Valley Voice Issue 89 (16 March, 2017)

In Memory of Alexander Oldenbourg: 1988-2017

Volume XXXVII No. 6 • 16 March, 2017

www.ourvalleyvoice.com

Council Grants North Visalia

No Major Changes in the Local Illegal Immigrant Situation

Advisory Committee

a Reprieve

Nancy Vigran One of the mantras of the new president during his campaign was of the mass deportation of illegal immigrants.

“There will be no amnesty,” he said in a campaign speech last September.

“Anyone who is in the United States illegally is subject to deportation,” he said.

Well, that was nothing new. Of course, anyone in the US illegally is always subject to deportation. But his hype has scared a lot of people – even more so, since his election.

Catherine Doe

Hanford’s old firehouse is a classic example of 1930’s art deco architecture. The building is being considered for demolition. Catherine Doe/Valley Voice

Hanford City Council Debates Selling Historic Buildings

Purple Heart,a medical marijuana company,pulls out of Hanford’s Local lawmakers and law enforce- Industrial Park limiting the city’s options to maintain downtown.

Criminals Beware

ment personnel say that, unless one is a violent criminal, things remain status quo.

“ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] has always been active in our communities, but I haven’t seen any increase in that,” said Congressman David Valadao (CA-21), whose district includes much of Kings County.

“Any direction of ICE is on the criminal side of it. I think the majority of our constituents would agree with that.

There have been no raids, no roundups,” he added, having been in touch with

IMMIGRANTS continued on 5 »

Catherine Doe Hanford’s historical buildings bring in needed tourists’ dollars, and are cherished by the residents, but the question faced by the city council is how to pay for their maintenance.

At the March 7 Hanford City Council meeting the debate raged over the Bastille, Old Courthouse, Rabobank and the Old Fire House. While the council members leaned towards restoring the Bastille and Court House, Councilmembers Sue Sorenson, Justine Mendes and Francisco Ramirez were in

favor of selling the Rabobank Building.

The Old Fire House on the corner of Lacy Boulevard and Kaweah Avenue was deemed too expensive to restore and all council members agreed to have it demolished. Many Hanford residents would like to see the Art Deco building saved, but city staff said that it would cost $2 million dollars to renovate.

Public Works Director, Lou Camera, said that the Bastille would require $900,000 in renovations but that amount did not include the interior.

BUILDINGS continued on 9 »

The North Visalia Advisory Committee (NVAC) will survive another year.

At the March 6 Visalia City Council meeting the council voted to temporarily keep the North Visalia Advisory Committee (NVAC) officially affiliated with the city. The city council will revisit the issue in November, 2018, after the last three district elections are completed.

The vote was 3-2, with Councilmembers Steve Nelsen and Bob Link voting to immediately discontinue the advisory committee.

The issue was an extension of the February 21 meeting, when Councilmember Greg Collins was absent. The vote was split 2-2.

The three choices presented to the city council were to discontinue the committee immediately, discuss the issue again November of 2018, or vote to keep the committee indefinitely.

Several members of North Visalia came to the meeting to encourage the city council to keep the official status of its advisory committee. Bill Huott, a member of the NVAC, said that the area has received much in the way of money and attention, but that the city is making up after 50 years of neglect. He said

NVAC continued on 9 »

Hanford City Council Agrees to List Parts of Park as Surplus

A bus turnabout is being formed next to Roy Park on South Farmersville Blvd., so a bus stop may be added to accommodate Farmersville residents who live in neighboring apartment complexes. Nancy Vigran/Valley Voice

Farmersville Roadways Continue to See Major Improvements Nancy Vigran

Generally, the City of Farmersville would not take on two large projects at the same time. But, with the funding in place, the city did not want to lose it for either one, said City Manager John Jansons.

Hence, motorists traveling either,

east and west on Visalia Road, or north and south on Farmersville Blvd. will see a lot of action taking place.

The Visalia Road project is part of a Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG) project for widening the road from Highway 99 in Visalia

FARMERSVILLE continued on 9 »

The Hanford City Council decided at its March 7 meeting to pursue listing the undeveloped portion of Hidden Valley Park as surplus. If the Planning Commission votes to put this parcel on the surplus list the city council will be able to sell the property.

The 18 acres will be zoned low-density residential if the Draft General Plan Update is approved. The plan will be in front of the Hanford Planning Commission on March 14, and, if approved, will go to the city council for a public hearing. The city council hearing on the General Plan Update will most likely happen sometime in April.

Although Hanford residents have strongly opposed the selling of Hidden Valley Park, their city councils have put the issue on its agenda approximately 10 times in the last 15 years. During public comment at the March 7 meeting, several residents once again voiced their opposition.

Mickey Stoddard, a member of the Hanford Parks and Recreation Commit-

Catherine Doe tee, complained that the citizens of Hanford are continually forced to show up and tell the council not to sell the park.

“The General Plan suggests a path to the future. The path to the future should have parks,” he said.

Nathan Odom, Hanford resident, said that there is obviously public consensus to keep the 18 acres as open space.

“There is nothing more precious to bring people together from diverse backgrounds than a park.” Odom suggested that if the city did not have the money to finish the park then it should turn the parcel into a community garden.

Mike Quinn, another Hanford resident, questioned if the city needs to sell this property to fund other projects, “then where is the money going to come from to replace this open land?”

Quinn is referring to a report that indicated Hanford has 155 acres of community parks. That would mean that

SURPLUS continued on 12 »

2 • Valley Voice

16 March, 2017

Our son, Alex.

From the Publisher’s desk

Death and Taxes

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Here’s a finger in the eye of the Universe: It’s possible to find humor anywhere--even in an ICU. Unless you’re the patient.

For those of us who are merely visitors, transported in a spoon to the bedside of our loved one, the experience remains harrowing.

When I was a kid we used to have a saying--”See ya in Vegas”--a phrase which simultaneously meant “see you later” and “all is cool.”

While deeply uncool--even if the best care is at hand there--being in an ICU, for the visitor, is like being inside a casino. There’s a pulse to the place, in terms of the whirring machines and their flashing lights. There’s no sense of time. And the outcome is mighty uncertain.

Then one emerges, after an extended visit, to find the world outside has, in moving indifferently on, totally changed. It will have become night, say, or have suddenly rained.

Mercifully, I’ve never experienced it as a patient.

I’d trade places with Alex, if I could, in a heartbeat.

He’s been in Vegas for over a week now.

I’d be much happier if he could sit in the purgatorial half-light visiting me while I, intubated and insensible, lay in a coma on the sickbed. I’d be in much better shape if he experienced all the unsettling lights and alarms. Even though I’ve 25 years on him, I think--systemically, at least, because I’m not so compromised as he is--I would have a better chance against the MRSA, sepsis and pneumonia he’s fighting.

It’s my understanding that 40% of otherwise healthy people in his condition do not make it.

I’m in my mid-fifties and we have five kids. Dying, to me, means not having to cook dinner anymore. But he’s only 28.

So I sit there, mostly with his girlfriend--I doing a crossword or reading while she’s on her smart phone--the pair of us jumping out of our skins every time an alarm goes off in the room.

I’m keeping the above paragraph in the present tense because our son was still alive when I wrote it.

We were not ready for his death yesterday.

I’m never doing another crossword puzzle for the remainder of my days.

We were so unready that I burst into startled laughter when, at Alex’s bedside, our oldest son became flustered with his smart phone.

“Damn it,” he cursed, “I’m trying to file my taxes here.”

In fact, we were trying to figure out some kind of joke to play on Alex when he woke up from sedation. I was thinking of telling him his girlfriend is pregnant, or of wearing a grey wig and telling him he’d been under for 10 years. But one of his nurses took the prize. “Congratulate him,” she said, “and tell him the sex change operation was a complete success.”

He would have loved that.

Joseph Oldenbourg

The Valley Voice is your newspaper Published by The Valley Voice, LLC.

Publisher/Editor: Joseph Oldenbourg (joseph@ourvalleyvoice.com) (559) 972-7778

Reporters:

Catherine Doe (catherine@ourvalleyvoice.com) Dave Adalian (dave@ourvalleyvoice.com) Stefan Barros — sports (stefan@ourvalleyvoice.com) Production/Website: Tony Maldonado (tony@ourvalleyvoice.com)

Sales & Special Sections Editor:

Nancy Vigran (nancy@ourvalleyvoice.com)

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Please contact the Voice for more information.

16 March, 2017

Valley Voice • 3

Political Fix When I first wrote about Alex in the January 19 Political Fix he was curled up in an ICU bed de-toxing with liver damage. Roo, the dog he always wanted, had just died at a very young age.

But I felt certain this was the end of a string of bad luck for Alex and that he was going to live. Roo, tail wagging furiously at heaven’s gate, was just going to have to wait.

Alex lived long enough to come home for about six weeks before landing back into the ICU. When he was home, I naively thought he was going to get better every day and had secured him a space in an alcohol rehabilitation center for when he was able to go.

Alex never got well enough to go to rehab. He fought for his life for nine days in the ICU and died Sunday March 12 of liver failure. By the time you read this column he will be buried.

I didn’t think it was fair he died so young, as most parents who lose a child are destined to believe. I didn’t think it was fair that my son never got a chance to live as an adult without the chains of alcohol. With counseling and rehab maybe he would have stopped drinking or maybe not, but at only 28, I thought the guy deserved a second chance.

He didn’t drink for fun and he didn’t start drinking every day until he was in his 20’s. He suffered from either bipolar or manic depression and drank to keep the demons at bay. Sometimes it worked and sometimes id didn’t When Alex’s liver stopped working and the doctor took him off the ventilator he lasted for about two and a half hours. Joseph, I, his siblings, his fiancé, and friends stood around his bed and held him. After he took his last breath Chuck, his older brother, gave him a kiss on the forehead and cried. At that moment I wasn’t sad for myself but for Chuck who lost his best friend in the world. I felt sad for Amanda, his fiancé who would never be his wife and bear his children. I was sad for Alex because he was never allowed to live to his potential, or just have a normal life, like you and me.

Alex and Roo.

Catherine Doe

But this is also a story about how he lived.

On a very hot morning in August back in 1988, without the luxury of air conditioning, I started feeling contractions. My labor progressed so quickly that my husband and I delivered Alex ourselves on the bathroom floor.

Joseph tied and cut the cord so he could hold the baby as I shuffled to bed. Alex had been delivered so fast that his little cheeks were pink and slightly bruised from his abrupt entry into the world.

“Chuck” was Alex’s first word.

They fed each other Me and Alex. their food, shared a bunk bed, played with each other’s toys and went to the same schools through junior high. I remember climbing up to the top bunk to make their bed and discovered a hole through the mattress. I asked Chuck why he dug a hole through the mattress and he said he wanted to watch Alex as he slept and pass him toys at night.

From the day of his birth Alex was a worry wart and cautious. But Chuck paid no heed, cajoling him into dangerous but typical boyhood adventures that I learned about many years later. Alex started talking before he could walk, and unlike his finicky brother, was an easy going eater. As he grew he was just as an easy going traveler and was my road trip buddy when we lived in Cabo San Lucas. We took weekend road trips, while listening to Shakira and Disney tunes, to La Paz, El Triunfo, Todos Santos and

isolated beaches.

During grade school, Alex was our best student. He was the only one of our kids who we didn’t get “the call” from the head mistress about while attending a strict private school in Cabo.

Even though they were so close in age, they had their own set of friends.

But it was a given that Chuck’s best friends would be Alex’s best friends and vice versa, which resulted in many a full dinner table on Friday and Saturday nights.

As an adult Alex was not just the life of the party but authentically quick-witted. For most of his friends Alex was the funniest person they knew. He always came in first for trivia night and did stand- up comedy at Barmaggedon in Tulare. He played the piano and guitar, playing cover songs and his own compositions.

Alex’s sense of humor, amazing hair and beautiful green eyes lead to the inevitable – he was a chick magnet. In his short life he had four serious girlfriends and trysts in between. Towards the end he was ready to settle down, buy a home, and marry Amanda, the woman who spent every day by his bed in the hospital. She slept in a metal chair in the ICU until the nurses threw her out.

You can separate people into two camps--takers and givers--and Alex was a giver. He didn’t have much but whatever he had he shared. He said he couldn’t even remember how many people he helped

move houses or apartments. It was just a given that when someone needed a favor they knew Alex would help.

When 2014 rolled around I felt like the Universe was trying to erase Alex’s existence. For reasons we still do not understand, his grandparents kicked us out of our Lemon Cove house. Alex talked about bringing his children, our grandchildren, to his childhood home to spend the summers and holidays. Instead he was packing up, or throwing away, his own childhood belongings and leaving.

About a year after we had moved to a house in Exeter, his little room that was separate from the main house burned to the ground. He lost everything except the shorts he was wearing.

He lost his childhood memorabilia, a cartoon strip he hoped to publish, and a huge portfolio of his artwork. He lost the engagement ring he hid from Amanda in the rafters.

A little after Christmas he turned yellow and unbeknownst to any of us his liver was failing. Then on December 31, the dog he loved, Roo, was run over and killed by a neighbor. By the time he went to the hospital he didn’t have much left in the way of material things.

It would be a stretch to say that the eviction from his home in Lemon Cove hastened his death, but it’s just as true to say that he should have spent the end of his life in his home instead of a rental with nothing.

The Universe was not kind but did not erase him. His father is wearing white to his funeral to symbolize that Alex was pure and good. Alex left an imprint on the hearts of his siblings, friends and dozens of strangers with whom he crossed paths on train trips, parties, concerts, or just out on walks.

And Roo didn’t have to wait after all.

I’ll always have five children even after March 12. The difference is that it’s going to take a long time to get over that nagging feeling that someone is missing when we sit down at the dinner table.

I love you Alex.

4 • Valley Voice

16 March, 2017

Shirk Road’s Aging Oak Trees Raise Safety Concerns

Visalia’s F-15 Fighter Jet On March 9, 2017, Visalia Mayor Warren Gubler, Vice-Mayor Bob Link, City Manager Mike Olmos, and other Visalians were honored to attend the dedication of a F-15 Eagle Fighter jet at the Air National Guard base in Fresno. At that time, Gubler and Colonel Reed Drake, Commander of the 144th Fighter Wing, unveiled the city’s crest/logo which will be on the jet flown by Lt. Colonel Chris Corliss. The city is currently working with the Air National Guard about possibly having this jet fly over Groppetti Stadium on the 4th of July as part of its fireworks display. Visalia’s delegation also met a number of members of the Fresno Air National Guard who live in Visalia and we appreciate their service to our community, state and country.

Breathe Easier

Emma is one of nearly 13,000 kids in Tulare County with asthma.

Tall, aging oak trees have some resNancy Vigran idents concerned about driving along Shirk Road between Walnut Ave. and has the right to, and does, maintain the trees with regard to the roadway, he said.

Highway 198.

Tony Esteves said he travels on Shirk It also has the right to properly trim or several times a week, and that his son remove any hazard beyond the 14-foot drives it daily and he has concerns about high trimming limit.

In order to roadway safety. more intensely Esteves reprune or even called when a remove any few years back trees, the county a friend was would have to driving near the work in coopercoast. Similarly, ation with the trees overhung property owner. the roadway, a The oak branch fell, and trees are dorhis friend’s vehimant right now, cle was struck.

Fultz said, which “The branch just fell and Oak trees along Shirk Road between Walnut Ave. could give an and Highway 198 are old and large, but have been impression that it killed him properly trimmed within safety parameters for right away,” Es- Tulare County roadways. Nancy Vigran/Valley Voice they are no longer viable. But, teves said.

The area Esteves refers to on Shirk they will come back with green growth, Road is technically Tulare County, be- as they do year to year.

The problem lies, he added, that you tween Visalia city limits. As such, the county has an agreement with the city never know when a branch, or entire that the city maintains that portion of tree, may fall.

“We’ve seen perfectly healthy trees the roadway, said Area 3 Supervisor Amy Shuklian. Shuklian stated that she had fall over the next day,” he said. “You talked with county staff, who in turn see trees [overhang roadways] all over would speak with Visalia’s public works the place, such as Old Creek Road staff regarding concerns expressed to the into Cayucos.”

Still, Esteves is concerned. Some of Valley Voice. the trees are along a ditch, he said, ex“Both sides of Shirk in that area are a county island, and not within the city,” pressing concerns about the root systems.

“I use Shirk a lot to go to 198 and said Jeff Fultz, Visalia Parks and Urban my son uses it every day,” he said. “That Forestry manager.

There is indeed an agreement for scares me so much – every time I go the city to “maintain the asphalt road- through there.”

Concerned citizens, who cite potenway from Walnut to 198,” he said. This includes tree maintenance over the road- tial problems on any roadway, should call the county or city public works deway, up to a height of 14 feet.

They are privately-owned trees, he partment and/or their supervisor, or a said, and actually belong to the prop- council member of the city where they erty owner, not the county. The city, see the problem. through its agreement with the county,

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16 March, 2017

Immigrants Continued from 1

Thomas Homan, acting director of ICE and John F. Kelly, director of Homeland Security.

Kings County Sheriff David Robinson concurs.

Sheriff department dealings with ICE are for those in the jail system.

“There’s a lot of confusion,” Robinson said. “We do not go out with ICE and do street level enforcement.”

And, for example, if someone is pulled over for a traffic violation, officers will not ask citizenship or immigration status, he said.

But, if someone is arrested for a crime, fingerprinted and jailed, ICE will receive notification.

“It’s a public safety issue,” Robinson said. “We don’t want them back out on the streets. That’s been our practice since I started my career, 22 years ago.”

That being said, the Kings County jail will not hold an individual for ICE beyond the length deemed by the county. It is up to ICE to have officers present upon release of any individual in which it has an interest.

A February 1 ICE report revealed 19 individuals in Kings County custody who ICE wants to pick up, Robinson said.

Three of those inmates are convicted murderers, one is held on vehicular manslaughter, two are held on child molesta-

Valley Voice • 5 tion, and two on sexual assault charges.

Other inmates on the ICE list included one with domestic violence with assault with a deadly weapon charges, five for methamphetamine possession, one with marijuana for sale, one for repeated vehicle theft and lastly, one with 57 counts of animal cruelty.

Former Tulare County Supervisor Allen Ishida said, “They [ICE] have enough criminals to deal with.”

Ishida, who has filed paperwork to run for governor in 2018, said there are more than two million criminal felons in the country illegally.

“The federal government doesn’t have time to direct their resources to any others [illegal immigrants],” he said.

Just What are Sanctuaries?

With the objective of keeping California residents “safe” from deportation, there is currently a bill, SB-54, a “sanctuary state” proposal.

SB-54 would prohibit local police forces from helping federal authorities deport people who are in the US illegally.

Robinson said there is much to fear about the bill.

“SB-54 is very worrisome,” he said.

“I don’t even know if it’s legal – a sanctuary city or state. Is it even defined? What does that even mean?”

California received $57 million last year to cooperate with ICE on felons, he said. Kings County received $70,000 of that – those federal funds would go away.

So could other grant fund opportunities.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Robinson said.

“We don’t see ICE doing raids, but if the state won’t cooperate, the Feds could take those funds and infiltrate California, going door-to-door into the communities. The focus [of ICE] has been on criminals, I think that still needs to be the focus,” he said.

In recent news, Fresno Unified School District declared itself a Safe Place School District. According to the district’s website, “The resolution reiterates the district’s commitment to serving all students, regardless of their immigration status.

The resolution ‘declares that every Fresno Unified School District site is a safe place for its students and families to seek help, assistance and information if faced with fear and anxiety about any safety concern, including enforcement of immigration laws.’”

Valadao said there have long been sensitive, or safe, areas such as schools, churches and hospitals, protective of illegal immigrants.

But, he agrees with Robinson with regard to the title of “sanctuary” cities, counties or states. There is a risk of losing a lot of grant funds, he said, at a state, county and city level.

Ishida also concurred, stating that locals, and the state, should not want to protect the prison population anyway.

California Secession? Not Likely

ment within California to consider secession from the US. Signatures are being gathered to put a proposition on the ballot.

While considering it blarney, Ishida said that, in theory, California has already seceded.

“You can tell by the political bent being so blue,” he said.

California has more than 10% of the US population. But true secession would never succeed, Ishida said.

“It’s not going to pass the California voters,” he said. “We’d be nuts to do that.

“California has almost a trillion dollars in liabilities - California is in deep trouble [monetarily speaking]. And without the federal government, Medicaid would be out the door. That would hurt our population under the poverty line, and we have a substantial population under that line.”

Ishida said he appreciates California’s illegal immigrants.

“We’re darn lucky most of our illegal immigrants are from Mexico, because they make great citizens,” he said.

“I don’t see them disrupting our government at all. They assimilate into the population, they already have in Tulare County.”

Sheriff Robinson said obtaining citizenship should be easier.

“The state and federal governments need to come up with a better legal path for citizenship,” he said. “It shouldn’t take 7-10 years.”

Meanwhile, there has been a move-

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6 • Valley Voice

16 March, 2017

Black Tie by Alex Oldenbourg 18 December, 2014

19 September, 2013

Touchdown Ducks!

Not easy being green?! Try being a Republican.

6 June, 2013

6 February, 2014

Sock it to me.

And HERE they don’t even believe in evolution!

5 September, 2013

5 June, 2014 The pollsters can call me all they want — I’m talking to the hand.

Battle of the Sexes.

1 May, 2014

20 March, 2014 Dude, do you think Jesus would carry a gun?

Woodcut Coquette

I don’t know, man. I guess maybe a..... nail gun.

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The chlorinated hydrocarbons are very expensive and must be either recycled or disposed of as hazardous waste. Volatile

16 March, 2017

19 September, 2013

Black Tie

produced water sample.

The surfactant converts the dispersed Valley Voice oil in the sample into an optically clear microemulsion that is ideal for direct fluorescence measurements using TDHI’s 500D Oil-in-Water Analyzer.

1 August 2013

ALEX

Larry was asked his opinion of Congress.

Larry was asked his opinion of Congress.

17 April, 2014 There’s irony for you.

20 February, 2014

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4 February, 2015

Beth is amused by the existential implications of being a cartoon.

•7

The Republican Trump card.

8 • Valley Voice

16 March, 2017

Agriculture Jim Gorden Named Citrus Research Board Chairman Staff Reports Citrus veteran and pest management pioneer Jim Gorden was elected chairman of the Citrus Research Board (CRB) at a meeting of the Board on February 8, 2017.

He will complete the term of Richard Bennett, who stepped down from the helm on January 20. Gorden previously had served as CRB chairman in 2009-11.

“We are deeply appreciative of Jim Gorden’s leadership, his commitment to the California citrus industry and his dedication to citrus research,” said CRB President Gary Schulz. “Jim’s past experience as CRB chairman, his longtime service on the Board and his keen knowledge of the California citrus industry are all tremendous assets to our organization.”

Gorden will serve as chairman until the CRB’s annual meeting on September 26, 2017. Currently continuing their service on the Executive Board are ViceChair Dan Dreyer and Secretary-Treasurer John Konda.

“On behalf of the Board, I’d like to thank Richard Bennett for his energy, enthusiasm and passion for citrus research and the California citrus industry,” Gorden said. “I’d also like to express my appreciation to Dan Dreyer for filling in as interim chairman. I’m looking forward to guiding the CRB through this important period as we seek to find solutions to the critical threat of huanglongbing that’s looming over our industry.”

Gorden’s primary areas of professional involvement have been integrated pest management, horticulture and a broad range of citriculture, and he is a recognized international expert in those fields.

For more than 35 years, he was a partner in Pest Management Associates, which was the first independent citrus pest management consulting company pro-

viding service to the San Joaquin Valley.

“I’ve always been interested in science, research and horticulture,” Gorden said. “and I became more heavily involved in farming after I withdrew from consulting.” As a result, his farming business has grown over the last ten years.

The Lemon Cove, California, resident holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from California State University, Fresno.

He and his wife, Mary, have supported youth activities such as 4-H and the Boys and Girls Club in Exeter. Gorden also serves or has served with many civic and professional organizations. He has served on the California Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Committee since its inception and continues to remain heavily involved. Additional involvement includes eight years with the California Citrus Nursery Board, as well as working with the ACP/HLB Task Force, Southern Sierra Archeological Society, Central California Tristeza Eradication Board, Chair of the Tulare County Pest Control District, the Association of Applied Insect Ecologists and ten years on the local school district board.

Jim and Mary have been married for 53 years and have five grandchildren.

Their son, Milo, is married to Elia and is a partner in running the farms. Their daughter, Megan, and her husband, Sean, also are partners in the citrus farming operations.

The CRB administers the California Citrus Research Program, the grower-funded and grower-directed program established in 1968 under the California Marketing Act as the mechanism enabling the State’s citrus producers to sponsor and support needed research.

More information about the Citrus Research Board may be found at www.citrusresearch.org.

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Wet Winter Fails to Solve State’s Forest Problems Despite the wet winter and far-above-average Sierra Nevada snowpack, California forests remain at risk from tree mortality, bark beetle infestations and overgrown landscapes, according to presentations at the 2017 California Farm Bureau Federation Leaders Conference.

During the event, foresters and forest landowners discussed all those issues and communicated concerns directly to Randy Moore, U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest regional forester, who participated as a guest speaker.

Shaun Crook, a timber operator and president of the Tuolumne County Farm Bureau, emphasized to Moore the need for effective forest management and that it be included in the agency’s updated forest plans, to reverse the damage happening in the national forests. The Forest Service is currently working on forest plans to serve as the land management framework for the Inyo, Sequoia and Sierra national forests, which are expected to serve as blueprints for other forests in the Sierra and across the country.

“As we go forward with the forest plan revisions and the (tree) mortality, we need to be more proactive with the green and timber sale program to start getting the forest back into that state that it was 100 years ago, before we can just let fire do its thing, or we’re going to continue to have the catastrophic fires like the King Fire and the Rim Fire,” said Crook, a contract logger and grazing permittee in the Stanislaus National Forest. “We need a guaranteed harvest level coming off of the national forest because without that, we won’t get this private infrastructure back.”

Crook told Moore that people in the timber business cannot approach a bank for a loan relying on forest land, when the forest “only puts up 15 million feet and it is growing 400 million feet.”

“Without that, I don’t see where we’re going to be able to complete the circle and really manage California’s forests so we can continue to derive that benefit of the timber and the clean water and the clean air and those recreational opportunities,” Crook said. “That’s what we hope to get as the forest plan revision process goes forward.”

The Forest Service estimates more than 102 million trees in California have died due to drought and bark beetle since 2010, which puts the state’s forests at serious risk of large, high-severity wildfires that threaten lives, communities, water resources, wildlife habitat and recreation.

“We’re under a tremendous amount of pressure to treat those dead and dying SALES, SERVICE, RENTAL AG EQUIPMENT & TRUCK REPAIR

Christine Souza, CFBF

trees,” Moore said, “and you only have so much money, and there’s a health and safety factor of not treating the dead and dying trees. While I agree with you that we need larger green sales, we don’t have enough money to do all of it.”

Moore reported that the Forest Service has felled about 280,000 trees, cleared 90 campgrounds, provided fuel breaks for 46 communities and addressed 100 miles of utility power line clearings within the last two years.

The proportion of the overall Forest Service budget devoted to fighting wildfires has grown from 14 percent to 53 percent during the past 15 years, he said—and in California, it has increased from 20 percent to 64 percent.

“We are struggling with how the agency has to deal with wildfire suppression, because it is having an undue impact on other program areas,” Moore said. “We don’t have the ability to treat all of those acres, because it is scattered over about 7 million acres. Although we are moving out of the drought, we still expect trees to die for another two to three years.”

Moore said the Forest Service has “worked actively” with state and local governments to try to have power contracts renewed for biomass plants that convert wood waste into electricity. He noted that some policy specialists consider biomass to be old technology, and it is more costly than other renewable sources such as solar and wind. But he said biomass makes sense in reducing fuel load for fire suppression.

“We need people to really understand that it (biomass) should not be compared on a one-to-one ratio with natural gas or wind. When you look at the money it takes for fire suppression, it is cheaper to create biomass,” Moore said.

David Van Lennep, a forester from Santa Cruz County and past-president of the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau, asked Moore if the Forest Service has been able to show the connection between the benefits of harvesting timber in California and reducing emissions, producing power and ensuring water quality.

A challenge for the Forest Service, Moore said, is being given the “social license” to move forward, because “litigation seems to be the way to resolve issues.”

But Moore said a relatively new approach by the Forest Service is to be more collaborative with members of the

WINTER continued on 12 »

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16 March, 2017

NVAC

Continued from 1 nothing is stopping other disadvantaged communities from forming their own official advisory committee.

Vincent Salinas, another NVAC

Farmersville Continued from 1

through to Highway 65 in Exeter. Funding comes through Measure R funds, a 2006 county-wide, half-cent sales tax initiative approved by voters, with the expense for the Farmersville portion of $5,617,790. This will widen Visalia Road to four lanes through Farmersville, provide some center medians with landscaping, and add 46 street light fixtures, on the road through town, Jansons said.

While the project actually started in December, work has been slow due to the abundance of rain. However, the

Buildings Continued from 1

The Old Courthouse needs an $80,000 elevator and $550,000 for its air condition and heater (HVAC) system. The funding for the repairs would come from the Accumulated Capital Outlay (ACO) fund but would fall $350,000 short. In addition, taking all of the ACO money for renovations would mean that $50,000 earmarked for the Down Town Reinvestment Fund would no longer be available.

Mayor David Ayers said that the $350,000 shortfall could be paid for by the new fire station. To finish construction, the fire station borrowed money from the ACO. The ACO will receive an additional $1.4 million over the course of three to five years as the fire station pays the loan back.

“There are funds available to renovate both. It’s just a gut call,” said Ayers.

The Bastille served as the Kings County prison from 1897 to 1964. After being used for several restaurants and night clubs the building has been vacant since 2009.

The Kings County Courthouse was opened in 1896 and served as a courthouse until 1976. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and was remodeled in the early 1980s to houses offices, small shops and restaurants. Because of HVAC problems and flooding only a few tenants remain.

Referring to the Bastille, “We have property that is one of our jewels that we can’t use,” said Sorenson. She felt that because the city was creative with finding funding to build the new fire station that the same creativity could be used to restore the Bastille. Sorenson’s goal is to renovate the building and let the citizens enjoy it.

Sorenson asked Darrel Pyle, Hanford City Manager, if the city puts one million into the building and makes it marketable, “Are we going to make $10 a month or get someone willing to invest $500,000?”

Pyle said that a few years ago 12 parties were interested in utilizing the building for different enterprises and the

Valley Voice • 9 member, reminded the council that parts of North Visalia are “completely blighted.” He was supportive of keeping the committee for two more years while the members finish implementing their business plan for the area.

Two north side residents said that it is a source of pride that their own com-

munity members have contributed to the revitalization of the Oval. Huott said that the Oval Park now is actually a park.

“You couldn’t even enter it before.”

“I tell everyone we are a victim of our own success. We get taken for granted on all the magic the city accomplishes when we play this huge role as catalyst,”

said Huott.

The residents who live in North Visalia and the members of the NVAC want the advisory committee to be affiliated with the city indefinitely. Councilmembers Phil Cox, Warren Gubler and Collins want to review the committees status after November 30, 2018.

electrical power lines have been moved to accommodate for street widening.

Telephone and cable lines are also currently being moved and pre-paving widening has begun.

A leaky underground irrigation pipe was replaced on a People’s Ditch Company line that runs under the city, was more easily accessible, Jansen said.

Currently, along Farmersville Blvd., additional curb gutters and sidewalks, where missing, are being filled in with standards to meet the Americans with Disability Act compliancy. Northbound and southbound bike lanes from Roy Park to Visalia Road will be added. The cost estimate is close to $9 million, also

paid through Measure R funds.

Also south of Visalia Road on Farmersville Blvd., a bus turnaround spot is being developed. A sheltered Visalia Transit bus stop with bench, is planned near senior-living and other apartment complexes for citizen accessibility, and a turnaround is necessary for the transit service to bring buses back around to Visalia Road connecting the route to Porterville or Visalia. The cost of this is estimated at $706,461 with $425,461 being paid for through Measure R funding. The balance will be paid through the CalTrans Active Transport Program and the city.

The city plans “to keep disruption

to a minimum,” Jansons said. Plans are to work on one area at a time, near the main intersection of the two streets to keep congestion at a minimum. The roadway construction time is estimated at 16 months.

All of this improvement falls on the heels of Farmersville’s roundabout work where North Farmersville Blvd. meets Noble Ave. and Highway 198. That project took approximately one year at a cost of approximately $6 with about one-quarter paid for by Measure R, along with funds through the CalTrans Highway Safety Improvement Program, an Air Quality Improvement program and the city funding the balance.

best offer would have brought in $5000 a month. But that would have necessitated a $1.5 million outlay by the city.

Councilmember Martin Devin said that Hanford needs to keep these buildings for the city’s enjoyment and use, not in order to try and recoup the money invested. Ayers added, “They are beautiful but they are expensive.”

The city council came to a consensus that it would discuss how to fund the renovations at the next meeting but they would definitely not sell them.

The discussion over the fate of Rabobank was much more contentious.

Mendes was willing to commit to keeping the Courthouse because it already had tenants but wanted to know how the city council intended to cover the $350,000 shortfall. He said that Rabobank was marketable, in great shape, and would make up the gap the city would need to renovate the Courthouse and Bastille. He said that Hanford would be “using its own assets to keep the town’s identity and the Downtown Reinvestment could keep its ACO money.”

Ramirez was also in favor of selling Rabobank provided that the city puts contingencies into the deed that the any owners must preserve the original façade. Ty Mizote, Hanford’s attorney, said that the city council is at liberty to impose contingencies but that they will lower the price of the building.

Three years ago the building was appraised for $850,000.

Sorenson was also making the argument in favor of selling. She asked the audience, many of whom had objected during public comment about selling any historic building, who had owned every building they ever bought. She pointed out that people usually have to sell a building to buy a new building and that it’s no different for a small town.

She also listed off about a dozen historic buildings that are privately owned and in better shape than city buildings.

“Private is bad and government is better. I don’t believe that,” said Sorenson.

Lastly, Sorenson said that the city should not be in the property management business or forced to create its own revenue.

Ayers said he was against selling Rabobank. He said that the building

pays for itself because it is rented and that eventually the city will need the office space. “For me it’s planning for the future.”

Sorenson pointed out that the city already has the Courthouse to use for office space and that if the city occupies Rabobank that would translate into lost rental income.

Devin was also against selling Rabobank. He said that the only people in Hanford he knows who want to sell the building are sitting on the council.

He couldn’t even count how many people had told him they want to keep the building, he said.

Mata said that this is just the beginning. The staff will come back in the next few months with a report on if the $58,000 in yearly rent included maintenance what the real income was on the Rabobank.

would pass and the city would waste $70,000 paying for a special election.

He said he hadn’t met one person who would vote for the tax.

“I don’t like this,” he said.

Sorenson did not appreciate the effort put into an occupancy tax instead of increasing the sales tax. She said that Hanford has the lowest sales tax in California and by focusing on the occupancy tax the council is missing the big picture.

Ayers agreed with Sorenson and Devin.

He said that the tax would be difficult to pass and that he wanted the council to pursue a sales tax.

According to Pyle, Purple Heart sent him a letter through email on March 3 that they were no longer interested in locating their commercial marijuana grow site in Hanford. The reason for their pulling out of buying the old Pirelli Tire Factory was that Hanford City Council decided not to issue the company a conditional use permit to cultivate medical marijuana. Without local permission, Purple Heart could not receive a state license in January of 2018.

The city council instead voted to let the citizens decide during the November 2018 national elections. If the Hanford residents voted to deny Purple Heart a license the company would have invested millions of dollars for nothing.

According to the Hanford Sentinel, Purple Heart is considering three other communities in the Central Valley.

Coalinga has already started receiving revenue from its medical marijuana facility located in the former prison.

Pyle said that Hanford is nevertheless going forward with writing a draft zoning ordinance on the commercial cultivation of marijuana and that other medical marijuana companies were interested in locating in Hanford’s Industrial Park.

Discussion on the fate of the historic buildings will come back to the city council in approximately three months.

The staff will present a more detailed accounting of the real income made on the buildings, cost of renovation, and the sources of funding for those renovations.

If the city council decides to sell any of the buildings the issue will go in front of the Hanford Planning Commission.

Purple Heart Looks At Other Communities for Their Facility

While lamenting over finding the funds to maintain Hanford’s historical buildings, the city council lost out on two painless funding sources: the Transient Occupancy Tax and Purple Heart’s marijuana grow facility. The occupancy tax would have been paid for by visitors and would have brought in about $200,000 a year. Purple Heart Marijuana facility, at full build out, would have brought in $14 million in tax revenue a year.

At the February 21 City Council meeting everyone was excited about the prospect of raising the occupancy tax and earmarking the funds for down town revitalization. It was even suggested to coordinate the rollout of the special election with Hanford’s yearly birthday party.

Two weeks later it was a different council.

Mendes was still in favor of the occupancy tax but wanted to reduce the suggested amount from 12% to 10% to stay in line with neighboring towns.

Hanford’s current occupancy tax is 8%.

The 2% increase would be earmarked for down town revitalization.

Ramirez was also in favor of putting the occupancy tax to the Hanford voters.

But Devin wasn’t sure the new tax

10 • Valley Voice

16 March, 2017

Voices of the Valley A Tularean at Heart – Terry Brazil Nancy Vigran

Terry Brazil did not grow up in Tulare, but she’s lived there since 1959. She never dreamed she would be director of a museum, but she has served as executive director of the Tulare Historical Museum for eight years, and remains museum director today.

Brazil, who grew up in Glendale, got married young, she said, because that is what was expected in the late 1950’s. She had attended Glendale Community College after high school, but then she met her husband, a Tulare native, moved there with him and had two children.

While the marriage did not last, her love for the Tulare community did. She did not consider moving back down to Glendale following her divorce.

“When I got divorced, my parents had moved to Costa Mesa,” she said. “And, in Glendale my parents hadn’t known my friends or their parents [while she grew up], and here I could keep track. I felt I could be move involved in my children’s lives here. Tulare always felt so friendly.”

Brazil worked at Bank of America as a teller, which worked out well timewise, she said, as her 9-3 hours allowed her to be home when her kids got home from school.

Later, she went to work in the law office of Joseph Soares, where she worked for many years.

Brazil met Dr. Lionel Brazil, a local veterinarian, and they married in 1973. Dr. Brazil had graduated from the second class of veterinary school at UC Davis, she said. Upon graduation he returned to establish the Tulare Veterinary Hospital. He also got into the dairy business.

When he retired from his practice, the couple sold the dairy and moved to Marina del Rey. “We were boating, and it was fun – for two years,” she said.

But it was a tough time for the dairy business, and their buyers had not been able to make it work, so the couple returned to Tulare taking over that business once again, and moving to property very close to the dairy.

While Dr. Brazil obtained a partner, he continued to manage the dairy until it once again sold. Dr. Brazil passed away in 2007.

In the meantime, Terry Brazil’s two children with first husband, had moved north - her son, Ray, to Washington and her daughter, Cindy, to Oregon.

A Museum Job

For several years, Brazil had worked many temp jobs. She learned of a part-time position as the assistant to the director of the museum. The

woman who had formerly been in the position had just been named as director. Brazil nabbed the assistant position.

“Ellen retired in 2008 and recommended me for the job [as director],” she said.

She got it, and, it is this position by which she is most recognized in the community.

“I kept things going for eight years,” she said.

While Brazil was working as director, Chris Harrell was named curator in 2013. In 2016, the museum underwent some reorganization of work positions creating a full-time position of executive director/curator for which Harrell was named. Brazil was not interested in that position, and was named museum director, retaining a parttime position.

“He always had an eye. I didn’t, I just kept things going,” she said.

“He has a real deep-seeded love for this place.”

Brazil said she was relieved by his taking over a lot of the work load that she admitted feeling nervous about.

“It’s been just wonderful,” she said. “I didn’t want to be committed to full time work.

She now considers herself Harrell’s assistant.

“I didn’t want the responsibility of it [being executive director] – coordinating school tours, arranging for docents, making sure someone was in the gift shop, organizing club meetings,” she said.

But, her new position has meant she has had to learn some new things – especially with regard to working on the computer and multiple programs.

“I have had to learn new things, but that’s getting me into this century,” she said.

For one thing, the museum schedule is now kept on the computer, and so she has to stay abreast of that via her computer, now.

“It makes things run more smoothly,” she said. “He has a lot of plans.”

“But, I love it when somebody tells me what to do,” she added. “I get to do things I like more now – interacting with the people who come in. I like organizing for meetings, opening and closing in the evenings, getting refreshments – it’s flunky work, in a way, but I like it.”

Another thing she doesn’t miss is speaking to service clubs on behalf

how life is in Tulare.

“I have no regrets at all,” Brazil said of her student housing.

While some students, especially Sonya, a girl from Spain who had lived with Brazil, stay much to themselves, she said, others, such as a Steven, a student from Northern California, would watch television with her in the evenings. Some have shown an interest in her museum Providing Housing for UC work, while others have refrained Davis Extension Students As if she hadn’t been busy from paying a visit to the facility.

When they move on, Brazil genenough, Brazil has made room in her erally knows what will be next in their home for visiting UC Davis extension students to stay, while studying lives, but she has not stayed in touch with all of them. She has, however, in Tulare.

“Since 2010, I’ve had several stu- stayed in touch with Sonya, who redents from UC Davis. Many of them turned to Spain, but then moved to are foreign – I’ve had students from South Dakota, for further schooling.

Spain, Iran, Argentina and two from The student from Egypt who lived the US, and I currently have a young with her now works for the USDA man from Stockton,” she said. “The and lives in Fresno, she said. first student I had was from Egypt.”

Memberships and Clubs The shortest term was two Through the years, Brazil has months, and she has had students been active in Sundale School, where live with her for a little over a year.

“They pay rent,” she said. “They her children and granddaughter had buy their own groceries and cook attended. She joined the Valley Oak their own food, and clean up after Garden Club in the 1980’s and remains a member today. The club’s themselves.”

It’s strictly an agreement between monthly meetings are held at the the homeowner and student, she museum. She is a member of the Tusaid. The university has no involve- lare Republican Women Federation ment other than by ways of introduc- and is a longtime member of the Tution. Since she started, she has rec- lare United Methodist Church.

“I find the history here of Tulare ommended the “gig” to others. so fascinating – I didn’t really know She never was too worried about having a student live and have access the history of Glendale,” she said.

“They’re just so understated about to her home.

“I felt that if they are cleared to go what accomplishments people have to UC Davis, and they’re paying the made here in Tulare. They act like, money to go, then they are probably well, yes, we did this, but it’s nothOK,” she said, “and I have never been ing. And, they’ve kept things going here, even though farming is not aldisappointed with that assessment.”

The other option for these stu- ways easy.”

She’s also found that people aldents is student housing in mobile ways seem to return to their home homes at the Tulare extension center, where they can live with other stu- in Tulare.

“That’s the thing about Tulare,” dents. But, living with a local family is cheaper, she has been told, and she said. “There are so many natives some of the professors urge their stu- – they always come back.” dents to live with a local family to see of the museum. Public speaking just isn’t her thing, she said.

She would like to continue working in the museum for three to four more years.

“But, I want him to have somebody he can rely on, too, and that’s important,” she said. “They’ll need to be training someone.”

16 March, 2017

Valley Voice • 11

Comments & Letters Clark and Darla

Veteran’s Corner

Combat-RelatedSpecial Compensation

Alex Oldenbourg

Scott Holwell

I love you, Alex.

Travel well.

After Black Tie, a one-off series of comic panels, Alex was in the sketching stage of a new series to be called Clark and Darla. The majority of Alex’s early efforts in this regard were lost in a house fire last July. The above represents a first—and now last—effort.

Celebrating Spring Larry johnson

Dear Editor: Where is global warming when we need it?

I do look forward to the first day of spring, balmy weather, and flowers in bloom.

The first day of spring is actually a perfect opportunity to turn over a new leaf in our personal habits - to clean house, to jog outdoors, and to replace animal foods with healthy, delicious vegetables, legumes, grains, and fruits.

The shift toward healthy eating

is everywhere. Fast-food chains like Chipotle, Quiznos, Starbucks, Subway, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s offer plant-based options.

Parade, Better Homes and Gardens, and Eating Well are touting vegan recipes. Google CEO Eric Schmidt views replacement of meat by plant protein as the world’s #1 technical trend.

The financial investment community is betting on innovative startups like Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods, while warning clients about “death of meat.”

Even Tyson Foods new CEO sees plant protein as the meat industry’s future.

Indeed, Global Meat News reports that nearly half of consumers are reducing meat intake.

Beef consumption has dropped by 43% in the past 40 years. Each of us can celebrate spring by checking out the rich collection of plant-based dinners and desserts in our supermarket’s frozen food, dairy, and produce sections.

Sincerely, Larry Johnson

Re: “Love It Or Leave It” Bill Warner In the March 2 issue of the Voice, a Ms. Richman digs up the old John Birch Society slogan, “America, Love it or Leave It.” America for those who believe in America “as advertised.” Stop “bashing Trump?”

Just a minute here. Trump is an egregious liar, a tax-evader, someone who wants to rip the immigrant-welcoming plaque at the Statue of Liberty , who blames the press for reporting the truth about what he is doing, reviles our judiciary of they disagree with him, is actively employing cabinet members who want to destroy public education and environmental protections, having secretive relations with Russia , giving away

tax money to the rich at the expense of programs for the poor, wanting to spent more billions to increase what is already the most powerful army in the world, working to destroy health care for the disadvantaged, promoting religious hatred with anti-Muslim rhetoric and actions, accusing our election of fraud and unproved allegations about illegal voting, adopting trade policies that make us hated around the world, making impossible promises like “bringing back jobs to America” ( at 30 cents an hour so we can compete with cheap labor elsewhere, ) having shady business practices, etc. etc.

I could go on, but it would appear if there is an “un-American” seeking to divide the American people for the benefit of the few, it is our dissent-silencing

President, King Donald the 1st.

Is this a man who loves what our country stands for? He does not even know our Constitution! I will personally contribute to the price of his ticket out of my America and also to that of Ms.Richman , who believes a President and his un-American beliefs and policies should be above criticism.

Were Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson alive today, they might contribute as well.

Trump does not want to govern, he wants to rule. Achtung! The Nazis had a slogan in 1938 which Trump seems to love: “Ein volk, ein reich, ein fuehrer.”

Look that one up in your Funk and Wagnalls.

Bill Warner

Use your voice — send your letters Via email: editor@ourvalleyvoice.com Via mail: PO Box 44064, Lemon Cove, CA 93244

Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC) provides special compensation to retirees who have retired pay reduced because of receiving U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability compensation. This means that qualified military retirees with 20 or more years of service that have “combat related” VA-rated disability will no longer have their military retirement pay reduced by the amount of their VA disability compensation. Instead they will receive both their full military retirement pay and their VA disability compensation.

In determining eligibility, retired members must be retired with 20 (or more) years of active duty, or retired at age 60 from the Guard or Reserve. They must be receiving retired pay, and have a compensable VA disability of 10 percent or higher. Also, retired pay must be offset by VA disability payments.

Although CRSC specifically addresses “combat-related” disabilities incurred from armed conflict, retirees who developed disabilities from other than combat may also be eligible. Disabilities caused by exposure to Agent Orange, combat training, aircrew duties, simulated war exercises, parachuting and munitions demolition potentially qualify for compensation under this program. But slipping and falling in an exercise or even during combat if not caused by something related to combat, combat training, or an instrumentality of war - normally does not qualify for CRSC. Our office can assist in applying for this benefit. You’ll need a copy of your DD214, copies of any VA rating decisions addressing the disabilities being claimed, and any other available documentation. If you don’t have these items, we can help get them.

The Kings County Veterans Service Office can complete the DMV Veteran Status Verification Form for the new California Veteran Designation on your driver’s license and also issues Veteran I.D. cards to honorably discharged veterans. Contact Scott Holwell if you would like to receive periodic veteran’s information by email. There are many state and federal benefits and programs available to veterans and their dependents. To determine if you are eligible for any of these benefits, call or visit our office. We can and will assist you in completing all required application forms. You can get information on the Web from the Kings County Veterans Service Office webpage at www.countyofkings.com/vets.

Scott Holwell, retired Navy Master Chief Petty Officer, is the Veterans Service Officer for Kings County. Send your questions to the Veterans Service Office, 1400 W. Lacey Blvd, Hanford, CA 93230; call (559)852-2669; or e-mail scott.holwell@ co.kings.ca.us.

12 • Valley Voice

Winter

Continued from 8 public, adding, “When communities stand up and act as interveners, that goes a long, long way at making things happen. If that community feels like it is important to them, they can become interveners and play a more significant role.”

The day following Moore’s ap-

Surplus Continued from 1

there are only 2.2 acres of open space of parkland per 1,000 people. But in reality the number of acres per 1000 residents could be significantly less. Stoddard revealed in a previous meeting that Freedom (16.66 acres), Centennial (14.11 acres) and Hidden Valley Park (17.96 acres) are the only actual open spaces where Hanford residents do not have to be a member of a sports team or pay a fee to enjoy.

The National Recreation and Park Association recommend 6.25 acres per 1000 residents. This recommendation was cited by the Hanford Parks and Recreation and Open Space Master Plan.

Councilmembers Justin Mendes, Sue Sorenson, Francisco Ramirez and Martin Devin were in favor of listing the second half of Hidden Valley Park as surplus. Councilmember David Ayers was the only one opposed.

Mendes said that because People’s

16 March, 2017 pearance, members of the CFBF Forestry, Fish and Wildlife, and Public Lands Committee met to discuss policy solutions.

Looking at the future of forest management, Steve Brink, California Forestry Association vice president of public resources, told the committee the Forest Service is struggling with how to address the insect and disease epidemic in its final forest plan.

“The Forest Service hasn’t increased

(active management by) a single acre, so how are they going to select an alternative that will even do more than what they’ve been able to do? It’s not going to happen,” Brink said.

George “YG” Gentry, CFA vice president of regulatory affairs, told the committee the plans don’t address the issue of overstocked and dense forests in the Sierra.

“I feel like all we are doing right now is removing material in highly sensitive

areas,” Gentry said, “and by the time that this material makes it anywhere, it’s already deteriorated to the point where it’s no longer useful.”

By the time the tops of trees turn red, Brink said, private landowners only have four months to get the wood to a sawmill before it loses its lumber value.

Ditch runs next to Hidden Valley Park that the city should take advantage of the hydrology of the area to the advantage of Hanford. Whereas People’s Ditch water belongs to the Boswell family, and not to the residents of Hanford, the water that collects in Mussel Slough that runs through the middle of the park does belong to the residents. Mussel Slough replenishes the groundwater supply and has been a treasured hydrology resource to Hanford’s city leaders.

Ramirez was in favor of selling the parcel and building a Recreation Center.

Sorenson said that she spends a lot of time in Hanford’s parks and that she doesn’t think it in a good location. She is also concerned with Hanford’s water supply and doesn’t believe the city has enough water to develop the 18 acres.

Hanford residents have countered in previous meetings that if the city council thinks there is enough water for a 100 new homes then there is enough to develop the rest of Hidden Valley Park.

Devin didn’t seem completely convinced that the property should be list-

ed as surplus, and suggested that part be saved for a park and part be residential.

He also repeated a disputed fact that the undeveloped parcel was never intended to be a park.

The land was bought in 1967 with taxpayer money to be used as a park.

According to a 1971 Hanford Sentinel article, the city leaders intended the park to be a place where Boy Scouts could camp and families could picnic.

The article stated, “Councilmen agreed the parks should be primarily a wilderness area, rather than a manicured site for organized sports and large organizations. It will be meant to facilitate families and small groups in a secluded setting.

The park would include a hilly area in front, with numerous trees and trails with horseback riding and bicycles meandering to the rear portion. The middle part would consist of lakes or a system of lagoons connected by bridges and surrounded by weeping willows. Picnic spaces would surround the small lakes.

The rear of the park would contain a

large play area and a heavily forested area for archery and camping.”

Not only was the original intent to develop all 38 acres over 10 years, but the goal was actually to expand Hidden Valley Park.

“The consultants raised the possibility of the city purchasing adjacent land to the northeast and southwest for an intensive recreation area featuring tennis, badminton, volleyball and basketball on one parcel and a golf course on the other,” the Hanford Sentinel elaborated in 1971.

The undeveloped parcel has been appraised at $1.8 million, and would most likely be sold to a developer for residential use.

Three other historic Hanford properties were discussed during the city council meeting as possible assets to be sold: the Bastille, the Court House and Rabobank.

The councilmembers decided not to sell the Bastille or Court House, and put off to a future meeting to decide the fate of the Rabobank building.

This article reprinted with the permission of the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Valley Scene

16 March, 2017

Kings Art Center to Host Annual Events in April Staff Reports

The Kings Art Center will be hosting two of its annual events, “The Spring Show” and “The Young Masters” this April.

The first, “The Spring Show”, will be hosted in the Marcellus Gallery at the Center.

This annual open entry exhibit is hosted by the Kings County Art League and the Kings Art Center. Formerly known as Art in The Park, this exhibit has been presented at various local sites over the past 60+ years and remains a favorite venue for local and regional artists to present their work.

Suzanne Willis, a local artist exhibiting her paintings, talked about the difficulties of painting directly in the landscape -- “En Plein Air.” “While painting out of doors the challenge is to narrow the subject for the best composition, to simplify it, and to then work quickly before the light and shadows change. You just can’t mess around,” Willis said.

As in the past, ribbons and cash awards will be presented to the top three

winners in six categories: Watercolor; Painting; Photography; Mixed Media & Drawing; Fiber Arts; and Three-Dimensional Art. The judge for this exhibit is Allison Kleinsteuber. Ms. Keinsteuber currently serves as an instructor/supervisor in the art education program at Fresno State, is the Regional Director of the California Arts Projects, and is an art instructor at Golden West High School, Visalia, California.

The second event, “The Young Masters,” is a joint effort between schools in Kings County and the Kings Art Center, sponsored by the Kings County Office of Education.

For the Kings Art Center, this is an opportunity to advance our mission and nurture the future of the arts in Kings County.

We also use this as a way to encourage and validate the efforts of Kings County teachers and schools as they work to provide a comprehensive education to our children in spite of budget and time constraints.

Most importantly, the Young Masters exhibit has a long history of pro-

Visalia Senior Games to Kick Off on March 17 the Visalia Senior Games aim to provide Staff Reports excellent conditions for seniors who seek The Visalia Parks & Recreation a competitive environment along with Department is gearing up for the 2nd the camaraderie of other athletes.

Annual Visalia Senior Games with the There are currently over 400 athletes Opening Cereregistered in over mony kick-off 420 events; the scheduled for oldest competiFriday, March 17 tor registered to at Garden Street compete is 95 Plaza (300 E. years of age.

Main St.).

Over 200 The event athletes are from will feature aththe Central Vallete packet pickley, while the rest up from 5 - 7pm of the athletes and at 6pm, hail from locathe Mayor and tions throughsponsors will out California; address attendtwo athletes ees as well as a will be arriving special featured from Texas and performance by Washington. the 2016 Visa“We are very lia Teen Idol excited to see winner Arianna Pickleball is one of many events that will be how this event featured at the Visalia Senior Games. Pictured is Rubalcaba. has grown in the 2015’s games. Courtesy/City of Visalia Opening past two years,” ceremonies are stated Jeannie Greenwood, Director for free for all to attend. Tickets for the Visalia Parks & Recreation Department. tri-tip diner after the ceremony are just “We have doubled in size not just in the $10 in advance for athletes and $15 for amount of events that we have offered, guests or at the door of the event, as but also in the number of athletes that space allows. we expect to see attend this year’s event.

The Visalia Senior Games will take The City of Visalia is excited to host this place on Friday, March 17 through Sun- great event once again and welcome athday, March 19 and Saturday, March 25 letes from around the state.” through Sunday, March 26.

One of the best things about the Open to seniors 50 years and better, GAMES continued on B2 »

viding the type of encouragement needed by young artists as they develop their talents.

The exhibit includes drawing, painting, photography, mixed media, sculpture, and ceramics. Refreshments and awards will be provided at the opening ceremonies on Sunday April 2, between 3:30 and 5pm. The exhibition judge will be Susan Quinn, an artist and art educator from Fresno. The public is encourage to attend and support “Preparing for Spring” by Suzanne Willis these young Kings 4pm Wednesday through Friday, and County artists.

12-3pm on Saturday and Sunday.

The Kings Art Center, located at 605 N. Douty St., Hanford, is open 11-

“Quest For Water” Presentation on March 19 at Tulare Museum The Tulare City Historical Society and Tulare Historical Museum will present its latest ‘Sundays @ 2’ program on March 19. Richard Zack of Visalia will give a presentation and book signing on his book “Quest For Water, Tulare Irrigation District: Its History, People and Progression.”

Founded September 21, 1889, the Tulare Irrigation District is considered the fourth-oldest irrigation district in California, with a present size of approximately 70,000 acres. Zack, a registered civil engineer and former high school English teacher, has more than just a personal interest in the history of TID, but much rather a passion with it. Growing up as a fourth-generation Tularean, Zack spent his youthful summers traveling canal banks with his father David Zack, who was TID’s first engineer-manager and worked there for 40 years.

Zack was commissioned by the irrigation district to write the book, which took three years of fulltime work, he said. What makes this book different than other irrigation district histories up and down the state, is that “I knew the people, I was writing about,” he said. What also makes it different, is his work at making the content less dry and, well, a bit more humorous.

“One way or another, I knew I would have to write this book,” he said. “It is a book of destiny.”

For a couple of years, Zack returned to riding the canal banks with

Staff Reports

his father. And, while his dad had the satisfaction and knowledge that Zack was writing the book, he didn’t live to see the finished product.

Interesting highlights in the book and presentation are Tulare’s Bond Burning celebration in 1903, and the 20-year litigation between TID and the Lindsay-Strathmore Irrigation District, considered a textbook legal case to this day.

“Quest For Water” is packed with more than 490 photographs, maps, letters, and drawings, many of which have never before been seen outside private collections.

Zack traveled as far as Washington State, just south of the Canadian border to locate photos and interview people for the book.

Join the museum for this presentation on the Valley’s precious resource, and the role which the Tulare Irrigation District has had with it for 127 years.

The program will be held at 2pm in the Heritage Art Gallery at the Tulare Historical Museum. The program is open to the public and is free of charge. Admission to the museum is also free on this day during its hours of operation, 12:30-4pm.

Copies of the book will be for sale the day of the event. Copies are also available at the museum gift shop during regular hours, as well as through the Tulare Irrigation District.

16 March, 2017

B2 • Valley Voice

Great Conversations The Experience(s) of Love: The Case of Raymond Carver Joseph R. Teller Here’s a simple question: what is love?

Of course, the question can’t be answered in an exhaustive way, and some might even say it cannot be answered by any categorical or unqualified statement: to give one answer—say, “care for another” or even “sacrifice”— is to remind us that love is this, but also much more.

The same problem pertains to other ideas which can be called “transcendentals”: justice or goodness, for instance.

It is precisely this difficult question—what is love?—that lies at the center of Raymond Carver’s powerful short story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” the subject of this week’s Great Books discussion group at COS. Two couples—Mel and Terri, and Nick and Laura, all good friends—are sitting around a table drinking gin and tonics, and the topic turns to love.

Mel, a cardiologist who spent five years in seminary, claims that love is “nothing less than spiritual love.”

Terri claims that, Ed, her previous beau, “loved her so much he tried to kill her” by dragging her around the living room by her ankles, yelling “I love you,

you b—h!”

The husband Mel inis depressed, sists that but not bethis isn’t real cause they love: “The have both kind of love been so badI’m talking ly hurt. Mel about, you says, “it was don’t try to because he kill people.” couldn’t see Mel then [his wife] relates how through his Ed stalked eyeholes” him and in the body tried to kill cast.

Rapt him—and with his own then later story, Mel shot himself says, “Do Raymond Carver. in the head. you see what It took Ed three days to die, his I’m saying?” head swollen to a monstrous size as he No one affirms or denies the story, lay comatose in the hospital. Terri says the conversation moves on, and everyshe sat with Ed until he died—even one gets drunker. though Mel hated the idea.

By evening, Mel says he wants to Later, Mel confesses that what con- call his kids, but Terri dissuades him befuses him is that love seems to disappear. cause that means he’d have to talk to his He says “there was a time when I ex-wife, Marjorie. thought I loved my first wife more than Mel agrees that that’s not a good life itself. But now I hate her guts. I do.” idea. And he tells everyone that he wishHow does one account for this? he es Marjorie would either get married (so asks. Mel then tells a story he thinks ex- he can stop paying alimony) or die: emplifies real love.

“She’s allergic to bees,” Mel says. “If A married couple in their seventies I’m not praying she’ll get married again, is hit by a teenaged driver. The husband I’m praying she’ll get herself stung to and wife are severely injured, and both death by a swarm of…bees.” He then end up in ICU, wrapped in body casts. imagines—jokingly, though he’s the

Games

Continued from B1 senior games is the opportunity to meet new people and during the games there are several great opportunities to do that.

Athletes, family and friends should plan to attend the Saturday Night Social and the Texas Hold’Em Tournament and Social.

The Saturday Night Social will be held on Saturday, March 18th from 6 - 9pm at Garden Street Plaza in downtown Visalia (300 E. Main St.) and will feature live music by “Borrowed Time,” dancing, delicious appetizers, raffle prizes and fun.

This social is sponsored by the Lions Clubs of Visalia and a no-host bar will be included. Tickets are just $8 per person.

The Texas Hold’Em no-limit Tournament will be held on Saturday, March 25th from 6 - 9pm at the Anthony Community Center (345 N. Jacob St). Medals and prizes will be awarded to the top three finishers along with a High Hand Prize (no cash prizes awarded).

There will also be live music by the

same character who said love doesn’t mean hating or wanting to kill someone—that he might show up at her door dressed in a beekeeper’s suit and release a swarm of bees into her house (while the kids were out).

The story ends with the couples sitting quietly at the table, the evening softening to darkness outside, their beating hearts the only “human noise” that can be heard.

What do we make of such a story—a story that begins with a question about transcendent love, but which only provides examples of imperfect, messy, even spiteful relationships?

Perhaps part of Carver’s point is precisely that: when we talk about love, all we can really talk about are our own examples, our own messy lives and experiences.

Maybe love can’t be articulated as a philosophical transcendental; maybe it can only be experienced.

And maybe it can be adequately expressed to others only when we tell each other our own stories, when we sit in the glow of conversation with friends— when the world is quiet, and the only thing you can hear is the human noise of a beating heart.

Dr. Joseph R. Teller is Professor of English at COS. Email him at josepht@cos.edu.

“Dirty Poppas,” appetizers and a no-host bar for those who would rather dance, socialize and meet new people. Texas Hold’Em tournament entry is just $15 per person which includes the social or $10 per person for the social only.

Tickets for the Opening Ceremony dinner, Saturday Night Social and the Texas Hold’Em Tournament and Social can be purchased at the Anthony Community Center or on-site each event.

Individuals that are not ready to join a team or compete in an event but still want to participate in the 2017 Visalia Senior Games can sign-up to become a volunteer with the games.

Volunteers are currently being sought to assist in such areas as building athlete packets; Texas Hold’Em Tournament and Social; swimming events; track & field events and the 5K road race. To volunteer, visit www.visaliaseniorgames. com and click on the link to sign-up.

The 2017 Visalia Senior Games is supported by Kaweah Delta Health Care District. For more information on the Visalia Senior Games or to register, please visit www.visaliaseniorgames.com.

16 March, 2017

Valley Voice • B3

Take Kaweah Delta Health Assessment for Chance to Win Staff Reports Through Friday, March 31, people who complete one of 17 free health risk assessments at KaweahDelta.org/health will be entered for a chance to win a smart watch.

People must complete the risk assessment, which includes providing contact information, to be entered in the giveaway.

The giveaway is sponsored by HealthAware in partnership with Kaweah Delta and participating hospitals and hospital systems.

The 17 free health risk assessments take about 5-7 minutes to complete. They identify factors that put people at risk for health conditions such as diabetes, stroke, cancer, heart attacks and more. Educating people about their health is an important first step in diagnosing and treating conditions at an early stage.

The following health risk assessments are available at KaweahDelta.org/health: -BladderAware -Breast CancerAware -Colon CancerAware -Lung CancerAware -Prostate CancerAware -DiabetesAware

-HeartAware -JointAware -BreatheAware -SleepAware -Pediatric SleepAware -SpineAware -WeightAware -VascularAware -Bone Health Aware -StrokeAware -DepressionAware No purchase necessary. For official rules, visit www.healthaware.com/officialrules.

Established in 1963, Kaweah Delta Health Care District is a 581-bed district hospital. Kaweah Delta Medical Center is the only trauma center between Fresno and Bakersfield and was recently awarded four out of five stars in overall hospital quality from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and an A in hospital safety in Leapfrog’s Fall 2016 Hospital Safety Score.

The district offers a comprehensive scope of services including everything from a well-respected pediatric hospitalist program to nationally recognized orthopedic and cancer programs.

Fresno Airport to Host California’s Inaugural Wings for Autism Program Fresno Yosemite International Airport in partnership with The Arc Fresno/Madera Counties, SkyWest Airlines, Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and Delta Global Services is honored to host the first California Wings for Autism® airport rehearsal on Saturday, May 13, 2017 at Fresno Yosemite International Airport.

Wings for Autism® is a program by The Arc of the United States launched in 2011 that provides individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families with a real-life simulation of the air travel experience. Wings for Autism® has been hosted at various airports across the country with Fresno Yosemite International Airport serving as the first airport to host the program in California. The program serves to help alleviate some of the stress families may experience when traveling by air. Air-

Staff Reports port, airline and TSA personnel will also receive a valuable training opportunity in assisting individuals with autism and working with families to ensure their safety and comfort for a positive travel experience.

Bringing Wings for Autism® to Fresno Yosemite International Airport is the result of a collaborative effort from all of the partners and their local representatives who have dedicated significant time and resources to support the May 13, 2017 airport rehearsal.

Registration is now open for one of two separate airport rehearsals on May 13, 2017. Check in for the first rehearsal is scheduled at 9am and the second will take place at 12pm. Families are encouraged to sign up early, as the number of participants is limited.

WHCCD Chancellor Honored VMC Announces 3rd Annual with Administrator Award Diabetes Memorial Walk Staff Reports Visalia Medical Clinic has set Saturday, March 25, for the third annual Diabetes Walk in honor of the late Dr. James Mohs, an endocrinologist who worked with diabetic patients in Visalia for many years.

The 3K or 5K walk, and kids walk, begins at the clinic, 5400 W. Hillsdale, with check-in at 8am and kick-off at 9 am (rain or shine). There is no fee to participate and registered walkers will receive a free commemorative T-shirt, while supplies last. The registration form is available online at www.vmchealth.com.

The walk will include booths offering diabetes and health information, resources to improve diabetes control, drawings to win prizes, and blood pressure and blood sugar checks. Participants

More than 40 years in Downtown Visalia

will also be able to donate blood and meet VMC’s physicians and staff.

“Each year this event grows as people become aware of the opportunity to meet people and have fun,” said Visalia Medical Clinic diabetes educator Susan Smith, Ph.D. “We also want to diagnose diabetes earlier and encourage people to be more conscientious about their diabetes control.”

According to the American Diabetes Association, 1.4 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes each year and diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. In 2012, 86 million Americans age 20 and older had prediabetes – up from 79 million in 2010.

For information, contact Susan Smith at Visalia Medical Clinic, 7392087; ssmith@vmchealth.com.

Dr. Frank Gornick, West Hills Community College District Chancellor, was selected for the the prestigious Harry Buttimer Distinguished Administrator Award by the Association of California Community College Administrators (ACCCA).

The Buttimer Award is known throughout California as the highest honor a community college administrator can receive from their peers. Gornick was presented the award at the annual Association of California Community College Administrators (ACCCA) Conference on February 23.

“I’m honored and humbled to receive this prestigious award from my peers and to be included in the list of prior awardees who represent some of the best and brightest administrators in California Community Colleges” Named for the late Harry Buttimer, a founding member of the ACCCA, a nomination for the Buttimer Award honors

Staff Reports

college leaders with integrity; principles; compassion; strength in leadership; contributions to colleagues and the profession; and contributions to the college district and community.

A nomination for the award requires strong evidence of the above characteristics and substantial support by community college peers.

The honor comes prior to Gornick’s retirement in July after 23 years at the helm of the West Hills Community College District. One of the foremost California higher education leaders, Gornick has led the District since he began serving as Superintendent-President in 1994.

He’s previously been recognized by his peers with a number of awards including the MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence Award amongst many others.

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Calendar Now - March 24: “Iconografíca” The Tulare Historical Museum is New Works by Local Artist Fran- proud to proclaim that art educacisco Alonzo tion is alive and well throughout the Wednesdays - Saturdays from 12- Tulare City School and Tulare Joint 5:30pm - Arts Visalia is pleased to Union High School districts! Open present local artist Francisco Alonzo reception will be held on Thursday, who will be showing new works in a March 2, at the Heritage Art Galshow entitled “Iconografíca”: an in- lery at THM from 4-6pm. Each year vestigation of the role of capitalism students throughout Tulare, from on contemporary culture. As Fran- elementary school to high school, cisco states, his show “ explores how show off their best works of art in important iconography is reduced various creative mediums, in this to everyday knick-knacks and the long-standing THM tradition. The interweaving of other images into reception is open to the public and contemporary culture”. Arts Visalia free of charge. The Tulare Historical Visual Art Center is located at 214 Museum is located at 444 W. Tulare Ave. in Tulare.

E. Oak Ave., Visalia.

Now - End of Spring Semester: The Great Conversation at COS 2nd & 4th Mondays, 4-5:30pm The spring semester has just begun and The Great Conversation group reads and discusses some of the great classics of literature and philosophy published by the Great Books Foundation. The readings include excerpts or complete works by writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Christina Rossetti, Frank O’Connor, John Rawls, and Max Planck.

The book costs $24.95 through the Great Books Foundation. Contact Dr. Joseph Teller at josepht@cos. edu or at (559) 730-3924 for more information about the meeting location and book purchase.

MARCH March 17: St. Patrick’s Think Green Dinner 5pm - Presented by the Lindsay Cultural Arts Council fundraising dinner at the Lindsay Museum and Gallery. Corned beef and cabbage dinner and a no-host bar with green beer and Irish coffee. 50/50 raffle.

It is advisable to wear some green!

Tickets $20. Take out is available.

The Museum is located at 165 N. Gale St. For more information email lindsaymuseumandgallery@gmail. com or call Pam Kimball, (559) 562-1027.

Now - April 15: CSET Free Tax Re- March 17: Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser Day at Porterville College turn Service Saturdays - 9am - 3pm - The Volun- 5-7pm - Trade that corned beef for teer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) delicious spaghetti at the Porterville program prepares federal and state College Cafeteria - take out also tax returns at no cost to households available. Tickets - $13. Proceeds with less than $54,000 annual in- go toward the Veterans Memorial at come. More information regarding the college. Sponsored by the Rotathe VITA program including con- ry Club of Porterville. For ticket intact information, documentation formation call, Greg Meister, (559) requirements and helpful links is 535-3788 or PC Veteran Resource available online by visiting www. Center, (559) 791-2222. cset.org/vita or by calling (559) 741-4640. For information on tax preparation services offered in Kings County, please contact Kings United Way at (559) 584-1536 or Kings Community Action Organization at (559) 582-4386.VITA Sites VISALIA CSET Main Office - 312 NW 3rd Avenue, TULARE Family Resource Center - 304 E. Tulare Avenue, CUTLER CSET Office - 12691 Avenue 408, PORTERVILLE Employment Connection 1063 W. Henderson Avenue.

March 18: Kellie Pickler at the Visalia Fox Theatre

8pm - Presented by Hands in the Community. Kellie Pickler grew up immersed in country music in the small town of Albemarle, North Carolina with the words of Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton shaping her musical footing. At the age of 19, she first gained fame as a contestant on the fifth season of “American Idol.”

Tickets on sale now - $40-$83. For more information, visit www.foxNow - April 1: 29th Annual Tulare visalia.org.

Student Art Show

Lunch served 12-1 pm $4 Please call 713-4481. Reservations m Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday 1 Wings with sauce 2

served with pulled pork slider, potato chips and fruit

DAILY SALAD Option: Chicken Caesar Salad available as a meal replacement.

6 Hearty vegetarian

3-bean chili with corn chips, cornbread and fresh fruit

Monday 13 Grilled chicken in

March 2017 Lunc 7 Italian style sub sandwich

20 Chicken soft tacos 3-bean chili with with lettuce, chopped corn chips, corntomato, cheese and bread fruit salsa inand flourfresh tortillas with beans and fruit

13 Grilled chili chicken 27 Hearty within

bowtie ground pasta turkeywith and mushrooms in a markidney beans, potato sala wine salad, cornsauce breadwith and green fruit salad, garlic bread and fruit

8 Quesadilla with

9

ch Lunch served 12-1and pm $4 pork carnitas Al cheese, Mexican 713-4481. ReservationsCam

with turkey, salami, tomato and shredded lettuce served with minestrone Please call soup with vegetables and

Tuesday

rice, chips & salsa lic with fruit Wednesday

14 Pastrami and

15 Baked ziti pasta 1 Wings with sauce 16 2

fruit

DAILY Option: Swiss on rye bread bowtieSALAD pasta with Chicken Caesar Salad with corn chowder mushrooms in a maravailable as a with meal sala wine sauce replacement. green salad, garlic bread and fruit

6 Hearty vegetarian

sa sa ap ro an

with Italian served withsausage, pulled vegetables and mozzapork slider, potato rella, Caesar salad, chips and fruit garlic bread and fruit

an

7 Italian style sub sandwich

8 Quesadilla with 21 pounders with Quarter turkey, salami, tomato 22 Wing Wednesday

and shredded with cheese,lettuce lettuce, served with minestrone tomato, chips and soup with vegetables and fruit

fruit

14Meatloaf Pastramiwith and 28 Swiss onpotatoes, rye bread mashed vegetables, salad, roll and with corn chowder fruit

sa ch sa ve w ap sa ro

pork carnitas and with pulled pork slidcheese, Mexican er, warm German porice, chips & salsa tato salad and fruit with fruit

15 ziti pasta 29 Baked Chili verde with

with Italian sausage, rice, beans, tortillas vegetables and mozzaand rella,fruit Caesar salad, garlic bread and fruit

9

23 ch

en Al gr Ca as lic fr

16 30

ch w ve cr w tr sa

**Items on Menu are March 19: Quest for Water Book com or calling 732-1251. The pubSigning at Tulare is welcome.

20 Chicken soft Historical tacos 21MuseQuarter lic pounders 22 Wing Wednesday 23 umwith lettuce, chopped with cheese,March lettuce,23: COS with pulled slidCHAPpork - “All Theyen tomato, cheese and

gr

tomato, andCall You” 2pm - Richard Zack of Visalia willchips Will er, warm German posalsa in flour tortillas as fruit givewith a presentation and book signand fruit tato salad beans and fruit 6:30pm - College of the Sequoias’fr ing on his book “Quest For Water, Cultural Historical Awareness ProTulare Irrigation District: Its Histo- gram (CHAP) program’s theme for 27 Hearty with 28Join Meatloaf with 29 Chili verde with 30 ry, People andchili Progression.” the 2016-2017 is: “Economic Inequalimashed potatoes, vegground turkey and museum for a fascinating presenta- ty: Problemsrice, tortillas w andbeans, Representations.” etables, salad, roll and kidney beans, potato tion on our Valley’s most precious All CHAP events and fruit are free and opencr salad, corn bread and fruit resource, and the role which the Tu- to the public. Campus parking istr fruit lare Irrigation District has had with free during the events. in the Pon**Items on Menu are it for 127 years. The program will derosa lecture hall, COS will enterbe held in the Heritage Art Gallery. tain Tim Z. Hernandez, novelist and The program is open to the public poet. Hernandez will be celebrating and is free of charge. Admission to the hometown release of his book, the museum is also free on this day “All They Will Call You.” “All They during its hours of operation, 12:30- Will Call You,” is the harrowing ac4:00pm. count of the California plane crash March 21: League of Women Vot- in 1948 that claimed the lives of 32 ers Meeting passengers, 28 of which were Mexi11:15am - The League of Women can citizens; farmworkers being deVoters will meet in Left of Center, ported by the U.S. government. The 699 W. Center, Visalia. This will be narrative captures testimony, historthe third program on Sustainability ical records and eyewitness accounts with the focus on Agriculture. Exec- to paint an intimate portrait of those utive Director of the Tulare County who perished. More information on Farm Bureau, Tricia Stever Blattler, these and other, upcoming CHAP will speak of the future of agricul- events is available at cos.edu/CHAP ture in Tulare County. This Exeter or by calling 559.730.3921.

native, a graduate at Cal Poly, manages the day to day operations and represents agriculture interests of the Bureau. A luncheon will be served for $15 (including tax and tip). Reservations are required by March 17 by contacting newellgb@hotmail.

March 24: Zumbathon at West Hills College, Lemoore

6-8pm - A Zumbathon will be held at West Hills College, Lemoore to benefit the WHCL nursing program’s Class of 2017. The event is

4.00 Dine In

or Takeout & under 54 yrs:

$5.00

must be made one business day in advance by 12 PM.

Thursday

Friday

Croissant chicken andwich, Waldorf alad with lettuce, pples, celery, carots and dressing, nd fruit

3 Clam chowder with grilled ham and cheese on Texas toast, salad and fruit

Weekly Salad Option:

Cobb Salad With Chicken, tomato, avocado, lettuce and bacon bits with ranch and feta cheese

ch Menu / Visalia Senior Center

Penne pasta with 10 Veggie pizza with Perfect Chicken Garhicken, broccoli spinach, mushrooms, Dineand In or Takeout & under yrs: den Salad Chicken, lfredo sauce with black olives, bell pepwalnut, dried cranberaesar salad and garper and onions served must be made one business day inryadvance bybalsamic PM. salad with c bread with fruit with salad and fruit vinaigrette

4.00

54

$5.00

12

Thursday

Friday

chicken 3 Clam 17 Cornchowder beef andwith 6Croissant Green chili and

andwich, Waldorf heese enchiladas alad with erde (greenlettuce, sauce) with Mexican rice, pples, celery, caraladand anddressing, fruit ots

grilled ham and cabbage with carrots cheese on Texas and potatoes, salad, toast,and salad fruit rolland fruit

nd fruit

Penne pasta with

Weekly Salad Option:

Chef Salad—with diced Cobb Salad cheeses, black olives, With tomato Chicken,and tomato, ham, hard avocado, lettuce and boiled eggs with ranch bacon bits with ranch dressing and feta cheese

10 Veggie pizza with

3 Homemade chick- 24 Salisbury steak with Greek PerfectSalad— ChickenCrisp Gar-rohicken, broccoli and spinach, mushrooms,

nlfredo noodle soupwith with sauce rilled on garTexaesar cheese salad and sc toast and fresh bread with fruit ruit

Green chili 06 Chicken pot and pie heese enchiladas with vegetables in a erde (green sauce) ream sauce with paswith Mexican rice, ry, aladsalad and and fruitfruit

mashed potatoes, vegblack olives, bell pepetables, salad and fruit per and onions served with salad roll and fruit with

maine, tomato, cucumden Salad Chicken, ber, Kalamata olives, red walnut, dried cranberry salad onion andwith feta balsamic cheese in vinaigrette champagne Dijon vinaigrette

17 beeffrittata and 31 Corn Vegetable

Chef Chef Salad Salad—with —with diced diced

with mushrooms, zucchicabbage with carrots ni and bell pepper with and potatoes, salad, bacon,and hash browns and fruit roll muffins with fruit

cheeses, cheeses, black black olives, olives, ham, tomato and ham, tomato and hard hard boiled eggs eggs with with ranch ranch boiled dressing dressing

e subject to change. being coordinated by the nursing Visalia project. Sponsorship and Greek Salad— ro- by are Crisp available to fundraise pinning 3 class Homemade chick- for24their Salisbury steakplayer with opportunities tomato, cucumcalling maine, the Visalia Chamber at 559May mashed 2017 and will vegn ceremony noodle soupinwith potatoes, ber, Kalamata olives, red rilled cheese Tex734-5876 or going to www.visaliabe held inonthe Golden Eagle Areetables, salad and fruit onion and feta cheese in s toast and freshis a popular with roll na. Zumba dance fit- chamber.org/golf champagne Dijon vinairuit ness program. Participants are asked March 25: Sequoia Garden Club’s grette to donate $10 to participate in the 3rd Lawn-Free Garden Tour available Chef Salad—with diced 0 Zumbathon.

Chicken pot pieTickets31 are Vegetable frittata 9am 3pm - The Sequoia Garden through WHCL’s Careers of- zucchi- cheeses, black olives, with mushrooms, with vegetables in a Health Club isham, againtomato sponsoring garden ni and bell pepper fice sauce and can also be purchased from with and ahard ream with pastour focusing on drought tolerant bacon, For hashmore browns and boiled eggs with ranch nursing program students. ry, salad and fruit muffins with to help homeowners see dressing information call (559) 925-3490fruit or plantings that it is possible to conserve water, e email subject to change. healthcareerslemoore@whccd. save money, and have a beautiful edu. yard. Tour five different Visalia garMarch 24: Ninth Annual Leader- den venues with unique ideas, plus a ship Visalia Golf Tournament sixth venue, which includes City of the Visalia Chamber of Commerce Visalia Natural Resources Dept., Seand the Leadership Visalia Class quoia Riverlands Trust/ Dry Creek of 2016 will co-host the 9th Annu- Plant Sale. This is a self-guided tour. al Leadership Visalia Golf Tourna- Advance tickets are $15 and are ment at Valley Oaks Golf Course. available at: Sequoia Plaza FlowThis annual event raises funds to ers, Luis’s Nursery and Curry Copy support leadership education in Center. Day of tour - $20.00. For Visalia. The Leadership Visalia Golf more information, contact: dmeTournament Committee is excited keel@att.net to announce that the most popular March 25: An Evening with the components of past tournaments Great Gatsby - Murder on the Oriwill again be part of the event. This ent Express year the tournament will include: a putting challenge, closest to the hole 6-11pm - A Tulare Hospital Founchallenge, hole in one competition dation Event - Murder mystery dinand the longest drive competition. ner gala - live orchestra, ballroom Other fun features include a gun- dance and vocal performances. Atshot bump up hole, and prizes for tire: Formal evening wear, flapper, the top finishing teams. In addition, black tie, tuxedo preferred. $150/ donated items will be raffled off to person. Held at the Tulare Veterans raise funds for the 2017 Leadership Memorial Building, 1771 E. Tulare

Ave. For more information, visit COS Tulare College Center. Spring www.tularehospitalfoundation.org. 2017 Featured Programs include March 25: Aviation & Law En- Manufacturing (Welding & Industrial Maintenance), Culinary Arts, forcement Career Expo Automotive Technology, Agricul10am-2pm - Hosted by San Joa- ture Business and Plant Science. For quin Valley College and APR Avia- more information, call Emily Jahr tion. Aircraft on display will include at 688-3042 or Loren Kelly at 423F-15, Black Hawk, CHP Airvan, 0411.

Skywatch and Cessna 206. Learn about piloting for law enforcement - Aircraft Maintenance and Avionics. SJVC Aviation Campus, 4985 E. Anderson Ave., Fresno. For more information, call (559) 453-0123 - April 1: Rockin’ Run for Hope Aviation Campus, (559) 676-7879 4:30pm - Bank of the Sierra’s Rockin’ Resolution Run and Visalia Res- Tom Sabino. cue Mission’s Run for Hope become March 29: YEA! Investor Panel one in Cutler Park. next to St. John’s 6-8pm - Meet the 2017 YEA! stu- River around sunset, with the run dents and listen to them pitch their beginning at 4:30pm and ending business ideas to a panel of local around 6:00pm. After working up investors and receive start-up fund- an appetite, participants will be able ing. After six months of field trips, to enjoy food and dessert from Queguest speakers, mentor meetings sadilla Gorilla’s food truck, Bite Me and classes the YEA! students are Donuts, and Cool Cow Scoops ice ready to show you what they are cream. Musical guest, Run River made of. One of the students will North, a sextet from Los Angeles, be chosen to represent Visalia at the will take the stage to wrap up one 2017 Saunders Scholars competi- rockin’ evening. For this first time, tion in Rochester, New York. The runners will be able to start teams of YEA! Investor Panel will be held at their own with friends, family, and Tulare County Office of Education coworkers, and set their own fundBuilding, 6200 S. Mooney Blvd. in raising goals to support the Mission.

Visalia. Open to the public & free. To register for run and to create a For more information or rsvp, email team of your own, go to vrmhope. nicola@visaliachamber.org. org/run or call the Mission at 740March 29: Vince Gill with Lyle 4178. Just want to see the band and leave your running shoes at home?

Lovett at the Visalia Fox Theatre You can do that, too. For more in7:30pm - After teaming up for a seformation, contact VRM Developries of concerts in 2015 and 2016, ment Coordinator, Jessica Rondon: Gill and Lovett saw that the shows jessica@vrmhope.org - 740-4178 were so successful that they decidext. 210. ed to extend the tour. A portion of the proceeds benefit Tulare & Kings April 1: Spring Kids Fest in PorCounty Suicide Prevention Task terville Force. Tickets on sale now - $44- 12-3:30pm - Kids Fest is geared to$106. Brought to the Visalia Fox by wards ages 2-12, but there will be Rainmaker Productions. plenty of activities for the whole March 30: Entree to Employment family to enjoy! Wristbands $4 in advance; $6 the day of. Price in5-7pm - The Career Technical Edcludes all rides and games. There is ucation Department at College of no cost to enter the park. Wristbands the Sequoias would like to invite may be purchased in advance at the local industry professionals to our Heritage Center, located at 256 E. mentor night called “Entrée to EmOrange Ave, M-F, 8am-5:30pm. ployment.” Meet our most prom2pm - E & M’s Reptile Family feaising students over a catered meal ture show. Held at Sports Complex, and share information about your 2701 W. Scranton Ave. organization and career. Held at the

APRIL

Send your calendar items to: editor@ourvalleyvoice.com

16 March, 2017

B6 • Valley Voice

Two Inducted into Porterville College Hall of Fame Staff Reports Two Porterville residents were recently inducted into the Porterville College Hall of Fame.

Virginia Gurrola

Virginia Gurrola retired in 2013 after completing a 37 year career at Porterville College. In 1976 Gurrola was hired to serve as the Extended Opportunity Program and Services (EOPS) Secretary, then moved into the Director’s position where she initiated one of the most successful grassroots recruitment to increase the Hispanic enrollment at the college.

She continued to hold several leadership positions at PC including Director of the Financial Aid Department, Admissions and Records Office, as well as the Executive Director to the PC Foundation. One of most significant accomplishments has been to be a part of so many students’ lives and to build lasting relationships with many of them.

In 1995 Virginia Gurrola was elected to serve as the first Mexican American woman on the Porterville City Council and serve as its Mayor. She completed her twelfth year on the council after serving from 1995 to 2003 and 2012 to December 2016. In her first year on council she was appointed by council to serve on the Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG) and did so for nearly 12 years during her four terms on the council. In addition she served on TCAG’s Mitigation Banking Committee and Rail Advisory Committee (RAC) to support city efforts. Gurrola is proud of the numerous city projects that were envisioned during her terms: the Sports Complex, the widening of Main Street, Plano and Jaye Street Bridges, and the revitalization of the Orange- Main – Date

Street corridor. The Felipe Rivera. GurCasa De Rio water rola is a first generproject and developation college gradument. Most recentate from Porterville ly is the East PorterCollege and Califorville Water Project nia State University, to assist residents Bakersfield.

Her living in drought family crossed from conditions to obMexico in the early tain water. As of the 1900’s to capture a end of this month, part of the Ameri290 residents will can Dream and ingo from relying on stilled in their fambottled water to ily that anything is connections into possible. And it is! city’s water system.

Gurrola inspiIn 2015 Gurrola ration in life is God was nominated and and her family. Her selected to serve Virginia Gurrola, left, and Robert Haynes, husband of 47 years, on the San Joaquin right, are pictured with Dr. Rosa Carlson, Salvador Gurrola Valley Unified Air President of Porterville College, center. together have three Pollution Control Courtesy/Porterville College sons, nine grandDistrict representchildren and two ing Tulare County cities. This project and great granddaughters. Her son Jacob award from the California Air Resources and his wife have three children; Emilee, Board (CARB) of $9.5 million to pur- Immanuel and Jayden. Jason has two chase 10 Green Power 40-foot zero-emis- children Justyne and Kandyce and with sion all-electric transit buses on all nine his wife Cristina have Vanessa and Jason Porterville Transit routes places this city Jr. Their youngest Carlos has a daughter in the forefront of emerging technology.

Alina and son Derrick. The great grandGurrola is committed to commu- daughters are twins Allie and Elizabeth nity service. She has served as a past (their mother is Justyne). Virginia enjoys President of the Commission Honorific spending time with family, hiking in our Mexicana-Americana, Inc., Family Cri- beautiful mountains and takes pleasure in ses Center Board and currently is the God’s blessings.

President of the American Association of University Women (AAUW).

She Robert Haynes is commitment to changing the lives of Robert “Rob” Haynes a Far Rockachildren and assisting girls and women in way, New York native, dreamed of com“breaking through educational and eco- ing to California to play basketball as he nomic barriers”. spent countless hours in the park workWith all of these achievements, Gur- ing on his game. He first visited Porterrola is proud and humble of her family ville College in 2001, while playing for roots. She was born in Lindsay a small the San Francisco City College Men’s town comprised of the Ag industry. She Basketball Team. During pre-season play is one of seven children born to Mary and

with City College, Rob was faced with an injury which led him back to New York.

After recovery, he was faced with finding a new school to attend and play basketball.

With the help of Coach Troy Johnson, Rob became a Porterville College Pirate in the late summer of 2003.

Under head coach Scott Elitelgeorge, Rob was named team captain for the 2003-2004 season. Rob was named to Bakersfield College’s all-tournament team, averaging 13.5 points and nine rebounds and Skyline College’s all-tournament team. After the 2003-2004 season Rob was ranked fourth in rebounds in the Central Valley Conference. He averaged 13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block, per game. The Central Valley Conference named Rob to the All-Conference Team, All-Defensive Team, All-Freshman Team, and Co-Freshman of the Year. In conference play, Rob lead all conference freshman in scoring.

Remaining under Scott Eitlegeorge, Rob was named team captain for the 2004-2005 season. The Central Valley Conference named Rob to the All-Defense Team. In conference play, Rob lead the conference in rebounding. He was named under the top 100 players in California Junior College Basketball. His sophomore year was excited as he was heavily recruited to play basketball at the next level. Rob was honored to sign and accepted a full scholarship to play for a Colorado State University.

Rob received his Associate of Science, Social Science from Porterville College in 2005 and ultimately completed his Master’s Degree of Kinesiology from Fresno Pacific in 2013.

Although Rob does not play competitive basketball anymore, his passion and love for the game has transitioned as he is now honored to coach Men’s Basketball for Porterville College.

COS Offers Produce Safety Rule Train-The-Trainer Course

Healthy Visalia Committee to hold Walk With a Doc Staff Reports The Healthy Visalia Committee is holding its monthly Walk With a Doc event on Saturday, ­­­ March 11th at Blain Park located at 3101 S. Court St., in Visalia from 8am – 9:30am. The theme for this month is Healthy Eating Out. A medical profession will provide tips to help making eating out a healthier treat.

In addition, a Zumba demonstration will take place at 8:15am. Family medicine physician Jonathan Melekh-Shalom, MD will be on hand to provide a short presentation and lead the walk that day promptly at 8:30am.

Walk with a Doc is a walking program for everyone interested in taking steps for a healthier lifestyle. What better way to start your weekend than on your feet making strides to help your

heart and improving your general health to live longer? Walks are held the second Saturday of each month at Blain Park in Visalia. For more information, please visit us online at www.walkwithadoc.org and search Visalia.

This is a free event and everyone is welcome to attend. No special equipment needed; participants should wear comfortable shoes. Come learn more about Walk with a Doc and tips for healthy eating when you are out and about.

The Healthy Visalia Committee is working in partnership with Kaweah Delta Health Care District, Family HealthCare Network, Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency, and the Visalia Parks and Recreation Department.

College of Sequoias Training Resource Center is offering a two-day train-the-trainer course on the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule on April 5 & 6, 2017, at the COS Tulare Center, 4999 E Bardsley.

The Product Safety Alliance (PSA) Trainer Certificate meets the training requirement that, “at least one supervisor or responsible party from a farm subject to the FSMA Produce Safety Rule must have successfully completed food safety training at least equivalent to that received under standardized curriculum recognized as adequate by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).”

This two-day course will provide detailed information about Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs), co-management of natural resources and food safety, FSMA Produce Safety Rule requirements and a review of the seven module PSA Grower Training curriculum.

The course will also cover principles of adult education, how to incorporate the PSA curriculum into other extension trainings, developing working partnerships, expectations for trainers and how to register a PSA Grower Training Course with the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO).

Staff Reports Who should attend the train-thetrainer course?

Produce safety educators and others who work with fruit and vegetable growers who are interested in becoming PSA Trainers or PSA Lead Trainers.

Those who become a PSA Trainer or PSA Lead Trainer are able to offer the PSA standardized curriculum to train fresh produce growers to meet the regulatory requirements in the FDA’s FSMA Produce Safety Rule.

This curriculum was developed through a nationwide collaboration including produce growers, extension educators, researchers, produce industry representatives and government personnel.

Join us for this two-day training that is certified and approved by the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) and the FDA. The cost of the training is $349 per person and includes materials, certificate fee, lunch and refreshments.

Register now through COS Training Resource Center Website at URL: http//:www.cos.edu/TrainingCenter For more information go to cos.edu and/or call 559.688.3130

16 March, 2017

Valley Voice • B7

Education It Happens Every Spring Todd Oto, Ed.D., VUSD Superintendent Nope--this isn’t a piece on baseball!

It’s about another spring activity in school districts: goal setting. Every year at about this time the Visalia Unified Board of Trustees sets goals for the upcoming school year.

This February, the Board engaged once more in the goalsetting process for our District and came away with an approach that is very familiar but more strategic: The goals for the present year were confirmed and extended for the next five years.

This is hugely important for us, for it allows us a strategic perspective that helps us in two ways.

First, it allows us to take the “long view” on making progress. This is important in that it helps us focus on systems and processes instead of shorter-term results.

In the early years of school accountability, the system inadvertently encouraged the focusing of activity on some subgroups of students so that annual numeric targets could be met.

School efforts could fall, then, into focusing on meeting the demand to increase scores within the accountability system instead of focusing on meeting the needs of kids and increasing achievement.

Clearly, this was an unintended consequence of a policy aimed at help-

ing ensure that kids had equitable access to learning.

Second, it allows our staff the knowledge that we will persist in our existing work to support students and learning.

Many veteran teachers can share the experience of facing something new every school year.

Typically, this felt like a change in the focus of staff development and approaches to teaching and curriculum where we tossed out what we did last year and tried something new every fall.

While that was never the intent, it was all too often true for it was tempting to chase the newest best way to improve our scores.

Our mission remains the same: We exist to provide students with an education that affords them limitless opportunities for the future.

To attain that mission, we extend the five goals set for Visalia Unified into 2022: 1. Engage students in a challenging curriculum and provide them the support to be successful This goal establishes that students will have equitable and systematic access to instruction that supports learning at high levels for all. It includes also the need to ensure that each student has a path through our school

West Hills Student Earns Achievement Award She has also served as a member of Staff Reports the WHCC Associated Student Body West Hills College Coalinga stu- as Commissioner of Public Relations, dent Teonia Gonzales has been honored the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, with the 2017 Student Athlete Achieve- and has volunteered her time to several ment Award by the Community Col- WHCC fundraising events.

She plans to lege Counselors/ transfer to a fourAdvisors Academic year university to Association for Athearn her Bachelor’s letics (3C4A).

Degree in PsycholThe achieveogy and Commument award honnications. ors student athletes “Teonia is a who have overgreat student, a hard come great personworker and leadal, academic and/ er and has strong or emotional odds communication to achieve success skills,” said Erin while participating Corea, counselor at in intercollegiate WHCC who nomathletics. As part of inated Gonzales for the award, Gonzathe honor. “Her les will also receive infectious enthusia $250 scholarship. Teonia Gonzales. Courtesy/WHCCD asm, work ethic and “Receiving this award is a blessed opportunity,” said positive attitude make her a please to be Gonzales. “But without the staff mem- around. She is a great representative of bers, like counselor Erin Corea, who student-athletes and greatly deserves this believed in me and gave me a chance to high honor.”

Gonzales will receive the 3C4A Stuachieve my goals I wouldn’t be here.”

A graduate of Barstow High School, dent Athlete Achievement Award on Gonzales is set to graduate this May with March 29 at the California Community two degrees in Liberal Arts- Social and College Athletic Association 20th AnBehavioral Science and Psychology. She nual Convention in Concord, during is the Team Captain of the WHCC vol- the Celebration of Scholar Athletes leyball team and won the WHCC Fal- Luncheon. con Coaches award in 2016.

system that is relevant to his or her plans for adult life.

2. Support a district-wide collaborative culture for students and adults focused on learning and results This goal establishes that kids learn how to collaborate as a part of our instructional program, and also that adults in our organization work together to teach, support and serve our kids better. Further, it expects that we communicate and work as partners with parents in the education of their children.

3. Maintain a caring and encouraging learning environment for students and adults This goal focuses on the way that kids and adults interact with and among each other. The way that school feels to students impacts their learning greatly, and we are committed to making school feel welcoming, positive, and supportive. We have the same expectation for the work environment for adults, for we want our staff in all departments to feel that they can work in a positive and productive environment.

4. Recruit, hire, and retain highly qualified, talent-

ed,

and

productive

staff

This goal establishes the importance of having the best possible people in our organization. We are a people organization. It takes people to teach, support, and serve our kids. And having skilled and committed people is the key to helping kids achieve at the highest levels possible.

5. Align resources to support District goals, student achievement, and school sites In the simplest possible terms, this goal says that we will use all of our fiscal resources as efficiently as we can to support our mission and our goals.

In the local control era, this means engaging the community in assessing our performance and in establishing priorities for our work.

I am excited to continue the work that we have started in Visalia Unified.

These are good goals that speak to us clearly and that command our attention, resources, and best efforts in the service of the kids of our community.

Although this particular set of goals is relatively new, it is important to know that our target has remained the same for many years: helping kids get an education that allows them to take a strong first step into adult life.

CalWater Takes Visalia Students on Tour of Operation In recognition of National Groundwater Awareness Week, California Water Service took two classes of Visalia high school students on a tour of its Visalia water operations.

The students were from the Academy of Engineering and Agricultural Manufacturing at Golden West High School and the Academy of Agricultural Bioscience & Technology at Visalia Technical Early College.

They will learn about groundwater extraction, well and production operations, water quality, water treatment and how Cal Water gets water from the source to the tap.

“Despite the wet winter, we here in the Central Valley, and especially here in Visalia, know the importance of managing our water resources,” said Visalia District Manager Tammy Kelly.

“Our potable water system in Visalia is 100 percent reliant on groundwater. Since Cal Water already has such a great relationship with Visalia Unified School District and we’ve become involved in VUSD’s Linked Learning Academies program, Groundwater Awareness Week seemed like a natural fit for something like this.

“We hope activities like this en-

Staff Reports

courage students to explore careers in water service, water resources management, water quality and water systems engineering. Even if they do not pursue such careers, they can gain valuable insight into the intricacies of providing reliable, high-quality drinking water 24 hours per day, every day of the year, and hopefully we’ll all remember to use water wisely. It’s essential.”

Cal Water has provided high-quality, reliable water service to Visalians since 1926.

One hundred percent of the water provided to Cal Water’s Visalia residents and businesses is groundwater.

Cal Water serves about 43,100 service connections in Visalia and about two million people through 480,300 service connections in California.

The company, which has provided water service in the Visalia area since 1926, was ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction among Water Utilities in the West” in 2016 by J.D. Power in its inaugural Water Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study. Additional information may be obtained online at www.calwater.com.

16 March, 2017

Valley Voice • B8

Rockin’ Run & Run for Hope Combine into Rockin’ Run for Hope Staff Reports It finally happened — the marriage we have been waiting for.

Both events happened to begin with a similar motivation.

Run for Hope began in 2012 by Rob Brunell and Matt Dewry, two friends and avid runners who started Central Valley Roadrunners running group.

They connected with John Tyler, a coworker and fellow runner.

They felt they could use their running hobby as a springboard, creating a family-friendly fitness event with a fundraising element.

Bank of the Sierra began the Rockin’ Resolution Run from a desire to improve every community it is a part of, which has included Visalia since 1992 with

their Main Street branch.

With both their business and the event growing through their 4th Annual run on January 1, 2016, bank staff contacted VRM with a proposal to donate the successful event to them.

“Bank of the Sierra has fully supported the mission of the Visalia Rescue Mission, and was proud to contribute the proceeds from the Rockin’ Resolution Run to VRM each of the last three years,” stated Matt Hessler, SVP, Director of Marketing at Bank of the Sierra.

“As the Resolution Run became more successful, we saw an opportunity to donate the entire run to VRM, in an effort to provide a proven and ongoing source of capital with the potential for exponential growth.”

“Visalia Rescue Mission exists be-

cause of a generous community, and businesses like Bank of the Sierra are such an asset to us, both in financial support and in creative collaborations,” said Ryan Stillwater, Director of Development.

For this first time, runners will be able to start teams of their own with friends, family, and coworkers, and set their own fundraising goals to support the Mission.

“Whether a team raises $5 or $500, everyone can come together to walk or run in support of changed lives and restored families,” Stillwater said.

Another change over prior years is the time of the event.

Participants will find themselves at Cutler Park next to St. John’s River around sunset, with the run beginning at 4:30pm and ending around 6pm.

After working up an appetite, participants will be able to enjoy food and dessert from Quesadilla Gorilla’s food truck, Bite Me Donuts, and Cool Cow Scoops ice cream.

Musical guest, Run River North, a sextet from Los Angeles, will take the stage to wrap up one rockin’ evening.

To register for run and to create a team of your own, go to vrmhope.org/ run or call the Mission at 740-4178.

Just want to see the band and leave your running shoes at home? You can do that, too.

For more information, contact VRM Development Coordinator, Jessica Rondon: jessi-ca@vrmhope.org - 7404178 ext. 210.

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