August 20,2018-
Cox Running Strong Against Valadao
The highly regarded FiveThirtyEight political forecast suggests Democrat TJ Cox has a chance to beat GOP incumbent David Valadao in the race to represent the 21st District in Central California. The poll predicts Cox, from Selma has a 5 in 8 chance to win vs 3 in 8 for Valadao. Valado has strong support in Kings County. FiveThirtyEight also predicts Democrats have a 70% chance of take the House this November.Demos are not so lucky in the race between GOP congressmen Devin Nunes and Andrew Janz saying Demo Janz has just a 1 in 50 chance to beat Nunes.
United Health buying Corcoran courthouse
United Health Centers is buying the former Corcoran Courthouse, now housing only a Kings County sheriff substation.The sale was revealed this week at the Kings BOS meeting says the Downtown Corcoran property would be sold for $785,000.
The fast growing health clinic network has a facility in Corcoran but this will be much larger, about 8000sf. United Health will be buying the property from the state of California with about 12% of the proceeds to Kings County.The courthouse has been mostly vacant since the court consolidated in 2016.Now the substation will be relocating to the fire station in town.
United Health Centers has been on the grow recently with a second larger clinic opening in Lemoore earlier this month.United Health Centers (UHC) celebrated the opening of a new health center in Lemoore last week at 250 E. Hanford Armona Rd. There will now be two locations in town.
United Health Centers is a Federally Qualified Health Center and operates 15 health center locations in Fresno, Tulare and Kings counties. The clinics serve more than 75,000 community residents with 380,000 appointments annually.
Kings government association stay neutral on Prop 6
Kings County Association of Governments (KCAG) the includes both county and city officials decided to stay neutral on whether to oppose Prop 6 in the ballot this November that would repeal the increase in state gas tax. The increase known as SB1, went into effect November 2017 providing $90 million to the region over a 10 year period says a staff report.Local state Senator Andy Vidak has been leader the movement to repeal the tax calling it a “scam”.Vidak helped collect almost 5,000 Kings County signatures in favor of repealing the gas tax increase.
But the county is looking at their budget to fix roads.The KCAG staff report recommends officials oppose the repeal but the majority wanted too stay neutral Wednesday Aug 22.
“SB 1 provides critically needed funding in Kings County that would be used for roadway rehabilitation and maintenance ,bike and pedestrian improvements, bridge repairs and transportation improvements” said a proposed resolution.The report says local agencies expect to receive $5.4 million in revenues for road projects in 2018/19 as well as $707,830 for local transit. The 2018 State Highway plan includes $98.4 million in SB1 funding for various projects within Kings county.
10,000 cows from South Lakes Dairy being sold off
A Corcoran area dairy, South Lakes Dairy will exit the business with its cows and property being sold off. Hanford’s Overland Stockyard will host an auction of about 10,000 cows September 29 at the property on Ave 96 . The new buyer of the property is said to be switching form Guernsey to Jersey cows.
Former Westlands lobbyist in charge
Politico reports that “Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has been put in charge of creating a plan to send more water to California farmers, just days after an ethics agreement preventing him from working on the issue expired, reports Pro Energy’s Annie Snider. Bernhardt was the longtime lobbyist for Westlands Water District, which delivers water to major farms in the state’s Central Valley and is one of the most powerful forces in California water politics. Under his ethics agreement, his prohibition from working on matters involving Westlands expired Aug. 1, one year after he was sworn in.”
Harbor Freight coming to Hanford
Discount tool retailer Harbor Freight is opening in Hanford in a 17,000sf space that used to be part of the former Walmart in the Centennial Plaza.The new location will be next to DD’s. Remodeling of the space is already underway. The discount store hopes to open before the holidays says the center’s developer John Safi of Safeco Capital.
Some 27,000sf of the former Walmart state is still left to lease out, he says.