Unlock the latest buzz from Hanford as we serve up a feast of community updates and engaging conversations. Your virtual seat at the Hanford City Council meeting awaits, where we preview the new Downtown Improvement Project with Brian Johnson, Hanford's Communications Manager. Get the inside scoop on how to stay in the know with agendas and online viewing, and brace yourself for a parade of events that will have you marking your calendar.
Wave your community flag high as we navigate through the Hanford Civic Courier newsletter, your ultimate guide to civic engagement and the pulse of our city's lifeblood. I'll walk you through the simple steps to keep your finger on the city's pulse with an easy newsletter subscription. On the sporting front, join Eric Bentley, as we cheer on Hanford West's softball triumphs and revel in Sierra Pacific's nail-biting, extra-inning victories. Whether it's celebrating coach Brad Felder's lifetime achievements or introducing Hanford West's new head football coach, Niko Heron, we're capturing the essence of our local sports scene and inviting you to be a part of the narrative by sharing your own local team stories.
You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider Thank you for supporting the show!
Unlock the latest buzz from Hanford as we serve up a feast of community updates and engaging conversations. Your virtual seat at the Hanford City Council meeting awaits, where we preview the new Downtown Improvement Project with Brian Johnson, Hanford's Communications Manager. Get the inside scoop on how to stay in the know with agendas and online viewing, and brace yourself for a parade of events that will have you marking your calendar.
Wave your community flag high as we navigate through the Hanford Civic Courier newsletter, your ultimate guide to civic engagement and the pulse of our city's lifeblood. I'll walk you through the simple steps to keep your finger on the city's pulse with an easy newsletter subscription. On the sporting front, join Eric Bentley, as we cheer on Hanford West's softball triumphs and revel in Sierra Pacific's nail-biting, extra-inning victories. Whether it's celebrating coach Brad Felder's lifetime achievements or introducing Hanford West's new head football coach, Niko Heron, we're capturing the essence of our local sports scene and inviting you to be a part of the narrative by sharing your own local team stories.
You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider Thank you for supporting the show!
Speaker 1:
On this episode of the Hanford Insider, we'll hear from Brian Johnson, the communications manager for the city of Hanford. Rob will give us a quick community calendar update and I'll be back to update you on all of the high school sports. This is the Hanford Insider for Monday, March 4th.
Speaker 2:
Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of the Hanford Insider. I'm your host, rob Bentley. Thanks for listening. Visit my website at HanfordInsidercom for links to all of my podcast players. You can also leave me a voice message by clicking the microphone icon at the bottom of the page. I'd love to hear your feedback about the show. Your message is appreciated and may even be featured on a future episode. Be sure to follow the podcast on social media using the handle at Hanford Insider. For those of you new to the show, the Hanford Insider is a weekly podcast that releases every Sunday afternoon or Monday morning. Whenever I get done with it. I cover a little bit of everything from Hanford News and Community Calendar, and my son, eric, who works in sports, gives us a rundown of high school sports each week A little bit later in the show I'll let you know how you can get involved in the show In community news this week.
Speaker 2:
The Hanford City Council will be meeting on Tuesday, march 5th. Here are some of the topics on the agenda. During the study session 5,. The council will receive the anticipated preliminary design and project report for the Downtown Improvement Project. We'll have more about that in my interview with Brian Johnson later During the regular council meeting at 7,. The council will be pending Justin Valin and Jason Gustin to the position of police lieutenant of the Hanford Police Department. There are just a few items on the agenda this week. If you want a complete agenda, go to the City of Hanford website at Hanford Dodd City to download the packet or you can watch the live stream if you can't make it to the meeting yourself.
Speaker 2:
In other community news it looks like the Hanford Armot Road is going to be closed for at least two months between 12th and 13th avenues. They're doing utility work for the new subdivision going in. Drivers are advised to avoid the area. Detours will be available. It's also great to see the new Earl F Johnson Park playground under construction. The old playground has been torn down and a new one will be located near the northeast corner of the park, closer to residence.
Speaker 2:
Here's some things coming up on our community calendar. The Bobby Seals Whiskey River Band will be playing at the Hanford fraternal hall on 10th Avenue each Monday evening from 6 to 9 pm. This is great evening of dancing and listening to a great local band. There's a $10 charge. For more information, contact Juanita at 559-491-5330. The Hanford Ball Spring Carnival is open through the month of March. It's open weekdays 5 to 10 and on the weekends 2 to 10. The Kings players are presenting Ken Ludwig's leading ladies at the Temple Theatre in Hanford. The show runs each weekend through March 17. For tickets and information, visit kingsplayersorg.
Speaker 2:
Main Street. Hanford is selling tickets to the Everybody's Irish beer tasting event in downtown Hanford on Friday, march 15. Tickets are available at MainStreetHanfordcom. Hoffman's Nursery is hosting a vegetable garden seminar on Saturday, march 16th at 10 am. The Kings Storybook Garden Museum is holding their annual Victorian Tea Fundraiser at the Kings Fairgrounds on Saturday, march 16. Visit childrenstorybookgardenorg for information and tickets. The Hanford Sunset Rotary Club will be having their great stakeout fundraiser at the Hanford Fraternal Hall on March 23. I'll be grabbing events as I see them on the Hanford Sentinel Calendar and social media pages. If you have an event coming up and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to HanfordInsider at gmailcom. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events. The calendar says March and we know that springtime is a busy time in the city of Hanford and I thought it would be a great opportunity to invite Director of Communications for the City of Hanford, mr Brian Johnson. Welcome to the show, brian. How you doing.
Speaker 3:
Thanks, rob, I'm happy to be back.
Speaker 2:
Hey, Brian, before we get to some of the community events coming up, I know that in City Council News, which I cover a lot of, there's some topics that have come up and especially this coming Tuesday's City Council meeting. They're going to be reviewing the Downtown Improvement Project and I know the committee met with some business owners in town recently and they're going to be presenting it to the City Council during the study session on Tuesday. Can you tell us a little bit about the background of the Downtown Improvement Project and how the City plans to move forward?
Speaker 3:
Well, just so I don't take up a whole hour, I won't go into the full history of the Downtown Improvements Project For that. If anybody's curious, we do have a project webpage on the City of Hanford website and that's wwwhanfordcitycom slash Downtown Improvements Project. We do our best to kind of keep the community updated of any major updates related to the project on that webpage. As a matter of fact, just today I updated it with some information about Tuesday's meeting that you're referring to. But on Tuesday a couple of different things are going to happen. First and foremost, the City's design and engineering consultant it's a company called InterWest is going to be presenting some of the findings from their engineering report is really the easiest way to say it. It has a longer name and within that they do a lot of detailed analysis of the project area and ultimately they're going to go over that with Council and it'll be the first time the general public will be able to hear about that and kind of what it all means for moving the project forward.
Speaker 3:
Finally, city Council, at the meeting after that, will have to make some decisions about a final scope for the design of the project. So while the engineering study is done, we still haven't quite finalized the design of the project. You know I should mention you mentioned the meeting or open house with downtown property owners and business owners. They certainly had a chance to see some of the engineering report and so they got a little bit of a sneak preview. They're the ones that are going to be impacted by not only the design but the construction once the construction starts, and so we definitely wanted to give them that opportunity to provide feedback and again get that information directly from the consultant saying to ask any questions.
Speaker 2:
So at Tuesday's study session the firm will be presenting the information to the Council for consideration. So what kind of a timeline are we looking at for some of these decisions that have to be made?
Speaker 3:
Right. So we know that funds that we receive from the federal government from the American Rescue Plan Act, otherwise known as ARPA, have to be obligated by the end of 2024. Whether or not we do have to kind of get going on finalizing the design of the project and we expect City Council members will make that decision at the March 19th Council meeting and so after that then the City's consultant in our West will be able to put together the final design and from there a bid will go out for construction companies to do the construction based on that design.
Speaker 2:
So that's not the only timeline that the City is considering. We have a revenue measure committee that's been meeting and we see it in social media, the posts that the City makes and stuff. But can you tell us a little bit about what the revenue measure committee is and what the? What are they doing? What job are they tasked with?
Speaker 3:
So the ultimate purpose of the Revenue Measure Committee is to understand the city's financial situation and hear about some of the challenges facing departments that are funded by the General Fund and ultimately, at the end of their many meetings over the course of the next couple of months we've already had three meetings, they've already had three meetings, I should say they will ultimately make a recommendation or recommendations to our city council about a sales tax measure on the November 2024 ballot. You know, I think, that the work won't stop once the meetings end. Our hope is that if the committee does recommend a sales tax measure to our city council for the November ballot, that the people that are on the committee will spread what they've learned to other members of the community and talk about the importance and reasons behind that sales tax measure.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I had the opportunity to sit in on the Revenue Tax Measure Committee meeting last week and I was very, very overwhelmed with information. Regarding the police department specifically, Chief Huddleston shared the kind of growing pains that they have had over the years and just the lack of space that they have is just unbelievable for a department their size working in such a small consideration. So I'd encourage anybody to go back and look at the minutes of the meetings. That are fully online. You can see what was discussed and there'll be presentations, I'm sure, about what the committee's doing. I know they have field trips planned to some of the different facilities and stuff that are funded by the General Plan. So it'll be interesting for the next couple of months to kind of see how that plays out.
Speaker 3:
And I know we're a little way out still, but you mentioned that tour of city facilities and that will be on Saturday, april 6th, and just wanted to mention that, like all of the other committee meetings, that tour will be open to the public as well. So you know, we definitely will, in the coming months, start to put out more communication regarding the possible sales tax measure, especially if, again, that is the recommendation to our city council. We'll see that on social media, but they can also find information about the Revenue Measure and the Revenue Measure Committee at wwwhamfordcitycom.
Speaker 2:
So I know, sometimes I find out going to websites and you know looking up things is difficult. Sometimes you forget and then you don't know the navigation, the way to get there, but you have a way of communicating with the people of Hanford about what's going on. Can you tell us a little bit about the newsletter that you put out each week?
Speaker 3:
Wow, I'm happy you mentioned that, rob. Thank you, I'm looking for more subscribers. I wish I I had a few hundred more at this point. I think I have about 200, to be fully transparent, but I'm I'm I'm still proud of that. The thing I'm trying to avoid is just automatically signing up a bunch of people whose emails I have but didn't didn't choose to receive it. So I want people to choose to sign up for.
Speaker 3:
The civic career is the name of the newsletter, and that's something I started shortly after I arrived at the city.
Speaker 3:
I know that it is not new to government many other cities and government agencies put out newsletters or things of a similar nature but I felt like it was. It was needed there. There really is a lot happening in the city of Hanford and, in addition to some monthly Newsletters, the civic career also has a part of it that is dedicated to Recapping what happens at city council meetings the first and third Tuesdays every month, and so I do my best to get those out as soon as possible. Sometimes there's a little delay because I get busy with other things, but I definitely make a priority to get those council recaps done, because we understand that not everybody can come to council meetings, or Even watch online for that matter, and so I do my best to synthesize what happens and Get that out to the community. So would encourage people to just check out our social media pages. I often kind of repost the information there and and link to sign up for the letter there.
Speaker 2:
So how would someone get signed up for it? I know you mentioned links in the newsletter, but there can they email you. Can they go to the city website. How do they actually sign up for that list?
Speaker 3:
Yes, so I probably need to make it even easier. Going back to your, your point about you know navigation, but I I think for the time being there there is a. They could certainly email me and my emails Be as in boy T is in Tom Johnson at Hanford dot city, and I'll sign them up without them having to do anything else. Yeah, the only other kind of easier option at this point is is going to like our Facebook page and Finding a post about the civic career, and that's where I have a link. I'm trying to remember if I have it anywhere else, but now I can't remember.
Speaker 3:
One thing I do plan to do is not sure if you've noticed or if any other community members have noticed, but our refuse trucks have some signage, some new signage on them, and Currently that messaging is just related to refuse. But we are going to be rolling out a new program for Different city departments where they can, if they'd like, have their own signboard on the side of those refuse trucks. We're going to be rolling that out. I'm not the next week and I like the test subject and and Obviously I'm going to put the specific career Up on some truck.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we need your picture right there. Brian Johnson and the Hanford Civic career on the trash truck.
Speaker 3:
You don't need to be that. Nobody needs to see that. I Certainly would love more subscribers to my newsletter. Yeah, it's, it's fun and and I welcome any feedback as well yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:
Hey, I don't want to still Brad Albert's thunder here, but we've got some community events coming up before I get a chance to talk to him. So I know you talked about a March 16th wellness clinic that you're excited about. Can you share with us a little bit about that?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so we here at the city have a great relationship with Adventist Health, adventist Health in in the Central Valley I believe they call it the Central Valley Network now and one of the Partnerships that we've had is Walk with a Doc. We are kind of co Partners with the local Walk with a Doc chapter. We've been doing that for, I believe, about a year now. On March 16th We'll have our next Walk with a Doc, but the fun doesn't end at 10 o'clock when the walk is all done.
Speaker 3:
Adventist Health is going to be holding a Resource fair, a wellness clinic, through the afternoon I believe it goes until 2 o'clock that afternoon at Centennial Park and, and what's going to be happening there is, people can access free medical and dental services. I think that folks can even get haircuts. There's probably going to be some things that kids will enjoy. So certainly a Great event for the community, open to everybody, and the city will also be there and we'll try and match Adventist Health. I don't, you know, I don't think we can provide medical services, but we'll at least try and bring some information and Brad will be there and he's a.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, brad certainly is, and I will still his thunder for just a moment here. We have the food truck takeovers on Tuesday afternoons in the Civic Park so you can take a look at that. And then also March 29th is the big Easter egg hunt in the Civic Park. So we've got a lot going on in Hanford. So I would encourage you to subscribe to the Hanford Courier newsletter. Check the city of Hanford Social media pages. And, brian, it's been so great having you on again and we'll have you on again in a few weeks to give us some updates on the City Council goings on.
Speaker 3:
Perfect. Look forward to it. And now it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley.
Speaker 1:
We start with some off-season news. A big congratulations to former Hanford High Basketball coach, brad Felder, for being presented with the CIF Lifetime Achievement Award. In his 28 years as coach he led the Bullpups to 12 WIL titles and four central section titles. So a great honor for a great coach. And in football off-season news, hanford West has found their new head coach, as Niko Heron was named to the role last week. Heron, a former Fresno State linebacker, has already been on campus this past week preparing for the fall.
Speaker 1:
And now, in baseball action, the eights were wild for this year Pacific offense, as they scored eight runs in a pair of victories over Chowchilla and Reedley. The pitching and defense did their jobs well too, limiting their opponents to three and two runs respectively in those games. Hanford High was able to split a pair of games, besting Fresno Christian 7-2, before falling to Kingsburg 16-4. And Hanford West was only in action once, unfortunately unable to pick up a win, as they dropped their game to Hoover 4-2. As for softball, hanford High wasn't able to find a win in their lone game of the week versus Soma.
Speaker 1:
Hanford West was perfect on the week, taking down Tulare Western in a close 3-2 battle before dominating Golden West 13-0. And we'll close it out with a game that was way more interesting than a final score looks as Sierra Pacific was able to pick up a 12-3 win over Dainuba in extra innings. That's right. The game was tied at three, headed into extra innings, and the Golden Bear offense wasted no time putting the game away, scoring nine runs in the extra frame. With the nine-run lead, anaya Zaragoza took the circle for her eighth inning of work and secured the complete game victory for Sierra Pacific. As always, we want to give your teams the coverage that they deserve, so send any stats, stories or scores to HanfordInsider at gmailcom. I'm Eric Bentley and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.