Page 3 - Sanger Herald 3-28-18 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2018 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Random thoughts Maybe one size does not fit all when it comes to code enforcement ...
By Dick Sheppard
Every time I navigate
the slalom course on 7th
Street between the banks at
O Street and the business
complex and the United
Health Center at P Street,
I question the sanity of the
person who decided there
should be diagonal parking on both sides of 7th Street. It's too narrow.
The rear ends of parked SUVs and pickups extend so far into the street I frequently have to cross over the center line to keep from tak- ing off a bumper, theirs, mine or both.
East and west bound traffic has to be per- fectly synchronized with its moves back and forth over the center line to avoid head on collisions.
Why not diagonal parking on one side of the street and parallel on the other, the way it is on O Street by the post office, between 7th and 8th Streets. Or better yet, how about parallel parking on both sides of the street?
Did a lack of downtown parking space or a lack of common sense create that dangerous block of dumb diagonal parking?
If it's a lack of parking space, there are several vacant lots in the downtown area that could be used for parking if they were repaired enough to keep the ruts from ruin- ing tires or front end alignment.
There's one across the street from the Herald on N Street and another across the street from city hall on West Avenue.
If it's a lack of common sense that caused the problem, there's no solution for that.
•••
As long as I'm grousing about something on 7th Street, let's talk about the library that's
closed for repairs.
I've always thought of libraries as classy
places. Special places that smell like books. But how special and how classy is that
"Closed" sign out front?
It looks like the cops were in a hurry to
tape off a crime scene. Ugly, ugly, ugly.
All that's missing is the chalk outline of a
body on the sidewalk in front of the yellow tape wrapped barrier and the hand scrawled "Closed" sign.
The first repair that should be made is to the sign out front which probably falls under the city code's definition of blight.
•••
I'd bet a six pack that WAMS 8th grade
student Ryann Flach would have no trouble figuring out a better way to park on 7th Street.
Ryann was the Central California Regional Science Fair 8th Grade Sweepstakes win-
ner with a project entitled, "Investigating the effectiveness of hydrophobic soil in increasing water capacity in reservoirs."
She, along with 23 other smart Sanger stu- dents, are going to compete in the California State Science and Engineering Fair in Los
Great public service opportunity
A couple of years back, it was my privilege to serve on the Fresno County Civil Grand Jury – one year as foreperson. And I hope other people – especially residents of communities outside Fresno and Clovis – will consider grand jury service because it is uniquely rewarding.
The Civil Grand Jury responds to citizen complaints about the county itself, its cities, special districts and school districts. It’s intended to shine a light that guides citizen action, not send miscreants to jail.
Reports issued during my years (2014- 15 and 2015-16) involved Sanger, Parlier, Coalinga, Selma, Fresno and Fresno County.
Established 1889 • Published every Thursday 740 N Sanger, CA 93657 • (559) 875-2511
Fred Hall, publisher Dick Sheppard, editor
Lifestyles editor: Mike Nemeth
Sports editor: Mike Nemeth
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Press Room: Tom Flores, Phillip Marquez, Ricardo Fernan- dez and Geno Bravo
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Dick Sheppard
Angeles in April.
Congratulations to Ryann, the other 23
smart kids and to the district's very, very suc- cessful science coordinator Carl Gong.
And, no, I don't have a clue what "hydro- phobic soil" is or how to go about investigat- ing its effectiveness in increasing water capacity in reservoirs - and I'm ready to bet another six pack that neither do any of our Delta smelt loving, farmer hating Democratic legislators.
•••
It's obvious that Ryann and all the other
Sanger students who participated in the regional science fair completed all their read- ing and other school assignments.
Maybe after she takes care of the parking problem on 7th Street she can give at least four of our city council members a lesson on completing their reading assignments.
Back in December of 2017, mayor Frank Gonzalez and councilmembers Humberto Garza, Melissa Hurtado and Daniel Martinez voted to approve a consulting agreement with New Economics and Advisory LLC.
Mayor pro tem Eli Ontiveros was the lone dissenter.
The scope of services to be performed by the consultant was said to be in an attach- ment to the staff report. If they had read through their agenda packet the council- members wouldhaverealizedtherewasno attachment.
They approved a contract that would cost the city at least $77,900 without really know- ing what they were approving.
That may be how that ugly parking situa- tion on 7th Street came about.
The attachment has since been discov- ered and appropriately appended to the staff report that's available on the city website. But I'd bet another six pack that none of the four have taken the time to read it.
Henry Provost who attends most of the city council meetings discovered the error and brought it to the council's attention last week.
Henry claims the omission was a violation of the Brown Act and it might have been.
Butthiscouncilisprobablymuchlike previous Sanger councils which have paid about as much attention to accusations of BrownActviolationsandscathinggrand jury reports as at least four members of this council did to the contract that was missing from item G-2 on the Dec. 7, 2017 city council agenda.
•••
Maybe he didn't read through his agenda
packet back in December, but councilmem- berHumbertoGarzadidagoodjobatthe March 15 meeting of focusing attention on
a code enforcement problem that needs to
be fixed. It's a problem that makes as little sense as diagonal parking on 7th Street and it's troubling some of the residents of Garza's council district No. 2 maybe more than the diagonal parking problem bugs me.
Topicsrangedfromschoolleadershipand inspectionsofdilapidatedhousingtosexually transmitted diseases, prison conditions and municipalgovernment.
We also inspected the Pleasant Valley State Prison,learnedwhathappenswhenyouneed emergencymedicalassistance,howtraffic lights are synchronized and more.
My greatest gratification was working collegiallywith19othercountycitizenswith divergent life/work experiences, age, gender, ethnicity,residenceandpointsofview.Our reportsspeaknotas19individuals,butasone grandjury,soyoulearntogetalong.
It was a great experience in citizenship, civility and commitment and worth the in- vestmentof3to20hoursaweek.
You’requalifiedtobeagrandjurorif you’ve lived in Fresno County at least one year and are a citizen at least 18 years old.
The application form is at www.fresno. courts.ca.gov/jury/grand_jury.
I’ve applied and hope readers will do the same by the March 31 deadline.
Lanny Larson
An award winning 2018 member of the California Newspaper Publishers Association
The Sanger Herald is owned and published by Mid Valley Publishing, Inc, 740 N, Sanger, CA 93657 It is an Adjudicated Legal Newspaper
General Circulation in Fresno County, Order No 85500, Dec 1951 Sanger Herald subscriptions are taken by mail in advance
Several weeks ago Garza asked the city to step up its code enforcement efforts against blight in his district. He was upset about trash piled in some of the front yards.
Code enforcement responded by going after trashy front yards and several good looking, expensive metal carports that didn't comply with the city code because they aren't set back 20 feet from the sidewalk.
The carports were not part of Garza's plan. There are a quite a few of them on the south- east side of town.
Antonia Gutierrez's sturdy, good looking carport cost just under $4,000 when it was installed and bolted down back in 2005.
Bill Edmonds put one up about the same time and he remembers it cost around $2,000.
It's the older side of town, built mostly back in the days when houses were smaller and no garage or a one car or one-and-a-half car garage went with the house. These days most working families need at least two cars and two cars don't fit in those old one-and-a- half car garages.
However, they would fit under Ms. Gutierrez's carport. They would fit, along with a lighted nativity scene that neighbors stop by to admire every Christmas season.
Garza spent part of Monday afternoon
touring his district, telling carport owners to hold off on taking down their carports.
City manager Tim Chapa has agreed to have city staff take another look at how the code is applied in the older part of town.
"The process will take time," said Garza.
It will probably have to go through the planning commission and maybe a public hearing, he surmised.
"Maybe the city can grandfather in the carports that are already there. Maybe vari- ances can be allowed where they're appropri- ate."
Maybe the city code can be written and enforced with an understanding that one size does not fit all.
•••
You and I probably don't need to know
anything more about a brawl that broke out at a local hair salon that took a lot of cops to finally separate all the female combatants.
"The only thing necessary for evil men to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
Edmund Burke
Comments, complaints and suggestions may be emailed to sangerherald@gmail.com or maybe made by calling 875-2511
InmyOPINION
A counterpoint to mainstream media's liberal view
By Fred Hall
One of our papers, The
Dinuba Sentinel, carried
an opinion piece on March
8 of this year with which
some local folks apparently
have a disparate view of a
subject on which I wrote.
This seemed to be an appro-
priate time to encourage all
of our readers to become engaged and—as we do on a weekly basis—remind you that opinionsarethoseofa singleindividualand responses or rebuttals are always welcome. One should never fear attacks or retribution foradifferingopinionofaneventorpolitical position.
Rest assured that should any of our read- ers who wish to offer a differing look at any- thing,theyarealwayswelcome. Weaskonly that your position be cogent and thoughtful. The Editorial Page of a newspaper is written toencouragethoughtanddiscussion. Writers willneverbeattacked—youhavemywordon it! Wefearthatpeoplehavebecomesoaccli- mated to Facebook and other internet media that they may have forgotten their opinions are still respected in their hometown newspa- per.
Last Friday marked an event with our federal government which is deserving of specialnotice. Who,amongyou,wereeven aware that a federal government employee couldevenbefired? Nolessthanthenum- bertwomaninTheFederalBureauof Investigation was terminated from his duties forhislackofcandorinhistestimony. For those of us among rank and file citizens, that meansheliedduringquestioninginanoffi- cialcapacity. Ifonewerelookingforthereal winner in this debacle, it would be the aver- age American and a return to the rule of law inthiscountry. Ithasseemedthat,foryears, the politicos, the connected and the powerful wereprivytospecialprivilegeswhichnone oftherestofusenjoyed.
Initialmediareportsindicatedhehad been removed from his lofty position by Jeff Sessions at the request of The President. Obviouslythatwasfalsereporting. The recommendationtofireMcCabecamefrom the Office of Public Responsibility, which
is a non-political peer group, making their report to the Inspector General of The JusticeDepartment. Asidefromtheactions of McCabe and a few cronies at the very top of the FBI, there was nothing political about his firing, except he was engaged in political activities.
Then came the report that poor Andrew
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Fred Hall
McCabe would lose the pension he had workedsohard-hardworkandgovernment bureaucrats is seldom synonymous--over
his cushy tenure of 20 years in government “service.”Thatwasalsoafalsereport. The $1 million plus which he would forfeit was a special bonus.
Everyone got it so wrong that various groupsofferedtohireMcCabesohecould finish out his government tenure to allow him to collect retirement which was never in jeopardy. Some even offered to take up a col- lection! Thesimpletruthofthematterthat this is a civil servant who is worth $11 million personally who got caught playing at partisan politics in a department that must be strictly apolitical.
Here is a man who should write a book
on wealth management because he was
able to accrue this fortune on a salary of $180,000peryear. Somehow,somewhere, sometime this great nation is going to have togetbeyondthelevelofsillypartisanpoli- ticswhichwecurrentlyseeplayingout. We must attempt to eliminate an entire cast of politiciansandbureaucratsbecomingrich and powerful by playing the citizenry against eachother. Makenomistakeaboutit—we currentlyhaveandhavehadforyears,arul- ing class in Washington D.C. And at our state capitols, who have become wealthy and pow- erfulatourexpense.
Remember the opening paragraph of this column. Thiseditorialpageisdedicatedto youthereader. Itappearsinthispositionto promotethoughtanddiscussion. Wemay offer opinions to which you are not exposed because we offer a counterpoint from the conservativesideopposedtotheliberalview youreadandseeeveryday. Letusknow what you think.
But, as usual, that's only one man's opinion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publisher Fred Hall oversees two other Mid Valley Publishing newspapers - Reedley Exponent, and Dinuba Sentinel. He can be contacted by phone at (559) 638-2244 or by email at fred@ midvalleypublishing.com.
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