Smoke shop near school gets OK from Visalia City Council
View Comments
Potential holes in Visalia’s municipal codes were exposed Monday night after the public and school board members questioned whether a smoke shop should be allowed near an elementary school.
Ultimately, the Visalia City Council voted in favor of upholding the planning commission’s recommendation to allow a smoke shop, PRD Cigarettes, to operate around 500 feet away from Houston Elementary School in a 2-1 decision.
The distance is less than two football fields away, or about 100 feet farther than centerfield of a typical baseball stadium.
Council members Brian Poochigian and Brett Taylor voted in favor of the motion, while Councilman Greg Collins was the sole no vote. Mayor Steve Nelsen and Vice Mayor Phil Cox didn t attend the meeting.
Visalia Unified board member asks why public isn t here at meetings
The public will be allowed back into Visalia Unified School District meetings after potential Brown Act violations.
Normally, the public could participate in public meetings as allowed under the Ralph M. Brown Act; however, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order in March 2020 suspending some of the provisions as a result of COVID-19.
Having teleconferences accessible to the public is one of the suspended provisions included in the executive order, which is still in place.
Discussions surrounding Visalia Unified s reopening stretches back a handful of meetings, with VUSD board members and parents questioning the lack of accessibility.
View Comments
With the school year coming to a close and graduation quickly approaching, questions surrounding what the next school year will look like have started to surface.
Visalia Unified School District has already started working on some details for the upcoming school year by reaching out to parents and students for feedback regarding their learning preferences.
For the 2021-22 school year, students have the option to return to full-time, in-person instruction or full-time, distance learning. The school district reported that as of the April 27 board meeting 20% of those who had completed the survey were interested in having their children continue learning from home.
Staff and wire reports
The Times-Delta and Tulare County Voices, a community group, continues its virtual community forums on systemic racism in Tulare County, today at 7 p.m. with a rebroadcast of a recent forum on how racism impacts today’s young people.
The forum features Odessa Marcos, Elizabeth Rocha Zuniga, Anthony Utterback, Ayanna Moore, and Belle Vang, and is moderated by Brandon Gridiron from the Visalia Unified School District.
The rebroadcast is in collaboration with Fresno State’s Civic Education Center and Fresno s Civic Education Center.
The forum, which will include questions from the audience, will be streamed starting at 7 p.m. at www.VisaliaTimesDelta.com and the Times-Delta s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/vtdnews
Tulare high school students return to campus for in-person learning visaliatimesdelta.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from visaliatimesdelta.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.