Page 1 - Reedley Exponent 4-4-19 E-edition

Annual memorial quilt exhibit honors local victims
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Reedley (Fresno County) CA 93654 | 50 cents Man shot in broad daylight in east Reedley
Vol. 130, No. 14 | Thursday, April 4, 2019
March 29 incident occurred
on East Springfield Avenue
By Juanita Adame
juanita@midvalleypublsihing.com
The public sidewalk in front of the Riv- erland Apartments in the 900 block of East Springfield Avenue had been busy with pe- destrians just moments before a man was shot as he exited his vehicle on the afternoon
of March 29.
A nearby surveillance camera captured
the shooting and allowed investigators to identify a possible suspect vehicle.
“At this point we believe it’s a 2000s mod- el, a grey SUV, possibly a Mercedes Benz,.” said Lt. Hector Aleman, with the Reedley Police Department.
The victim’s car had been parked di- rectly in front of the complex when the SUV pulled up and someone in the car then began
shooting at him.
“Officers arrived on scene and found
an adult male with a single gunshot wound. They requested EMS to respond,” said Ale- man.
The man, whose identity or age has not been released, was transported to Commu- nity Regional Medical Center in Fresno. His condition this week is unknown, and it’s not known if he’s still hospitalized.
See SHOOTING on page A8
The victim’s vehicle is surrounded by crime scene tape as investigators search the nearby area for evidence on March 29 after a man was shot on East Spring- field Avenue.
Juanita Adame / The Exponent
Council
gets report
on business
survey
By Jon Earnest
jon@midvalleypublishing.com
Reedley City Council mem- bers listened to encouraging news from the 2018 Reedley Business Survey report during a workshop presentation at the March 26 reg- ular council meeting.
Amanda Bosland, represen- tative with the Fresno Economic Development Commission, spoke to the council along with Erik Valencia, executive director for the Greater Reedley Chamber of Commerce, and Rob Terry, Reed- ley’s community development director.
“We asked ‘What do you want to see from our organization to help you?’ And the resounding answer was ‘help with retail de- velopment,’” Bosland told the council. The trio passed out cop- ies of the 46-page Reedley Busi- ness Survey Report, which was prepared by the city and the chamber.
The report showed that 83 percent of survey respondents were either satisfied or very satisfied with Reedley’s safety services, and nearly three quar- ters were happy with the city’s quality of life. There also was a majority interested in creating business/commercial districts and satisfied with local officials.
There was some negative feedback about parking, build- ing conditions, road/sidewalk conditions and vandalism/graf- fiti. The greatest consternation (53 percent) dwelled on the challenges of finding sufficient convenient parking to visit local businesses.
The report recommended collaboration between agencies to develop attrition and reten- tion tactics from survey findings. There was a desire to increase publicity and marketing by the city, and good feedback from re- cent Town Hall meetings.
Rotary Auction
The Rotary Club of Reedley brought together much of the community at the 37th annual Auction & Dinner on March 30 at the Reedley Com- munity Center. Attendees came for dinner, drinks and — most impor- tant — to bid on donated silent and live auction items. Donated items for the live auction included vacations and outings, various dinners and party packages, two different motorcycles and even a pair of VIP tickets to an Oakland Raiders home game. Money raised from the auction goes to fund many activities and projects put on by Reedley Rotary as well as scholarships for local students.
ABOVE: Auctioneer Todd Croissant prepared to lead the bidding on one of the early live auction items. In the foreground is one of the main attraction live items — a 2005 Triumph Bonneville Motorcycle donated by Friends of Rotary.
LEFT: Some of the many silent auction items were displayed at tables lining the west side of the Reedley Community Center main room. Attendees were able to submit written bids on each item, with the highest bid taking home the item.
Jon Earnest / The Exponent
John Urbano, Reedley Animal Control officer, comforted a dog a short distance away from the fire scene. Two dogs and at least one rabbit were rescued from the area surrounding the blaze.
Jon Earnest / The Exponent
Classifieds - B5 Directory - A5
Legals - B6-7
Sports - B3-4 Health & Fitness - A6-7 Lights & Sirens - A3 Obituaries - A2-3 Opinion - A4
Photos by Jon Earnest / The Exponent
Second fire in two years at structure on East Manning Blaze started in outside
area, destroys interior
Staff Report
A little more than two years after an ar- son fire caused minor damage to the prop- erty, an afternoon fire on March 28 gutted the interior of a resience on south side of East Manning Avenue, just east of North Haney Avenue and a strip mall.
Firefighters responded at about 1:15 p.m. to the structure at 1427 E. Manning Ave, which was effectively burned through- out the interior. Early eyewitness reports and photos showed that the fire original- ly broke out in an area just south of the structure, where kitchen appliances were bunched together.
See FIRE on page A3
Flames burned inside a residence at 1427 E. Manning Ave. on March 28. The fire, whose cause is undeter- mined at this time, came little more than two years after an arson fire at the same property.