TRUSTEES BREAK GROUND ON SECOND HIGH SCHOOL — Madera Unified trustees broke ground for a new high school this week with the first phase of the project, which is scheduled to be completed in September 1992. The school, located at Avenue 13 and Road 26, will serve as an annex for Madera High until 1996 or 1997 and at that time will become a separate entity, Superintendent Tom Riley said. The schools will continue to share facilities such as football stadium and baseball diamond, after the separation, however. The site of the high school was selected in 1981. Architectural plans were approved 18 months ago, and the district has been waiting on funding since then. Phase I of the project will house 1,200 students, with the eventual student body projected at 2,400 after Phase II is completed.
PUBLIC VIEWS PRISON BEFORE INMATES ARRIVE — Madera County residents are getting their first, and if they stay out of trouble, their last look inside the brand new Central California Women’s Facility Wednesday and Thursday before the first prisoners are moved in on Oct. 1. Sprawling out 480 acres six miles east of Chowchilla, the facility has the distinction of being the largest women’s prison in the United States with the ability to house 2,000 inmates and almost twice that many with double bunking. “I’ve told people on Wednesday and Thursday you have free access in and free access out. At 7 p.m. on Thursday, I am shutting the doors, and it won’t be easy to get in and even worse to get out,” said Warden Teena Farmon.
WRONG TURN CAUSES TRAIN VS. CAR COLLISION — A visitor unfamiliar with Madera headed onto what he thought was the onramp for Highway 99 Thursday evening and found himself stuck on the Southern Pacific railroad tracks at Yosemite Avenue in the path of a southbound train. The rented car was hopelessly stuck on the tracks, and James Bedster, 29, and his passenger got out to get help from a nearby gas station. Two or three minutes later a train barreled into the car, dragging it 270 feet. Bedster, who was westbound on Yosemite, had seen a sign directing him to Highway 99. He immediately turned northbound right onto the train tracks. Bedster was cited for inattention to his driving.
COUNTY CAN’T GET STATE JAIL FUNDS — County Supervisors used every trick in their political repertoire in their attempt to obtain funds to increase the size of the overcrowded jail, but Thursday they learned they would come up empty handed. For more than a year the Supervisors have battled to free $3.5 million in Proposition 52 jail bond monies. To qualify, the county needed to maintain about 220 prisoners per day for a year. But the county couldn’t seem to keep the numbers that low without releasing prisoners deemed dangerous to the public. “It is absolutely ridiculous,” fumed Supervisor Al Ginsburg. “We have an overcrowding situation, and in order to get the money to relieve that situation, we have to bring the numbers down to almost 100 less than we can hold. Then we can get the money to fill it up again.” ...