Sanger Herald 3-15-18 E-edition

Musical 'Sugar' opens at Sanger High
Looking for a home
Apaches' trail ends in Chico
page 8A
Lifestyles 3B
Sports 1B
Weekly Newspaper
Sanger (Fresno County) CA 93657
50¢ (tax included)
Scary Sanger
sewer system
not flushed by success
Tombstone may get help after all
Council will review budget goals
Dick Sheppard/Sanger Herald
By Dick Sheppard
Sanger Herald
Sanger's little southern suburb known as Tombstone may get help with its water problems after all.
A couple of months ago representatives of the unin- corporated area about a mile south of Sanger, between Greenwood and Bethel av- enues, appeared before the city council. They were ask- ing for Sanger's water lines to be extended to Tombstone because water wells there are going dry.
The council nixed a sug- gestion by councilmember Melissa Hurtado to have Sanger's grant writing firm try to find money to help with the problem.
Hurtado and city manager Tim Chapa are coming back to the council at this eve- ning's 6 p.m. meeting with a proposal involving Self Help Enterprises that might have a chance of solving the prob- lem.
Their suggestion is for the council to let Chapa sign a memorandum of understand- ing with Self Help Enterpris- es (SHE) allowing SHE to act on behalf of Sanger to submit applications to the Depart- ment of Water Resources
and/or the Safe Drinking pro- gram for funding the exten- sion of Sanger water services to Tombstone and to receive reimbursement for advanced costs if the state decides to put money into the project.
That's one of the issues the council will weigh in on after:
• recognizingGladys Nichols, Anna Flores and Danielle Beltran as part of its proclamation of March as Women's History Month; and,
• going outside to check out the fire department's new ambulance.
It will also review and maybe revise its fiscal years 2019 and 2020 budget goals of:
1. Annexation north to Highway 180;
2. Economic development; 3. Eliminate blight;
4. Improve code enforce-
ment;
5. Find more parks and
outdoor recreation space; and,
6. Sidewalks and related improvements.
Recent pleas to the council for more park space for softball diamonds and soccer fields might cause the coun- cil to consider raising the
See COUNCIL, page 6A
Traffic is being routed around work being done on a city sewer system that, in the words of public works director John Mulligan, is on the verge of a "catastrophic failure." The emergency repairs on the main sewer line that runs under North Avenue at the intersection with J Street could take up to three weeks. Then, more repairs have to be made further down the line at the city yard on the east side of Newmark Avenue. The cost could run as high as $180,000.
First inductees selected for Sanger High School Athletic Hall of Fame
By Dick Sheppard
Sanger Herald
The repairs couldn't wait.
That's what public works director John Mulligan will tell the city council this evening when he asks for approval of 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 at North Avenue at J Street and at the headworks of the system at the city yard.
"Further delay of the needed repairs may result in catastrophic failures causing possible sewage flow, blockage and localized flooding of raw sewage. The flow of the domestic sewage 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 project on North Avenue by the Pitman Farms poultry processing plant employee parking lot could last up to three weeks because of the complexity," said Mulligan.
The "complexity" is caused by a PG&E gas line, a city water line and an industrial sewer main, all bunched up together near the area to be repaired.
"Excavation will be slow. The sewer line is about 18 feet deep. During re-
construction, sewage will be pumped around the site with a bypass pump."
There will be no parking along that area of North Avenue until the work is done and traffic will be controlled with signage, said Mulligan.
"Once the North Avenue repair is completed the contractor, R&L Gibbs Construction Inc., will do similar work at the city corporation yard. There is also some failure there just before the headworks. This site will take up to two weeks and also require bypass pump- ing.
The problem surfaced in late Febru- ary when sewage starting seeping out of a manhole on J Street north of North Avenue.
The issue was difficult to diagnose at first because a manhole on North Avenue, shown on sewer system plans,
Emergency repairs are also need at the city yard.
could not be located.
It was finally found with the use of a
metal detector, buried under "approxi- mately 18 inches of soil and asphalt pavement."
When city staff working with a con- struction crew were able to take a look they determined there was some type of damage to a 12 inch line that connects the J Street sewer main to the 24 inch
See SEWER, page 6A
"Failure to deal with the problem immediately could have resulted in the surround- ing materials collapsing into the trunk line effectively block- ing the flow entirely and caus- ing a large sink hole in the mid- dle of North Avenue."
John Mulligan
Public Works Director
By Dick Sheppard
Sanger Herald
Tom Flores, Pete Beiden, Clare Slaughter, JR Boone, Huntley Dayton and Jim Merlo will headline the first class to be inducted into the new Sanger Athletic Hall of Fame at its inaugural dinner at 6 p.m. on May 5 at the Sanger community center.
“Those six, who played
or coached at Sanger High School, are already in the Fresno County Athletic Hall of Fame and we thought
that would be a good place
to start,” said high school ath- letic director Brian Penner, chairperson of the hall of
Tom Flores
fame committee.
The other inductees are
Huntley Dayton
Lynette Wilke, Gene Green, Bill Herron, Nick Katzemyer, Dean Nicholson, Louis Papac and Atomic Torosian.
JR Boone
posthumous and 10 living inductees. We also decided to stick with coaches and athletes for the first class to be inducted. Each year
• March 12-23 - Women's History Month art display at city hall, 1700 7th Street.
• March 15 - City council meeting, starting at 6 p.m. at city hall, 1700 7th Street.
• March 17 - Sanger Shelter adoption day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Tractor Supply Co. in Clovis.
•March27- Coffeewiththepoliceandfirechiefs from 7:30-9:30 a.m. at Starbucks, 512 Academy Ave.
Bruce Barnes, Herman Cooks, Bill Powell, David Naranjo, Rene Schneider, Brian Wallin, Brent Webber,
“The first group was limited to a maximum of 10
See HALL OF FAME page 6A
SANGER HERALD: A MID VALLEY PUBLISHING NEWSPAPER • (559) 875-2511 • www.thesangerherald.com
THURSDAY
MARCH 15, 2018
VOL 129 NO. 11
2 sections, 14 pages
CLASSIFIED 5B LEGALS 6-7B BUSINESS DIRECTORY 8B LIFE STYLES 3B OBITUARIES 2A OPINION 3A SPORTS 1B POLICE LOG 2A WEATHER 7A
Happy St. Patrick's Day from all the lads and lassies at the Sanger O'Herald!