Page 10 - Mid Valley Times 9-10-20 E-edition

CREEK FIRE Continued from page A1
leaving due to the ex- treme fire conditions along Highway 168.
Officials said in a press conference that the Creek Fire incident is a “massive firefight” that’s caused a heavy amount of structure loss.
A variety of sur- rounding fire agencies including the Reed- ley Fire Department, Sanger Fire Depart- ment, Clovis, Fresno, and Selma Fire De- partments also were deployed to the fire under “immediate need for service” orders.
In addition, multiple law enforcement agen- cies were also been called to assist.
The Reedley Police Department sent sever- al of its officers to the fires to assist deputies with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office.
“We have been as- signed to serving resi- dents with evacuation orders,” said Jesus Ri- vera, a sergeant with the Reedley Police De- partment, on Sept. 7.
Rivera, along with two of his officers, Kalee Olivas and Eddie Luna, were just a few of the personnel from Reedley who were at the Creek Fire.
The three spent their Labor Day holi- day knocking on the doors of more than 70 residents strongly urging them that they needed to evacuate im- mediately.
“I’ve lived here for about 11 years, my spouse is not concerned, but I am scared to death, I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Bonnie Smith.
Smith lives in the Auberry area with her family and said she planned to evacuate because she has an in- fant daughter who is on oxygen.
“We’ve moved down
here in 1979, from the Bay Area, that hillside over there we’ve seen on fire, this is a famil- iar sight for us,” said John Bisko. “A couple times we were asked to evacuate and we said no but it wasn’t so much because of the fire, it was because of the smoke.”
“This time we are evacuating,” Bisko con- tinued. “We are hoping we can come back and our house will still be here.”
Bisko and his wife also had livestock that they needed to trans- port from the evacua- tion area.
Nicole Zieba, Reed- ley city manager, lives in the Tollhouse area and said they were called to evacuate their home just after mid- night on Sept. 8.
“I had deer running through my yard on the way out,” Zieba said.
She added that the fire is creeping on the ridge behind her home and they’d evacuated their horses the day before just to be safe.
“Unfortunately we had to leave so fast I could only grab four of my 6 goats since two are really shy,” Zieba said. “We’ve seen a few fires close by but never like this, it’s pretty dev- astating this fire.”
There were more than 1,000 personnel assigned to the Creek Fire as of Sept. 8.
Officials said they are closely watching the NorthFork and Au- berry areas with their biggest focus being on protecting lives and structures.
For a full list of evacuation orders and warnings, visit fresno- countysheriff.org.
Those needing help evacuating livestock can contact the Central California Animal Di- saster Team by calling or texting 1-888-402- 2238 or ccadt.org.
Kings Canyon Unified School District / Contributed
An architectural site plan drawing showed the new buildings at Reedley High School in dark red. Those buildings include a fieldhouse just north of the football stadium, a ceramics woodshop classroom just north of the home economics building, new child care and adult schools buildings on the northwest end of campus and a renovated wrestling room next to the main gym.
Thursday, September 10, 2020
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Mid Valley TiMes
REEDLEY HIGH Continued from page A1
On the northwest corner of campus, the new child care build- ing and adult school facility are nearly completed. Furniture for the adult school was being moved into the building on Sept. 2. In ad- dition, child care equipment for preschoolers, toddlers and infants were also in the midst of moving from its old home on campus.
John Campbell, KCUSD su- perintendent, said the new build- ings were freeing up valuable space for additional classrooms for when students eventually re- turn to campus for face-to-face instruction.
"By putting the [Dunlap Leadership Academy] and adult schools out there, we've freed up this building in the middle of campus to occupy. We want to put more students out there, and ser- vice more students. It's a win-win on many levels."
When the finishing touches are put on these projects later this fall, work crews with Harris Construction will shift their fo- cus to two simultaneous athletic projects on the north portion of campus. One is the renovation and construction of a new varsi-
ty baseball diamond[ at the same spot as the present diamond. The area behind the field will move moved back slightly to build concrete grandstands, and also scheduled are new dugouts and a revamped concession area includ- ing a new ticket booth.
At the same time, a new soccer field and facility is being built to the west of the baseball diamonds and a practice football field. The grass field will be in an enclosed area — on the site where much of the former district offices stood — and will feature a ticket booth.
"Reedley is a soccer town," Campbell said. "It will be a really nice soccer field."
Once those projects are done, construction will be complete at the high school at this time. Camp- bell said that future plans include eventually building a new varsity softball diamond in the southwest corner of campus, currently the site of a parking lot. That will give the school three softball fields.
Parking and student drop off and pickup will be considerably improved with the new construc- tion. Campbell said it will imme- diately ease the massive traffic tie-ups on North Avenue before and after school.
"Now we've got this big long
drop off. It's going to be really nice," he said. "We had to bring our traffic flow into the 21st century."
Campbell said the work st Reedley High is just part of a number of building projects at schools in the district. He men- tioned the addition of a library at Washington Elementary, a new room at Riverview Elementary, new buildings at Orange Cove High School and outdoor learning pavilions at seven different sites.
•••
Discussing the district's dis-
tance learning this fall, Campbell praised the dedication and team- work by all employees.
"I'm just amazed at how well this district has come together and has jumped right in and said 'whatever I need to do for these kids, we're going to do it.'" he said. "And that goes for the bus drivers, the cafeteria ladies and the custo- dians. They work out of class, and they do whatever is asked.
Campbell said it's impressive how veteran teachers have man- aged to adjust to new teaching methods, and how staff members have pitched in to help.
"I just can't get over how ev- erybody, from management to classified, has just jumped in and really done a great job," he said.
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