Hanford Insider: Mayor Paden's Wrap-Up 9/17/25

Mayor Travis Paden takes us behind the scenes of Hanford's latest City Council meeting, revealing crucial decisions that will shape our community's future. The Council has approved $325,000 for much-needed repairs to the Hanford Plunge, including a new slide and slide pool, with an additional $100,000 set aside for future maintenance—extending this beloved facility's life by approximately ten years.

A moment of civic pride illuminated the meeting as eight local gymnasts from Lee's United Gymnastics were honored for bringing home national championship titles. The Council recognized owner Lee Pinkstaff with a special proclamation celebrating his 48 years of dedication to the sport and the 1,000+ athletes who train at his facility weekly. Community infrastructure received significant attention with a $1.1 million contract awarded for a new traffic signal at 12th Avenue and Hume Avenue, while plans were discussed for transforming the long-vacant lot on 11th Avenue off Highway 198 into a comprehensive development featuring housing, hotel, conference center, retail, assisted living facilities, and medical offices.

The most substantial financial consideration focused on a $63 million energy service contract for upgrading the wastewater treatment plant—a time-sensitive project as the facility approaches maximum capacity within the next 4-5 years. Public safety initiatives gained unanimous support through Chief Perkins' "Illegal Fireworks: It's Not Worth It" campaign, which introduces stringent penalties of $1,000 per illegal firework up to $10,000 per person per day. Residents should mark their calendars for upcoming community events including the Renaissance Fair (October 4-5), Hanford Night Out with police and fire departments (October 2), and the Fire Department's Open House (October 13). Have questions or concerns? Reach out directly to Mayor Payton at tpaden@hanfordca.gov or follow the city's social media channels for the latest updates.

You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider
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Chapters

• 0:00 Mayor's Introduction
• 0:29 Fire Department and Plunge Repairs
• 1:08 Civic Park and Gymnast Recognition
• 2:18 Development Projects and Contracts
• 4:19 Fireworks Campaign and Upcoming Events

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

You're listening to a special edition of the Hanford Insider Podcast featuring Mayor Travis Payton's Wednesday Wrap-Up from the September 16th Hanford City Council Meeting. Hello Hanford, mayor Travis Payton and we're here today for the Wednesday Wrap-Up. This is where we give you all the events that happened at last night's Hanford City Council Meeting and, as always, you can view the Hanford City Council meetings on our website at hanfordcity. In our study session, we received from Chief Perkins the Fire Department Annual Report for 2024 and moving on and sharing the vision for 2025. We also talked about the Hanford Plunge. The Hanford Plunge is needing many improvements and repairs, including a new slide and a new slide pool. We were able to pull $325,000 from the general fund but also leaving about $100,000 in reserves if there's any necessary repairs down the line. Hopefully this will last the Hanford Plunge another 10 years line. Hopefully this will last the Hanford Plains another 10 years. We also discussed the Civic Park hardscaping project. Now this is where Winter Wonderland occupies and every year in the past four years of Winter Wonderland, we've been replacing the sod. Now we are looking and possibly considering no action has been taken, but putting cement or hardscapes there.

Speaker 1: 1:26

The council really unanimously approved us going out to the public and seeing what the public thought about this idea. In recognition, we had the honor of recognizing the gymnasts from Lee's United Gymnastics. These gymnasts in June competed in the National Gymnastics Association and we had eight gymnasts come home with individual or all-around national titles. It was a tremendous opportunity for us to just show them how proud we were. We were also able to give the owner of Lee's United Gymnastics, lee Pinkstaff, a proclamation for his 48 years in the sport, where he trains through his gym over 1,000 athletes each and every week. In our consent calendar we approved two planning commissioners and two parks and rec commissions. We also awarded a $1.1 million contract for a traffic signal on 12th Avenue and Hume Avenue. We approve school resource officers programs and also the police department is getting new firearm equipment.

Speaker 1: 2:38

In our public hearings from Sandra Lerma we heard the community development grant report where she was giving us information on all the hard work that they do in helping seniors and also first-time buyers in affordable housing and 11th Avenue off of 198, that long stretch of vacant lot where we are going to have housing, hotel, conference center, retail, assisted living, as well as medical offices north of 198. It's a much needed development in that area and we're really excited to see that project grow. We also had to do a consideration for a $63 million energy service contract for our wastewater treatment plant. Now that area is long overdue and we are going to hit max capacity in our wastewater treatment plant over the next four to five years and with a build it would take about two, two and a half years to build, and so we need to act before we hit that maximum capacity.

Speaker 1: 3:45

In our general business, we had two reimbursement resolutions that would allow the city to later use low-cost bonds for major projects that we have, including the wastewater treatment plant, but also the new public safety building. But also the new public safety building. We had an approval of 12 drinking fountains in our parks and also Director Sterling established a plan of how we can make sure that all our drinking fountains in our parks and our sports facilities are not rusted and replaced on a regular basis so we could have some clean drinking water. We also approved with a unanimous vote in support of Chief Perkins with our Illegal Fireworks it's Not Worth it campaign. This will add more personnel on the weekend of 4th of July, as well as an active and robust fine if you have or are in possession of illegal fireworks. It would be $1,000 per firework, up to $10,000 per person per day, so it's a very serious thing and really it's not worth it.

Speaker 1: 4:55

And finally, we'll wrap up our council reports with the Renaissance Fair in Civic Park going to be on October 4th and 5th, our Hanford Night Out with our police and fire departments on October 2nd at 4 pm in Civic Park, as well as the fire department's open house on October 13th from 10 am to 2 pm at our Fire Station1 on Gainesville Boulevard. As always, please check out our website at hanfordcity and also you could reach out to mevard. As always. Please check out our website at hamfordcity and also you could reach out to me, t Payton at hamfordcagov for more information on any of these agenda items. Please follow us on social media on YouTube, instagram, twitter, as well as Facebook for all your council members if you would like to have a concern and you would like to express your opinions. Until then, we'll see you after our next meeting.