Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 495
The Tehachapi Police Department will be increasing police patrols at all Tehachapi shopping areas during the holiday season. The increased patrols began Nov. 23 and are intended to keep shoppers safe and to target incidents of retail theft in and around our shopping centers. Officers will be patrolling the local shopping areas throughout Tehachapi as part of a proactive approach designed to reduce crime and increase visibility. It is not uncommon to see a rise in retail crimes during this time...
The Tehachapi City Council meeting held on Nov. 7 began with council approval for the upcoming Tehachapi Hometown Christmas and Tree Lighting, to be held on Dec. 3. The event will take place on N. Green Street and Centennial Plaza from 2-5 p.m. prior to the Christmas Parade at 5:30 p.m. There will be photos with Santa, craft booths, vendors and charitable organizations. Following the parade at 6:30 p.m., will be the lighting of the giant tree at the Depot. On Aug. 15 the city experienced a...
Girl Scout Troop 8014, and their leader Nina Thornberg, interviewed Tehachapi Mayor Phil Smith prior to the Oct. 17 City Council meeting. The composite troop is made up of girls from all area schools, including Valley Oaks Charter, and includes levels from Brownie to Senior Scout. The girls had compiled a list of questions for Mayor Smith and each had the opportunity to ask one. When one girl asked Smith why he wanted to be mayor, Smith responded that it was like wanting to be a Girl Scout – f...
At approximately 4 p.m. on Oct. 24, officers from the Tehachapi Police Department were dispatched to a call of a traffic collision in the 500 Block of Tucker Road. Officers arrived at the location and discovered a male juvenile bicyclist had been struck by a pickup truck which was exiting a parking lot onto northbound Tucker Road. The juvenile suffered significant trauma and was transported to Tehachapi Hospital where he was later pronounced deceased. The investigation indicates the juvenile...
On Saturday, Oct. 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the Tehachapi Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will provide the public the opportunity to prevent prescription drug abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs. Bring your tablets, capsules, patches and other solid forms of prescription drugs for disposal to the Tehachapi Police Department at 220 W. C St. Liquids (including intravenous solutions),...
The Tehachapi Police Department has once again joined in with Special Olympics Southern California to host Tehachapi's 2022 Law Enforcement Torch Run. Please join us by walking or running to help us celebrate inclusion, spread awareness and raise funds for our local Special Olympics Athletes in Kern County! The event will be held at Centennial Plaza on South Green Street in Downtown Tehachapi on Thursday, Oct. 27 at 10 a.m. It would mean a lot to the athletes and their coaches to have police...
At their Oct. 10 meeting, the Tehachapi Planning Commission unanimously voted to give the Sage Ranch development an additional three months to file the Precise Development Plan for the first phase of the housing project that will be built on Valley Boulevard behind Tehachapi High School. The Tehachapi City Council had approved the Final Master Plan and Tentative Tract Map 7366 in 2021. Once approved the applicant had one year to submit the Precise Development Plan for the first phase of the...
At the Oct. 3 City Council meeting, with Police Chief Kent Kroeger standing by, Mayor Phil Smith swore in three new officers of the Tehachapi Police Department. City Manager Greg Garrett also mentioned that the TPD recently received gold medal recognition status from Lexipol for their implementation of policy. The plaque hangs in the lobby of the Tehachapi Police Department. Also appointed at the City Council meeting was new City Treasurer Mariana Gutierrez. Following the resignation of Stacey...
On Oct. 2 at approximately 3 a.m., an officer from the Tehachapi Police Department was patrolling the parking lot of The Home Depot store located in the 500 Block of North Mill Street. The officer observed a pickup truck driving from the rear of the business with the headlights off and immediately saw what appeared to be several sheets of plywood in the open bed of the pickup truck. The vehicle exited The Home Depot parking lot and accelerated rapidly onto the eastbound Highway 58 on-ramp. As...
Last year, Tehachapi Police Department Personnel responded to more than 10,000 total incidents. These incidents included calls for service, criminal investigations, requests for assistance, mental health crisis interventions, school safety and security incidents, code enforcement issues and officer-initiated activities such as traffic stops and patrol checks. To maintain a consistent and professional response, the Department relies on comprehensive, up-to- date policies. Recently, the Tehachapi...
On Sept. 26 the 1,000th Tehachapi resident opted into the free non-emergent text messaging platform to communicate with the City of Tehachapi. Eighteen months ago on April 8, 2021, the City of Tehachapi added a text communication platform for residents to reach us via text message. Text My Gov was added for non-emergent text communication notifications for citizens to notify the City of Tehachapi departments of various issues, concerns or receive information via text message. “We wanted to be able to offer additional communication tools for t...
In a special meeting held on Sept. 21, the Tehachapi City Council voted unanimously to award the contract for the Dennison Water Main Project to California Compaction Company, who submitted the low bid of $649,486.57. According to Andrew Norton from Public Works, the bid was actually under the estimated cost for the project. The projected plan is to replace a .50 mile of 14 inch diameter pipe and ductile fittings, tie-in connections to existing water lines, as well as the removal of the...
At their Sept. 6 meeting, the Tehachapi City Council approved Griffith Construction as the firm to complete the long awaited Pinon St. extension from Brandon Ln. to Dennison Rd. To complete the project, the City of Tehachapi successfully applied for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds that were available through the Kern Council of Governments (KernCOG) for just such a purpose. The funds totaling $885,299 will provide for 88.53% of the project. The project requires an 11% match...
Three City Council members will be considered re-elected as they were the only ones to file as candidates for their offices before the Aug. 11 election filing deadline. At a City Council meeting held on Aug. 23, City Elections Official Ashley Whitmore explained that election law allows, when there is no opponent for a seat, the city to appoint the candidates to their offices. As they were the only ones to file, Phil Smith will remain the councilman for District 1, as will Joan Pogon-Cord for...
On Aug. 8, the Tehachapi Planning Commission unanimously approved a mixed-use project to be located on the southeast corner of Tehachapi Blvd. and Hayes St. next to the Ranch House Motel and across Hayes from Red House BBQ. This project was originally brought before the Planning Commission at a Special Meeting held on June 27 with no decision made. The mixed use project, as originally proposed, contained retail space and eight two-story dwelling units to be located on the half-acre lot. The...
The Tehachapi City Council began their Aug. 15 meeting with City Clerk Tory Marsh swearing in Sergeant James Clark, the newest member of the Tehachapi Police Department. Clark comes from Los Angeles and brings with him ten years police experience. Police Chief Kent Kroeger said he was delighted to have Clark as a member of his department. Mayor Phil Smith presented a Certificate of Recognition to City Treasurer Stacy Curry who recently turned in her resignation. The City Council voted 5-0 to adv...
A small group of interested locals hiked to a canyon on Bear Mountain recently to visit a rock art site whose location had been lost in the fog of time. Among the hikers was Fred Fickert, 75, who first discovered the artwork almost 60 years ago, when he was a 16-year-old on horseback gathering cattle on his family's ranch, which later became Bear Valley Springs. Back in 1966, all of Bear Valley and most of Bear Mountain were owned by the Fickert clan. The family first moved to Bear Valley in...
The Stallion Springs Police Department and the Kern County Fire Department held a meet and greet barbecue at the Community Center. More than 200 residents attended to enjoy the free burgers, hot dogs and ice cream provided by the CSD and the SSPD. The event was to say "thank you" to all residents for their support and for them to get to know our new CSD employees and SSPD officers, as well as the local Fire Department staff. Coming soon A Senior Activity Center will be coming soon to Stallion...
When I was 17 and fresh out of high school, I was hired as an operator at the local telephone office. I earned 65 cents an hour. Six days a weeks, eight hour days on a split shift of four hours on four hours off and four hours on again. It broke up one's day to where you really could not plan to go anywhere far from town. We had a vocabulary that we used and each word emerged as the soul of kind, polite conversation. No matter how rude or irate some people were, we were the soul of tact. People...
The City of Tehachapi would like to thank all of those that made this year’s All-American 4th of July Festival and activities a tremendous success. Special thanks to our title sponsor Alta One Federal Credit Union for their support of the All-American 4th of July Festival. The day started with a successful All-American 5K presented by the Tehachapi Valley Recreation and Park District which included a ticket to the Ed Grimes Memorial Pancake Breakfast benefitting the Tehachapi Warriors Football program. This is a huge undertaking involving s...
The City Council has re-appointed both Kim Nixon and Linda Hollingsworth to the Planning Commission. They were both voted in unanimously by the City Council and their term will last until June 6 of 2026. Two companies have bid for landscaping work around the city. Brightview Landscaping won the contract of $29,704 monthly, out bidding Alpha Scapes Inc. $31,661 monthly. This is one of the larger landscaping companies in the country and are based out of the San Fernando Valley. They have worked...
In a two-hour budget meeting held on June 6, the Tehachapi City Council approved a balanced $33.3 million budget for the City of Tehachapi for 2022/23, they also approved preliminary budgets for the years 2023/24 through 2026/27. At the regular Council meeting that followed the budget meeting, the City Council approved an agreement with CalTrans that is necessary for work to begin on the engineering phase of plans to construct new curb, gutter and sidewalk on Dennison Road between Tehachapi...
On May 31, at approximately 7:15 a.m., the Tehachapi Police Department was notified by Tehachapi Unified School District personnel of a potential threat toward an unidentified school campus. School personnel indicated a male juvenile had made a post on a social media platform indicating he looked like he was going to pull a school shooting. The juvenile was not a student in the Tehachapi Unified School District but was found to be a resident in the Tehachapi area. Officers from the Tehachapi...
On May 16, the Tehachapi City Council proclaimed May 15-21 as National Police Week in Tehachapi. Mayor Phil Smith presented Tehachapi Police Chief Kent Kroeger and members of the Tehachapi Police Department with the proclamation at the beginning of the council meeting that night. Mayor Smith expressed his deepest thanks to the law enforcement community and our Tehachapi Police Officers. Chief Kroeger accepted the proclamation on behalf of all men and women who serve and protect their...
National Police Week At the City Council meeting held on May 16, Mayor Phil Smith presented a certificate proclaiming May 16-21 National Police Week. Following that presentation, Smith honored Sgt. Amelia Thompson with a Certificate of Recognition for her 15 years of service with the Tehachapi Police Department. Thompson, who has been with the department since 2007, is retiring and moving to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Thompson said if she had it to do over she would still pick Tehachapi, adding that...
