Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 132
Ouch – half a percent – The Wasco Union High School District needed 55 percent approval in the Nov. 6 election to pass a $40.5 million bond measure that would have built a new gymnasium and aquatic complex and modernized existing buildings at Wasco High School. The "yes" vote was 54.48 percent, which is .52 percent shy of the required 55 percent. The "no" vote was 45.52 percent. The vote count was 1,765 to 1,475. Two other school districts in Kern County passed school bond measures, both by soli...
The Tehachapi Library has two new 3D printers. These were donated by the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council, along with several spools of the plastic filament that these 3D printers use. These are not yet available for the general public to use, since there are details still needed on the process to be in place for people to come in and use them. (They have to work through the bureaucracy.) But it's only a matter of time for that to be worked out. For now the library is providing...
On Wednesday evening, Sept. 19, at the Depot Museum, Cheers to Charity organizer Mary Beth Garrison and her committee handed out checks totaling $40,000 to local nonprofits and the organizations that assisted with the event. With Garrison were Barbie Herziger who organized the desserts, Becca Dillenbeck who scheduled the volunteers, Marcia Thompson who handled the insurance, Lydia Chaney who handled the printing and Curtis Nelson who was in charge of set up and take down. Over 750 people attende...
The court-ordered realignment of the five Kern County Supervisor districts to create a second Hispanic-majority voting bloc has produced an expanded District 2 that is the size of a small kingdom. Tehachapi resident Zack Scriver represents District 2, which will lose portions of its area to other districts while expanding across the entire lower half of Kern County from the San Bernardino County line to the San Luis Obispo County line. Beginning with the Nov. 6, 2018 election, the District 2...
Vortex of fun – As a resident of downtown Tehachapi, Forde Files has observed that many families and children who use the new Kern County Library Tehachapi Branch on Green Street eveery day. It's a joy to see the eager faces skipping along to get into the building, to find new books and to sprawl on the comfortable sofas in the children's section. Since its grand opening Dec. 4, thefacility has had its start-up bumps, as the head librarian left, and staff has been working hard to learn the ropes...
Jeff Lingerfelt, President of Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley gave an update on the new hospital at the monthly Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council meeting on April 4. He said that code compliance adjustments should be completed by mid-May. There had been problems with gaps in at least 28 doors, pharmacy certification and the height of counter tops in the lab station had to be adjusted. He added that the projected opening for the hospital is this July. He thanked the Tehachapi...
Rio Tinto, owner of one of the three largest borate resources in the world and the largest open pit mine in California, welcomes visitors to its Boron Visitor Center, seven days a week from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Boron is 51 miles east of Tehachapi on Hwy.. 58. Mary Beth Garrison, the company's Boron public relations director (above, speaking at the Feb. 7 meeting of the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council at the Tehachapi Police Department community room) has a team of hosts to...
After a few hiccups, the Tehachapi Branch of the Kern County Library will open its doors to the public on Monday, Dec. 4 at its new location, 212 S Green St. Tours of will begin at 4 p.m. District 2 Supervisor Zack Scrivner hosted an opening event at the Depot Museum on Nov. 13, which was highlighted by a Power Point presentation of the stages of development of the new library. Andie Apple, Kern County Interim Director of Libraries, presented the crowd with a "wish list" of items still needed...
At the Aug. 2 Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council meeting, Zack Skow of Marley's Mutts Dog Rescue announced that the organization has purchased a 20 acre ranch in Cummings Valley with the hopes of turning it into a base for his rescue operations. The next step is for Skow to secure a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) from the Kern County Planning Commission. Once that is done, he is ready to roll and he hopes to be operational in about six months. To manage the ranch, he has hired Robbie...
The Tehachapi Unified School District (TUSD) has implemented a program that seeks to change student bad behavior by rewarding good behavior. The concept is called Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) and is the outcome of a national initiative to find a better solution to disruptive behavior than suspension. "Students who are suspended have a higher dropout rate," Clair Rhea, learning director at Golden Hills Elementary School, said during a presentation at the Greater Tehachapi...
Kern Economic Development Corporation President and CE0 Richard Chapman told the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council July 5 that hubs of technology and business innovation are sprouting up and driving economic growth. Typically, the hubs – known as regional innovation centers -- are private-public partnerships that provide space, resources and infrastructure for start-ups and businesses that are moving up through a cycle of technological growth (see graphic on the Silicon Valley w...
Determined director – Ten-year-old Phoebe Morgan-VerHagen of Tehachapi co-directed two of the 10-minute plays recently presented in Tehachapi Community Theatre's Playwright's Festival. Phoebe's mom, Tanya White, said her daughter began asking her when she was four years old how she could get on television. "It's a phase," White thought, and agreed to take her to auditions in Los Angeles and find an agent. One day as they were at Sony Studios, they shared an elevator with Steven Spielberg. The r...
Come voice opinions on where transportation dollars are spent. Should Kern County fix local streets and roads or add more bike baths? Does public transportation need to be increased in our area? Is there a dangerous intersection you think could be improved? If you have opinions, the Kern Council of Governments wants to hear from you. The Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council is teaming up with Kern COG to host a Tehachapi workshop and they need your opinions. “It’s all part of the pro...
Kim Nixon, Vice President of the Tehachapi Police Foundation presented a Life Membership plaque to Hall Ambulance Service at the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council meeting on May 3. Holly Arnold, Director of Business Development for Hall Ambulance accepted the plaque for the company....
At the March 1 meeting of the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council, Tom Mendes regional representative of the State Board of Equilization presented a new tax exemption available to many small businesses. He told the group that most people don't know that if they produce anything, they may only have to pay about half of the sales tax on any equipment purchased after July 1, 2014. There are just a few forms to fill out and the claim can be retroactive He said that there are about 500 or...
Terrell (Terry) Nelson retired from the heating and air conditioning business in November with a plan to move to Tehachapi to be closer to his daughter and grandchildren. He chose Christmas Eve the move. As you may recall, it was snowing; maybe not the best day to move but he did have a White Christmas, something most people just dream about. Terry was born and raised in Oklahoma City. His sister, Nancy, still lives there. As a youngster he loved to play the drums. He played through grade...
Beware scams – Evil people use “social engineering” to scam you. At the Feb. 1 meeting of the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council, Greater Tehachapi Chamber of Commerce President Ida Perkins distributed a reprint from the Security Awareness Newsletter by James Lyne that explains how scammers fool people. “Cyber attackers have learned that often the easiest way to steal your information, hack your accounts or infect your systems is by simply tricking you into making a mistake...
Off they go... The parade of construction trailers that have been a fixture at the Replacement Tehachapi Critical Access Hospital site at Capital Hills since February, 2013 are being removed as the contractors move on to other jobs. Project Manager SHP Project Development's report to the Jan. 17, 2017 Tehachapi Healthcare District board of directors meeting at 305 S. Robinson St. states that construction is complete. The city of Tehachapi Planning and Building & Safety final inspections are...
Five years of tough negotiating by California legislators has resulted in the inclusion of provisions in a new federal infrastructure Act that will give drought-devastated, environmentally hamstrung Central Valley farmers relief at last. Senate bill 612, the “Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act” (WIIN Act), which the Senate approved 78-21 on Dec. 10, 2016 and President Obama signed on Dec. 16, includes a section devoted specifically to California. The section mandates that wat...
Two snowstorms blanketed the Tehachapi area like holiday bookends a week apart at the tail-end of 2016 -- one starting just before Christmas Eve morning and one on New Year's night, ushering in both festive days on a palette of dazzling white. Rather than being light and dry and forming a winter-long base, the Tehachapi area snow typically is wet and, in the absence of sustained freezing temperatures, melts quickly. According to the weather web site Mountainbase.com, located at Oak Knolls in...
The new Tehachapi hospital will open when the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) says it can open. "There is no exact day," David Eastman of Adventist Health, the hospital operator, said at the Jan. 4, 2017 meeting of the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council. "The best estimate is the second half of this year." Eastman said there is a time lag between the time the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) signs off on the building with a Certificate of...
Young person with a goal – Forde Files happened to stop on the way to Albuquerque a month ago and discovered a charming Brigadoon-like place called Ludlow, Calif., a hundred or so miles past Barstow. It consists of a Chevron station, a Dairy Queen, a café and a motel. I checked into the motel at the gas station. About 20 people live in Ludlow. The town is owned by the Harold Knoll family. Employees, mostly young, are bused in from Barstow to work. There's no alcohol sold anywhere in town. It...
The SunSelect hydroponic greenhouse complex in Cummings Valley, which did not exist four years ago, is a high-tech wonder. "It's a world-class facility and one of the most modern greenhouses in the world," SunSelect CEO Reinhold Krahn told the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council on Wed., Dec. 7, at the Tehachapi Police Department Community Room. "There are only two other in the world. This is the 3.0 version." The family-owned, British Columbia-based company has an $80 million...
Retail leakage happens when residents go to Bakersfield or Lancaster/Palmdale to shop instead of shopping in Tehachapi. Tehachapi Economic Development Coordinator Michelle Vance is on a mission to turn that around, to keep the money in Tehachapi and to draw shoppers up the hill to make their purchases. "One hundred fifty-eight million dollars leave our town every year," Vance told the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council on Nov. 2 at the Tehachapi Police Department community room....
Adventist Health officially assumed management and operation of the Tehachapi Hospital and three clinics on Nov. 1, 2016 with a ribbon cutting on the tented hospital parking lot at E street and Curry. The Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District relinquished operation of its properties in a 30-year lease agreement with Adventist, an affiliation that enabled the district to complete the new hospital at Capital Hills. Adventist also will operate the new hospital when it opens. "We made it," Adventist...
