Good morning! It’s Thursday, Aug. 14. This is Rob, wishing you happy National Creamsicle Day!
😎 Cool! It’s only going to be like 96ish today!
🏮 Floating lantern ceremony: Fresno is invited to the Shinzen Friendship Garden from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, for the 40th annual floating lantern celebration in the spirit of the Japanese ceremony Tōrō Nagashi. “Traditionally, this Japanese ceremony honors the memory of loved ones. During the festival of Obon, it is believed that ancestors come back to spend time with the living.” More Information
🎧 Listen up: Fresnoland reporter Julianna, here. I’m watching “The O.C.” for the first time, and not only are the in-show concerts at fictional venue The Bait Shop an astonishingly thorough who’s who of early 2000s indie / alt rock (so far including Modest Mouse, The Walkmen and The Killers) but it’s sending me back to my roots as a superfan of The Killers’ first two albums. That’s right: I’ve been going around belting out all the words to “When You Were Young” and “Read My Mind” as I drive to public meetings this week. You should try it.
1. New police lease released
Should the Fresno Police Department rent?
Even city cops are feeling the pinch in Fresno’s unforgiving real estate market, and apparently solving the not-at-all-new problem of a deteriorating police station must suddenly be decided by the city council on Thursday, Fresnoland’s Danielle Bergstrom reports.
The Fresno City Council is set to consider a $42 million, 21-year lease for a move just across the street to 2314 Mariposa St., a building owned by developer Ed Kashian’s River Park Properties III.
Kashian is the developer behind several mega-commercial projects, from River Park and Campus Pointe to Fancher Creek and the Rowell Building downtown, which houses the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office.
If approved, the lease goes into effect on Friday.
Rent is free for the first year, and then starts at $1,285,598 per year, and ends at $1,710,087 in the 21st year of the lease — not including utilities and property taxes.
Jared Ennis, of Central California Commercial: “The cost of a lease is so much more expensive over the long term, versus owning the property and just maintaining it, which you have to maintain it anyway.”
2. ‘We don’t know what we would do’
More than half of Fresno County residents — about 52% — face looming health care cuts and many still have more questions than answers, Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina reports this morning.
In Fresno County, more than half a million people depend on Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program.
According to a Fresnoland review of state health data, Fresno has the third-highest Medi-Cal enrollment rate out of all 58 California counties.
Gisselle breaks down the known impacts and includes a practical guide to prepare for the upcoming cuts, which can be found here.
Gisselle also spoke with a Fresno couple already dealing with the fears of losing access to their life-saving medicines and care. You can find that story here.
Lorenza Cortez: “We’re anxious about all of this because you don’t know what to do about these changes. If they take our insurance, we don’t know what we would do. The stress and anxiety can make you sicker.”
3. A deal protects high-speed rail funds — for now
California struck a deal with the feds to let several billions of dollars in funding for the state’s high-speed rail project sit on the shelf until a lawsuit plays out, Cap Radio reported.
That lawsuit from the state’s High-Speed Rail Authority came after the Trump administration moved to pull $4 billion from the embattled project earlier this summer.
The state’s agreement with the federal government means the $4 billion will now be held in a legal trust, protecting the funds from being reallocated for something else until the lawsuit concludes.
Fresnoland reported in June that a compliance report from the Federal Railroad Administration signaled the feds would “reprogram awarded but unspent Federal funds” for other purposes if it terminated the high-speed rail grants. The FRA didn’t respond to Fresnoland’s inquiry then as to whether it was eyeing any specific projects to fund instead.
This newsletter was edited by Fresnoland’s Julianna Morano.
