Fresh faces run for Earlimart seats

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of stories that will run in advance of the Nov. 3 elections.

Candidates elected to two empty seats on the Earlimart Public Utility District Nov. 3rd will oversee the renovation of water and sewage lines, which are currently filled to capacity.

The Earlimart Public Utility District, like the five other Porterville-area special districts with vacant positions on the 2009 November ballot, is a separate local government that delivers public services to a particular area.

There are four men currently vying for two vacancies in Earlimart.

School bus driver Hershey Washington, running for Seat 1, and emergency room technician Silvestre Torres Vargas, running for seat 2, each faces incumbents in their first go around at running for an elected position.

Incumbents Norberto Gonzalez (Seat 1) and Jose R. Villalobos (Seat 2) declined to comment for this article.

Washington and Vargas concede that they have much to learn about how the utility district functions.

“I will get in, get my feet wet, see what the rules are and go from there,” Washington said.

Their main role will be to approve or deny recommendations from the district’s staff and requests for construction projects, according to Manager Rachel Garcia.

Earlimart currently has one main sewer line and it is almost full.

“We are at a stand still right now,” Garcia said.

That stand still means that any business and residential development is halted.

Though they are competing for different seats, each are campaigning via word of mouth, and have similar goals of getting the infrastructure taken care of so that new residential and business development can occur.

An Oklahoma transplant, but raised in Earlimart, Washington graduated from Delano High School and joined the U.S. Army where he worked with nuclear weapons.

He wants to see more curbs, gutters and sidewalks grow along his hometown’s streets.

“There’s always more room for development” he said. “We need to try to get with the community and expand.”

Vargas moved to Earlimart in 1961 after growing up in Mexico. Aside from his day job at Mercy Hospitals of Bakersfield, he says he has cultivated leadership skills as a county fire fighter.

Once he became a United States citizen, he said he gradually became more involved in his community.

“Some people in town asked me if I was willing to run,” he said. “They need some fresh faces in the area.”

Contact Jenna Chandler at 784-5000, Ext. 1050, or jchandler@portervillerecorder.com.