-April 14,2020-
New home subdivisions in Lemoore total 900 homes
Plans for two large new home subdivisions in Lemoore were told to the city council recently.
An application was received from Lennar for a subdivision on the West side, east of West Hills College. In 3 phases, Lennar plans to build 362 homes.In addition they plan another 200 multi-family dwelling units and approximately 20,000 square-feet of retail shopping space, located on the southeast corner of College Avenue and Bush Street.
Also an application was received for Lacey Ranch on the north side of Lemoore.The home building projects here is approximately 155 acres and 534 lots. It will be phased over several years.
Westside lettuce plowed over
Cal Matters reports that“Lettuce growers have been among those hardest hit in Fresno County as the economy grinds to a near halt.
Longtime farmer John Harris, of Harris Farms, was growing 204 acres of lettuce for Salinas-based Taylor Farms, one of the giants in the industry. But that all changed when the restaurants they supply turned off their stoves. Last week, Harris’ workers plowed under nearly 13 acres of fresh lettuce that had nowhere else to go.
“It is a very unfortunate situation, but the demand all of a sudden was just falling apart,” Harris said.
For many farmers, it’s more cost-effective to let crops rot in the fields. They can’t afford to harvest it if there is no market for it, and food banks can’t cover the full cost of labor.”
Oregon-based Central California Baking Company now runs Svenhard’s
Company officials with US Bakery Inc, better known as Franz Family Bakeries, say they bought Svenhard’s Swedish Bakery operations based in Exeter and are running the Exeter plant now.
US Bakery (USB) is a bread and pastry manufacturer headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Franz Bakery was founded in 1906. U.S. Bakery also owns the Northwest regional bread brands Williams’, Gai’s, and Snyder’s.The company has a plant in LA as well as in Oregon.
Svenhard’s filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in December after relocating from Oakland to Exeter in 2016 making those signature sweet rolls sold all over the West.
In bankruptcy court papers US Bakery says it has been operating Svenhard’s under the name Central California Baking Co since November, even before the bankruptcy filing.
One of the filings says US Bakery satisfied Svenhard’s largest creditor,Bank of America who had been owed $5.2 million, Svenhard’s largest creditor.
Firebaugh’s TomaTek tomato plant getting $8 mil grant
Neil Jones Food Co who operates TomaTek tomato processing plant will receive an $8,000,000 grant to design, install, and operate a microgrid system at the recipient’s tomato processing facility in Firebaugh.The grant is from the California Energy Commission.
The microgrid system will produce and store renewable electricity, providing reliability while reducing grid electricity consumption and GHG emissions associated with the facility.
The microgrid system consists of a solar photovoltaic (PV) system with integrated battery energy storage system and microgrid controller. The approximately 6.5 megawatt solar PV system will be roof mounted on three existing buildings.