GreenPower Motor Company Inc. with a manufacturing plant in Porterville, has announced the sale of electric school buses to two Tulare County school districts.
GreenPower will deliver five all-electric Type D BEAST school buses in California this summer.
Of the five BEASTs to be delivered this week, four will go to the Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School District and the fifth to the Terra Bella Union Elementary School District. “We are pleased that these school districts see the great health and safety benefits provided by GreenPower’s all-electric, purpose-built, zero-emission school buses in meeting the transportation needs of their students, a company spokesperson said.
The Cutler Orosi school district is a good size with over 4000 students enrolled.
Save Mart closing two distribution centers
Grocer Save Mart, based in Modesto, has a new owner as of earlier this summer. Canadian based The Jim Pattison Group purchased the company in June and now has announced closure of two of the company’s three Northern California distribution centers including in Merced.Over 500 jobs are being lost.
Just what’s going on with the company isn’t clear but the supermarket chain has a big presence in Visalia and in Tulare County with four stores including FoodMaxx in the city alone and SaveMart stores in Exeter,Lindsay and Porterville.
The Save Mart Companies has about 200 stores under the names of Save Mart, Lucky California and FoodMaxx.There are currently 51 FoodMax stores.
In addition to its retail side, the company also operates Smart Refrigerated Transport and is a partner in Super Store Industries, which has a distribution center and a Sunnyside Farms dairy processing plant.
Source says since 2010, the company has closed stores inBakersfield, Clovis, Delano, Elk Grove, Folsom, Fresno,Kerman, Larkspur, Madera,Merced, Milpitas, Modesto, Sparks, Sanger, San Pablo, Tracy and Yuba City mostly due to stiff competition.
Employees at the company’s stores are represented by labor unions. including United Food and Commercial Workers,Teamsters, Service Employees International Union and Machinist Automotive Trades District.