Page 1 - Dinuba Sentinel 6-21-18 E-edition
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Dinuba Sentinel Serving the communities of Dinuba, Cutler-Orosi and Monson-Sultana
Established 1909, Dinuba, California
Thursday, June 21, 2018
50 Cents
A rendering of the Cal Poly students' vision for a vacant lot along L Street in Downtown Dinuba, including pavement and food trucks.
Kings River grants
Grants will enhance experience along the Kings River
News, Page A3
Softball Championship
Lady Giants take on Lady Dynamite Friday
Sports, Page B1
Vision for Downtown Dinuba
By Jackson Moore News@thedinubasentinel.com
What could Downtown Dinuba look like in 10, 20 or 30 years? A team of Cal Poly graduate students recently completed a vision plan to provide the city with concepts, recommendations and studies, giving a glimpse to the potential future.
The class took a segmented approach, dividing the downtown area into four quadrants - offering a business district, civic square, main street and entertainment plaza.
The concepts for the Downtown Business District (northeast of K Street) include a significantly different drive down Tulare Street. Their proposal for the street includes widened sidewalks for pedestrians and a landscaped median, which would require the current diagonal parking
spots to be swapped for parallel parking.
The main focus of this district, however, was on housing
- recommending townhomes and a courtyard residential area. Paired with the homes were “pocket parks,” outdoor fitness parks and an art district for the area residents to enjoy.
Civic Square encompasses the intersection of L Street and Fresno Street, and the adjacent areas. The students proposed that this area serve as the hub for local government and civic activity, proposing a new city hall to be located on one corner of the intersection. Proposed features in this area included a repurposing of the Dinuba Vocational Center, redesigned park area, a parking structure and more.
While many of the proposals are long-term ideas for the city to consider if the funds become available, some
See Downtown, Page A8
Contributed
Dinuba High
may expand closed campus policy
Juniors and seniors
would still have o - campus lunch privileges
By Jackson Moore News@thedinubasentinel.com
The carrot on a stick for Dinuba High’s freshman class may remain for another year.
This year’s freshman class was the first affected by a new closed campus rule at Dinuba High. While seniors, juniors and sophomores could leave for lunch, freshmen could not. The rule was made, citing tardies and truancies with previous freshmen students.
Now that policy may be adjusted to include both freshmen and sophomores, just as DHS freshmen left for summer break thinking they would return to more freedom at lunch.
The policy was presented last Thursday to the Dinuba Unified School District Board of Trustees on June 14.
Dinuba High School Principal Mike Roberts told the board that the new policy would help the students get accustomed to the plan for the new high school - a closed campus with revocable privileges for juniors and seniors to go off-campus during lunch periods. The new policy will also allow for closed- campus days for special events.
“I think sophomores would just be building with that class, to help sustain the vision of going to the new campus and close it down - restricting it to juniors and seniors,” Roberts said. “This also aligns us with a lot of other high schools in the area. A lot of the other ones only allow juniors and seniors, but some of them only allow seniors.”
When asked about the tardies and truancies in underclassmen, now only sophomores, Roberts said, “It’s getting better. But we still struggle with the fact that we’re so far apart - Trying to maintain passing periods. Eight-minute passing periods is almost double what
See DUSD, Page A7
First day of Summer
Cuts coming
in 2018-19
budget
Contributed
Despite significantly less rain in Dinuba this year, the nearby Kings River is flowing and Alta Irrigation District expects its water run to last through September. Above-normal precipitation and record snowfall for March and April in the Kings River watershed resulted in unexpected and additional runoff. The river is open to the public - last year water conditions were deemed too dangerous until mid-July.
COJUSD accepts teachers' proposal
Sentinel staff report
The city of Dinuba’s budget has grown and remained steady since the Great Recession, but unexpected circumstances have led to cuts and layoffs for the upcoming 2018-19 fiscal year.
In all, four positions will be eliminated from the budget, and a freeze will be placed on five currently vacant spots. Staff reductions were made by eliminating the positions of one Public Improvements Inspector, one Fleet Facilities and Maintenance Supervisor and two part-time custodians. Their duties will be shifted to existing staff.
One affected city employee approached the council at the June 12 meeting, saying, “I’ve been working for the city of Dinuba for five years and nine months. I’m a very hard worker. At this time I’m requesting not to be laid off.”
Hiring freezes were made on four vacant police officer positions and one vacant firefighter/paramedic position. The city will also reevaluate future vacancies to determine if they are necessary to be refilled, a staff report said.
“This wasn’t an easy one,” Dinuba City Manager Luis Patlan said. “A lot of tough decisions were made.”
City of Dinuba Mayor Scott Harness also commented, “This has been, in my eight years, the most difficult budget for me to pass. It’s the most unenthusiastic time that I’ve had - I don’t enjoy budgets at all, but this one has significantly been very hard. It’s something that the city has been very responsible when something was dropped on us. It had nothing to do with city staff, it had to do with (outside) reporting. Staff did the unenviable job of making ends meet.”
The cuts are largely a result of a loss in public safety tax revenue. The city was notified by the State Board of Equalization that public safety tax revenue in the city was overstated and the correction would decrease the city’s
See Budget, Page A6
By Rick Curiel Sports@thedinubasentinel.com
The Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School District Board accepted a proposal by the Cutler-Orosi Unified Teachers Association (COUTA) at their June board meeting on June 14, a move that benefits stipend employees, those employees currently seeking their professional credentials, and all teachers as a whole.
The district agreed to pay teachers in the Dual Immersion program at the elementary schools a stipend of $1,500 and also agreed to pay for the cost of young teachers enrolled in the Tulare County Office of Education’s Teacher Induction Programs (TIPs).
The TIPs program is designed to assist young teachers, usually first- and second-year, with multiple- and
single-subject credentials earn their professional clear credential. Under the agreement, the district would pay up to $2,000 of the cost for teachers enrolled in the program.
Also in the agreement will be an increase of the district’s paid portion of health benefits, up 1.3 percent from this past school year.
It was also revealed at the board meeting that the district ended the school year with nearly $1.8 million in their reserve, something trustees and administrators were pleased to hear.
The surplus came as a pleasant surprise for the staff and board members as this year has been a busy year for the school district. In particular, Orosi High School
See COJUSD, Page A7
A racecar was displayed at the Alta District Historical Society during the event.
Rick Curiel | The Sentinel
By Rick Curiel Sports@thedinubasentinel.com
Over the years the Alta District Historical Society has held countless events highlighting the historical gems of our neighbors. From the histories of ethnic groups who now make up the Valley to cattle ranching, blacksmithing and high school uniforms over the years, the variety of history represented at these functions have always offered locals a different take on the district’s history.
Friday, the society offered yet another peek into the dynamic makeup of Alta District’s history, racecar driving.
“It was unique in that we’ve never really done anything like that,” said Historical Society member Roy Cotton. “When you’re gathering history, and you’re putting something on like that, I suppose everything we do is unique.”
The event was held in the patio of the Alta District Historical Society’s museum in Downtown Dinuba and consisted of a
panel of six who have enjoyed lives as professional racecar drivers.
All the drivers attending the event had local ties.
Like Ron Cochran, who told the story of how he first got started racing when he was just three-years-old.
“When I was a freshman in high school I was blessed by the State of California,” said Cochran. “They had a law that you could get your drivers license at 14, which I was able to do.”
Cochran said he immediately bought his first motorcycle after getting his drivers license. The bike had a 500 CC (Cubic Centimeter) motor and outran most other bikes. He took the bike out regularly to race it.
His motorcycle racing soon connected him with a go-kart salesman. Not knowing if they would even sell, Cochran went in with another investor and purchased a few. In what seemed like no time at all for Cochran, he soon started purchasing them 200 at a time and was selling them to racers from as far
See Racing, Page A8
Local racing history revisited
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