On April 25, 2016, the Visalia City Council and the Board of Trustees for COS and for VUSD held a joint meeting at the convention center. This annual meeting is an opportunity for us to get to know each other a little better, and to find out what each group has planned. VUSD presented an update on their various facilities, including the new junior high, a student achievement update, and the status of teacher recruitment. COS discussed student transfer guarantees to UC's and CSU's, and some student success stories.
Let me share with you a summary of the update given by the city regarding its progress, with my interspersed commentary.
Convention Center:
The convention center "refresh" has been completed. This remodel included new flooring, roof, paint, wiring and infrastructure, landscaping and signage. I recently gave welcoming remarks at the Great Western Fan Festival at the convention center and the new sound system was state of the art.
Water Conservation Plant:
The $130 million water conservation plant upgrade will be completed next year. It will have the capacity to convert the city's wastewater into almost drinkable-quality recyclable water, suitable for irrigation of all crops. On April 18, 2016, Visalia received its first exchange of water from Tulare Irrigation District. Water was released to a recharge basin located on the east side of town. You may have seen what appears to be a new lake near 198. Under Visalia's agreement with TID, we will receive up to 6,500 acre feet of fresh water annually for recharge purposes, in exchange for some of our recycled water for TID's farming purposes.
V-Line:
The V-Line bus leaves the Visalia Transit Center six times a day, seven days a week, with stops at the Visalia airport, Fresno Airport, and Fresno State. While the standard faire is $10.00, students, seniors and regular travelers can get discounted faires as low as $6.00 per trip. The first month of ridership in November 2015 saw 67 riders. In March 2016, ridership had increased to 936.
My wife Alisa got to test out the new V-Line recently. We were flying from Fresno Airport out of state to attend our son's college graduation, but she left a day earlier than I. She caught the V-Line bus at Visalia airport. The driver took her payment by credit card. There were 20 seats on the bus of which 10 were occupied. The seating was very comfortable with nice upholstery, seat belts and head rests. Each shuttle offers free wi-fi, charging ports and storage racks. The $10 faire was a bargain considering that the round trip cost of gas for our car would have been more than that, not counting the $12.00 daily parking fee at Fresno airport. Alisa's bus arrived at the Fresno airport a few minutes early, and she had no problem catching her flight.
COS Student Transit Pass:
An estimated 16% of the COS student population uses transit, of which nearly 80% use transit as their daily transportation. COS students can ride Visalia Transit from Visalia to both the Tulare and Hanford campuses. Full-time students pay $10.00 per semester for unlimited rides.
Growth Update:
Visalia's population reached 130,753 in 2015. Through March 2016, 102 new dwelling units were issued permits. In April alone, another 84 permits were pulled! The local housing market continues to recover from the great recession. Recent new retail developments in Visalia include Home Goods and Designer Shoe Warehouse, Rubio's, Pieology, and the soon-to-open Blaze Pizza. Coming soon are Outback Steakhouse and Quantum Leap trampoline facility. Visalia will be getting its second Smart & Final in the existing Jo-Ann's space on South Mooney Blvd. Jo-Ann's will in turn be moving into the former Circuit City space.
Visalia Airport:
City staff is submitting a grant application to the Dept. of Transportation for $3.7 million for our airport. In exchange for these grant monies, Visalia will be opting out of the essential air services program (EAS) for ten years. Visalia is the first community to opt out of the EAS. If we get the grant, the city council will consider using the funds to expand cargo facilities at the airport to support local business and industry.
Fire Station #53:
Visalia's newest fire station, located at Walnut and Atwood, held its open house on Wednesday, April 6. This station will target an average response time of 4 minutes in the southwest quadrant of Visalia. Chief Doug McBee welcomes local citizens to drop by and take a tour of this new facility.
Warren Gubler
Visalia Vice Mayor
(559) 713-4400 x 3313
Warren.gubler@visalia.city
