" When will you start the Recall process? It would be wise to do it as soon as possibile and start organizing. I agree totally and in talks with others in my community of friends and aquaintances, there is a lot of agreement. It will be tough as the City Council has bought off the Police with raises and special interests will put up $$$ to fight it. So watch out with that hornets nest down there. Who is in on this?

And will the Sentinel censor this, even though they started it, if their advertisers complain? Is that why the Sentinely took out the blog comments about the Vets in town and their practices? "

" We didn't "censor" the blog string regarding vets in town. It published March 17, and has since "timed out" of our Hot Topics list. It still exists: Do an Advanced Search for the author, Diane Sayre, and input the date, and you'll find it. "

" I"ll be the lone ranger here and remind all some of the thing the CC has done that I consider good. New wells, there are 2 or 3 either going in or already going, that are arsinec free and better than the old ones. 11th ave has been widened north of Fargo and rebuilt south of 198. New shopping centers that keeps people from having to go to Visalia or Fresno, there for reducing air pollution. Freedom Park!!!! COS campus!!!! Chapman Univ. It's easy to criticize so that's what people do. There are a couple of open seat upcoming, are you going to run?? "

" We have our own version of a City Govenment out of control out here in Lemoore too.

Wanting to place homes in a City EIR documented noise pattern regardless of the evidence would be dumb. So would be placing the largest employer in the county, NAS Lemoore, in a possible base closure scenario.

The second largest employer here, Leprino, is also against said city "growth plan" for reason ssimilar to the Navy: Noise. Plus the possible odor effect from their production too.

Once all the major employment opportunities are chased out of the area, we will have LOTS of empty houses to choose from for more "growth". "

" Come on, us taxpayers (who live in Hanford) are funding this with our property taxes. Thanks CC for increasing mine. "

" Addressing "Good Things", a PollyAnna view of the state of the City. New wells were not approved as part of the Carrollo arsenic reduction plan, only rehab of old wells for $16 million dollars of increased water rates. Freedom Park, good idea, masterminded by Parent/Park Commissioner left on her own to find funding, CC takes credit for it. Centennial Park was developed infrastucture for new development around it, savings to developers/cost to taxpayers. No. 11th Ave. was widened to accomodate traffic for new Longs center. A child hit by a car crossing 11th Ave., city refused crosswalks for kids to safely cross from west to east on 11th Ave. to get to school. Crosswalks are at Fargo and Flint, 1 mile between. How about crosswalks, curbing and safe walks for kids on their way to schools and parks? A tragedy must happen before CC does their "Good Thing". 11th Ave. widening needed for a long time. It's time for So. 10th and 12th Ave., country roads S. of H-Arm Rd. Commercial development south of 198 is needed, how about it Dave? Your constituents hoping for changes, find you ineffective, more of the same. Yeah, "Good Things" indeed! "

" I guess I'll remain the only positive one here..... "

" If you think the police department has the back of the city council you are mistaken. Trust me the first people to jump up and down and celebrate the removal of all city coucil members will be the Hanford Police department. Espically if you can get Thomas Haglund, and Mary Lindsay out of there as well. Hello denying claims for police officers whose personal property was broken on duty. And if you call that a raise I feel sorry for you, to me as a police officer I was insulted but out voted. "

" HPOA supporting the current city councili is like saying Navy wants Lemoore to build westward. "

" Hello, the people of Kings County (in COS district) voted to the bond, or tax, not the CC. "

" Would be nice if EVERYONE was taxed with an increase in sales taxes for the new growth. Instead of only the home owners. "

" I 100% agree with you, Lilly!

What really gets my ire is that just 11 minutes down the road is a great new community college campus. Why Hanford needed another is beyond me.

COS just wants to pump up their attendance so they strategically launched their Hanford campus campaign. Not all of us voted for it! "

" On another note, we should all be weary of "communty choice". It is a councel power grab (plus staff). So far it has been quiet, but from what I know, the much touted 5% savings will be comprised of a "deferred cost", for one - possibly two years, to be repaid with following years rate hikes!
Be very leary of local city goverment taking on a complex issue as power generation. I have not had any costs lowered by local goverment, whay should I expect lower costs from this? "

" Well the name says it all. I think a clean slate just might be in order, I mean all inexperienced council members couldn't be as bad as the ol' boy/gal network we currently have in place. I've seen city councils get more done in a single session than ours does in two months. It's good to see that other citizens see that the council members put theirselves before any good business decision in the community. Do they have stock in this new ethanol plant or are they that naive to think it's going to be productive for more than a year. I wouldn't give it six months according their previous track record. Who dreams up these schemes, is the word already out, got a bad plan take it to Hanford the city council will o.k. it and help fund it or what? What ever happened to looking for good neighbors as business partners, instead of people who want to suck your water and pollute your air in the process? How long did the old Pirelli/Armstrong plant set vacant? You might as well bring a nuclear power plant, instead of ethanol. "

" City Council deffinately needs a wake up call, and possibly a recall to go along with it. Why attend council meetings when they already have their minds made up prior to the meeting? The votes have already been decided prior to a single seat being filled. Why ask for input if you aren't willing to listen to it? You'll never take back the town until you take back all those seats. City business has become ol' boy and gal network 101. If it benefits at least one of the members it is guaranteed to pass by a landslide vote. Not even the smallest hint that maybe someone wasn't sure about it. My prime example is why are council members allowed to promote an idea and even vote on the idea if it is putting money directly or indirectly in their pockets. Example Marci Bufford and the Ethanol Plant. She made recommendations to approve it, why? Because Ethanol can be used to cut gasoline and make it cheaper at the wholesale level, but do you think you and I are gonna see a reduction? "

" Too many people on the Council are property owners and have investments that are improved or placed at a disadvantage and they control that vote. That isn't right, of course they are gonna vote for an Ethanol Production facility if they sell gasoline for a living. I've brought this up once before, I read an article in the Hanford Sentinel that stated one week before ground broke for the Super~Wal~mart that it had been tabled. The following week ground broke and poof within a short time there sat a Super~Wal~mart, am I the only one who caught that one? That must have been the same night they went over Jan's by-out. They have selective memory regarding that too. The recommendations of the city council is exactly what brought Christensen to trial, costing him an exhorbinate amount in attorney's fees and you can only guess how much the county and city are spending trying to prosecute this man. One hung trial and how many more hundreds of thousands dollars are going to be spent. Talk about chasing rainbows, and the money was already paid back for crying out loud. "

" Have any of you figured out what is behind Christensen's trial yet? He was stabbed in the back by subordinates firstly and then now the city council is sending a message "mess with us and we will put you behind bars". What do you think all this publicity is gonna do for recruitment for people to work in Management and Administrative positions in the city of Hanford? Those good quality candidates are gonna run as hard and as fast as they can in any other direction before coming here. Is that the image we want to project to people who don't live here and don't realize it is not our choice to prosecute former city leaders. You talk about a negative image and it has stunk up the media so long now time and again it's gonna take some kind of PR Genius to straighten this mess out. City of Hanford oh the laughing stock of California, no don't go there to get a job, you'll end up on a chain gang, or worse yet you'll be tricked into perjuring yourself after 15 years of service. "

" Don't get me wrong I am not making excuses for anything that was done incorrectly or against the law. But what I am trying to do is play Devil's Advocate and give you some idea of the damage all this has done to the image of Hanford as a whole. When is someone gonna look at the overall picture and look out for the benefit of Hanford and the County and say enough is enough. We aren't wasting taxpayers money this way any longer. We have way too many drug/gang problems to be wasting money in this manner. I'd much rather see the Police Department get more officers and the D.A.'s Office get more Investigators than to throw more good money after bad. Sometimes, as my Dad use to say; "You have to let sleeping dogs lay".
The best you can hope for in the Christensen matter is to destroy any chance at having a community service job ever again, is that what this is a vendetta over $1100.00 that has already been paid back? Come on Ron and put on the brakes to this nonsense, end it now. "

" Sid, you seem to be following what's going on in Lemoore - have you been to any of the meetings about the general plan? Or just what you've seen online? I was hoping to get your insights on the subject. "

" DA, sorry for the late reply.

I have been to 2 of the last 3 Planning Meetings in Lemoore. What got me started was the City's mailer announcing the completion of their Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in February.

Well, I read it. They want to place homes under a known and documented airport noise pattern, considered "highly annoying" in THEIR OWN EIR PLANNING TOOL. Mitigation is considering asking home owners give up their right to sue the Navy and/or city over noise...that will NEVER work and hasn't in similar situations elsewhere.

Pride, ego and MONEY arer why this thing has gone as far as it has. But the greater good of a $300 Million annual footprint the base gives to many in our area cannot be risked for the short-term profit making killing of a few...nor allow the City governments ego to "press on" with a ill-conceived plan when there is time to change the plan NOW. "

" So is the noise the only issue? Did the eir talk about the pros and cons of expanding to the north or east, or was it just limited to the western expansion? Surely they would have examined those options, its what these guys do for a living, right? Does it talk about some kind of benefit going west over other directions? I just want to make sure there isn't some uglier mess (no idea what it could possibly be) by NOT going west. "

" DA,

Show up tonight (Monday the14th) at 7:00PM for Planning Commision #4 on th eissue.

Looks like they will pass the buck to the City Council for a decision on May 6th from looking at the City's website just now.

No, I haven't seen any real reason the city didn't look north or east for new houses except vague references to "the canal" out west, not wanting to be "absorbed" by Hanford out west, using up "prime farm land" in both directions...

But where they DO want to build houses is where their own documents show a noise pattern/problem yet they will subject residents to such discomfort knowingly in advance? Place the retention of the base at risk for political shenanigans in future BRAC rounds? Not encourage use of TWO highways (41 & 198) and railroad acess for commercial/industrial development there?

There must be a money issue going on under the surface is all I can figure that potentially will outweight the considerations of the majority of residents in al of Kings and Fresno Counties. "