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For years, Mendota and other west side farm towns have sought to broaden their job base and wean themselves from the vagaries of irrigated agriculture -- the very basis of their existence. But geographically and economically, the deck has been stacked against them.

The new Federal Correctional Institution-Mendota, scheduled to open sometime in 2010, will be staffed by about 314 employees. How many of those jobs will -- or can -- be filled by west side residents?

And it's an even greater challenge now.

A national recession, three years of drought and severe cuts in farm water deliveries this year to the sprawling Westlands Water District have driven Mendota's unemployment rate to 41%. Never has the city's jobless rate been higher, according to state employment data.

The same thing is happening in Firebaugh, San Joaquin and Huron.

"These are strictly agricultural working communities," said Richard Howitt, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California at Davis. "The effects ripple all the way through the system."

It's not that there isn't any nonfarm commerce. But the merchants, restaurants, insurance and real estate offices and almost every other business rely on farmers or their workers and families spending money on goods and services, Howitt said. Between direct employment on farms and jobs in agriculture-related businesses such as packinghouses and processing plants, nearly every facet of life in these communities depends on farming.

It doesn't help that the cities are isolated in the vast acreages between California's asphalt arteries Interstate 5 and Highway 99.

Unhitching from the plow

In 1996, the nonprofit I-5 Business Development Corridor was created by the cities of Firebaugh, Mendota, Kerman and San Joaquin, the community of Tranquillity and Fresno County to promote economic development.

"We want to bring in other jobs, some other industries or anything that's not related to agriculture," said Danny Wade, one of the group's board members and general manager of the Tranquillity Irrigation District. "We want to be prepared for times when the agriculture economy turns upside down -- like it is now."

Economic diversification "is something we've been talking about out here for many years," said Bob Tharp, owner of Tharp's Farm Supply in Firebaugh. "Sure, it would be good, but how do you do it without money we don't have?

"Everyone around here has something to do with farming," he added. Though not a farmer himself, Tharp and nearly everyone else in Firebaugh and other west side towns depend on farmers and their workers for their livelihoods.

But what's happening now, as west side farmers fallow acreage and hire fewer workers, is something Mendota businessman Alan Hansen has never seen to such a degree.

"I think the only thing that's reasonably close is back in the '30s, after my grandfather started this business," said Hansen, general manager of Sorensen Machine Works and Auto Parts. "But even during the Depression, farming was doing well."

The 84-year-old business is a machine shop, parts house and hardware store that serves both farmers and farmworkers. Hansen said sales now are down perhaps 30% from last year.

"The only reason we're still here is because everything's bought and paid for, and we run very lean," he said. "But it's bad enough that we've had to let someone go, and everyone's job is in jeopardy."

Aside from the prison, the only other source of potential economic development is Interstate 5, Howitt added. "These communities might want to reproduce Modesto's trucking and warehouse industry," he said. "But all of these towns are quite a distance from I-5, and it's much better to do it right along the highway."

The west-side freeway is the key to efforts by the I-5 Business Development Corridor because trucking and warehousing are exactly the types of businesses the group is after.

But a crippled economy has stymied any would-be opportunities. "Our property out here is cheaper compared to other areas of the state," Tranquillity's Wade said. "But industries aren't doing anything to move or expand right now."

The new Federal Correctional Institution-Mendota, scheduled to open sometime in 2010, will be staffed by about 314 employees. How many of those jobs will -- or can -- be filled by west side residents?

And a lack of funds has forced the organization to lay off its executive director this month, Wade added. Mendota's Silva holds out hope for the eventual construction of State Route 180 as a four-lane, east-west freeway linking I-5 and Highway 99.

"There's federal money and [Fresno County] Measure C money, so it's going to get done someday," Silva said. "Freeway 180 would be a straight shot from Mendota to I-5 and Fresno, and I believe we're going to have warehousing along the way."

There are other signs of progress, as well. A solar-energy company, Cleantech America Inc., is ready to begin construction on a 40-acre, 5-megawatt "solar farm" in Mendota. The company has pledged money to train solar installers and will eventually create 65 installation and maintenance jobs, and as many as 100 manufacturing jobs.

And Mendota has prepared to accommodate hoped-for industrial growth by improving its infrastructure in recent years.

"You can invite people in," Silva said, "but without the infrastructure. you're not going to get anywhere."

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1392168.html