In June 2018, the MKPS received a circa 1870 relic of our industrial mining past on loan from Sequoia and Kings Canyon Nation Parks (SEKI). This relic, an iron water jacket used in at least two silver smelters, will become the focal point of a new outdoor exhibit. The New England Tunnel and Smelting Co. exhibit project has included preservation of this artifact; development and installation of an outdoor display that will identify the water jacket as a significant artifact and inform the public about its history and its technological and cultural context; and involvement of the public in the relic’s preservation process.

On Thursday, June 15th, we’ll have experts, goodies, and interactive activities on hand from 10:00am to 2:00pm. A local historical archaeologist and friends will be hosting family-friendly activities that tell the story of Mineral King’s ores and the stinky, poisonous, sweltering, and dangerous process employed to convert the ore into the stuff of dreams.

At 11:00am there will be a presentation by a preservationist from the National Park Service introducing the artifact and preservation process.

On Saturday, June 17th, at 10:00am, historical archaeologist Laile Di Silvestro will present “Thieving & Swindling: The History & Mystery of the New England Tunnel & Smelter Company.” Mark Twain purportedly said that a mine is nothing but a hole in the ground with a liar on top. As industrialization made its way into the agricultural frontier in the 1870s, that liar was often a corporation.

Was Mineral King’s New England Tunnel & Smelting Company different? Or did it deserve to be nicknamed the New England Thieving and Swindling Company?

Join us as we explore the story of the corporation and its impact on the nation. Immediately following, at 11:00am, join us for celebratory refreshments and the big exhibit unveil!

This project is the result of a collaboration between the Mineral King Preservation Society, Sequoia National Park, and the National Park Service Western Archaeological & Conservation Center. With funding from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Society for Industrial Archaeology, and the Tulare County Historical Society. This project would not be possible without the support from our community volunteers. The Mineral King Preservation Society (MKPS) is dedicated to protecting and preserving the cultural and natural history of Mineral King and surrounding southern Sierra communities, and to educating the public about the historic and natural significance of these areas through programs and displays. MKPS was established in 1986 to promote the preservation of the natural and historic assets of the Mineral King area in Sequoia National Park.

WHEN: Thursday, June 15th 10am – 2pm and Saturday, June 17th 10am – 11:30am

WHERE: Three Rivers Historical Museum – 42268 Sierra Dr, Three Rivers, CA 93271

CONTACT: Lisa Monteiro, Mineral King Preservation Society, Executive Director Email: lisa@mineralking.org

Phone: (559) 799-4009

MKPS is a non-profit private operating foundation, contributions are tax deductible under 501(c)(3) IRS. ID# 77-0174309

The post Mineral King Preservation Society Announces Exciting Events in Anticipation of New Mining Exhibit Unveiling appeared first on Valley Voice.

“This expansion has been critically needed for a number of years and long-awaited by us and the community,” said Gary Herbst, Kaweah Delta’s Chief Executive Officer. “Emergency care is first and foremost what the community expects from us, but we know it has been frustrating for them, and for us, because of overcrowding. With the opening of this new ‘Zone 5’ area of our Emergency Department, we will now have an additional 24 exam rooms in which to care for our Emergency Department patients.”

This final phase of the expansion effort has modernized, expanded, and improved Kaweah Delta’s Emergency Department, the only trauma center between Bakersfield and Fresno. In just two years, the Department has more than doubled in size, growing from 32 to 73 beds, which includes:

• 48 beds for general emergency care (with 4 beds designated for pediatric patients and 4 beds for dialysis patients);
• 9 beds for behavioral health;
• 8 beds for critical care; and,
• An 8-bed area where the team can care for patients with minor illnesses and injuries.

Additionally, this final expansion increases the waiting area from seating 65 people to seating more than 100. The expansive waiting area also features flat screen TVs that will help improve communication with patients and visitors by providing them with a unique QR code so they can receive real-time updates on the course of their care. For example, by looking at the board, a patient or visitor will know whether lab results are in or whether their loved one is getting an MRI. Currently, due to COVID-19, once an Emergency Department patient is placed in a room they are allowed to have only one symptom-free visitor.

On April 19, Kaweah Delta will be fully prepared to host a site visit by the California Department of Public Health (“CDPH”; licensing). Once CDPH approves the project, patients and visitors will enter the Emergency Department through a separate entrance. Immediately upon entry, all patients and visitors will walk through metal detectors to promote a safer environment for patients, visitors and staff. Exceptions will be made for more critical patients.

The multi-phase project began in 2018, but throughout, portions of the project were completed and put into use, allowing the Emergency Department team to focus care on more critical patients. Such areas included an eight-bed area (“Zone 6”) that was put into use in 2019, allowing the team to more quickly screen and discharge patients with minor illnesses and injuries, along with a new nine-bed area (“Zone 4”) put into use in 2020. Before the nine-bed area was constructed, it had previously been “shelled” space that was created during construction of the Acequia Wing.  While parts of the Acequia Wing opened up back in 2009, the shelled space was set aside for a future expansion of the Emergency Department when it would be needed to meet growing patient demand.

“We believe that the expansion and modernization of the Emergency Department will also bring more medical providers, nurses, techs and other staff members to care for patients in the Emergency Department,” Herbst said. In preparation of the opening, Kaweah Delta has worked to fill openings with registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses and more. Next week, Kaweah Delta will continue that work at a job fair in Visalia, where it will be looking to hire six RN positions, as well as an ED technician and a program registrar.

Dr. Sakona Seng, Medical Director of Kaweah Delta’s Emergency Department, said the expansion will allow the team to accomplish its mission to always deliver the best care.

“We’re really excited to see this project head toward completion. Our patients deserve the highest quality of care that we can possibly deliver,” Dr. Seng said. “A lot of that, in the past, has been defined by space. There have been days of working out in hall chairs, hallways, or even at times in winter seasons in tents in our parking lots. All of us on the physician side recognize that’s not how we want to continue. Our mission is always to deliver the best care that we can to our patients.”

Herbst said Kaweah Delta will continue to work to reduce the number of visits to the emergency department for non-emergency care by opening clinics and urgent care centers in areas of Tulare County where they are needed. This week, Kaweah Delta opened the Tulare Health Clinic, the latest addition to Kaweah Delta’s growing clinic network. Each of Kaweah Delta’s clinic locations – Exeter, Lindsay, Woodlake and Dinuba – were intentionally placed there after studying Emergency Department volumes to determine where people were coming from to Kaweah Delta’s Emergency Department (ED) for primary care-related conditions. City of Tulare residents visit Kaweah Delta’s ED more than 10,000 times per year. Nearly 2,000 of those visits are for lower-acuity chronic conditions that could more appropriately be provided in a primary care setting.

“The goal is that truly what’s coming here is emergency so we have the physical capacity to take care of emergent patients in a very efficient way,” he said.

Kaweah Delta’s Emergency Department was originally built to serve 36,000 patients a year and was last expanded in 2009 to serve 72,000 patients a year. It is one of three emergency departments serving nearly 500,000 people in Tulare County and the greater region and sees in excess of 250 patients a day on a regular basis. Of the close to 2,500 trauma patients seen in its Emergency Department each year, Kaweah Delta admits more than 1,200 of them to its acute medical center.

The post Kaweah Delta unveils expanded emergency department, awaits State approval to open appeared first on Valley Voice.

“In an effort to increase testing surveillance in our local communities as COVID-19 continues to spread throughout Tulare County, we encourage people who meet the criteria to get tested for COVID-19,” shared Dr. Karen Haught, Tulare County Health Officer.

This new community testing site in Tulare is being operated in partnership with OptumServe, which also operates community testing sites in Dinuba and Porterville. The new testing site will open September 2, and testing will be by appointment only. This OptumServe testing site in Tulare will operate Wednesday – Sunday from 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m., allowing for testing appointments to be made on weekends and during evening hours.

Appointments can be made by phone at 1-888-634-1123 and online at https://lhi.care/covidtesting. Please note that phone registration will only be used for people without internet access and those making an appointment for minors. Public health officials encourage those going to get tested for COVID19 to wear a face mask or facial covering for protection.

If an individual has medical insurance, OptumServe will bill the patient’s medical insurance company. Uninsured individuals may also use the community testing site, and their tests will be paid for by the state.

Those interested in getting tested for COVID-19 can visit www.covid19.tularecounty.ca.gov for a full list of test collection sites within the county and surrounding areas. The webpage also includes an interactive map for residents to find their nearest site location.

Below is a list of OptumServe Community Testing locations in Tulare County and their hours of operation:

• Tulare International Agri-Center Social Hall located at 4500 S. Laspina St. in Tulare

Open Wednesday – Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

• Dinuba Veterans Memorial Building located at 249 S. Alta Ave. in Dinuba

Open Monday – Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

• Porterville Veterans Memorial Building located at 1900 W. Olive Ave. in Porterville

Open Monday – Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The post Tulare County Public Health announces new COVID-19 testing site in Tulare appeared first on Valley Voice.

With heart month just a few weeks away, January is a great time to ask yourself about your health and ask: Have I ever experienced any of these symptoms and, if so, what should I do? To find any heart condition early, particularly heart valve disease, is an opportunity to fix it and significantly improve a person’s life expectancy, rather than waiting for symptoms of heart failure to surface.

It’s a popular option to treat heart valve disease, says Dr. Philip Faraci, a Visalia cardiac surgeon, on staff at Kaweah Delta Medical Center.

“We can avoid breaking bone to get to the heart and make smaller incisions that allow a person to heal more quickly and comfortably,” said Faraci.

Instead of an 8- to 10-inch incision, a surgeon performing minimally-invasive heart valve surgery can use incisions half that size to replace or repair malfunctioning valves or restore normal function to a person’s heart, Faraci said. Smaller incisions result in less bleeding, helping patients get up and about sooner, out of the hospital and home more quickly. Ultimately, the surgery can help preserve the function of heart muscle and result in improved quality of life, prolonged life, and reduced symptoms.

“This is a huge opportunity for this community,” Faraci said.

The “Wellness & You: Heart Valve Disease” seminar will be held February 11, from 5:30-6:30PM at the Kaweah Delta Multiservice Center, 402 W. Acequia Ave, Visalia.

The post Kaweah Delta to Host Heart Heart-to-Heart appeared first on Valley Voice.

There is much talk these days about the demise of the newspaper—technology, the argument goes, is making the print media obsolete. Despite the obvious shift to electronic information, there are still some who value the printed word, and haven’t given up on newsprint. Catherine Doe and her husband Joseph Oldenbourg are two such people. They have boldly stepped forward and have taken over the proprietorship and publishing of the much revered Valley Voice—a newspaper that began in 1979 and then abruptly stopped in December, 2011. By rescuing the Voice, Catherine and Joseph have made history and have added their names to the long list of newspaper journalists who have for more than 150 years published a Visalia-based newspaper.

Visalia’s newspaper history has been interesting but not always pleasant. On June 25, 1859, Isaac N. Carpenter launched the Tulare County Record and Fresno Examiner in Visalia, the first newspaper in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. He owned it for about two months, and then was sold it to John Shannon and a man named Killmer. The name was quickly changed to the Visalia Weekly Delta—a name that was chosen for the fertile and water rich region around Visalia.

As the Civil War approached, the pro-south Delta openly took on a Confederate states bias and frequently was critical of President Abraham Lincoln. In response to the Delta, another newspaper called The Visalia Sun was born, and took a firm stand in support of the Union. The two newspapers battled editorially and in 1860 Shannon and William G. Morris, who was affiliated with the Sun, took their differences to the street. The resulting gunfight cost Shannon his life.

Three years later more violence erupted involving another Visalia newspaper, the Equal Rights Expositor. This time no one was hurt, but the printing office of this southern sympathetic newspaper was ransacked, and the printing equipment was totally destroyed by Union troops. The Expositor’s editors, Hall and Garrison, were arrested and placed in the guardhouse at nearby Camp Babbitt for treasonous reporting. After their release, they left town. In 1865, Garrison returned to Visalia and established the Tulare Times.

During the early years, other newspapers appeared in Visalia under a variety of names. Most published only a short time under names such as, Spread Eagle (1873), Iron Age (1878), Democratic Free Press (1885), San Joaquin Valley Resources (1888), Visalia Star (1891), Tulare County News (1894), Visalia Morning Courier (1905), Tulare County Press (1912), and Daily Transcript (1918.)

But the Times and Delta were different. They had a lasting quality. A form of the Times has been published since 1865 and the Delta has been present since its beginning in 1859.

In 1928 a deal was reached between, Morley Maddox, owner of the Visalia Daily Times, and Charles Whitmore, owner of the Visalia Morning Delta, and the two men merged their papers to create the Visalia Times-Delta. The newspaper has changed hands a number of times since the merger. William Kampe of Chicago bought it in 1944, Speidel Newspapers took over in 1948, and Gannett Co., the current owners, have published it since 1976.

In 1979 a new paper appeared in Visalia called the Valley Voice. It promised reporting on entertainment, news, views and lifestyles. According to John Lindt, one of the three partners in the venture, they wanted “to see competition in the market” and wanted to offer alternative voices and views. He added, “In addition, I think we wanted to see coverage of business activities that went unnoticed in the region.”

The first monthly issue was published in November. John Lindt and Craig Lindaman were named as publishers and Carmel Jarvis was listed as editor. It was a 32-page tabloid with an eagle as part of the masthead. The inaugural issue listed nine staff members and the same number of contributing writers. 18,000 copies were printed. Carmel introduced the readers to the newspaper saying, “Welcome to the open pages of the Valley Voice. If it were possible I’d put a red ribbon on every copy. A gift to Visalia with love.”

In about 1982, John bought out his partners and became the solo owner. It is his name most closely associated with the paper. In 2005 he sold the majority of the company to a local group of investors who owned it until the Voice stopped with the December 22, 2011 issue. The sudden end stunned the community. The headline to the last issue read “Silenced” and the first sentence to the lead story told the sad news, “Visalia is losing its Voice.” George Lurie, editor and publisher, had to deliver the message. “It is with the deepest regret and sadness, especially at this time of the year, that I share with the community the disheartening news.” The 32-year old paper had become a victim of hard financial times.

For the next several months the disbelieving community waited to see if someone would take over the defunct newspaper, but no one came.

During 2012 and early 2013, there were rumors of a Valley Voice comeback, but none materialized. Finally, help came. Catherine and Joseph decided the old established tabloid that many had given up for dead still had life. Now, Visalia has its Voice back.

The post Valley Voice Makes Newspaper History… Again appeared first on Valley Voice.