Construction begins for Sugar Pine Village
Dignitaries donned hard hats and got their hands on golden shovels to break ground on Sugar Pine Village, a $25 million development that will offer 52 apartment homes. Construction will start on Sugar Pine Village, a new affordable housing community in Madera that will provide high-quality, affordable apartment-style homes to the region. More than 30 […]
Cal Fire works to contain Creek Fire
The Creek Fire, which has been burning for more than 30 days, is close to 50 percent contained, over the past week according to Cal Fire. Cal Fire gained nine percent on the fire (up to 48 percent) while limiting damage. The fire has burned 322,089 acres, which is about 18,000 acres burnt since Sept. […]
Grocery Outlet is Rotary Business of the Year
Madera’s Grocery Outlet, owned by Sean Tharp, is Madera Rotary Club’s 2020 Business of the Year. This annual award is based on local businesses nominated for operating in a manner that best meets the Rotary International Four-Way Test: Of the things we think, say and do, is it the truth? Is it fair to all […]
Students seeking past sheriffs’ kin
Five classes of MUSD 8th graders are searching for relatives or descendants of some of Madera’s past sheriffs. The students are working on a history of Madera County’s sheriffs and they need some help from the families of former sheriffs who have passed on. These include the following: William H. Thurman, S.W. Westfall, W.B. Thurman, […]
Opinion: One man’s avocation, another’s novel attraction
They come down my street. I’m the new resident, so maybe they’re curious. After all, I simply invited myself into their neighborhood. To them, I’m the outsider, the encroacher, the uninvited guest who seems to stay on. But, I don’t think that explains the phenomenon that I‘ve observed. Cars pass my house, stop, back up, […]
Neighbors: Oral History from Madera, Calif., Vol. 2
Continued from Oct. 3: The largest historical employers in Madera have been farming and food processing but it is nearly impossible to find anyone who has spent their entire life doing this because it involves such long hours and so completely physically destroys people that men and women seek other types of work at the […]
Letter: Madera beginning to look like a third world country
As I drive around Madera I am saddened to see trash strewn on streets and in medians, abandoned cars covered in dirt with spider webs extending to the ground in many neighborhoods and homes in desperate need of upkeep with dead lawns, bushes and trees everywhere. When and why did Maderans cease taking pride in […]
Pioneer preacher cracked the whip
The Rev. William B. McElwee was an ecclesiastical workhorse. He and his wife, Emily, came to Madera in 1891 to pastor the local Presbyterian Church. He was born in Missouri in 1838 and ordained into the Christian ministry when he was 35. Although the Rev. McElwee was 53-years-old when he assumed the Presbyterian pastorate in […]