Local briefs

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008

Progress made on zoo reports

More than half the environmental reports for Roeding Park and Fresno Chaffee Zoo's expansion will soon be received by the city of Fresno, a planning official said Wednesday.

But one important study remains to be done.

During a meeting of the Fresno County Zoo Authority, Kevin Fabino, planning manager for the city of Fresno, told authority members that the environmental impact report should be completed by the end of March, barring any unforeseen delays.

Fabino said 14 of 25 chapters of the environmental reports will be done in the next week, but must be evaluated by city staff.

"If we can move any faster, we will," Fabino said. "We are trying to be extremely cautious so the end product is legally defensible."

He said a national firm will start a historic resource study for Roeding Park's grounds beginning next week, a project that should take eight to 10 weeks.

The speed of preparing the environmental reports has been an issue for zoo authority members, who earlier this year said the process was moving too slow.

Zoo authority Chairman Gerald Lyles said Wednesday that he was satisfied with the recent progress.

"We appreciate the extra attention this seems to be getting," he said.

Lewis Greene, the zoo's director, said that city and zoo officials are meeting every week.

Fresno State student, group honored by the U.N. and State Department

The United Nations, U.S. State Department and a West Virginia manufacturer of instruments to detect landmines have honored Fresno State senior David Biswanger and an engineering student group for raising money to help remove landmines, the manufacturer has announced.

Biswanger is president of the student chapter of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping at California State University, Fresno, which worked with the Civil & Geomatics Engineering Department at the university and several other groups on the project.

They collected more than 400 cell phones for recycling and raised more than $1,029 to buy a de-mining tool from Schonstedt Instrument Co., which also makes devices used to detect cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance.

The magnetic locator purchased through the fundraising -- and a matching tool donated by Schonstedt -- were sent to Nepal, according to the company.

Biswanger, 40, of Carmel Valley is a geomatics engineering major.

"It's nice to be honored, especially by the United Nations and State Department," he said. "It was really nice getting a letter from both those entities."

Clovis FFA team wins horse event at the 81st national convention

A team from Clovis Future Farmers of America finished first in Horse Evaluation Career Development at the 81st national FFA convention last week.

The team, representing California, placed first among 46 other teams.

In other events, the Clovis livestock judging team finished third and its natural resource team was 10th in its competitions.

In the horse evaluation event, competitors participated in performance riding and written and oral testing.

Team members were Jamielyn Moe, Brittney Fund and Maddie Rowell.

The team is coached by Susan Henderson-Perry, who has now won the horse evaluation event two years in a row.

By finishing first in the nation, the horse evaluation team qualified to compete in the world horse evaluation event to be held in Scotland in June 2009.

Lawmakers to answer questions

The annual See How They Run program will be from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. today at the Tulare County Housing Authority, 5140 W. Cypress Ave., in Visalia.

Local, state and national government representatives will answer questions on politicians and their responsibilities.