August Hotel Occupancy Up In Visalia: South Valley tourism is looking up. Occupancy at Visalia metro area hotels was up 4.2% in August compared to the same month a year ago and Bakersfield was up 4.6% – while Fresno bucked the trend and was down 2.6% says Smith Travel Research. The latest numbers for Visalia are an improvement in the trend line year to date -down 1.1 in occupancy. But August, the biggest travel time of the year, saw the Visalia metro area with 71.9% occupancy compared to 69% in August 2011 and 5.7% more rooms sold.
Sierra Club Filing Lawsuit Against County General Plan: The Kern Kaweah chapter of the Sierra Club is filing a lawsuit Sept 28 says their attorney Babak Naficy, claiming that the County’s General Plan Update, adopted Aug 30, violates the requirements of California’s General Plan law and the California Environmental Quality Act. The advocate group Tulare County Citizens For Responsible Growth “recently made a $10,000 donation to support the Sierra Club’s Tulare County General Plan legal fund” the Three Rivers-based group wrote on their website.The organization supports directing growth into existing communities and protecting agricultural land and open space.
VWR Can Start Shipping From Visalia: Despite an appeals court ruling against the City of Visalia, the 500,000sf VWR International distribution center opposed by the Teamsters Union, can open their doors for business says city attorney Alex Peltzer. ”Our understanding is that they are days away from a final OK by our building department for a certificate of occupancy” says Peltzer. They have a temporary certificate now, he says, and once the final is Ok’d, the pharmaceutical company could begin shipping product right away.While the Teamsters got a Fresno appeals court to agree to have a lawsuit reinstated in Tulare County Superior Court ,the union’s request to order an injunction on operations was thrown out. The company is closing several unionized facilities prompting the lawsuit claiming the city did not properly follow CEQA rules.The facility will employ 100.
California August Milk Production Falls 5.8%: Those hot August days helped reduce milk production in California in August by 5.8% compared to the same month in 2011 while across the US production fell 0.2% says USDA. The California reduction came despite the fact USDA said there were 10,000 more cows milking than a year ago, just opposite the conventional wisdom who said there was massive liquidation. The decline in production is welcome in that it appears to have improved prices. Cheese on the CME hit $2 this week, the highest level since July a year ago. That’s the best news of the year for hard hit dairy operators who have faced both sky-high feed costs and low milk prices for much of this year. Also, corn is down from $8.40 a bushel to $7.40 in the past month.