Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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The first order of business at the March 2 Tehachapi City Council meeting was to choose a new council person to fill the at-large seat held by Kenneth Hetge who resigned on Jan. 2. Four applications were received by the City and all were qualified for the position but it was Christina Scrivner who was chosen in a 3-1 vote. Councilman Phil Smith nominated Kim Nixon, a prior City Councilwoman now serving on the Planning Commission. "I am very humbled by this opportunity to serve my community,"...
At their March 10 meeting, the TUSD School Board presented several Certificates of Recognition....
On March 13, Dr. Mary Barlow, Kern County Superintendent of Schools and Matt Constantine of Kern Public Health, issued a press release: “Although there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Kern County, we are recommending that all Kern County K-12 schools, preschools and charter schools close temporarily, no later than the close of school on Wednesday, March 18, 2020. We are further recommending that Kern County public schools plan to reopen no earlier than Tuesday, April 14, 2020." As t...
City Manager Greg Garrett reported to the City Council Monday, March 16 that the City departments are meeting daily at 4 p.m. to plan for the next 24 hours as COVID-19 protocols are moving swiftly and they want to stay ahead of or flatten the curve. As of March 16, all City facilities are closed to the public although all are in operation. Until further notice, the Tehachapi Museum, Tehachapi Depot and the Visitor Center will be closed. The Police Department is available through their phone...
Matthew and Jacqueline Dolan moved into their new home in Bear Valley on Jan. 1. They purchased the house completely furnished. However, it was more than furnished; it included everything the prior owner possessed including books, family photos, mementos, linens and a kitchen complete with all utensils. In a bookcase, Jackie found a complete set of plans for the house. There were two large telescopes in the house – one in the living room and one in the bedroom. The owner of the house had passed...
The Board of Tehachapi Valley Recreation & Park District voted unanimously at their Feb. 18 meeting to purchase an automated pay station for Brite Lake Campground. Connor Mossman of Pacific Parking Systems presented the venSTATION Automated Pay Station, a unit that can be customized to the needs of the District and modified as the need arises. TVRPD Operations Manager Bill Fisher said that the Board actually voted to purchase such a unit four or five years ago but had not followed through. As...
On Oct. 8, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB742 which eliminated sections of the California Government Code that required passengers on the state-supported Amtrak Thruway bus to have a rail trip as part of their ticket. This change will enable the San Joaquin Joint Power Authority, operator of the Amtrak Thruway bus, to pick up and drop off passengers without requiring them to have a train ticket. It was felt that this measure would increase revenue at virtually no additional cost and...
Tehachapi REALTORS® Josh and DeVerie Riley, owners of Associated Real Estate have proudly announced that through a new partnership, they are bringing the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brand to Tehachapi and Kern County. Associated is partnering with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Troth REALTORS® of the Antelope Valley to be sister offices. According to the Rileys, the decision to join Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices wasn't made lightly. Their families came from California City with...
At the beginning of January, both Deanna and Rick Phelan retired from Northrup Grumman in Palmdale where they had both worked for 30 years. When looking for a retirement location, Tehachapi seemed like the perfect spot for the two of them and Deanna's mother, Carol Wilson, who is living with them. Tehachapi is close to the desert but not in the desert and the desert is their playground. Deanna and Rick spend most of their free time RZR riding and camping in the desert. Carol sometimes joins...
New businesses were front and center at the Tehachapi Planning Commission meeting on Feb. 10 beginning with The Village Collective that will be located on South Green St. at the corner of F St. Mountain Top Real Estate Holdings, LLC submitted new architectural designs for the business that at one time held the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store. The original architectural design changing the building to a restaurant with outdoor dining and office and co-workspace was approved by the Planning...
Triassic Vineyards has won awards at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition every year since 2015 and this year was no exception. Vineyard owners Jim and Sally Arnold announced that Triassic brought home six awards from the 2020 competition that was held in early January. Their 2016 Big Bang, a red blend with Zinfandel as the lead grape, brought home Triassic's first Best of Class award, being number one out of 44 award winners in that class. The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition...
Julia Bosma and her son Peter Douglas moved to Tehachapi in November from Bakersfield when Julia began her new position at Rio Tinto US Borax in Boron. The geologist was hired as an "environmental adviser" for Environmental Compliance and Permitting. For her, Tehachapi was the most obvious choice of a place to live and she has become well acquainted with other Rio Tinto employees who live in the area. Prior to Rio Tinto, Julia had been working for the California High Speed Rail, first in...
At their Jan. 21 meeting, the Tehachapi City Council directed City staff to publish two times a notice to appoint an at-large member of City Council to replace Councilman Kenneth Hetge who resigned on Jan. 2. The appointee will finish out the rest of Hetge’s term, which ends on Nov. 3, 2020. A special election was not an option due to the November election when that seat will change from at-large to district. The Council again took up the subject of the Urban Greening Grant project that would s...
Tehachapi has a new City Planner. Her name is Kim Burnell and she comes to Tehachapi with 16 years of planning experience from Riverside, Orange County and Los Angeles. Burnell grew up in Riverside County with a love of horses, dogs and music. She sang in a chamber choir and played French Horn in her high school marching band and clarinet in concert band. She attended University of California Irvine and graduated in four and a half years with three majors. She said that at that time she was not...
On Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020, Tehachapi's Development Services Director Jay Schlosser received word that he had been awarded the 2019 Outstanding Civil Engineer in the Public Sector for Region 9 (State of California) from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This is a huge honor for Schlosser who had won the award for the San Joaquin Valley in July and Los Angeles Section last September before moving on to the Regional level. The ASCE is made up of 10 regions and has over 100,000...
At their Jan. 13 meeting, the Tehachapi Planning Commission approved a multi-tenant retail center to be located on the southwest corner of Capital Hills Pkwy. and Voyager Dr., between the Holiday Inn and the on-ramp to Hwy. 58. The retail center, proposed by Jeremy Manning of Paul Dhanens Architect, Inc., includes 6,055 sq. ft. of retail space including an 1,855 sq. ft. Starbucks with drive-thru. The plan includes a parking lot with 49 parking spaces. Per Planning Commission guidelines, the...
City Clerk Tory Marsh began the Jan. 6 City Council meeting by announcing that the City had received a letter of resignation from Councilman Kenneth Hetge. Mayor Susan Wiggins stated that as the letter was received too late to be addressed at this meeting, his replacement will be discussed at the Jan. 21 meeting. Development Services Director Jay Schlosser announced that the City is asking for public input for possible non-motorized projects. The Development Services Department has been very...
It was late last year that Jesus (Jess) Lopez, his wife Julia Ramirez Lopez and their three young daughters moved to Tehachapi from Norwalk, Calif. They wanted their little girls to be brought up in the safer and more secure surroundings offered by our mountain community. Over the last ten years, they had been visiting Jess' sister here and thought it was a great place for the kids. They always loved coming here. Jess was born and raised in Long Beach, Calif., with his two sisters. His parents...
In response to the need for more teacher and staff collaboration time in order to more fully meet the needs of their students, the Tehachapi Unified School District has built in eight late-start Wednesdays over the school year that will allow for these two hour planning sessions. In order to allow for the state required number of annual education minutes, each of the schools have had to adjust their schedules to allow for enough banked minutes to cover the planning meetings. The three...
The Development Services Department of the City of Tehachapi is asking for public input into the Active Transportation Program grant proposal(s) they plan to submit to the State of California by the middle of 2020. Proposals must be for non-motorized projects within the city limits of Tehachapi, for example, sidewalks, walking paths, bike paths, etc. This will be the fifth cycle of ATP grants since their inception in 2013 with the passage of AB101 and SB99. Until the passage of California SB1...
Nine-year-old Tehachapi resident, Nick Makroglous, has loved all things related to ambulances, EMS and public safety since he was one-and-a-half. His mother, Samantha, said, "When he was very young, he was adamant about dressing his own cuts and scrapes, and if someone in the family gets hurt, Nick is the first to assess the situation and help." Most birthdays and Halloweens have been centered around an ambulance, fire, police or military theme. Nick has also been known to deliver baked goods...
A planned microbrewery project received a go-ahead from the Tehachapi Planning Commission at their Dec. 9 meeting. The Commission voted to change the land use of Building B at 325 N. Industrial Parkway from “generic business” to “microbrewery.” No name was given for the microbrewery but Cristina Checa said she plans to pattern the microbrewery after the business model of Sierra Nevada. Sierra Nevada’s mission statement is: “Quality, craftsmanship and flavor...strive to be as environment...
In my Dec. 7 article, I mistakenly referred to Jennine Gillispie’s mother as Wendy. Jennine’s mother was Carol Swingley and Wendy managed the store for her. Also, while her store is normally open Thursday through Sunday, she will be open daily until Dec. 31. My sincere apologies to Jennine for these errors. If you have moved to Tehachapi within the last six months, Hilltop Welcoming Service has a bag of information about the Greater Tehachapi area, its activities, events, government and fac...
Although Jennine Gillespie knew about Tehachapi for most of her adult life, it wasn't until she moved here about a year ago that she got to know Tehachapi. Her father was real estate developer, Asa Swingley, who along with Los Angeles developer Don Adams owned The Land Co. on Woodford Tehachapi Rd. They were the pair who subdivided and sold the lots that would become Alpine Forest. Jennine was born in North Hollywood, Calif. and raised in the San Fernando Valley. She has a sister currently...
At noontime on Dec. 4 representatives from Hotel Equities (HE) of Atlanta, Ga. along with the California-based H2H Asset Group broke ground for the new TownePlace Suites to be located on Magellan Drive in Capital Hills in a planned business park just one block from the new Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley hospital. Members from Tehachapi city government assisted with the groundbreaking. "We are proud to progress into the next phase of development for the TownePlace Suites Tehachapi," said Greg...
