Good morning! It’s Tuesday Sept. 30. This is Rob.
😎Sunny skies are expected the rest of the week, with daytime highs in the low 80s!
🥒The California Fresh Farmers Market Association invites Fresno to its Pickle Party Encore from 5 to 9 p.m. today (Tuesday, Sept. 20) at the River Park Farmers Market. “Following overwhelming community excitement from the first Pickle Party, this encore event will once again transform the market into a celebration of all things pickled.” More info
⚙️An empty lot in southeast Fresno could become the home of a new tech hub that project partners say would bring thousands of jobs and an influx of economic growth to the community. The Fresno Bee
🥳The Big Fresno Fair opens Wednesday! KSFN
🎭Switched Cabaret? Over the weekend Fresno City College’s theatre students performed “Switched Cabaret,” described as “a collection of Broadway numbers taking an untraditional spin on well known pieces of media.” The Rampage
😋What’s a ‘social eatery’? There’s one opening in Clovis on Friday. KSEE/KGPE
💃A new “members only” lounge and private club is set to make its debut in Fresno this fall. KSFN
1. Fresno’s political campaign season is officially off and running
Five candidates competing to represent the southwest neighborhoods on the Fresno City Council gathered Monday for their first panel discussion.
Fresnoland’s Pablo Orihuela was on hand as candidates, including local political veterans Joaquin Arambula and Keisha Thomas discussed numerous topics, but housing, economic opportunities and the Southwest Fresno Specific Plan quickly emerged as the key issues of the night.
The candidate forum lasted about two hours, and also saw candidates Anjanette Brown, the race’s only Republican; Jalen Swank, a case worker for the county department of public health; and Fernando Alvarez, a former West Park Elementary School District board member.
Four of the Fresno City Council’s seven seats are on the ballot next year. That includes seats currently held by councilmembers Miguel Arias, Annalisa Perea, Brandon Vang and Nelson Esparza.
2. Measure P committee announces big change
As tension over Measure P’s arts funding boils over for a second year in a row, the City of Fresno’s advisory committee on the multi-million-dollar grant funding announced at least one big change to the process at a meeting Monday night.
A subcommittee focused on the grants will begin to voluntarily adhere to state requirements for open meetings — after some residents questioned whether it was truly exempt from California’s Brown Act.
“City Attorney Andrew Janz has has agreed that the PRAC Cultural Arts Subcommittee can voluntarily hold publicly noticed and open meetings, even if there is not a legal requirement to do so, as currently organized,” said Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission Vice Chair Laura Ward, “and that is how we will be holding the subcommittee meetings in the future.”
Ward added that the commission can take future action to change the subcommittee into a standing committee, rather than an ad hoc committee, per Janz’s advice.
The distinction between ad hoc and standing committee status hearkens back to the core questions raised in a Fresnoland investigation into whether the City of Fresno’s budget process may have violated the Brown Act.
The first publicly-noticed and open subcommittee meeting will take place in October.
—Julianna Morano, Fresnoland
3. Baby born in Madera hospital, despite no maternity ward
For the first time since 2022, a baby has been born at the newly-reopened Madera Community Hospital — despite not having a maternity ward, The Fresno Bee reports.
Rebeca Cervantes was 8 centimeters dilated and still 30 minutes away from a Fresno hospital on Sept. 8 when she and her husband, Javier Bautista, decided to pull off Highway 99 and head to the Madera hospital’s emergency room.
About 15 minutes later, their daughter, Haven Bautista Cervantes, was born. Cervantes was treated for blood loss and later released.
The reality of planning for cross-county travel to give birth underscores parents’ continued need for a maternity ward in Madera County, where most live births occurred in homes during the two years since Madera Community Hospital’s December 2022 closure.
Rebeca Cervantes: “If we didn’t stop here, I’m pretty sure we would have gave birth on the road. Who knows how that would’ve gone?”
