The Visalia city council recently passed a new ordinance recommended by our police department relating to underage parties where alcohol is served. According to Police Chief Jason Salazar, since 2013, the Visalia P.D. has had 5,800 calls to respond to such parties. Taking an average time for the responding officer of 39 minutes per event, the police department lost approximately 3,700 hours of time which they could have better spent on combating other criminal activity. Most of these parties occur on weekends, or around graduation time. The purpose of this new law is to hold parents or property owners responsible for such conduct if it occurs on their premises.
Underage drinking is a major threat to the health and safety of our youth, and not only for highly publicized drinking and driving concerns. The new ordinance establishes penalties of $100.00 for the first violation, $200.00 for the second violation, and $500.00 for further violations within a twelve- month period. The parent or adult who is hosting such a party, or upon whose property the party occurs, will be subject to the fine. The police department hopes that these potential fines will cause adults to think twice about the consequences of allowing underage parties, and get them to better monitor the activities of their teenagers. This also gives officers another tool to help control underage drinking.
Pervious Concrete Parking Lots
Fred Lampe, the city's senior civil engineer, announced that Visalia has received a grant from the State Water Resources Control Board for re-constructing seven public parking lots downtown using pervious (permeable) concrete pavement. Such pavement captures storm water and allows it to percolate back into the ground. The benefits include reduced storm water flows into Mill Creek, filtering and treating storm water as it percolates into the ground, and recharging our groundwater, particularly during this drought. Currently, Visalia has just one public parking lot with a pervious concrete surface, located on Murray Avenue just east of Bridge Street. Construction is scheduled to begin in September and all lots should be completed by November. Each lot will take approximately five weeks to complete, and two parking lots will be closed at a time to meet the grant schedule. While there may be some temporary inconvenience for those wanting to park downtown, the long term benefits should outweigh that.
Sequoia National Park Holiday Update
According to Woody Smeck, Superintendent of our local national parks, every parking space in Sequoia National Park was filled over the July 4th holiday weekend, including the very remote overflow parking lots behind Wuksachi Lodge. 750 cars per hour were welcomed at the park entrance station (a big challenge on a narrow mountain road). Woody indicated that Visalia's Sequoia shuttle was instrumental in moving people from remote lots to various attractions, and it probably set a single day record for ridership.
Illegal Fireworks.
Per Fire Chief Doug McBee, our fire department was kept busy over the same July 4th weekend. They had two-person teams on fireworks patrol issuing citations in all quadrants of the city, with the greatest action on the east side. Somewhere between 50 and 60 citations were issued for the possession of illegal fireworks. Over that weekend, there were five fires attributed to fireworks, and all fires required multiple engines, multiple chiefs and fire personnel. At one point, Cal Fire provided mutual aid to our city fire department on an apartment building fire. The Visalia Fire Department reminds residents that illegal fireworks are dangerous and those in possession will be issued a $1,000.00 citation. Is it time for Visalia to re-institute the city fireworks display on Independence Day?
Multi-Family Units
Visalia is on track for construction of the most multi-family units in Visalia since 2007, with 110 units permitted through July 2016. Of particular note is a 236-unit apartment complex which recently went through site plan review and which will be constructed just east of Costco on Visalia Parkway.
Visalia Senior Games
The kickoff organizational meeting for the 2017 Visalia Senior Games was held in July at our Senior Center. Tentative dates for this second time event are Thursday through Sunday, March 16-19, and Friday through Sunday, March 24-26, 2017. We are looking to expand the format to include new events such as track and field, swimming, women's volleyball and soccer. If you'd like to get involved and volunteer, contact Parks and Recreation at 713-4365 and join us as we plan the 2017 Senior Games!
If you have questions or topics regarding the city which you would like to have addressed in future articles, please email Warren at warren.gubler@visalia.city, or call (559) 713-4400 x 3313. For past articles, visit directfromwarren.blogspot.com.
