Page 1 - Mid Valley Times 4-28-22 E-Edition

Thursday, April 28, 2022
Vol. 3, No. 43
Dinuba
amends
its code
on parks
By Jon Earnest
Mid Valley Times
The Dinuba City Council on April 12 approved an urgency ordinance amending activities in public parks and recreation facilities as an addition to the city's current municipal code.
By a 4-0 vote — District 4 Representative Kuldip Thusu was absent — the council ap- proved adopting the revised ordinance to comply with fed- eral law when it comes to deal- ing with camping in city parks and recreation facilities.
David Yanez, city attor- ney, presented the urgency ordinance and said it was cre- ated to clarify the current ordinance regarding enforce- ment of camping and other activities in parks and recre-
See PARKSonpageA18
Ready to run
50 cents
Bryan Tellalian / Image Contributed
Berj Apkarian, Honorary Consul to the city of Fresno from the Re- public of Armenia, spoke via vid- eo to Reedley College students the evening of April 19.
Armenian
official
speaks on
Genocide
topics
MVT Staff Report
A top official from the Re- public of Armenia addressed Reedley College political sci- ence students and the public during a video event in com- memoration of the 107th an- niversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Berj Apkarian, the Hon- orary Consul to the city of Fresno from the Republic of Armenia, spoke via a Zoom meeting on April 19 to stu- dents and any public member wishing to sign up and join.
Apkarian discussed topics surrounding the annual com- memoration; specifically how continuing Genocide denial by the Turkish government of the 1915 events impacts Arme- nian public policy.
The video meeting was one of numerous events in Fresno County to commemorate the anniversary of the system- atized killing and deportation of Armenians by the Turks of the Ottoman Empire.
Jon Earnest / Mid Valley Times
Entrants in the 1600 meter run (from left) Clovis East's Carter Spradling, Sanger's David DeLoera, Sanger's Daniel Galvez, Sanger's Emanuel Salas, Madera South's Isaac Chavez and Buchanan's An- drew Escobar – await the start of the race during the annual Sanger Metric Classic track and field meet on April 22 at Dodson Field in Sanger. Spradling and Salas finished first and second, respec- tively. More highlights from the meet are in Sports, page A11.
Region sees first case increases in two months
By Jon Earnest
Mid Valley Times
For the first time in more than two months, the percentage of active cases and new daily cases increased in Fresno and Tulare counties.
But the updated numbers released April 25 and 26 in the two counties wasn't showing any large spike in num- bers, or even disturbing trends that the BA.2 variant strain was making any type of inroad into the region.
The April 26 update for Fresno Coun- ty showed an additional 200 total cases, and the seven-day average for active cases rose from 229 to 330. The daily new case average per 100,000 popula- tion grew by just .6 percent — to 3.1 percent — and the overall positive rate increased to 2.4 percent out of an ad-
Mennonite Aid
By Lorie Lewis Ham
Contributed
This year the Mennonite Aid Plan cel- ebrates their 100th year! The Mennonite Aid Plan was originally formed in 1922 as a means for the brotherhood of believers to care for their own.
On March 18, they held a banquet at Wyndham Garden Hotel at the Fresno Yosemite Airport with 45 people in at- tendance. The meal was also catered by the hotel.
The event included photographing everyone who attended as they arrived. They also recognized staff member Da- lia Jimenez for her 25 years of service with the company. “She pointed out that in May it will be 26 years,” shared their current Chief Executive Officer, Jerry Linscheid, who has been with the com- pany since June of 2009.
Coronavirus Update
ditional 15,000 tests. That's up from 1.6 percent to start the week.
Otherwise, numbers in Fresno Coun- ty continued to be generally positive. Hospitalizations continued to move downward, and were at 36 patients (just two intensive care patients) as of April 26. There were four additional deaths for the week, bringing the number of COVID-related fatalities in the county to 2,744 dating back to March 2020.
Similar to Fresno County, Tulare County is reducing the number of up- dates during the wee. Once again, there was just a single update on Aprll 25 to follow the previous one four days ear- lier. In that span, there were 266 added total cases and 15 additional active cases
— bringing that number up to 154. That meant for the first time since February, there was a weekly increase in active cases as the April 19 number was 130.
The positivity rate also climbed back above 1 percent after dropping as low as .5 percent. The latest figures showed a 1.2 percent positivity rate out nearly 1.05 million tests. A more disturbing number was the number of deaths, in- creasing by 18 in the county during the week. That figure stands at 1,453.
The rate of vaccinations continues to slow down in both counties. Tulare Coun- ty's latest figures on its website showed just 295 additional people had received shots – either regular vaccines or boost- ers. The county's vaccinated percentage climbed to 56.8 percent as of the 26th,
See VIRUS on page A18
Plan celebrates centennial at March event
“We also recognized Marsha Okada, who passed away last October,” Lin- scheid continued. “Marsha worked as an underwriter for over 20 years.” Marsha’s brother and sister in law were also in at- tendance.
After their meal, their board chair, Jim Brandt, gave a quick history of MAP, which included a slide show. “He men- tioned the past managers and how grate- ful we are for the decisions made by the board and staff to have gotten us to this point.” Past board members and staff in attendance were also recognized.
If are interested in knowing more about the history of the Mennonite Aid Plan, they will be sharing articles throughout the rest of 2022 in their news- letter, which can also be found on their website, mennonitenews,com.
Lorie Lewis Ham wrote this article for Kings River Magazine.
Mennonite Aid Plan / Photo Contributed
From left, Wayne Zimmerman (former board member, Reedley),Marty Zimmer- man (former staff member, Reedley) LeAnne Zimmerman Quenzer (current board member, Visalia) and Galen Quenzer (LeAnne’s spouse) posed for a photo at the March 18 Mennonite Aid Plan celebration banquet in Fresno.
Classifieds - A16 Directory - A6 Legals - A9-10, A12-15 Sports - A11, A17 Lifestyle - A7-8 Lights & Sirens - A3, A5 Obituaries - A2 Opinion - A4