Reedley Exponent 12-6-18 E-edition

Immanuel High boys capture championship of its own TOC
Sports
Reedley (Fresno County) CA 93654 | 50 cents Council weighs economic development options
A festive night of Christmas music at Reedley College
Panorama
Vol. 129, No. 49 | Thursday, December 6, 2018
www.reedleyexponent.com
Workshop highlights
likely 3-year action plan
Staff Report
The Reedley City Council on Dec. 4 lis- tened to a presentation of ideas and sugges- tions that could result in a three-year eco- nomic development action plan for the city.
During a special afternoon meeting in
the Council Chamber, members listened to a workshop presented by Barry Foster, princi- pal/managing director for EconSolutions by HDL. The Southern California-based agency provides guidance and ideas for economic development to a number of California cities.
Foster told the council that the city must have a vision, and be open to working with businesses in the city. The hour-plus workshop presentation presented retail de- velopment strategies, including Reedley’s role in retail recruitment.
An economic development action plan would include reorganizing the market- place, understanding trade areas and mar- ket analytics, identifying near-term oppor- tunities and establishing goals and objec- tives to be accomplished within a three- year timeframe.
Foster said the plan would be to draft a three-year economic development action plan in the near future. That would include the City Council to consider and possibly adopt the action plan. Foster considered it
a case of “walking the walk” and not just “talking the talk.”
Retail recruitment would include es- tablishing appropriate land use guidelines, and also get more involved and work with property owners.
Council members gave their feedback from the presentation, and called for de- velopment options not to be limited to retail but to industrial growth as well.
More on the meeting will be reported in the Dec. 13 issue of The Exponent.
Electrical parade tonight on G Street
Staff Report
The second and final parade of the season will light up the streets of downtown Reedley tonight.
The annual Electrical Farm Equipment Parade will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, at the inter- section of G Street and 8th Street at the north end of Pioneer Park. More than 25 entries will travel south along G Street and past the announce stand at the intersection of G and 11th Streets. Floats will al- ternate passes on each side of the Christmas tree in the middle of the intersection.
This year’s theme is “Home Sweet Home,” which means floats entered will have some type of con- nection to the theme. Entries are farm vehicles of some type (trac- tor, wagon, harvester, etc.) that are decorated with Christmas and holi- day lights befitting the season.
Floats will be judged before the parade with awards going to the top three; highlighted by the an- nual Sweepstakes Award. Capping off the parade will be the annual appearance of Santa Claus passing out candy to children.
In addition to the parade and floats, there will be food vendors stationed around the intersection of G and 11th streets.
The Electrical Farm Equipment Parade travels the same route along G Street as the annual Reedley Fi- esta Parade. The parade will con- clude at 13th Street.
The parade concludes a busy fall season of activities for the Reedley Downtown Association. The first activity was the Taste of the Town event along G Street between 10th and 11th streets in late September. The RDA also was involved in host- ing the annual Small Business Satur- day event and Christmas Tree Light- ing ceremony on Nov. 24.
An evening on patrol
Exponent reporter
goes on ridealong
with police unit
By Juanita Adame
juanita@midvalleypublishing.com
The Reedley Police department stayed busy on the night of Nov. 30, responding to a variety of calls rang- ing in everything from domestic dis- turbances to the successful capture of a man who was allegedly stealing Amazon packages from the porches of residents.
The Exponent was given access to ride along with Reedley police Sgt. Jesus Rivera and Officer Eric Freedenburg in response to some of the calls for service by dispatchers.
Jesus Delgadillo, a 34-year-old Dinuba man, was initially pulled over for having expired tags on his vehicle, but was later arrested for possession of stolen property.
“I was driving down the road [and] when I pulled up behind the ve- hicle I noticed it had expired tags,” said Freedenburg. “I ran the license plate to make sure it was still ex- pired. It was — and his license was suspended. He had already been served on that suspension and had been given a previous ticket, so be- cause he was unable to drive his ve- hicle, we had to tow it for storage.”
Freedenburg said after the man’s vehicle was inventoried, they discov- ered several packages in the back seat.
“Inside the vehicle, and in plain view, were all those Amazon boxes,” he said.
Freedenburg added that the packages were delivered to different addresses in Reedley, none of which belonged to Delgadillo.
“So we had all the other officers who were available head over to the houses to contact the owners, just to make sure that he was not allowed to have their packages which was the case.”
During the ridealong, Rivera said multi-tasking is a skill that
See RIDEALONG on page A2
ABOVE: Reedley Police Officer Eric Freedenburg, foreground, and Sgt. Jesus Rivera filled out book- ing paperwork after making an arrest during their graveyard shift patrol period on Nov. 30. Juanita Adame, Exponent Panorama editor and reporter, accompaniedFreedenburgandRiveraon aride- alongduring aportionoftheirshiftonNov.30.
LEFT: Sgt. Jesus Rivera questioned a man before searching him for drugs. The man was stopped in south Reedley while riding his bicycle near the Department of Motor Vehicles office.
Photos by Juanita Adame / The Exponent
Local student wins AC/heating unit in writing contest
Hannah Gregory, an eighth-grade student at T.L. Reed K-8 School in Reedley, was selected as the winner of a writing contest open to middle school students in Kings Canyon Unified School District
along with Kingsburg, Selma, Fowler and Dinuba districts. Hannah wrote an essay in 1,000 words or less about a family in need of a new heater/air conditioning unit. Han- nah wrote about her family’s need, and was selected by contest sponsor Jack’s Refrigera- tion. The company will present Hannah’s family with the new unit.
LEFT: Hannah Gregory, right, was hugged by Stacy Arganda of Jack’s Refrigeration while Tino Carrasco with Jack’s looked on during a Dec. 3 surprise presentation at the Reedley High School Performing Arts Theatre.
RIGHT: From left are Tino Carrasco, Christy Chapman, Jon Chapman, Hannah Gregory, Dan Martinez, Stacy Arganda and Hannah’s parents, Nicole and Mike Gregory.
Renee Delport / Photos Contributed
Classifieds - B5
Directory - A5
Legals - B6-7 Sports - B3-4 Lights & Sirens - A3 Health & Fitness - A6-7 Obituaries - A2-3 Opinion - A4