Valley Voice Issue 90 (6 April, 2017)

Volume XXXVII No. 7 • 6 April, 2017

www.ourvalleyvoice.com

Visalia Reignites Fourth of July Celebration

Tulare Mayor and Commissioners Differ on Reasons for BPU Dismissals

Catherine Doe

Dave Adalian Tulare’s Board of Public Utilities is getting a forced overhaul from the top down.

At a special meeting of the City Council tonight, April 6, Mayor Carlton Jones will present his choices to fill four of the five seats on the currently unmanned Board of Public Utilities Commission. His picks will require approval by the Council.

Last month, all five of the former commissioners lost or resigned from their jobs, beginning with the dismissal of Ed Henry and Lee Brehm, who were removed by 3-1 votes of the Council at a meeting on March 21. The votes to remove the pair were followed immediately by the resignation of BPU President Philip Smith. Jim Pennington and Dick Johnson, the two remaining commissioners, also quit in protest.

Councilman David Macedo voted no both times. Vice Mayor Maritsa Castellanoz was absent.

Prior Knowledge

The agenda item that ultimately led to the removal of Henry and Brehm was listed as a discussion between staff and the Council about the removal and appointment process for members on the city’s committees. However, BPU commissioners and their supporters

TULARE continued on 10 »

Hanford’s Bastille, described as the city’s “jewel.” Catherine Doe/Valley Voice

Hanford City Council Makes a U-Turn on Renovating Bastille Catherine Doe After making an impassioned plea to save Hanford’s “jewel” during its March 7 city council meeting, the council members rejected a bid to renovate the historic building during its March 18 meeting. Three bids were submitted, with the lowest coming in at $982,000

by JTS Construction. The vote was 5 – 0 against.

The city council was informed at its previous meeting that the renovations would cost approximately $1million, and Hanford residents in attendance

were encouraging them to make the leap.

But council members began to feel uncomfortable leaving the Accumulated Capital Outlay (ACO) with such little money. The ACO also funds Downtown revitalization projects, after school programs, and the Old Court House, which needs $500,000 worth of repairs. Lou Camara, Director of Public Works, informed the council that the ACO currently has $1.2 million, which would only leave $200,000 for all other expenditures if the council accepted the bid.

BASTILLE continued on 12 »

After a two-year hiatus, Visalia is reigniting its Independence Day Celebration. The Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) will be hosting an all-day family event on July 4, including a 20-minute fireworks show at Groppetti Stadium.

Bringing the fireworks show was one of Visalia Mayor Warren Gubler’s goals for 2017, and that goal became a reality at the March 20 city council meeting.

Approving CASA to host the celebration was tucked into the consent calendar and was pulled for discussion by Councilmember Steve Nelsen.

As he stated earlier in the year, Nelsen objected to spending $25,000 on a party. He felt like the city could get more “bang for its buck.”

At the February 6 city council meeting, the council directed staff to solicit service organizations to submit a proposal to run the event. The council also allocated $25,000; $10,000 as a contribution, $10,000 as a one-time, first year incentive given the short time frame, and $5,000 for staff expenses.

Gubler said during the February meeting that the celebration is an opportunity to show our patriotism and celebrate the birth of our nation. Gubler also thought there had been an increase in illegal use of fireworks and accidental fires as a result of the Freedom Show’s being canceled. He suggested that

FIREWORKS continued on 4 »

State Takes Tulare Hospital to Task for Medical Staff Feud Tony Maldonado Officials with HCCA have written a response to the report mentioned below, available on Page 14.

The State of California has once again stepped into the feud between between the Tulare Regional Medical Center’s (TRMC) Board of Directors and doctors representing its prior Medical Executive Committee (MEC), and it’s got choice words for both sides.

A new report, published by the California Department of Public Health, originally obtained by the Visalia Times-Delta, and available below, comes as the district battles a lawsuit from the prior MEC. Key parts of the report claim that board members failed to attempt to resolve their differences with the prior MEC, instead casting them aside in favor of a new medical staff and executive committee.

In doing so, the state’s inspectors wrote, the district violated its own bylaws — and state laws that guarantee the self-governance of a medical staff.

“The Board’s failure to respect [the old MEC]’s right to self-govern disrupt-

ed medical staff functions, interrupted clinical oversight of department responsibilities, and removed 174 medical staff members from Active status without due process, just cause, or their consent to give up their self-governance,” the report stated.

In an interview with state inspectors, Sherrie Bell, the former chairman of the Tulare Local Healthcare District (TLHCD) Board, acknowledged that the district had not attempted to work with the old MEC after a report from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that hospital officials felt could result in the closure of the hospital.

Instead, the board voted to push the old group aside, installing a new medical staff headed by a new Medical Executive Committee.

That new committee included Dr. Parmod Kumar, a board member now up for recall; his wife, Dr. Parul Gupta; and Dr. Ronald Ostrom, who also serves as the medical director for both Southern Inyo Hospital and the Student Health &

REPORT continued on 8 »

Dr. Benny Benzeevi, CEO/Chairman of HCCA, speaks to the Tulare Local Healthcare District Board of Directors at the board’s regularly scheduled March meeting.

Tony Maldonado/Valley Voice

Tulare Hospital Board Moves to Pursue Loan for Tower Project In a contentious meeting, the Tulare Regional Medical Center’s (TRMC) board voted 3-2 along faction lines on March 23 to allow the company that runs the hospital to not only pursue, but fully execute, a loan to complete the hospital’s beleaguered tower project.

The vote approved a resolution that would allow Healthcare Conglomerate Associates (HCCA) the company which

Tony Maldonado manages TRMC, to apply for, obtain and execute any potential loan.

The resolution, numbered as Resolution 851, was not provided to the public online or in pre-printed packets at the meeting. As of publication time, the resoluton also was not on the

LOAN continued on 9 »

2 • Valley Voice

6 April, 2017 From the Publisher’s desk

The Dreaded Chicken Foot

I had intended to write about winning. Specifically how the Orange Horror averred, before his election, that we’d all get so sick of winning our heads would spin.

But I could use a bit of levity just now, and give it slightly less than even money that sometime in the near future the Orange might exchange Horror for Jumpsuit.

Instead, I’ll tell you about the Dreaded Chicken Foot.

I figure I’ve been asked, “What’s for dinner?” in the neighborhood of 31,500 times (5 kids x 18 years x at least 350 times per year). When exasperated I always found it helped to reply with something sure to fall afoul of their sensibilities--something jellied, say, or pickled. Maybe even one of the pets. Naturally enough the kids always looked askance at this, eyebrows arched in reaction to my clearly departed wits.

This was my cue to start speaking in rhyme. “I’m going to bake a steak in a cake,” I’d say. Or, “I’m going to cram some ham in some spam in some clam in some lamb in some yam in some salmon. And I’m going to toss some jam in. So--no famine!”

And then I’d suggest a postprandial game of backgammon.

More quotidian, though, was, “Meatloaf,” or, “chicken.”

You try to feed kids what you’re confident they’ll actually eat. There remains, however, the exception of a pork chop our son, Alex, once refused. “It’s guilty,” he said. I’m still baffled by this. At the time I merely told him, “That’s why I had it killed.”

This was when we were living in Cabo San Lucas, in 1995--before the advent there of supermarkets. I went into a carneceria one afternoon to get a chicken. Inexplicably, the carcass included a single dismembered foot.

“What the hell am I going to do with this?” I mused, using it as a prosthesis to scratch my chin. The Chief arched her eyebrows in reaction to my clearly departed wits.

Over dinner I told the kids--in those days aged eight, seven, five and one--the importance of being good and doing well in school. Keep in mind that this was still the time of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Also the Dreaded Chicken Foot.

“If you misbehave,” I told them, “the Devil will leave a chicken foot inside your pillow.”

Keep in mind, too, that they were really sweet kids. At that stage in their careers they almost never misbehaved.

In 1995 we lived in a big three-bedroom house on a hill overlooking Santa Maria Bay. A master suite was upstairs, above two smaller bedrooms. To keep a room open for guests--and to discourage any nocturnal balcony wandering--we settled all but the youngest in the inner room.

After dinner, and after homework was done, I placed the chicken foot inside our oldest’s pillow while we were all watching television together. Easily the most susceptible to anything scary, I knew I could trust Chuck to truly frighten his siblings.

But I could not make the foot too easy to find. There had to be that lull while they talked the day down and sleepiness drew in upon them. The foot’s discovery at that undefended moment would electrify the room.

That’s why the Devil puts it inside the pillowcase. Foot-side down, to boot.

The detonation, when it came, required about an hour’s time. During which I coolly read a book.

Initially--and for reasons I’ve never understood--they thought the foot was the amputated hand of our youngest. This angle never occurred to me, and normally would be terrifying a-plenty--if I were not biting a knuckle in silent laughter. I listened outside the door, rolling on the tile floor in diabolical glee. Then the lights came on, and what had been something of a hullaballoo grew in volume to a more frantic chorus of shrieking.

“It’s the Chicken Foot!” screamed one.

“We’re going to hell!” screamed another.

This was another wrinkle that I had not thought of, and it was all I could do to contain myself.

What ensued was a sort of Chicken Foot hot potato.

“You take it!”--”No, YOU take it!”--”Give it to Teddy!”--”No way! I don’t want it!”

Then the cacophony crashed suddenly to silence, and the following, almost a whisper, came through the door, “Do you hear Dad out there laughing?”

Maybe this column is indeed about winning. Chalk one up for the Dreaded Chicken Foot.

Joseph Oldenbourg

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

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Reporters:

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

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6 April, 2017

Valley Voice • 3

Political Fix The Missing Jersey, Russia and Congressman Devin Nunes Unless you live with a New England Patriots fan, most readers may not be aware that quarterback Tom Brady’s jersey was stolen after the Super Bowl in January.

Someone posing as a member of the international media went into the Patriots’ locker room and stole the jersey right out of Mr. Brady’s sports bag after the game. Mr. Brady led the Patriots to the biggest comeback victory in super bowl history against the Atlanta Falcons and it was also the first Super Bowl to go into overtime. That made the jersey’s value estimated at $500,000.

This is actually the second time Mr. Brady’s jersey has been stolen, which I guess is a job hazard when you win the super bowl a record five times.

Because the suspect was believed to have transported the jersey to Mexico the FBI got involved. In no time flat the bureau not only found Mr. Brady’s jersey, but his old jerseys and another player’s helmet worn during a previous super bowl.

“We know how much this means to Patriots and football fans everywhere and we are honored to be able to bring these jerseys back to Foxboro,” said Harold Shaw, special agent of the FBI. Now, can we get Mr. Shaw to work on FBI’s investigation on Russia’s involvement in our elections? If he can do this kind of work when football paraphernalia is at stake, what might he do for our Democracy?

Our own Congressman Devin Nunes, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has been in charge of one arm of the government’s investigation into Russia. Rep. Nunes has expressed his skepticism about the link between President Donald Trump and Russia’s involvement in our election and has been hounded by critics and the press.

But he also told the Fresno Bee that if the FBI finds out otherwise it would be a “game changer” in terms of the investigation.

Rep. Nunes hasn’t generated this much press since he called the Freedom Caucus “lemmings with suicide vests” when the group threatened to shut down the federal government in 2013. His critics felt the comment was a little harsh, but it was accurate and pretty funny to boot. His critics may be off base this time too.

For one, Rep. Nunes was not an early supporter of Mr. Trump. Second, maybe Rep. Nunes feels like he is just doing his job.

When he saw evidence that the president, or his team, was being illegally surveilled he felt an obligation to warn the president. His critics say he compromised the investigation.

Now Rep. Nunes is being called on to step down as Chair of the House Intelligence Committee and his response was, “Why would I?” And why would he? Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is the one in charge of appointing or removing the chair. Rep. Ryan and Rep. Nunes have worked together on legislation for years and Mr. Ryan is not going to remove him. Maybe the president has a say in the matter also, but Mr. Trump isn’t going to remove him either. So the Senate, Congress and media can howl away.

Nor is Rep. Nunes’ performance as chairman going to jeopardize his 2018 election chances. Case in point sits around my dinner table. No one but Joseph and I even knew that Rep. Nunes was the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, or even knew that the committee existed.

On the other hand, if the Republican healthcare bill had passed, a bill he enthusiastically supported, that would have been a game changer for Rep. Nunes. 52,000 Tulare County residents were projected to lose

Catherine Doe

their healthcare, and possibly double that number in Fresno County, if the American Health Care Act became law. That’s a lot of angry voters.

But the health care bill did not pass and Rep. Nunes’ handling of the investigation does not directly affect his constituents. The volume of discontent from the protesters does not correspond with the number of discontented voters.

Challengers are nevertheless sharpening their swords. The 2018 election might be the first time since 2002 that Rep. Nunes faces a serious opponent.

Super Bowl LI was not Tom Brady’s first rodeo. He was suspended in the beginning of the season for four games because of Deflategate, threw a costly interception that turned into a touchdown in the second quarter, but then threw a super bowl record 466 yards to lead his team to victory.

This isn’t Rep. Nunes first rodeo either.

He has made some mistakes also. But Mr. Brady is coming back for another season and so is Rep. Nunes. Veterans of the game know political storms pass.

I do suspect that the FBI will produce more than two jerseys and a helmet when their investigation into our elections is over.

Because of the president’s sheer hubris I wouldn’t be surprised if he colluded with the Russians and thought he would just plain get away with it. I also predict that Vice President Mike Pence has so closely hitched his wagon to the president’s they will fall together.

Then who will be the last two standing?

Who Are the Terrorists Now? According to Betty Yee, California State Controller, undocumented labor contributed $180 billion to the gross national product in California in 2015. Labor from undocumented immigrants is fundamental to agriculture, child care, restaurants, hotels and construction.

“This is a workforce, a supply of labor from our undocumented workforce, that actually does provide just the basic foundations of these sectors and industries of being able to succeed and thrive,” she told the Los Angeles Times.

California is an economic power house precisely because we have a huge pool of hard working, under paid, undocumented laborers. Arizona’s economy faltered when they passed anti-immigration laws and Alabama’s Donald Trump experiment failed the state.

During the Obama administration Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were forced to concentrate on deporting gang members and other violent criminals and leave everyone else alone. Under President Trump’s new executive order he says he just wants to get the “bad hombres.”

But immigration agents have been given a free hand to do raids and mass deportations.

If the undocumented are deemed such a danger to society why would anyone give them a job? And why aren’t we jailing the employers who are the root of the problem?

Local law enforcement in the valley has tried to convince us that the focus of ICE is only on criminals. But just last week the Visalia Times-Delta reported that a father was pulled over in an unmarked car while picking his son up at Houston Elementary School. Though this father was not one of the “Bad Hombres,” he sits in a Bakersfield jail.

Just a few weeks ago Tulare County settled to pay $2.2 million to five undocumented women because they were sexually assaulted by Tulare County Sheriff’s Deputy William Nulick. He targeted them precisely

because they were undocumented and vulnerable. He figured he could force them into sex acts and they wouldn’t come forward because they would get deported, which sadly could still happen.

According to two sources inside the sheriff’s department, sexual assault complaints against Deputy Nulick languished for months in a desk drawer at the Cutler –Orosi substation. The sergeant in charge of the substation even went on vacation, leaving the complaints to sit until sometime after he returned.

A lawyer working on the case said about the five victims, “they were only the tip of the iceberg.” The lawyer was so cheesed off about the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department that I couldn’t discern whether his anger was in reference to the alleged corruption inside the sheriff’s department or the many undocumented women who were too afraid to press charges.

After press time the Tulare City Council will have already voted on becoming a sanctuary city or not. If there were those in Tulare who do not agree with the concept of giving sanctuary, the timing could not be worse.

If the people who make up the foundation of California’s booming economy live in constant fear of losing their job, having their family torn apart, or having to do sexual favors to stay out of jail, then we need to ask ourselves – who are the real terrorists?

Who knew?

Senior year in high school I had to read L’Etranger by Albert Camus in French. There were only three of us dumb enough to take French 4 and fortunately one of my classmates was able to explain the book to me.

I learned two things from L’Etranger. First, I learned the word existentialism.

I didn’t know exactly what it meant, but I knew where to drop it in a conversation to make me sound really smart. Second, I learned not to eat in close proximity to a dead body. The main character, whose name, like everyone else’s, eludes me, ate a sandwich while sitting next to his mother’s body during her wake. A lawyer subsequently used that information to convict the main character of murder. I believe he was even given the death penalty.

Note to self: don’t eat next to a body.

Fast forward 37 years. Family and friends held vigil around my son, Alex’s, hospital bed for hours until he passed away in the late afternoon. As distraught as I was, I was also famished. When most everyone left the hospital and the room became a quiet sanctuary with only me, Alex, Amanda, his fiancé, and Mercedes, my daughter, it dawned on me that I missed breakfast and lunch. That made me even hungrier.

After waiting for three and a half hours for Salser and Dillard Funeral Home to arrive, one of the girls ran downstairs to a vending machine to get me a sandwich. I stared at the clock that told my stomach I was now missing dinner, then at my food, and decided to take my chances and wolf it down before anyone came into the room. I literally had the egg salad sandwich between my teeth standing inches from Alex’s head when the attendant pushed the gurney into the room. We locked eyes as a piece of bread hung slightly over my bottom lip. I retrieved the bread as I apologized to the attendant for my very bad timing. Fortunately no charges were filed against me.

I realized late that night, while wondering why I thought that scene was so funny, that if I was going to feel guilty every time I smiled, or had a good laugh, I was never going make it through the week, or year.

Even as the three of us girls waited in the hospital for Alex’ body to be taken to the funeral home his friends were congregating at our house exchanging stories, having dinner, and living life.

Back track to earlier in the day with all of us arriving at the ICU. After the doctor gave us the bad news, a group of family and friends all stood around Alex’s bed in a kind of stupor. Alex looked comfortable but was intubated with a main line through his neck and only a few hours from passing away from sepsis, MRSA, pneumonia and liver failure.

It was then that I got a text from Mercedes’ boyfriend that he had to be rushed to Urgent Care for an ingrown thumb nail.

Under the circumstances it struck me as kind of humorous and I shared the text with the group. When I added that Brendon had to be sedated the room irrupted with laughter.

You could say it was an existential experience.

During the time between Alex’s death and his reception at Barmageddon, his millennial friends told stories, cried, got drunk, got sober, got mad, got happy again, and many of them even got laid. But most of all we shared a lot of laughter. While it might seem we had a few too many laughs that week, and maybe not at all the appropriate times, Alex was an iconoclast and did not follow convention and that’s how he rolled.

Also, nobody owns the playbook on grief. You can miss someone until it hurts but still smile while reminiscing about all the good times. You can wish they were here but still enjoy your day. And a mother can grieve the loss of her son and still find the humor in life.

Who knew?

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4 • Valley Voice

6 April, 2017

Self-Help Enterprises Celebrates NeighborWorks Designation Staff Reports Families, dignitaries, and community partners joined Self-Help Enterprises on March 30 to celebrate the organization’s designation as a NeighborWorks® Homeownership Center. This designation assists Self-Help Enterprises with resources and coordination essential for delivering comprehensive, high quality homeownership services and expanding homeownership opportunities in the San Joaquin Valley.

The celebration event included guest speakers and information about Self-Help Enterprises’ homeownership and housing programs, food and refreshments, a fire truck with a local fire station providing home fire safety information, and resource booths featuring community partners – Family HealthCare Network, Grid Alternatives, Proteus, and CSET. As the Valley’s only Homeownership Center, Self-Help Enterprises, a HUD-certified counseling agency, works with families to turn the dream of homeownership into a reality through the Gateway: Your Path to Homeownership program. Serving as a “one-stop” shop for prospective homebuyers, Self-Help Enterprises’ homeownership advocates walk individuals and families through the different types of mortgage rates, the effect credit scores have on being approved for a loan, how much down payment is needed for purchase, and how much home is affordable. A tailored action plan is then developed to assist prospective homebuyers in achieving their financial homeownership goals.

Individuals and families also participate in an in-person or online homeown-

e

Th

ership education class, available in English and Spanish. The homeownership education class covers key topics including: • Importance of Credit • The Mortgage Process • Working with a Realtor • The Purchase Process • Mortgage and Down Payment Assistance Programs • Affordable Housing Opportunities Homebuyers who take this class have a better understanding of the process, ask smarter questions, and make better informed decisions.

In an effort to provide a range of homeownership opportunities for families throughout the Valley, Self-Help Enterprises partners with local municipal governments, realtors and mortgage lenders.

Self-Help Enterprises’ housing programs include: • First-Time Homebuyer: Resources and down payment assistance for families looking to become homeowners through traditional avenues.

• Self-Help Housing: Eight to twelve families are grouped together and help each other build their houses with skilled onsite supervision and guidance of Self-Help Enterprises’ construction staff.

“Sweat equity” serves as the down payment and monthly mortgage payment is based on the household’s income.

• Manufactured Housing: Assistance to eligible homebuyers for purchase of a manufactured housing unit.

• Housing Rehabilitation: Funding assistance to make important health and safety repairs to a home.

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Because the programs provide affordable and stable low-interest loans for homebuyers, sustainable homeownership has become a reality for many underserved families in the San Joaquin Valley who may not afford a home otherwise.

To participate in the Gateway program, prospective homebuyers can contact Self-Help Enterprises via phone at (559) 651-1000 or via email at gateway@selfhelpenterprises.org. An initial counseling appointment will be scheduled and a $50 fee

will reserve the appointment. The fee covers a credit report and a portion of the homeownership education class fee. Upon completing an intake form, providing requested documents, and attending the counseling appointment, homebuyers will be enrolled in the homeownership education class.

For more information about Self-Help Enterprises, visit www.SelfHelpEnterprises.org.

Fireworks

the court, helping to ensure judges make the best decisions in the best interest of the child.

The fireworks show was a Fourth of July tradition for almost 50 years, taking place at the Mineral King Bowl. Around 2010 the Visalia Fire Department told the Parks and Recreation Foundation, the previous host, that the bowl can only be used for a few more years because it was an unsafe venue. The Foundation had to modify its program by clearing a wider area and not shooting the fireworks so high as previously. The Foundation then had to stop hosting the event altogether in 2015 because of a lack of resources.

CASA is a very large service group with ample resources to make the organization a perfect match for such a huge commitment. CASA’s goal is to start the day’s festivities at 11:30am and end at 11:30pm providing entertainment, food, bounce houses, dunk tanks and the 20-minute fireworks show.

The all day event remain free but there may be a charge for parking.

Continued from 1

Visalia use part of the $40,000 in fines each year from the illegal use of fireworks to fund the show.

The city received three responses from organizations willing to host the event: CASA, Parks and Recreation, and Fox News 26. After reviewing the three proposals the review committee chose CASA. “The committee felt that CASA’s approach of creating an event throughout the afternoon, leading up to the fireworks, would be especially appealing because it will provide local residents with an opportunity to enjoy activities on the holiday in a safe, family friendly environment.”

CASA of Tulare County is a group of over 150 volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocates who take care of abused, neglected and abandoned children of Tulare County who have been thrust into the court system. The volunteers present essential information to

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6 April, 2017

Valley Voice • 5

West Hills Earns Awards for Higher Education and $3 Million Staff Reports West Hills Community College District has been named a winner of the California Innovation Awards for Higher Education for the second year in a row. This year, WHCCD earned two separate awards for two of its programs and is among 14 colleges statewide to be honored.

The honor comes with two monetary awards for $2 million and $1 million.

“Innovation is at the heart of what we do here at West Hills,” said Dr. Frank Gornick, WHCCD Chancellor. “We are always in the process of evaluating and seeking to improve the programs we offer to students. We look to internal and external partnerships to help us achieve our ultimate goal -- the relentless pursuit of student success. “ West Hills College is the only Central Valley college on the list and the only two-

year college slated to receive two awards.

WHCCD was honored for two of its initiatives with the two awards.

The first award—which comes with $2 million—is for WHCCD’s prior learning program called Quick Path. WHCCD is working with San Joaquin Delta College, the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning and AcademyOne to implement the Quick Path Program, to develop a web-enabled prior learning assessment platform.

The second award—for $1 million— is to further a partnership with Bitwise Industries and California Forward geared toward offering job training for software developers through Bitwise’s Geekwise Academy. WHCCD has been working with Geekwise Academy since last year to train West Hills College students to become software developers.

“We are profoundly honored and

humbled by the three-time recognition and we look forward to investing award dollars in ways that help our district respond to identified needs of our citizens, industries, and local and regional entities to address challenges facing the valley,” said Dr. Stuart Van Horn, Vice Chancellor of Educational Services and Workforce Development at West Hills Community College District.

The one-time awards will be used to fund further innovation and develop the award-winning programs as well as other innovative projects throughout the district.

“Both the Prior Learning Assessment platform and the Bitwise business partnership are expected to reduce the time it takes students to complete degrees and credentials and reduce the total cost of attendance for our students, which is the intent of the Award for Innovation,” said Anita Wright, WHCCD Director of Grants.

The Innovation Award for Higher Education were created as an incentive to urge colleges to focus on innovative reforms to help students earn degrees. They recognize California districts and colleges that help reduce the time it takes students to complete degrees and credentials, reduce the total cost of attendance for students, or do both.

West Hills was previously recognized in 2015 for its unique advance-registration innovation, Reg365, which was launched in 2014 and allows students to register for classes for a full year, all at once. As a part of REG365 implementation, WHCCD put together an implementation guide outlining guidelines and best practices of an advanced registration system. Since the launch of the WHCCD Reg365 registration program, two additional California Community Colleges have embraced the model.

Second Public Hearing on Measure N Held, No Citizens Speak Catherine Doe Visalia residents’ last chance to make their voices heard concerning the city’s half cent sales tax was held April 3. The city council is required to conduct two public hearings before adopting the final spending plan. The first public hearing was held March 20. No one spoke at either public hearing.

The final spending plan had already been approved by the Citizen’s Advisory Committee and reviewed by the Measure N Oversight Committee. Mayor Warren Gubler believes that no one spoke

out against the spending plan because it was thoroughly vetted and unanimously approved by the members of those committees.

“This didn’t surprise me as this is consistent with my belief that the spending proposal reflects the spending priorities recommended by the original task force and local citizens, and which the council promised to comply with,” said Gubler.

Measure N was passed last November by more than 65% of the vote.

Visalia’s sales tax will increase from 8% to 8.5% costing the average household $180 a year. The revenue will be spent on

maintaining Police, Fire, Roads and Park and Recreation services at levels commensurate with overall city growth. It is projected to collect $13.7 million over 5 fiscal quarters and city staff requested spending a total of $11.6 million.

Councilmember Phil Cox reminded those in attendance during the March 20 meeting that Measure T did not perform the way they thought it would and the city came up short. He preferred that the city not spend every extra dime generated by the tax. He would also like to let the emergency fund accumulate over the years instead of spend it.

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Councilmember Nelsen thanked the public for having confidence in the city council to do what they said they would do. He said that transparency will be necessary for the spending plan to be accepted by the public.

The city council voted to adopt Measure N’s first year spending plan. The spending plan will be reviewed every two years. The city council can evaluate the tax again in 2025 where the council needs a four fifths vote to discontinue the sales tax.

6 • Valley Voice

6 April, 2017

Agriculture CVP Farmers See Improvement, Frustration Christine Souza, CFBF A significantly improved water allocation for farmers in the western San Joaquin Valley means more acres will be planted and more crops and jobs produced. But farmers say there’s also a sense of what might have been if they had received a full water allocation from the Central Valley Project, or even if the existing 65 percent allocation had come sooner.

Farmers, employees and equipment are out in force throughout the Westside, harvesting onions, lettuce and parsley, and planting summer crops such as processing tomatoes and sweet corn.

Farms in the region obtain surface water through contracts with the CVP; they received no contract water in 2014-15 and a 5 percent allocation last year.

The 65 percent allocation marks the largest received by south-of-delta CVP contractors since 2011, but farmers and water agencies said they had hoped for a larger supply, given the far-above-average Sierra snowpack. And the fact that this year’s initial announcement didn’t come until March 22—a month later than usual—compounded the frustration.

Ramon Chavez of RRS Farms in Cantua Creek, who farms within the Westlands Water District, said he had to reduce his total acres this season because he didn’t have information about the water supply when he started making plans.

“If we would have known, we would have added more acres,” Chavez said.

“I had canneries calling, asking me if I could put in more tomatoes. Without an allocation, we were skeptical and said no. We had to cut 600 acres out of the equation. Now, we’re thinking of maybe adding more acres.”

As Chavez helped employees load machines with tomato transplants, he noted that many growers begin making

plans for the spring in September and October, meeting with bankers, ordering seed and finalizing contacts. Without knowing the region’s water allocation, he said, “our banker feels it is safer” to leave some land idle.

“The bank will ask us, ‘How can you do this with this much water?’ So there are a lot of questions we need to answer,” Chavez said. “We had to commit to buy the seed back in September. The seed is transplanted in the greenhouses and then the greenhouses deliver it to us. If we now want to do an additional 300 acres, it depends on if there’s enough plants in the greenhouses.”

Sal Parra Jr., assistant manager at Burford Ranch in Cantua Creek, pointed to a fallowed field that would have been planted in processing tomatoes if the water allocation had been reported earlier.

“Some individuals are able to add some acreage, but the unfortunate part is, with the allocation coming so late, there are a lot of things we can’t do anymore,” Parra said. “You can’t go get a tomato contract in March and you can’t pre-irrigate ground for cotton, because you have to plant it now.”

Given the surface water that the farm could count on in January, he said, “we were apprehensive to take on commitments and contracts knowing that we might not be able to perform.”

“In early winter, we had to make a decision to not plant because of a lack of reliability in terms of our surface water,” said Parra, who fallowed 4,000 acres of processing tomatoes. “The infrastructure is already here, the drip is in the ground and the investment has been made to produce the crop, but we decided to hold off.”

Burford Farms grows more than a dozen different commodities, from permanent crops such as almonds and winegrapes to row crops including garbanzo

Fresno County farmer Sal Parra Jr. says he has had to idle some land due to the delayed water allocation from the Central Valley Project, including the field above that would have been planted in processing tomatoes. The field had already been prepared for planting and drip irrigation. Christine Souza/CFBF

beans and garlic. Parra called the 65 percent allocation “a disappointment,” adding that “it all goes back to the need for additional storage. Why are we not capturing all of this water, especially after the drought we have just lived through?”

“We can idle ground, but this is our livelihood,” he said. “You are farming to succeed. There has to be a financial incentive. Water is a staple, a must. I can look for alternative fertilizers, alternative labor or go to mechanization, but I can’t replace water.”

News of the 65 percent allocation, Parra said, convinced him to plant 1,200 of the fallowed acres in garbanzo beans.

Also, he said he can blend the surface water with groundwater “to dilute some of the salts and improve soil quality.”

Officials with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the CVP, said the initial 65 percent allocation for south-of-delta contractors could increase as the year progresses. If that happens, Parra said, there would be little change in the number of idled acres, although farmers could possibly increase plantings of winter crops.

Gayle Holman, a public affairs representative for the Westlands Water District, noted that “one-third of the district has been fallowed over the last couple of years,” with 207,000 acres fallowed in 2014 and 213,000 acres fallowed in 2015, during the years when the district’s CVP allocation dropped to zero.

“There is not one grower that is unscathed from that; they are all feeling it,” Holman said. “This year, we hope to see that productivity rise and the fallowed acreage reduced. Again, the critical part is the allocation is coming so late.”

The California Department of Water Resources reported last week that electronic readings from 95 sites in the Sierra Nevada showed an average statewide snow water equivalent that is 164 percent of the historical average for the start of April.

(Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)

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

CFBF: Revised Pesticide Rule Still Not Necessary Kevin Hecteman, CFBF The quarter-mile buffer zone is still in, but the 48-hour notice is out: Those are two main features of the Department of Pesticide Regulation’s revised proposal to limit pesticide applications near schools

and licensed child-care centers.

The original proposal was released in September 2016 and went through a round of public comment and hearings last fall. The revisions reflect those comments, DPR said in releasing them last week.

“It’s still overkill,” said Cynthia Cory,

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director of environmental affairs for the California Farm Bureau Federation, who said existing regulations are more than adequate to protect schools and childcare centers.

Cory said the proposal’s approach would be tantamount to solving the DUI problem by banning cars.

She said CFBF supports existing regulations, as established by Assembly Bill 947 in 2002, under which county agricultural commissioners can set rules for applications around schools and child-care centers. A better idea would be to ensure each county has a communication plan in place, she said.

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goes way beyond that,” Cory said. “This prohibits activities, and it’s not based on risk assessment.”

The revised proposal still establishes a quarter-mile buffer zone around public schools and child-care centers, effective from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. During those hours, farmers would not be allowed to apply fumigants or to apply pesticides via aircraft, sprinklers or air-blast sprayers.

Most dust and powder applications would also be disallowed. Applications using a ground-rig sprayer, flood or drip chemigation, field injection and other equipment could be made, as long as a 25-foot buffer zone around the school was observed.

The original proposal called for farm-

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6 April, 2017

Valley Voice • 7

Agriculture Groundwater Agencies Begin to Take Shape Christine Souza, CFBF

With a June 30 deadline approaching, agencies, farmers and others in affected California groundwater basins are working to finalize the formation of locally controlled groundwater sustainability agencies.

The groundwater sustainability agencies, or GSAs, required under the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, will guide groundwater management in basins and sub-basins classified by the state as medium or high priority. Under SGMA, local agencies must work together and with groundwater users to develop local groundwater sustainability plans that would guide decisions affecting groundwater use and fees.

Plans for groundwater basins identified as “critically overdrafted” must be in place by 2020; all others must be in effect by 2022.

Jack Rice, an associate counsel for the California Farm Bureau Federation, said many county farm bureaus are actively working with local agencies in the GSA development process, which he described as “the foundation for compliance” with state groundwater law.

“It is very important for farmers and ranchers to participate in shaping what these agencies will look like,” he said.

“In many areas, county Farm Bureaus are doing a very good job providing the voice for agriculture in the process to develop groundwater sustainability agencies.”

Monterey County achieved a milestone recently: Local interests reached consensus on the formation of its GSA, which is a joint-powers authority governed by 11 board members, including four from agriculture.

Norm Groot, executive director

Pesticide Continued from 6

ers to give 48 hours’ notice to an adjoining school before applying pesticides. That requirement has been removed. The revision also clarifies the definition of affected sites to mean any property used as a child-care center; any school property used by children during the school day; or similar areas identified by the agricultural commissioner, such as a park adjacent to a school used for sports or recess. Private schools and bus stops off the school grounds are not included in the regulation.

Blake Mauritson, ranch manager for Kaweah Lemon Co. in Lemon Grove, said he sees the revisions as an improvement, but says there are still logistical shortcomings.

“I would like to see some language holding the schools accountable for notification to (farming) operations for nonschool days, school functions and such, as well as more pertinent training for the contact persons,” Mauritson said.

As in the original proposal, the new proposed rule would still require farmers whose property abuts schools to file an annual notice by April 30 each year, detailing the pesticides expected to be used during the ensuing 12 months, beginning in July; a map showing the fields to be treated;

of the Monterey County Farm Bureau, said participants decided to form a single GSA, even though the Salinas Valley contains between four and eight sub-basins.

“We felt the management of the basin is critical as one unit, even though the sub-basins have unique characteristics,” Groot said.

The joint-powers authority held its first meeting March 9. Groot said the next step for directors of the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency is to file a Notice of Intent with the state.

“What has astounded us is how expensive this all is, and that it is really coming down to an unfunded mandate that the state is imposing on all of the counties,” he said. “It’s almost staggering how much they’ve put on us and in the end, for a basin like ours that is almost in sustainability anyway, we’re going to be spending millions and millions on this and the solution is probably far less costly.”

In Mendocino County, Devon Jones, executive director of the county Farm Bureau, says she is also concerned about the costs and about keeping diverse groups unified.

“We are hoping that we can keep everybody together, because it is going to be such a resource-demanding process, not only for time but for fiscal requirements,” Jones said. “The groundwater sustainability plan is going to be the meat on the bones of what could happen in terms of the regulatory framework for multiple uses, including agriculture.”

There is one medium-priority groundwater basin in the county—the Ukiah Valley Groundwater Basin— which supplies a mix of surface water and groundwater to irrigation districts

that serve municipal and agricultural customers.

“We have the full gamut of water sources in this basin,” Jones said.

“We proposed to form a separate joint powers authority to get the number of SGMA-qualified agencies to collaborate, as well as some additional interests.”

Mendocino’s JPA will be overseen by a six-member board that will likely include one agricultural representative.

“Agriculture has a lot to lose if we see some highly restrictive regulatory framework put on the ability to use groundwater and/or (from) the fees that may be charged,” Jones said.

In her area, she said, a big unknown is the pending update of state rankings of groundwater basins and their boundaries. In addition, Jones noted that SGMA requires the state Department of Water Resources to consider interaction between groundwater and surface water, and impact on aquatic species.

“We are concerned,” Jones said.

“Some of the other basins in our county could all of a sudden come into medium or high ranking, and that of course means we have to start the process all over again.”

Modoc County landowner Ned Coe, who chairs that county’s Groundwater Advisory Committee, said he is also concerned that additional basins in his area could move into the regulated medium or high-priority categories.

“My fear is they are going to rope more and more basins in that are currently low priority,” said Coe, whose committee is working to form separate GSAs for two medium-priority basins.

Coe is also a CFBF field representative.

Butte County has a number of sub-basins, and Butte County Farm Bureau President Clark Becker said the county will have multiple groundwater

agencies, perhaps as many as six that would be working together.

“It’s pretty complex in our county, but we have things structured well and everybody is on the same page. But there is a little fear,” Becker said, noting that despite a good relationship with county water staff, the issue involves water rights, “so there’s a lot of apprehension.”

He said the county Farm Bureau is trying to keep all interests working together.

“In the end, everybody is out for the same goal and that is to protect what water rights they have, whether it be surface water or groundwater,” Becker said.

Because of the interdependence between groundwater and surface water, he said, people are trying to gauge the impact of a State Water Resources Control Board “draft science report” that could require more Sacramento River water to be dedicated to fish, with potential groundwater implications. That report, expected this summer, is part of what the board calls Phase 2 of its update to the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. (See related story on Phase 1 of the plan, involving San Joaquin River tributaries.)

“We are looking at what these mandated flows could potentially be on our area,” Becker said. “The districts don’t want to tie their hands on limiting groundwater extraction, and then end up having to give up surface water and then need the groundwater. There’s so many different variables going on right now that it just complicates the conversation even more.”

(Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)

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

contact information for the farmer and the county agricultural commissioner; and the website of the National Pesticide Information Center. If a farmer plans to use a pesticide not on the annual list, 48 hours’ notice to the adjoining school would be required.

Mauritson said farmers would know in advance most of the pests being targeted, but he said products are always changing and farmers need to rotate their pesticides to prevent resistance and damage to the crops.

“This rule will affect our operation by changing our employees’ routine and quality of life,” he said. “We will now be forced to require our applicators to work between the given hours. Currently, they do not, and are given afternoons and evenings to be with their families at normal family hours.”

Mauritson said local control among growers, schools and the agricultural commissioner is working in Tulare County, and that his farm and all the farms with which he’s familiar “are already taking precautions without being told how to manage our businesses.”

Cory noted that existing regulations include numerous precautions: “Exactly how much pesticide, how to apply it, what the weather should be like, what the temperature and wind (should be like), what kind of protective equipment should be

on. Everything has been scientifically analyzed to prevent exposure.”

She also said CFBF would continue to encourage school districts and land use authorities to avoid building new schools in farming areas. CFBF has supported legislation to this effect in the past.

A 15-day comment period on the revised regulations opened Monday and continues until 5 p.m. April 4. Comments

may be emailed to dpr16004@cdpr.ca.gov; faxed to 916-324-1491; or mailed to Linda Irokawa-Otani, Regulations Coordinator, Department of Pesticide Regulation, 1001 I St., Sacramento, CA 95812-4015.

(Kevin Hecteman is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)

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

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8 • Valley Voice

Report

Continued from 1 Wellness Center at Bakersfield College.

Ostrom is the current Chief of Medical Staff for TRMC’s new MEC.

The New Report

The new report from the Department of Public Health, dated February 17, is a product of inspections conducted in October and November of 2016. Inspectors with the department also wrote the prior CMS report that hospital officials believed would cause the closure of Tulare Regional Medical Center.

The latest report found that, in reacting to the January, 2016 CMS/DPH report, the hospital’s board violated its own bylaws by disassociating from the old MEC; in the process, the new MEC effectively cancelled the status of 174 members of the old medical staff, placing them under “provisional” status with the new MEC. The change meant that those 174 members could not vote on matters involving patient care, serve as leaders on committees or departments, or serve as medical staff officers.

The unilateral changes prevented “active members of [the old MEC from participating] in matters governing patient care through their elected officials and their authority to vote on patient care policies,” the report stated.

“These failures resulted in potential for disruption of critical patient care systems overseen by a medical staff, thereby putting patients at risk for errors and adverse events,” it continued.

The switch-up and effective demotion of medical staff even caused some doctors to leave the hospital, inspectors were told.

Identities of doctors in the report were anonymized, though some have been identified by the Voice due to their specific roles noted in the report.

“MD 8 stated that problems between the Board and the leadership of MS 1 were longstanding, going back perhaps 10 years,” the report reads. “MD 8 stated that several of the former MS 1 leaders no longer worked at the hospital and did not remain members of MS 2.”

Michael Amir, a lawyer representing the old MEC in its lawsuit against TRMC, said that he believes the report vindicates the old group.

“The board really was out of touch with what was going on with the medical staff,” Amir said. “If you look at the report as a whole, it reflects a finding that the board really failed in doing its job, including in monitoring the medical staff.”

Hospital Responds

Officials with Healthcare Conglomerate Associates (HCCA), the company which runs TRMC, state that the actions that were taken by the board were not only correct, but absolutely necessary – and they’re confident they’ll be proven to be the correct ones.

“The Board, which is ultimately responsible for Hospital operations, took the only action that would resolve the problem within the very limited time-period provided: it disaffiliated from the old medical staff and affiliated with a new medical staff that was committed to performing its essential functions in overseeing staff performance and working cooperatively with the Board to enhance patient safety,” a statement from the hospital’s spokesperson read.

6 April, 2017 “The Hospital firmly believes [CDPH’s] conclusions are unjustified and based on a misunderstanding or misapplication of the applicable law.”

The hospital also makes the accusation that the complaints leading up to the survey appeared to have been submitted “by the disgruntled physicians who no longer work at the Hospital, and the small group of community dissidents who support them,” stating that the motives behind such complaints would be to “influence the pending lawsuit and/or to influence public opinion connection with Dr. Kumar’s recall.”

“These frivolous and unwarranted complaints are nothing more than an inappropriate pressure tactic being used by the CMA and the old medical staff to force the Hospital out of business, or to force it to capitulate to the personal economic interests of the disgruntled physicians,” the hospital’s statement read.

“These complaints are cost free to the malcontented. But these are contrary to good public policy, as the limited resources of the regulatory agencies are being squandered for harassment purposes. Simply put, the costs associated with defending the frivolous complaints in legal and administrative actions literally take health care services away from Tulare residents.”

changed or the hospital would close.

A group of doctors loyal to the hospital stepped up and presented themselves as the new MEC. The board chose to affiliate with this new MEC and thus complied with the mandates of the CMS.” According to the state’s report, Bell acknowledged that there were no Dr. Parmod Kumar and Sherrie Bell at a September 2016 TLHCD efforts made to al- Board Meeting. Tony Maldonado/Valley Voice low the prior MEC her perspective on why Joint Conference to pursue a corrective course.

Committee meetings, required by TLHIndeed, the state’s review of board CD Bylaws to occur, did not happen. meeting minutes from January, 2015 to “There was always a stipulation atJanuary, 2016 showed no agenda items or tached. Mostly, they wanted me to apoldiscussion related to the performance of ogize, to come begging kind of thing,” the former medical staff until the January Bell said. “Which, meet with me and let 26 meeting in which the board chose to me know your problems, and if I need to replace it with the new group. apologize, I will, but you don’t not meet.”

“The solution [to the problems preWhile minutes from the old MEC sented by the CMS report] had presented showed that it met its general responsiitself,” Bell said, referring to the founding bilities in submitting reports and policy of a new MEC, “and we were grateful. recommendations to the board, the state’s There was no other option.” report said, the group would not allow Benzeevi or district officials to attend its meetings.

If you look at the report as a whole, it reflects a finding Though this was the case, TLHCD that the board really failed in doing its job, including in board minutes “did not reflect discussion of the exclusion of the CEO and adminmonitoring the medical staff. istrative staff from MEC meetings, of Michael Amir, lawyer for the old MEC failures to cooperate, and/or failures to communicate.”

Amir stated that there was no ques“Help Keep The The 2016 Report tion the board and the MEC didn’t get Hospital Running” Inspectors with the California Dealong – but that it’s not uncommon.

In the fallout from the CMS repartment of Public Health came to the port, Ostrom told inspectors he was ap“There’s no hospital in the State of hospital in late 2015 and early 2016, pre- proached by Kumar and asked to “help California where the medical staff and the senting its findings to the federal Centers keep the hospital running” by joining the board always get along. There’s always gofor Medicare & Medicaid Services. That new MEC’s founding group. Ostrom was ing to be some type of discord,” Amir said.

DPH/CMS report was, hospital adminis- told, the report stated, that the only two “What the big difference [between this trators stated, the impetus for the ouster options were to form a new staff or shut hospital and others] is, where there is disof the old MEC. cord, there are procedures that are in place the hospital down.

In a deposition for the ongoing lawBell stated in her deposition that the — there’s a formal resolution process.” suit filed by members of the old MEC, founding group of doctors later “came Bell stated she was under the impression [forward] and had said they had formed “Medical Staff the ouster — that the state now takes issue a medical staff.” That initial group was Development Plan” with — was almost required. comprised of Drs. Frank Macaluso, Gary Amir points to the management All of the board members were in- Walter, Anthony Trujillo, Rebecca Zulim, agreements between the Tulare Local formed of the CMS report’s results by Dr. Kumar, Ostrom and Gupta.

Healthcare District and Healthcare ConBenny Benzeevi, the CEO of HCCA, she “I can’t remember for sure if it was my glomerate Associates as proof that the told the state’s inspector. attorney [Bruce Greene, also attorney for ouster of the old MEC was engineered “My understanding was from multi- HCCA & TRMC] or Dr. Benzeevi, but and planned – not a desperate act in a ple sources that [CMS] literally said our we were told that probably [January 26], I time of crisis. medical staff was dysfunctional, they were think,” Bell said, “or maybe the day before “If you look at the HCCA Managenot doing our job, that they had seen the meeting.” ment Agreement, two years before the medical staffs close hospitals before, and In addition to interviewing Bell, in- CMS survey, there was a provision in there we had the ultimate responsibility,” Bell spectors with the state also conducted inwhere they specifically state that they want said in her deposition, “as a board over our terviews with Benzeevi. They both agreed to change the composition of the medical hospital, and the implication was we had that “the Board was ultimately responsible staff,” Amir said. been negligent.” for the management and operations of The contract states a joint goal of the During the deposition, Bell stated the hospital, as well as ensuring the safety district and HCCA is to create a “Medical that the board felt that they were “under and quality of medical care” and that the Staff Development Plan” and that, specifthe gun,” and that they had acted before medical staff was “authorized to self-govically, “[t]he parties recognize that changthe written CMS report was issued. ern without undue interference by the es established pursuant to the Medical During her campaign for re-election Board,” as codified in board bylaws and Staff Development Plan implementation to the hospital board, Bell stated on her state law. may result in a smaller, more accountable campaign’s Facebook page that the action In the interview with inspectors, Bell Medical Staff being appointed.” to scrap the old MEC “complied with the stated that the board made many attempts “You see HCCA taking a much bigmandates of the CMS.” to resolve the issues during, and before, ger role in determining the composition “When the CMS issued a report on her four-year tenure on the board. and the shape of the medical staff, and its the hospital in January of [2016], they “They never came to meetings, never bylaws,” Amir continued. “My position dedicated nearly half of the report to the sent reports,” Bell said. at trial, and what I think this will show, shortcomings of the MEC, including that Ostrom told inspectors that he “did is that this whole CMS survey and report they failed even to properly credential not see efforts by either side to use the was a pretext — this is something they themselves,” Bell’s campaign post stated. [Joint Conference Committee], the CEO, wanted to do from day one, if you look at “They noted that the lack of quality con- or a neutral 3rd party mediator” during the May 2014 agreement.” trol over doctors put patients’ health and his time as a department chair on the The old MEC’s lawsuit against the safety at risk, and in an unprecedented original MEC. district continues in court as of the pubdecision, stated the MEC needed to be In her December deposition, Bell gave lication date.

“

”

6 April, 2017

Loan

Continued from 1 hospital’s website.

Senior board members Dr. Parmod Kumar, Linda Wilbourn, and Richard Torrez voted in favor of a resolution to do so; new board members Kevin Northcraft and Mike Jamaica cast dissenting votes.

The two new board members criticized the move as giving HCCA “carte blanche” with regards to the district’s finances, stating the company would effectively be able to pursue and execute any loan “without limitation.”

HUD Loan Hazy

According to the resolution, which the Voice has received, one option the hospital would be “Section 242” HUD Mortgage Insurance and a loan backed by such insurance.

Officials with the department of Housing and Urban Development have confirmed that TLHCD has entered the process and is in “pre-application” process.

However, pre-application documents available on HUD’s website appear to state that it would not provide such mortgage insurance to projects under construction.

An online pre-screening tool advises potential applicants that such loans may not be possible for projects with pre-existing construction: “OHF permits varying levels of site preparation and construction activity to occur prior to application submission, and between application submission and loan closing. Such construction activity is permitted, in certain cases, because it is to the advantage of the proposed Mortgagor to begin construction prior to loan closing.

However, in order to qualify for financing through HUD’s hospital program, no construction activity or site preparation may be performed without obtaining HUD’s approval first.

If construction or site preparation has commenced, unfortunately the project will not qualify for hospital mortgage insurance.”

An internal training presentation made available on HUD’s website from 2011 appears to also show that any early commencement of work would only be allowed after a HUD environmental review.

Brian Sullivan, with the HUD Office of Public Affairs, cautioned against making assumptions. “[The prior construction] may be a disqualifier, but there may be exceptions,” Sullivan said. “As it’s all currently under review, I can’t speak to that.”

Hospital officials state that they are working through several possibilities, but that they so far believe that Section 242 options are still on the table.

“We are looking at several borrowing options simultaneously and are diligently working through the many details that each step in the application requires. All indications at present point to us meeting the requirements for qualification.

We will update you whenever we formally cross each step, and as pertinent details become available,” a hospital spokesperson told the Voice, responding to requests for comment on the details of the Section 242 process.

“As you know, regardless of which governmental mortgage insurer we work

Valley Voice • 9 with, the process is extremely complex, arduous, and requires extensive work to accomplish. It is critical that we all understand that we are extremely fortunate to even be in a place where these options are available to us. Clearly, the ideal way to fund public infrastructure is through a publicly supported measure. As this choice is not available to us, the next best approach is through a loan. Fortunately, because of the tremendous success that HCCA has brought to the hospital finances over the past three years, the loan option has become available to us.”

“

project from the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, CalMortgage or other sources.”

“We want to make sure that the board is interested, in fact, in getting a building done,” Benzeevi said. “We need to move forward with the application, we need to move forward with getting this thing done. It’s taken tremendous work […] to be able to get us to the point where [loans] are even considered as an option.”

After obtaining the loan, Benzeevi stated that he believed the construc-

If my colleagues state today that we pass this motion, and the money’s there — no, it’s not true at all. This is just a process. They could look in a different direction.

”

Dr. Parmod Kumar, board member

“

My feeling on this is that this is an application for the HUD loan, this is the investigative part, whether HUD will be able to loan us this money or not.

”

Linda Wilbourn, board member

“

It gives the authorized representative, which is HCCA, the ability to execute all instruments necessary for a loan, without limitation, all these other things. And it also gives them full and complete power to execute and deliver, to consummate the loan, to obtain and consummate the loan.

We are giving full authority to them in this resolution

”

Kevin Northcraft, board member, reading from the resolution

One Possibility

Dr. Benny Benzeevi, HCCA’s CEO/ Chairman, publicly gave estimates centered around pursuing a Housing and Urban Development loan, though the summarized resolution available on the agenda would allow the company to apply for a loan from any source.

Assuming the district were able to go forward with a HUD loan, it would total $79,697,401, according to Benzeevi’s presentation at the meeting, which would include paying off existing bonds.

Lenders taking their risks on the hospital would not want to be “the second mortgage,” he stated.

“At this point in time, based on all parameters, we believe that it is doable, we believe that the hospital can carry a loan like this,” he said, “but most importantly, we feel that it is in the community’s best interest to be able to complete the tower and get this thing done.”

His slide calculated the individual amounts as: • Redemption of existing bonds: $13,707,673 • Construction cost: $57,700,909 • Contingency: $2.885,045 • Capitalized Interest: $1,559,469 • Upfront HUD Mortgage Insurance Premium: $391,675 • Governmental fees: $642,580 • Financing fees: $2,350,050 • Legal/title/agent fees for bond redemption & environmental study: $460,000 Benzeevi encouraged the board to frame the vote not only as authorization to pursue a loan, but also as a reaffirmation of the board’s commitment to finishing the tower.

The board meeting’s agenda even described the vote as such, stating that the proposed action would be to “[c]onfirm the District’s commitment to completing its Tower project and authorize HCCA to obtain a loan to complete the Tower

tion would take anywhere from 12 to 15 months.

During the discussion, Tulare Local Healthcare District board members Kevin Northcraft and Mike Jamaica raised concerns regarding the wording of the resolution, not made available to the public before the meeting.

“We have a four-page resolution that no one in the public has had access to,” Northcraft said. “It reads in part that it authorizes HCCA to execute and obtain a loan without limitation. So our board would not be aware of what the loan was.”

After the resolution was ultimately passed, Wilbourn personally asked to receive an update on the progress at each meeting.

“I will ask that every time we convene that we get an update: where it’s at, how it’s going, what’s involved, what papers have been filed, what papers haven’t been filed,” Wilbourn said.

Though Wilbourn did not make a formal motion, the contract with HCCA already obligates the company to do so.

The Resolution

The resolution, which as of publication time had not been made available on the hospital’s website and was not included in agenda packets at the meeting, has been made available to the Voice and is available at the end of the article.

Resolution 851 allows the company to not only seek a HUD-backed loan, but to concurrently “seek to obtain a commitment and a Loan for an ‘alternative’ type of financing for the project,” which it states includes Cal Mortgage financing.

The resolution also states that “if a HUD Commitment is obtained, and/ or if commitments for financing from HUD Lender and/or Alternative Lenders are obtained, the Board hereby authorizes and directs its Authorized Representatives to take any further actions and to execute, in the name of and on behalf of

the District, any instruments and documents required by the HUD Lenders and/or the Alternative Lenders to obtain the Loan.”

The resolution further states that the “Authorized Representatives shall have absolute, full and complete power and authority to execute and deliver to the HUD Lender and to the Alternative Lenders any and all documents and instruments required to obtain and consummate the loan.”

The only two “Authorized Representatives” stated in the document are Alan Germany, CFO/COO of HCCA, and Benzeevi.

“Talked To Death”

Prior to the vote, Kumar stated that the resolution was not as permissive as Northcraft and Jamaica characterized it.

“If my colleagues state today that we pass this motion, and the money’s there — no, it’s not true at all. This is just a process. They could look in a different direction,” Kumar said. “We are not cutting our hands or our gut or our head off today, by voting for this.”

Wilbourn concurred with his view, stating that time has continued to pass as the hospital pushes up against a 2030 seismic compliance deadline.

“My feeling on this is that this is an application for the HUD loan, this is the investigative part, whether HUD will be able to loan us this money or not,” Wilbourn said. “At this point, for us in Tulare, I can’t see that there’s any other way to come up with the lending for the money to finish the tower.”

“We’ve talked and talked and talked about this,” she continued. “I quite frankly think it’s been almost talked to death. We don’t have the funds to finish the tower ourselves.”

Northcraft said that those statements were inaccurate.

“Dr. Kumar said this is the start of a process. [Wilbourn] said this is an application. Let me read from the second ‘further resolved’ on the second page of this resolution. It gives the authorized representative, which is HCCA, the ability to execute all instruments necessary for a loan, without limitation, all these other things,” Northcraft said. “And it also gives them full and complete power to execute and deliver, to consummate the loan, to obtain and consummate the loan. We are giving full authority to them in this resolution.”

He motioned, with Jamaica seconding, for an alternative — the board would authorize HCCA to reach out and apply to any agency or financier that would lend the Tulare hospital money, but for the final decision to come back to the board.

“This is too important for our community to just wash our hands of it and give up all authority,” Northcraft said .

“It would be malfeasance for us to do that. That is our responsibility, that’s our pledge to our community: that we will be stewards of their funds. And this delegates everything away. I just cannot envision that any of you would consider doing that.”

The alternative motion failed 2-3, with Northcraft and Jamaica voting in favor and Kumar, Wilbourn and Torrez casting dissenting votes.

The next Tulare Local Healthcare District meeting will be held April 26 at 4pm at the Evolutions Gym, located at 1425 E Prosperity Avenue in Tulare.

10 • Valley Voice

Tulare

6 April, 2017 “And you said something to the effect that if you have to you will,” Henry said, interrupting the mayor.

“No, I don’t have to,” Jones replied.

the representative for If the city reconsiders, which would District 1, was uninter- require approval by the BPU, Colony ested in the BPU’s past, could begin the project within 90 days.

Continued from 1 but concerned about its All state approvals are already in place, apparently knew the votes to remove lack of diversity, both on its representatives said.

Henry and Brehm were coming. Their the BPU and the city’s The former BPU membership, howprotests began during public comments other boards. ever, declined to reconsider working before Council began its discussion, giv“When I looked at with Colony, which brought its proposing the impression members of the BPU the list of commission- al to the Commission at its February Ethics Violation and the Council had talked about the ers and saw 46 possible 16 meeting.

Commissioner coming dismissal of Henry and Brehm. commissioners, and only Brehm also took issue “I’m at a bit of a loss to under- with what he believes is one out of 46 was from Burning Off Profits stand why the City Council is putting Jones asserting undue District 1, that for me Currently, the city is contracted with our friends and neighbors through the influence over the BPU. Carlton Jones. Dave Adalian/ was an issue,” he said.

Fuel Cell Energy (FCE), a company that embarrassment of being fired for am- Jones, he said, attended Valley Voice He denied any other converts waste methane at the city’s waste biguous and unspecified reasons before the March meeting of the motivation for his vote facility into power. A 20-year agreement their terms are up,” Tulare resident Jason BPU, asking the Commission to revisit to remove Brehm and Henry. signed last year will see around $900,000 Bender told the Council. “Any effort to the city’s arrangement with Colony.

“For me, it’s about fairness, it’s about a year paid to Tulare from FCE’s energy have a majority of any board or com“I think there’s a huge ethics vio- representation, it’s about looking out for production at the 2.8-megawatt facility. mission talk to a majority of another lation that happened at that meeting,” the folks in District 1,” Sigala said. “No FCE’s process does not consume all board or commission, or assign council Brehm said. “When he (Jones) shows up one is taking me out to breakfast.” available raw methane out-gassing from members, especially a majority of coun- to our meeting representing... himself as Tulare’s waste stream. Some 600,000 cucil members, to talk to other boards and mayor and for the City Council to disPuppet Masters bic feet of bio-gas are burned by the city commissioners simply does not pass the cuss... an agenda item, he’s overstepped Commissioner Smith was not con- each day. That fuel could be refined or smell test. All bodies are to be indepen- his bounds.” vinced by Jones rhetoric, though he said used to produce additional energy, and dent and for the most part non-political.”

The city attorney advised the Coun- he empathized with Sigala’s call for a the city, via the BPU, was negotiating up cil not to discuss Brehm’s accusation more diverse group. until August with Colony on a plan to Breakfast Meeting “It is my opinion that the decision to refine the gas and resell it. Then, negotiduring the open session. While it is not When Commissioner Henry ad- illegal for members of the Council to at- relieve a peer of his office was based not ations faltered. dressed the Council, he revealed that tend meetings of the city’s boards, it can on what was most beneficial to our comAccording to BPU Commissioner he and Jones had discreate the appearance of munity, but on the perHenry, Joe Carlini--the cussed the BPU’s busisonal political interests of impropriety, he said.

Tulare’s former public ness over breakfast at “That’s why I say a few council members,” works director, who now IHOP the previous day. there’s a possible ethics Smith said. “And, I do serves as its interim city During that talk, which violation, because if he’s understand this. I’m not manager--sent an email included a discussion of standing there he can saying you’re incorrect in to Colony requesting Colony Energy’s plan to be forcing our board to wanting more diversity.” information about its ficonstruct a bio-gas exSmith, however, felt see it his way or you’re nances, including assurtraction plant with the done,” Brehm said. he and the other memances its state grants and city’s aid, a plan which is “Very interesting. Now, bers of the BPU were private funding were in currently on hold, Henthere’s public members being manipulated to place, and that a buyer ry said Jones told him he on the chopping block.” make decisions not in for the gas it would refine intended to remove the the interest of the entire had been secured. The entire BPU because of its community. email was sent August 2.

David Macedo. Courtesy/City of Jose Sigala. Courtesy/City of failure to support Col- Tulare “I refuse to be a Tulare “Immediately, the ony Energy. marionette in this pupfollowing day, Colony “I said it’s a done issue. You said, pet show, therefore I resign my office as Energy sent back and says, ‘Hey, we’re Communication Breakdown ‘No, it’s not a done issue,’ that if you commissioner and president of the City withdrawing. We’re withdrawing,’” While the idea of removing Brehm of Tulare Board of Public Utilities effec- Henry said. “They said that they might had to you were going to remove all the board members on the BPU and get this and Henry had still not been formally tive immediately,” he said. jeopardize losing their funding.” overturned by getting new board mem- introduced as Council business, Jones bers on there,” Henry said. “I was a lit- began describing why he wished to do Colony Energy Revisited Colony Needs Tulare’s Gas tle flabbergasted at that statement right so. Members of the BPU, he said, were In January of 2015, Colony EnerColony representatives told the there, because we (the BPU) acted with- unwilling to discuss their decisions and gy Partners Tulare received a $5 million BPU at its February 16 meeting that it were not doing a thorough job. in our purview.” grant from the state to aid construction was staff at City Hall who ended negoti“It’s about being responsive, listenJones denied the allegation, saying of a bio-diesel plant near Paige Avenue ations. Saying they need the city’s methHenry had either misheard or misun- ing, doing your homework,” Jones said. and Enterprise Street, on land leased ane, Colony offered a sweetened version “If you’re making a decision on a fuel cell derstood him. from the city and adjacent to the its of its plan, with an estimated $20 mil“That’s just not the case,” the may- and you’ve never seen a fuel cell, I have waste treatment plants. Currently, Colo- lion payoff for the city over 20 years. or said. “Even if you thought you heard an issue with that. If you’re making a de- ny is paying $800 a month for the lease, “It’s imperative that we work with it was my intentions to remove the en- cision on a contract and you never read an amount that will increase to $5,000 a you to get your gas to make our project tire BPU, then you couldn’t have been the contract, I have an issue with that.” month beginning in May, and construc- go forward, having reviewed our project Jones described action bordering further from reality. You come up with tion has not begun on the facility. further,” said Kent Hawkins, Colony’s your own option of what you thought I on insubordination on the part of some Colony’s representatives, who met managing director. “We do need the meant and what you thought I said, and BPU members. with the City Council on January 17, stability of using your bio-gas and tying “Whenever council members come you run with it.” said the state grants, now totaling more into your plant.” to any board or commission and say than $8 million, will begin expiring in Colony would also pay the city $1.2 there’s a miscommunications here, let’s ‘Standing Beside a Lie’ this summer. The original arrangement million in rent over 20 years and hire 15 When Henry later repeated the ac- kind of hold off and have those dis- between the city and Colony would have full-time employees. cusation that Jones said he would re- cussions, and a couple of members say, have seen about $1 million a year over “We’re just coming in to say, listen, move the BPU membership if necessary ‘Nope, I don’t want to have those dis- 20 years going into the city’s coffers, as we want to kind of pick up where we left to revive the Colony Energy deal, Jones cussions,’ I have a problem with that,” Colony converted methane produced at off and move forward and start negotisaid Henry was “standing beside a lie.” he said. “It’s not about the decision you the city’s waste treatment facilities into ations again,” Hawkins said. “That’s all An argument ensued, with Councilman make or how you make them, but when usable fuel. However, Colony opted not we’re asking.” we come and try to talk to you and you Macedo playing peacemaker. to move ahead with the partnership in “It is not a lie,” Henry said. “It’s feel like you don’t have to, that’s where August of last year.

‘That’s Not True’ maybe we heard different things, you we have a problem. That was not all of Now, they’d like to reconsider.

It was the city, not Colony, who the Board of Public Utilities members, heard different things.”

“The opportunity to work with us ended the negotiation, the company Jones eventually apologized for call- and I’m not going to act like it was.” and complete this project is still here,” representatives told the BPU. Hawkins Jones did not say which members ing Henry’s statement a lie, but the argusaid Matt Schmitt, Colony’s vice pres- said his company received a terminahad refused to talk to him or what issues ment continued. ident for development, partner and tion letter from Carlini before sending “You said the Colony Energy deal they declined to discuss. investor. “The process of negotiating the August 3 email withdrawing from is dead,” Jones responded. “I said no it’s the contract bogged down about five the project.

Lack of Diversity not. Then you said, ‘What am I going to months ago, and we are standing behind “That’s not true,” Carlini said. “It Councilman Jose Sigala, who joined our proposal and ready to move forward, do, remove every Board of Public Utiliwas never a termination letter.” the Council just three months ago as if the city wishes to do so.” ties member?’ And, I said--”

TULARE continued on 11 »

6 April, 2017

Valley Voice • 11

Coalition Advocating for Pesticide Safety Speaks on Chlorpyrifos Caty Wagner In honor of Cesar Chavez’s birthday, the Coalition Advocating for Pesticide Safety (CAPS) held a press conference in Visalia regarding banning chlorpyrifos. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reversed a ban on a pesticide linked to nervous system damage in children. Farmers are now allowed to use chlorpurifos which is sprayed on more than a dozen crops, the majority of which are found in the Central Valley.

The following speech was given by Caty Wagner, MPA during the press conference.

In the old days, miners would carry birds with them to warn against poison gas.

Hopefully, the birds would die before the miners. Farm workers are society’s canaries.

Farm workers-and their children-demonstrate the effects of pesticide poisoning before anyone else.” This a quote from Cesar Chavez.

Today we honor Chavez on his birthday by carrying on his work. I am the Vice Chair of the Coalition Advocating for Pesticide Safety, (CAPS) and we are comprised of over a dozen Central Valley non-profits and many community leaders and residents.

We are joined today by the ACLU, the Pesticide Action Network and the UFW. As Co-founder of the United Farm Workers, Cesar Chavez was also one of the world’s greatest leaders in the struggle for protection against health-harming pesticides. The first field worker protections from pesticides, including DDT, were created through UFW contracts with growers in the 1960s.

Chavez’s last and longest fast of 36 days in 1988 was in protest of the use of pesticides.

CAPS formed in an effort to call on the state to create a one mile buffer zone around schools protecting them from the most restricted pesticides. With the help of thousands of community members and our partners around the state, we have made much progress. Chlorpyrifos is one of the most dangerous pesticides in use, and the EPA has made recommendations over the years that it should be banned. Under the new administration of president trump, and with new leadership at the EPA, science and evidence are taking a backseat to corporate greed. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced Wednesday, March 29, that the EPA will not ban chlorpyrifos after all. If trump’s EPA refuses to protect the public from food contaminated with chlorpyrifos, and refuses to protect us here in the Central Valley from farm work, drift and water exposure to chlorpyrifos, then we implore

Tulare

Continued from 10 Carlini said Colony wanted the city to pay up to 70 percent of the cost of an upgrade of the gas conditioning skid at the city’s waste facility. At that point, the city decided to postpone negotiating for three to four weeks while it assessed the skid Colony wished to have installed, Carlini said, and a letter was sent reflecting the pause.

“They put (in) their letter to rescind prior to getting that document,” Carlini said. “That’s not my fault. That letter was never a termination letter. It was letter to postpone the negotiations awaiting the assessment of that skid. We got the skid the day after they gave us the letter, and that was way before the five weeks we told them it was going to take to get the assessment.”

Governor Jerry Brown to protect us. Governor Brown, you understand the value of science and evidence. You value the lives of Californians. We ask you to ban the use of chlorpyrifos in California.

What is Chlorpyrifos?

Chlorpyrifos is one of the most widely used insecticides in the U.S. with 20 to 24 million pounds applied annually. Poisoning from chlorpyrifos may affect the central nervous, the cardiovascular, the respiratory systems as well as irritation to the skin and eyes.

Two of the five pesticides Cesar Chavez was calling to ban in that 1988 fast were organophosphates like chlorpyrifos, which attack the nervous system.

More chlorpyrifos is used in California than in any other state in the nation. By 2000, the U.S. EPA had already concluded that chlorpyrifos exposure posed such significant and life-long health harms to children’s development that the agency phased out nearly all household uses of chlorpyrifos. But few restrictions were placed on its agricultural use. Since then, scientists at UC Berkeley and Columbia University have found a connection between prenatal chlorpyrifos exposure and children lagging in terms of motor and mental development.

Children at age three who experienced higher prenatal exposures are more than: • twice as likely to be mentally delayed, with lower IQs and deficits in working memory at age 7, • five times as likely to have symptoms of autism, • six times as likely to have ADHDtype symptoms, and • 11 times as likely to have symptoms of other attention disorders.

UC Davis scientists’ research in California has indicated an association between increased autism rates and exposure to organophosphate pesticides, with the link between autism and chlorpyrifos the strongest.

While the nationwide autism rate is now one in 68, for women who lived near fields where chlorpyrifos was applied during their second trimester, the chance of having a child with autism was closer to one in 21.

That’s more than three times as likely. UC Berkeley’s CHAMACOS studies in the Salinas Valley have also found decreased lung function in 7-year olds whose mother’s were exposed to chlorpyrifos.

EPA’s November 2016 revised human health risk assessment took much of this new science into consideration, recognizing: • Airborne chlorpyrifos levels mea-

Another Breakdown

The BPU voted unanimously to begin negotiating with FCE, declining to consider Colony’s new proposal. It was at this point Mayor Jones--who attended the meeting with councilmen Sigala and Nunley--addressed the Commission.

“We did ask staff to go back and review this contract and work with Colony,” Jones said. “They (those doing business with the city) should be able to go to any of them (city staff, commissioners and council members), and some point we have to communicate better. That’s what this is.”

It was that lack of communication Jones sited when calling the vote to dismiss Henry and Brehm from the BPU.

Water Studies Altered?

Jones has also questioned the validity of studies used by the BPU to formulate recent increases in the city’s water rates. The issue was brought before the

sured near homes and schools in agricultural communities (many in California) were found to pose a risk to children and women of childbearing age.

• There is no safe amount of chlorpyrifos in drinking water because the food contamination alone presents risks of concern.

• All workers who mix and apply chlorpyrifos – including handlers, seed treatment and secondary seed treatment workers – are exposed to levels greater than what the EPA considers safe. That’s the case even with the maximum possible amount of protective clothing, equipment and engineering controls.

• No uses met the safety standard and therefore the revised assessment supported the proposed ban on food uses Dow AgroSciences Dow AgroSciences manufactures the most chlorpyrifos, marketed as Dursban and Lorsban. To give you a sense of the values and history of the company, Dow is involved in multiple lawsuits over their deliberate choice to pick profits over people.

In decades past, they chose not to remove chemicals like 123 TCP from fumigants, which are still found in water in Visalia and throughout California. In 1972, Dow fed Dursban to inmates at Clinton Correctional Institute, New York, to assess its effects on humans. In 1995, Dow was fined $732,000 for not sending the EPA reports it had received on 249 Dursban poisoning incidents.

In 2003, Dow agreed to pay $2 million - the largest penalty ever in a pesticide case - to the state of New York, in response to a lawsuit filed by the Attorney General to end Dow’s illegal advertising of Dursban as “safe”.

EPA & Chlorpyrifos Policy The US EPA announced last November that it intended to revoke all tolerances of chlorpyrifos, calling it unsafe to use in any amount. Underscoring the importance of this proposed ban, the agency cited the serious dangers of chlorpyrifos and added that young children risk exposure from food residues alone that are 14,000 percent higher than the level EPA currently believes is safe. In December 2016, President-elect Trump picked Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris to head the American Manufacturing Council. The US EPA continues to face many cutbacks and policy changes under the new administration. We will likely see devastating policy changes regarding pesticides under the REINS Act, which

Council by Henry at the same meeting where he was eventually dismissed.

“You thought the study was maybe invalid, that there was inaccurate data, to the point of even six wells may have been taken offline intentionally to alter the hydrologic data and rate study to justify the increase,” Henry told Jones.

“In other words, to have a narrative that would fit an increase in the rates.”

Six of the city’s wells were offline at one point, but Henry said they were brought back online when the water system was extended to include homes in the Matheny Tract.

“If you (Jones) have some information regarding those wells, that the data might have been manipulated, I think those people ought to come forward,” Henry said. “That’s a seriously claim right there. I don’t know how valid that is or how true it is, if there’s documentation or if there’s a paper trail.”

makes it more difficult to pass safety regulations on chemicals like pesticides and pharmaceuticals. This act was supported by our own Congressmen Devin Nunes and Kevin McCarthy. While some of the most compelling research on recommendations against chlorpyrifos was conducted by the EPA, sadly, this Wednesday, they announced that they would not ban chlorpyrifos. Head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt chose to ignore data and choose profits for companies like Dow AgroSciences over the health of the residents of Ag communities.

Cesar Chavez said, “What, then, is the effect of pesticides? Pesticides have created a legacy of pain, and misery, and death for farm workers and consumers alike ...These pesticides soak the fields. Drift with the wind, pollute the water, and are eaten by unwitting consumers. These poisons are designed to kill, and pose a very real threat to consumers and farm workers alike” (1990).

A Call to Action If Trump’s EPA will not ban chlorpyrifos, California must. We believe it is unconscionable, and in violation of civil rights laws, to allow the continued use of chlorpyrifos on California fields despite the overwhelming body of scientific literature indicating its dangers to human health and the environment. We are now turning to California Governor Jerry Brown to take action.

In a letter seeking Governor Brown’s intervention on chlorpyrifos, the statewide coalition Californians for Pesticide Reform said: “We have been heartened by the stand taken by you and the California legislature to ‘lead the resistance’ to the Trump administration’s predilection to rely on alternative facts, ignore science, and eliminate regulations intended to protect the public’s health, safety and environment, and we’re asking your administration now to live up to that promise and implement EPA’s proposed ban on food uses in California.” When president trump was elected, Governor Brown said, “We’re ready to fight climate change and protect research towards climate” Governor Brown, the people of the Central Valley call on you for protection.

Señor Chavez said, “If we ignored pesticide poisoning, if we looked on as farm workers and their children are stricken, then all the other injustices our people face would be compounded by an even more deadly tyranny” (1989).

We have faced that injustice for far too long. Chavez’s fight didn’t end with him; it is up to us to end the tyranny.

Slippery Slope

Still addressing the mayor before his removal, Henry gave his opinion on why he was about to be removed from office.

“It sounds like, because you don’t agree with the Board of Public Utilities, you’re going to start dismissing or removing people,” he said.

And, he feels this precedent could lead to future manipulation of a highly-technical board.

“Let’s say tonight you completely wipe out the membership on the Board of Public Utilities and put in five new people, what if in six months to a year, year and a half, that board starts making decision you don’t agree with, are you going to remove them again until you get a board that thinks exactly like you do?” Henry asked.

The Tulare City Council will meet to review nominees for the BPU seats at 6 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 491 N. M St.

12 • Valley Voice

6 April, 2017

Visalia Feral Cat Coalition Makes a Difference in Lives Catherine Doe On a cold February evening 20 volunteers with the Visalia Feral Cat Coalition (VFCC) congregated in Visalia’s Industrial Park with dozens of cages, cans of cat food, and many, many blankets. The coordinator, clipboard and pen in hand, mapped out where all of the cages were set up so no kitties would be inadvertently left behind.

Their goal? To stabilize a feral cat colony next to businesses in the industrial park through the Trap Neuter and Release (TNR) program.

The business owner contacted VFCC about a growing feral cat colony, so a mass trapping was scheduled. Forty-eight cages were placed throughout the property then picked up around midnight and taken to Companion Animal Medical Center. The next morning Dr. Nanette Kuswa spayed or neutered and vaccinated 21 cats. 28 cats were trapped in total but some had already been fixed or were sick and had to

Bastille Continued from 1

In addition, the nearly $1million will only renovate the outside of the building, such as replacing the roof and retrofitting the unreinforced masonry. The interior of the Bastille would still need to be remodeled and updated to meet the needs of any prospective tenant. Tenant improvements could cost more than a million dollars.

In light of the cost, the city council has started to entertain the idea of selling the nearly 120-year old building. In the mean time, it requested from Camara final bids on what it would cost to fix the uneven bricks on the west side of the building that are causing a tripping hazard and the work needed to keep the Bastille from further deterioration. According to Camara, a preliminary estimate for both jobs provided by JT Construction was $180,000.

The Bastille served as the Kings County jail from 1897 to 1964. After being used for several restaurants and night clubs the building’s last tenant left in 2009. The city of Hanford acquired the Bastille along with the Old Court House from the county for $1 in 2014.

Hanford’s historic buildings have no maintenance fund like Hanford’s more modern government buildings.

Councilmembers Debate Options

Councilmember Justin Mendes has consistently been against the city forking over such a huge amount of money for the Bastille. “This is one million dollars for nothing,” he said. Mendes was in favor of using the money budgeted in 2015 to fix the Bastille, which was $600,000,

keep an area be euthanized. free of cats for After the cats long. Relocatrecover from surgery they ing cats is anare returned other method that does not to where they work. Once were trapped. cats are reT h e VFCC returns moved from a territory, oththe cats to er cats move their “home” in to take adto live out vantage of the their days, VFCC volunteers set up a trap with cat food. which is typ- Catherine Doe/Valley Voice newly available resources ically a much shorter life span than domestic cats. Be- and breed, forming a new colony.”

According to Karnen Kent, President cause the cats no longer reproduce, and the dominant male keeps away all outside of VFCC the organization has tripled in cats, the colony stabilizes and in time re- its number of volunteers in the last year and was able to spay and neuter 923 cats duces in size.

To request help with a feral cat colo- in 2016 through Targeted Trappings and their Low Cost Voucher Program. The ny call 559 429-5415 According to the VFCC website, group also fostered and adopted out 120 “The traditional method of catch and kill formally feral kittens. The organization is is an endless and costly cycle and won’t also finishing up its first successful year of to instead repair the Old Court House where the city has actual paying tenants.

The most notable change of heart came from Councilmember Sue Sorenson. Two weeks ago she expressed her frustration that the city was still in the talking stage since June of 2015 about renovating the Bastille and still hadn’t moved forward. Now, Sorenson conceded that maybe the council had possibly jumped the gun in deciding to entertain bids to fix a building with no tenant and for which the city has no plan.

Public comment had also swung from pleas to fix Hanford’s treasure two week s ago, to comments of how fiscally irresponsible the council would be to spend a large sum of money on the Bastille.

Sorenson suggested that the council slow down concerning making a decision about the Bastille and that spending a million dollars could make them look irresponsible. Mendes concurred, reminding the council that Hanford Police Officers were doing their own renovations on their head quarters on their days off.

“They are putting up sheet rock and painting while the council considers this?” Mendes said that it was shameful that this proposal even made it in front of the council.

Councilmember Francisco Ramirez was also against spending a million dollars on the Bastille, and said that after Hanford residents voted Measure K down twice the council had to start thinking outside the box.

Ramirez requested that the Carnegie Museum’s proposal to buy the building be put on the April 4 agenda. Until recently, most of the council had been against selling the Bastille.

(559) 562-2522

111 W. Honolulu, Lindsay

How to Donate The VFCC is completely run by volunteers and depends on donations of supplies and funds to sustain its operations.

VFCC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation (EIN 46-4559862) and all donations are tax deductable. “We appreciate every donation, no matter the amount. Every donation is used in some capacity to help feral and stray cats,” says Kent.

To donate, go to their website visaliaferalcatcoalition.org.

Selling the Bastille Is Now On the Table

Patricia Dickerson, director of the Carnegie Museum, presented her proposal earlier that evening during public comment. She suggested that the city sell the Bastille to the museum for $1 and that her group, along with AMVETS, would start raising the money for renovations.

AMVETS, a national Veterans service organization, just added a Hanford branch through the help of local resident Darren Clayton. He said the idea is to turn the Bastille into a museum for law enforcement, first responders and Kings County’s military history is what got his attention.

Dickerson asked the city for a five- to ten-thousand-dollar grant to do some cleaning, painting and minor repairs to get the building open to the public quickly. Her intent is to open immediately for historical tours, ghost investigations, overnight stays, and weddings. Money will be raised by providing these services, along with forming the group “Friends of the Bastille” similar to “Friends of the Fox” in Visalia that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“This building belongs to the public and we want to open it to the public as soon as possible. Our goal is to keep the building as original as we possibly can.”

Dickerson plans to raise the million dollars in five years, though she says her group can accomplish the renovations for cheaper than the city. AMVETS have already come up with a plan to renovate the building by donating labor and materials.

In addition, the Carnegie Museum would not have to pay prevailing wage as the city would be required to do.

Buoying the Carnegie Museum’s ability to raise funds will be Travel Channel’s intent to film an episode of Ghost Adventures inside the Bastille. “It’s all branding” said Ramirez. “Three million people will soon see the Bastille on the Travel Channel.”

Ramirez’ request to put Dickerson’s proposal on the April 4 agenda got pushed to April 18. According to City Manager Darrel Pyle, city lawyer Mario Zamora needs time to do his homework on how to transfer the property without triggering prevailing wage.

To not incur that state requirement of paying prevailing wage the Carnegie Museum would have to buy the Bastille at fair market value.

“That may be minus $982,000” Pyle said.

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6 April, 2017

Valley Voice • 13

Voices of the Valley Sandy Blankenship: The Face of Exeter Nancy Vigran While Sandy Blankenship wasn’t born and raised in Exeter, she may just be the town’s biggest cheerleader. A Hanford native, Blankenship, whose maiden name is Massey, has worked for the Exeter Chamber of Commerce for 25 years, having served as its executive director for the past 12.

Blankenship moved to Hanford following her marriage to Tim Blankenship in 1979. She has a brother and sister who have retired to Florence, Oregon, along with their mother. The Blankenships have a son, Brian, and a daughter, Stefani. Brian lives on his late paternal grandparents’ farm, and Stefani, who was married last year, lives in Visalia.

Before the couple had children, Sandy Blankenship worked for Security Bank. When she had young children, she elected to stay home. But, as they got older, she worked as a part-time bookkeeper for her church, and some other part-time jobs, which kept her busy while the kids where in school.

A Job at the Chamber

“Then, Molly East [an Exeter Chamber employee] called me one day and said that they needed someone at the chamber to help with bookkeeping a couple of days a week,” Blankenship said. “Gina [Butler-then chamber director] had gotten things to a point where she thought she could hire someone to help with the bookkeeping. So, I came down here and talked with Gina, and she hired me. I was supposed to work two days a week, just to do the bookkeeping – but I never worked only two days a week.

“I had no idea, really, what a chamber of commerce was, or did, and Gina was eager to teach me all about it. Once we got to know each other, she said, ‘I’m going to teach you to do my job.’

“She saw something in me, I guess, that I didn’t recognize. I credit what I am doing now to her. She was really the only one who encouraged me to learn more.

‘You’re going to take over my job one day,’ she said, ‘I’m going to teach you what you need to know.’”

That was in January of 1991.

“I still follow a lot of her philosophy,” Blankenship said. “She knew a lot of things and a lot of it is not necessarily book-learning, or things you can learn at a conference – she knew people. She knew a lot about how to deal with business and people, and what was important for the community. She really did love the community and she showed that to me. I think that is what I have in my heart, even though I am not native to Exeter – Exeter is real important to me. It is my home.”

Following Butler, other chamber directors came and went. Blankenship, at that time, was not interested in changing her own position.

“I never really applied at that time – I had young children. This job is not really conducive to a young family – too many nights, weekends. It’s hard to do when you have an active young family. It wasn’t until Delora [Buckman] left, that the board approached me and asked if I was interested in taking on the position.

At that time, the children were pretty much grown. And, I thought, OK, yeah, maybe now was a good time. It was scary.

I had to think long and hard, because it’s a lot of responsibility.

“I was pretty happy doing what I was doing, and not having the ultimate responsibility. I was pretty comfortable, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to step out of my comfort zone. I had seen a lot of the pitfalls that the others had encountered, and everybody encounters them – it is impossible not to. Everyone has issues, there’s always controversy, there’s always something – because you deal with the public. It’s how you handle it and I had seen it all.”

While headed by Blankenship, the chamber is managed by a 12-person board of directors.

“You have 12 personalities to deal with – you don’t have to make one person happy, you have to make 12 people happy, or at least the majority. It sometimes can be kind of stressful. You have to all work for the betterment of the community and you all have the same goals in mind – the businesses and the community are your focus, and that’s what you’ve got to work for – there can be no personal agendas.

Hiring on as Director

Blankenship said she consulted her husband, friends and an interim church pastor about accepting the position.

“I was flattered that they came to me and thought that I was worthy of the position – so I accepted,” she said.

“I took over as director 12 years ago – in October, 2005. I was surprised when I realized that it has been 25 years that I’ve been here. It went by pretty fast.”

“

Exeter Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Sandy Blankenship, with Chamber Cat, Walter. Nancy Vigran/Valley Voice

say – you need to call the Lindsay Chamber,’ [for example]. We always try to give them an answer. We don’t say, ‘I’m sorry, we don’t know,’ unless we honestly just can’t help them.

Service clubs and organizations receive a discounted membership.

Most of the time, I enjoy it a lot. I love the community. I love the volunteers that I get to work with. Over the years, I have enjoyed all the people.

”

Sandy Blankenship “We used to have a lot of down time around here – but not anymore. The activity level has increased – there’s the demand for social media – we’ve gotten so much busier. We are definitely 411 in the community. When people don’t know where to call – they call us. We’re happy to share information. ”People don’t realize for businesses and organizations, that if they have something going on – it’s really important that we know about it. Organizations sometimes don’t feel that is it necessary to be a member of the chamber, but when they have an event, and we don’t know about it – people call us and we can’t help them, if we don’t know about it. And, people kind of get mad at us – what do you mean you don’t know? If we knew, even if they aren’t a member, we’d still share.

“Required reading is the newspaper.

If you catch my staff reading the newspaper, it’s because they have to – even if they only have time to read the headlines – they have to look at it and skim the paper, so they are aware. And sometimes people get things mixed up, and we’re able to tell them, ‘no, no that’s in Lind-

“And, we sell tickets for most everything happening in the community,” she said. “We’re happy to sell their tickets for them, we promote it on our website, in our e-blasts, on Facebook – anywhere that we possibly can. Really, for their membership, they get quite a bit. Most clubs don’t have a location, so we can be their location. We’re a pretty good bargain for them.”

Managing Personalities

Blankenship said she has no regrets in having taken on the position.

“Most of the time, I enjoy it a lot,” she said. “I love the community. I love the volunteers that I get to work with. Over the years, I have enjoyed all the people.”

She shared a story about one difficult volunteer recently at a Toastmasters meeting, she said. The object was to tell a story about turning a negative into a positive.

“We used to have [someone] come in and say, ‘you should have done it this way, you should have done it that way,’ all the time. She was a good worker – I didn’t want to turn her away. So, one time after she came in and said, ‘you should

have done it this way, you should have done it that way, blah, blah, blah,’ I said, ‘That is a great idea, you know what, I’m putting you on the committee and the next time you can help us plan it.’

“She looked at me and said, ‘ah, well, I don’t want to be ON the committee.’

And, I said, ‘well, you’ve got great ideas, you’re going to help us plan it next year.’

And, she never complained again – well, she did a little bit, but not nearly as bad.

“And, since I’ve used that several times on people, when they think they know everything, ‘next year you can help us.’”

Blankenship said her favorite aspect of the job is the social part of it, and the people she gets to be around. She likes meeting with the new businesses and business owners.

She enjoys the activities in town, from planning through fruition.

“It’s all part of it,” she said, and it’s always fun to give a little shine to an old activity. After 25 years, things get to looking a little dull sometimes and so it’s always nice to put a new spin on it and make it shine a little more. You’ve got to change with the times – it’s kind of nice when you have young people come in and are interested in what you are doing, and they have a little different way of thinking and I welcome that. It makes it exciting and maybe a little more attractive to the younger generation.

“We’re pretty lucky – we do have young people who attend our events, and they’re in town and they’re in business. And that’s exciting!”

The most difficult part of the job, she said, is worrying about the budget, and making sure that the chamber is

VOICES continued on 16 »

14 • Valley Voice

6 April, 2017

Comments & Letters HCCA Statement Re: CDPH Survey/Report HCCA/TRMC A hospital spokesperson addressed this response in response to a request for comment from a Voice reporter. In the interest of ensuring we are able to represent all sides, we are publishing the full comment from HCCA. This is in response to your recent e-mail requesting a statement from the Hospital regarding the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Report. We are confident that your article will not contain the decidedly negative “spin” on the Report, as was done by another reporter for a different newspaper.

In particular, the other newspapers article “buried the lead” by failing to give appropriate emphasis to the Report’s conclusions about the dysfunctional behavior of the Hospital’s prior medical staff.

As the Report found, the prior medical staff continuously failed to work collaboratively with the Board and refused to follow its own rules. This is now the second report by a reviewing agency which has concluded that the prior medical staff was failing to perform its essential functions and was thereby threatening patient safety.

The first report, issued in early 2016 by the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, likewise found that the prior medical staff was dysfunctional and threatened to pull the Hospital’s Medicare and Medicaid certifications if immediate steps were not taken to correct the problem. The Board, which is ultimately responsible for Hospital operations, took the only action that would resolve the problem within the very limited time-period provided: it disaffiliated from the old medical staff and affiliated with a new medical staff that was committed to performing its essential functions in overseeing staff performance and

working cooperatively with the Board to enhance patient safety.

Against this backdrop, the CDPH issued its recent Report, which is critical of the way in which the Board responded to the threatened loss of the Hospital’s Medicare and Medicaid certifications.

The Hospital firmly believes these conclusions are unjustified and based on a misunderstanding or misapplication of the applicable law.

The Report calls for the Hospital to submit a plan of correction, which is in process. The ultimate decision by the CDPH with respect to the matters cited in the Report will not be made until the Hospital has filed its plan of correction and appeal of the citations, and the entire process has been completed. A reporter’s publishing a public comment like “State Report Rips TRMC” before the process has been completed without understanding what the regulations actually require, is irresponsible and reflects that reporter’s lack of knowledge of how the review process works.

Finally, the Hospital is concerned that the CDPH survey (coming over a year after the events cited) appears to be the result of complaints by the disgruntled physicians who no longer work at the Hospital, and the small group of community dissidents who support them, in an effort to either influence the pending lawsuit and/or to influence public opinion connection with Dr. Kumar’s recall.

The Hospital will fight its court battles in court, where they should be fought, and not in the media.

The Hospital has no objection to the CDPH enforcing appropriate laws or responding to bona fide complaints.

However, we do object to allowing frivolous and unwarranted complaints being used as a tool of harassment. Indeed, the Hospital is concerned that the CDPH

has wittingly or unwittingly engaged in “underground regulatory adoptions” and enforcement of regulatory standards that are only announced after the fact at the behest of the California Medical Association (CMA), which is both funding the prior medical staff’s lawsuit against the Hospital and is closely affiliated with the Department’s survey process (See e.g., Cal. Hlth. & Safety Code §§1279, 1282, 22 C.C.R. §70101(g)). Courts prohibit CDPH and other agencies from using surveys and other enforcement procedures to reveal regulatory requirements beyond the plain language of their regulations, a process known as “revelatory discipline.”

In TRMC’s case, CDPH alleged that TRMC violated 22 C.C.R. §70701(a) (1)(F) which provides that “[t]he governing body shall adopt written bylaws in accordance with legal requirements and its community responsibility which shall include but not be limited to provision for: Self-government by the medical staff with respect to the professional work performed in the hospital, periodic meetings of the medical staff to review and analyze at regular intervals their clinical experience and requirement that the medical records of the patients shall be the basis for such review and analysis.”

The regulation appears to require only that the Hospital adopt written bylaws related to medical staff self-governance.

Yet nowhere in the citation does CDPH ever allege that TRMC hasn’t adopted the required Bylaw provisions. Rather, with no basis whatsoever, CDPH alleged that TMRC violated this simple regulation for reasons unrelated to adoption of a bylaw, much less the old medical staff’s self-governance. For example, CDPH alleged that the Hospital’s failure to document dispute resolution efforts with the medical staff violated the rule, as did

the failure to create ad hoc committees to try to resolve the dispute. Moreover, as a matter of fact, the Hospital tried in vain to convince the old medical staff to resolve any differences through the dispute resolution process set forth in the medical staff’s own Bylaws—but they consistently refused to do so. In fact, the Hospital filed a mandamus action against the old medical staff to try to force them to adhere to their own dispute resolution procedures.

Tulare Local Healthcare District v. Medical Executive Committee, Case No, 259976 (2014).

These frivolous and unwarranted complaints are nothing more than an inappropriate pressure tactic being used by the CMA and the old medical staff to force the Hospital out of business, or to force it to capitulate to the personal economic interests of the disgruntled physicians. These complaints are cost free to the malcontented. But these are contrary to good public policy, as the limited resources of the regulatory agencies are being squandered for harassment purposes.

Simply put, the costs associated with defending the frivolous complaints in legal and administrative actions literally take health care services away from Tulare residents.

The Board acted in the best interests of the Hospital and the community which it serves, and maintains that its actions were supportable by law. As almost everyone in the community knows, this matter is currently pending in court and heading to trial, and the judge will make the ultimate decision. It will not be made by the media, or by reporters, or by the CMA or its attorneys, or by any individual members of the community.

We hope that the community will reserve its judgment until the matter has been resolved by the court.

to accomplish with $85M of tax payer bond money. The enemies of the hospital keep talking about “taking” the hospital back”. What they mean is taking it back for themselves to ruin it yet again. Did you know that only approximately 2% of the hospital’s gross revenues come from the local tax revenues? HCCA has been responsible for the other 98%.

HCCA is hundreds of serious, resourceful, focused and hard-working people. Now that we may have found a path to borrow money to finish the 12year project (a project that should have been funded properly in the beginning and completed in 2 years), we will, as in all that we do, proceed with careful planning and execution. At times, this may mean having to keep our strategy confidential during negotiations so that we can leverage better terms for the District.

The screaming demands by those that seek to harm our public hospital will not cause HCCA to say or do anything that will rob the District from getting the best deal possible.

It is a true disappointment to watch the blatant unwarranted attacks on the hard working nurses, techs and staff of Team HCCA. Is this what Tulare has come to? Are we really a community that allows others to wrongly accuse HCCA

and fellow Tulareans of deceiving the district stakeholders? Is this a new norm that our children and grandchildren need to become accustomed to? There are local Facebook pages and websites that actually have the facts, sites such as: facebook.com/tulareregionalmedicalcenterHCCA/, facebook.com/saveourhospitaltrmc/ and TeamHCCA.com.

Check these out for yourself.

It is without question that HCCA has finally succeeded – where others have consistently failed – in changing the trajectory of Tulare’s public hospital away from the decades of constant turmoil, false starts, and abysmal failures into one of consistent successes. PERIOD. Do not underestimate Team HCCA’s determination because it is truly vested in this community and believes in it. Team HCCA is working hard to build a successful integrated health care system because Tulare deserves it. To those bent on ruining our public hospital’s chance at a real future, take note. Rest assured that these ridiculous antics will not be allowed to continue unanswered. Stay tuned…

Lies are just that... lies Kathleen Johnson, HCCA/TRMC The people who post anonymously on social media behind the façade of the inappropriately-named “Citizens for Hospital Accountability” abuse our First Amendment right by spreading lies and misinformation to harass and defame good people.

Stop and think about what is happening with Tulare’s public hospital. The political circus that has erupted from the escapades of a small handful of unhappy people has literally disgraced our community. For months now, the self-proclaimed “Citizens for Hospital Accountability” group has clouded social media with false news and fear tactics under the guise that they are ‘interested’ in saving TRMC. They routinely use deceitful cyberbullying tactics to falsely claim that HCCA is fleecing district funds. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Who are the leaders of this group?

They are the very same people that ran the hospital into the ground years ago, leaving us (the district residents) to pick up the pieces. And their ugly vitriol is not just portrayed by a consistent stream of false facts and fantasies, but also by outright bigotry as when one of their leaders blurted “Heil Hitler” at a recent Board

meeting. Those of us that are longtime residents of Tulare remember the turmoil of the past and there is no way that our community will allow this small group armed with misinformation to take us back there.

Thankfully in January 2014, HCCA came in, rescued the hospital from financial ruin and set the hospital on a path of now three years of profitability.

In spite of the undocumented hubbub from hospital naysayers, those amazing accomplishments are verified and well supported by outside sources. More importantly, HCCA has brought quality to new levels never before seen at the hospital. Everything HCCA has done to date has unequivocally brought GOOD to our hospital.

Look carefully. HCCA has worked extremely hard these past three years to save the hospital and give it a viable chance at a prosperous future. Every step, decision and action that HCCA has taken and continues to take is carefully planned and executed. Because of HCCA Tulare’s hospital was relieved of over $20,000,000 in construction liabilities after the fiasco of the past. It is HCCA that unified the tower’s construction plans and completed its exterior without bond money—something that previous leaders were not able

Kathleen Johnson is Vice-President of Marketing for Healthcare Conglomerate Associates, the company which manages operations at Tulare Regional Medical Center.

6 April, 2017

Valley Voice • 15

Comments & Letters The Nunes/Trump Secret Deal Art Rodriguez

I’m an advocate for the poor and working class families. The work is a labor of love but also one that needs to be done. Those of us out in the trenches from the Coachella Valley, to the San Juaquin valley, can share untold stories of the harassment, physical abuse, and many other forms of oppression from farmers and those who support their interests.

I found that the ag and dairy industries want to expand slave labor disguised as a guest worker program. The workers under this program usually don’t know their rights or the English language. There are no work safeguards or guarantees to incidents of abuse.

This is, for them, “Making America Great Again.”

Recently, I was in a meeting with several farm labor contractors in which just this past year they lost their contracts with the ranchers and packing houses. None of the contractors knew who underbid them but they all had crews of non guest workers ready to work. “This is a violation of labor code,” said one of the contractors when I pointed out that i just came in contact with four large school buses, full of H2A guest workers, on my way to the meeting located in Tulare County.

In 1964 the federal government

ended the braceros program due to the inhuman treatment the farmworkers received from those who benefited from their exploitation. After many failed attempts at organizing a farmworker union, ending the guest worker program known as the bracero program, allowed the Farmworkers to finally organize. In 1965, what would be known as the farmworker and Chicano movement began and brought millions of raza together demanding social justice.

Today, the agricultural and Dairy industries are attempting to reset public opinion by fabricating that there is a labor shortage. I find it hard to prove that there in fact is a labor shortage, for example Tulare County, unemployment rate is 12.2%. An expansion of the H2A program will effectively prevent farm workers from organizing and maintain safe working conditions.

California making the farmworker overtime bill into law only adds to the list of the financial benefits this industry gains by hiring guest workers.

In Tulare County a group of activist have been reaching out to friends and allies around the state such as Santa Barbara and Los Angeles for help.

“The industries’ political influence in government is effective by electing their candidates to do their bidding” states Ruben Macareno, candidate for

AD 26 in 2016. This area has worst air quality in the country due mainly to unimaginable amounts of pesticides used in and around communities. Of those who are negatively affected by pesticide use are 91% hispanic states California for Pesticide Reform. As well as being ground zero in poisoned water due to the industries practices, not much has been done to stop it and the tax payers are being left to pick up the bill. Many communities are forced to buy or beg for bottled water.

The industries and there association such as Farm Bureau, invested millions in ensuring they had a seat at the White House table. Take note that only place, in California, Trump visited during his campaign, was with the ag and dairy leaders.

Congressman Devin Nunes’ weak congressional record is not one would think would get the attention of a newly elected President, but that of his relationship with Big Ag. Many residents that live in Congressman Devin Nunes district strongly believe the reason Devin Nunes has shamefully refused to investigate Trump’s russian ties, is because of his secret deal with Trump.

As one dairyman stated, “Well, what he told us is that the wall is going to have a door.”

The Green Party and The Wall Stephen Pendleton The Green Party of Tulare County adamantly opposes the construction of a wall on the Mexican border. There are many reasons for this action. It is racially profiling, impractical, unnecessary and certainly contrary to long-held historical beliefs.

This proposed action is a thinly veiled attack on every Hispanic person in the United States. It is certainly not justifiable. Donald Trump wants his supporter to believe that we are being swamped with evil Mexicans bent on crime and terrorism. Arguments for the wall are full of ‘alternative facts,’ to use a term coined by a Trump assistant.

He should have used the more accurate term-falsehoods.

Over the last few years the undocumented population has actually decreased. In raw numbers many fewer Mexicans are crossing the border. In fact, the leading country contributing to the undocumented population is no longer Mexico-its China.

So if this so-called flood of undocumented people is really to be stopped, a Mexican wall wouldn’t even put a dent in such. You’d have to build a wall around the ports and airfields of California, the East Coast-and maybe even across Canada. Think of the billions that would costnot to mention costing us the friendship of Canada. And even then, walls historically do not solve the problems for which they are built.

If you think this wall is not racially profiling, consider this. Trump’s original

proposal to raise money was to confiscate the money Hispanic families send to relatives back in Mexico. That’s their money-they paid taxes on it. How would you like it if the government suddenly seized money you had earmarked for a relative’s education, or elderly care? Its nothing but legalized theft.

His new proposal is not much better. He threatens to impose a 20% import duty on Mexican goods. If you do any shopping you should know that such includes a great many food products. So who would be hurt? Poor Hispanic families-as well as anyone (like me)who loves hot sauces. or chile verde.

And what about those of us who buy cheap clothing and products assembled in Mexico? If you are poor, you’ll end up paying more for them.

Trump wants to spend billions on a project which-if he knew anything about history-would tell him that walls don’t work. Consider these historical examples: The Roman Empire built many walls, in Britain, Germany and the Danube. Barbarian hordes rolled over them.

Remember the Huns?

China built the Great Wall-the largest structure ever built. On several occasions it was overrun. The name Ghenghis Khan comes to mind-and generations of Chinese had to pay the price for the arrogance of believing in the so-called ‘protection’ a wall supposedly brings.

More recently France built the huge Maginot Line. The Germans simply went round it. I also recall the Berlin Wall. It certainly did not protect Communism in East Germany.

The cartels have already proven existing defenses to be useless-there must be dozens of tunnels under the barricades. If people can’t use a tunnel, there are lots of boats available to go round. At worst, people could fly to Canada and simply walk across. Walls are built to be gone over, under or around. All they really do is to make it more expensive for those who want to cross them.

This is not the historic view of the United States which we were taught in school.. The Statue of Liberty stands as its symbol-the welcoming arms which beckoned to most all of our ancestors (except the indigenous population and those enslaved). Yes, those were legal immigrants. Unfortunately the Obama administration was not particularly sympathetic to any immigrants,legal or not.

The Trump government so far has been the least friendly to foreign nationals of any I can remember.

We need to focus on opening ways for the undocumented already here to obtain legal status (which a wall would not do). This is especially important here in the San Joaquin, which depends on undocumented labor to harvest the crops.

We also need to know the truth about the necessity for blocking the border-which is that it really isn’t vital for our national security (no terrorist is known to have crossed into the US that way). The number of actual crossings is way down, and in reality the whole program is a smokescreen used to divide Americans on the basis of fear.

Veteran’s Corner

“Honor a Hero, Hire a Vet” Job & Resource Fair on April 20 Scott Holwell

It’s Almost Here! The Kings County Veterans Employment Committee is once again hosting a Job and Resource Fair for veterans, military, National Guard, reservists and their dependents and survivors.

This year’s fair will be held April 20, 2017 at West Hills College Lemoore’s Golden Eagle Arena and will run from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, with an opening ceremony starting promptly at 8:30am. The event is a rare opportunity to meet with employers who are ready to hire, and public and private agencies eager to help with training and other services. In one easy location, veterans will learn about the variety of options available to them, including career, training and education opportunities.

Whether you are a veteran seeking a new career or are looking for a first job since separating from the military, you are invited to attend. Bring copies of your resume. If you don’t have one, there will be assistance available in putting one together. Veterans possess a wide variety of outstanding qualities including experience, maturity, leadership, and loyalty making them ideal candidates for job openings. Employers and resource providers can contact Adam Bode at (559) 585-3553 or by email at adam.bode@edd.ca.gov for more information. The fair is free and open to all.

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.

16 • Valley Voice

Voices

Continued from 13 meeting the needs of its members.

“That goes hand in hand,” she said.

“If we’re not meeting the needs then that makes the budget suffer – we have to have money to survive, and everything goes up, every year. So, money is always an issue. And being able to keep up with technology is an increase in cost.”

Blankenship also commented on the age of the chamber facility, which is more than 100 years. There are continual repairs that need to be made, adding that that costs money as well.

Walter – the Chamber Cat

For several years now, the chamber has had a mascot. It wasn’t just a whim.

“We never really had a pest problem, but one fall, we had mice in here like crazy, and we don’t know why. We had to set traps all of the time, and I just hate those things. We thought, maybe we need to get a cat. But, one of the part-time staff, she liked cats, but she was allergic – so that was out of the question. It wasn’t too long later, that she and her husband moved out of the area, and the problem had cleared up with the mice.

“We forgot about it a little bit, but we still thought it would be fun to have a cat in the office. And, Sarah [Blankenship’s assistant] came in one day and showed me the face of this cat that Pacific Crest Equine had put out on Facebook. They were looking for a home for this cat, they had rescued from the emergency vet. The cat had come in and the owner surrendered the cat, because he

6 April, 2017 had a cut on his leg, and they took him in and doctored him back to health, and he was ready for adoption.

“Those big eyes, and round face, ‘oh my gosh, he’s adorable,’ I said. He was probably all most a year old at that time.”

The staff, which at the time included another part-time employee, mulled it over.

“We called and asked what they thought about having him here in the office, rather than a home,” she said.

“They were thrilled. They had already named him Walter. We weren’t sure we liked the name, but after a while, it just

“

better. I remember [what it was like] before the murals and I think everything has been such an improvement – I can’t imagine where we’d be if the murals [which started with a mural committee in 1996] hadn’t happened. Just the pride - everyone improved their buildings – things just changed. The whole attitude changed – business came in – everyone started sprucing things up after that. It was gradual – it wasn’t just one person, it was the community – the businesses, the building owners.

“The things that people say, that your town is so clean, everyone is so

I like what I do and my husband is still working. I think I would probably get bored if I was at home all the time.

suited him.

“He loves it here – he loves people – he greets everyone. We have had more fun with that animal. There was a couple here during the storms this winter - they couldn’t get up to the park [Sequoia National Park] – they were from North Carolina, they had one of our magazines and they saw Walter in the magazine. They came down, they were missing their cats from home – so they took pictures with him. Everyone who comes in, and if they happen to like animals, they fall all over him. He has been a very good attraction for us. We couldn’t have gotten a more personable animal.”

City Growth, Chamber Growth

Over the years, the chamber membership has grown.

“I think things have grown for the

”

Sandy Blankenship

friendly – they just can’t get over the atmosphere. People talk to you – anywhere you go in town – people just can’t get over it – they didn’t know any place like it existed, and we live it.

“When my sister moved up to Florence, having lived in San Jose all those years, she said, ‘Sandy you wouldn’t believe it, you have to come up here, everyone is just so nice. They talk to you, they do this, and they do that.’

“And, I just kind of looked at Tim and said, ‘well, we already have that.’ I have that all the time, but I realized that they hadn’t, and so I understand her amazement at it. I thought good for you – I’m glad – that’s what I’ve got it.”

Accomplishments

The best things that have happened during Blankenship’s tenure as chamber

director include the creation of an Exeter chamber magazine, she said.

“I created the magazine – it was my idea – we started that when we started the summer concerts. It was a way to promote Exeter to the crowd and it’s evolved to what it is today. It started out very simply, we did it very quickly. This will be the 10th year. It’s designed for anyone visiting Exeter – given out on all the mural tours, to visitors and locals.”

The chamber also started a Women in Business group, which meets about five times a year.

And recently, a huge accomplishment, Blankenship said, was fundraising for new holiday decorations.

“Joanne Dodson [a volunteer] is to credit for this and in a little over a month, we raised $18,000 for new Christmas decorations for downtown,” she said. “I think this is a huge accomplishment. The last time, they were purchased by the city with redevelopment funds, which we no longer have available, and the city didn’t have funds to purchase them, and the chamber didn’t have funds to purchase them. She wanted to do it and volunteered – she is very exuberant and positive. She met with the different clubs and organizations.

I wrote letters. We were only going for part of it this [past] year – because we didn’t have a lot of time, but we raised it all. I am really proud of that.”

Blankenship has no immediate plans for change or retirement. She enjoys her work.

“I like what I do and my husband is still working,” she said. “I think I would probably get bored if I was at home all the time.”

Valley Scene

6 April, 2017

Lindsay’s Orange Blossom Festival is in Full Swing

Gutierrez graduated from Lindsay High School in 2012, and attended UC Lindsay’s Orange Blossom Festival is Santa Barbara. During her senior year at already under way with coronation of the UC Santa Barbara she spent a summer queen on April 1. This year, the 85th anni- abroad in Africa, and then lived and travversary of the festival carries the theme of eled around Europe for a semester. After Royalty Reigns in Lindgraduating from Santa say. But the majority of Barbara with a degree in the festivities are yet to Film and Media Studies, come with the carnival Gutierrez returned home opening and Bank of the to Lindsay, where she is Sierra Queen’s Reception currently working as a Thursday. substitute teacher and The carnival, locatis serving on the Linded in Lindsay City Park, say Community Theater is open from 5-10pm Board. She plans to atThursday, Friday and tend graduate school to Sunday, and 11am continue her studies in 10pm on Saturday. The media, where she would free Queen’s Reception is like to work on humanat 5:30 at Bank of the Si- Kassandra Gutierrez. Courtesy/ itarian or driven projects.

Blossom Festival Comerra, 142 S. Mirage Ave. Orange mittee Staff Reports

Orange Blossom Queen

This year’s Orange Blossom Festival Queen is Kassandra Gutierrez who was born and raised in Lindsay surrounded by oranges. Her parents are Shanna Lemus and Mario Gutierrez and she has two sisters, Aimme and Allondra.

Her family immigrated to the United States from Mexico where they chose to settle in Lindsay and Tonyville. They came as farm workers but with determination and hard work became teachers and Lindsay’s business owners, dedicating their time and talents to the community of Lindsay.

Honored Couple

This year’s Honored Couple is Jeff and Patti Tienken. The Tienkens have a long history in Lindsay that began in 1905. Jeff and Patti both attended Lindsay High School and COS. They began dating in college and married in 1972, and started their family: Chad, Brandi, and Doug.

Patti jumped right into working with the other moms to build a strong Washington Elementary School Parent Group, then Jefferson, and Steve Garvey Jr. High groups. Jeff coached Lindsay Recreation League Soccer, T-ball, and baseball teams.

ORANGE continued on B3 »

Kings Canyon National Park. Courtesy/NPS

Five Fun Ways to Celebrate National Park Week Ring in spring with a visit to a national park during National Park Week, April 15 through 23. Throughout the country, hundreds of programs and events will encourage visitors to explore new places and enjoy new experiences.

More information is available at www. nationalparkweek.org.

“Our National Parks are our national treasure,” said Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. “My formative years were spent in Glacier National Park and one of my biggest mentors was a park ranger and football coach. The lessons you learn from the land and the park rangers cannot be learned anywhere else on earth. As we head into the next 100 years of the Park Service, I’m looking at ways to improve infrastructure and visitor experience while conserving the precious lands for generations to come.”

Staff Reports

“There are 417 national parks and each one has a story to tell,” said Acting National Park Service Director Michael F. Reynolds. “There are endless options during National Park Week to discover someplace or something out of the ordinary. Whether one seeks relaxation, exhilaration, or inspiration, there is something for everyone in a national park.”

Following are just five of the fun ways you can celebrate National Park Week.

Try Something New

Introductory programs during National Park Week might just get you hooked on a new interest. Brush up on astronomy at a Night Sky Party in

PARKS continued on B7 »

James & the Giant Peach JR. Opens April 27 Tulare County Office of Education

Roald Dahl was the author of both “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and “James and the Giant Peach.”

Both of these beloved and quirky stories have been made into musicals which the Theatre Company is set to perform this month.

Opening April 27 with four shows, the production will feature a pre-show with musical selections from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” performed by younger students. Following the pre-show performance, 4th through 12th grade students will perform “James and the Giant Peach JR.” This musical is the work of Oscar and Golden Globe winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, composers for the musical movie “La La Land.”

“James and the Giant Peach JR.” is the story of an orphaned boy sent to live with his conniving aunts, Spiker and Sponge in Dover, England.

When James is sent to chop down their old fruit tree, he discovers a magic potion that grows a giant peach which rolls into the ocean and launches a jour-

ney of enormous proportions.

James befriends a collection of singing insects that ride the giant peach across the ocean to New York City, facing hunger, sharks and plenty of disagreements along the way. Once he lands in New York, James must face his aunts again.

“I absolutely love the writing style of the songs in James,” said Charlotte Garcia Da Rosa, who directs the production. “They’re catchy with quick-witted lyrics and memorable melodies. Our cast has embraced this dark yet heartwarming musical comedy with passion and dedication. There are many standout performances in this show and some fun extras, including puppetry and a little bit of magic!”

Evening performances of “James and the Giant Peach JR.” will be held on April 27, 28 and 29 at 7pm at the Rotary Theater, located at 330 South Dollner Street in Visalia.

A matinee will also be performed at 2:pm on April 29. Tickets for the production will be available April 10 at the Mooney Boulevard office (6200 S. Mooney Blvd., Visalia) or the Edu-

Greedy and conniving Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge take in their orphaned nephew James in the musical James and the Giant Peach JR. (l-r) Aunt Spiker is played by El Diamante High School senior Bobbi Gonzalez, James is played by Eleanor Roosevelt Community Learning Center fourth grader Zion Sears and Aunt Sponge is played by Exeter Union High School senior Emily King. Courtesy/Tulare County Office of Education

cational Resource Services office (7000 Doe Ave., Visalia) during normal business hours. Tickets are $12 per person

for general admission seating.

For more information, call the Theatre Company at (559) 651-1482.

6 April, 2017

B2 • Valley Voice

Great Conversations Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale and the Life of Stories Joseph R. Teller Can an immoral person tell an edifying story? Can a known liar motivate you to change your ways? Can an artist—a filmmaker or essayist, say—produce fine art or persuasive arguments even though we know he or she is a reprehensible person?

These tricky questions lie at the center of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale,” which COS’s Great Books group discussed at our last meeting.

“The Pardoner’s Tale” is one of the twenty-odd tales making up Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (composed AD 13871400), the most famous work of literature written in late Middle English.

The work concerns a group of English pilgrims traveling from London to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury. To pass the time on the road, the pilgrims agree to a competition: whoever can tell the best story will be feted by the group on their return to London.

Chaucer creates a colorful array of medieval characters—a noble knight, greedy clergy, holy religious, merchants, lawyers, ploughmen, a prioress, a feisty “Wife of Bath”—and each one tells a story.

Pardoners were church officers al-

lowed to sell indulern, when a funeral gences to the laity. procession goes by.

Chaucer’s Pardoner They decide that not only does this, they will set out to but he also parades kill Death, since around (clearDeath has been killly false) relics for ing all their friends. people to venerate On the road for a fee. to the next town, When it’s the they meet an old Pardoner’s turn to man who tells them tell his story, he where they can find admits right off Death: “See that the bat that he is a oak there? Right greedy, selfish man underneath you’ll who only preachfind / Death.” But es against sin for under the tree, the Geoffrey Chaucer. money; in fact, he three find a hoard doesn’t even care about the salvation of gold instead. of his hearers: “I only preach of avarice They hatch a plot: one of them will and the like, / And in this way induce go to town to get water and supplies, them to be free / In giving cash—espe- while the other two stand guard over cially to me. / Because my only interest the loot; then they’ll cart the gold off is in gain…When they are pushing up at night. While one goes into town for the daisies, / Their souls, for all I care, supplies, the other two plot to kill him can go to blazes.” on his return; and as if to return the faThe Pardoner then shows off his vor, the one in town poisons his friends’ rhetorical ability by telling a story he water jugs. uses to swindle people when he preachSure enough, when the errand boy es: “although I’m a pretty vicious chap, returns, “Just as they’d planned his / I can tell a story with a moral to it: / murder earlier, / They killed him on Here’s one I preach to bring the money the spot.” Then the two celebrate with in, / Now if you’ll all be quiet, I’ll begin.” a drink from their water jugs—and they The Pardoner’s moral tale is de- die, too. signed to stir his hearers to repentance.

It is then that the hearers learn that Three criminals dice and drink in a tav- Death really was under the tree in the

form of avarice. The Pardoner concludes by offering the pilgrims a chance to kiss his relics (for a fee), an offer which the leader of the group rejects: “Not on your life I won’t. / You’d only make me kiss your dirty drawers, / And swear they were the relic of some saint!”

This deceptively simple tale is complexly layered, and that led to fantastic discussion. For instance, Chaucer at one level is criticizing aspects of church practice and poking fun at gullible laypeople who fall for the Pardoner’s rhetoric.

Yet for all his greed, the Pardoner indeed tells a perfectly good story— in fact, an exemplary medieval morality tale.

And he acknowledges that his story does in fact move many of his hearers to spiritual renewal, surely a good thing, too.

So why does Chaucer put such a traditional and in many ways effective narrative in the mouth of such a sordid man?

Perhaps Chaucer’s major reason is to not only dramatize the importance of good stories, but to show how powerful stories can retain their power even when told by flawed, broken storytellers—in other words, by anyone who claims to be human.

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

Job Fair at

Porterville College

NEXT EXIT

Employer Registration Form 5th Annual Job Fair Thursday, May 4, 2017 • 9:00 am - 1:00 pm

6 April, 2017

Orange

Continued from B1 He volunteers for the Lindsay Cultural Arts Council, donating equipment and labor. He has helped with the Orange Blossom Crate Derby, using his quads to haul the cars back to the starting gate on Todd’s Hill. He currently serves as Board President for LSID and is a board member for the Lindsay-Strathmore Cemetery and the Friant Powers Authority.

Together Jeff and Patti have served on the LHS Ag Boosters and the LHS Athletic Boosters. Jeff also volunteered as a member of the “chain-gang” for all the home football games for 22 years.

They helped found the Booster Burgers Booth, a huge money maker for the athletic boosters.

Patti is a charter member of the P.E.O Chapter UZ Lindsay, volunteer for the Lindsay Skimmers, group leader for 4-H, OBF volunteer and helper for the Lindsay’s first Olive Festival. Patti currently serves on the board of the Lindsay Cultural Arts Council helping to preserve Lindsay’s history.

Valley Voice • B3

More Activities

Friday at 5pm the Cultural Arts Museum will host a reception also open to the public and free. The weekly Lindsay Farmer’s Market will be in full swing at 7pm.

On Saturday, the day starts early with a 7am call time for Legacy Scholarship Foundation 10K/5K Fun Run. Registration is available the day of the race at 6am for $30. LUSD 5th-12th graders race for free! Parents must accompany their learner and sign the parent permission form between 6-6:45am on race day. The race location is Lindsay High School, 1849 East Tulare Road.

Other activities Saturday include the 8am Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast at 8am at the City Hall Lawn, and the Horseshoe Tournament also starts at 8am at Lindsay City Park.

The Tour de Danish Bike Ride begins at 9:30am. The 25-mile timed bike ride has a catch - the fastest rider may not win.

The Tour de Danish is a family fun ride, and, while the ride is timed, it is not a race.

The event takes place on public roads, and roads will not be closed to traffic. All traffic rules must be followed during the event. So, while the Tour de Danish is a competitive ride, it’s all in good fun rather

than all-out racing. Safety will be the first consideration.The route is flat, and is ideal for beginning riders.

The ride will open with a paced mass start. The event will follow the Lindsay Orange Blossom Festival parade, and will precede the parade. At the rest stop (approximately mile 12), each rider will have the opportunity to eat as many Svenhard’s Danishes as he or she wishes. For every Danish eaten, five minutes will be deducted from his or her time. Yes—it’s possible for a rider to eat his or her way into a negative overall time.

Following the onset of the Bike Ride, the much anticipated parade begins at 10am. The festival begins at 11am in City Park and lasts throughout the day with entertainment, food, vendor booths and more.

Drop off for the Bake Off are from 11am-Noon at the Bake-Off Canopy.

Categories include cakes, cookies and breads. Orange or orange flavoring must be one ingredient for every entry - recipes for entries must be attached to application.

Applicants are encouraged to be present for the awards announcement winners will be announced on the main stage at 2pm.

Mighty Oak Chorus to Present 36th Annual Musical Show Lee Smith The Visalia Mighty Oak Chorus performs some of Disney’s greatest songs on Saturday, April 29, with a 2pm Matinee and a 7:30pm Evening Show at Central Valley Christian High School Theater.

The award-winning chorus features singers from Fresno, Bakersfield, Visalia, Tulare, Hanford, Dinuba and Three Rivers performing songs from Disney’s “Mickey Mouse Club,” “Mary Poppins,” “Cinderella,” and “Pinocchio.”

As a special feature, Valley Life Charter School’s youth chorus will perform famous songs from Disney’s “The Lion King.”

The two-hour musical also includes

A Bit of History

Mr. R. I. Clearman, then secretary/ manager of the Lindsay Chamber of Commerce, originated the Orange Blossom Festival on April 23, 1932 to counteract the depression blues. Almost every year since, with only a few misses, Lindsay has celebrated with an Orange Blossom Queen and her court, an Honored Couple, a Saturday parade, and a celebration in the city park.

The first two Orange Blossom Festivals featured “The Pageant of the San Joaquin,” a gigantic historical play written

by Valda Prizer. It had a cast of more than 400 people and was performed in the foothills between Lindsay Peak and Elephant’s Back. Hundreds participated, including the community of Strathmore in the play, as various episodes of the past were unfolded ¬ the time the Yokuts Indians roamed the Lindsay plains, the days of Mexican rule, the Gold Rush, the planting of the orange groves and, finally, the completing of Shasta and Friant dams. The finale included children in colorful capes forming a “Rainbow of Promise,” ending with carloads of oranges being released down the foothills for the 4,000 guests to enjoy as they returned to their homes.

Wine & Beer Tasting At

Redwood Wine Room

Totem Market & Gifts

a championship Fresno men’s quartet “The Front Line” and the popular Tulare women’s quartet “Tonally Blessed.” Tickets are priced at just $15 for adults and only $7.50 for children age 12 and under.

Advance tickets may be ordered by calling Bud Case in Visalia at 901-4615 and credit cards are welcome at: visaliamightyoakchorus.org using the PayPal account.

“The Happiest Concert On Earth” is the 36th consecutive show in this annual series, made possible by its major sponsors: A&W Restaurants, ServiceMaster by Benevento, Iron Horse Design, Redwood Springs Health Care, and Village Printers.

Enjoy our Deli!

(Evening meals coming soon) J&J Cellars - Kelsey See Canyon Vineyards

(559) 561-4463

45186 Sierra Drive, Three Rivers

OPENING DAY

PHOTO BY KEN WEISENBERGER

APRIL

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420 N. Kaweah Ave.

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TULARE

133 North J St.

VISALIA

301 S. Willis St. 2611 S Mooney Blvd.

2124 W. Riggins Ave * Available only for a limited time!

WWW.RAWHIDEBASEBALL.COM 559.732.4433

Calendar 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.

Now - April 15: CSET Free Tax Return Service Saturdays - 9am - 3pm - The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program prepares federal and state tax returns at no cost to households with less than $54,000 annual income. More information regarding the VITA program including contact information, documentation requirements and helpful links is available online by visiting www. 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.

generously sponsored by the Visalia Art League, the Tulare County Arts Consortium and Bueno Beverage.

Arts Visalia Visual Art Center is located at 214 E. Oak Ave. The gallery is open 12-5:30pm, Wednesday through Saturday.

City of Visalia Se April 2017 Monday

APRIL April 10: Get Walking! Sitting is the “New” Smoking 6:30-7:30pm - Therapy Specialists, a division of Kaweah Delta Health Care District, is offering a free monthly seminar to help people learn how physical therapy can help better manage and possibly prevent aches, pains and more. The series, called “Physical Therapy and You” takes place on the second Wednesday of each month. at Therapy Specialists, 820 S. Akers St., Suite 200, in Visalia. Space is limited; RSVP is required to attend by calling 559624-3427.

April 14: Porterville Spring Egg Hunt 10:30am - 2-3 year olds; 11am - 4-6 year olds; 11:30am - 7-9 year olds Thousands of eggs filled with toys, candy and special prizes will be up for grabs at the annual Spring Egg Hunt! Plus, don’t miss a special appearance by the Bunny. $2 in advance, or $3 at the event. Wristbands can be purchased at the Heritage Center, 256 E. Orange Ave., Porterville. No baskets will be allowed in the egg hunting area for ages 4-9.

NO PARENTS allowed in the egg hunting area. All hunts will begin on time. For their own safety, children will only be allowed to hunt in Now - April 30: “Conectado a their own age group. For more inTierra, Grounded” formation, call the Heritage Center Arts Visalia is pleased to host sculp- (559) 791-7695. ture and installation artist Patricia April 18: “Air Quality” - The Rangel who will be building and League of Women Voters of Tulare showing new works in a show enti- County tled “Conectado a Tierra, Ground- 11:45am - Continuing the study of ed.” She is a native of Dinuba in long term sustainability, Dr. Sandy Tulare County. Patricia collects ma- Sherriffs will speak on “Air Quality”. terials from places that hold person- Dr. Sherriffs is on the State EPA Air al significance - orchards, roadsides, Resources Board and the San Joaher grandfather’s ranch, her parent’s quin Valley Air Pollution Control backyard, and Smith Mountain District. He teaches health science Cemetery in the San Joaquin Valley. classes at UCSF and is a practicing She works the dirt by mixing, us- physician in Fowler, which makes ing, reusing, and re-contextualizing him well aware of the health effects it. Susceptible to decay in their own of the Valley’s poor air quality. A way, Patricia’s sculptures serve as luncheon will be served for $15 (inan ongoing exploration of growth, cluding tax and tip). Meeting held change and loss. This exhibition is at Left of Center, 699 W. Center,

Office Hours: Monday—Frid Office Phone: (559) 713-438 Lunch Reservation Line: (55

Tuesday

Wednesday

3

Thu

4 5 Volunteer Bureau HICAP 10am - 2pm Spring Open Meeting @ 10:30am Darts 11am House!

Corn hole 11am Penny Bingo 1- 4pm Pinochle 1 - 3pm 10am—2pm Table Tennis 1 - 3pm Boot Scootin’ 1:15 - 3:15pm Poker 2 - 3:30pm

6 Chess Club Darts Penny Bin

10 Corn hole 11am Pinochle 1 - 3pm Table Tennis 1 - 3pm Boot Scootin’ 1:15 - 3:15pm

11 12 HICAP 10am - 2pm Poker 12 - 3:30pm Darts 11am Contract Bridge 1 - 3pm Penny Bingo 1- 4pm

13 Chess Club Darts Penny Bin

17 Corn hole 11am Pinochle 1 - 3pm Table Tennis 1 - 3pm Boot Scootin’ 1:15 - 3:15pm

18 19 HICAP 10am - 2pm Poker 12 - 3:30pm Darts 11am Contract Bridge 1 - 3pm Penny Bingo 1- 4pm

20 Chess Club Darts Penny Bin

24 Corn hole 11am Pinochle 1 - 3pm Table Tennis 1 - 3pm Boot Scootin’ 1:15 - 3:15pm

25 26 HICAP 10am - 2pm Poker 12 - 3:30pm Darts 11am Contract Bridge 1 - 3pm Penny Bingo 1- 4pm

27 Chess Club Darts Penny Bin

Visalia. Reservations are required by April 14 by contacting newellgb@ hotmail.com or calling 732-1251.

The public is welcome.

more information or to reserve your tickets, please Annabelle Chavez, (559) 239-7636 or Suzanne Aguilera-Marrero, (559) 310-6892.

April 21: Latino Rotary Hosts Fundraiser Event 7pm-12am - The Visalia Latino Rotary will host its fifth annual fundraiser event Salsa y Vino at the Wyndham Visalia Hotel, 9000 W Airport Drive in Visalia. Salsa y Vino (salsa dancing and wine) is an event with Latino identity and multicultural interest. The Rotary club invites the community to an elegant, exciting, and fun event with a charitable cause. Doors open at 6pm, dinner starts at 7pm. Salsa dancing class will start at 8pm with dancing from 9pm to 12am. In attendance will be professional, amateur, and beginner salsa dancers, with a brief lesson for those who are interested in learning how to dance salsa. Tickets are $40 (includes dinner) and are available at Annabelle’s Bridal, 200 W. Main St. in downtown Visalia. Tables of 10 are also available for $400. For

April 21-23: 17th Annual Pizza Festival Get involved and connect with the community by entering the Giant Slice competition, or enter the Fatte Challenge. Invite co-workers, friends, family and everyone you know to three days of fun at the Lemoore City Park. Pizza Picasso’s are encouraged to create a super slice of the Mega Pie. This competition is FREE to enter, reserve your spot.

The Lemoore Chamber will provide each TEAM with the pizza pan, dough and all other ingredients to prepare your pizza creation. Only 16 slices are available. Entry deadline is April 21. 1st place team will receive $200 cash and media coverage; 2nd place $100 cash; and 3rd place $50 cash. Judging will be based on: Team Spirit, Originality, Effort, Execution,and Overall finished appearance.

enior Center—Activity Schedule

day 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

81 59) 713-4481

ursday

310 N. Locust Visalia, CA 93291

Friday

Saturday

7 10am Friday Movie 11am Table Tennis ngo 1 - 4pm Senior Square Dancing NEW Scrabble Club

1 pm 1 pm 1:30 pm 1 pm

14 10am Friday Movie 11am Table Tennis ngo 1 - 4pm Senior Square Dancing NEW Scrabble Club

1 pm 1 pm 1:30 1 pm

21 10am Fun Fitness 11am Friday Movie ngo 1 - 4pm Table Tennis Senior Square Dancing NEW Scrabble Club

11am 1 pm 1 pm 1:30 1 pm

b

b

b

28 10am Friday Movie 1 pm 11am Table Tennis 1 pm ngo 1 - 4pm Senior Square Dancing 1:30- 3:30pm NEW Scrabble Club 1 pm

b

April 22: Corcoran Rotary Club 26th Annual Crab Crack 6-8:30pm - Crab Feed at the RAC gym, 900 Dairy Ave. Open bar, silent auction, casual dress. Tickets $65/person. For more information and tickets, call contact Mike Graville at (559) 334-7899.

April 27: Navigating Difficult Conversations 3pm - Free monthly educational caregiver support series - Conversations involving loss of independence can be difficult. Held at the Visalia Senior Center, 310 N. Locust St. and organized by Prestige Assisted Living. For more information and seat reservation, call (559) 735-0828.

April 28-30: California Antique Farm Farm & Equipment Show 25th Anniversary - antiques and boutiques, family fun, live music, tractor pull, cold beer, food trucks, swap meet, Tulare County 4-H Fair. $5 general admission; kids 12 and under, free. For more information, visit www.antiquefarmshow.org.

8 Senior Pride Bingo 12 - 4:15pm

Sunday

9 Contract Bridge 1-4 pm

15 Senior Pride Bingo 12 4:15pm

16 Contract Bridge 1-4 pm

22 Senior Pride Bingo 12 - 4:15pm

23 Contract Bridge 1-4 pm

29 Senior Pride Bingo 12 - 4:15pm

30 Contract Bridge 1-4 pm

April 29: Assistance League Visalia: An Evening at the Derby 5-10pm - An evening of fun activities with delicious food, great wine and craft beer. This is an annual fundraiser dedicated to raising the funds that help children in the local communities. The mission is to provide new clothes, hygiene kits, books, backpacks, instructive puppet shows to students. The League also paints large US maps on school campuses to help students learn about our country. Tickets $50 each ($25 tax deductible). Tickets available online at www.assistanceleague. org/visalia, call (559) 737-1907, or email, assistanceleaguevisalia@alvisalia.org. Assistance League Visalia is no-profit 501 (c) (3) organization.

April 29: Kings County Farm Bureau Taste of the Valley 4-7pm - Kings County Farm Bureau will be hosting its popular food, wine and beer-tasting fundraiser, Taste of the Valley, on Saturday.

This community-wide event helps raise money to support Farm Bu-

reau programs. Guests will have the opportunity to sample an impressive assortment of California wines, hand-crafted beers, and to purchase food from some favorite local eateries. The evening will feature live music by Hanford’s own J.J. Brown, an outdoor game area and a silent auction. Taste of the Valley tickets are $45 each, and can be purchased online at kcfb.org or at the KCFB office, 870 Greenfield Ave. in Hanford. Tickets will also be on sale at the gate on the day of the event for $50. For more information, please call the KCFB office at 584-3557.

April 29: Cinco de Mayo Celebration 11am-3pm - Tulare-Kings Hispanic Chamber presents a celebration at Roy’s Park in Farmersville. Food booths and entertainment for the whole family. And, May 5 at the Old Lumber Yard, 300 E Oak St., Visalia, 5:30-10pm.

thor of the law raising the age for cigarette purchase to 21.

Tickets available online through https://secure.actblue/ contribute/ page/freddavis2017, or for information call Norma at (559) 991-5266, or Susanne at (559) 368-9464, or susannegundy@aol.com May 6: Just for You Boutique 9am-3pm - At the Tulare First Church of God, 833 N. Blackstone. We are inviting guests to shop from local handcrafted makers and home party vendors. Our boutique will be indoor and outdoors in our front courtyard. Follow our vendor list on https://www.facebook. com/JustForYouBoutiqueTulare/.

For more information, 559.685.9408.

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May 10: Improving Balance & Avoiding Falls 6:30-7:30pm - Therapy Specialists, a division of Kaweah Delta Health Care District, is offering a free monthly seminar to help people learn how physical therapy can help better manage and possibly prevent aches, May 4 - Porterville College Job pains and more. The series, called Fair “Physical Therapy and You” takes 9am - 1pm - with 9–9:30am reserved place on the second Wednesday of for Military veterans and their fam- each month. at Therapy Specialists, ilies - to be held in the college gym. 820 S. Akers St., Suite 200, in Visalia.

Seeking employers who are hiring and would like to reserve a table, Space is limited; RSVP is required contact: Rudy Roman at American’s to attend by calling 559-624-3427.

Job Center 559-788-1382, or email rroman@edd.ca.gov. The event is May 13: Full Bloom 2017 - Exopen to public; no parking permit eter’s 14th Annual Garden Walk 9am-2pm - Exeter, famous for its needed. murals and known as one of AmeriMay 5 - Tulare-Kings Women in ca’s Prettiest Painted Places is hosting Ag Fundraiser the 14th Annual Full Bloom Garden 6pm - Social and dinner at Koetsier Walk. Visitors are invited to explore Ranch, 8230 Ave. 272, Visalia. Pro- beautiful and unique private gardens ceeds support agricultural awareness in and around the Exeter area. Be and education in Tulare and Kings sure and take time to enjoy some reCounties. Silent auction. Tickets freshments hosted by Exeter’s 2012 $50/each and are available through Business of the Year, By the Water the Tulare County Farm Bureau and Tower Antiques, relax in the ambiGolden State Farm Credit in Han- ance of their lovely Victorian garden, ford.

141 South B Street. Tulare/Kings Master Gardeners presents “Home May 6 - First Annual Fred Davis Gardening Festival” will be on site at Memorial Dinner 6-10pm - The First Annual Fred Da- one of the garden sites. Admission is vis Memorial Dinner will held at the included with Garden Walk ticket.

Lamplighter Inn of Visalia. Fred Davis was a leader in local Democratic Tickets $20.00 in advance, $25 politics and a colorful community event day are available at the Exeter activist and humanitarian. Keynote Chamber of Commerce and By the speaker is State Senator and 2018 Water Tower Antiques. Tickets will Lieutenant Governor Candidate Dr. be available the day of the event, Ed Hernandez, chair of the State only at By the Water Tower AnSenate Health Committee, and au- tiques.

may

6 April, 2017

B6 • Valley Voice

Sports

Sequoia Union Hosts Annual Track Meet

Zephaniah Serna, an 8th grader at Sycamore Valley Academy, taking first place in the boys’ 100 meter final. Daniel Nunez/Valley Voice

Dante Escamilla (right) finishing strong on the 100 meter dash. Daniel Nunez/Valley Voice

Rawhide Announce 2017 Opening Day Roster Staff Reports The Visalia Rawhide and Arizona Diamondbacks announced today the Rawhide’s 2017 Opening Day Roster.

The roster features 15 players from the 2016 Rawhide team that reached the postseason for the fourth consecutive year and captured their 13th California League Northern Division Championship. Visalia will also have two top-30 prospects in the Arizona Diamondbacks system as ranked by MiLB.com to kick off the year.

The highest ranked prospect on the roster at #15 in the Diamondbacks system is SS Sergio Alcantara. Alcantara is returning to Visalia after playing four games for the Rawhide at the tail end of the season and through the 2016 playoff push. A native of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, the 20-yearold will compete in his third full-season campaign after impressing with his defensive ability over the past two seasons and shining in the Dominican Winter League this year. MiLB has this to say about the young middle-infielder, “Alcantara will be able to defend at the Major League level. He’s a no-doubt-about-it shortstop, with the strongest arm in the system combined with good hands and above-average range, even though he doesn’t have a ton of speed. Offensively, he has a solid approach, drawing walks and not striking out very often. He is continuing to work on adding strength, and while power will never be a part of his game, he needs it so he can at least find the gaps more frequently.”

The next highest ranked prospect to start the year with the Rawhide is Justin Donatella, who checks in as the #26 prospect in the Diamondbacks organization. Donatella was a 15th round draft pick out of UC San Diego in 2015 and will be returning to Visalia for the second straight year after going 6-4 with a 3.03 ERA and 54 strikeouts in the hitter-friendly California League last season. The six-foot-six right-hander was all but untouchable in the friendly confines of Rawhide Ballpark last summer, putting up a 3-1 record with a 1.84 ERA and a .85 WHIP in home games.

Here’s the MiLB scouting report on the 22-year-old native of Panorama City, CA, “Donatella uses his 6-foot-6 frame well to throw his heavy sinking fastball, which touches 94 mph, downhill. He keeps it down in the zone consistently and gets ground balls early in counts. He combines it with a solid average slider he throws in the mid-80s, and while his changeup is his third pitch, it’s a usable offering. He is a big-time strike-thrower who doesn’t miss a ton of bats but also rarely hurts himself with walks.”

Along with Donatalla, returning to the pitching staff from the Northern Division Champion 2016 Rawhide will be pitchers Bud Jeter, Cameron Gann, Kirby Bellow, Joel Payamps, and Nick Baker. Rounding out the pitching staff are Visalia newcomers Ivan Pineyro, Trevor Simms, Keegan Long, Cody Clark, and Miguel Aguilar, as well as Mason McCullough, who split the 2015 season between Visalia and Kane County.

The catching corps will feature Matt Jones, who played in 13 games with the Rawhide to go with stops at the Double-A and Triple-A levels, and Francis Christy, who will be spending his first season in Visalia. Jones owns a career .232 batting average but was limited to only 23 games in 2016. Christy, who was a 7th round draft pick out of Palomar JC in California, spent his first full season with the Class-A Kane County Cougars in 2016. He batted .244 with 11 doubles, two home runs, and 17 RBIs while throwing out 36% of would-be base stealers.

The infield will feature four more returners and one newcomer alongside Alcantara. First baseman Austin Byler, corner infielder Marty Herum, third baseman Fernery Ozuna, and middle-infielder Galli Cribbs will come back to Visalia for the second straight year, while Daniel Lockhart will be making his first stop with the Rawhide. Byler, who was selected in the 11th round of the 2015 MLB draft by Arizona out of the University of Nevada-Reno, split his time between Kane County and Visalia last year, batting .254 with eight home runs, 11 doubles, and 36 RBIs over 83

games. Herum appeared in 96 games for the Rawhide last year and quickly became a fan favorite, finishing among the team leaders by hitting .294 with eight homers and 46 RBI. His performance earned him Cal League Postseason AllStar and Diamondbacks Organization All-Star nods. Arizona signed Cribbs out of Bellevue University in 2014, and he made his first foray into full-season ball last year. Between Kane County and Visalia, Cribbs hit a combined .230 with six triples and 35 runs batted in. Ozuna signed with the D-backs as an undrafted free agent in July of 2012 and has been steadily climbing the organization’s ladder since. He hit .263 with Kane County last year, his second with the Cougars, while driving in 28 runs in 86 games.

Ozuna was called up to Visalia for their playoff run last year and hit .261 with a pair of home runs in six games. Lockhart is in his first season with the Diamondbacks organization after being selected in the minor league round of the Rule 5 Draft last December. The son of former Major Leauger Keith Lockhart, Daniel had been ranked as high as 30th in the Cubs’ farm system as recently as 2014.

He split time between Myrtle Beach and Tennessee last season, hitting .226 with 13 doubles.

Colin Bray, Grant Heyman, and Zach Nehrir will make their returns to Recreation this park in the outfield this summer, and they’ll be joined by Matt McPhearson. Bray, who was a sixthround draft choice out of Faulkner State Community College in 2013, appeared in 109 games for the Rawhide last year, good for third most on the team, and clubbed nine home runs and 18 doubles, both of which were good for fourth on the club. The Diamondbacks selected Heyman in the eighth round of the 2014 draft out of the College of Southern Nevada. He was promoted to Visalia from Kane County in 2016 and hit .262 with 16 doubles and drove 30 runs home in 65 games with the Rawhide. Nehrir enjoyed a brief, 18-game stint with Visalia in 2016 but spent most of the season at Kane County. Selected by Arizona in the 16th round of the 2015 draft, he will

begin his second full-season with the Rawhide after hitting a combined .239 between Class-A Kane County and Advanced-A Visalia last year. McPhearson is the only newcomer to join the outfield on the Opening Day roster. The former fourth-round draft pick played across three levels in 2016, including a threegame call-up to Triple-A Reno. McPherson his a combined .228 last year while appearing in only 33 games.

Shelley Duncan, 37, will spend his first season as the Manager of the Rawhide in 2017. Duncan, who enjoyed a seven-year Major League career for the Yankees, Indians, and Rays, was a member of the 2009 World Series Champion Yankees and a part of five Minor League championship teams. Duncan hit 43 homers, 42 doubles, and drove in 144 runs in 330 games at the Major League level, and tagged 236 long balls over his 14 year professional career. This will be his third season as a skipper with the D-backs, having spent the past two seasons as the Manager of Short-Season Hillsboro. Duncan led the Hops to a league championship in his first year at the helm in 2015, and guided Hillsboro back to the playoffs last season. He owns a career 87-64 record. Duncan attended the University of Arizona and still holds school records for career home runs (55) and homers in a single season (24 in 2001). Not surprisingly, he was named a First Team All-American following the 2001 season. Duncan is a native of Tuscon, Arizona.

The Visalia Rawhide 2017 season kicks off with a road trip on Thursday, April 6th in Lancaster against the Jethawks. The Rawhide will spend a week on the road before returning to Recreation Park for their home opener on Thursday, April 13th against Inland Empire. The opening homestand will also feature the first Fireworks Friday and All-American Saturday of the season on Friday, April 14th and Saturday, April 15th, respectively. For tickets and more information on the opening homestand and the rest of the Rawhide 2017 schedule, please visit rawhidebaseball.com or call 559-732-4433.

6 April, 2017

Valley Voice • B7

Vance Physical Therapy and Wellness Celebrates 10 Years Staff Reports The qualities of compassion, knowledge and a family atmosphere have contributed to the ten successful years of service that Vance Physical Therapy and Wellness has provided Tulare County.

At a ribbon cutting on March 24, 2017, Mayor Teresa Boyce, members of the Exeter Chamber of Commerce and numerous patients and friends celebrated with owner Josh Vance and his staff.

The large crowd of friends demonstrated the rapport built between staff and patients over the years.

Mr. Vance commented on the importance of relationships in his practice.

“One of the best parts of what we do here is getting to know the community on a personal level and developing a lasting friendship with them.”

Olga Lopez, who works the clinic’s front desk, agrees. “We stand out from the other clinics in the fact that we get to know our patients.”

She explains that patients enjoy conversing with all of the staff and feel deeply cared for.

The level of trust Vance has devel-

oped among community members is evident. He explains, “I have been able to work with and get to know three generations of some of the families in Exeter.”

Alexis Maldonado, who is the clinic’s medical biller, pointed out that the clinic’s private treatment rooms are a rare luxury not found in most physical therapy clinics. “Our patients really like the privacy and one on one attention they get here.”

“We are unique in that we do not use aides,” said Vance.

“Every patient is seen by a licensed therapist during their entire treatment.

That may cost us more to operate but it is the best thing for the patients.”

Mrs. Boyce attended the ribbon cutting both as mayor and as a recent patient.

In a testimonial video played during the event, Mayor Boyce said, “After four weeks of coming to Vance, I was able to fold up the walker, put it in the car and drive myself home.”

Vance believes that many people live with pain such as headaches and chronic back pain that physical therapy could

Community members celebrated the company’s 10th anniversary. Courtesy/Vance PT

easily remedy.

“There is no reason to let pain and limitations get in the way of doing the things that you love to do,” he said.

Several patients commented on their rapid recovery from injuries.

“I’m back to work four months earlier than they planned and it sort of makes my day,” said Louis Weisenberger in a video testimonial.

Vance commented on his plans for the future of the clinic, “As we look to

the future, we want to continue to provide the specialized physical therapy and personal care that we are known for in the community.”

He also plans for the expansion of the wellness services of the clinic, including free seminars on nutrition and exercise.

Vance Physical Therapy and Wellness is located at 511 West Visalia Road, across from the Exeter Golf Course. You can reach them at (559)592-7117.

Tulare Western ASB Makes Wishes Come True at a lunchtime rally, or playing basketball with members of the school’s team.

Choir, culinary class, art, soccer, But dreams came true for Mrs. basketball and cheer are extracurricular Chester’s students during the school’s programs that offer high school students Wish Week, held March 6-10. Orgacreative and athletic outlets between the nized by Tulare Western’s Associated rigors of their core academic courses.

Student Body (ASB), Wish Week gave Linda Chester’s students the activity of their choice.

Sporting a custom “DJ Elijah” t-shirt and standing next to a huge urban art-style sign with his name on it, Elijah Gomez was the noontime campus DJ. Savannah Arredondo sang with the Tulare Western choir, while Elijah Gomez became a lunchtime DJ with a quick lesson from Jamal Wright atHector Delgado. Courtesy/TCOE tended an art class.

In all, 14 wishes While some high school students were granted. may take these activities for granted, stuWish Week was the vision of ASB dents in Linda Chester’s special day class president Sarah Wilbur, a senior who has at Tulare Western High School could only become a genuine friend of Mrs. Chesdream of singing with the choir, cheering ter’s class.

“For several years, Sarah has been in- every day.” volved with our students – not because it Wish Week was not the first event looks good on her résumé, but because Sarah Wilbur and the ASB students have she really cares,” said Linda Chester, a arranged for the students in Mrs. Chesteacher of the severely handicapped for ter’s class. the Tulare County Office of Education.

Last year, the group organized a “I could not have asked for better sup- “Mustangs in Training” event to energize port for natural socialization opportuni- the students who were competing in Speties. My students are included as part of cial Olympics. the fabric of the campus.”

“Through the efforts of Sarah and Once the students expressed their the ASB, my students feel like they have wishes, ASB leadership members went to new brothers and sisters on campus and work arranging the class visits and activi- you can see on their faces how excited ties with teachers and coaches. they are!” said Mrs. Chester.

Each of Mrs. Chester’s students was accompanied to their activity by a member of ASB. “The experience was an eye-opener for my ASB classmates,” said Sarah. “I think they gained a new perspective seeing the joy Mrs. Chester’s students got from participating Maria Ochoa, left, enjoyed attending one of Tulare Western’s culiin things we do nary arts classes as part of ASB-sponsored Wish Week. Courtesy/

Parks

wai’i Volcanoes National Park.

Tulare County Office of Education

Continued from B1 Saguaro National Park, go birding at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, take a photo workshop at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, make pottery at Ocmulgee National Monument, dance to Cajun music at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, or try your hand at surf fishing at Gateway National Recreation Area.

Save Some Money

There will be free entrance to all national parks during the weekends of National Park Week. The 118 National Park Service sites that normally charge entrance fees will offer free admission

on April 15, 16, 22, and 23. There are also free or reduced rate annual passes available for active duty military families, fourth grade students, senior citizens, volunteers, and people with permanent disabilities.

Become a Junior Ranger

National Park Week starts with National Junior Ranger Day on April 15. Throughout the country, kids of all ages can take part in family friendly events and earn a park-specific Junior Ranger badge.

Children can see a bald eagle up close at Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, participate in crafts at Lowell National Historical Park, go on an archeology dig at Chiricahua National Monument, or test their global positioning system (GPS) skills in Ha-

TCOE

Fill a Park Prescription

The second annual Park Prescription Day will be filled with activities that showcase the physical, mental, and psychological health benefits of time in nature.

Supported by increasing scientific evidence, many medical doctors now write prescriptions for the outdoors as an antidote for ailments such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and depression.

On April 23, dozens of parks, including Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Shenandoah National Park, Capulin Volcano National Monument, Tumacácori National Historical Park, Prince William Forest Park, Hot Springs National Park, and park partners will host activities that include hikes, health screenings, yoga, and volleyball.

Go Wild on Earth Day

Spend some time outside on Earth Day, April 22. Attend a wildlife festival on the Natchez Trace Parkway, go for a walk on the wild side at Cabrillo National Monument, learn to canoe on the Niobrara National Scenic River, make an appearance at a drama festival at Chamizal National Memorial, listen to a concert at Buffalo National River, weave a pine needle basket at Fort Matanzas National Monument, or meet a Civil War soldier at Stones River National Battlefield.

Visit www.nps.gov to plan your park visit. The site contains trip planning information and a calendar of events. Use #FindYourPark, #EncuentraTuParque and #NPS101 on social media during National Park Week to join in the fun!

6 April, 2017

Valley Voice • B8

Special Events of Holy Week and Easter at First Congregational Tulare First Congregational Church Tulare First Congregational Church Tulare is housed in an historic white building with a steeple and bells. We are located at 220 W. Tulare Ave. Please, come! Let us welcome you.

Our special events and services are as follows:

Palm Passion Sunday

The order of worship is designed to take the worshipper from Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to the crucifixion.

This service is especially for those who may not be able to attend special services during Holy Week.

Communion will be served.

Maundy Thursday

reflection. The time will include a story of the cross as told by one of the women who was there followed by prayers and the lighting of the candle of hope.

We celebrate the Last Supper Jesus had with his disciples before his crucifixion. We remember his new commandment to love one another!

The service will be Thursday, April 13 at 7pm. This service will feature Scriptures and congregational hymns.

The center piece of the service is communion to which all are welcome.

Good Friday

Sunrise Easter Worship

This cannot be called a celebration; it will be a somber time of prayer and

Disciples of Christ Visalia have passed on to us the tradition of a sunrise service at the Visalia Cemetery, 1300 W. Goshen Ave in Visalia. Service will start at 6:15am so we can welcome the sunrise. The service will be followed by a continental breakfast at First Congregational Church in Tulare.

Easter Worship

This joyous service starts with the flowering of the cross. Worship will include favorite hymns, choir and bell choir, baptisms and confirmation, and communion.

There will be craft activities and an Easter egg hunt for the children.

Evensong

We have one event following shortly after Easter.

This annual event features sacred organ music played by Scott Horton.

This year Evensong will be held Tuesday, April 18 at 6:30pm. The service includes a time of memorial for loved ones who have passed away the previous year.

AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY FOR LEASE 5650 sqft. on S. Mooney Blvd, across from the Tulare County Superior Court 21 internal parking stalls, elevator, and spacious offices — ideal for attorneys!

Call Shari Aguirre at 799-6082