Valley Headlines

How many warehouses needed?

GV Wire. Fresno’s $100M warehouse project means big things for city: Dyer. 
Synopsis: Scannell Properties broke ground in Fresno Wednesday on an 800,000 square-foot facility across three buildings in Southwest Fresno. Mayor Jerry Dyer says this will create 1,000 jobs in the city. The first building will open by June near Hwy 180. The fact that Fresno has 8.5% unemployment makes it easier to find workers, says Scannell Properties – which is a good thing. The project required three environmental reviews before reaching this stage.
MAD Take: The question becomes: “How much warehouse space can one region accommodate?” Scannell is opening this 800,000 SF facility in Fresno. Scannell has also promised Stanislaus County to build 2,000,000 square feet of warehousing on 145 acres east of Salida. Someone, we don’t know exactly who, has contracted 1.3 million square feet of warehousing in Patterson, which will be dwarfed by a 3.2 million square-feet warehouse planned on Sperry Avenue. That’s 7.3 million square feet of warehouses in two counties. How many trucks will that mean on our roads? How long will those roads hold up?

Bees: Plant more solar

McClatchy Newspapers. Bill would make it easier to ‘plant’ solar panels on dry farmland. Great idea.
Synopsis: The McClatchy editorial board – opinion-page editors from Sacramento, Fresno and San Luis Obispo – likes the idea of repurposing farmland that lacks irrigation water to generate electricity. “Except there’s a hitch. A lot of that farmland is tied up in long-term Williamson Act contracts, which entitle owners to big property tax breaks as long as they keep their acreage in ag.” Canceling the contract requires paying a hefty penalty. To get out of the contracts, owners must prove the soil can no longer grow food. AB 1156 would expand that loophole to allow ground without enough water to be removed from the Williamson Act without paying any penalties. The editorial board likes the idea.
MAD Take: There’s another side to this story. As one grower put it: If solar farming is so lucrative, let the developers buy their way out of the Williamson Act contracts. That’s only fair to the people who have been paying for those tax breaks all along – CA’s taxpayers.

Latest ‘superfood’? Grapes

CA Ag Net. Research suggests fresh grapes are a superfood.
Synopsis: A study from the New England University’s College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences shows that grapes are a natural source of 1,600 compounds from antioxidants to phenolic acid to resveratrol to something called anthocyanidins. Some 60 peer-reviewed studies have shown the role of fresh grapes in a healthy diet. They lower cholesterol, support brain health and help the skin resist UV radiation. Oh, and they make your gut healthier, too. Ian LeMay of the CA Table Grape Commission is delighted, immediately christening grapes the newest “superfood.”

Serious about subsidence

SJV Water. State zeroes in on the sinking San Joaquin Valley. 
Synopsis: The new Dept of Water Resources guidelines on reducing or halting subsidence got a mixed reception in the South Valley on Thursday. The state wants much, much more water diverted into aquifers to bring land elevations back up where possible or to halt sinking where it’s not. To do this, those pumping up groundwater for farming will have to acquire a “better understanding” of the substrata of their regions … then stop pumping. As the GM of Delano-Earlimart ID put it, “It is unambiguous at this point. I don’t know how you hide from this anymore.” Basically, this means less farming says Doug Verboon, a Kings County supervisor. That will reduce tax revenues and thus services. “I think we’re being punished,” he said. But a 10-mile section of the Friant-Kern Canal had to be rebuilt and a year after the repairs, the canal is sinking again. Some water districts have agreed to limit subsidence to 6 feet, but the Tulare Basin’s largest farming company (and pumper), JG Boswell Co., says it will pump until the ground sinks another 10 feet. The worst subsidence is in the Tulare and Kaweah regions with substantial sinking between Madera and Chowchilla, too.

SJV Water. Farmers in West Fresno County to consider 200% groundwater pumping fee hike.
Synopsis: Reporter Monserrat Solis reports on a 212% increase in pumping fees being sought by Pleasant Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency. The price of an acre foot will rise from $8 to $25. The hike is necessary to avoid state intervention, which could result in even higher fees and stringent reporting requirements for all pumping. The fees will fund a revised groundwater sustainability plan while also reducing demand, it is hoped. The district covers 48,000 acres west of Coalinga.

As ground sinks, so do prices

Maven / UC Riverside. Groundwater depletion sinks home prices in Central Valley.
Synopsis: As the ground sinks, so do home prices. Research by UC Riverside and the USGS found that homes in subsiding areas lost up to 5.8% of their value over the past few years. That translates to $16,165 per home, or about $1.87 billion for the region. They studied nearly 200,000 home sales transactions across 8 counties. “Ignoring groundwater overuse doesn’t just affect farmers and water agencies. It also hits homeowners – especially those living on sinking ground.”

Support for high-speed rail

McClatchy Newspapers. Ignore the naysayers, CA high-speed rail on track to open in 2033.
Synopsis: The McClatchy editorial board – opinion-page editors from Sacramento, Fresno and San Luis Obispo – are convinced by High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri that the state doesn’t need Donald Trump’s money. “Trump can’t truly kill this project. Only we can do so if we stop investing in this partially built system,” write the editors. That’s why there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Fresno’s Chinatown on Thursday. Take heart, say the editors, as funding arrives “Choudri said the Bakersfield-Merced line could easily be extended to the Bay Area and Southern California.”
MAD Take: If the line could be “easily” extended, why not just do it now? If this project fails, it won’t be because the trains aren’t fast enough. It’s because officials weren’t fast enough to get the project done before people lost interest.

Protesting genocide in Gaza

Merced Focus. Merced County residents protest mass starvation in Gaza: ‘Stop funding genocide.’ 
Synopsis: A group of about 15 protesters hung three banners above Hwy 99 Wednesday in an effort to bring attention to famine in Gaza. Among them was registered nurse Adam Shane, a member of the Jewish Voice For Peace. He said Israel’s policies are causing the death by starvation of thousands.

41 interested in Los Banos job

Westside Express. Los Banos prepares to select new city manager.
Synopsis: Los Banos has gotten interest from 41 people in becoming the new city manager, according to the city’s headhunter. The council expects to choose 1 of them by mid-September. Until then, the city appears to be in good hands with former police chief and four-time interim city manager Gary Brizzee at the helm. The city’s budget was passed on time with 15 new hires and a significant contribution into the city’s reserves. Before a city manager is chosen, the city will have filled its fifth council seat which was left open by the resignation of Ken Lambert. He was the fourth of four councilmembers to depart the council in the wake of last November’s election.

Flight school on its way out?

Merced County Times. Cal Fire plans expansion at flight school site.
Synopsis: Special correspondent Robin Shepard concludes his three-part series about the status and future of Castle Commerce Center (the former Castle Air Force Base). Shepherd writes that Cal Fire’s expansion plans are about to displace Sierra Academy of Aeronautics, which has trained pilots for 20 years. The county says it is working with Sierra but is also trying to help Cal Fire establish a training center for roughly 1,600 fire-control students at Castle this year. Not mentioned in the story, but there is already a fire-services training facility next door to where Cal Fire would be installed.

Save our weather forecasters

Stocktonia. CA legislators issue dire warnings about National Weather Service cuts.
Synopsis: The union that represents National Weather Service staff says the agency is 500 positions short, not counting the 600 who retired or took buyouts. That means 24/7 operations – the standard in the past – cannot be met. Overnight shifts are going uncovered. In May, five former NWS directors wrote an open letter saying, “Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life.” In July, Texas weather stations were understaffed when flooding hit and claimed 136 lives. Forecasters in Texas were unable to coordinate responses with local authorities. More than 20 members of Congress – including Adam Gray, Josh Harder and Jim Costa from the Valley – have written a letter demanding Weather Service cuts be reversed. “This is not waste or fraud. Americans depend on accurate and timely weather forecasts and alerts … to prepare for, and survive, deadly natural disasters,” reads the letter.

PBS, NPR backer shutting doors

GV Wire. Corporation for Public Broadcasting to close after funding cut, in blow to local media.
Synopsis: After the GOP budget bill cut $9 billion from public media last month, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting says it will go out of business at the end of September. The CPB distributes funding to PBS and NPR which is then distributed to 1,500 locally operated public radio and TV stations. Republicans say both PBS and NPR have an anti-Trump bias. The Valley is served by KVPR in Fresno is a PBS station along with KQED in Sacramento.

Retirement haven? Modesto

Modesto Bee. Modesto ranked among best cities to retire in CA. 
Synopsis: The magazine Retirement Living says CA “has been drawing retirees in for decades” – the walks along the coast, the mild weather, the scenery. But those beach walks and mild weather are available in the best places to retire. The only affordable places to retire in California are in the Valley. Modesto is ranked No. 6 in the state because of affordability in housing and food. “Few places in CA give you this much financial breathing room,” said the magazine. Some 16% of the city’s population is 65+. Among the top 10 CA retirement cities are Roseville, Torrance, Vacaville, Santa Rosa, Simi Valley and Vallejo.