Good morning! It’s Thursday, July 15. Omar & Pablo here!
Can’t keep up with the headlines everyday? Sign up for This Week in Fresnoland, a curated digest of the week’s news for civic-minded Fresnans, delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Sign up here
New airport head: The City of Fresno has hired Mark Thorpe as the new Director of Aviation at the Fresno Yosemite International Airport. The Business Journal
Phones gone at Central Unified? Students at the Fresno-area school district will not be allowed to use phones in class next school year. ABC30
Open call for muralists: The City of Fresno and the Fresno Arts Council are looking for an artist to paint a mural at Tupman Park in southwest Fresno. YourCentralValley
1. Chief addresses Flock cameras
Less than a day after dozens of community members attended an event about Flock cameras in Fresno, police Chief Mindy Casto held a news conference about them.
She told reporters that only officers trained in using the Flock system are able to access the cameras, of which there are about 70 across the city located in “high-crime” areas, according to The Fresno Bee.
Casto also said the Fresno Police Department hasn’t had any misconduct cases related to Flock cameras.
Read the full story from the Fresno Bee here.
2. How much do school districts rely on new housing?
Families can tend to follow new housing. School districts located in or near that new housing tend to benefit from it.
That may be one way into understanding why student enrollment growths at Central Unified and Clovis Unified aren’t parallelled by Fresno Unified.
Darren Rose, president and CEO of the Building Industry Association of Fresno and Madera Counties speaking of Fresno Unified’s boundaries: “It’s very limited in places to build future homes.”
Read the full story from EdSource here.
3. Fresno County’s own theatrical release?
It’s not just your local movie theater selling tickets for the next summer blockbuster.
Fresno County posted a teaser for this year’s State Of The County event on their social accounts on Wednesday morning, unveiling a video packed with the fixings one might expect in something like the latest action film instead of a county hobnob event.
As is tradition, the board chair is hosting this year’s event. Supervisor Garry Bredefeld, the chair of the board this year, is prominently featured in the teaser for this year’s SOTC, seemingly fighting to meet “an impossible deadline.” The film features the Sheriffs’ Department equipment and has Bredefeld snaking around the county with large guns.
The county is facing a nearly $300 million budget shortfall that they will need to address by budget hearings in September.
While the Mission: Impossible-meets-Zero Dark Thirty aesthetic might seem a bit much for an annual fundraising event, Bredefeld took to social media to say the vibe was appropriate.
“It will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen,” he said in a post on X. “This video is a sneak peek of what I mean. You won’t want to miss it.”
The video, produced by the Fresno Chamber of Commerce, cost $7,000 to produce, reported ABC30. The county said that the Sheriffs’ Office did not use overtime in their participation in the video.
The SOTC will be in September.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Danielle Bergstrom.
