The state of Mooney Grove Park seems to have become a hot potato no one in county government wants to handle for fear of being burned. The number of public complaints about the declining state of the county-maintained park – where benches lie broken, ponds are choked with decay, and trees are dying, if not […]
Authorities have closed the books on half a dozen unsolved murders in Tulare County dating back as far as 1980, and the man responsible will spend the rest of his life behind bars. On October 6, Jose Manuel Martinez, 53, also known as the Black Hand or El Mano Negro, plead guilty in Tulare County […]
The Tulare County Board of Supervisors voted at their October 6 meeting to join with Fresno, Madera, Merced, and Kings Counties to form a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to apply for water bond money to build Temperance Flat Dam. The JPA will ultimately have 11 members including two from Valley cities, members from two irrigation […]
The whereabouts of Tulare Police Chief Jerry Breckinridge have not been known to the public since May 29. Tulare City Manager Don Dorman announced on June 23 that Breckinridge had been placed on paid administrative leave. Dorman did not explain why the police chief had been put on administrative leave or how long he would […]
Hanford Environmental Action Team (HEAT) won its case against the City of Hanford concerning the Bajun American Properties housing development. HEAT appealed the city’s decision to approve the development’s site plans without an Environmental Impact Review (EIR). The judge decided in a September 22 hearing that HEAT would be given 10 more days from the […]
Hanford is getting a much-needed new fire station and part of Hidden Valley Park will not have to be sold to fund it. At a study session held September 15, Hanford City Council directed its staff to put together a construction plan for a third station the fire department needs to decrease its response times. Construction […]
More bike lanes and better walking conditions may be in the future for some areas of the county with the Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG) moving into the second phase of its planning project, Walk ‘n Bike Tulare County. Last June, TCAG adopted a new plan to seek transportation funding for cities and around […]
For most East Porterville residents, more permanent solutions to their water woes cannot come soon enough. However, it may not come very soon, or at least until there is a good amount of rain. For many, their wells have gone dry. Several homes now rely on potable water deliver to their temporary tanks for showers […]
Life hasn’t settled down for Jonathan Smith, or his father Michael Koonce, since Smith’s arrest and alleged beating by the Tulare Police Department on August 25. On that morning, Smith had an altercation with the Tulare Police Department in the parking lot of Feltech Auto Repair. According to Smith and a witness, he was pulled […]
With the city facing a major deficit with no way to cover the gap, the Lindsay City Council is considering a gamble that could see them clear of red ink. Facing budget shortfalls on the order of $450,000 annually for the foreseeable future, the city has already been forced to send home its workforce two […]