A fabulous new addition to Ceres was the subject of a grand opening ceremony on Friday and everyone in Ceres should check it out soon if you haven’t already.

For nearly 20 years, Central Valley High School has been a school without a true home field. No more. What started a year ago with the groundbreaking of a $16.2 million athletic stadium is now something students, families and the community can enjoy. The field is finished, the home and visitor bleachers are in place, and the final pieces have come together just in time for the start of the 2026-27 school year. For a school that has been waiting a long time, it is pretty special to see it finally become a reality and it’s worth celebrating. The dazzling stadium really is the last piece of the puzzle for CVHS, giving students and families a place to gather, cheer on the Hawks and make memories.

The new stadium sports a welcoming landscaped entrance, restrooms, a ticket booth and concessions, along with space for local food trucks to serve crowds. The CVHS Athletic Boosters will take care of the main concession, adding another familiar piece to game nights. When those lights come on for the first time and the Hawks take the field, there will be a lot of folks who will be pinching their selves.

Congratulations, Central Valley High and Ceres Unified on the beautiful addition.

* * * * *

I speak for many in Ceres who are thankful that Joey Chavez is back as the city’s recreation director.

Chavez was absent a while on administrative leave after the incident where he lost his cool and the following chest bumping in a tense meeting with CYB representatives Jorge Guerrero and Ismael Ontiveras. Guerrero, now a Ceres City Council candidate, was no saint in the matter and was pushing all Chavez’s buttons.

The sentiment from folks I’ve talked to say that Chavez got a raw deal and sent to do the dirty work for Mayor Javier Lopez and then City Manager Doug Dunford who were not present.

Chavez regrets how he handled the situation and learned from it.

There has been mending and even the CYB leaders have struck a more civil tone at a recent council meeting, especially after the City Council moved to improve George Costa fields – albeit at great cost – to improve the lighting situation.

* * * * *

The City Council talks a lot about getting citizens involved in city government but it certainly won’t be encouraging folks to do that when their meetings last five hours long, starting at 6 p.m. and ending at 11 p.m. The meeting on July 13 was four hours and 13 minutes long.

Meetings could be shorter if councilmembers – AKA the Majority Three – would pay attention to staff reports, read their packets and not ask for information already supplied. Maybe they just want to give the impression they are keyed into business while exposing the fact that they weren’t listening.

I also find it absolutely worthless that the council goes into closed session and the mayor comes out to an empty chamber to announce “direction has been provided.” Anyone waiting the half hour for that stunning announcement would be miffed but apparently that’s the minimum that’s required in a closed session. Unfortunately it leaves the public completely in the dark as to what that direction specifically is.

* * * * *

I have noticed that the mayor has been coming to meetings with prepared written statements as to why he supports certain actions. A sign of a made-up mind before hearing business at hand? It’s a sure sign that he’s not confident in his natural speaking abilities. Now if we can get him to stop saying “witch-u” for “with you.” Also if we can get him and city staff to sound a little more professional and quit mispronouncing moratorium as mormatorium.

* * * * *

Ceres, we need to have a little talk.

If an outsider or two drove through town what do you think his impression might be? Not likely a good one.

I walked by the small commercial building at the northeast corner of Lawrence and Fifth streets and saw the landscaped area was full of dead weeds and dog crap. Does anyone who owns or operates businesses there have any ambition to do anything about it?

I passed through the intersection of Hatch and Mitchell on Thursday and wafting in the air was the very strong pungent odor of cannabis, likely coming from the nearby cannabis dealer that was or maybe is in arrears in it fees owed to the city.

If you drive down Whitmore Avenue you’ll see a line of duplexes with so many cars parked haphazardly – one was being worked on last week – and what lawn area remaining is a combination of dirt and stomped-on grass that died back in the Bush Administration.

On Mitchell Road you’ll see a very nice Rite Aid building now boarded up. Across the street is an L-shaped shopping center that looks appalling both in color and in neglected landscaping.

If you’re staying at the Microtel Inn, you get to pass by a vacant lot across the street with a bumper crop of tumbleweeds. I guess it’s in keeping with the other vacant lots farther south on the west side of El Camino. Doesn’t the fire department get onto owners anymore for allowing weeds to grow during fire season?

Next do a comparison of the rock landscape area at the northbound Highway 99 onramp at Whitmore Avenue and compare it to the southbound freeway off-ramp at Pelandale in Modesto. The weeds have completely taken over the Ceres site. It looked very nice when it was first installed decades ago, but it looks horrible now and that would be the fault of Caltrans that decided that rock would be a nice way to landscape areas, not realizing that weeds pop up through it in no time. Of course they are short on staff to take care of it.

If you get off of northbound 99 past the Hatch Road overpass you’ll see a garden of tumbleweeds and graffiti to boot before you get to the Union 76 station.

A bright spot in all this environmental malaise is the fact that FINALLY the non-descript Lazy Wheels Mobile Home Park is finally being cleared of decades of debris from people okay with living in abject squalor.

It’s really hard to comprehend how anyone found that acceptable. The illegal and unsafe building and complete lack of development standards that were allowed to take place there over the years was a shame, but this is what happens when you have a state of California that has total dictatorial authority over mobile home parks, usurping local control. Mix in that with an out-of-town landlord who lives six hours away and you get what you had at Lazy Wheels.

The same landlord owns the Whitmore Towers project site that everyone got excited about when it was proposed in 2019. Those grandiose plans have fallen by the wayside and the property is now for sale.

Let’s face it. Some people care about how their hometown appears but they are powerless or they just get too used to seeing how things appear that it dulls their lack caring. They just accept that they are surrounded by people who refuse to paint or repair or clean up or plant trees and nice landscaping.

Don’t get me wrong. Ceres is no different than the myriad of other Valley towns – like Pixley or Delano or Atwater – even Modesto. But comparing yourself to similarly impoverished towns does not inspire any improvements to look more like a classier town like Ripon, for example.

And I often wonder what folks passing up 99 think when they leave Ceres, make that big sweeping curve to come into Modesto and see buildings covered in graffiti and how Modesto has treated the beautiful Tuolumne River channel with the worst possible uses of trailer parks and auto wrecking yards. Communities like Sacramento, however, treat their river with dignity and respect.

This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation. How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com