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Around The Valley: Hanford Pot Project Snuffed Out / More

Visalia Ranks High In Well-Being Survey

The annual Gallup-Healthways State of American Well-Being ranking is out for 2016 comparing 189 communities across the nation.This year Visalia broke into the top 25, one of 7 cities in California to make the top tier.California’s biggest cities lined up this way: San Diego, 22, San Francisco, 31, San Jose, 39, Los Angeles/Long Beach, 53, and Sacramento, 68 while smaller San Luis Obispo got number 7.

To assess the measures, researchers conducted more than 350,000 telephone interviews with U.S. adults across the nation.

Visalia ranked even higher in response to what they do everyday, if they liked what the do – designated in the survey as“purpose” with Visalia ranked number 2 of all 189 cities in this category.

A NY Times story this week bragged on Visalia. “Inland cities clustered toward the bottom half of the ranking, with a notable exception: Visalia, which ranked 25th overall.

The agricultural town of about 130,000 people has a lot going for it: a year-round farmer’s market, a minor-league baseball team, a symphony.

“Visalia is very much one of those cities that, although we’re growing, it definitely feels like you’re part of the fabric of the community,” said Allison Mackey, a city spokeswoman, talking to the Times.

Big Medical Pot Project Pulls Out Of Hanford

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Oakland-based Purple Heart who had been working to establish a 1115 job medical marijuana growing facility in the former Perilli Tire building in Hanford has pulled their application late last week. Community Development Director Darlene Mata says the company sent a letter to the city asking for their deposit back.

The firm had been in escrow to buy the huge facility in the city’s industrial park. The company had vowed it would generate as much as $14 million in annual revenue from growing and distribution of medical pot.

Now they will apparently looking elsewhere.

Mata says the city will continue to move forward on establishing a conditional use process for growing pot since “there are other companies that may be interested.”

Kings County EDC director John Lehn said while the initial welcome for Purple Heart in Hanford had been positive there was later more mixed views. A plan surfaced to put the idea to a possible vote of the people, something that could not happen until November 2018. “There was lots of money at stake and a high degree of uncertainty” explains Lehn.

Purple Heart could not be in production until 2019, if they were lucky and everything went right but “they’re being asked to put their purchase money up now” reasoned Lehn.

Kaweah Delta Hospital Earns High Marks

Screen Shot 2017-03-01 at 3.42.54 PMKaweah Delta hospital has earned 4 stars in the Medicare sponsored Hospital Compare ranking for 2016 – up from 3 stars earlier last year.

The ranking is the highest of any hospital in the Central Valley.

The nationwide ranking measures 57 quality measures says Dr Tom Gray, Quality and Patient Safety Medical Director at Kaweah Delta. Fresno’s Kaiser has a 3 star ranking ranking while the area’s Adventists hospitals have 2 stars as does Porterville’s Sierra View.Tulare’s hospital has 1 star.

The are a handful of hospitals in the state with 5 stars including Cottage in Santa Barbara. But Gray is urging Kaweah Delta make the effort to reach the top ranking, difficult in a low income area like Tulare County.

Wingstop Heading For Tulare

The fast food chain Wingstop is winging its way to Tulare. The fast growing eatery already has locations in Visalia,Hanford and Porterville and ow will locate in the Walmart shopping center in Tulare at 1578 Hillman where a building , formerly West Coast Cash, is being remodeled

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