Mid Valley Times 9-12-19 E-edition

Thursday, September 12, 2019 Vol. 1, No. 11 Stephen Lee Maxwell America building at the corner of 9th and G streets. Members of the pub- lic will meet there just before 6 p.m. to begin the art hope, which will visit the participat- ing businesses displaying art- work. "With the artists, there's ev- erything from painting to pho- tography, textiles, ceramics," Valencia said. "And then we will also have a transit pickup and dropoff. One pickup will be at Bank of America and the other at the Reedley Flower Shop. Run back and forth to pick up people." Valencia said a total of 10 downtown restaurants will be open during the art hop, in- cluding some that usually are closed by evening. In addition, the Reedley Museum will open for the special occasion. Also on Thursday, Sept. 12, Valencia also said the public is invited to participate in Reedley's Business Resourc- esfrom8to10a.m.atthe Reedley Community Center, See CHAMBERonpageA12 Organization to host former RDA events this fall By Jon Earnest Mid Valley Times The Greater Reedley Cham- ber of Commerce is picking up a couple of annual fall events formerly run by the now-de- funct Reedley Downtown As- sociation. They are the annual Reed- ley Taste of the Town food and drink extravaganza along G Street on Thursday, Sept. 26, and the annual Ladies Night Out event in downtown Reed- ley on Thursday, Nov. 14. But the chamber also is running a new and unique event this week — a free art hop event in downtown Reed- ley that runs from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 12. "The art hop should be cool," said Erik Valencia, executive director for the chamber. "We'll have 25 business hosting and 10 restaurants." The art hop was inspired by the painting earlier this year of the new Reedley Mural on the north wall of the Bank of Jon Earnest / Mid Valley Times The new Reedley mural on the side of the Bank of America building on the corner of 9th and G Streets will be the gathering site for the free Reedley Art Hop just before 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 12. While the art hop is a new event, the Chamber is taking on sponsorship of former Reedley Downtown Association events including the Reedley Taste of the Town later this month on Thursday, Sept. 26. Montelongo to chair Measure S Oversight Committee 50 cents Arrest in kidnap, rape of Dinuba woman By Rick Curiel Mid Valley Times The Dinuba Police Depart- ment is currently investigat- ing three cases involving Di- nuba women being kidnapped at knifepoint, forced to drive out of town and then raped. According to police, a Squaw Valley man was ar- rested last week for allegedly kidnapping a Dinuba woman and then raping her in an orchard. The de- partment received a call on Sept. 2 from a woman who claimed a man, later identified as Stephen Lee Maxwell, 44, held a knife to her side and directed her to drive out of Dinuba city lim- its. They reportedly ended up in a Fresno County orchard where the victim stated Max- well raped her, said police. Police say he then had the victim drive to a bank where he had her withdraw cash and give it to him. Maxwell was later arrest- ed in the 500 block of Center Street in Orange Cove and then transported to the Dinuba Po- lice Department for booking. He was booked on suspicion of kidnapping with the intent to commit rape, rape, carjack- ing and assault with a deadly weapon, all felony counts. He was later transported to the Tulare County Pretrial Facility See KIDNAP on page A11 Reedley Chamber adds on Sanger council gets the buzz on mosquitoes By Juanita Adame Mid Valley Times A Sept. 5 presentation by Steve Mul- ligan, the District Manager for the Con- solidated Mosquito Abatement District, informed the Sanger City Council about the recent mosquito problems plaguing the area and what residents here can do to protect themselves. "The Consolidated Mosquito Abate- ment District, we are a special district," said Mulligan. "My district encompasses about 1,058 square miles in the counties of Fresno and Kings, and the mission of the mosquito abatement districts is to re- duce the risks of mosquito borne diseases in California." Mulligan said that in California, there are currently several mosquito species ca- pable of spreading viruses. "A couple of those \[mosquitoes\] are ca- pable of transmitting certain diseases, the diseases that we were impacted by were West Nile Virus, and St. Louis encephali- tis," he said. "Primarily West Nile Virus, it was introduced into New York City in 1999 it spread across the United States and showed up in California in 2003." "It's a disease that spread from infected birds to mosquitoes to other birds, that's the cycle," Mulligan continued. "Unfortu- nately, if an infected mosquito bites anoth- er host like a person, we can also become infected." Aside from routine surveillance to monitor where mosquito populations are more concentrated as well as sources for their growth, Mulligan said they are also required to collect species of mosquitos, identify the species and send those sam- ples to labs to determine which other virus the mosquito might be carrying. See COUNCILonpageA12 Dick Sheppard / Mid Valley Times Members of the Sanger Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee were pictured on Sept. 3. From left are Frank Valles, Jacob Villagomez, Michael Montelongo, Johnny Perez and Rogelio Gonzalez. Perez died of a heart attack two days later. By Dick Sheppard Mid Valley Times Former mayor Michael Montelongo was elected by other committee members to be chair of Sanger's Measure S Citizens Oversight Commit- tee. Montelongo who had been serving on the committee on an interim basis was reappointed and Rogelio Gonzalez was ap- pointed to the committee as a new member by the city coun- cil at its Aug. 15 meeting. Montelongo, as chair, re- placed Johnny Perez who had resigned as chair but re- mained on the committee. Perez who nominated Mon- telongo on Sept. 3 to replace him as chair tragically died of a heart attack two days later on Sept. 5. The reorganized commit- tee which advises the city council on spending money from Sanger's three-quarter- cent public safety sales and SeeCOMMITTEEonpage A12 Classifieds - B4-5 Directory - B6 Legals - B7-11 Sports - B1-2, B12 Lifestyle - A7-10 Lights & Sirens - A2 Obituaries - A2-3 Opinion - A4-5 Long-awaited 'audit examination' will be presented Oct. 1 in Sanger