Page 6 - Sanger Herald 3-28-18 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 6A THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2018
The city's carport code enforcement quandry
District No. 2 councilmember Humberto Garza stands with Antonia Gutierrez in front of her metal carport that would have to come down if the city continued to enforce a code that requires carports to be set back from the sidewalk at least 20 feet. The Gutierrez family's two cars don't fit in the one-and-a-half car garage that came with the older home. Gutierrez said the structure cost just under $4,000 when it was installed and bolted down back in 2005 and the "lady down at city hall told her it was okay to put up." In addition to the two cars, a lighted nativity scene visited by neighbors goes under the carport every Christmas season, said Gutierrez. The council has put enforcement of the code on hold while it considers a possible revision.
Honored for their service by the city council
Dick Sheppard/Sanger Herald
Mayor Frank Gonzalez with military veterans Glaldys Nichols, Anna Flores and Danielle Beltran who were honored by the city council as part of its recognition of March as Women's History Month.
Dick Sheppard/Sanger Herald
Mayor Frank Gonzalez presents a resolution to Susan Good honoring The United Way of Fresno and Madera Counties Free Tax Preparation Services.
Need Your Taxes doNe righT? CheCk ouT These Tax PreParaTioNserviCes.
COUNCIL: The city now has $842,000 of the $1.2 million needed to complete the Veterans Park project.
Continued from page 1A
lines;
• accepted a $166,050 grant for Veter-
ans Park;
• heard a protest from District 2
residents about a code enforcment issue and agreed to consider amending a car- port code that protestors said unfairly negatively affected the older parts of town.
A few of those wearing SEIU T-shirts spoke on a few of the issues before the council without identifying themselves as representatives of a group.
The long awaited Veterans Park moved one step closer to reality with the council's budget adjustment to show receipt of a $166,050 Urban Green-
ing Grant from the California Natural ResourcesAgency. Sanger'sproposed project was one of only 39 selected out of 143 applicants. Public works director John Mullian was praised for his work getting the grant. Mulligan told the council the city now has $842,000 of the $1.2 million needed to complete the park project.
A few of Sanger's nonprofits with gang and drug prevention programs would have received more Measure
S grant money if the council had ap- proved a Measure S Citizens Oversight recommendation to divide up $18,963 among: SAM Academy's community science work- shop; Boys and Girls Club, the Big Brother Big Sisters Unity Estates High School Bigs program; the Big Brother Big Sisters Bigs in Blue program; and Community Resident Services Inc.
The money was either not accepted or returned by organizations that are no longer participating in the Measure S grant program.
However, after an animated objec- tion to reallocating the money by Mar-
tinez, the council voted to roll the extra money back into the Measure S fund to be distributed during the next grant cycle.
Martinez objected to handing out
the additional money without knowing exactly how the nonprofits would use it.
A teary-eyed member of the Mea- sure S Citizens Oversight Committee, Melissa Griggs, lamented ongoing com- munications problems between the com- mittee and the council.
Mayor pro tem Eli Ontiveros, the council's liaison with the committee, abstained from the vote.
The repairs couldn't wait.
That's what Mulligan and Chapa told the council before it unanimously ap- proved a bill for an estimated $180,000 for work that has already begun.
There wasn't time for the usual competitive bidding for sewer system repair work being done at North Av- enue at J Street and soon to be done at the headworks of the system at the city yard.
"Further delay of the needed repairs may have resulted in catastrophic failures causing possible sewage flow, blockage and localized flooding of raw sewage. The flow of the domestic sew- age is not controllable or containable at these locations. This will be considered a public health hazard and also a threat to surrounding public and private prop- erty," Mulligan wrote in a memo to the council.
The next council meeting is sched- uled for 6 p.m. on April 5.
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerherald@gmail.com or by phone at the Herald during business hours at (559) 875-2511.
Public works director John Mulligan was praised for his work getting a $166,050 grant for Veterans Park.
A Univision Channel 21 cameraman was at the meeting to record the animated and passionate presentation, all in Span- ish, by Antonia Gutierrez, protesting a code enforcement issue in council dis- trict No. 2.
Dick Sheppard/Sanger Herald
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