Page 1 - Sanger Herald 4-19-18 E-edition

A wish is granted for Melody
Looking for a home
Apaches are no underdog
page 8A
Lifestyles 3B
Sports 1B
Weekly Newspaper Sanger (Fresno County) CA 93657
Young engineers at work
Dick Sheppard/Sanger Herald
Members of the Jackson Elementary School HydroWorks team at the weekend Sanger Unified Robotics Showcase make adjust- ments to their robot. The team of Kairi Salazar, Noah Horn, Kristyn Miranda, Marcus Salazar, Brandon Gustin and Julian Moreno, coached by Tina Lara, built and programmed their "Murky Murphy" robot to decontaminate water to save a make believe community with no pure water. The Sanger High School robotics team Uni-Rex, which helped put together the showcase, is now in Houston, competing in the World Robotics Championships. See the story and more photos on page 7A.
It's elementary, the chamber awards banquet is tomorrow evening at the community center
50¢ (tax included)
Audit shows city still has work to do on its money management
City manager Tim Chapa may get a performance appraisal
Herald staff report
This year we are honoring our schools, kindergarten through 8th grade.
"It's Elementary!" is our theme, said Tammy Wolfe, cham- berpresident/CEO.
A very few tickets may still be available for the annual awards banquet. Stop by the chamber office, 1789 Jensen Ave., Suite B, call 875-4575 or email sangerchamber@gmail. com. It wouldn't hurt to check.
In addition to honoring Sanger all stars who have gone way above and beyond the call of duty, serving their community, the event will include a live auction, a silent auction, a dessert auction and a 50/50 raffle.
The annual dessert auction has been a crowd favorite for many years. The auction features homemade desserts to take homeorshareatthetable. Notmanyhaveeverymadeitall the way home.
The chamber is asking for more dessert donations this year. The baker whose dessert brings in the most money will get a trophy.
The evening at the community center will begin with a social hour at 5:45 p.m. Dinner will be served at 6:45 p.m. The program will officially begin at 8 p.m.
By Dick Sheppard
Sanger Herald
Don't be fooled by the short agenda for this eve- ning's city council meeting.
Short agendas have not always been a reliable pre- dictor of the actual length of the meeting.
One of probably the two most interesting events of the evening, the city man- ager's performance review, may take place behind closed doors.
The other, an audit report on the 2016/2017 fiscal year, during the open session, probably won't happen until about the middle of the meet- ing.
City manager Tim Chapa may get a performance appraisal during the closed door meeting that starts at 5 p.m. in the little confer- ence room that smells like popcorn behind the council chamber.
"May" is the operative word because not everything on a closed session agenda actually seems to happen or at least to get reported on in the open session that follows at 6 p.m.
Maybe the agenda item was just a place holder. May- be there was a discussion but no vote.
The public doesn't get to know anything but what actu- ally went to a vote, and then only the briefest of summa- ries. That's a shame because the discussion behind that closed door is likely going to be interesting.
Two councilmembers have expressed very different opinions about the city man-
ager's performance.
Mayor pro tem Eli Ontive-
ros has frequently expressed a "no confidence" opinion. Councilmember Hum-
berto Garza is at the opposite end of the opinion spectrum, saying the city manager's soon to expire contract needs to be extended before some other city snatches him up.
After a report on what- ever, if anything, happened in the closed session, the council still has awhile before getting down to the business of the evening.
There will be a ceremonial recognition of the high school competition cheer squad for winning the Valley Champi- onship.
Then there will be presen- tations by the Fresno County Department of Public Health and the chamber of com- merce before finance direc- tor Gary Watahira brings the council up to date on CalP- ERS discount rate changes.
The public forum, which precedes the council actually getting to vote on anything has sometimes been the most interesting part of the meet- ing. That's when members of the public can walk up to the podium and tell the council what they think.
It used to be the council's practice to attempt to answer any questions asked by mem- bers of the public. But that doesn't seem to be happen- ing as much lately, a not so subtle change.
The audit report will lead off the action items list.
There's no big news, no smoking gun, in what the Herald has seen of the audit
See COUNCIL, page 7A
Firefighter and Police Officer of the Year will be honored at tomorrow's chamber awards banquet
THURSDAY
APRIL 19, 2018
VOL 129 NO. 16
2 sections, 16 pages
CLASSIFIED 4B LEGALS 5, 6, 7B BUSINESS DIRECTORY 8B LIFE STYLES 3B OBITUARIES 2A OPINION 3A SPORTS 1B POLICE LOG 2A WEATHER 8A
Fire Engineer Chris Waddle
Herald staff report
Fire Engineer Chris Waddle has been named the Firefighter of the Year.
stars at tomorrow's chamber of commerce awards ban- quet.
Here's the text of a let- ter of congratulations from fire chief Greg Tarascou to Waddle:
Let me be the first to congratulate you on being se- lectedasthe2018Firefighter of the Year. This award
is exclusively given to the individual that has shown exemplary performance in their job and is selected solely by your peers.
You began your career with the Fire Department in May of 2005. Already a skilled prehospital clinician, you quickly developed your
Detective Abraham Ruiz
Herald staff report
Detective Abraham Ruiz has been named the Police Officer of the Year.
at tomorrow's chamber of commerce awards banquet. Here's the text of the an- nouncement by police chief
Silver Rodriguez:
The Sanger Police Depart-
ment is pleased to announce that Detective Abraham Ruiz has been selected as the 2017 OfficeroftheYear. Abra- ham Ruiz has been proudly serving the City of Sanger for the past 9 years.
Officer Ruiz was hired in November 2009 as a Police Officer, assigned to the patrol division. As a Beat Police Of- ficer, he performed his duties in exceptional fashion, con- sistently rendering quality & professional services to all he
• April 19 - City Council meets at 6 p.m. at city hall, 1700 7th Avenue.
• April 20 - Annual chamber of commerce awards banquet at the community center.
• April 21 - Annual Jensen Avenue Cleanup from 8:30-11:30 a.m. Volunteers meet behind Walmart.
• April 21 - Blood drive from 9:30 a.m. "until the blood runs out" at 812 K Street. Sponsored by AMVETS Post 98 and VFW Post 7168.
• May 5 - Sanger High School Athletic Hall of Fame dinner at the community center. Tickets are available at the high school. Tom Flores will be there.
He will be honored along with other Sanger super
He will be honored along with other Sanger super stars
See OFFICER, page 6A
SANGER HERALD: A MID VALLEY PUBLISHING NEWSPAPER • (559) 875-2511 • www.thesangerherald.com
See FIREFIGHTER, page 6A