☺️Good morning! It’s Friday, Aug. 15. This is Rob and Julianna, wishing you a happy National Relaxation Day!
👍🏽Today’s heat check? We’re still good.
🎒Back to school: Today is the final day of Fashion Fair Mall’s weeklong donation drive for school supplies, organized by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central California. It’s open today from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The organization is asking for school supplies like backpacks, pencils and notebooks, and is also taking online cash donations. More information
🎧Listen up: It’s also the 56th anniversary of the legendary three-day music/hippie fest known as Woodstock. That means it’s just another good day to listen to some Jimi Hendrix. Yeah, no worries, you’re welcome.
1. Well, that happened fast
Today the Fresno Police Department begins its decades-long lease agreement to rent a police station across the street from their current spot, Fresnoland’s Pablo Orihuela and Danielle Bergstrom report.
Nobody can say exactly when moving day will come just yet. That’s because before Fresno City Hall can lease a new police department HQ, they have to finish a $12 million renovation to convert the building into a police station. The city’s even picking up the tab for a new AC unit for the owner of the future home Fresno’s finest.
Is that weird? Yeah, kinda, according to real estate experts who spoke with Fresnoland this week.
Why, Councilmember Miguel Arias questioned, did this issue suddenly require an abrupt vote and a fast, quiet deal with minimal debate over a two-decade multi-million-dollar lease? So far, the answer has been that the police department’s current building is old and needs replacing, a point nobody has disputed for years.
But it doesn’t explain the sudden rush to rent for the better part of the next generation.
2. New park name called ‘too generic’
Despite some objections from southeast residents, the Fresno City Council on Thursday named the city’s newest southeast park the “Southeast Fresno Sports Complex,” a name panned by critics in the neighborhood as “too generic,” Fresnoland’s Pablo Orihuela reports.
The council approved the name of the new 49-acre park 6-1, with council Vice President Miguel Arias dissenting.
Brandon Vang, the southeast councilmember elected in March to represent the area, said the chosen name was a nod to inclusivity and “the way for everyone to feel included and part of the community.”
Most of the 110 public comments submitted on the issue favored the Sports Complex name that some said failed to capture the neighborhood’s spirit.
3. CHS shutters some kids health services in Fresno, Clovis hospitals
Over the next six months, a major hospital operator will be phasing out pediatric speciality care at both the downtown Fresno and Clovis hospitals, KMPH reports.
The operator, Community Health System, said it will leave that task to another health care giant in the region instead: Valley Children’s Healthcare based out of Madera County.
Community Health will lease pediatric clinic space to Valley Children’s while it instead shifts focus to offering care for adults.
Community Health System’s explanation: “Valley Children’s Healthcare is committed to ensuring continued access to pediatric specialty care in the Central Valley. We are working closely with impacted families and their primary care physicians who want to move their child’s care to Valley Children’s as Community Health System transitions away from operating its pediatric outpatient clinics”
