Lemoore & Housing

[froglove]

Any ladies from Lemoore, Ca. have a housing site I can check out?


I tried looking at one online but its not working. We might pick orders back there and wanna see what the newish housing looks like.

[CoffeeGirl]

I have actually been on the base & it is very nice Dustie!

[flangl18]

Housing here is almost ALL newish...there is a limited number of capehart housing left, which I personally like because those have the big yards, but those are very few. However, from what I understand there is a bit of a wait. There is getting ready to be a homeport change between two commands, VFA-113 is moving to Japan and another squadron coming from Japan to Lemoore, so a big influx into housing. Don't know what you would qualify size or rank wise, but it is all nice.

[froglove]

They were starting to rebuild new ones when we left there in 2003. They looked nice.

We are E6 with 2 kiddos( and pets). ummm We wouldnt even be moving until the end of next year(2010).

I want to go back to Lemoore to be close to my family thats in Fresno. Never thought I would miss Cali let alone Fresno/Lemoore area. But I do.

[sukhakuli]

We're in Lemoore. Honestly, if you can avoid it, do so. The air quality in the valley is the worst in the nation, and after 2.5 years here my kids and I have all developed asthma and allergies. We just feel bad all the time. When my 7 year old runs, she complains her chest hurts. Living here is making us all sick.

If you are an officer, the housing is a rip off because you can get a much nicer home in Lemoore or Hanford for less. The officer housing and enlisted housing is identical. The houses are nice, but our BAH is $1600 a month, and the housing is a 1300 sq foot duplex with a teeny yard. Right now we're living in town in a 3,000 sq foot home with a huge yard and about 10 fruit trees.

The homes are newer, and in good shape. There are tons of parks everywhere, and they are nice parks, too. The schools, Akers and Neutra are the best in the area (not that that is saying much, CA schools rank 48th in the nation). The CDC is great, and I love the preschool there. The spots are very limited, though. The Commissary is OK, just check the dates on everything because they sell expired food often. The Exchange is so so. I have been to better, but it could be worse. You get used to the jet noise.

The weather isn't the best compared to places I've lived, but it's not horrible, either. The summers are very long and can get very hot, like 120! And it is surprisingly humid (but definitely not midwest or mid atlantic humid! It's not as dry as the mojave). The winters are very short, but can get chilly. You do need to buy winter clothes here, but winter only lasts about 3 months. On a good air quality days you can see the mountains, and the Sierras are gorgeous. But you only see them a couple of times a year. The smog line is pretty heavy. In the fall and winter you get the Tulie fog, it's basically air pollution that has condensed in to fog. It's very thick and had an unforgettably bad smell. Like they threw a couple of cows on top of a pile of cow dung and set it on fire. It's rank.

In general the people are nice. There is very little crime, and no commuting traffic to speak of. We get local organic produce and eggs delivered to the house through a farm co op. It's Family Farm Fresh (google it), and it probably the best thing about the valley. The produce is wonderful! And they will deliver on base. The fresh strawberries here are incredible as well. Everywhere you drive there are fruit stands, and you can get strawberries that are being picked in the field behind you as you buy them.

The hospital is more heavily deployed than any hospital in the Navy, but the area is very underserved. The average deployment % in Navy Med is 7%, and Lemoore is more than double that. Access to care can be difficult. On dh's fellowship application the listed Lemoore as a hardship duty station. I don't know if the pilot people rate it as such.

If you have any more questions, let me know. We're up for orders this year, and if dh doesn't get his fellowship (he's a Pediatrician and wants to get in to NICU), then Lemoore is on our list of choices. But I think we are going to get out of here even though we own our home and my kids are in school. Our health is really deteriorating. Lemoore isn't the worst place we have been, but it doesn't rate very highly. I'm glad we came because seeing how food is grown for most of the nation has been interesting. We have really enjoyed Sequoia NP, and a drive to Disneyland is only about 4-5 hours so we go about once a month. We are not volunteering to stay, however.

[froglove]

Thanks! I know what Im getting into at Lemoore. I was born and raised in Fresno and its where I met my dh. He was in Lemoore for about 6 years or so.

We have all our friends there and my family. We will probably end up out in town( we used to live in a HUGE house in Lemoore). I just never knew how decent housing was.

Dont think I could go down to 1300 sq ft though. Our house we own now is 2600sq ft. We have too much crap


Thanks for your info!

[familyof4]

Well when we lived there, the housing was just being built.. and I have been in some of the new houses and in my opinion are awsome! I am not picky though. I dont need anything fancy if I know it's not my permanent home. Our house was about 1300 sq.ft and was perfect for us. JMO on living in Lemoore. You already know everything else.

[flangl18]

We are in a 4 bedroom home in Stone Park and the sq footage for us is about 1900 sq ft. The only thing bigger I think are the brand new Officer units they built over by Akers. I haven't been inside, but they look very large on the outside.
I agree with the air quality issue. I have not felt great for the two years we have been here and my kids have all had issues. The schools on base are good, however, LHS is not a good high school. If your kids need any kind of special attention, they won't get it there. The only thing I don't like about the schools on base is they are a bit overcrowded. There are too many students that don't live on base that are going there and I think they are going to have to put their foot down and quit letting in kids that are not base residents.

[froglove]

Eh air quality doesnt bug me. Mainly because I was raised in it and my kids have dealt with it as well.


Now Jacob will be 4 this December and Brenna is only 2 so we do not have to worry about school right now. But will worry about daycare because I plan on working out there somewhere( might get a job in Fresno and daycare up there....family.... ).

BUT Jacob has Autism so we need to continue with his therapies out there.

We are HOPING that the Category he is in with EFMP we can still go to Lemoore.

I dont wanna go back to SD.

[sukhakuli]

Originally Posted by froglove Eh air quality doesnt bug me. Mainly because I was raised in it and my kids have dealt with it as well. Now Jacob will be 4 this December and Brenna is only 2 so we do not have to worry about school right now. But will worry about daycare because I plan on working out there somewhere( might get a job in Fresno and daycare up there....family.... ). BUT Jacob has Autism so we need to continue with his therapies out there. We are HOPING that the Category he is in with EFMP we can still go to Lemoore. I dont wanna go back to SD.

If he has autism, then you really don't want to go to Lemoore. My 4 year old has autism, and we thought he would be able to get services here, but they aren't available. He is a Cat 5, they will tell you the hospital is a
Cat4 (we were sent here by mistake, apparently), but my dh is one of the Pediatricians there, and he says it's really not more than a Cat 3. The closest Developmentalist is in San Francisco or San Diego. My son is supposed to see a Developmentalist every 6 months, but he hasn't seen one in 2.5 years. We are trying to get it approved to go to SD so he can see one in December. Speech therapy and occupational therapy are in Fresno, that's quite a hike 3 or 4 times a week.

Once your kid is in the school district, you will need to get a lawyer to get services. The placement they offered my son was literally a storage room with a TV and a few small chairs. There was no bathroom, and the room reeked of urine. There were piles of scissors laying around. There were no toys or anything. It was like something in a developing country. My son goes to the CDC and we're happy with it there. But the school district made all sorts of claims that were against federal law to deny him services. It turned in to a several month ordeal, and while we were all fighting back and forth my son wasn't getting services.

Our ABA company is so-so at best. In San Diego we had therapists with a full BS doing his therapy, but here they are all college students, and not even psych students, they just hire anybody. Since they are just students, we have a really high turnover rate. In one month we lost 3 therapists. I have repeatedly asked to switch companies through the Regional Center, but have been denied. When we were up from orders in San Diego, and our choices were Lemoore or 29 Palms, my son's Developmentalist told us to ask for a Humanitarian placement to avoid Lemoore. We figured it couldn't be that bad for services, but we probably should have asked to stay in San Diego. My son is doing well, but the therapy has been a major struggle.

I have to say, though, that UCP in Hanford has the most amazing program for special needs kids we have been to. It only goes to age 3, unfortunately, but they really know their stuff. Get in to that if you can! First 5 is a waste of my time, but we're learning Spanish, so we keep going.

I'm sorry I can't be more positive, but our experiences here have not been good.