Page 8 - Reedley Exponent 4-5-18 E-edition

CONRAD Continued from page A1
office],” Guzman said. “They said ‘Just say yes or no’ or ‘OK I’ll take care of that.’ He had no idea.”
During Conrad’s time as manager, the cemetery has installed a camera system to curb break-ins and now is in the process of devel- oping 11 acres at the south end of the property. The addition will feature an ad- ditional entrance and front- age road. Dopkins Funeral Chapel has plans to build a new chapel facility on its property across the street on the east side of Reed Avenue.
“We’ve got the [peach] trees pushed free, and we already have plans with our landscape architect,” Conrad said of the cemetery expan- sion. Plans still are being discussed on how to best deal
SHELTER Continued from page A1 rarily displaced because of a disaster or job loss.
“It’s in black and white. There’s no way that they can force us to take someone who either is on parole or transi- tional,” he said.
Baker said Pinon — who was part of the planning and vision of Hope Now Ministries before being elected to the City Council — has the title of staff support with the minis- try. He said Pinon will serve as a liaison to the community, with a responsibility of bridg- ing the gap between the facil- ity and the community.
With his connection to Hope Now Ministries, Pinon has recused himself from vot- ing on the proposed shelter.
Baker refuted rumors that he or Pinon would be staying on site in the two-story house if it were approved.
“The first person that would be paid staff is the per- son that lives in the home. And that will be called our on-site manager,” said Baker.
Baker said an on-site manager will be fully vetted through an application pro- cess with the board of direc- tors and a background check.
“It may be multiple people [hired] because we might not be able to find one person
with storm water drainage to follow regulations that don’t allow any water runoff into the Kings River west of the property.
Conrad said the daily operations of the cemetery are a team project.
“I couldn’t do it without everybody else here,” he said. “My three board mem- bers, my administration and the grounds crew.”
The cemetery board consists of Chairman Mau- rice Tabutol along with Members Kenneth Dale and Michael Llewellyn. Lionel Plata is the grounds fore- man. Groundskeepers are Joe Cerda, Raul Meraz and Alfonso Valles.
Conrad praised Guz- man’s contributions.
“She does such a great job. I know that whenever I’m gone or away she’ll have taken care of everything,” he said.
here 24-7,” Baker said. “There may be two or three people who work different shifts. But there always will be supervi- sion here 24 hours.”
In an email to City Manager Nicole Zieba, Reedley Police Chief Joe Garza said he ex- pects a 99 percent probability of a clear assessment of anyone applying to live at the facility, with has a maximum residency of 30 days with a possible one- time extension of 30 days.
“Our gut instinct will al- low us to check on subjects we feel need to be vetted fur- ther,” Garza said in the email. “The application does not get them in the door; rather, it puts the system in motion so due diligence is attained.”
Applicants would be vet- ted in a local records check through Fresno County to check for past addresses, any potential gang ties or other
Jon Earnest / The Exponent
Rolando Castro, mayor of Mendota, snaps a photo of one of the experimental electric aircraft during a March 26 joint meeting of the Reedley and Mendota City Councils at Chandler Airport in Fresno. The two cities are entering a partnership to house and use the airplanes. At right is Joseph Oldham, director of the San Joaquin Valley Clean Air Transportation Center.
The Reedley Exponent A8 Thursday, April 5, 2018
California Association of Public Cemeteries / Contributed
William Conrad, manager of the Reedley Cemetery District, holds his award for 2018 Cemeterian of the Year for the California As- sociation of Public Cemeteries. Standing with Conrad is 2017 winner Doris Goodrich of the Solano Cemetery District. Goodrich presented Conrad with his award on Feb. 24 at the 60th annual CAPC conference in San Luis Obispo.
ELECTRIC Continued from page A1
lished, Oldham said Reedley and Mendota will house the only electric flight training operations in the Western Hemisphere.
“The closest other than here in Fres- no County is in Perth, Australia,” he said. The electric aircraft presently are be- ing stored in a hangar at Chandler Airport. But they soon will be headed to Reedley and Mendota to be used as part of a train- ing program designed to develop young pilots and a skilled vocation that’s seen a
steady decline in recent years.
Oldham said on April 2 that two —
and possibly all four – aircraft will be in Reedley on Saturday, May 12, for the an- nual Korky Kevorkian Fly-In at Reedley Municipal Airport. An electric charging station is being set up in a hangar at the airport, and at least one of the planes could be regularly housed at the airport.
Zieba praised the future vision of both Reedley’s and Mendota’s councils.
“We know that our council members and Mendota council members made some incredibly courageous, calculated risk decisions,” she said. “We wanted to do something that’s not yet been done in the United States, and we wanted to bring it here to the Central Valley.”
The planes are powered by 220-volt, single-based chargers that supply a charge of 21 kilowatt hours. The aircraft cruise at about 85-90 knots (just under 100 miles per hour) and run extremely quiet. Attendees had the opportunity to watch one of the planes taxi, take off and do a couple of fly-bys before landing.
Oldham said project organizers were very successful in applying for the grant, asking for a little more than $1 million and getting the entire amount funded. He said there were delays in getting the aircraft — including the planes being
held up in transit before arriving from Europe.
“But that was a benefit because one of the barriers that we had was the fed- eral regulations that govern aviation [and they] had not caught up with technology,” Oldham said.
The electric aircraft have drawn at- tention from around the world, Oldham said.
“I get emails from people in Brus- sells, Belgium, from Norway,” he said. “We’ve been contacted from representa- tives in engineering with NASA.”
DiMaggio said he was intrigued by the chance for young people — especially in poorer, rural communities — to train to become pilots.
“It opens a whole new potential pro- fession for them,” he said. “Kids who don’t have a whole lot of opportunities, or limited opportunities, can now say ‘Hey, I can be a pilot.’”
negative information. A live scan check will provide infor- mation is the person was ar- rested or booked in any Cali- fornia location. A California Law Enforcement Telecommu- nication System and National Crime Information Center check would determine if an applicant was a registered sex offender, on active probation or parole or has any warrants.
“No single males will be allowed to stay here, but we would accept a male father with children,” Baker said. “We would take a single fe- male, we feel comfortable with that.”
Of the $560,000 state grant, Pinon said $336,000 would go into the city’s gen- eral fund to be used for secu- rity, policing and other main- tenance needs for the facility.
“I lot of it will come to re- pair of do anything that need
to be done to the house,” Pinon said.
There is visible mainte- nance that needs to be done to the house and property. On April 2, a swarm of bees was bunched in an outside corner of the house on the second floor.
Baker said there also are plans to built a brick or stone wall along the north end of the
property, designed similar to other frontage walls along Huntsman Avenue and South Kings River Road.
Baker said opposition resi- dents and people brought up some valid concerns. He said those concerns have been ad- dressed with strict house rules.
Baker said he has the best intentions for the emergency
shelter and would not do any- thing to negatively affect the community.
“I’m a third-generation Reedleyite,” he said. “I’m not a fly-by-night. We’re not some- one that came in on the bus.
We’re here and live here. My mom’s buried here, my grandparents are buried here. No one’s going anywhere.”
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