Hanford Insider: Parks & Community Services Update, Bullpup to Bulldog grabs a touchdown!

Transcript

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On this week's episode of the Insider, Rob will give us an update on the community calendar, then Brad Albert stops by to update us on several parks and community services events and I'll be back with a high school football recap.

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This is the Hanford Insider.

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I'm your host, rob Bentley.

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Thanks for listening.

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For those of you who are new to the show, welcome.

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The Hanford Insider is a weekly podcast that releases every Monday.

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I cover a little bit of everything from Hanford news, a community calendar, and my son, eric, who works in sports, gives us a rundown of high school sports each week during the school year.

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I try to keep things light and positive in such a negative world.

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I hope you enjoyed the format.

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I'm always looking for more human interest stories.

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A little bit later in the show I'll let you know how you can get involved In community news.

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This week the City of Hanford will be holding a Measure H community meeting this Thursday, september 12th, at 5.30 pm in the City Office Training Room behind Superior Dairy.

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This is your chance to get your questions answered in person by City staff.

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No RSVP is needed.

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Here's some things coming up on our community calendar.

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The weather is looking great for this week's Thursday night marketplace After a summer full of cancellations due to the heat.

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The projected high Thursday is only 82 degrees.

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That's right, 82 degrees.

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The projected high Thursday is only 82 degrees.

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That's right, 82 degrees.

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The Hanford Square 8s are holding score dance lessons.

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Everyone is welcome.

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The 12 weekly classes are held each Tuesday from 7 to 8.25 at the Hall on Fargo at the Tracks.

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Contact Sarah Wallace at 559-358-8159 for details.

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The Kings players are presenting Outward Bound Evening performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 7 pm.

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There are also select matinee performances.

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Visit kingsplayersorg for tickets and information.

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Part two of the Kings County's Asian Experiences opens this Friday, september 13th, at the Carnegie Museum of Kings County.

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Part 2 showcases local Asian communities in the years following World War II.

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Specific displays focus on histories, cultures and traditions of the Japanese, chinese, filipino and Hmong in the area.

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For more information, visit carnegiemuseumofkingscountyorg.

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On Saturday, september 14th, kings County Community Action will be celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month from 10 am to 1 pm at their main office on 11th Avenue.

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There's a resource, fair cultural performances, vaccine clinic and free tacos.

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The Children's Storybook Garden Museum will be holding their 8th birthday celebration on Sunday, september 15th, from 1 to 3 pm.

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Visit childrenstorybookgardenorg for details.

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Kings County Behavioral Health is holding a Walk of Hope recognizing September as Suicide Prevention Month.

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The walk will be held at the Civic Auditorium Park on Wednesday, september 18th, from 10 am to 11 30 am.

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Everyone is invited.

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The Kings County Commission on Aging is holding their annual picnic in the park on Friday, september 20th at Burris Park There'll be lots of food and fun for our seniors.

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For more information, call 852-2828.

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The Remington will be holding a magic show featuring Magic Max on Friday, september 20th, from 6.30 to 8 pm.

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All proceeds will go to the Kings County Walk to End Alzheimer's.

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The Pioneer Middle School Band Boosters will be holding a Battle of the Bands on Saturday, september 21st at the school from 3 pm to 8 pm.

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They're currently seeking bands and sponsors.

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Contact the school for details.

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Pm.

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They're currently seeking bands and sponsors.

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Contact the school for details.

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Also on September 21st, the big downtown Hanford Blues and Roots Festival will be held in the Civic Park from 5 pm to 10 pm.

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The festival will feature Tommy Castro and the Painkillers, evan Thomas Blues Band, square One and Motel Drive.

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This annual blues festival is one of the only free festivals in the country.

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Don't miss it.

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On Sunday, september 22nd, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Hanford will be holding a multicultural parish festival from 9 am to 4 pm.

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Enjoy a variety of typical foods, entertainment for the whole family, live music and design.

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Pacific Park Stage lights up again on Wednesday, september 25th for the Main Street Hanford and KJUG Radio's Free Country Concert at 7 pm featuring Dylan Marlowe, frankie Justin and Kelsey Hart.

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As part of the Asian Experiences Exhibit at the Carnegie Museum, there will be a tribute to the China Alley Moon Festival on Saturday, september 28th, from noon to 5 pm in the parking lot next to the museum.

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Admission is free.

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There'll be performances by the Cal Poly Lion Dancers and the Fresno Gumiotaiko.

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For more information, visit the museum website at carnegiemuseumofkingscountyorg.

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The Hanford Education Foundation will be holding their annual Bourbon Trail fundraising event on Saturday, october 5th.

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Visit hefbourbontrail2024.eventbritecom for details.

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If you have an event coming up and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together.

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Send your information to hanfordinsider at gmailcom.

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Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events.

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It's a real pleasure to welcome back to the show Mr Brad Albert, who is the Director of the Parks and Community Services Department for the City of Hanford.

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Welcome back, brad, rob, it's good to be back.

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Thank you for having me back on.

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Hey, Brad, I know you've got a huge fall schedule and so let's see if we can get an update on some of these events, starting with the Renaissance Fair on October 4th and 5th this year.

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What do you have planned?

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So we are in the last phases of planning for the 45th annual actually Renaissance of Kings Fair.

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We heard recently it is the longest running Renaissance Fair in the state of California and that will take place actually on the 5th and 6th of October, saturday and Sunday.

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On Saturday the hours are 10 to 6 pm and on Sunday, October 6th, they're 10 to 5.

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And this year we've partnered with C-Square Production.

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They produce Renaissance Fair California, oregon, washington.

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We've already secured over 31 vendors of different Renaissance arts.

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We've got great entertainment, we've got kings and queens in the court and we're really looking forward to this year's fair.

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Yeah, that's awesome.

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Sorry about the date mix up there.

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It is October 5th and 6th.

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I should know that.

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So there are some changes this year and publicized and people have mixed feelings about it, but I know, in order to recruit some of the costs associated with the event, that you're actually going to charge admission this year.

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How does, how is that going to work?

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Well?

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I'm glad you brought that up.

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We have reached out to a potential sponsor.

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I won't give names yet.

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Originally our plan was to fence the park and to charge a very nominal admission fee of $5 for adults and $3 for children and, as you say, some people weren't really in favor of that.

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Cost recovery for us is really a big thing.

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Our council wants to recoup money the best we can when we do these large events.

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So if the proposal we have with this sponsor, if it goes through, we will not charge no-transcript be one on Dowdy, one on Irwin, and it would be a $5, which I believe is a good value.

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With the entertainment, the vendors, the king and the queen in the court, the combat displays, there really is a lot going on throughout the day with the event.

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So a little bit to be determined.

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We're hopeful again we could make it a free event and we'll know shortly.

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Yeah, that would be outstanding to have a sponsor.

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I know those costs can add up when you have all the hosts that are there responsible for opening up the restrooms, cleaning up, you know, before and afterwards, and I don't think sometimes people realize what goes into an event like that.

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So thank you to you and your staff for pursuing corporate sponsorship.

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For that, that's great news.

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So, speaking of the Courthouse Park, there with the Civic you have some other events coming up, like the Halloween Bash and the Haunted House, and then over at Longfield Center on October 28th you have a Trunk or Treat.

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So let's launch into the Halloween season events.

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Yeah, we've got three events happening later in October.

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So the Halloween Bash will take place October 25th, 26th and 27th from 1 to 10 pm and really what that is, there are food vendors, games, pumpkin patch, real family-friendly, orientated events.

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Several of our local vendors are involved in that.

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In fact last year they kind of took the lead in establishing the bash kind of a fall festival feel to it, so very family-friendly.

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The haunted house will operate with that event and the dates of the haunted house are October 24th through 27th from 6 to 10 pm and that will actually be inside of the courthouse and you exit into the mash and for the real little trick-or-treaters that may not want to go through the haunted house, they could just come around back and we'll have all the family-friendly activities there.

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The trunk or treat will be at the Longfield Center and that is on October 28th from 5 to 7 pm and they're all again family-friendly.

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We encourage costumes and we just we love the Halloween time of year.

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Hopefully the weather will begin to change a bit time of year.

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Hopefully the weather will begin to change a bit.

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Yeah, definitely.

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I know it's going to start cooling down here.

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We're definitely looking forward to that.

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But before it cools down, I understand that you extended the plunge season.

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You're going to be open on the weekends for people to swim until the weather gets cold enough in October to shut it down.

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Right?

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That is correct.

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In late spring we had some mechanical issues.

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We had to push things back.

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So we know it could be very warm into October.

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So we pushed the schedule.

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We're now open weekends from one to four.

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We have our water aerobics and our lap swimming got pushed into the five to eight evening hours to be a little bit cooler.

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That will run through to October.

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So we're real happy to push both the public swim on weekends and kind of the water adult classes ongoing and so we're real happy to be able to push that.

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Again, we know it could be very warm in September and early October.

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Yeah, that's great, and I understand the water slide was not functioning this year.

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What's the situation with that?

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That is correct.

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Unfortunately, that water slide, as is our historic carousel, are both attractions in the eyes of the state of California, and some pretty major repairs were needed to be done to make the slide safe for operations.

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Safe for operations.

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We do have a capital budget and this year we decided we would delay the repairs until this off-season, so it will be open in the early summer of 25.

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Well, that's great to hear.

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Certainly, let's move on to parks.

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You know, in last week's episode we spent a lot of time with the Revenue Measure Committee talking about the condition of the parks and how they can be improved.

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But I know you're super excited about some things that are happening with these larger regional parks.

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Let's start with Heroes Park.

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I understand you've been having some planning meetings and the wheels are rolling on that.

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Can you kind of describe the park and a little location and maybe some of the features that you're looking at putting in that park?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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We're in the design process of Harrow's Park.

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We have acquired the property.

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So now the city is the official owner of 40 acres.

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Owner of 40 acres.

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The future park will be.

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The cross streets will be Grangeville and the future 9th Avenue, which of course is not built yet.

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It will run from Lacey to Grangeville north and south.

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It will be a four lane street so it'll be a pretty major street.

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So Heroes Park will be kind of right on that corner.

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There'll be two entrances off of 9th Avenue and one entrance off of Grangeville.

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We're also planning for a potential new fire station on that property.

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As development moves forward on the east side, that's going to be needed.

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So we've had a couple really good community outreach where we're developing what they call the conceptual design and that is where will things be placed within the 40 acres.

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And way back when we applied for the grant we did several community outreach meetings.

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They told us what they wanted.

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We took their top 15 amenities and we have designed 13 of those into Heroes Park and those include an amphitheater, pickleball courts, dog park, skate park, community garden, outdoor basketball, outdoor tennis courts, 450 trees and open space soccer fields.

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So really trying to pack a lot in that.

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So really trying to pack a lot in that.

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So the second round of outreach that we had two weeks ago we had a meeting with the local skater community.

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It was awesome they that the skaters and the design team spawn a ranch, which is a special.

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That's what they do all over the world.

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They speak the same language.

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I didn't understand the language, but they gave their input.

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There is an online survey open currently on the city's website.

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If you go there to the Parks and Community Services, you go down to Heroes Park.

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There is an open skate park survey Park.

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There is an open skate park survey so folks can provide their input.

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Within probably the next month or so, they will return with a conceptual design of the skate park, refine it more.

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We'll have another meeting and that type of thing.

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So this is the time for the community to come.

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We have put the latest version of the conceptual design on our website same location that I just described and it's just really exciting to be able to kind of see what this future park and you know people say why are you building it out in the middle of nowhere?

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Well, someday not too far it won't be in the middle of nowhere.

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Exactly.

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Exactly, you know, we feel the east side will.

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You know, especially with the high-speed rail station coming in on the east, it will be a popular place, probably all the way out to the highway.

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Yeah, and I think that modernization of Lacey Boulevard, all the way from 10th Avenue to 43, all of that area over the next 10 years, that is going to be something to see for sure.

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Let's move on now to Hidden Valley.

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First of all, before we talk about the 18 acres that hasn't been developed yet, let's talk about the existing park.

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I understand that you have your Helping Hands event coming up this weekend, on September 14th.

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Can you tell us a little bit about that event and how people can help?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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So about a year and a half ago we created Helping Hands and what that is basically is having volunteers come out, volunteer their times it's Saturday mornings and just to do tasks.

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It could be painting, it could be spreading wood chips, it could be planting trees.

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You know, we have a pretty expansive park system and just to get the buy-in of the community, we've had a pretty good core group that comes month after month.

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A lot of fun, it's very social.

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We provide all the gloves, the tools, all the things that are needed and it's just really a great way for the community kind of to give back, you know, to the parks and we appreciate it and that's, as you said, coming up this Saturday.

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So again, you can go onto the website.

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It will tell you we pick a different park every month and we have different projects going on and our park staff show up and they get it all set up and we have got just a tremendous amount of work, projects completed, work, projects completed.

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They'll actually be coming out in November to help set up for Winter Wonderland on a Saturday with the decorations and such.

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So that's been a great program and anybody who's willing and able is welcome to come.

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Yeah, that was great.

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I remember the first one and just a couple of coats of paint on those wooden boards out on front on 11th Avenue just made a huge impact on the visibility and all of the flowers and everything that's been planted there on the corner by the exercise court.

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That's really neat to see.

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So the undeveloped 18 acres we could have again.

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We could have a whole nother show about that for, actually probably a whole year of talking about that.

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But I was wondering if we could get a quick update on the process of rezoning the park back into parkland and where we're at on that.

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So, as you mentioned, you know, the vacant 18 acres at City Own for many, many years I won't go back as far probably as the very beginning there's been a debate on whether that should be zoned for residential or for park space, open space as it's, you know, different designation of land uses.

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The previous council asked staff to go back and to rezone it back to parkland, back to open space.

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So that process is not an overnight process.

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The state requires when you're rezoning or moving housing from one location you have to find locations within the city to move that same amount of housing.

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So if it in this case I think it's medium to low density housing that has to be placed elsewhere.

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That's a process that goes through our planning commission, ultimately to council for approval.

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The last I heard on that is November, december In the fall.

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That will return and then that will continue that process.

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About a month ago now we returned to council with some conceptual drawings.

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We actually had five different kind of layouts, different kind of layouts, both developing the vacant 18 acres and a little bit reimagining the existing park.

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So it kind of really tied together with, you know, trails and pathways seem to be in all our surveys master plan.

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People really want trails and the city of Hanford has zero miles of class one dedicated trail and related to that.

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We are kind of in the fourth quarter of an active transportation plan that we'll be bringing forward in the next month or so for review that would be adopted by council.

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That really codifies the need for trails, how you can fund trails, and through grants and through different funding, so we can begin to knit together a trail system in a community.

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That was really designed for the automobile, and so we were.

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Really we don't want to think we forgot about trails, we absolutely didn't.

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But many funding sources says, well, it's got to be in one of your plans.

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So okay, time out, let's do the plan, then you go for the funding.

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So that's for Hidden Valley.

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We will return to council with some phasing of that project.

00:22:50.780 --> 00:22:59.306
Really, quite honestly, the big question mark is funding that the current state funding goes.

00:22:59.306 --> 00:23:02.907
They don't like you to build parks right next to parks.

00:23:02.907 --> 00:23:19.616
They like you to have a minimum of a half mile distance and you literally put a dot on a map and if it meets their metrics you're eligible.

00:23:19.616 --> 00:23:20.337
So we're going to be looking.

00:23:20.337 --> 00:23:21.421
You know we've looked at different funding mechanisms.

00:23:21.421 --> 00:23:22.603
That's still going to be.

00:23:22.603 --> 00:23:28.275
You know the question mark with the development of that vacant 18 acres.

00:23:28.275 --> 00:23:33.519
A lot of people don't understand when you do an expansion project like that.

00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:47.238
We would have to build a eight foot brick wall along the residence and along the whole railroad tracks before you could even begin to develop a park.

00:23:47.238 --> 00:23:57.730
And there's infrastructure, water power, you know all of that stuff and that's things you may not notice or even see when you walk into a park.

00:23:57.730 --> 00:24:00.767
We're doing the same thing now with the design of Heroes Park.

00:24:00.767 --> 00:24:04.319
You know roads and streets and sewer and water and electrical.

00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:11.182
So those are some of the hidden costs to park development that oftentimes go unseen.

00:24:12.443 --> 00:24:18.263
Well, that's some really good information, because I know, just listening to that I realized a lot of that information.

00:24:18.263 --> 00:24:30.141
But just the amount of hoops that have to be jumped through in order to do that, and I know that there are many who would like to see that park open next year, but we know that that's not going to happen.

00:24:30.141 --> 00:24:35.400
I will say that we didn't know Heroes Park was going to be a thing until the funding came through.

00:24:35.400 --> 00:24:56.796
So I think having the city being ready and in a position and having this available to potential grants and such, I think is huge, because I think well, I don't think I know from experience with Hidden Valley is that when the city wasn't prepared, they definitely missed out on a lot of opportunities to receive funding to develop that.

00:24:56.796 --> 00:24:59.557
So that definitely plays into it.

00:25:00.157 --> 00:25:01.838
So let's move on to something fun now.

00:25:01.838 --> 00:25:12.105
We have Winter Wonderland coming up and I'm going to have you back on the show in November to kind of tell us all about the new stuff and the new rink and all the things that are going to be available.

00:25:12.105 --> 00:25:17.469
But you're going to need people to run this event this year and I've seen you have some advertising out there.

00:25:17.469 --> 00:25:20.411
What positions are you hiring for out there?

00:25:20.490 --> 00:25:21.571
What positions are you hiring for?

00:25:21.571 --> 00:25:22.771
Well, we have quite a few.

00:25:22.771 --> 00:25:23.113
Actually.

00:25:23.113 --> 00:25:32.136
We have three, I guess, classifications or titles.

00:25:32.136 --> 00:25:33.019
We have, you know, ice rink, part-time staff.

00:25:33.019 --> 00:25:33.641
So those are the people.

00:25:33.641 --> 00:25:43.601
There are cashiers, there's the folks that distribute the skates out, they monitor the ice, they monitor the park, they take care of the restrooms, they keep things clean.

00:25:43.601 --> 00:25:47.705
A second is what we call ice rink operation.

00:25:47.705 --> 00:25:58.281
What many people don't know is we have staff there 24 hours a day, so we have a day shift, a swing shift and a graveyard shift, so we have a presence there.

00:25:58.281 --> 00:26:10.710
Part of that is for security, part of it is we have a lot of work to do at night to steam clean sidewalks, to sharpen skates, to get it ready for the following day.

00:26:11.316 --> 00:26:31.459
And the last one, the one that we just opened up, people will laugh, but we are looking for Santa's elves and we have a new attraction that just a little teaser is called the Santa Experience and we're building it from scratch.

00:26:31.459 --> 00:26:53.800
It will be unlike anything on the West Coast and we're going to need folks that can stay in character and assist Santa and the many families that will come to see Santa and that will be attraction at Winter Wonderland.

00:26:53.800 --> 00:27:04.321
It coincides that attraction is November 23rd and of course Santa's got to go deliver presents on the 24th.

00:27:04.321 --> 00:27:27.266
So the Santa experience will conclude on the 24th and little teaser, on December 24th, on Christmas Eve, we will have Santa reading the night before Christmas in the Civic Auditorium at 5 and 7 pm for the entire community to come out and enjoy.

00:27:27.266 --> 00:27:31.558
So that's kind of a new tradition, but we'll get into more later.

00:27:32.260 --> 00:27:35.238
Yeah, definitely, winter Wonderland is a huge hit.

00:27:35.238 --> 00:27:40.623
Congratulations again to everybody at the city for working together to make this a special event for Hanford.

00:27:40.623 --> 00:27:41.996
It's definitely one of those things.

00:27:41.996 --> 00:27:54.385
I was talking to Thomas Curtis, local realtor, on an episode a few weeks ago, and he mentioned that one of the reasons that people are coming to Hanford is for these unique experiences not only just to visit but to live.

00:27:54.385 --> 00:27:57.459
So that can only help things.

00:27:57.459 --> 00:27:59.917
Brad, I want to thank you for coming on the show again.

00:27:59.917 --> 00:28:05.141
It's always fun to talk to you and your enthusiasm for fun is contagious.

00:28:05.141 --> 00:28:19.346
And thank you again and we'll talk to you again in a few fun is contagious, and thank you again and we'll talk to you again in a few weeks when we get ready for Winter Wonderland Rob thank you very much for having me.

00:28:21.390 --> 00:28:35.114
And now it's time for Hanford Insider Sports, with Eric Bentley, sierra Pacific was able to pick up their first win of the season, besting Corcoran 41-27 in the Battle of Highway 43.

00:28:35.114 --> 00:28:39.971
It was a back-and-forth game as both teams traded touchdowns into the fourth quarter.

00:28:39.971 --> 00:28:53.272
The drama started late, when the Golden Bears scored a touchdown to go ahead 27-21, but missed the extra point to keep the lead at six, leaving the door open for Corcoran to take the lead with their fourth-quarter touchdown.

00:28:53.272 --> 00:28:57.502
However, the Panthers missed their extra point to keep it tied at 27.

00:28:57.502 --> 00:29:02.162
Sierra Pacific would go on to score two late touchdowns to secure the victory.

00:29:02.950 --> 00:29:08.558
The 1-2 Golden Bears will have a chance to keep the momentum rolling when they travel to Kalinga on Thursday.

00:29:08.558 --> 00:29:15.738
Hanford High remains a perfect 3-0, with a rollercoaster of a win at St Joseph's in Santa Maria.

00:29:15.738 --> 00:29:36.321
The Bullpups appeared to have the game in hand, leading 31-13 heading to the fourth quarter, but the Knights scored 14 unanswered and were driving with a minute to go in the fourth quarter before the Bullpup defense came up huge with a Gilbert Garcia sack and an Albert Richardson interception to seal the 34-27 victory.

00:29:36.321 --> 00:29:41.922
Cordy Glass propelled the offensive side of things for the Bullpups, rushing for three touchdowns.

00:29:41.922 --> 00:29:56.721
Hanford High will head on the road for the fourth game in a row this week, going down to Visalia to clash with El Diamante, and Hanford West is still looking for their first win of the season, falling to Woodlake 49-26.

00:29:56.721 --> 00:30:01.011
Next up for the Huskies is a trip on Thursday to take on Kerman.

00:30:02.192 --> 00:30:11.605
And while we're talking football, from bullpup to bulldog, hanford's own, tyler Mello, made an impact on Saturday night at Valley Children's Stadium at Fresno State.

00:30:11.605 --> 00:30:23.785
Usually a special teams player, he saw action with the Fresno State offense lining up in the backfield before rolling out and catching a one-yard touchdown pass to put the Bulldogs up 32-17.

00:30:23.785 --> 00:30:25.748
To put the Bulldogs up 32-17.

00:30:25.748 --> 00:30:31.150
Tyler earned his degree in ag business from Fresno State this past spring and is now enrolled in the master's program.

00:30:31.150 --> 00:30:36.261
Also appearing in the game was another Hanford High School graduate, mason Brousseau.

00:30:36.261 --> 00:30:44.143
As he suited up for Sacramento State and the Hornets defensive lineman was able to record a sack of Fresno State quarterback Mikey Keene.

00:30:44.143 --> 00:30:47.558
The Bulldogs won that game 46-30.

00:30:47.558 --> 00:30:57.219
We'd like to cover as many local sports as we can, so if you have a score report or a story idea, make sure to email hanfordinsider at gmailcom.

00:30:57.219 --> 00:31:01.901
I'm Eric Bentley and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.

00:31:05.550 --> 00:31:07.519
Well, that's all the time we have for this week's show.

00:31:07.519 --> 00:31:14.377
Join me next week as I visit with the curators from the Kings County's Asian Experiences exhibit at the Carnegie Museum.

00:31:14.377 --> 00:31:22.038
If you enjoyed this podcast and you'd like to show your support, you can go to buymeacoffeecom slash Hanford Insider to make a donation.

00:31:22.038 --> 00:31:29.124
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00:31:29.124 --> 00:31:33.236
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00:31:33.236 --> 00:31:38.476
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00:31:38.476 --> 00:31:39.759
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00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:41.957
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00:31:41.957 --> 00:31:49.875
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00:31:49.875 --> 00:31:55.159
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00:31:55.159 --> 00:32:01.138
If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at hanfordinsider at gmailcom and I'll look into it.

00:32:01.138 --> 00:32:02.542
Thanks for listening.

00:32:02.542 --> 00:32:05.070
Enjoy the cool weather and have a great week.

Hanford Insider: Parks & Community Services Update, Bullpup to Bulldog grabs a touchdown!

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