Home Care In Kingsburg, CA

HMC Farms, a vertically integrated stone fruit producer in Kingsburg, California, has voluntarily recalled peaches, plums and nectarines for potential listeria contamination, according to a Nov. 17 news release from the company posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website.

The recalled peaches have been tied to 11 listeriosis illnesses, the company said.

A Nov. 21 post on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website attributes one death to the recalled fruit.

The cause of contamination has not been determined, a company spokeswoman said in the release.

“They’re working around the clock … to investigate how the contamination happened,” said Amy Philpott. “So that is not clear at this point.”

Listeriosis is the sickness caused by the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium. Symptoms can include fever, headaches, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea in healthy individuals. The illness can be fatal in young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, and it can cause miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women.

The recalled fruit was sold in retail stores May 1–Nov. 15, 2022, and the same period this year in bags branded HMC Farms or Signature Farms with a 6359 sticker, according to the company. The recall also applies to individual fruit with a sticker that reads “USA-E-U” and the following numbers, according to an alert on the Centers for Disease Control website:

—Yellow peach: 4044 or 4038

—White peach: 4401

—Yellow nectarine: 4036 or 4378

—White nectarine: 3035

—Red plum: 4042

—Black plum: 4040

Peaches, plums and nectarines currently available for sale at retail stores are not included in this recall, but the company advises that consumers who may have previously frozen the recalled fruit should check their freezers.

The outbreak has affected people in seven states between August 2018 and August this year, according to the CDC. However, the company recall applies to only two years because those are the most likely to be represented in people’s freezers, Philpott said.

For product package images, visit the FDA announcement at: https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/hmc-farms-voluntarily-recalls-whole-peaches-plums-and-nectarines-sold-retail-stores-2022-and-2023.

For questions, call the company’s consumer information desk at 844-483-3867 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday.

—by Ross Courtney

The Kingsburg Swedish Festival is returning to the downtown streets of Kingsburg, with festivities slated to begin Thursday night, May 18.

The festival, which is celebrating its 57th year of existence, focuses on the Swedish history of Kingsburg.

The city was established in 1873 as a railroad stop under the name “Kings River Switch.” During this time period, many Swedish immigrants settled in this area.

By 1921, the Swedish population was up to 94% within a three-mile radius, making the community known as “Little Sweden.”

The festival is a collaboration between the Kingsburg Chamber of Commerce and downtown businesses. Event organizers are expecting between 4,000 and 5,000 people throughout the weekend to enjoy the multiple attractions and festivities.

“It all starts on Thursday, May 18, with the Swedish Pea Soup & Pancake Supper downtown with the crowning of the new Swedish Festival Queen, along with some Swedish entertainment,” said Lisa Swartz, associate director, Kingsburg Chamber of Commerce.

All the events on Thursday night will take place on Draper Street downtown. Pea Soup & Pancake meal tickets start at $10 per person. The events will begin at 5:30 p.m. and continue until 8 p.m.

“On Friday, May 19, in our downtown park, we have our Public Safety Officer Dress Review & Award Ceremony, followed by our Swedish Dinner and more Swedish cultural entertainment,” said Swartz.

The main events on Friday night will take place at Coffee Pot Park and will begin at 5:30 p.m., tickets to the Swedish Dinner are $20 and will only be available at the door.

The Swedish Festival kicks into full swing on Saturday, with a day full of events and performances that will keep everyone in the family entertained.

“Saturday is the main event, it starts with the Swedish Pancake Breakfast at the same time the Dala Horse Trot marathon will take place in downtown Kingsburg. We will have retail, arts and crafts booths, food trucks, carnival games, and an ABBA Sing-Along tribute band,” said Swartz.

The festival arts and craft fair, along with the decorating of the Maypole will take place Saturday morning, starting at 7:30 a.m., on Draper Street.

The Swedish Festival Grand Parade will follow at 10:30 a.m., after which the celebration will start downtown with performances by the Coffee Pot and Svenska Música Village Dancers.

Historic tours with the Kingsburg Historical Park Museum and Kingsburg Historic Train Depot will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Finally, the carnival games and Fresno Eats food trucks will open in Memorial Park at 5 p.m. and will remain open until 9 p.m., the ABBA Sing-Along Concert will begin at 8 p.m.

family background/ Ty graduated from California State University, Fresno with a degree in ag business and plant science. He’s the son of Becky and Andy Muxlow.age/23grower/Kingsburg, Californiacrops/Peaches and nectarinesbusiness/Family Tree Farms

How did you get your start?Some of my first experiences were learning how to irrigate a field, understanding what it means to grow a commodity. As a kid, I pruned, I picked, I did pretty much everything under the sun to grow a piece of fruit.

Those lessons really helped me to understand what work and manual labor has to be done in the field to get fruit to market.

I enjoyed being out in the field, out in nature getting my hands sweaty. It grew into a passion of mine and gave me an entrepreneurial spirit.

What other things helped direct your path?When I was 12 years old, instead of my dad investing in a college fund for me, he invested in a “college farm.” We leased some ground near our home and started a new orchard. It’s something that I enjoyed — getting the opportunity to grow something that young and learn from my mistakes and successes.

When we planted the farm, I remember measuring different spacings to see what might work, whether it was going to be a 9-foot tree spacing or an 8-foot tree spacing.

My dad helped me with those calculations, and it taught me a lot. After the planting, I remember training the trees up with the crews and learning about scaffolds, the main branches and where they should be. We decided on a quad-V planting, which I believe is the most efficient style to pick and prune.

After planting, I became the full-time irrigator. I learned that you could control three basic aspects of a tree: You can control the light, water and amount of fertilizer. I was able to get that hands-on experience, helping me grow into the farmer I am.

What are your current challenges?Some of them concern labor and water. I’m looking at ways to make the tree smaller, find ways to use platforms and utilize drip irrigation systems.

We are experimenting with platforms. They’ve been widely used in the apple industry and we’re trying to mimic that to make it more efficient to pick our crop.

How do you approach platforms with stone fruit?Setting up a stone fruit orchard to be successful with platforms, I believe you must ensure the row spacing is just right for the platform to fit. We’ve found there are spacings that work perfectly for the platform.

Also, we can’t put a platform into a furrow-irrigated orchard. We need to use a microsprinkler or drip irrigation system instead, so the ground is flat where the tires will roll. We must keep branches out of the rows.

The tree training needs to be perfect, so I chose a Tatura trellis system to help with tree uniformity and better utilize light as well. It takes more initial cost with a Tatura system and drip irrigation, but it makes sense in the long run financially because of the cost variability of labor and water.

There’s fixed costs and variable costs. Variable costs are much more expensive over time than fixed costs.

What’s your advice to other young growers?I would say it’s very important to know your books and know your costs of farming. You’ll need to know what things cost and how it applies to your acres. For example, if you’re picking a certain size of fruit and it’s not getting packed, then you’re wasting your pickers’ time.

Knowing your books and understanding the expense side of your farm will help you better manage the business. The most useful course I took covered Excel, how it works and what kind of macros can be used to help forecast future business numbers.

—TJ Mullinax

A long-awaited T-Mobile call center anticipated to bring 1,000 jobs to Kingsburg now has a confirmed site set for the Fresno County city.

T-Mobile confirmed that it had signed a lease for the former Kmart space on Sierra Street, west of Highway 99. At more than 95,000 square feet, Kmart was Kingsburg’s largest retailer before the store closed in March 2017. The terms of the lease were not disclosed, but a 2019 financial analysis for the project estimated that annual lease costs for the call center would be about $1.5 million.

“In the coming weeks, T-Mobile plans to begin demolition and start improvements to the building – consistent with the city’s heritage and aesthetic – to prepare for the center to serve customers starting in 2022,” the company said in a statement.

T-Mobile first announced its plans to locate its new “customer experience center” in Kingsburg almost two years ago, as the mobile-phone carrier was in the midst of engineering a merger with rival Sprint.

But the location came with a catch – the call center, and its promise of 1,000 new jobs for Kingsburg and surrounding areas of Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties, would only become a reality if the $26 billion merger was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission.

The Kingsburg location and its jobs, as well as other call centers proposed by the wireless companies, became a major talking point of a lobbying and public relations campaign by T-Mobile pushing for the merger.

Federal antitrust regulators approved the merger in July 2019, followed by the FCC. The state of California and several other states sued to block the merger based on concerns about diminished competition in the cellular market, but a federal judge ultimately ruled in favor of the merger.

Prior to the merger, T-Mobile and Sprint were the third- and fourth-largest wireless carriers in the U.S., well behind Verizon and AT&T. The merger vaulted the new combined company into a more solid third place. To allay federal antitrust concerns, T-Mobile was required to sell off the popular Boost Mobile prepaid wireless service, and other Sprint assets are being sold to DISH, the satellite TV provider that will now get into the wireless phone business.

The 2019 economic analysis commissioned by T-Mobile forecast that the Kingsburg call center would have 1,007 employees. “T-Mobile estimates that employees at the center will have an average weekly compensation between $1,129 and $1,254” in both salary and benefits,” the analysis by Berkeley Research Group stated. Total payroll at the center – which would be expected to be fully staffed and operational in 2022 – is expected to be between $56 million and $65 million a year.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Fresno County jury awarded a Kingsburg family nearly $50 million in damages for injuries the husband suffered at the hands of American Ambulance.

The $49.8 million verdict is the second highest ever awarded by a Fresno County jury, but the family would give it all up to have things the way they were before March 2018.

Nicholas Merlo was getting his home ready for a new addition when he posed for a picture constructing a crib in early 2018.

"He was 39 years old," said Merlo family attorney Daniel Baradat. "His wife was 8 1/2 months pregnant."

Nick was a mortgage broker; his wife, a middle school administrator.

The first-time father-to-be went to have an endoscopy at Pristine Surgery Center, but his oxygenation levels dropped during the procedure.

A nurse anesthetist gave him a breathing tube before sending him to Clovis Community Hospital via American Ambulance.

The ride ruined his life.

A paramedic removed the breathing tube and couldn't insert a new one.

By the time he reached doctors at Community, Merlo suffered cardiac arrest and a severe lack of oxygen.

"They kept him alive," Baradat said. "However, he's badly badly brain-damaged. He's in a persistent vegetative state. That's been three and a half years and he's going to remain like that for the remainder of his life."

Merlo could still live for decades, but doctors believe he'll never regain consciousness.

His family sued over the medical mistake.

"Six very qualified doctors said if you don't pull that endotracheal tube, he doesn't have this brain injury," Baradat said

After seven weeks in trial, the jury only needed a few hours to agree - American Ambulance was grossly negligent.

They awarded the Merlos a $49.8 million verdict, including $30 million in non-economic damages for pain and suffering.

California's medical malpractice law written in 1975 limits pain and suffering damages to $250,000 per plaintiff, so a judge would reduce the total award to $20.3 million.

The American Ambulance administration sent Action News a statement saying they'll appeal the verdict.

"This is a very sad situation," said American ambulance chief administrative officer and general counsel Erik Peterson. "Our paramedics treated Mr. Merlo like they would any patient, using their training and procedures to do everything they could to improve his declining condition."

"It's kind of offensive to the Merlo family for them to say that," Baradat said, adding that he hopes other patients get more competent treatment.

Since American Ambulance is appealing the verdict, the Merlos won't get any money for now.

But the jury award racks up interest at 10% per year during the appeals process.