City announces Stage 3 of the Water Conservation Ordinance

-June 1,2021-

County CAO resigns

County administrator Rebecca Campbell has resigned effective June 15, said supervisor Doug Verboon.

“We have not decided how to move forward, but we may advertise for the open position,” Verboon said.

In the meantime, the assistant CAO will act as interim, he added. Verboon said Campbell was offered “a better job” on the coast.

Campbell has been in the position since Jan. 1, 2018. She served as the Assistant CAO before her appointment and has been in the county’s administrative offices since 2007. The position is particularly important at this moment due to the preparation of the county budget that must be in place by July 1.

Pitman Farms plans 1.7 million-chicken ranch

Sanger-based Pitman Family Farms plans their largest poultry farm yet near Stratford that would have 1.7 million chickens housed in 50 large barns. The company has applied for a conditional use permit from the county. The site is at 16445 Laurel Ave in Stratford where the company already has a much smaller chicken ranch housing just under 250,000 meat chickens. Pitman has a large feed mill nearby in Hanford. The ranch typically turns over the fast-growing chicken flock six times in a year meaning this ranch alone could yield more than 10 million birds — 20 million of those popular chicken wings.

In the Central Valley, the family-owned company has been expanding both its free-range poultry growing as well as conventional ranches in Kings and Tulare counties taking advantage of growing hunger for this low-fat meat.

The bankruptcy of Zacky Farm has provided an opportunity for the two large Valley players, Pitman and Foster Farms, to expand their footprint of growing ranches. Foster Farms is working on permits for new ranches in Kings County, said planner Chuck Kinney.

Hanford, Kings County want welcome sign on new HSR bridge

The new High Speed Rail bridge (viaduct) that will span over Highway 198 may be an opportunity for both Kings County and Hanford to welcome travelers to the area. The City of Hanford and Kings County have requested the state agency allow some sort of ornamental sign on the structure once construction is complete. Hanford’s HSR station would be just north of the highway along and on the viaduct, said to be the longest segment of the rail line.
Such welcome signs on state bridges are not uncommon, allowing the local jurisdiction a promotional opportunity. For example, Visalia hosts two welcome signs — one at Plaza and Hwy. 198 and another along the decorative Santa Fe bridge over 198.

Local engineering firm merges with Visalia’s QK Inc

QK, an engineering, land survey, planning and environmental firm, announced that they have entered into an agreement to acquire Zumwalt-Hansen Associates, Inc, a long standing Kings County company. QK, formerly known as Quad Knopf, Inc, is based in Visalia and has offices around the Valley.

Zumwalt-Hansen is a civil-engineering firm located in Hanford, headed by John Zumwalt and has 11 employees. The office will become a new location for QF, Inc. The firm was founded Harry Tow and Mike Knopf.

The Hanford company dates to 1949, founded by C.J. McKee and rebranded as McKee-Zumwalt & Associates in 1973 and then later rebranded to Zumwalt Hansen & Associates in 1984.

John Zumwalt told the press, “We have had a longstanding relationship and at times team with QK on projects. The cultural alignment with a company we know, and trust made the difference for ZHA’s transition. I am very pleased to have a future for our staff and our clients where I know they will be respected and well taken care of.”

-May 1,2021-

Fresno factor may play a part

A long tradition of investment

In 2018 the City of Visalia described what was happening in the industrial park as “a city in a city” growing to 16.6 million square feet on 381 acres, block after block of concrete tilt-up buildings of all sizes in the northwest part of town.

Today, three years later, new development including UPS and Amazon are now open or nearly so – adding 1700 jobs and another 1.7 million square feet between the two of them. Now it seems clear that these 2 high-profile industries are just the start of a continuing boom, a virtual explosion of development fueled by the popularity of e-commerce. Visalia’s competitive advantage vs Fresno may play a part, as well.

The latest map of players building huge logistics warehouses in Visalia’s Industrial Park, mostly on the city’s open space northern tier. Spurred on by construction of a new 88-acre regional UPS hub (625 jobs) at Plaza and Riggin and a 1.3 mil sf Amazon fulfillment center adding 1000 jobs, developers are filing new plans this month in what will be a city of warehouses. On the drawing board is an incredible 9.2 milion square feet,some of which will break ground this year.
 
The players on map besides UPS and Amazon are Fresno’s Diversified Development Group (DDG),CapRock Partners of Newport Beach (CAPR),Larry Ritchie and partners -Visalia landowners,YS Industries-based in Los Angeles and Seefried Industrial Properties of Phoenix.

It took 60 years, 1958-2018, for the Visalia Industrial Park to get to 16.6 million square feet. But it may take just a few years – say 2018 to 2024 to double that square feet with all the million square foot warehouses on tap. Looking at land, the district had 381 acres in 2018 and we have already doubled that acreage today.

Not unlike the expansion of retail on Mooney Blvd from 1980 to 2000 – where we saw a steady move to open land to the south – the Visalia Industrial Park has seen a steady move north to more open land and adding larger parcels.

Consider the latest news just this week.

Plans filed with the city and heard Wednesday April 28, propose a new industrial park, another “city-in-a-city” – adding 280 acres and an amazing 3.7 million square feet at the NW corner of Shirk and Riggin. The project was filed by a local partnership headed by Larry Ritchie.The proposed development would include two, side-by-side 1 million square foot industries and dozens of smaller buildings along its eastern side.

The Ritchie family along with Doe family have had long-standing land holdings on relatively low-value field crop land in this part of Tulare County. Larry is president of Shannon and Ritchie, an old-time farming and development group. Larry is the son of legendary Visalia farmer,cowboy and land owner Clarence Ritchie whose holdings also cover the Westside of the Valley – now full of solar farms. Clarence and Dick Shannon were best of friends and partners. Larry is also a partner with John Vidovich on a number of projects including some land holdings in the industrial park being sold off now, totaling around 100 acres. The land for the new Millipore building at 120,000sf was purchased from this partnership.

But wait, there’s more.

Also this week, Phoenix-based Seefried Industrial Properties filed a plan on another parcel of vacant land right across Plaza Dr from California Dairies and Sequoia Beverage at the southwest corner of Plaza and Ferguson for another 1.27 million square feet on 80 acres. In their filing Seefried says this unnamed industry will employ 400.

The 114-acre, open parcel of land ( see here) has been for sale for years, owned by the DeJong family. It is the largest vacant parcel in the existing industrial park.

Also,LA-based YS Industries, who built two 300,000sf buildings on Riggin and is looking to lease them, already plans to build four more, says agent Freddie Molina.Several other parcels next to the development are in escrow, he says, being purchased from Ritchie-Vidovich. “Amazon and UPS are driving up demand” he says.

Fresno factor

So where is all this demand coming from? Well, look in the mirror, first of all! Package delivery to homes exploded during COVID and is not slowing down now.

If prospective tenants are being pulled-in by the new Visalia 450,000sf UPS hub, they are being pushed-out of Fresno as an alternative location.The two cities have been vying for tenants for years and Fresno has won their share of big catches like Ulta Beauty and Amazon before they picked Visalia . The conventional wisdom was that Fresno is a bigger market with a major airport and sporting a larger labor force. Visalia has taken a back seat in the mind of some industrial site selectors.

Today it is no longer seen as a second choice. Visalia may now be in the “catbird seat” in this Central Valley competition.

Both cities brag that their UPS hubs, in the middle of California- can reach 95% of California with overnight ground shipping.Visalia points to slight edge reaching more Western states in fewer days.The UPS complex in Fresno is boxed-in however, by Downtown development all around.The place is crowded.

Lately, a community movement against large industrial projects in Fresno’s southwest quadrant has reduced availability of new parcels ready for development. This spring, a Fresno community group is opposing new plans to masterplan a 92-acre park in this part of the city. While some California communities welcome logistics jobs, others are pushing back against expected traffic congestion, noise and air pollution from the increased truck traffic

Fresno commercial broker Nick Audino says opposition from groups concerned about environmental justice in Fresno has slowed development plans there and that may be benefiting Visalia. Opponents right now are calling for more mixed use, office and commercial uses in the Southwest part of Fresno. “The challenges to the CEQA process has had a chilling effect”, suggests Audino.

Meanwhile,Audino says the Visalia boom “is a result of the extremely low vacancy factor here” and the impressive pace of development has “no end in sight.”

So we have seen the industrial park move north of the Goshen Ave rail line to the open spaces and closer to the new 4-lane connection to Highway 99 – the $36 million Betty Drive interchange only minutes to the east on Riggin. Then there is the on-going widening of Highway 99 to 6 lanes heading south from Goshen and next through the City of Tulare scheduled over the next few years to the Kern County line.

The UPS boom is not just in Visalia where they recently put out the word – they needed 60 more truck drivers here. The company also released their sales report for the 1st quarter of 2021 and sales were up 27%.

So what does a boom look like? Before Amazon was built, there were no buildings in Visalia over one million square feet. VF Corp is 820,000sf and by the way, the fully leased building is for sale now. When it was approved back in 2005, the size was compared to 11 football fields. But today, at least on paper, there are proposals for 5 new one-million square foot buildings with two of them expected to break ground later his summer.

Construction of ‘spec’ buildings in Visalia has storied history.

Arguably, the new logistics era started here around the year 1986, when Imperial Cup- headed by Richard Allen- came to town. Allen later sold his growing disposable cup business to International Paper – they are still here churning out millions of coffee cups- and founded the Allen Group. The new company built so-called speculative buildings on land assembled into logistic parks, ahead of commitments to lease – a trend that has only accelerated since.He started in Visalia but moved on to Shafter and then to Dallas.

In 2005 Allen was able to snag clothing giant VF Corp to lease a new 820,000sf building in Visalia to be constructed at Riggin and Plaza. At the time, VF promised to hire at least 350.It employs 1000 today. Visalia beat out several rival locations including a Nevada site that was ruled out because of snowy winter roads. No snow here.

Richard Allen’s success, later attracted Newport developer Pat Daniels to take a drive up to Visalia and a few years later, his company bought 320 acres at the NE corner north of Riggin and Plaza. That land did not develop for a decade until 2017 when he sold 50 acres,later another 38 to UPS.

The package delivery company was ripe for expansion sandwiched into a tiny 32,000sf building on Goshen Ave fitting for the 1960s era.Then Daniels snagged Amazon, right next to the new UPS complex and that 1.2mil sf building will be completed this summer adding 1000 more jobs here.

Daniels is not through – submitting plans early this year for twin industrial buildings that add up to 2.5 million square feet.he says it will break ground this summer. We are not sure how many football fields that adds up to.

Looking back,Richard Allen also developed the MidState 99 industrial park north of the Goshen rail line.MidState now has more than 3 million square feet spanning 11 buildings. After Allen declared bankruptcy it was Fresno’s John Brelsford whose company, Diversified Development Group (DDG), who picked up the pieces and continued the spec building tradition here.

Brelsford has more recently built five large warehouses and filled all of them and is soon breaking ground on 2 more – nearly 400,000sf at the SE corner of Plaza and Riggin. He also bought 157 acre from Russ Doe at the NW corner of Plaza and Riggin and had the large parcel annexed into the city.This will be next on his march to the north.

While all this demand has driven up land prices recently competition has kept space still available for lease at a bargain rate of 50 cents per square ft -half of what it costs in Los Angeles.

Open your eyes

All these happenings has Jo Ann Stores distribution center manager Bruce Nicotero both excited and concerned about jobs. Nicotero has been involved in training programs for logistics jobs in Visalia with players like COS.”All you have to do is open your eyes to see all the construction activity that is helping lots of local subs” he suggests.

But he is also watching the competition for the labor supply along with neighbor VF Corp, with both UPS and Amazon and others ramping up demand for workers.”We will be monitoring recruitment for the holidays ,the busiest time of the year, he cautions.

May 1,2021-

Navy solar farm project at NAS Lemoore moves forward

Plans for a 150-acre solar farm on Navy land adjacent to NAS Lemoore are still active and progressing, says a Navy spokesman this week. Since a 2016 impact report on the project, the military has been mum on the fate of the renewable energy project that aims to improve energy security at the Kings County base.

The scale of the solar farm has been downsized from a few years back, now planned to generate 40 megawatts instead of an announced 167MW in 2016.The 2016 project was to span 930 acres of US-owned land, mostly north of the base proper, to be leased to a solar contractor.

Despite the smaller footprint and number of solar arrays, the reborn solar project will also feature a large battery storage facility that will mean the base will no longer need to depend on the California grid to provide power in the case of some emergency.

Navy spokesperson Mario Icari says “this project will ensure sufficient resilient backup power capacity to the installation during contingency events and improve power quality on the grid and to Navy assets during normal operation.”

The Navy says a NAS Lemoore Enhanced Use Lease was offered to Arizona-based Bright Canyon Energy in 2019 and now, in 2021 “development efforts are ongoing. “

Icari adds, “it is unlikely that the project will break ground before 2023. Projects of this scale require coordination with multiple stakeholders in order to ensure the safety and maximum benefit to the Navy and the California public. The Navy and Bright Canyon Energy continue to work with our partners throughout the State, including the local utility and broader market, to bring this project online in the most expeditious manner possible.”

Bright Canyon Energy is a subsidiary of Arizona utility Pinnacle West Capital Corporation.

The power company has  a major coal plant in Arizona that it vows to reduce its operation to decrease the company’s carbon footprint. The Bright Canyon company is working on a solar and battery storage facility in Hawaii.

The Lemoore lease covers 150 acres of land for up to 40MW of solar photovoltaics with a battery energy component that offer “  full-base automated black-start and islanding capability to support critical infrastructure.”

A black start is the process of restoring an electric power station or a part of an electric grid to operation without relying on the external electric power transmission network to recover from a total or partial shutdown.

Employing these on-site energy technologies like a micro-grid and black start capability  aims to make the key West Coast military facility more secure in any kind of emergency from California wildfires to foreign hacking of the US grid.

“The developer is currently finalizing interconnection and market offtake agreements to reach commercial terms for the project.”

Besides the goal of energy security, the Navy has been urged to do its share to fight climate change – a priority in the new Biden administration.The military, like the rest of us, has been impacted  by an increase worldwide of hurricanes, typhoons,rising seas and other severe weather.

The US Department of Defense consumes more energy than any other organization in the US including paying for power for 500,000 buildings.

Cannabis company has option to buy BMX track land

The Lemoore City Council acted this week to approve the following plan.Here is information from the city staff report.

The City of Lemoore owns an 18 acre parcel occupied by Framework Racing, Inc. (Lemoore BMX). Cannabis company,People’s Properties, LLC, desires to enter into an option to purchase the 18 acres for their agricultural-related uses. This Agreement would allow the current Framework Racing lease to stay intact until the expiration date of June 30, 2025.

The City views the BMX track as an asset to the community. The BMX facility is host to several state and national events annually. It is the desire of all parties to maintain a BMX track located within City limits in the future.

The City previously entered into a project development agreement(PDA) with Peoples Properties, LLC .The City Manager is delegated authority to administratively amend the PDA so long as the changes do not materially alter the land uses or development. contemplated under the PDA. 

Council desires to have this item return as a PDA amendment, it can direct staff to return at a later date with a formal PDA amendment.

The proposed agricultural uses are deemed exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) .

People’s Properties, LLC will pay $100,000 ($10,000 within 3 days of agreement, $90,000 at 12 months from date of agreement) for the option to purchase. Peoples Properties, LLC will pay a total of $540,000 ($30,000/acre) for the 18 acres, APN 024-080-069-000 if they decide to exercise the option in 2025. Framework Racing currently pays the City $1/year. Should the option to purchase real estate not be exercised, the city retains the $100,000 down payment.

The BMX property may be better situated for the pot company given its location on busy Highway 41 at Idaho rather than their plan to buy the same size acreage further to the east. 

Droughts Longer, Rainfall More Erratic Over the Last Five Decades in Most of the West

Dry periods between rainstorms have become longer and annual rainfall has become more erratic across most of the western United States during the past 50 years, according to a study published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and the University of Arizona.

Against the backdrop of steadily warming temperatures and decreasing total yearly rainfall, rain has been falling in fewer and sometimes larger storms, with longer dry intervals between. 

Big drop in hospitalized patients

In Tulare County the number of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 at Kaweah Delta hospital in Visalia continues to fall – to 18 today.It was well over 100 this time 2 months ago (see chart).

In Kings County, Supervisor Valle stated that he has been reviewing the vaccination data for Kings County and reported that 55% of vaccinated persons in Kings County are women and 41% of the vaccines have been to Latinos. He thanked Jose Ramirez for his work to get the information out there to the Latino community to get vaccinated . County figures show 59% of COVID positive cases in Kings County are Hispanic 

Meanwhile a shrinking percentage of Americans are expressing reluctance to get a Covid-19 vaccine, a positive sign for the efforts to get shots in the arms of enough people to reach herd immunity. A  U.S. Census Bureau survey found about 17% of adults said they would either definitely or probably not get vaccinated, down from 22% in January.

-April 2,2021-

Avenal gets new economic development director

County planner Kao Nou Yang has relocated to the community of Avenal to become their Community/Economic Development Director and likely stir things up for the better. Kao says she is excited about the potential this low income Kings County city has, including plans for new housing, retail projects and energy development .

Among the projects she is working on:

-looking to attract new solar and wind companies to the city’s vast and varied landscape including to land in the city limits east of I-5. She also is starting to work with Chevron to see how she can assist with their petroleum projects.

-streamline the permit approval process to make it easier to start a business in town.

-Avenal will get new national retail chains including a new Dollar General store and an O’Reilly Auto Parts.

-working on a new low income housing project.

Faraday Future says funding will retool Hanford plant

Faraday Future announced recently that the start up electric-vehicle maker has received access to $100 million in funding on the way to finalizing the merger with Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. The company expects to end up with $1 billion in funding.The big news for Kings County, who has been patiently waiting for jobs to materialize, is that the new funds will be used to build and equip its manufacturing facility in Hanford. This moves them closer to the eventual manufacturing of its first mass-produced car, the FF91 vehicle, said to scoot 0-60 mph in less than 2.4 seconds.

In a March 26 press release the company said ”The preparation and start-up of the Hanford manufacturing facility will include new hiring, additional construction, and equipment installation and calibration to ensure the on-time production and delivery of FF 91.”

The merger is set to close by July 1 and the car will be available for sale a year later.

Locally, former EDC president John Lehn is the company government relations manager.The site is former Pirelli Tire plant now partially remodeled in the Hanford Industrial Park. The combined company will be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol “FFIE”.

So far the company website lists only one Hanford job – the general manager position.

Jobless rate falls

The unemployment rate in Kings County was 10.7 percent in February 2021, down from a revised 10.9 percent in January 2021, and above the year-ago estimate of 9.8 percent.The county has some 1200 fewer hospitality jobs than in February 2020.

Smaller cotton crop expected

National Cotton Growers say California might see an unexpected overall 25% drop in cotton acreage. Pima acreage was forecast at 108,000 acres, down from 147,000 acres in 2020- about a 26.5% drop in acres. Upland was expected to be at 28,000 acres, down from 34,000 acres in 2020- a 17.7% drop in acreage. Total acreage is predicted to be 136,000 acres, down from 181,000 acres in 2020 meaning an overall predicted reduction in acreage of 25%.With better cotton prices this year the acreage could climb. But water is the real problem.In 2019 Kings County had 108,500 acres planted to cotton. In 2021 they expect perhaps 83,000 acres.

Hog prices higher

Lean hog futures have been hog wild in the past year rising from around $43 in mid April 2020 to $105 this week. The jump in price of U.S. hogs is partially due to African swine fever in China but more to do with herd losses in the US Midwest. The market is strong as well heading into the grilling season. Smithfield Foods maintains a big hog farm near Corcoran.

Farm exports face delays at ports

CFB says agricultural exporters say they’ve been having a “nightmare” of a time moving farm products through California ports. A surge in cargo volumes, a reduced port workforce and other problems have contributed to a shortage in shipping containers. Shippers trying to export California crops and commodities say they’ve experienced canceled bookings, increased costs and concerns about lost business. They fear the problems may not ease for weeks or even months.One report says tens of thousands of containers holding millions of dollars’ worth of goods are stuck offshore, within sight of docks jammed with still more containers. Not only are exports being impacted but imports are piling up offshore further clogging the ports.

Milk price slumps

Most milk sold in the state is Class IV- sold as butter and cheese. Right now there has been abundant production with the spring flush and prices are slumping. Class IV prices saw the biggest change from January to February, declining by 56 cents to $13.19 per cwt. California butter production increased 10.9 percent in December 2020 and 7.9 percent in January 2021 as compared to year-prior levels. But the average price was below $1.40/lb recently, compared to well over $2/lb average in recent years. Class IV milk price was $20 at the start of $2020 but fell to $13 by the end of last year. Luckily, dry milk powder exports are strong and the price has held above $1.11 -better than average for recent years.

Snowpack remains well below average
Westlands faces unknown delay in 5% allocation

Hopes for a March miracle have dissipated, with the Sierra Nevada snowpack remaining at about 60% of average—the same as when the month began. The state Department of Water Resources will conduct a manual this week with early April typically being the time the snowpack reaches its deepest level. Both state and federal water projects announced last week they would reduce or delay deliveries due to the dry winter and other restrictions, says CFB. The impact on westside ag will be big. The Bureau of Reclamation just announced an update to the initial Central Valley Project 2021 water supply allocation for agricultural water service contractors south-of-Delta.”Although conservative hydrologic data was used to develop the initial CVP water supply allocation, inflow projections to CVP reservoirs have decreased from February forecasts, which further constrain available water supply,” said Regional Director Ernest Conant. “After careful consideration of water management options, we are adjusting the allocation for south-of-Delta agricultural contractors. The update to the initial 2021 CVP water supply allocation: Agricultural water service contractors south-of-Delta allocation of 5% of their contract supply is not available for delivery until further notice.

Northern California has about 51% of average precipitation for this time of year; statewide average snowpack levels are at 63% of average. The State Water Project also announced a reduction in its anticipated water supplies. The department now expects to deliver 5 percent of requested supplies this year, down from the initial allocation of 10 percent announced in December.

Westlands Water District general manager, issued the following statement March 23.“Given extraordinary dry conditions this water year, Reclamation’s announcement represents a balanced, prudent approach that ensures it can fulfill both its regulatory and contractual obligations for water from the Central Valley Project. We recognize the challenge presented by the ongoing drought conditions, and we remain committed to working with partners at the federal, state, and local levels to find sensible approaches that reduce harm to people in rural areas and California’s important ecosystems by maximizing the beneficial use every drop of water available.”

Environment group NRDC said reduced levels in reservoirs will mean draining upstream dams throughout the Central Valley to extremely low levels, which” will almost certainly cause devastating impacts to salmon and steelhead.”

Costco developer wants to build Lemoore office project

Fresno developer John Kashian, who built the Hanford Costco development is turning his sights on Lemoore where he plans a mixed use retail/ office project. Kashian is seeking approval for General Plan Amendment and zone change from Parks and Recreation to Professional Office at a vacant site located at the northeast corner of the intersection of 19 1⁄2 Avenue at Cedar Lane-just east of Hwy 41. The site had been proposed to be used for Little League baseball but a staff report says the league has no plans to relocate currently.

Johnny Quick plans development west of Hwy 41

Lemoore city staff received a site-plan review application from Johnny Quick, based in Fresno. The project being proposed is located on the NEC of W. Bush Street and N. Belle Haven Drive, just west of the Hwy 41 off ramp. It will include a 6 pump fueling station, car wash, convenience store with Johnny’s Subs and Pizza, The Chicken Shack Express and Rare Earth Coffee with drive-through.

More vacant Mooney strip property getting new uses

-March 21,2021-
Like the rest of us, Mooney Blvd is looking to recover from Covid 19’s giant shadow. The Spring there are signs of new investment in empty buildings and land along the big strip.Here are a few new projects.

Sherwin Williams remodeling space next to Dunkin Donuts

Sherwin Williams paint store will be moving next to Dunkin Donuts on Walnut and Mooney once their remodel of a 5000sf space is complete. The city issued permits for tenant improvements.The store should be open by late summer. The popular paint chain will relocate from Tulare Ave near Mooney where the retailer has been for years. It turns out that Visalia Unified School District has purchased their existing building. Sherwin Williams has a second location in Visalia on East Main.

Long vacant Lamoure’s Cleaners on Mooney may get Popeye’s Smoke and Clothing

The Lamours dry cleaning business on Mooney has been closed for years due to a contamination and clean up, one of a number of cleaners in town required to extract a former chemical used in their cleaning process.Now a start-up store selling tobacco and clothing wants to lease the storefront form the Lamours company. The start-up is called Popeye’s.

Fastrip wants Visalia’s biggest gas station in front of vacant Toys R Us

Convenience store operator Fastrip, based in Bakersfield, already has five stores in the area – Earlimart,Tulare, Lindsay, Farmersville and Lemoore Now they want to build what would be Visalia’s largest fueling station with 24 pumps on Mooney. The Fastrip gas stations are often the low price leader where they operate.

The proposed location is the big parking lot in front of the vacant Toys R Us store, off Whitendale. There is no hint from their application of what happens to the Toys building that shuttered in 2018.There would still be parking for the store south of it.

Good Guys Tire plans store next Costco

Good Guys has an existing store on Mooney across from COS and now has approved plans to move forward on a 7000sf building housing a tire, oil and auto repair store next to the new LazyBoy store across from Costco, to be accessed by Cameron Ave.

Texas Roadhouse eatery construction to start

Texas Roadhouse restaurant has secured a permit to begin construction of their new eatery on south Mooney. The Kentucky-based chain, a publicly traded company, wants to open a new 7500 sf restaurant on Mooney at Visalia Parkway on the southwest corner. Across from Target, it would be part of a new 29 acre shopping center.

Former Payless Shoe store to get new tenant

The owner of the former Payless Shoe store on Mooney near COS has filed plans to remodel the vacant building but no tenant has been announced.The shoe retailer at Mooney and Meadow closed in 2019.

Two targeted immigration bills passed the US House of Representatives last week and will be moving on to the Senate where their future is uncertain. With strong support from California agriculture, the House passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act by a 247-174 vote. Thirty Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the bill. All Democrats from California voted yes while 2 Central California Republicans voted in favor –  David Valadao and  Devin Nunes. But Bakersfield’s Kevin McCarthy voted no, joining GOP congressman McClintock
Hailing the passage was the California Farm Bureau and an alliance of produce groups, 300 groups in all.The legislation creates a path to earn temporary status as Certified Agricultural Workers for people who have worked at least 180 days in agriculture over the past two years. Spouses and children could also apply for temporary status under the act.
The legislation would create a way for workers to get a green card by paying a $1,000 fine and engaging in additional agricultural work depending on how long they have worked in agriculture in the U.S.
The bill would also streamline the process to get an H-2A visa, which allows foreign citizens into the country for temporary agricultural work.
A second bill passed but with a slimmer majority allows so called” Dreamers” to stay in the US. Called the American Dream and Promise Act,  it would provide a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, as well as others granted temporary protection from deportation. Farm groups supported this bill as well. All GOP House members  from the state voted no except Kings congressman David Valadao. The measure passed 228 to 197, with nine Republicans voting in favor.
Asked why he wouldn’t support the bills Kevin McCarthy’s office said “The Congressman has strong reservations regarding this bill as introduced, and unfortunately, amendments to this bill will not be permitted which could have allowed some improvements. The Congressman will continue working toward a stronger immigration and visa system that includes a robust ag worker program, something that is very important to his constituents.”
Congressman Valadao released a statement. “As the son of immigrants and lifelong dairy farmer, I know firsthand how desperately our agriculture workforce needs meaningful reform. Many industries in the Central Valley rely heavily on immigrant labor. Our farm workers are absolutely critical to our collective mission of reliably feeding America, yet many live in fear due to an inability to gain legal status through our broken immigration system. Ensuring that our essential farm workers already in the states receive legal status, while also simplifying and streamlining the process for future flow of workers, is just common sense, and I am proud to be an original cosponsor on this very important legislation.”

-March 11,2021-

Gasoline prices up 37 cents

As of February 22,gas prices are climbing for the 10th week says the California Energy Commission. Regular is higher than last week’s price by 10 cents. The average statewide price for regular is $3.45 compared to $3.08 just before New Year and up about a dollar per gallon from last April’s low. Lemoore’s Yokut Gas is among the lowest price leaders in the state at $2.84 a gallon. GasBuddy says the rapid rise in prices was impacted by the freeze in Texas shutting down refineries. Warm weather may bring prices back down. But, says GasBuddy, “as we near spring weather, we’ll likely see another longer term rise in prices begin as refineries start to transition to summer gasoline, so motorists shouldn’t jump for joy just yet.” Another angle – with COVID cases shrinking – more of us are traveling.

Covid cases continue to drop here

New cases of Covid-19 continue to drop across California going into late February. The includes Kings County with reports of just 11 new cases of the virus as of 2/21/21 compared to 411 in mid January. California reports some 4,665 cases statewide vs over 52,600 new cases as of Jan 8. The dramatic decline is seen in area prisons too with several reporting zero new cases and Corcoran State Prison with 21 new cases in the past 14 days compared to over 250 new cases in early January. The Department of Corrections reports that this prison has seen over 720 employees catch the virus this past year but now has just 10 new cases among employees in the past 14 days. Pleasant Valley has just 3 new staff cases. Patients with the virus at Kaweah Delta hospital have dropped from 159 on Jan 18 to 60 this week.

Plan would phase out ag burning

Ag trade groups report that on February 25, 2021, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will consider a proposal to phase out agricultural burning in the San Joaquin Valley. As required by SB 702, in December 2020 the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District proposed to CARB an updated ag burn plan that reduced the amount of allowable burning over the next 2 years while providing exceptions for property owners with 15 total acres or less. The proposal, however, was met with significant opposition by environmental justice organizations and some members of the Board who feel that agricultural burning should be banned completely and immediately. In response, an alternative proposal has been presented by CARB staff that will expedite the phase-out schedule to and eliminate the small acreage exception by 2025.

Hurtado offers state bill to help fix sinking water infrastructure

Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) this week introduced the State Water Resiliency Act of 2021 – legislation that will provide up to $785 million to restore the capacity of California’s critical water delivery infrastructure and repair aging roads and bridges. The new legislation, Senate Bill 559, will fund repairs to the Friant-Kern Canal, Delta-Mendota Canal, San Luis Canal and California Aqueduct – California’s main state and regional water conveyance infrastructure.

“An investment made in the Central Valley and California’s water infrastructure is an investment made for the Nation and all Californians,” said Senator Hurtado. “This investment is critical for our country’s food supply chain, public health and ultimately the livelihoods of our farmworkers and families in rural communities. Restoring this infrastructure is essential to withstanding the long-lasting impacts of climate change while delivering clean, reliable, affordable water for hundreds of disadvantaged communities across California.”

A bill offered earlier to fix sinking infrastructure on the Friant Kern Canal was vetoed by the Governo. This latest bill, in a nod to the Governor, offers state monies to a wide variety of water projects including those that affect the westside. For example, residents and communities in Kings County rely heavily on the State Water Project (SWP) for clean, affordable drinking water.

“Thank you Senator Hurtado for your unwavering support of critical water infrastructure that transports the lifeblood of our region,” said Craig Pedersen, Chair of the Kings County Board of Supervisors. “This critical issue has been bypassed for far too long, SB 559 will provide vital funding to ensure our communities, businesses and more importantly our children will have the opportunity to live, work and raise their families in the place we call home!”

Parts of the State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP) infrastructure have lost anywhere between 15-60 percent of their carrying capacity over time due to subsidence – resulting in an additional $15-30 million per year in higher operational and power costs, damaging infrastructure and threatening water supply for millions of people, farms and businesses at a time when we need it most.

Funding would provide affordable, clean water to at least 31,000,000 people in the state, including approximately 1,250,000 people living in disadvantaged communities served by the CVP and 3/4 of all disadvantaged communities that receive some or all of their water from the SWP.
Alos , it would irrigate nearly 2,500,000 acres of farmland that receive water from the CVP and over 750,000 acres of farmland that receive water from the SWP.

January homes sales rose in California/Kings County

January’s existing single-family homes sales were up 22.5% in California year over year, says California Association of Realtors.In Kings County home sales climbed 17.9%. Kings County’s median home price rose to $278,750 from $247,450 in January 2020. Averages are up across the nation as well. This week the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, reported a 10.4% annual gain in December. Record low interest rates may be helping to fuel the price increase along with higher construction costs.

Valley rents higher in new year /Bay Area prices fall

Rents in larger Valley cities are up in 2021 according to a report from Apartment List. Fresno rents are up 11% year over year and Bakersfield climbed 8% says the study. Meanwhile expensive urban areas like the Bay Area saw dramatically lower rents due to the pandemic says the study.SF rents led the decline at 27%,San Jose rents dropped 13% year over year.As the expensive coastal cities watched rents plummet, a separate group of mid-sized markets were experiencing rapid increases in rent prices as the pandemic and remote work spurred demand for the space and affordability that these cities offered. However, rent growth in these cities now also appears to be flattening out says the report.The study saw an average apartment in Fresno is renting for $1216