Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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Artist Jedd Strange of Rosamond has put the finishing touches on a nearly block-long mural in Mojave that celebrates modes of transportation in that crossroads community. Painted in colorful acrylic, the artwork covers the north-facing exterior wall of Mission Bank on Panamint Street. The mural, moving from sunrise over the desert on the east end to sunset behind the mountains on the west end, features a mule team hauling a water wagon, the Southern Pacific Dayliner train, a diesel truck, a Huey...
The California High Speed Rail Authority 2019 Sustainability Report reinforces the original mission of the massive rail project and reflects a commitment to more stringent management practices. Much of the focus is on construction in the Central Valley. “The future is starting to take shape as major structural elements of the high-speed rail system in the Central Valley can be seen from Highway 99 or from passenger trains running along the San Joaquin line,” Authority CEO Brian P. Kelly wro...
In 1928, following his service in the U.S. Marines and before marriage would bring six children, a young Alvin Majors bought an Indian Scout motorcycle. He paid $300 for the new Massachusetts-made vehicle, which served a dual purpose – to ride in hill-climbing competitions and as transportation to his job at various Los Angeles Department of Water and Power locations. He also used the motorcycle on the job to patrol the Los Angeles Aqueduct in the Antelope Valley and points east. Majors became R...
Dr. Alois Alzheimer of Munich, Germany identified the disease known as Alzheimer's in 1906. The Alzheimer's Association, the umbrella organization that funds research, education and resources, was founded in 1980. By comparison, the American Cancer Society began in 1913. "We are late in the game regarding research," Ashley Sodergren, regional director, Kern and Tulare Counties, told the Kiwanis Club of Tehachapi in presentations during two recent meetings. "It is a public health issue that...
The Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District honored retiring Pipeline Superintendent Alex Steele as a "steady countenance" who has served the district for 41 years. Steele, 62, began working for the district on Feb. 3, 1978 when he was 20 years old. Bob Jasper, the first water district manager, recruited him and encouraged him to stay with the district when other jobs promised to lure him away. Steele began as an apprentice pump plant mechanic. A temporary assignment as pipeline superintendent...
Walmart initiated the process of building a 154,569-square-foot Supercenter in Tehachapi 14 years ago in 2005. A resistance movement delayed construction and spurred community engagement on an unprecedented scale. One hearing at the high school gymnasium drew more than 700 advocates for and against building the Walmart. The store opened on Aug. 7, 2019. "I'm overjoyed to see this come to fruition and to have this for Tehachapi and our residents," Mayor Susan Wiggins said, recalling one public...
With income earned from selling used clothing and other items for pennies at its thrift shop, the Tehachapi Hospital Guild has purchased a state-of-the-art echocardiogram device for Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley. The sonar device can measure the heart's blood flow per beat, the integrity of the valves, cardiovascular problems, clots, congenital abnormalities, the velocity and direction of the blood, electrical and physiology problems and the presence of infection. A future program will take...
Tax got lower! – Agenda item No. 10 on the July 17 Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District board of directors meeting was an annual housekeeping resolution to determine the amount of tax required to meet the State Water Project (SWP) water supply contracts for fiscal year 2019-20 and establish the tax rate. District Business Manager La Minda Madenwald reported that the tax rate has dropped. "This year, for a $200,000 assessed value home, the tax will decrease $10 compared to the prior year (...
Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley plans to build a four-acre, 1.5-megawatt solar installation on the hospital grounds that will offset 85 percent or more of the hospital's electricity consumption. The offset may be as high as 95 percent, according to the planners. The project owner and developer, together with the Adventist solar portfolio advisor, presented the proposal to the Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District (TVHD) board of directors during the July 17 board meeting at the district...
Mary Beth Garrison, external affairs and communications manager for Rio Tinto, said that the great borate mine will soon be known for lithium production. Speaking at the July 11 meeting of the East Kern Economic Alliance (EKEA) at the Rio Tinto visitor center in Boron, Garrison said that a new industrial process makes it possible to extract the valuable element from the waste piles (gangue piles) left over from mining borates. "There are 90 years of waste that we can re-process," she said....
This year, with the Sierra snowpack at 180 percent of normal, the Kern River is a raging monster. While the water flow has peaked on both the upper Kern (above Lake Isabella) and the lower Kern (below the lake), the river still is dangerous. The increased flow is awesome for rafters who thrill to the whitewater challenges in safe, professionally managed operations, but it can be lethal for visitors who do not understand the danger they are facing, and who underestimate the sheer power of the...
Anything that affects a driver's ability to operate a vehicle gets a DUI, California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Aaron Maurer told the Kiwanis Club of Tehachapi on May 22. "Alcohol, drugs and medication can lead to a DUI (driving under the influence) charge," he said. Officers can add a charge of child endangerment if there are children in the vehicle. To determine if a driver is impaired, an officer looks at, "the totality of circumstances," he said. "Your body does things it...
After the unseasonal cold snap in May that brought frigid rain and wind, Tehachapi gardens are alive under the summer sun. "I have my biggest bedding plant order coming in," Rick Gillies, owner of Mountain Gardens Nursery and Pet at the corner of C and Curry streets, said. The order features petunias with white sparkles on purple named "Night Sky" and bold yellow-striped red petunias named "Queen of Hearts." Every "Night Sky" flower has a different starry pattern. Gillies leans over to smell a...
The Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District (TCCWD) team of employees had their hands full when a confluence of unusual conditions impacted the pumping operations in May. In anticipation of the normal demand for agricultural water, the big pumps were importing the maximum toward the goal of 10,000 acre feet (AF) for the year. The Importation replenished Jacobsen Reservoir (Brite Lake) 300 AF in April. Then the rains came and the temperature dropped. "We could see no end of the rain," water...
Caution! High up in the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains near Mount Whitney, at an elevation of 13,608 feet, the Kern River begins its journey through the mountains to the San Joaquin Valley, gathering snowpack runoff as it descends. The river, known as the North Fork of the Kern River, is impounded at Isabella Lake, where it joins water from the shorter South Fork of the Kern River, which has drained a plateau to the east. The Army Corps of Engineers, which operates Isabella Dam, releases lake...
The Tehachapi housing market should pick up when the sun shines. While pricing remains stable, “the market has been a little flat,” Lorri Busse, Realtor with Access Real Estate and president of the Tehachapi Area Association of Realtors (TAAR), said. “If anything has affected the market this year, it has been our weather. Usually our market doesn’t really pick up until the sun shines, so we’re getting a late start on the buying season.” She said she has not found that aerospace employees are mov...
Policy positions by several presidential candidates have re-awakened a push in California to grant prison inmates and parolees the right to vote. Currently in California, felons in prison (not jail) or on parole may not vote. An organization called Initiate Justice failed to get an initiative on the 2018 ballot that would have restored the right to vote to approximately 162,000 people in state prisons and on parole (The California Right to Vote of Convicted Felons Initiative). The organization...
Following an executive order from Governor Gavin Newsom, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is throwing out plans for twin water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and initiating planning and permits for a smaller, single tunnel. “The California WaterFix is officially dead,” Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District (TCCWD) General Manager Tom Neisler reported at the May 15 board of directors meeting at Brite Lake headquarters. “Twelve years of work and $300 milli...
The California High-Speed Rail project appeared to be careening toward oblivion when California Governor Gavin Newsom said in his Feb. 12 State of the State address that "Currently, there simply isn't a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to LA." Echoing opponents of the project, Newsom said there had been "too little oversight and not enough transparency." Rather than abandoning the High-Speed Rail plan, the new governor chose to reduce the monster to smaller...
Mark Schniepp of the California Economic Forecast reports that California's population growth between 2018 and 2019 was the lowest since records have been kept, beginning in 1900. The rate of growth over the last year was 0.5 percent. The slowdown is due to high home prices, high taxes, bad traffic and millenials who aren't having children, he said....
The May 2 National Day of Prayer in Tehachapi featured three events that began with the 33rd Annual Kiwanis Prayer Breakfast at McMullan Hall, St. Malachy Catholic Church. Shown at the breakfast, (left to right) Tehachapi City Manager Greg Garrett; guest speaker Tehachapi Mayor Susan Wiggins; United Methodist Church Pastor Rev. Falamao Samate, who prayed for state, county and local governance; and Kiwanis Prayer Breakfast Chairman Don Bowman. Pastor John Lopez of the First Baptist Church led...
The Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council bid farewell to Michelle Vance, the organization's secretary and manager of the Tehachapi Valley Recreation and Park District at its May 1 meeting at the Slice of Life Enrichment School. Vance is moving to Colorado to take the position of Economic Development Director of the city of Wellington, which has almost the same population (9,527) as Tehachapi. "I'm going back to Tehachapi in 2000," Vance said. "They need me. I love the opportunity. I...
The Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District board of directors has authorized the district to work with the city of Tehachapi to explore the development of a self-sustaining water recycling system for the municipality. Under the plan, the city would convert effluent from the waste water (sewage) plant to potable domestic water for residential use. "This would ensure that the city has water for the future," Tehachapi Public Works Director Don Marsh told the water district board on April 17. The...
Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District Manager Tom Neisler reported to the district board on April 17 that agriculture customers have started irrigation operations. The district expects to import 10,000 acre feet (AF) of water from the State Water Project this year. The Brite Lake (Jacobsen Reservoir) level is high, with the water approaching 36 feet deep and a volume of 1,600 acre feet, 100 AF more than last year. The photo above shows the fishing dock that usually sits on dry land. "We are...
Six members of Congress from California are campaigning to site the proposed Space Development Agency in the military areas of Edwards Air Force Base and the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. At the March 14 meeting of the East Kern Economic Alliance (EKEA) at the Mojave Air and Space Port, Representative Kevin McCarthy's field rep Gary Medina presented a letter sent from the congresspersons to President Donald Trump, stating the case for the location. "[W]e urge you to consider two bases...
