By Miles
Shuper
Tulare County - The Tulare County Council of Cities has asked Tulare County to reopen discussion on the proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the 2030 Update Tulare County General Plan.
In a letter to the Board of Supervisors dated July 7, the Council of Cities, representing the county's eight incorporated cities, requests resumption of negotiations on the final MOU version last discussed by the two sides on Dec. 2, 2009.
The letter states the Dec. 15, 2009 MOU “was dramatically different than the Nov. 24, 2009 MOU discussed on Dec. 2.” The letter asks supervisors to consider the request within 45 days.
County officials indicate the request will be granted.
Although the 2030 General Plan Update has been completed and still faces adoption after completion of public comment, county and city officials are continuing to iron out lingering issues.
The Council of Cities proposed a “county negotiating team work with the Council of Cities team in resuming the process to develop a fair MOU be returned to the version discussed at the Dec. 2, 2019 negotiating session.”
The letter states, “The Council of Cities believes there is value in negotiating a fair agreement between the County and the Council of Cities. We also understand that there may be no 'one size fits all' MOU.”
Phil Vandergrift, Tulare vice mayor who co-chairs the cities group, said key issues between the county and the cities include impact fees in the expanded Urban Development Areas and the Urban Area Boundaries, revenue sharing in future annexed lands and development standards in the expanded boundaries.
Jean Rousseau, Tulare County's chief executive officer, said he is “very pleased” at the prospect of re-opening talks, adding there is much more agreement between the two sides than disagreement. He agreed with the letter's reference to the remote possibility of coming up with a “one size fits all” MOU.
Rousseau has been optimistic that an agreement could be reached despite repeated flare-ups during negotiations including accusations from city officials of “bullying” by the county.
Supervisor Phil Cox said the county has consistently been willing to negotiate with the cities, noting that it was the Council of Cities which called off talks in January of this year. Cox said finding common ground on the remaining issues is the best solution and an important step to avoiding potential legal action.
Any legal action cannot be taken until the 2030 General Plan Update is adopted by the county. The County Counsel's office has been discussing potential legal action with supervisors for several months, according to the board's closed session agendas. Currently, county planning staff members are reviewing public comments from individuals, groups and agencies who responded prior to the deadline in late May. About 40 responses were received, according to David Bryant of the county's Resource Management Agency.
Bryant, the project manager, said workshops with the Tulare County Planning Commission and supervisors will be held but no dates have been set.
Bryant expects it will be late summer or early fall before the 2030 General Plan Update will face adoption.
By Marina
Gaytan
Hanford - This
fall, people from the Hanford community and Kings County
will have access to all of Hanford's emergency and critical
care services at one location.
New Adventist Medical Center of Hanford will have expanded
capacity to service the 140,000 people in Kings County.
The emergency departments from both Central Valley General
Hospital (CVGH) and Hanford Community Medical Center (HCMC)
will move into the new hospital, creating one centralized
location for emergency care.
Work on the hospital that began two years ago is nearing completion.
“This medical center will be unlike any other in the region,” said Richard L. Rawson, president and CEO of Adventist Health-Central Valley Network. It will also provide advanced technology and equipment and a friendly, knowledgeable staff he said.
The $114 million dollar project that encompasses about 202,000 square feet will have many departments from both hospitals including, Medical, Surgical, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Emergency. Administration and the Medical Staff Offices will also follow.
Since the new hospital will not have women's health and maternity, it will stay at CVGH, which will also service the community as a general care clinic.
HCMC is still exploring the use of the medical center, said Christine Pickering, director of marketing and communications for Adventist Health-Central Valley Network.
“It's such an important community resource, we want to use it to the best of the community needs,” Pickering said about the building that will not be providing medical services when Adventist Health opens. The hospitals lie within 2 miles of each other. CVGH is the farthest northeast, followed by HCMC and then Adventist Medical Center, which is the farthest southwest, Pickering added.
To help alleviate the hospital's outpatient traffic, a three story, 63,000 square-foot Medical Pavilion will conveniently be located adjacent to the hospital by a 40-foot walkway. The pavilion will house many of the outpatient services.
Currently, patients waiting to be admitted at Hanford's two hospitals; CVGH and HCMC, must wait as the admitting staff also admits patients coming to the hospital for outpatient work such as X-rays or lab draws.
“The new hospital
provides a more inpatient focused environment,” Pickering
said.
The new hospital is designed so that all patients, unless
they are direct admits by doctors, will be pre-admitted.
The hospital has also been designed to provide easier access for family members to get to patient's rooms. A decrease in traffic near patient care areas is expected since the room design is offset approximately 8-feet from the hallway which will further reduce sound in the rooms.
Adventist Health in the Central Valley Network is a not-for-profit, faith-based health care system that operates in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington.
“Health care at its core is a doctor caring for a patient. Our main goal for Adventist Medical Center to provide the kind of place that a doctor and a family trust to provide the best care. Adventist Medical Center will further our mission of sharing God's love and our vision to be the best place to receive care, practice medicine and work,” Rawson said.
Extra Care
Many features have been added to the new hospital for extra care. All of the rooms will be private, which will allow a more secure atmosphere for the exchange of information and a more restful setting for patients. Each floor will have a quiet room for family consultation. This should also improve infection control and prevention, said officials.
Each room will have bedside computer workstations available to nursing staff and physicians. In addition, four more workstations are available in alcoves on each unit. Each unit's nursing station will have computers as well.
Electronic medical records will be used instead of the normal paper charts. All of the patients' information including readings from the suction, oxygen and infusion pumps will be recorded electronically. All rooms will also have wireless Internet access and flat-screen televisions.
All of the Nursing units will be separated by service. Instead of a medical and surgical unit in one, the hospital will house medical patients on one floor and surgical patients on another. Each floor will have two 30-bed units and its own 11-bed ICU for a total of 142 beds. Currently, HCMC has the only ICU, which has 10 beds.
The hospital will also have space for 60 additional medical-surgical beds as the needs expand within the community.
The new Emergency Department (ED) has 26 treatment stations - two more than what the two Hanford hospitals have now. Along with decontamination and isolation rooms, it will have four beds for trauma care.
The flow of patients through the ED should improve due to the increase in ICU beds, which will cut down on patients being held in the ED while they wait for ICU or other hospital beds to become available. Each ED room will be private with walls and doors instead of curtains.
The hospital will have six operating rooms, one more than the five at the current Hanford hospitals, with each room being nearly 600 square feet. Two operating rooms will be equipped with monitors so that surgeons can view radiology images while they perform surgery.
Equipment in the hospital's radiology department will include digital X-rays, a CT scanner and an ultrasound room. Fluoroscopy services will also be available.
A viewing and consultation room for doctors will have digital imaging systems.
Doctors and other health care professionals will be able to view images throughout the hospital on designated computers and view them remotely through a secure Internet connection.
New LED surgical lights will be used instead of halogen light bulbs. These generate less heat and the LED's will adjust to provide uniform lighting. Special green lights will also assist with infection control.
Accessible from Mall Drive, parking for patients and families will be in front of the hospital. Employees and physicians will park and enter from the back, where they have access to dedicated elevators. A helipad is also available for long distance care.
Elevators will deliver
patients, family members, physicians and other visitors
directly to the center of nursing units. A set of two elevators
will be dedicated for patient moves between floors, with
a third set for doctor access and other hospital business.
A new cafeteria, with seating for 140, features a grill
area for cooked-to-order meals and a large salad bar. There
will also be a patio for outside dining.
Located right of Highway 198, on Mall Drive and 7th Street, New Adventist Health Medical Center-Hanford provides easy access from eastern or western Kings County. Ambulance crews have already established routes to bypass the train tracks when necessary after its opening.
Visalia - Rules were relaxed a bit for non-profits eyeing a portion of the $160,000 the city of Visalia has budgeted to dole out later this year.
During budget discussions a few weeks ago the council held funding for non-profits at the $160,000 mark, deciding not to cut it by $60,000 as recommended by staff.
Monday night, the council tweaked the non-profit grant funding application process to both guarantee more money goes to youth programs and to open the door to more non-profits to apply.
Chris Gomez, a member of the Council Advisory Committee (CAC) and chair of the non-profit committee that reviews each application and eventually makes recommendations to the council, proposed several changes to the application process.
“It is our intention to mail applications out in a week,” he said of the process that will end with the awarding of money in late September or early October.
Last year there was some confusion and the council did not follow all the recommendations by the committee and Gomez wanted clarification before beginning the process this year.
Changes approved by the council were:
• Remove the three-year limitation on funding for any single program
• That 50 percent of the funding go to youth programs, especially at-risk youth programs
• Allow funding for new programs to encourage more groups to apply
The council left intact the requirement that groups seeking money attend a CAC grant-writing workshop. Last year the Northside Boxing club was denied its request because no one from that group attended the workshop.
Raymond Macareno, saying he was speaking for several organizations, asked that requirement be waived because some small groups that do good work are entirely volunteer and can't make the workshops.
However, Mayor Bob Link said those workshops help the organizations to fill out a strong application and the workshops let them to know if there are new requirements in the application process.
Link also supported the idea to open up the applications to new organizations. Last year's criteria limited grants to only those that had received money in the past.
“There are a lot of non-profits hurting,” he said, adding that even a small grant can go a long ways for a small organization.
Councilmember Steve Nelsen got assurances that the groups are held accountable for how they spend the money. “I want safeguards that it (funding) just doesn't become automatic,” he said.
It was Councilmember Amy Shuklian's suggestion that the minimum amount of money that goes to at-risk youth be increased from 25 to 50 percent, saying she would like to see as much help as possible for groups that help youth.
“The main focus of what we do, what you do, is we want to know what our money is doing in Visalia,” said Gomez, stressing those groups that receive money need to spend that in Visalia and there is a review process to ensure the money is spent properly.
Visalia - It's not a family business, but Visalia Community Bank has been a part of the Elliott family since it was founded by F.T. (Tommy Elliott) and a group of friends in 1977.
Now, with F.T. (Tokkie) Elliott retiring as chairman of the bank's board of directors, his son, Tommy, has assumed the reins of the oldest locally owned financial institution.
The elder Elliott, who served as chairman of the board for 15 years, is remaining on the board. Tommy Elliott has been on the board for eight years.
“The family has a fairly large position in the bank,” said Tommy Elliott, who has been involved in the bank in one form or another for more than 16 years. “It's comfortable for me,” he said.
In fact, Tommy at one time aspired to become a banker, but has instead became chairman of the board of the Elliott Group and chief executive officer for California Citrus Producers, Inc., a juice processing business in Lindsay, the third large such plant in the state. He is also actively involved in other family-owned businesses, all of which are involved in the growing, packing, processing and worldwide distribution of citrus, citrus products and other crops.
But, he grew up with the bank, working there as a teller while a student at Golden West High School and then as an assistant bookkeeper while attending College of the Sequoias. After graduating with a bachelor's of science degree in finance and accounting from Dominican College, he joined the board of directors in 2002.
“Eventually you get sucked into the family business,” joked Tookie Elliott, who says he stays in daily contact with all of his children. He said the family business goes back more than 100 years and is diversified in farming. Tommy is part of the sixth generation of the family and said his great, great grandfather at one time served as mayor of Visalia.
Both Tommy and Tokkie said the bank is doing well in spite of the down economy. “The bank prospers when the community prospers and it's been slow,” said Tookie.
Elliott's vision is
to maintain Visalia Community Bank's position as a leader
in local banking, continuing to provide stability and support
of the local business community.
“We want to help people grow their businesses,”
he said.
He also plans to continue to have the bank play a role in the betterment of the community, pointing to the annual golf tournament the bank sponsors for the Kaweah Delta Hospital Foundation.
“We do stay active in the community. It is important to us being a sixth generation family,” he said.
In addition to the father-and-son Elliotts, the board of directors includes Jonathan Graves, vice-chairman; Dena Cochran; Margaret K. Elliott; Jonathan Hornburg; Brian M. Johnson; and Gordon L. Pendegraft.
Visalia Community Bank, member FDIC, has four branches in Visalia; a branch in Exeter; and a drive-up ATM in Visalia. For information, call 625-8733 or visit www.vcb.com.
SECOND FRONT PAGE
What's New
Keller Williams Real Estate has leased the entire third floor of the first phase of the downtown Promenade, the Mangano development on East Main Street. The large real estate firm will take up all 11,000 square feet and bring about 100 employees to the downtown site, said Steve Peck, vice president with Mangano. Peak also said Mangano has signed a long-term lease on the vacant lot to the east of the block-long project to add more parking. He said the lot, which was at one time a used car lot, should provide about 34 parking spaces. Construction on the first phase of the project is expected to be late this year or early 2011.
Visalia's Ashley Galvan survived another week on the So You think You Can Dance competition on Fox TV. She was in the bottom three in votes last week, but the show dismissed a dancer who had injured themselves and could not go on in the competition. A rally for her was held Tuesday at the Rawhide Stadium. The was down to seven contestants going into tonight's elimination.
The medium price of homes sold in Visalia during May was up 17% over May of 2009, DataQuick reported. The median price of the 201 homes sold in Visalia during May was listed at $168,000, an increase of $24,000 over a year ago. Median home prices were up 25% in Tulare and 6% in Dinuba.
COS board of trustees approved a new policy that prohibits the sale and advertising of cigarettes and tobacco products anywhere on district property. COS had in the past had designated smoking areas, but the new policy is to limit smoking only to parking lots.
COS is acquiring two pieces of property on Tulare Avenue for future expansion of the campus and for future parking facilities. Total cost of the two properties was listed at $445,000.
Support for Prop. 19, the initiative to legalize marijuana, is weakest in the Central Valley where only 36 percent of those questioned in a Field Poll said they would vote in favor of legalizing pot. Not surprising, the greatest support – 53 percent – comes from the Bay Area. Overall, voters oppose the measure by a 48-44 percent.
Visalia - Dr. Jonathan Liu has more than just healing on his mind. He brings to Visalia a strong commitment to the community and a love of helping others.
Dr. Liu showed off his new office at 518
North Court Street, an office that drew praise from many
city leaders.
Mayor Bob Link noted that for a longtime Downtown Visalia
has wanted to extend the downtown north to include the
Lincoln Oval and he praised Liu for doing just that.
“What he did is exactly what we hoped would happen. I think it's great what he's done,” said Link, noting that the new doctor displays a great love for Visalia.
“I enjoy it here. That's why I accepted the position,” Dr. Liu said among well-wishers last week.
Dr. Liu brings impressive credentials to his practice. He is the only board certified hand specialists in the county and has gotten surgery privileges at not only Kaweah Delta Regional Medical Center, but at Tulare Regional Medical Center, Sierra View Hospital in Porterville and Adventist Health in Hanford.
He has gone out on his own after working at Visalia Medical Clinic where still has an affiliation.
He is board certified in general surgery and has a fellowship in trained hand and microsurgery. He trained at Christine M, Kleinert Institute for Hand and Microsurgery, the University of Louisville Trauma Center, Kleinert Jewish Hospital Hand Center and the VA Hospital of Louisville.
Karen Sorensen, an occupational therapist with the Kaweah Delta Hand Center, stressed that not just anyone gets into Kleinert, considered one of the premiere hand surgery centers in the United States.
“His training at Kleinert is top notch,” she said, adding that Louisville was the first hospital to do hand transplants. “I replant the hand,” added Dr. Liu, saying he has done surgery where a hand from a cadaver was used to replace a hand lost in an accident.
“You don't get into that type of training program unless you're a top-notch medical student,” said Sorensen.
Dr. Liu, who grew up in Arcadia, said it is important for the area to have a highly qualified hand specialist.
“Hand orthopedics is very important to the community,” he said, adding he is the only board certified hand specialist within a 100-mile radius. He is the only doctor doing micro vascular surgery on the hands. He said he always wanted to be a doctor specializing in the hand.
“I always thought the hand was a special part of the body,” he said.
He has no qualms about locating his office just a block from the Oval, saying that he often sees patients from that area of town.
“I think a lot of people are afraid of the Oval area. It's not a fear factor for me. It's the same community I treat.”
Dr. Liu served as an on-call general surgeon at Kaweah Delta, doing many trauma surgeries. He first came to Visalia in 2007, joined the Visalia Medical Clinic and now has expanded to open his own office.
His wife, who is doing her pediatric neurology internship at U.C. Irvine, will eventually join him with her practice in the same office. He is a graduate of UC Riverside. His brother, also finishing his medical education, will also join him.
He said he plans on making Visalia his longtime home and hopes to soon begin raising a family here.
For one, Mayor Link is glad to welcome the new doctor to town. “He'll be a real positive person in terms of getting things done in the oval area,” he said.
Tulare County - In these tough financial times, it is not just the larger cities that are facing budget challenges.
The cities of Visalia and Tulare are both dipping into reserves again to balance their budgets next year as revenues have fallen off.
However, in a survey of a few of the smaller cities in Tulare County, most are holding up well.
The city of Porterville has not adopted its 2010-11 budget. That city council will hold a series of study sessions and hopes to pass a budget in October.
A look at a few of the other cities in the county:
Woodlake
The City of Woodlake's adopted budget for 2010-11 is $21.7 million, about $2.8 million less than the fiscal 2009-10 spending plan.
Those numbers, however, are well above the average Woodlake budget of $5 million, said City Manager Bill Lewis.
“Those numbers are big because we have $14 million for the sewer plant and another $1 million for water system improvements.” He said about $1 million was spent in the just finished budget on the sewer project and about $14 million was moved to the 2010-11 spending schedule.
The city received a $13.1 million loan for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a USDA grant of $4.18 million for the sewage plant and a $1.5 million grant from the State Water Board for the water system.
Woodlake's general fund budget, the money used for general city operations, is $2.71 million for 2010-11 down from $2.96 million in 2009-10, Lewis said.
Lewis said two police officer positions were eliminated in the new budget but due to staffing there may not be any layoffs. The city has no plans for furloughs.
“At this time we are not using reserves, however, the final answer will be determined when the State adopts its budget and we will see if and how much we get hit.”
The sewer and water projects and some street maintenance are the only capital projects in the new budget, Lewis said.
Dinuba
The City of Dinuba's adopted 2010-11 budget of $52.8 million is down by more than $4.2 million an 8 percent reduction from the previous fiscal year.
City officials say unprecedented drops in revenues, a decline of $700,000 in sales tax alone since 2007, are responsible for the budget decline. During that same period property tax revenues dropped by $100,000.Layoffs have been spread across the board in the 18-month period cited in the budget report. A number of the layoffs are the result of restructuring the city's workforce by combining six departments into four.
City Manager Ed Todd said the reorganization will allow “greater work flexibility and efficiencies.” The changes, he said, will combine similar work into a single department but also use supervisorial resources for overall city organization.
Todd said 32 full or part-time positions have been eliminated over the past 18 months. More layoffs are possible and a wage freeze will continue, he said.
Among the positions eliminated are deputy city manager, assistant police chief, a lieutenant, records-communications supervisor, community relations specialists and community services officer in the police department, an assistant fire chief, fire fighter/EMT and fire prevention inspector in the fire department, four positions in public works, seven positions in development and engineering services, among others.
Todd said even more layoffs or furloughs could come. In citing the wage freeze and cuts Todd said, “Even with all these sacrifices made by our employees for the fiscal health of the city during the current fiscal year, more sacrifices may be needed in the upcoming years. The local economy is still struggling and revenues have not rebounded.”
Dinuba's general fund budget for 2010-11 is $8.79 million, down 17 percent from the $10.54 million in fiscal 22009-10.
Exeter
The City of Exeter's 2010-11 budget is $8.2 million.
The City Council adopted the budget on June 28. The general fund totals $3,782,000. Compared to last year, the general fund budget is expected to be 7 percent lower, said City Manager, Randy Groom.
“It's down. Just as everybody's is,” said Groom. The City does not have any capital projects like it did last year.
The City has made some reductions across the board to reduce expenses but hasn't eliminated positions at this time, he said. They are using a small portion of reserves to balance the budget, Groom added.
Currently, no layoffs or furloughs have occurred. However, last fiscal year they did reduce a position from full-time to part-time. Even though a hiring freeze hasn't taken affect, there are no new positions available he said.
Budget information on the cities of Lindsay and Farmersville was not available.
Marina Gaytan and Miles Shuper contributed to this story.
Visalia - Marina Gaytan, a native of Visalia and 2009 graduate of Fresno State University, has joined the Valley Voice as a staff writer.
“It is exciting that we were able to find someone who not only grew up in Visalia, but someone who loves her hometown as well,” said Publisher Rick Elkins. “Marina is capable, energetic and willing to learn. She will be a great asset to the Valley Voice.”
Gaytan was born and raised in Visalia. She attended three local schools growing up and in 2006 she graduated from College of the Sequoias with an associate's degree in Liberal Arts.
With the encouragement from her family, she furthered her education at Fresno State University. Being the first in her family to graduate from college she obtained a bachelor's degree in Mass Communication and Journalism with an emphasis in Digital Media. She was also a writer and photojournalist for Fresno State's award-winning newspaper, The Collegian.
Marina has twice placed in the Tulare County Fair's Amateur Black and White Photography Art Show. Her most recent position as a Public Relations Intern for Creative Cube Marketing Concepts in Fresno has given her even more experience in writing newsletters, press releases and articles for various clients. Gaytan's ultimate career goal is to write stories that matter to the community where she was raised.
“My experience at the Valley Voice has been very positive. Everyone has been so welcoming and helpful. I feel privileged to be able to work in a field that I studied for, but most importantly for a paper that is reputable in my community,” she said.
The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.
July 15, 2010
