Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Sorted by date Results 276 - 300 of 323
High Speed Rail Authority Southern California Regional Director Michelle Boehm, briefing the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council March 4 on the progress of the $68 billion project, indicated that the exact route through the Tehachapi Mountains has yet to be settled. Two possible High Speed Rail (HSR) routes on the east side of Tehachapi Summit are under consideration (see map). On the west side, the route will negotiate the narrow, steep ascent that the Southern Pacific conquered in...
The city of Tehachapi's new code enforcement officer, armed with a badge and the authority of the police department, cleaned up a trash-filled, condemned house on East I street that had been the number one location for police activity during the last 12 months. Tehachapi Chief of Police Kent Kroeger said that police had responded 70 times to the location over the past year on reports of various activities on the premises, including the buying and selling of narcotics. Newly hired full-time Code...
In a perfect world, no one would throw trash in the street or pile up junk in vacant fields or despoil buildings with graffiti. There's no perfect world, but there is Mary Beth Garrison. Garrison is director of the non-profit Community Clean Sweep, whose mission is to rid Kern County of piles of debris, junk and trash. Her passion is cleaning up the detritus that other people leave behind – and teaching those same people to be environmentally considerate. She is passionate about teaching p...
Adventist Health would administer Tehachapi Hospital and three rural clinics, hire and fire, connect hospital to expanded resources and re-purpose the existing facility built in 1956. The Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District board of directors voted 5-0 on Feb. 25, 2015 to approve Adventist Health as a potential affiliate, moving the process into negotiation. Following letters of intent, due diligence by both parties and the fleshing out of a contract, the matter will be brought before the voter...
Spending on the Tehachapi Critical Care Replacement Hospital construction is proceeding at a fast clip, Project Manager Stacey Pray told the Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District board of directors on Jan. 21, 2015. All available funds will be committed by the end of 2015, she said. An additional $14.7 million will be needed to complete the ER, medical-surgical and kitchen wings and other integral departments. The ICU, obstetrics, public dining and administrations wings will be left as shells to...
Nice touch – Above, brass downspouts extending from an exterior wall of the new hospital are an example of the attention to taste and detail that has gone into the design by SWA architects of Pasadena. Be prepared – The Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District new Chief of Staff Maria DeLima reported to the board on Jan. 21, 2015, that the hospital had staged an Ebola drill. It is official – Former interim CEO of the Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District Eugene Suksi is now the permanent CEO. The dis...
Len Burgeson, a native of the San Fernando Valley, worked on my house in Tehachapi seven years ago when I first moved in. He laid pavers, plumbed an outdoor sink and built cabinets just the way I wanted, which often did not make sense to the former union carpenter turned handyman. Len built himself a couple of houses in Sand Canyon. I had not seen him for a while when I encountered his smiling face at Save Mart with his wife Chelie Constantine. A veteran of a 1967 tour in Viet Nam that exposed...
No snow, no problem – A slightly windblown snowman made out of sprayed white tumbleweeds beckons from the front yard of a home on D Street. The promised big winter year-end snowstorm dusted the higher elevations of Bear Valley but otherwise skipped the Tehachapi area, which was cold and brilliantly clear as 2015 made its appearance. According to MountainBase weather station (www.mountainbase.com), located in West Golden Hills, temperatures dropped to 16.2 degrees Fahrenheit at 7 a.m. on Dec. 3...
California’s legislators in Sacramento passed a total of 931 laws during the regular session in 2014. Most took effect on Jan. 1, 2015. Some became effective immediately on passage and others will take effect on July 1, 2015. A list of all the new California laws can be found at www.leginfo.ca.gov/pdf/BillsEnactedReport2014.pdf. The laws will touch every California resident in various ways and intensities. Forde Files – while trying not to get distracted by the narrower and regional pieces of...
Tejon Ranch Conservancy volunteers and groups of students spend days collecting old, fallen barbed wire fences in the interior of Tejon Ranch. Shown above at Canyon del Gato Montes on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014 Conservancy Stewardship Manager Laura Pavliscak secures wire that she and a dozen volunteers have pulled off the ground and rolled into neat wreaths. A ranch crew was to come along and pick up the piles of wire. Canyon del Gato Montes flows south through the Tehachapi Mountains to the Joshua...
The Tehachapi Critical Care Replacement Hospital, under construction and looking grand but facing rough financial seas ahead, is looking for a strong partner that will provide fiscal, clinical, cultural and governance support. The Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District Board of Directors took the step of approving a lengthy Request for Proposal (RFP) Affiliation/Partnership at its Dec. 17, 2014 meeting at the Golden Hills Community Services District. The 5-0 vote was a major move in a new...
The Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District board of directors elected as its president a new director attending his first meeting in an official capacity. David Worden accepted the nomination of director Jean Prel at the Dec. 17 meeting at the district's Brite Lake headquarters, and, following a vote by the five-member panel, smoothly assumed the mantle of long-time director Harry Cowan. The board also welcomed newly elected director James Pack. Worden's first order of business was to present...
New face on the Council -- Tehachapi City Clerk Denise Jones swore in Dennis Wahlstrom, the City Council's newest member, together with two incumbents, the outgoing mayor Phil Smith and the incoming mayor Susan Wiggins, at the Dec. 15 council meeting at Wells Education Center. The other council members are Kim Nixon and Ed Grimes, whose terms continue. Mary Lou Corpus-Zamudio, who lost her council seat in November, stepped back into civic service a few minutes later at the meeting, to be sworn...
The kids are doing fine with Common Core math concepts and vocabulary, teachers report, but parents who learned math differently tend to be baffled, so Golden Hills Elementary School hosted a Math Night Dec. 10, 2014 to help mom and dad catch up. "Young mathematicians should be flexible with numbers," Golden Hills Principal Heather Richter told approximately 22 parents of elementary students in the Tehachapi Unified School District who gathered in the cafeteria. Eight teachers volunteered their...
Tehachapi Unified School District Board of Trustees President Mary Graham choked up as she honored trustee Patty Snyder, who lost her seat in the Nov. 4 election after eight years on the board. An upbeat Snyder congratulated board newcomer Joe Wallek, picked up her coat and papers, circled around the back of the meeting room at the Wells Education Center and took a seat in the audience near the front. A teacher for 38 years – now retired --Snyder, 69, began teaching third grade in the TUSD in 1...
The Tehachapi City Council, at its Dec. 1, 2014 meeting at the Wells Education Center, approved the introduction of two ordinances written in response to citizen complaints of an increase in bothersome solicitation and of people rummaging through residents’ garbage. One ordinance would prohibit loitering and aggressive solicitation at specified locations, and another ordinance would prohibit “unauthorized entry into waste containers” – otherwise known as dumpster diving. “The foraging of waste...
Forde Files The Tehachapi City Council said farewell to Council member Mary Lou Corpus-Zamudio, who has served on the council since her appointment in 2012. At the Dec. 1 City Council meeting, she wished the best for Dennis Wahlstrom, her successor, and thanked her husband Eli for his support "in everything I want to do." Mayor Phil Smith presented Corpus-Zamudio with a certificate of appreciation and a houseplant. "You have nurtured the city," Smith said. Corpus-Zamudio, a native of Texas who...
Photo above left, light and shadow play on the hillsides of the eastern Tehachapi range Dec. 4, 2014, two days after a refreshing rainfall of .72 inches of rain (source: http://mountainbase.com). The view is to the north. At the center is the electrical substation operated by Terra-Gen that delivers power to Edison's Windhub substation on Oak Creek Road in Mojave for connection to the main grid. Power from the 28 Terra-Gen turbines near Tehachapi flows into the Terra-Gen-operated substation at 3...
Richie Meister, 23, of Tehachapi is fighting his way to the top in the Mixed Martial Arts competition circuit, posting his first professional win Nov. 29 at the Hollywood Park Casino. His opponent in the 135-lb weight class defaulted so he agreed to be matched with an opponent 10 pounds heavier. "I submitted my opponent in the third round by rear naked choke," he told Forde Files. He won $700. His immediate goal -- to compete on The Ultimate Fighter reality show on Fox Sports within a year and...
Tompkins rocks! –The Tompkins Parent Teacher Group, whose president is Amanda Schmidt, purchased a programmable sign that is now installed in front of the school. School staff is just learning how to program it, which at present gives the time and temperature and welcome. The group paid $12,000 for the sign. They also bought the Buddy Bench for the playground, where lonely or disengaged youngsters can sit and wait for a friend or staff (see cover photo), and paid for the big Tompkins Tigers s...
An informational meeting Nov. 20 on the Lehigh Southwest Cement Plant application to use alternative fuels in the cement-making process – including treated trash, biomass and old tires – drew tough questions from residents worried about air quality. "If this great experiment goes awry," said a person in the audience of 30 at the Kern County Veterans Memorial Building, "is there insurance to compensate people?" Another person said, "I am being treated for COPD, asthma and chronic bronchitis. Whe...
Neighbors pitching in for the community It was burned and blackened by two major wildfires -- the West fire in 2010 and the Canyon fire in 2011-- and it has a reputation as a sanctuary for the rebellious and iconoclastic, but Old West Ranch is a beautiful place that the residents love. Recently the neighbors spent five days sprucing up miles of ranch roads and removing charred, dead trees. Everyone shared lunch at mid-day, taking time to talk and enjoy the view from high above the Tehachapi...
Kiwanis Division 33 Lt. Governor Greg Mudge installed President Marget Willer and officers of the Kiwanis Club of Tehachapi at a dinner Oct. 29 at the Original Apple Shed Restaurant. Willer, director of the Salvation Army Center in Tehachapi, and her officers have planned a busy year for the club, whose signature service projects include Coats for Kids, the Flag Project, a golf tournament, fundraising to provide scholarships for graduating high school seniors, service at civic events,...
The Oct. 31 breakup of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo during a test flight over the Mojave Desert, an event of worldwide and historic impact, was an intimate blow to the Tehachapi community, the home of both pilots and many of the 400 employees of Scaled Composites, the developer and builder of the project. Co-pilot Michael Alsbury, 39, who died in the accident, is survived by his wife Michelle and two young children. Scaled Composites is sponsoring a web site to provide assistance to the...
The battle-scarred Tehachapi Critical Care Replacement Hospital is emerging triumphant as skilled crews give it form and substance. The 66,000-square-foot. $90 million project currently may be $23 million short of funds that will be needed to finish it, but as the shape, vitality, power and beauty of the building present themselves, completing the hospital as planned is the realistic manifestation of a big vision. The community will be proud of this building. While architect Stephen Wen, AIA,...
