When the big-time investors from the Bay Area showed up in Oakdale saying they were ready to become farmers, the city swooned. Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) was entranced by their offer to build infrastructure for water deliveries and offered them bargain-basement water rates and a sweet annexation deal, even while it had previously denied many […]
Trinitas Almonds
Did Trinitas Buy the Irrigation District?
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Robert Frobose’s great-grandfather rebuilt his grocery store, then sold it and moved to Oakdale, where he began farming. “I was born into the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID),” said Frobose recently. “We still have one of my great grandfather’s ranches.” A rice farmer, Frobose is keenly aware of his crop’s […]
Water for Free?
“It’s almost like you live in Fairyland,” said Steve Knell last Thursday in a meeting in the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) boardroom. Knell is the district’s General Manager. He was responding to repeated queries from farmer Bob Frobose about OID’s apparent willingness to deliver water to Trinitas Partners while cutting back allotments for farmers with […]
Almond Siege Threatens Valley Homeowners
Just outside the city of Oakdale, houses along Orange Blossom and Horseshoe Roads represent most everyone’s dream of country living come true. Nestled under canopies of cottonwoods and oaks and with close access to the Stanislaus River, many of the homes feature backyard pastures with grazing horses, frolicking dogs, and large country cats hunting mice […]