Until recently the only indicator for Tulare County residents of a mysterious ailment called bird flu was in the weekly grocery bill.

But Bird flu has moved on to become a tangible threat to the region’s health and economy. Many dairies in Tulare County have been put under quarantined due to the H5N1 virus and a new strain, H5N9, was found last week at a duck farm in Merced County. Along with other commercial poultry farms where the virus is detected, the entire flock of ducks had to be destroyed.

145 million poultry in the United States have been culled since 2022.

Since the beginning of 2024, 38 of the 67 human cases of avian flu have occurred in California, 18 of those in Tulare County. The majority of people who have contracted the virus are dairy workers. One elderly person has died in Louisiana.

What is bird flu? Where is it? And is it dangerous to humans?

The answers to those questions and more will be the subject of the next monthly forum for Tulare County Voices at 210: “Bird flu: Checking its spread in Tulare County.” The forum will be at 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 210, 210 W. Center Ave., Visalia (corner of Locust).

The objective of this forum is to inform the public of the facts about the advance of the H5N1 virus in Tulare County and to explain how authorities are preparing for an infestation.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a state of emergency and considering our recent experience with COVID-19, it is likely the public would greet this new threat with alarm and confusion.

For all those reasons, we believe this forum’s discussion will be timely and valuable.

As is standard for our forums, we have assembled a panel of experts to engage in a discussion about avian flu:

• Maurice Pivetsky, DVM, UC-Davis, expert on H1C5, aka HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza]
• Chris Greer, Tulare County Assistant Ag Commissioner
• Anja Raudabaugh, Chief Executive Officer Western United Dairies
• Sharon Minnick, Senior Epidemiologist, Tulare County HHSA

In this guided discussion, these questions will be directed to panelists, according to their specific area of expertise or authority:

• How does H5N1 virus [HPAI] originate and spread?
• What is the threat to humans?
• How has avian flu affected poultry flocks and dairy herds?
• What kind of damage has it done so far]?
• In terms of public health, how great a danger is there, and what would the response be?
• What can be done by way of prevention?
• Could this evolve into a pandemic?

As the world learned with the COVID-19 pandemic, HPAI [Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza] viruses spread and evolve quickly. A few facts about HPAI from the U.S, Department of Agriculture:

• H1N5 can wipe out a poultry flock completely. There is no cure.
• Dairy herds are less susceptible, and cows can recover. But an infected herd will suffer from lowered production.
• H1N5 originated in wild birds, especially water fowl. Unfortunately for local herds, Tulare County is on the Pacific flyway for migrating geese and ducks.

Many state and federal agencies are already warning the public to be prepared to take precautions. Dairy workers are being advised to wear masks in milking areas and the public is advised against drinking raw milk.

The Centers for Disease Control reports the public health risk is low, H5N1 is not spread from one human to another. However, viruses evolve and mutate. Any highly pathogenic organism has the potential to become infectious to humans.

Come to the forum on Feb. 11 and join the community conversation.

The post Bird Flu Gets Real appeared first on Valley Voice.

The 3-2 decision to ratify the previous decision of the city’s Planning Commission came during a meeting held Tuesday, December 3. It was a final attempt to force the project’s developer to reevaluate the potential impact to residents of the mobile home park, many of whom are at-risk due to age and illness. The project – on the southwest corner of the intersection of Visalia Parkway and Mooney Boulevard – is also around 1,000 feet from the Perry Family Park and Cottonwood Creek Elementary School.

The two votes against rejecting the appeal came from council members Emmanuel Hernandez Soto and Steve Nelsen.

Westlake residents expressed their intention to sue to stop the development.

Box Store is a Done Deal

The project is far more than a gas station and car wash. Anchoring the entire development is a 170,000 square-foot Sam’s Club box store. The complex will also include a fast food restaurant with drive-through service. One thousand parking spaces will service the retail center. Together, the gas station and the restaurant’s drive-through can accommodate around 200 vehicles.

The appeals filed against the development only target the gas station and car wash. The store and restaurant require no approval from the Planning Commission. Those plans can go ahead with or without construction of the adjacent fueling station and car wash, as city planning staff reports Fresno-based developer Visalia Parkway Partners, LLC’s plans comply with applicable building and zoning codes.

However, those who hoped to force better environmental mitigation measures for the project still have a list of complaints about it. They brought them to the forefront of the city’s attention during a Planning Commission meeting held on September 23. Assistant city planner Cristobal Carrillo described their objections.

“At that meeting, significant public comment was provided by a lot of residents of Westlake Village, citing environmental impacts to the elderly residents of the mobile home park,” he said. “Specifically, they had concerns about the location and operation of the service station, the adequacy of the analysis of health risks assessment (HRA), which is a study that analyzed the emission from the proposed gas station.”

Developer Changed Plans to Suit Neighbors

The project got approval at a second meeting of the Planning Commission held October 14. It was granted following reassurances from Lars Anderson & Associates representative Derek Finnegan that the HRA showed no appreciable health risks to residents of Westlake from toxic emissions and vehicle exhaust.

The developer also added mitigation measures to reduce the project’s impact. They include moving the gas pumps further from the boundary with Westlake Village, an 8-foot brick wall between the properties, cutoffs on lighting on buildings and in the parking lot, and added trees to block noise to the south and west.

The plan’s opponents, however, wanted a bigger buffer between themselves and the possible source of environmental pollutants. San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District guidelines, which are factored into the HRA, recommend a 300-foot setback between sources of pollutants and at-risk populations. Plans approved by the city have a 160-foot setback after it was widened.

Opponents Want More, Better Environmental Protection

The 300-foot setback mentioned by the pollution control district is not a strict rule. While it is recommended, it is left to the city to make the ultimate decision. At the city council meeting Tuesday, it decided the 160-foot offset offered by the developer is sufficient to protect those living in the mobile home park.

The offset is a key item in both appeals requesting the council overturn the planning decision. Carrillo described the terms of the appeals broadly.

“There were a lot of claims presented in those appeals touching on a wide range of topics,” he said. “Overall, I think they mention the inadequacy of the HRA analysis; impacts from noise, traffic; public notice requirements; CEQA analysis. Lots of stuff.”

Jonathan Popkin, whose family has owned Westlake Village since the 1980s, said the city failed to adequately inform neighbors a plan for the property adjacent to his was underway. When the property was originally pegged as the site of a future box store in 2013, Popkin said he was given weeks of notice and time to respond. This time he heard nothing from City Hall.

“This time I only found out what was going on three weeks ago from my residents,” he said. “I didn’t receive a single notice about anything that was being proposed, any gas stations. I’m not one to hinder progress, but I do think that, in all fairness, all those affected need to be able to have their say, and keep it an open discussion.”

He said building one of the county’s largest fueling stations next to his property will undermine years of work spent keeping the park a garden-like setting.

“I spend a lot of time trying to preserve Westlake Village as a senior park in all its beauty, with the lakes and everything, and with the water restrictions, it’s been very difficult,” he said.

The work he must do includes monitoring the coming and going of federally-protected Canada geese that live on the property for annual reports to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The presence of the protected species was apparently not included in the city’s analysis of the project’s environmental impact.

Attorney: Project’s Environmental Reports Inadequate

Attorney William Hanna, who represents Westlake Village owner Popkin, says a project of this scale should be subject to a full environmental impact report (EIR). Instead, the city only asked for a “mitigated negative declaration (MND),” a much less stringent report. Hanna says this runs counter to standard practice for construction of similar projects.

And he thinks someone may have lifted data from EIRs for similar projects to satisfy the lower standard Visalia City Hall appears willing to accept.

“I was noticing in some of my research almost every one of these major, high-volume gas stations has an EIR prepared for it, not a mitigated negative declaration,” Hanna said. “So, I’m curious if that’s one of the ones I saw in Bakersfield that actually had a full EIR, and they used that (data). From my research, it’s common practice to do an EIR for a gas station of this size because of its implications.”

He also said the city’s records show no one from City Hall contacted the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District about the project and its potential impacts.

“I think there should have been a line of communication to the air control district with regards to that,” Hanna said. “Nowhere did I see that there was an actual, ‘I called them. Here’s a letter from them. Here’s their opinion on this matter. Here’s some questions we had about that.’ None of that was (there). It was, ‘I cherry-picked some of the manuals off their website, and I found what I liked and I did my analysis.’”

Additionally, creating an MND in an area known to host protected species must include informing the state’s Fish and Wildlife Department. Hanna said City Hall skipped this step.

Developer Defends Project Plan

Jim Shehadey, manager of Visalia Parkway Partners, LLC, said the company’s plans will ultimately benefit the area. Filling in the open space, he said, will reduce vagrancy, dust and prevent cars from speeding in the area.

Shehadey also praised the residents of Westlake Village and said he was proud of the changes his company has made to mitigate somewhat the impact of the project.

“We’ve relocated the gas pumps to 160 feet from the nearest wall. Some of the pumps are over 300 feet from the nearest wall,” he said. “We basically created an entire parcel with landscape trees separating the gas pumps from the community. We’re happy to do that.”

However, the 300-foot offset recommended by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District as a buffer between a source of pollutants and so-called “sensitive receptors” – people who are less able to withstand breathing contaminated air – is intended to keep homebuilders from constructing new residences too close to sources of pollution.

“Their guidance is actually pretty hazy when it comes to building a high-volume fuel-dispensing station next to already existing sensitive receptors,” said attorney Hanna. “And I suspect that’s because they (the District) would say, ‘Well, why would you do that? We’ve already got the guidance you shouldn’t bring a neighborhood over to there. Why would you build another one next to it?’”

He also pointed out the MND does not address the thousands of cars that will refuel at the gas station every day.

“How does 1,200 cars an hour at a peak hour going within 10 feet of my client’s property line actually affect the environment?” Hanna said. “That’s something I would like to know. That’s something that was not done.”

For Mayor, Good Will Outweighs Concerns

Despite the apparent inadequacies in the city’s assessment of the environmental impacts of a project on this scale, the council eventually voted 4-1 to allow it to proceed. Mayor Brian Poochigian said he was impressed by the developer’s attempt to assuage concerns of the Westlake residents.

“I’ve never seen a developer make these kinds of concessions, like the way this developer had,” he said. “Usually, we have to tell the developer to raise the wall, and they fight tooth and nail because it doubles the price of their construction. These guys didn’t do it. They were trying to be good neighbors.”

But in 2019 a similar set of concessions allowed construction of an AM/PM gas station at Caldwell Avenue and West Street. In that case, the hours of operation and deliveries were cut, the number of gas pumps was reduced, and the planned drive-through restaurant and car wash were eliminated from the project. The site of that market is surrounded on three sides by established neighborhoods.

Poochigian feels the developer in Westlake’s case has done enough to make the project safe for Visalians. Besides, they have other, more pressing worries, he believes.

“I’m going to be fully supportive of this tonight,” he said. “I think this area causes more harm because of dust for you, as people go in there and till that land and create all that dust that comes over to you. I think that’s more of a detriment to you guys than this project going in there.”

The post Visalia City Council denies appeals to stop Sam’s Club appeared first on Valley Voice.

Additional health protective actions include:

• Staying indoors
• Using portable air cleaners or high-efficiency filters to remove fine particles from the air
• Planning ahead and creating aclean air room
• Visiting aClean Air Center.  Similar to the Valley’s cooling centers, the District’s Clean Air Centers provide relief when air quality deteriorates.

To help minimize air quality impacts over the coming days, the Valley Air District recommends that residents, businesses, public agencies, and others continue to prioritize clean air actions, including closely watching residential curtailment notifications, avoiding to use of fireplaces and other indoor and outdoor wood-burning devices, using electric landscape maintenance equipment or limiting activities, avoiding outdoor cooking with charcoal or wood, minimizing activities that create dust (e.g. construction and agricultural conservation management practices), ensuring industrial equipment is properly maintained and in good operating order, tuning-up your vehicle, and other clean air actions.

“Stable conditions like those we are currently experiencing are one of the main challenges the San Joaquin Valley faces during the winter months,” said Jon Klassen, Director of Air Quality Science. “This causes pollution to be trapped at ground level and build up quickly over a relatively short period of time, impacting the health of you and your neighbors,” he added.

The public can check the local air quality atwww.valleyair.org/myraanorwww.airnow.gov. In addition, anyone can follow air quality conditions by downloading the free “Valley Air” app on their mobile device or downloading EPA’s “AirNow” app.

The Residential Wood Smoke Reduction program runs from November 1through the end of February and provides daily declarations, by county, indicating if wood burning is allowed in the county that day. Daily burn status is available by visitingvalleyair.org/burnstatus, by calling 1-800-SMOG INFO (766-4463), or by downloading the free “Valley Air” app.  Valley residents are encouraged to eliminate wood burning altogether by applying for the Fireplace & Woodstove Change-Out program to receive as much as $5,000 to upgrade from older, higher-polluting wood stoves and open-hearth fireplaces to natural gas inserts and free-standing stoves. More details are available atvalleyair.org/change-out.

For more information, visitwww.valleyair.orgor call a District office in Fresno (559-230-6000), Modesto (209-557-6400) or Bakersfield (661-392-5500).

The post High pressure trapping pollution in the Valley, Officials Issue Advisory appeared first on Valley Voice.

Alaska Airlines joins the existing international carriers that serve the Guadalajara route from Fresno and comes just in time for the busy winter travel period when additional service is needed.

“Alaska Airlines’ new seasonal service to Guadalajara adds a much-needed nonstop connection between Fresno and Mexico during the busy winter months. This exciting addition brings families and friends closer for the holidays while showcasing the progress at Fresno Yosemite International Airport, including the ongoing terminal expansion. We’re looking forward to even more growth in the year ahead,” said City of Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer.

In 2022, the City of Fresno and Guadalajara officially became Sister Cities.  FAT continues to rank 4^th in the nation in the number of passengers flying from the United States to Guadalajara. Alaska Airlines is the first domestic carrier operating at FAT to offer international air service and complements the airline’s daily non-stop flights from Fresno to Seattle, Portland, and San Diego.

“Fresno Yosemite International Airport appreciates Alaska Airlines for their continued commitment to Fresno and are confident this seasonal service will be a great success,” said Director of Aviation Henry Thompson.

Guadalajara is one of the largest metropolitan cities in Mexico and is the state capital of Jalisco. This additional airline option from Fresno to Guadalajara increases exposure to Mexico and the many traditional and cultural celebrations the city is known for.

Known as a traditional and cosmopolitan city, Guadalajara hosts numerous cultural events throughout the year including the International Mariachi Festival, the Guadalajara International Book Fair, and more.  The city is known for its impressive architecture, murals, folk art, medical schools, and medical tourism.

Tickets, flight schedules and bookings for Alaska Airlines’ new Guadalajara route are available at alaskaair.com.

Summary of Alaska Airlines’ seasonal service between FAT and GDL operating December 3, 2024 – February 12, 2025:

The post Alaska Airlines launches Guadalajara service from Fresno appeared first on Valley Voice.

Under SGMA, local groundwater sustainability agencies must submit plans that show how the basins will achieve long-term sustainability by limiting overdraft, land subsidence and impacts to drinking water.

Last March, the California Department of Water Resources rejected groundwater sustainability plans for the following subbasins: Chowchilla, Delta-Mendota, Kaweah, Kern County, Tulare Lake and Tule. The action by the state triggered the state intervention process, allowing the state water board to step in to manage the basin if necessary. Basins are in different stages of the process, but in recent weeks, a meeting to consider whether to place the Kaweah subbasin under probation was canceled, while the Kern subbasin is set to appear before the board Feb. 20.

As SGMA implementation takes shape, state and local water officials, lawmakers, farmers and association leaders commemorated the 10th anniversary of SGMA last week at the California Natural Resources Agency in Sacramento. The daylong event featured panel discussions on the past, present and future of the regulation. The keynote address was delivered by former Gov. Jerry Brown, who in 2014 signed three pieces of legislation known collectively as SGMA after the state experienced a multiyear drought that caused some drinking wells to go dry.

In reflecting on when SGMA was passed, Paul Gosselin, DWR deputy director for sustainable groundwater management, said, “There was a sense at that moment that something really, really big was happening.

“The way SGMA is constructed, and the leadership that we’re seeing at the regional and local levels, is a paradigm shift in California,” Gosselin said. “It’s a recognition that the answers to a lot of our resource challenges are not found in Sacramento or Washington, D.C., but across California, where people actually understand the conditions best.”

Brian Lockwood, general manager of the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency, said his agency’s approach includes use of demand management, an agricultural conservation program, optimizing existing water supply facilities and working to build new facilities. Other goals, he said, include tackling seawater intrusion and doing more groundwater recharge.

Fresno County farmer Don Cameron, president of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture and member of the state’s Environmental Farming Act Science Advisory Panel, said it is important that the state be positioned to take advantage of rainfall during wet years for use in dry years.

“We need to be prepared to capture as much (water) as we can and move it onto land and store it for periods when we go through drought,” said Cameron, known as a pioneer in on-farm recharge, or flooding agricultural lands with water to help restore the groundwater basin. “In the last 10 years, we had three years of flooding and seven years of drought, and we’re seeing more of these extremes as we move forward, so we need to be prepared.”

He suggested improvements to the process to increase adoption of using flood flows to recharge groundwater.

“We need to have better monitoring on the rivers and streams that feed these watersheds, and we need to establish parameters that, when we do hit certain levels, we know that we can go ahead and take water,” he said.

To improve the permitting process for groundwater recharge, Cameron suggested updates to make it more responsive and simple, and to lower costs.

Many agencies try to increase basin capacity by working on groundwater recharge projects, but Gosselin suggested they also start developing demand management programs to reduce groundwater pumping.

“Every agency should, if they haven’t now, start scoping out what a demand management program would look like, even if they don’t need to have one immediately in place,” he said. “You are going to have land-use changes, changes in water supply, surface-water supply, reliability and other factors, including climate change.”

California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross said few realize that 60% of farms in the state are fewer than 100 acres, and the vast majority are fewer than 50 acres. She called California farms “vital to local resilient food systems.”

“They all contribute to this really healthy, nutrient-dense food that we grow in California that cannot be grown in other states and few other regions in the world,” Ross said.

Researchers studying impacts of SGMA say they anticipate the landmark law will result in the fallowing of 500,000 to 1 million acres of farmland.

Geoff Vanden Heuvel, director of regulatory and economic affairs for the Milk Producers Council, expressed concern about a “tremendous reduction” in market value for farmland. He added, “Most farmers have debt, and they rely on that equity in their land to get operating loans to be able to function.

“When you cut those land values by half or more, which is what’s happening, suddenly even a farmer that was relatively in good shape with his loan to value rates is upside down,” he said. “That puts an enormous amount of pressure on that farmer to probably liquidate.”

Vanden Heuvel reminded state water officials that they have a tremendous responsibility.

“Sometimes, you just have to hear the reality of what’s happening out in the field,” he said. “The reality is small farmers are in the most vulnerable position to be able to handle the regulation.”

Alexandra Biering, California Farm Bureau senior policy advocate, spoke of accomplishments by farmers and local agencies to comply with SGMA and noted there is more work ahead.

“Ten years in, it is remarkable that more than 90% of the high- and medium-priority basins have approved groundwater sustainability plans that are now being implemented,” Biering said. “Nonetheless, the land use transition under SGMA is already underway and will be painful for many growers.”

She added, “California Farm Bureau will continue to advocate for policies and programs that can help minimize impacts to our agricultural economy and communities.”

(Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)

The post California reflects on SGMA 10 years later appeared first on Valley Voice.

More than a decade ago, the Kingsburg Tri-County Health Care District went broke and eventually closed the city’s only hospital. Now, the new tenants want to buy the building they’ve already spent more than $2 million renovating. At least one resident, however, says selling it off would be a bad deal for citizens of Tulare, Kings and Fresno counties who still pay to keep the District running. District voters will make the final decision when they consider Measure K on November 8.

Operating In the Red

After a change in payouts from Medicare and MediCal in the 1990s, the District found revenues at the hospital, Kingsburg Medical Center, were no longer sufficient to keep the doors open. With the help of Adventist Health—which the District still owed nearly $500,000 as late as 2013—and the Tulare Local Health Care District, the Center stayed open until 2010, when it was losing nearly $55,000 a month.

For five years, the hospital stood empty. Then in 2015, Crestwood Behavioral Health leased the facility to open a 44-bed in-patient mental health hospital, making more than $2 million in renovations before opening their doors. The move, which came despite objections that another provider might be interested in reopening an acute care facility at the site, included a lease-option contract.

Allowing that sale, says Kingsburg resident Betsy Tunnel, will cost taxpayers money and ensure the people of Kingsburg will continue to seek medical care outside the city limits.

A ‘Rip-Off’

“What happens on this vote, the public is saying, ‘Yes, (Crestwood) can buy (the hospital) per the lease-option terms,’ and those terms state that tenant can buy at the pre-renovation value, basically the land value,” said Tunnel. “They put in $2 million in improvements. It would probably appraise for $2.5 million. That’s where the rip-off comes.”

District officials say their hands are tied. When Crestwood agreed to move in, it would only do so if it was given the option to purchase the property at some future date. The agreement also stipulates that Crestwood may buy the property at its assessed value before upgrades were made. That figure, which the District says is fair market value, is $800,000.

Currently, the District receives $108,000 a year in rent from its tenants. Should the hospital be sold, its income from the property tax Crestwood would pay would be just $8,000 a year.

“I understand where she’s coming from,” said Arlie Rogers Jr., who chairs the District’s board of directors. “We’d be giving up future rent.”

But that isn’t the entire picture, he says.

Other Costs, Concerns

“I own two rental properties. I think they’re great because you get rent income, but it’s not free,” said Rogers. “There’s a lot of maintenance. When you’ve got a 44-bed facility with lots of people going in and out, there’s a lot of wear and tear. There’s no guarantee that that rent revenue will cover that.”

While the hospital sat idle, the District paid to maintain the empty building. If it retains ownership, it will have to continue pouring money into the property that could be paying off the District’s debt. At the time Crestwood’s offer came along, Rogers says, no one else was interested in the empty hospital. Those in charge felt it wasn’t in the District’s best interest to throw good money after bad in the hope of finding someone to reopen Kingsburg Medical.

“Given our financial position at the time, it made sense,” Rogers said. “We didn’t want to make $2 million of improvements and hope we got someone in there.”

‘All Bull’

Tunnel isn’t buying this explanation.

“It’s all bull,” she said. “It’s about a real-estate deal. Citizens went to the Board and said let us sell it now before they renovate it. Now, we’re supposed to give it up. Crestwood wants to capture this property, and we don’t have to sell it. They’re not providing service to us, and in the future they won’t. They can sell this property, do anything they want with it.”

Tunnel described going to the District before Crestwood took over in February of 2015 with a plan to find someone else to reopen Kingsburg Medical. She says she and others found potential operators, but the District inked the Crestwood deal anyway.

“Two weeks later when we had the UC system interested, some skilled nursing facilities, (the District) rushed to get the lease done that day,” she said. “It was disgusting.”

Too Little, Too Late

By the time the Crestwood deal was underway, it was too late for anyone to reopen Kingsburg Medical no matter how sweet a deal they could offer.

“At some point, we actually lost our license to even have a hospital on that property,” Rogers said. “Even if a billionaire wanted to come along and open a hospital, we couldn’t do that.”

The District had other offers on the property before the license was lost. A group of Southern California physicians were willing to spend several million dollars upgrading and reopening the hospital. Then, the lead investor died.

“That kind of torpedoed that whole deal,” said Rogers.

Back in the Black

To Rogers, selling the hospital seems like the right thing to do, given the District’s financial position. The income from the sale will be used to pay off the District’s debts dating from before its bankruptcy in 1997.

“I think it is a good thing,” he said. “The other side of the coin here is the district has $2.25 million of debt. Roughly $1.4 million is state debt, and that debt is accruing interest at 7%. $800,000 will go a long way to knocking that off.”

Tunnel doesn’t believe that either.

Affirmed Debt

“Board members indicated at the meetings they’ve been in negotiations to get (the District’s debts) settled,” she said. “It may not have to be all that money. Again, we can’t get that information. They throw numbers out, but it’s not verified.”

Moses Diaz, the District’s attorney, agrees no one is exactly sure how much the District owes. In fact, some of the claims against the District may no longer be due because they’ve gone uncollected for so long, he said.

“I haven’t looked into the debt to see if it’s collectible,” Diaz said. “In my opinion, those other (non-state) debts would be beyond any kind of limitations period. I wouldn’t even refer to them as ‘debts.’ The District is going to address them soon.”

And, the District isn’t sure how much it owes the state, if anything.

“The state of California has affirmed a debt that is associated with MediCal. In terms of the renegotiation, my understanding is the District’s financial consultant has been looking into it,” Diaz said. “There’s a couple issues on that. We don’t want to reacknowledge a debt that might be uncollectable.”

Improving Health Care

Tunnel’s final objection to selling the hospital is a belief property owners don’t realize they will still have to pay a 1% tax to support the District even if the building is sold. The District currently has some $1.7 million in trust and it continues to collect about $700,000 a year in revenue.

That income, says Rogers, will bring improvements in health care to Kingsburg and the surrounding area, and it will continue to do so whether the property is sold or not. If it is sold, the amount the District has to spend on other projects would actually increase.

“An ambulance has been something the city has approached us about,” Rogers said. “We’ve been approached about putting in more parks for kids to help fight childhood diabetes. We’d like to poll the citizens to see what they want.”

Moving Crestwood into the empty hospital has already had unexpected benefits for the area. Because the company renovated the building, the District was able to lease part of the property to Valley Health Team to house its Federally Qualified Health Center.

Rogers says Valley Health Team plans to build its “flagship facility” in Kingsburg, creating a clinic that will provide medical services that include vision and dental care. The development would not have been possible if the former Kingsburg Medical had not been an option.

“They had to have a place-holder so they could open up and receive their grant,” Rogers said. “I think that story has kind of gotten lost in this whole thing.”

The post Voters to Decide Kingsburg Hospital’s Fate appeared first on Valley Voice.