Sanger Herald 5-17-18 E-edition

First ag pathways graduates
Looking for a home
Warriors pick up championships
page 8A
Lifestyles 3B
Sports 1B
THURSDAY
MAY 17, 2018
VOL 129 NO. 20
2 sections, 16 pages
CLASSIFIED 4B LEGALS 5, 6, 7B BUSINESS DIRECTORY 8B LIFE STYLES 3B OBITUARIES 2A OPINION 3A SPORTS 1B POLICE LOG 2A WEATHER 8A
Weekly Newspaper Sanger (Fresno County) CA 93657
Three Sanger veterans on Central Valley Honor Flight to Washington
Joseph Matsuo, LeRoy Robinson and Daniel Garcia visit war memorials
50¢ (tax included)
Dick Sheppard/Sanger Herald
The empty chair between board members Dan Spears and Frank Gonzalez belongs to Eduardo Martinez who left the dais and did not participate in the discussion or vote.
Conflict of interest
confusion created
by oversight board
Sale of industrial park land to school district is approved
By Jackson Moore
Mid Valley Publishing
Joseph Matsuo was born and raised in San Francisco until Executive Order 9066 forced him and other Japanese- Americans into relocation centers.
At 17 he decided to volunteer for the Army, limited to the options of the front lines or language school. After meeting his sweetheart at his relocation center in Arkansas, he chose the latter to stay as close as possible.
“I was a young kid. I didn’t know any better I guess,” Matsuo said. “I went in and they sent me to a language school ... I could only speak it (Japanese). When it came to writing, I had to get somebody else to write for me.”
Matsuo became an interpreter in the Military Intelligence Service during World War II, stationed in the Philip- pines. After the war, he was stationed in Japan. Once discharged, he settled in Sanger and became a poultry separator.
Matsuo, 92, and two other Sanger vet- erans returned May 9 to Fresno Yosem- ite International Airport after spending three days on the Central Valley Honor Flight’s 16th trip to Washington, D.C. The journey included 22 World War II veterans amongst the 66 total, many Korean and Vietnam war veterans.
The Honor Flight Network is a non- profit organization that sends veterans to Washington D.C. to see the memorials in their honor and to provide closure to their military past.
On May 8, the WWII veterans were honored during a Victory in Europe Day ceremony. Matsuo and each of the veterans were called by name at the National World War II Memorial, which opened in April 2004.
“I think it’s fabulous," he said. "I wouldn’t believe things like this would happen to us. I wish everybody could see what happened today.”
After the ceremony, the veterans were treated to lunch at the Library of Congress, featuring stops by Central Valley U.S. representatives Devin Nunes, Jim Costa and David Valadao.
Everywhere the veterans went, a police escort parted gridlocked Wash- ington D.C. traffic to get them to their next destination. The day also included a stop at the Korean War Memorial and concluded with a banquet dinner and entertainment.
One of the entertainment highlights came from Sanger veteran LeRoy Rob- inson, 80.
Jackson Moore/Mid Valley Publishing
Vietnam Army veteran Daniel Garcia of Sanger points to the name of a fallen friend on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. Garcia was on the Central Valley Honor Flight's 16th trip in early May.
By Dick Sheppard
Sanger Herald
Is it a conflict of interest when the same person who presided at meeting where a land sale was proposed also presides at an oversight board meeting to consider approving the sale?
The city council, at its April 5 meeting, acting as the board of the redevelopment successor agency, with Frank Gonzalez presiding, voted to sell land in Sanger's industri- al park to the school district if the successor agency's oversight board would agree to the sale.
The oversight board met May 14, with Gonzalez also presiding, to consider ap- proving the proposed sale of five acres of land for $325,000.
Eduardo Martinez, a school district representa- tive, is on the oversight board along with Gonzalez, Dan Spears, Paul Zavala, Mark Johnson and Karen Steinhauer.
When the agenda item involving the proposed sale was announced, Martinez recused himself, stepped down from the dais and did not participate in either the discussion or the vote.
Gonzalez announced he "had been advised" there
would be no conflict of inter- est if he participated.
A recusal, or a withdrawal from a decision making process at a council or board meeting normally takes place when a conflict of interest is involved.
Martinez apparently saw his involvement in a decision making process about ap- proving a sale of land to the school district he represent- ed as a conflict of interest.
Gonzalez, a successor agency representative, apparently did not see his in- volvement in a decision mak- ing process about approving a proposed sale of land by the successor agency to the school district as a conflict of interest.
Neither Gonzalez nor Mar- tinez stood to gain anything personally, except maybe prestige, from a decision to approve the sale. However, the entities each represented would certainly benefit from the decision.
Gonzalez, Spears, Johnson and Steinhauer voted to ap- prove the sale. Zavala was absent and Martinez recused himself and did not vote.
Conflict of interest or not?
The reporter can be con- tacted by email at sangerher- ald@gmail.com.
trip guardian, Winona Robinson, sang
a humorous tune about an especially productive rooster — a song that is usu- ally reserved for Robinson and his wife of 58 years. It landed big laughs and big cheers from the room full of veterans.
“We learned it many, many years ago,” Robinson said. “It was something my wife and I sang, always to entertain someone when they wanted to be entertained. We would come up with
that song sometimes on the spur of the moment. Everybody loved it.”
Winona Robinson offered a little more detail. “It has a deeper mean-
ing for me because they did that for entertainment for me when we were stationed in Japan and Puerto Rico," she said. "Oftentimes my parents had single military personnel over for Thanksgiv- ing or Christmas dinner because they didn’t have anybody.
"I just remember my parents enter- taining and singing for troops, almost like their own personal USO show. They were musical and loved to take care of the single guys.”
However, the rendition sung in front of the veterans will go down as one of LeRoy’s favorites WHO!!!!!!
“Awesome. All I can say is awesome. It was wonderful to see everybody laughing.”
LeRoy Robinson spent 30 years in the Navy from 1958 to 1988. He enlisted and moved from the cold winters of Detroit to sunny California. He learned Morse code and worked in security intelligence. Robinson was stationed in Japan during the Vietnam War, receiv- ing coded classified messages.
“There’s a lot of things as security
U.S. Navy CDR (retired) Pat Niei- meyer will be the featured speaker at the Memorial Day ceremony at Sanger Cemetery.
The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. on May 28. Everyone is invited.
This year's event will be hosted by Sanger AMVETS Post 98.
Flags will be placed on the graves of all military veterans in the cem- etery.
See HONOR FLIGHT, page 7A Woman's Club Spring Tea was a "resounding success"
Dick Sheppard/Sanger Herald
The Sanger Woman's Club Spring Tea was a resounding success, said club president Jeanne Adams. "The Saturday event, organized by Linda Yost, Kathryn Allen, Liz Hudson and Ann Pipes had more than 100 attendees and fifteen tables, each deco- rated along the theme 'A World of Friendship Over a Cup of Tea.' Brandi Orth took time out from her Fresno County Clerk and Registrar of Voters job to be the mistress of ceremonies. Funds generated from the Tea will be used in the Club's Charitable Giving Projects next year."
Robinson, and his daughter and
• May 17 - City council meeting, 6 p.m., city hall, 1700 7th Street.
• May 20 - Firefighters in the Making fundraiser, 2-7 p.m., Kings River Winery, 4276 S. Greenwood Avenue.
• May 22 - Measure S Citizens Oversight Committee special meetings at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., city hall, 1700 7th Street.
• May 22 - School board meeting, 7 p.m., WAMS audi- torium, 1705 10th Street.
• May 28 - Memorial Day service, 11 a.m., Sanger Cem- etery, 568 S. Rainbow Avenue.
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