Page 6 - Mid Valley Times 9-3-20 E-edition

For the first time,
Sanger Woman’s Club
has scheduled virtual
candidates forum
MVT Staff Report
The Sanger Woman’s Club will be hosting a virtual candidates forum on Saturday, Oct. 10 from 1 to 3 p.m.
The forum will be available for viewing on the club’s Facebook page, facebook.com/ sangerwomansclub.
The virtual forum will feature candidates running for Sanger City Council, including Mayoral Candidates Eli Ontiveros (challeng- er) and Frank Gonzalez (incumbent). Sanger Mayor Pro Tem Daniel Martinez is also up for reelection this November.
Also, four of the seven trustees on the Sanger Unified School Board are up for re- election this year, Tammy Wolfe (Area 1), G. Brandon Vang (Area 3), Rick J. Duran (Area 4) and Ismaael “Mike” Hernandez, Jr. (Area 5).
Sanger residents and other interested cit- izens are invited and encouraged to submit forum questions by email to history4me@ve- rizon.net by Oct. 3.
By Jon Earnest
Mid Valley Times
Reedley officials released the exact amount of spending related to Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) fed- eral dollars given to the city dur- ing the COVID-19 pandemic, and approved a resolution accounting for the spending.
Two resolutions — including an annual lease payment reduction of $1,697 for the bicycle motocross track net to the Reedley Airport — were unanimously approved by the Reedley City Council at its Aug. 25 regular meeting.
The primary resolution ap- propriated $295,001 of the city's $320,001 CARES allocation from the federal government to fund var- ious economic relief assistance to private and public programs in the city harmed by the COVID-19 pan- demic which began rapidly grow- ing worldwide earlier this year. As a state, California received $15.3 billion in CARES funding.
The $1,697 allocated to Reedley Airtime BMX and $37,000 given to a variety of businesses as part of a temporary business utility bill forgiveness program were to be transferred into the city's gener- al fund reserve and airport fund, respectively. The $37,000 was in addition to an initial $25,00 alloca- tion for utility bill forgiveness and streetscape assessment forgive- ness.
The other CARES funding items are as follows:
• A $30,000 additional contribu- tion to the Greater Reedley Cham- ber of Commerce to provide addi- tional support to city businesses.
• An allocation of $39,024 for Reedley businesses assistance ac- tivities. This money went to rent temporary barriers to assist some downtown business operations.
• A waiver of the River City Theater Company's rent for the remainder of the year, totaling $9,100.
• An amount of $330 to cover
the cost of canceled trips involv- ing the Reedley Senior Program.
• A cost of $3,000 to purchase "touch less" credit card processing machines to further limit physical contact with customers.
• The purchase of personal pro- tective equipment (large N95 face masks) for use by city staff, at a cost of $5,000.
• The purchase of personal pro- tective equipment (large N95 face masks) for use by city staff, at a cost of $5,000.
• A cost of $24,850 to purchase partitions for pubic and staff areas to improve physical distancing be- tween public and staff at City Hall, the Community Center and the Po- lice Department.
• An allocation of $10,000 to re- place approximately 20 fixtures in restroom facilities shared by the public and city staff.
• A $135,000 outlay to replace a 40-year-old backup power gen- erator to service City Hall and the Police Department.
COVID-19 Continued from page A1
bers allowing for the re- opening of churches and all businesses to indoor activities. In addition, removal from the county monitoring list would al- low all schools to reopen for on-campus live in- struction for students.
Immanuel Schools is one of the exception, af- ter the private Christian school has continued to hold on-campus classes since its 2020-21 school year began on Aug. 13.
The school won a round in court on Aug. 25, when the Fresno County Superior Court denied a temporary restrain- ing order by the Fresno County Department of Public Health in a bid to shut down the campus.
Reedley, which more than two weeks ago passed Sanger as the leading Fresno County city and surrounding area in the Mid Valley Times coverage region with positive cases (a cumulative 1,250, 559 active or under investi-
gation as of Sept. 1), as the start of this week was termed by a local television station as a "hot" spot for the virus. But Nicole Zieba, city manager, disputed that report.
"The headline as re- ported makes it sound like it is out of control in Reedley, and that sim- ply isn't the case," Zieba said in an e-mail to The Times. "We are seeing a slow, steady transmis- sion rate, which is what we would rather see than large spikes. The
idea has always been to 'slow the spread' so that the healthcare system is not overwhelmed."
Zieba said that large majority of cases in Reedley has been con- centrated in apartment complexes where there are many people in a housing unit, multi-gen- erational families that live in a single household and outbreaks in several skilled nursing facilities.
Immanuel Schools of- ficials stated in an Aug. 25 news release after its court victory that the school had no COVID- related illnesses since reopening its campus on Aug. 13. There have been no confirmed re- ports of new cases.
Zieba said that the county's way of calcu- lating positive COV- ID-19 cases is by using a 14-day average of the number of tests taken and the number of cases reported. The subtracts afewfactors,suchasin- stances of multiple tests on the same person. She said that Fresno County does not yet have what she called a Reedley- specific "positivity" rate.
Dinuba, in Tulare County, continued to be the top Times region city with positive cases, reg- istering 1,626 total as of Sept. 1 (144 in the past three weeks).
The good news for Tulare County is that active cases generally have declined in the last week-plus, number- ing 817 active cases as of Sept. 1. While deaths have climbed to 234 (290 in Fresno County), hos- pitalizations in Tulare County have dipped to 50 patients and just 10 in in- tensive care. The recov-
HOLIDAY Continued from page A1
ing sources of exposure and spread of COVID-19, so it is important to avoid these high-risk activities so we can con- tinue moving in the right direction.”
The county is asking residents to take simple steps to combat against the coronavirus, such as avoiding non-essential outings and gatherings with people outside of your house- hold, maintaining at least six feet of social distancing, and properly wear- ing face coverings when unable to social distance. County officials say these measures can help decrease case numbers, ease demand on local healthcare resources and ultimately allow for the safe reopening of busi- nesses and activities that have re-
REEDLEY
FULL GOSPEL TABERNACLE
519 E. 11th Street (at corner of 11th & East Aves.) Reedley, CA 93654
Meets Sunday at 830am Outdoors on the property All are welcome
For more inforamtion call 559-638-2738
We welcome you to join us
For more information: www.reedleyfullgospel.com Pastor Ron Robertson • Pastor Frank Pinon
Christ Lutheran Church
1254 N Frankwood Ave. Reedley | 559-638-2112 | www.clcreedley.org Sunday morning Worship begins at 10:00am | All are welcome! Pastor Virgil Miller is Preaching | Musicians: Aarne Kela & Jason Awbrey Facebook: Christ Lutheran Church ELCA
DINUBA
First Baptist Church of Dinubba
A church for people on the grow!
600 E. Nebraska Avenue, Dinuba • Phone: 591-0234
services still remained ordered closed by the state.
On Aug. 28, Gov. Gavin Newsom held a news conference an- nouncing California's plans to switch to the multi-tiered color code system to begin steps to what he called a "simple, slow and stringent" re- opening process.
There are four color codes: purple (the most extreme that included Valley counties) for widespread (seven or more new positive cas- es per 100,000 popula- tion), red for substantial spread (four to seven per 100,000), orange for moderate (1 to 4 per 100,000) and yellow (less than 1 new case per 100,000).
Website: rstbaptistchurchdinuba.org Facebook: DinubaFirst Baptist Senior Pastor: Rev. Rick Foddrill Youth Pastor: Nick Gomez Director of Children’s Ministry: Natalie Zuniga
O ce hours:
Mon - Fri 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. “4-5” by appointment Sunday Service 8:30 a.m. outdoors Youth group Wed 6 p.m. online Children Ministry Wed 6 p.m. online
First Baptist Church lives to glorify God by leading people to Christ, helping them grow in Christ, and training them to minister for Christ.
First Lutheran Church an LCMS congregation
961 E. Elizabeth Way, Dinuba, CA 93618 • Phone: (559) 591-0375
9:45 Bible Study • 10:30 Worship
Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit...fruit that lasts” (John 15:16) In response, First Lutheran Church holds values of Bible Centered Preaching and Teaching, Strong Families, and Godly Servant Leadership. A church where God gives and we receive.
SANGER
CHURCH OF CHRIST
1518 Cherry Street (Corner of “P” Street) Sanger, CA 93657
mained closed due to the virus. “Fresno County has made great strides in our efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19, but there remains a lot of work to do,” said Dr. Rais Vohra, Fres- no County Interim Health Officer. “We understand the importance of spending time together and we share the frustra- tions brought by continued separation and isolation. But it is critical that we all remain vigilant in our collective ef- forts so as no to undo the progress that has been mad and advance in our col-
lective recovery.”
Fresno County will also be doing
their part to help minimize gatherings. County parks will continue to operate at 50 percent capacity and will offer masks and provide health screenings to those entering those parks through- out the weekend.
SUNDAY - Bible Study 9:30 a.m. Worship 10:30 a.m. Evening Worship 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday - Bible Study 7 p.m. CLASES EN ESPANOL - 9:30 a.m.c Call 875-8270 / 960-8982 Para Espanol
You may list your Church Announcement on this page for $15 per week. Including Church name, address, phone and service times with additional 50 words for announcement. Deadline for Church News is 12 p.m. Friday.
For more information call, Reedley 638-2244, Dinuba 591-4632, Sanger 875-2511.
Thursday, September 3, 2020 | A6 | Mid Valley TiMes
Reedley gives breakdown on CARES funding
COVID-19 update
As of 4 p.m. on respectively. The
Tuesday, Sept. 1, there had been 25,185 confirmed cases (11,973 active) of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) out of 208,658 tests (12.1 percent) in Fresno County, with 290 deaths and 190 currently hospitalized. Among Mid Valley Times cities, Reedley leads the way with the most positive cases at 1,250 while Sanger is at 1,211 cases; Parlier climbed to 1,016 cases and Orange Cove had 606 cases. Del Rey was at 110 cases while Fowler had 217 cases. Squaw Valley and Dunlap have 15 and five positive cases,
ery rate remained strong at nearly 93 percent.
•••
There also finally
was good news for the region's hair salons and barbershops, which have gone without rev- enue since being forced to again close on July 13. The state had given these businesses the op- tion to provide outdoor services, but hardly any used this option as get- ting water outside for jai-coloring and sham- poo services was too much of a problem.
These specialty busi- nesses began the reopen- ing process on Aug. 31 and immediately pro- vided services to people anxious at a long-await- ed haircut or hairstyl- ing. For now, nail salon
county reported that 11,906 of the positive cases (47.7 percent) had recovered.
In Tulare County, there were 14,305 confirmed cases (817 active) of COVID-19 with 234 deaths and 50 hospitalized as of noon on Tuesday, Sept. 1. Breakdowns by cities/regions show 1,626 cases in Dinuba, 540 in Orosi, 292 in Cutler, 76 in Traver, 14 in the rural area south of Reedley and four in the rural area southeast of Orange Cove.
A total of 13,254 people (92.7 percent) had recovered from the virus in Tulare County.
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