Hanford Insider
Welcome the Hanford Insider, I’m your host Rob Bentley. I’m a lifelong resident of Hanford and I’m very involved in the local history scene and podcasting so I decided to start this show as a resource to Hanford area residents for covering issues, promoting events, sports, and reflecting on some local history.
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Hanford Insider
Hanford Insider: Behind the scenes of a historic downtown law firm
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A historic downtown law firm is making waves in Hanford with their commitment to community, clients, and careers. The Griswold LaSalle Law Firm, celebrating 80 years of service, has transformed the iconic Hanford Furniture Building into a thriving legal practice while maintaining its historic charm. With plans to expand to the third floor due to significant growth, this firm continues to evolve while honoring its roots.
What sets Griswold LaSalle apart is their dedication to nurturing future legal talent. Their Community Foundation, established in 2022, brings high school students into the firm annually for Law Day, giving them a behind-the-scenes look at legal careers beyond what they see on television. Their paralegal scholarship program provides not only financial support but also valuable internship experience, creating pathways for local students interested in legal careers.
The firm's latest community initiative is generating excitement throughout Kings County—the inaugural Kings Community Cook-Off: The Ultimate Rib Showdown. Scheduled for October 18th at Hanford Civic Park, this fundraising event will feature competitive rib cooking teams, celebrity judges including local mayors, music, vendors, and plenty of delicious food. The public can purchase $20 plate tickets that include three rib samples, sides, and beverages, with all proceeds supporting the foundation's educational and community programs.
Mario Zamora and Christina Smith share how their firm has grown from representing one municipality to nine different cities while maintaining comprehensive services in agriculture, business, estate planning, and family law. Through their foundation work and community events, they're creating meaningful connections that strengthen Hanford's social fabric while preparing the next generation of legal professionals.
Don't miss this chance to experience great food for a great cause! Visit kingscookoff.com to purchase tickets or register your team for the Ultimate Rib Showdown on October 18th, and become part of Griswold LaSalle's legacy of community service and leadership development.
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On this episode of the Hanford Insider, christina Smith and Mario Zamora share with us how the Griswold LaSalle law firm is helping shape future leaders and the big plans for their rib cook-off in October. Rob will preview the upcoming calendar of events. Then later I'll be back with your sports report. This is the Hanford Insider for Monday, september 1st.
Speaker 2:Hey there everybody. I hope you're having a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Welcome to the Hanford Insider. This is the place where we talk about the people, events and stories that make Hanford such a special community. Whether you've lived here forever or you're just getting to know the area, we're here to share what makes our town feel like home. Let's jump in Congratulations to Korean War Navy veteran Lyman Gorel of Hanford, who is honored as the hero of the game at Saturday night's Fresno State football game.
Speaker 2:He played football for Fresno State and taught at Hanford High School for over 30 years. He and his wife Patty met at Fresno State and have been married for 66 years. Once again, congratulations to veteran Lyman Gorel. It sure was great to see Hanford Police Officer Daniel Todd released from the hospital two weeks after his on-duty motorcycle accident. He was greeted upon his release by surprise from officers from several different agencies and some supporters. He still has a long recovery ahead but we're sure glad to see him headed home, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:The Hanford City Council won't have another meeting until September 16th, but you should mark your calendars now for the next Council Corner at Hanford Fire Station no 3 on Thursday September 18th. This will be with Councilman Mark Kyrus and Interim City Manager Chris Tavares. Now let's take a look at this week's community calendar. At the Thursday Night Marketplace this week it's Food Truck Appreciation Night with music by Moreno's Old School Funk. The Kings Players production of the Odd Couple is winding up its run at the Temple Theater this weekend with a final show on Saturday September 7th. Visit kingsplayersorg for information and tickets.
Speaker 2:Kings County Special Olympics will be holding a walking club inside the Hanford Mall beginning Sunday September 14th from noon until 1 pm. September 19th is the date for the annual Commission on Aging picnic at Burris Park. This year there'll be a classic car show too, so visit kccoaorg for details. Hanford's inaugural night out will be held on October 7th at 4 pm in the Civic Park. There will be lots of fun, provided by the Hanford Fire Department, hanford Police Department and the Public Works Department. There will be food vendors, boutique vendors, information booths, music and a whole lot more. This family-friendly event will connect the community to public safety personnel in a fun and welcoming environment.
Speaker 2:Looking a little farther ahead, the Renaissance Fair will be held in the Civic Park on October 4th and 5th and the Tribute to the China Alley Moon Festival will be held on October 4th at the Carnegie Museum of Kings County. 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. It's the most comprehensive community calendar available. Well, it's a great opportunity to be here this afternoon with Christina Smith and Mario Zamora from the Griswold LaSalle Law Firm. How are you doing?
Speaker 3:Doing great.
Speaker 2:Good, how are you? I'm doing great. The Griswold LaSalle Law Firm is a pillar of the community. This building is definitely a mainstay of downtown Hanford. It's a beautiful building and I know you have a big event coming up with a rib cook-off, and before we get to that, I thought it would be great to kind of look behind the scenes of the firm and this beautiful building that we're in. Mario, can you tell us a little bit about this historical building? Of course, most of us recognize it as the old Hanford Furniture Building, but your law firm has transformed this building into a beautiful space. And can you tell us a little bit about the building and maybe some future plans that you have?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we moved into the building in June of 2009. And we were previously just down the street next to Superior Dairy, next to where the city offices are right now, on Dowdy. But we occupy essentially the basement, the first and second floors right now and we're looking to expand to the third floor because we're really out of space. We've had some good business growth and unfortunately, or fortunately, all of our offices are completely filled right now, and so we're looking to do some expansion onto the third floor, some more office space, a little bit of multi-use room up there. But, yeah, it certainly has served us well. Many people know it, like you said, as the Hanford Furniture. It was the Hanford Hotel prior to that, so it's definitely been around for a long time, you know well, over 100 years and still going strong.
Speaker 2:And I know, and my listeners know from a previous interview, that you appreciate some new restaurants, especially the one across the street Off the Vine. How's it been having these restaurants downtown? Your clients and your staff can actually enjoy a meal downtown before they get back to work.
Speaker 4:I think it's great, you know, especially Off the vine, coming in right across the street replacing Fatty Albert's, but also, you know, some other ones that are around, you know, zaytuna, el Trasco, quesadilla, gorilla. Those are nice to have, I think, especially for the staff, because they like to go out and we like to support the downtown, and so it's nice to have walkable places. I won't forget Samurai Sushi. You know these are all places that us, you know the attorneys and the staff like love to go. So it's nice to have some variety downtown walkability.
Speaker 2:Mario, you do have a wonderful staff here at the firm, and can you tell us a little bit about the firm and what kinds of services you offer?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we've been around in Hanford for 80 years. This is our actual 80th anniversary this year and we have currently about 35 people attorneys, staff and administrative staff that work here. We handle we're still a general practice firm, so we handle all kinds of issues. Our main focus is probably municipalities these days, is probably municipalities these days. We've gone in the last 15 years or so from representing one to representing nine different cities in the area, and so that's been a big growth opportunity for us. But we still handle a lot of agriculture, a lot of business interests, a lot of state plans and family law and how we kind of structure that. Here is we have attorneys, who right now we have 13, but each one of them kind of has their specialty, and so we have somebody who focuses on family law, somebody who focuses on estate planning, a couple of us who focus on the municipal side, just given the amount of clients. But that's generally how we're structured.
Speaker 2:So, christina, the Community Foundation was founded in 2022, and it has a mission to educate the community about law, and I'd like to hear a little bit more about that, how that works.
Speaker 3:We are a 501c3 nonprofit. We're completely employee run. So we do have a board that is 12 employees big right now and so we get the whole firm involved and our mission is really to support our community, people in our community, and the way we sort of frame it is our firm kind of functions on these three C's as values. So we've got community, we have clients and we have careers. Those are our three C's, our big pillars, and so the foundation really is there to support those three C's. So we strive to support our clients that are doing good things in our community. We support careers through scholarships and education that type of thing, and we support our community with doing things in the community and also supporting local charities already established in our community as well.
Speaker 2:So one of the big activities I know you have is the Law Day, where you bring in high school students. How does that work?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we've been doing that, for I think we've done it four years now. What we do is, every year, may 1st is Law Day it's a national law day and we celebrate. We bring in high school students from all around the area. We have different high schools every year, some of the same, but sometimes we invite others and we have about 65 to 70 high school students that come in and they just kind of get a feel for a day in the life in a law firm. They hear from speakers, from attorneys, from paralegals. We've had Judge Giuliani has joined us twice. We are trying to, you know, give them, give these high school students who may not have anybody in their family that is in the legal field, may be curious about the legal field, and show them not only what the law firm looks like on the inside, but also that there's many different careers in the legal field, not just a judge or not just an attorney like you may see on TV, and just get some exposure. Let them ask some questions and maybe pique their interest.
Speaker 2:And I understand you have a scholarship program as well.
Speaker 3:We do. We have a paralegal scholarship program through our foundation and there's application process and the last three years we have applicants that are currently in paralegal school, so they have a two-year program usually and they apply during their first year for a scholarship for their second year and it's a $2,000 scholarship and part of the scholarship if they are awarded, it is a internship here at the firm. We actually have our paralegal scholarship recipient here now for their internship currently, and so it's a way for us to give back but also get them some practical experience as well.
Speaker 3:Christina, a lot of people will remember the Hanford furniture windows that were here and the foundation actually has kind of reestablished that yeah tradition about five years ago and when the foundation came aboard, we took that over and we've turned it into a much bigger attraction for the community and we've incorporated some fundraising opportunities as part of it as well, and so we've really tried to grow that and we're continuing to try to do that.
Speaker 2:So now I know who to contact when I bring my brass caroling group down on Wine and Chocolate and you have your opening ceremony. We were always walking around on the streets, but we didn't want to interrupt the entertainment that you had already provided, so I know who to call now. On Saturday, october 18th, you have a very, very cool event in the Civic Park. It's called the King's Community Cook-Off, the Ultimate Rib Showdown. This sounds amazing. Can you tell us about the event and kind of what's going to happen? That?
Speaker 3:day, a big fundraising-oriented event for our foundation, and we are doing a cook-off. We're doing a rib cook-off at Hanford Civic Park where teams will enter to show off their best recipes. We'll have a panel of judges that will be made up of several mayors of our cities that we represent, as well as some other individuals. There'll be cash prizes that we represent as well as some other individuals There'll be cash prizes. There'll be prizes for different, you know, best team, best first responders team, best family team, best decorated booth, that type of thing. We'll have vendors out there as well, selling other sweet treats type of thing, and we're just really excited to focus on the fundraising aspect of our foundation, which we've been slowly building to.
Speaker 2:So let's kind of take us through the day, the event. We know that you can't just walk up and get ribs. They take some good ribs, take time. So what does the day look like in terms of when they start cooking the ribs and to the time that judging takes place? And how do people that want to come down participate in this?
Speaker 3:Sure. So our contestants will be arriving at the wee hours of the morning, between 6 and 7 am, I believe, is when we'll be passing out the ribs and they'll be cooking all day, all morning. Open the doors open, I suppose, in the park. The gates open at 11 am and the judging will commence at noon, at which point members of the public who have purchased what we're calling plate tickets will be able to sort of turn in their ticket. So what will happen is they get you know, members of the public can arrive at 11.
Speaker 3:They'll purchase a ticket. That ticket will come with three rib tickets and then it will also come with a side, a beverage, and they will be able to walk around, look at how everybody's cooking their ribs and decide, you know, oh, I really want I'm really interested in what that one looks like and be able to pick three different ribs to try. And that's kind of the general plan. Anyway, we're still working out the exact order of things, but that's going to be the general plan is that members of the public can purchase kind of a package deal and they'll get three ribs tickets to try.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a lot of fun. I understand you have some music as well.
Speaker 3:We do. We have a DJ coming. We have Liz Gonzalez that will be coming as sort of MC of the event. We have Hop Forge will be participating. We will have beer for sale as well. We're really just excited to get a bunch of community members and vendors and businesses excited and involved for our big event.
Speaker 2:Well, that's great news. Once again, the event is the King's Community Cook-Off, the ultimate rib showdown put on by the Griswold LaSalle firm, and from 11 am to 3 pm in the Hanford Civic Auditorium Park. And do people just show up on the day of the event and pay, or can they get tickets ahead of time? How does that work?
Speaker 3:Absolutely yes. People can go on to kingscookoffcom where they can purchase plate tickets for $20 a plate, and that's also where team signups will be found as well for contestants that want to enter the showdown. That's all on our website. All of the details and information that you'll need is on there, as well as any contact information to get a hold of us here.
Speaker 2:Well, that's fantastic. I'm really looking forward to this event. I love community events, but this is a new one, a new tradition, as it were, and it's certainly community-focused, which is definitely an appeal for a lot of people, and I'd like to thank you and Mario for sitting down with me this afternoon and talking about the great things that your firm is doing.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much, we really appreciate it. Things that your firm is doing, thank you very much, we really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:And now it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley. We'll start with another Hanford High thriller at Neighbor Bowl. As the Bullpups bounced back from last week's overtime loss with a 39-35 victory over Sanger on Thursday night the Bullpups wasted no time getting on the scoreboard, connecting on touchdown passes of 43, 13, and 77 yards, while Sanger only had a 54-yard strike. As Hanford High led 20-7 after one quarter, the Apaches made some adjustments, scoring two touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 21-20 lead at the half. Sanger would extend their lead early in the third quarter with a 55-yard touchdown pass, before the Bullpups finally answered with a 45-yard touchdown pass of their own, but would fail the two-point conversion to trail 28-26. A rushing touchdown would give the Bullpups the lead late in the third quarter, but another missed two-point conversion kept the Hanford High advantage at four, 32-28. Sanger refused to go down without a fight, scoring with about seven minutes left to retake the lead 35-32,. But that was plenty of time for the Bullpups as the offense moved down the field and grabbed the lead for good on a 27-yard touchdown pass and the defense shut down the Sanger offense the rest of the way for the 39-35 win. Junior quarterback Jaron Mao led the way offensively for the Bullpups, accounting for all six Hanford High touchdowns, five passing each to a different receiver and one rushing. The road ahead doesn't get any easier for the 1-1 Bullpups as St Joseph's will make the trip over from Santa Maria to face off with Hanford High on Friday at 7 pm. We'll stay at Neighbor Bowl because Sierra Pacific football was in action at home for the first time on Friday, taking on Golden Valley, and it was a close, low-scoring affair that saw the Golden Bears hold a slim 14-7 advantage at the half. The Bulldogs would tie the game early in the fourth quarter but Sierra Pacific responded quickly as quarterback Dawson Berna snuck in from the one-yard line to give the Golden Bears a lead they wouldn't relinquish, going on to win 21-14 in their first victory of the season. Sierra Pacific will hit the road this week for a 7-15 showdown at Corcoran on Friday, and Hanford West is still looking to get on the board this season. After being shut out 21-0 at Corcoran last week, the Huskies will take on Woodlake this week at 7-30.
Speaker 1:Out to the pool now where Sierra Pacific Girls, Water Polo, continued their undefeated start to the season, picking up a pair of wins versus Hanford High and Hoover. Last week, In the 17-4 win over the Bullpups, Mia De La Torre led the way with five goals, while in the 20-3 win over Hoover Alyssa Souza paced the offense with seven. Also in Girls Water polo, there was a crosstown tilt between Hanford High and Hanford West, but no scores reported for that matchup. And on the boys water polo side, Sierra Pacific is off to a six and one start after picking up a pair of wins last week. In Tuesday's crosstown matchup with Hanford High, Landon Jones and Jack Barcelos led the way offensively in the 20-3 win and in Thursday's matchup that was a 22-6 victory over Hoover.
Speaker 1:Over to girls volleyball now, where Hanford West has won four in a row, after taking down Tulare Union and Hanford High three sets to one to improve to 4-1 overall on the year. To improve to 4-1 overall on the year For Hanford High Volleyball, aside from the loss to the Huskies, they were able to pick up a 3-1 victory over Golden West and a tournament win over Sanger West. And finally, Sierra Pacific Volleyball went 2-0 on the week, sweeping Tulare Western and Sunnyside in straight sets to improve to 3-2 on the year. As always, we like to cover as many sports as we can, but we can only do so much without you. Any sport, any team, any level. If you have a score report, a story idea or a team update, please let us know at hanfordinsider at gmailcom. I'm Eric Bentley and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.
Speaker 2:Well, that's all the time we have for this week's show. If you enjoyed this community service podcast and you'd like to show your support, you can go to buymeacoffeecom forward slash Hanford Insider to make a donation. I really appreciate those of you who've been donating. It means a lot. Thank you. If you'd like to join the Hanford Insider email list, stop by my website at hanfordinsidercom to sign up for updates. You'll also get an exclusive copy of my newsletter in your inbox each week. I also need your help getting the word out about the show by liking and sharing on social media or telling a friend For more information about the show. You can find this podcast on Facebook, instagram, threads X and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at hanfordinsider at gmailcom and I'll look into it. Thanks for listening. It's going to be a great week. It's going to be a warm one, but I hope it's a great one for you. See you next week.
