Page 1 - Sanger Herald 7-5-18 E-edition

Get lost in sunflowers
Looking for a home
Apaches are All Stars
page 8A
Lifestyles 2B
Sports 1B
Weekly Newspaper
City budget is approved hours before start of new fiscal year
Dick Sheppard/Sanger Herald
Mayor Frank Gonzalez presided at a special Saturday evening council meeting to approve a 2018-2019 fiscal year budget just hours before the new fiscal year arrived at midnight.
Sanger (Fresno County) CA 93657
50¢ (tax included)
Sunflower maze
By Dick Sheppard
Sanger Herald
It took less than 20 minutes for the city council to approve a $46.5 overall budget with a $12.7 million general fund at a lightly attended Saturday evening special meeting.
Mayor pro tem Eli Ontive- ros abstained from the vote.
Mayor Frank Gonzalez, who made the motion to ap- prove the 2018-2019 fiscal year budget and council members Humberto Garza, Daniel Martinez and Melissa Hurtado voted in favor of approval.
A special meeting was necessary because, with Humberto Garza absent at the regular June 21 meeting, the other four councilmem- bers deadlocked on approv- ing either the new fiscal year budgetora continuationof the 2017-2018 spending plan.
City manager Tim Chapa warned that without a new budget or a continuation of the old one the city would not have spending authority and would have to stop paying bills and employee payrolls with the start of the new fiscal year which began on Sunday.
City attorney Hilda Cantu Montoy said, at the June 21 meeting, that the special meeting would only deal with attempting to approve continuation of the 2017-2018
spending plan until issues with the new budget could be worked out.
When it turned out the new budget was also on the special meeting agenda, Chapa explained that a ma- jority of the councilmembers had requested the 2018-2019 budget be added to the spe- cial meeting agenda.
Gonzalez, Garza and Daniel Martinez echoed the words of Chapa, that even though the new budget has been passed, a special meet- ing can be called to amend it if the council feels that is appropriate.
The new budget includes a Measure S budget and a
10 year Measure S spending plan that was not approved by the oversight commit-
tee and a pay raise out of Measure S funds for public serviceemployeesthat
was criticized by both the oversight committee and a Fresno County Grand Jury. It does not include money des- ignated to buy land for a new sports complex, repeatedly requested by members of a local softball group.
The next regular council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 5, at city hall.
The reporter can be contacted by email at sang- erherald@gmail.com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
Mike Nemeth/Sanger Herald
Mike Strambi figures he's got about a couple weeks before the sunflowers in his sunflower maze succumb to the heat and dry up. In the meantime, visitors still have a chance to see his Multi Colored Sunflower Maze just behind Strambi's Centerville Fruit Station, in the heart of historic Centerville. The patch started with 9,000 seeds of 24 different varieties, and some of the stalks measure more than 20 feet tall. Friday evening when this was taken, cars lined up. Even a friendly little dog named Lelo made the trip. See story in Lifestyles, page 2B.
Chamber board and
oversight committee
instal new members
Bethel widening
project on today's
council agenda
• July 5 - City Council meeting, 6 p.m., city hall, 1700 7th Street.
• July 7 - VFW Post 7168 community breakfast, 9 a.m., American Legion Hall, 1502 O Street.
• July 11 - Farmers' Market planning meeting, 3 p.m., chamber of commerce, 1789 Jensen Ave. # B.
Herald staff report
Sanger Realtor Mike Web- ber is the newest member of the Sanger District Chamber of Commerce board of direc- tors, said chamber president/ CEO Tammy Wolfe.
Webber will take his seat on the board just in time to join the board and staff in planning for the 23rd annual Farmers’ Market & Street Faire which will begin on Sept. 8 and continue for each Saturday in September.
The Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee has added three new members.
John Perez-Arcuri, Frank Valles and Jacob Villagomez were sworn in Tuesday.
JoAnn Mares resigned from the oversight com- mittee about a month ago because she planned to move out of the area, and the two- year terms of Sue Simpson
Mike Webber
and Tony Gonzalez came to an end on June 30.
Perez-Arcuri is a retired Marine Corps officer who also serves on the planning commission. Valles, a former member of the planning commission, is manager of the Me-n-Ed's on Bethel and Villagomez is an economic development specialist for the Fresno County Economic Development Corporation.
James Miser and Melissa Griggs are the only two hold- overs on the committee.
By Dick Sheppard
Sanger Herald
With approval of the new city budget behind it and
a meeting to begin craft- ing a response to the grand jury report not yet on the horizon, the city council is probably looking forward to considering less meaty, less controversial matters at this evening's 6 p.m. meeting in city hall.
If the council adopts a couple of negative declara- tions during a public hearing, it will set the stage for mov- ing forward with a Bethel Avenue widening project and bike lanes between Annadale and Jensen avenues.
A negative declaration
is a document that says
upon completion of an initial study there is no substantial evidence that the project will have any significant effect on the environment. It also
says that an environmental impact study is not really necessary. Although the pro- posed project is subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) before work begins.
Funding for the project has already been secured, ac- cording to city engineer Josh Rogers.
The project involves "rehabilitation of the exist- ing pavement and widening of the roadway, including replacement of damaged curb and gutter, sidewalk and other concrete improve- ments ... and vegetation
and tree removal on Bethel Avenue between Annadale and Jensen avenues," Rogers wrote in a memo to the coun- cil.
The reporter can be con- tacted by email at sangerher- ald@gmail.com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
SANGER HERALD: A MID VALLEY PUBLISHING NEWSPAPER • (559) 875-2511 • www.thesangerherald.com
THURSDAY
JULY 5, 2018
VOL 129 NO. 27
2 sections, 14 pages
CLASSIFIED 3B LEGALS 4,5B BUSINESS DIRECTORY 6B LIFE STYLES 2B OBITUARIES 2A OPINION 3A SPORTS 1B POLICE LOG 2A WEATHER 8A