Selma shop knows the spice of life Designing Women offers blinds, decor, a boutique and massage

A Selma blinds, custom sewing and drapery business has expanded its offerings to include a boutique, jewelry, home decor, skin care and even massage.

"It's girly shop," co-owner Joan Nelson said of Designing Women. "It's been called the 'hidden treasure.'"

Designing Women quadrupled in size when it moved a few doors down to its current quarters on High Street in Selma's downtown. The expansion and the variety of services has enabled the business to increase its reach.

"We have found kind of a niche," Nelson said. "We didn't want to compete with other stores."

The expansion by Designing Women also helps Selma's downtown, City Manager D-B Heusser said. "It reaches all over the area," he said. "The real key is as the city grows to capture new people so they know about the central business district."

Downtown has only one vacant building -- and it is owned by the city, which plans an art center. The central business district has continued to thrive even with the addition of Wal-Mart and Home Depot outside the core.

That's partly because the two regions have established a good relationship. Home Depot, for example, rents tools, but contracts their repair work to a downtown hardware store.

"That all comes from the managers of the businesses coming together," Heusser said.

Aunt Edna Boulevard

The naming of a street, normally a behind-the-scenes process, will be open to the public as part of a Girl Scouts Golden Valley Council fundraiser.

The scouts are raffling off the opportunity to name a street in one of Granville Homes' upcoming subdivisions, and they're selling 2,500 tickets at $10 each. The money raised will pay the expenses of girls who cannot afford to participate in scouting. It costs the organization and parents about $269 total to put a girl through a year of activities.

Normally, developers submit maps of their subdivisions without street names to the city. The city of Fresno assigns names to streets that are aligned with existing roads, said Jeff Roberts, vice president of development for Granville. If a street doesn't match up to any others, Granville gets to pick the name.

"We do it in-house," he said. "There's a street out there called Granville. Every now and then there's somebody's name in the office [used]."

The street name can't duplicate any other street in Fresno County, so firefighters and law enforcement can easily find their way during an emergency, Roberts said. Because many names already are taken, the winner will be asked to submit three choices. All street names must be approved by the city.

Granville staffers don't know yet where the street will be, but Roberts said it will be in one of the areas they are working in, including west of Highway 99, southeast Fresno and Copper River Ranch in northeast Fresno.

It's not the first time the home developer has auctioned off a name for charity. A similar fundraiser was held for the American Cancer Society.

Tickets can be bought by calling the Girl Scouts Golden Valley Council at (559) 291-5078, and the winner will be announced Sept. 15 at the Annual Me-N-Ed's "Cookie Classic" golf tournament at the Riverbend Golf Club.

Coming to town

A Fresno company has started selling and leasing property at Nicholas Plaza, a 50-lot industrial park in Visalia that caters to businesses wanting small office/warehouses.

Pickett & Sons Construction is the general contractor for the development that is selling and leasing small industrial buildings ranging from 5,000 square feet to 18,000 square feet. Sales prices start at $259,400 for an almost 5,000-square-foot building. That does not include the cost of the land, which averages about $90,000, said Joe Pickett.

Seven buildings have been sold, and one has been leased.

Nicholas Plaza is the first of its kind for Pickett & Sons in Visalia. A company run by Pickett's uncle, Don Pickett, has been successful completing similar projects in Fresno.

The structures appeal to small manufacturers, distributors and service businesses that need warehouse space. "There is a market for this in Visalia," Joe Pickett said. "To our knowledge, there is no other development like this with the size of buildings we are putting up."

The industrial park is near North Plaza Drive and Nicholas Avenue.

Meanwhile, the Pickett family keeps busy on projects. Pickett & Sons is the general contractor on shopping centers in Patterson and Los Banos, while Don Pickett & Associates is working on a 20-lot business park, similar to the one in Visalia, near Grundfos Pump Corp. in Fresno.

Learning experience

The ever-increasing tutoring industry continues to grow with the addition of Tutoring Club's second location in Clovis. This one is at 3157 Fowler Ave., near Ashlan Avenue.

The center, called The Tutoring Club of East Clovis, is the second operated by Bill and Cheryl Syvertsen, who say their original site on Herndon Avenue experienced the fastest growth of any Tutoring Club franchise in the nation.

The first location has 18 tutors -- six times what it had when it opened a year ago.

The for-profit tutoring industry has grown by double digits nationally, fueled by highly competitive parents, low-achieving students and tougher academic standards.

Nationwide, experts estimate the tutoring industry's worth at $4 billion and growing.

Locally, the number of tutoring companies has more than tripled over the past two decades.

In the Fresno/Clovis area, tutoring centers have found ripe territory.

The Fresno Unified School District is making $1.5 million available to help struggling students hire private tutors under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

And at the perennial high-achieving Clovis Unified School District, eager parents make good use of extra help to boost their children's performances, even if it comes with a hefty price tag.

Sharing information

Television station KSEE 24 recently announced a partnership with two South Valley newspapers.

The station will broadcast the headlines of the Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register. The papers will in turn publish the station's headlines.

The media outlets also will share other information, such as video that can be posted on Web sites, said Michael Espinoza, KSEE news director.

"It gives us a chance to talk together about stories that occurred ... maybe share coverage ideas," he said, though all information won't be automatically shared.

KSEE also has partnerships with the Fresno Business Journal, the Hanford Sentinel and Get Out, an entertainment publication produced by the company that owns The Fresno Bee.

Plans call for KSEE reporters to broadcast from the Times-Delta newsroom, said Amy Pack, president and publisher of the two newspapers.

Partnerships between newspapers and TV aren't unusual and are an opportunity to serve customers, she said.

"Not all their viewers are readers, and not all our readers are viewers," she said.