Thumbs up, thumbs down: Forgiving victims, beloved corn, bad water
Thumbs up to three bicyclists who this week forgave a drunken driver who crashed into them as they rode. The drama played out in Fresno Superior Court, where Patrick Wayne Holmes of Clovis was to be sentenced for his guilt in driving a motorcycle while intoxicated and plowing into the three northeast of Fresno one summer day last year. They sustained broken bones and teeth, plus cuts and bruises. He faced 12 years in prison. But bicyclists Lou Major, Kevin Emerzian and Richard Gabel told Judge Jon Nick Kapetan that it was not in their nature to seek vengeance or harsh punishment. “I’m normally a pretty forgiving person because we have all done dumb stuff,” Majors told Kapetan. “But we all are supposed to know right from wrong. He should not have been out there.” The cyclists thought five years would be sufficient punishment, and that is the term Holmes received, even as it was his third drunken-driving incident. Here is hoping their mercy impacts Holmes enough that he never makes this mistake again.
Thumbs down to the troublesome situation in Tulare, where residents had to be warned that a soil fumigant is in their tap water. The city was forced to send letters to its customers telling them that a fumigant called 1, 2, 3-Trichloropropane, or TCP, had been detected at levels above the state standard. For years, TCP was added to fumigants that farmers put in the soil to kill tiny worms called nematodes. Unfortunately, TCP finds its way into groundwater supplies, and that is what has occurred in Tulare. The water is still safe to drink, the city said, because the presence of the chemical is not an emergency. There is no need for Tulare residents to buy bottled water, the letter to 17,000 customers said. To solve the problem, the city will install treatment tanks containing granulated activated carbon that strips away the TCP. “It’s like a massive Brita filter,” utility manager Tim Doyle told The Bee’s Lewis Griswold. The first tanks will be in place by mid-2019. But this situation is just adds to the list of Valley cities with problems with their potable water, as outlined in a recent exposé in The Bee.
Thumbs up to Fresno police, city parks, the Police Activities League and Anthem Blue Cross Medi-Cal for creating a weekly evening of safe fun, sports and entertainment for kids in southwest Fresno. The Southwest Policing District is behind the “Good Times are back at Frank H. Ball” program, which occurs at the rec center every Wednesday from 5 to 10 p.m. into August. Among the things to do are competing in basketball tournaments, swimming in the rec center’s pool, taking part in a gaming center and jumping around in a bounce house. The Fresno Police Officers Association fires up a barbecue, popcorn and snow cones are provided by Bringing Broken Neighborhoods Back to Life, and the Reading Heart group will provide free books to any young person. The weekly event concludes Aug. 8.
Thumbs up to another summertime treat – Fresno State sweet corn. The yellow-and-white ears we love so much went on sale a week ago, and the university reported 36,980 ears were bought, the second-highest opening day ever. For the weekend, 80,776 ears were sold, which was a new record. The first person in line on opening day? Betsy Juergens.
This story was originally published June 16, 2018 at 5:54 AM with the headline "Thumbs up, thumbs down: Forgiving victims, beloved corn, bad water."