Volume XXXV No. 10 • 21 May, 2015
www.ourvalleyvoice.com
Mooney Grove Continues to Receive Complaints Catherine Doe After the April 2 and May 7 Valley Voice articles concerning Mooney Grove, complaints about the park have continued. Pam Mayo decided to take her foster child to Mooney Grove and ended up regretting her decision. “I am a CASA, a Court Appointed Special Advocate for foster children,” she said. “The judge orders a CASA for foster children who have had an extremely hard time. Her safety and happiness is with animals, who never let her down. Can you imagine taking an already broken child to THAT pond? “Water covered in algae and several large dead fish floating with the ducks. The banks of the pond were littered with dead animals...including big black rats. My child came from a violent background and I was trying to figure out what to say. She seemed frozen. While I was trying to talk to her, my little dog jumped into the pond but I pulled her out before her face hit the water. We stopped at the ticket taker’s place (on the
way out) and I asked him why the dead animals weren’t picked up and the diseases that had to be prevalent. “He said, ‘Oh, everything dies that comes here, the birds, ducklings and it’s because we have botulism.’ I wondered if my dogs would be OK. We came on a Saturday and on Sunday morning we discovered a very ill little dog. She was under the care of a vet from Companion Veterinary Clinic and with medication he prescribed, she appeared to begin the road to health one week later.” Mayo concluded, “There is nothing I can do about the child I stupidly brought with me. We will go for a picnic at another park next week.” On May 12, Mayo got a call from a man who identified himself as head of the parks, she said. “He said they would never let dead animals lie around and they pick them up when they die,” she said. “He said he was going to speak to the young man at the gate who gave me the wrong information. “So, he denied everything. He was quite arrogant but not convincing. I did
Picnic areas are diminishing at Mooney Grove park. Photo by Catherine Doe
tell him I have the vet bill and diagnosis about my dog, and I can get a list of dead animals from the girl who was with me. He asked me where I got my informa-
tion (regarding other complaints made against the park), I told him to look at
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Kaweah Delta Facing 2030 Deadline Expand and refit, or go out of business. That’s the choices faced by the Kaweah Delta Medical Center. In 1994, the magnitude-6.7 Northridge Earthquake shook Southern California, leaving devastation in its wake. Among the buildings damaged or destroyed were 11 of the area’s hospitals, rendering them unable to care for the wounded, as well as for patients already in their care, when disaster struck. In response, the State Legislature put new seismic regulations in place, giving all of California’s hospitals until 2005 to en-
Waters of Lake Kaweah Continue to Draw Recreation for Memorial Day Nancy Vigran The California drought has affected many things here in the South Valley. But it will not take away the traditional fun at the lake for Memorial Day! “Our lake is doing really well,” said Phil Deffenbaugh, park manager at Lake Kaweah. ”As of a week ago, we still had more water than a year ago.” Managed by the Army Corp of Engineers, Lake Kaweah was sitting at 65,000 acre-feet last week, which while not as high as it could be, leaves a lot of water for recreational use. The lake is indeed a cool spot for Memorial Day weekenders. For those look-
ing to stay at Horsecreek Campground, if all sites have not been reserved, they are on a first come, first serve basis. The same follows for picnic areas, which cannot be reserved in advance, and those wanting to rent house or motor boats from the marina. “A lot of people think we may not have much water,” said Jeanne Howard, who owns Kaweah Marina with her husband, Brad. “We have quite a bit of water in the lake.” Howard grew up on the lake as her parents owned and operated the marina for more than 40 years before retiring. Howard has more knowledge of the lake and area, and its history, than most.
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Dave Adalian sure their emergency rooms and acute care facilities would be earthquake proof. For Kaweah Delta, a relatively small institution in an area historically free from major quakes, the new regulations presented a challenge it simply could not meet. Extensions and exemptions were granted, giving the district until 2030 to comply, but now that deadline is looming on the distant horizon. Fortunately, the Kaweah Delta
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Visalia City Council Chooses Voting District Map After six months of workshops, hearings and debates, the Visalia City Council finally chose a voting district map during their May 18th meeting. Out of the four maps under consideration, the city council voted to approve NDC2, drawn by professional consultant Doug Johnson. The map sets the districts until the 2020 census when the boundaries may have to be adjusted. The final four maps that survived several rounds of cuts by the council were heavily debated. Those four maps can be split into two groups. NDC2 and NDC3 were drawn by the National Demographics Corporation of Southern California. Map E and Map F1 were drawn by Visalia residents. Map E was drawn by former Visalia Planning Commission member, Vincent Salinas. Map F1 was submitted by the GI Forum, a Hispanic Veterans group. Robert Quiroz, a member of the GI forum, came to many of the city council meet-
Catherine Doe ings and hearings to support their map. All four maps under consideration met the State and Federal Voting Rights Guidelines. But, there were two big differences; those drawn by the consulting group adjusted the district boundaries so that two council members would not be in one district. This is referred to as pairing. The community drawn maps focused on communities of interest, but both had one district shared by two incumbents. Because none of the council members felt passionate about NDC3, the choice ultimately came down to NDC2, Map E and Map F. Arguments in favor of maps drawn by consultant There were strong and weak arguments for not choosing Map E and Map F1. The arguments in favor of NDC2
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