserved, Sparks said, a new rail line would be constructed. Sparks said a deadline set by Rail America did not allow for the consultant hired by TCAG to complete his work, making further talks useless.
Meanwhile, former, current and potential shippers are uniting in opposing what they claim are new excessive rates and surcharges and other fees being levied by SJVR to further discourage business on other segments of the 68 miles of line between Kern County and the Dinuba and Reedley areas.
Chuck Littlefield, general manager of Richard Best Transfer, near Dinuba, SJVR's biggest customer, claims Rail America is making a concerted effort to discourage use of rail freight service, paving the way for seeking federal approval for more abandonment. It takes two years of inactivity on a line before abandonment can be approved, local officials point out.
Littlefield, former general manager of SJVR, believes Rail America could be working toward that goal. He suspects Rail America plans to eventually seek to abandon service between Exeter and the northern edge of Tulare County, a move he says “would put us out of business.”
Richard Best Transfer ships and receives agricultural commodities. The actions by SJVR come when Richard Best Transfer is engaged in plans for a major expansion of operations which would double the number of daily rail shipments to and from Port Ivory, the transfer company's site. A number of current jobs and potential jobs linked to expansion plans would be lost, he said, also pointing out tax revenues which would drop.
Supervisor Allen Ishida and others say downgraded freight service would have a major impact on keeping rail alive in Tulare and surrounding counties. It would make no sense, Ishida said, “for someone to buy a rail line without any customers.”
There has been interest by other short-line rail companies to purchase San Joaquin Valley Railroad but those too have been halted. Local officials say the prospects of another operator are dim unless a solution to the current situation is settled.
Littlefield, Sparks and Ishida expect a number of shippers will attend a special Sept. 1 TCAG meeting in Visalia where consultant Gary Hunt, hired by TCAG, is scheduled to discuss not only the viability of resurrecting but improving rail freight operations. His presentation is expected to be part of a business plan on freight rail services, Ishida said. The Fresno County Association of Governments also is working on a business plan for the Central Valley rail shipping system, Ishida said.
The fight to save rail freight service has been a fierce one which also has generated political debate on the issue of county involvement in spending money, including Measure R funds generated by a one-half sales tax, on a rail system.
TCAG, which administers
Measure R funds, approved setting aside about $3 million
for the possible purchases of the right-of-way on the Jovista
to Strathmore segment.
With talks ending between Rail America and TCAG, officials
will have to consider other courses of action.
Littlefield and others agree shippers and possibly other investors would need to support any upgrading of the existing lines.
County officials and those who had used the shipping line are expressing increased concerns with SJVR - citing new shipping surcharges, poor service and service requirements for customers.
During abandonment hearings, it was reported that SJVR imposed surcharges of up to $950 per rail car on some Tulare County shippers.
Littlefield said he and other shippers recently have been charged new fees and surcharges in addition to decreasing service.
Visalia - Some Visalia residents are still finding success in getting their property either removed from a flood zone or their flood zone designation improved.
Julie Plummer, who just purchased a home at 3523 South Cain St., found herself facing a $2,400 a year flood insurance premium on a house she thought was not in the flood zone.
However, that address and thousands of others were put into a flood zone last June when the Federal Emergency Management Agency redid the city's flood maps and placed 8,900 new addresses in the flood zone.
At the same time, 7,900 addresses were removed from flood zone designation and another 2,400 stayed in a flood zone, but the action created quite a stir in the city and left many – including city leaders and staff – angered by FEMA's process and rational why so many acres of land are still in a flood zone even after the spillway at Terminus Dam was raised.
Julie Plummer is one of the latest lucky ones and she may be the most popular new neighbor in town. Her work to get a new elevation certificate will save her as much as $1,700 a year in flood insurance. The new elevation is nearly 2-feet higher than FEMA had, said her mother Mary Plummer.
It has been more than a year since the new maps went into effect and property owners are still angry and still seeking answers. Even though the pace has slowed, many are still seeking new elevation measurements to hopefully lower their insurance rate or get their property out of the flood zone completely.
“It (surveying) was happening quite a bit last year,” noted Jason Huckleberry, associate engineer with the city of Visalia. “People are still having success. We try to give them information as much as we can,” he added.
Mary Plummer, who handled the purchase of the home for her daughter, said when the homes on South Cain Street were built they were not in a flood zone. In fact, Shawn Day of California Planning and Engineering Corporation couldn't understand why the property was placed into the flood zone last year. It is blocks away from any other flood zones.
“You just got me as to how it got put in,” he said, noting that it is just north of Caldwell Avenue, a good distance from the St. Johns River.
Day said his office is still getting phone calls and he expects a few more from the subdivision that they surveyed last summer at the request of the developer, Don Fulbright of Donald Lawrence Homes. He said they measured several of the home sites, but couldn't do them all because people were not at home.
Day said a fraction of a foot can make a difference – as little as a couple of inches.
“A tenth of a foot here and there. Never seen anything more than half of a foot,” said Day of adjustments they have made. He estimated that out of 30 properties surveyed, maybe only five did not benefit from being surveyed
Mary Plummer is sold on the survey.
“Anybody buying a home or doing a remodel should get an elevation certificate. It only cost $400 and it's worth every penny,” she said.
FEMA measures to the base level of the foundation – where the dirt comes up to – while the insurance companies are more concerned with the level of the flooring. If the measurement at the foundation is above the flood plain, then the property is not required to have flood insurance. Roughly 30 percent of the homes in Visalia are in a flood zone.
Day said FEMA does a computer-generate model that calculates where flood waters might flow and that the model is based on the levees along the St. Johns River not being maintained.
Huckleberry said it is up to each individual homeowner to get their property surveyed. He said, however, the best way is for neighbors to get together and get several homes surveyed at once – thus lower the cost.
He said there are three
potential outcomes from having a property surveyed
1. No change
2. Finished floor of home is above base elevation, but still
must have flood insurance. Good news is that is at the lowest
rate
3. Is the best. Entire foundation is above flood zone and
home is removed from flood zone
He added there is no deadline for property owners to seek relief.
Day said the biggest relief would come if the city could fix the levees, but that is a huge endeavor. Only a couple of miles of the levees are in the city and estimates are it will cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars to fix and then maintain them. City officials are working with elected officials to get funding, but they admit it will be years before such a solution is found.
In the meantime, property owners can call the city's flood zone hotline at 713-4640 to ask questions and to find out what they might be able to do. “I can tell them there are a few LOMAs (Letter of Map Amendment) in their area and there's a chance they could get out as well,” said Huckleberry.
Long-term
The city has been working on several other long-term solutions besides trying to get the levees repaired.
It has been looking into the data FEMA used to come up with its elevations and should have a report for the city council this fall.
It is also looking at other remedies to the possibility of flooding, such as a large ponding basin. The city has also worked to get the preferred rate insurance program extended, which has been extended for two years beginning in January.
It has also endorsed Federal Congressional Bill H.R. 5114, the Flood Insurance Reform Priorities Act of 2010, although they feel the bill does not go far enough.
In discussing the bill earlier this month, Assistant City Manager Mike Olmos said the legislation “has several components that would benefit our community.”
Some positives of the bill include five-year graduated premium rate for flood insurance; allow premiums be paid in installments; create an office of Flood Insurance Advocate; proposes several studies that could lead to more improvements.
The issue has lead to a small war of words between Councilman Mike Lane and Rep. Devin Nunes. When discussing H.R. 5114, Lane criticized Nunes for not doing enough to help the city, an allocation Nunes has denied.
The city is also looking into partnering with other cities – such as Los Angeles – that have similar issues with FEMA.
Visalia - Months of lobbying, conversations and nail-biting paid off for the city of Visalia last week when a large supplier of medical laboratory materials announced it was coming to the Visalia Industrial Park.
VWR International will build a 500,000 square foot facility in Visalia, purchasing the land from the Allen Group at Riggin and Kelsey. Officials said initially the company will be a 300,000 s.f. facility, with plans to expand that to 500,000 s.f. Scores of new jobs are expected.
The announcement culminated months of work by city staff and others involved in economic development in the county.
“We're ecstatic. We've been busting at the seams to get the announcement,” said Chris Young, city of Visalia Community Development director, who praised everyone who had a hand in landing the company.
The center, the second one in California for the company, will enhance VWR's distribution network and enhance its supply chain for the Western United States, said VWR in a press release.
The facility is expected to be operational in 2012.
“We realize that our success stems from placing our customers and suppliers as our top priority and then providing the right resources, processes and tools to get the work done,” stated Matt Malenfant, SVP and president of North America, Lab Distribution and Services.
The landing of the large industrial company was not easy and is the first since VF Corp came to Visalia in 2006.
“We've been working on this for a number of months,” said Young. “We didn't even know who it was for several months,” he added.
It was late last year that the city first had contact from the Economic Development Corporation of Tulare County that a large distribution company was looking here.
The company had hired a consulting firm to do its search, not revealing its identity until just a couple of months ago.
Larry Montgomery with the Allen Group, who helped arrange the sale of the land, said the company had a model and it came up with the Central Valley as the best location for its new center. It then came down to Fresno or Visalia.
“We were confident Visalia city officials could help us achieve our goals,” said Valerie Collado with the company that is headquartered in Pennsylvania.
City officials became encouraged when company representatives made their second and third visits to the area. “There were also lots of phone calls, lots of information,” said Young, one of the leaders of the city team that worked with the company to locate here.
“They did their due diligence,” he said, even taking a close look at the quality of life in Visalia. City Parks and Recreation Director Vince Elizondo did a long presentation on what the city has to offer in terms of parks and recreation.
“It was a pretty intense push for staff,” said Young, but no large financial incentives were needed. “Our incentive was the willingness to turn around (construction) plans quickly,” he added.
Montgomery said location was by far the biggest factor in bringing the company to Visalia, but the company was also impressed with the city and the city staff who were working with them.
“Selecting a location for a new West Coast distribution center was the result of careful review of many factors; it was critical that the new site be strategically located to enhance current and future customer service needs,” said John Ballbach, chairman, president and CEO of VWR. “In addition, it will also provide a great setting for our associates to work and live.”
Young said one big asset for the city is that Federal Express has a hub at the Visalia airport. The Company reportedly ships a lot of its produce via Federal Express or UPS. He did not expect the company to use a lot of large trucks.
Another plus are planned street and road improvements including the Betty Drive interchange, widening of Plaza Drive and improvements to Riggin Avenue.
“Those were big selling points for them,” Young said.
And while no officials numbers were stated as to how many people will be employed at the center, Young and city of Visalia Housing and Economic Development director Ricardo Noguera agree the number is “substantial” and the impact of industrial jobs is significant.
Industrial jobs are generally higher paying and benefitted. Noguera said, “The industrial employee is going to be supporting the retail market as well as the housing market.”
Young agreed. “It
will have quite an impact on the local economy,” –
an economy with nearly 17 percent unemployment according
to the July employment report.
Mayor Bob Link noted the impact the company will have on
the local economy.
“The Visalia City Council, staff and community are extremely pleased that VWR has selected Visalia for the location of its new major distribution facility,” Link said.
“VWR's investment will bring many high-quality jobs to Visalia and will have a positive long-term impact on our local economy. We warmly welcome VWR to our community and look forward to a strong working relationship for many years to come.”
About VWR
VWR International, LLC,
headquartered in West Chester, Penn., is a global laboratory
supply and distribution company with worldwide sales in
excess of $3.5 billion in 2009. It serves most of the world's
top pharmaceutical and biotech companies, as well as industrial,
educational, and governmental organizations.
With 150 years of industry experience, VWR offers a well-established
distribution network that reaches thousands of specialized
labs and facilities spanning the globe.
The company has over 6,500 associates around the world working
to streamline the way researchers across North America,
Europe, and Asia stock and maintain their labs. The Visalia
center will be the largest in the company, surpassing the
369,400 s.f. distribution center in New Jersey.
By Marina Gaytan
Tulare County - As grocery shoppers prepare for the possible plastic bag ban coming up in 2012, local grocery stores are doing what they can to help in the transition that may have the option of “paper or plastic” gone for good. Racks of reusable shopping bags made from earth friendly materials can be seen near check stands throughout most stores in Visalia including large chain stores like SaveMart Supermarkets. The bags can also be found at WinCo Foods in west Visalia, Food4Less on North Dinuba Blvd and at Best Buy Market, a locally owned grocery store.
A bill that has already been approved by the state Assembly would ban all carry out single-use plastic bags from supermarkets, convenience stores, drug stores and liquor stores. Although the plastic will be banned, customers will have the option to either bring their own bags or use recycled bags provided by the store and have a per-bag-charge of five cents for each paper carryout bag distributed at the point of sale. The ban does not apply to meat or produce plastic bags.
If made law, it would take effect at smaller retailers in 2013.The AB 1998 that was introduced by assembly member Julia Brownley to ban the bags received the “unprecedented support” of stakeholders; including the California Grocers Associations.
Skip Nugent, owner of Best Buy Market, is greatly concerned about where the per-bag-charge will go.
“If it's going back to the environment, that's one thing,” he said. “If it's going back to the government, that's another.”
Best Buy Market is just one of many grocery stores that are joining the trend of selling its own reusable bags in-store, with its own logo, while offering money back on purchases. Nugent's store offers a green tote bag for 99 cents but gives back five cents to every customer who uses the Best Buy Market reusable bag.
“We want to give customers another option to benefit them,” he said.
The plastic bags are going to be a big impact on everybody's business, Nugent added.
As people raise concerns about the cost of the consumer's grocery bill going up, customer Bernadette Branco of Visalia said that because of the possible per-bag-charge, she has already started using the reusable bags for her grocery shopping. Whether the bill passes she plans on using reusable bags for future shopping trips, even outside of grocery retailers.
“I'm glad they are getting rid of the plastic bags,” she said.
Branco bought five reusable bags, and said that it's plenty for her family of three. She is not worried about the per-bag-charge, therefore leaving the transition from plastic to reusable easy for her.
Chris Solis, an employee of nine years at Best Buy, said that so far she only sees around two to three people a day utilizing reusable bags and that although there is a lot more attempting to use them, more often than not the customers simply forget them.
Solis said that despite possible job losses in the production of plastic bags, she would still like to see it pass in order to help preserve the environment.
Brownley reported that it costs the state of California $25 million a year to collect and bury single use plastic shopping bags in landfills, a figure disputed by opponents of the bill. Of the 19 million single-use bags discarded annually in California, only 5 percent are recycled, another point of dispute. If passed, the bill would ban all of the single-use bags that have been polluting oceans, waterways and threatening marine life, she reported.
By Miles Shuper
Visalia - Provident Mortgage, Tulare County's first and oldest mortgage banking firm, is not closing but is scaling back after more than 40 years in business.
The company, regarded as an icon in the Valley's independent mortgage industry, will continue to make construction and short-term loans, said Tony Salierno, who along with his wife Mary founded the company in 1971. It was incorporated in 1972.
The company is currently located at 1800 S. Central Ave. but is in the process of moving to a smaller location in the same business complex, Mary, president and chief operating officer of Provident Mortgage, said plans are for operating on an appointment only status.
Provident Mortgage is one of the few independent mortgage bankers in the area. Mortgage bankers fund their own loans and can sell those loans to banks and financial institutions.
The Saliernos and Provident Mortgage have gained a reputation for “giving back to the community” through charitable contributions and other donations. Salierno said “there is no way we are going to stop our contributions to the community we have been a part of for so many years.”
He said recent talk about Provident closing is completely without basis, adding that the company has decided it is time to slow the pace but continue to serve the financial needs of Valley residents. “There is a time to keep going. There is a time to slow down,” he said, adding that the time seems to have come to reduce speed.
For many years Provident was the only mortgage banker in Tulare County and also was one of the most active real estate firms. The office staff has been reduced to three or four from six to seven full-time positions, but there are people available to help out when needed, Salierno said.
Four of the Salierno's five children have or still work in the office. The other lives on the East Coast.
Salierno said the family takes great satisfaction in having been able to help so many Valley residents obtain loans to build or buy homes and properties especially during periods when financial times were difficult. He estimated Provident Mortgage has made thousands and thousands of loans worth at least $1 billion.
SECOND FRONT PAGE
What's New
As expected, Rabobank will open its new Visalia branch on South Mooney Blvd. in what was once a bank, but most recently a Blockbuster Video store in the Sequoia Mall parking lot. The company is also opening a new branch on Prosperity Avenue in Tulare.
Land O'Lakes, with a large creamery in Tulare, reported second quarter sales of $2.96 billion, up from $2.81 billion for the same period last year. Net sales for the first half were $6.02 billion, up from $5.76 billion for the first six months of 2009.
The Barn, a Chevron gasoline station and mini-market on Plaza Drive, has opened for business. The store includes a Quiznos and a Bobby Salazar restaurants.
Sequoia Self Storage, located at the former site of Bayle Manufacturing at 1120 N. Santa Fe Ave. in Visalia, has been sold to a Kings County based company which has several other storage sites in the Valley and manufactures StorMax storage containers. Brad Vlotho, who along with his father Emery Vlotho, own several companies, said there will be no name change at the Visalia site which covers nearly six acres, including the 100,000 square foot former clothing manufacturing building which has in-door storage for recreational vehicles, cars, trailers in addition to a number of small, medium and large storage units. Sequoia Self Storage also provides a large number of outside vehicle, boat and truck storage spots.
West Hills College in Lemoore will receive a grant of $600,000 through the National Science Foundation to provide eligible students with annual scholarships in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for the next five years as part of the Achieving Community College Excellence for Scholarship Success Program (ACCESS). In addition, West Hills Coalinga and Firebaugh North District Center were awarded $279,629 to provide academic support services to 250 college students within the West Hills Coalinga and Firebaugh service areas.
The number of persons out of work locally continues to run higher than a year ago, the state Employment Development Department reported. For July, there were 35,300 people looking for work in Tulare County – 3,200 more than in July of 2009. The jobless rate in Tulare County was 16.9% in July – higher than in June. In Kings County, the state reported 9,900 looking for work – an increase of 1,000 over July of 2009. The jobless rate in that county was 15.6% in July – slightly lower than in June. Some city unemployment rates for July: Visalia, 10.6; Tulare, 14.5; Porterville, 15.5; Lindsay 20.4; Dinuba, 24.5; Exeter, 11.2; Hanford,13.7; Lemoore, 13.7 and Corcoran, 16.2.
California motorist consumed more gasoline in April over last year, but just barely. The state reported gasoline consumption increased 0.6 percent on a year over year basis; while diesel fuel consumption declined 7.1 percent in April 2010. The decline in diesel consumption was the largest since October.
Target Corporation reported that its net retail sales for the four weeks ended July 31 were $4.585 million, an increase of 3.8 percent from $4.418 million for the four weeks ended August 1, 2009. On this same basis, July comparable-store sales increased 2.0 percent.
More news from Visalia Unified. Jana Carter has been named assistant principal for Curriculum and Instruction at , Green Acres Middle School. She currently serves as an Academic Dean for Bradley Middle School in San Antonio, Texas, a position she has held for the past year. Also, Andrew Montes has accepted the position of learning director at El Diamante High School. Montes teaches science at Live Oak Middle School in the Tulare City School District. And, Rhonda Crews has accepted the position of learning director for Charter Alternative Academy at Union. Crews currently teaches in a high school learning opportunities program for Kern High School District at Ridgeview High School in Bakersfield.
Radiant Church is eyeing an old carpet warehouse at Johnson and School for its new meeting place. Officials with the church appeared before the city's Site Plan Review committee recently to see what improvements will be needed to turn the old warehouse into a church.
The purchase of all the houses to the south of the College of the Sequioas campus — between Laurel and Tulare — is complete. The houses will be demolished beginning in November and the land will be turned into a parking lot to be completed by Fall Semster 2011.
By Marina Gaytan
San Joaquin Valley - Balancing the budget, flood zones, decisions made by the government and immigration were just some of the concerns people raised at the Visalia Country Club Friday where Congressman Devin Nunes spoke on many local and state issues, including issues that relate directly to people who live in the San Joaquin Valley.
“We have a hostile state government to this region,” Nunes said, “and it has been magnified over time by a hostile federal government.”
Nunes (R-Tulare) spoke very highly of the San Joaquin Valley, giving credit to farmers who have cultivated this land to what it is today, the most productive farmland in the world.
“You all live in a congressional district that is the number one congressional district in the country, in the nation, in terms of ag production,” he said.
Making it clear that he is not a “fan” of Nancy Pelosi – speaker of the House from California - Nunes said that since they live in two separate regions, they see the world differently than people in the Valley. Especially being that this is a rural California area, facing a tough set of circumstances, he added.
Moving swiftly through topics and onto the next subject leaving enough time for public discussion he began talking about budget issues. Nunes said that although people think it would be easy to solve the budget problems in Washington, he believes, even if the government were to get rid of earmarks, freeze spending, pull troops out of Iraq or get rid of the department of agriculture, the government would still go broke.
Nunes also noted that he believes the government is one of the reasons for the unemployment rate being so high in the Valley. For example, he said if you look at the other agriculture rich states in the country, their unemployment rates are much lower.
Gene Yunt of Visalia, a financial advisor for Wells Fargo Advisors, had the opportunity to ask Nunes the first question. Yunt raised concern about how fewer congressional districts in the state would affect California. In response to Yunt, Nunes said that one of the propositions that they voted on and passed was the creation of a commission to draw districts, something he said, Nancy Pelosi opposed.
A later decision to pull the congressional district out was made by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In 2012 the congressional, state senate and state assembly districts will be drawn using a commission - a commission that Nunes said he does not advocate, but believes it's a step in the right direction.
Questioned about immigration, Nunes said the issue really comes down to national security. Although President Calderon of Mexico is trying to defeat the gangs, the drug and gang problem that is going on in Mexico is still serious, he said.
He also added that taking care of the problem should include getting our military involved securing the borders, helping the Mexican government and go after the drug gangs.
Issues regarding the flood plain were also discussed.
Encouraging people to call his office for information regarding the issue, Nunes talked about alternative options as to how people could get their homes out of the flood plain.
“The bottom line is that we are in a flood plain,” he said. “Unless you can prove otherwise, that we're not in a flood plain, then we have a problem.”
Options he mentioned included either certifying levees or the building of dams. He also said that the city should figure out a way to validate the levees or come up with another system where residents can prove that a home is not in the flood plain.
Despite the efforts to remove Visalia from the flood maps, Nunes said the city made an honest mistake in having the maps redrawn by FEMA.
Overall, Nunes said that he wants the people of California to be prosperous and for anyone who may have growing concerns regarding immigration, social security, Medicare or any other issues, to call his office at 739-8903.
By Miles Shuper
Pixley - Restoration Nutrition, which makes a liquid feed for calf food and other neo-natal animals from dairy products and byproducts, has established a processing facility in Pixley.
Company President Dan Gallagher said the operation in Tulare County is located at a Pixley area calf raising operation but declined to name the site until a later date. He said, “We are nearing completion of phase one of our program and are very pleased that average daily gain targets have been achieved.”
Restoration Nutrition reprocesses dairy products arriving in either packaged or bulk forms which are out-of date or out-of-specifications. The reprocessed product, RenuMilk, is a standardized liquid product with excellent nutritional properties which are microbiological sound, Gallagher said.
The reprocessing not only provides a nutritional calf feed but also a more standardized avenue for dairies and milk-product producers to dispose of non-marketable materials.
The company can reprocess a variety of dairy based products and by-products including yogurt, cottage cheese and others which can be turned into the liquid animal feed, Gallagher said. RenuMilk is fed to young animals through nipples.
Russell Day, the company's vice president of finance, said “byproduct treatment options can be costly for processors and are likely to escalate. This innovative treatment of by-product streams creates the opportunity for a sustainable solution and change from the current methods which are many times less efficient.”
Gallagher said Restoration Nutrition has a variety of arrangements for receiving materials depending on each unique circumstance. “Most of this byproduct is presently viewed as waste by processors and they have to have it hauled away,” he said.
Gallagher said thousands of calves have been fed RenuMilk to validate performance, including cost-effective outcomes and “results have been excellent.”
Currently, the company has less than a dozen employees but Gallagher expects several additional workers to be added with expanding operations.
He said, “We look forward to introducing ourselves to members of the local and state dairy processing industry and in evaluating win-win opportunities.”
Restoration Nutrition is headquartered in Wilsonville, Ore.
Gallagher said Tulare County's status as a major dairy and milk-product producing area was the prime factor setting up operations here. Tulare County is the leading dairy producing county in the nation and also has processing facilities.
Another advantage of being located in the heart of the diary industry, he said, is the reduced transportation which producers face in handling their non-marketable production and the quickness of getting it to a reprocessing facility.
That also will reduce the amount of dairy products taken to landfills or other disposal sites.
Gallagher said normally materials brought in for reprocessing can be turned around within one day, depending on the materials and volume.
Some Special Programs May be Cut
By Marina Gaytan
Visalia - Parents, teachers and community members last week expressed concern before the Visalia Unified School District's board about a proposal to possibly eliminate some special programs as its cuts more than $11 million from its budget.
The district is looking to cut $2.2 million for the 2011-12 school year by reducing or eliminating 21 special programs. A decision is expected to be made November 9.
“The last two years have been very difficult budget years. Our current adopted budget is actually $20 million less than it was this time two years ago,” VUSD Superintendent Craig Wheaton wrote in an email to staff.
“We have continued to keep the impact of budget reductions away from the classroom, services, and programs to students. We are able to do this because of the modest reserve, continued cautious spending practices, and on-going spending reductions. I am very proud of the work that we have accomplished, but we are currently in deficit spending,” he added.
The state has given school districts an option to cut some “special programs” by transferring categorical funds into the general fund. Categorical funding has traditionally been untouchable.
“When 80 percent or more of our budget is all about people, it gets more and more difficult - as you shrink - not to affect people,” said Wheaton.
An estimated $8.4 million was cut in 2009-10 and the district is now implementing $5.5 million in reductions for the current 2010-11 school year.
“We want to provide the highest possible
quality education for all of our children. That's our first
priority,” he added.
With an unknown budget amount from the state, the “special
programs” that school officials are looking at cutting
or reducing include Extended Day Instruction, Adult School
and Summer School.
Alternatives to cutting all of the money for the Extended Day Instruction and Summer School include reducing the program, or seek funds from the Economic Impact Aid which comes from the state.
“In two years, if nothing changes, we could end up without summer school,” Wheaton warned.
The District may get some money from the Federal Jobs Bill, otherwise known as the “teacher's bill,” said Christine Statton, the district's chief financial officer.
The $1 billion that California education would receive is a “one time” distribution that could be used to pay for existing employees, rehires, reducing furloughs or could potentially help avoid lay-offs. The district is still waiting to find out the exact distribution method and date they will receive the funds. Although the estimated $4 million the district could receive won't change its deficit, it could possibly postpone the reductions for a year, officials said.
“That certainly gives a little glimmer of hope,” Statton added.
The current numbers will be adjusted once the state budget is figured out, school officials said.
The next Budget Public Study Session will be at 6 p.m. on September 21 at the Visalia Unified School District's boardroom.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
August 26, 2010
