City Council Honors Fresno Irrigation District, Extends Farmers Market

Clovis City Council receives commemorative crystal water drop from Fresno Irrigation District President Ryan Jacobson and General Manager Bill Stretch at a city council meeting on Monday, Sept. 21, 2020. (Jorge Rodriguez/Clovis Roundup)

A proclamation was given recognizing the Fresno Irrigation District’s (FID) 100th year anniversary. Board of Directors for the FID Ryan Jacobsen thanked the city council and talked about how the City of Clovis has had a long standing relationship with the FID.

Jacobsen mentioned that even though the FID is celebrating 100 years since being established, it has been around for more than 100 years bringing water to the cities and local farms.

After a short video presentation that detailed the history and the inner workings of the FID, Bill Stretch the FID’s general manager thanked the City of Clovis for being a great partner to the District. Stretch also said that one thing that has always stood out to him while working with the City of Clovis is the high level of professionalism and integrity the city’s employees have.

The FID also presented the city with a special crystal water drop to commemorate the partnership between the city and the District.

“This (water drop) is in honor of our centennial celebration and how key our partnership has been over the past 100 years and for that we thank you.” Stretch said.

Everyone in the council thanked the FID for coming to the meeting and for their long standing partnership with the City of Clovis. Councilmember Bob Whalen said that the City of Clovis and the FID relationship is very important now and in the future.

“The partnership that we have is really great and is not just one that we share as a result of our history,” Whalen said. “Thank you for being here to remind us of our relationship in the past and also going forward.”

After the proclamation and public comments there was a discussion by councilmember Lynne Ashbeck on item three of the agenda. This item was a request by the Business Organization of Old Town (BOOT) to extend the street closure for the farmers market from October 2 to April 30 of next year.

Ashbeck just wanted a clarification on why they wanted an extension and why the extension was for that amount of time.

Shawn Miller, Business Development Manager for the City of Clovis, clarified that the Friday night farmers market was going to change slightly from its original version and it might host more outdoor dining during the time.

Jorge Rodriguez has a passion for journalism and wants to bring the community information and great stories. After high school Jorge joined the U.S. Army and while in active duty he was deployed twice to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. While in college he worked for the Fresno City College Rampage and the Fresno State Collegian newspapers. He graduated from Fresno State in 2019 with a degree in print journalism.