Page 1 - Sanger Herald 3-7-19 E-edition

Chevy wins best of show
Looking for a home
Apaches want to take charge
page 8A
Lifestyles 2B
Sports 1B
WeeklyNewspaper
Spring forward
Like it or not daylight saving time will steal an hour of sleep this weekend.
This Sunday at 2 a.m. daylight saving time begins.
When we set our clocks forward one hour the change will push sunsets later into the evening and sunrises later into the morning. That's supposed to be the benefit.
The downside is that “springing forward” will temporarily disrupt the sleep of millions of Americans. That will likely be particularly noticeable next Monday.
Need sandbags?
Dick Sheppard/Sanger Herald
Free sandbags are available at the city annex off Jensen, just north of the library parking lot. The city ran out of sacks on Tuesday, but more are scheduled to arrive today. Fire Dept. Explorers are frequently available to fill bags and load them into vehicles for Sanger residents. The limit is five sandbags per household. There was a line waiting for sandbags when this photo was taken with Explorers, L-R, Juan Real, Janeen Schulze and Spencer Smith helping a line of residents prepare for the next big rain storm.
Sanger(FresnoCounty)CA93657 50¢ (taxincluded)
Running in the rain
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
To celebrate the Blossom Festival, C. Castro, 8, ran the quarter-mile boys race March 2 in down- town Sanger. He finished 17th of 24 boys in his division. Rain failed to stop many from coming out and running a number of races headlined by the annual 10 kilometer run. The event this year also featured carnival rides, food and a car show. More about the runners on page 1B and about the car show and other events on page 2B.
Rain, hail and funnel clouds, oh my!
Input first then move forward is the plan
Work on the state's controversial zoning demand will follow a public meeting on Thursday, March 14
By Dick Sheppard
sangerherald@gmail.com
The city's apparent former plan of just get it done as fast as possible and worry about public reaction later didn't work out well.
It produced a packed city council chamber of confused and angry residents and a city council demand for a
do over that involved more interaction and better com- munication with the public.
The rush was to finally comply with a more than two-year old state demand that the city go along with the state's "housing element law" and zone almost 63 acres of land somewhere within the city limits for affordable housing.
A lack of compliance,
the state threatened, could produce sanctions that might include an imposed building moratoriam or a cut off of grant funds flowing through the state to the city.
One of Gov. Gavin Ne- som's first acts was to sue Huntington Beach for being out of compliance with the housing element law.
Sanger city manager Tim Chapa has assured the city council that he has been given permission by the state to string out the compliance process a little longer with a planning commission do over that will involve more public participation.
The first public participa- tion in the new effort to find 63 acres that can be rezoned to meet the state demand will take place at 6 p.m. on March 14 at the community center.
That's when, according to a notice on the city website, city planners and commis- sioners will receive input "regarding preliminary consideration to help guide future determinations by the Planning Commission and City Council on ... potential sites for rezoning to satisfy ..." the state mandated hous- ing element.
Whatever zoning changes that are finally made as a result of complying with the state's housing element law will also have to be reflected in the city's general plan which is being updated.
The planning commis- sion, at its Feb. 28 meeting, in addition to agreeing to the March 14 public meeting, elected new officers. Drew Esquer was named chairman and Ken Garcia vice chair- man. The other members
of the commission are Mia Geil, Monica Yamada, Kevin Carter, Vincent Wall and Johnny Perez.
By Dick Sheppard
sangerherald@gmail.com
Weather folklore says that if March comes in like a lion it will go out like a lamb.
None of my Sanger neighbors can ever re- member a March roaring in like this one has with hail, flooding rains and a funnel cloud or two spinning through the area like it thought it was in Kansas. (There are those who will tell you it was one of those lost little funnel clouds that recently ripped off part of the roof at Washington Academic Middle School.)
The city provided 100 free sandbags to residents before it ran out on Tuesday, said public works director John Mulligan.
"I just placed an order for 1,500 more and they will be here Thursday," said Mulligan. "The stock of bags we went through in the last few days would last us years under nor- mal circumstances."
There were not many "normal circum- stances" on Saturday, March 2.
"Saturday’s rain really was an anomaly that dumped inches of rain very quickly causing flooding. The basins were nearly empty the next day. This week’s storm is forecasted to drop the same amount of rain but over an extended period of time. The City’s system can handle that," said Mulligan.
"The current storm does not look like
it will have the direct hit cell that Sanger encountered last Saturday. In fact, I have spoken to a number of life-long residents that
Dick Sheppard/Sanger Herald
Downtown and neighborhood streets were flooded, above, and ponding basins like the one at Jenni Park, below, became lakes that soon attracted wild ducks and geese and lo- cal cats hoping for an exotic meal or two.
Another wet weekend? See the forecast on page 8A
• March 7 - City Council, 6 p.m. at city hall, 1700 7th St.
• March 12 - School board meeting, 7 p.m. at district office, 1905 7th St.
• March 14 - Planning commission meeting, 6 p.m. community center, 730 Recreation Ave.
• March 17 - St. Patrick's Day Dinner, noon-5 p.m., St. Mary's Social Hall, North and Bethel avenues.
See OH MY:, page 7A
SANGER HERALD: A MID VALLEY PUBLISHING NEWSPAPER • (559) 875-2511 • www.thsangerherald.com
THURSDAY
MARCH 7, 2019
VOL 130 NO. 10
2 sections, 14 pages
CLASSIFIED 5B LEGALS 6,7B BUSINESS DIRECTORY 8B LIFE STYLES 2B OBITUARIES 2A OPINION 3A SPORTS 1B POLICE LOG 2A WEATHER 8A