Meet Your New Neighbors

Izabel Tahsini and David Gutierrez purchased their Bear Valley home last November. They wanted to move away from the congestion of Inglewood, Ca., to a more rural setting. They had friends in Tehachapi who encouraged them to come for a visit and then to look for a home here.

David is owner of Precise Home Services, a construction/home repair business. He is in the process of moving this business from Los Angeles to Tehachapi. He was born in Nicaragua and was five years old when his family came to the United States in the late 1970s. He has one brother and two sisters and his entire family still live in the Los Angeles area.

Izabel is a marriage and family therapist. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from UCLA and her Master of Science degree at Cal State Dominguez Hills. She hopes to open or join a practice here in Tehachapi once they finally get settled. She arrived in the United States in 1999 when her family emigrated from Iran. Her parents, three brothers and two sisters still live in the Los Angeles area.

Izabel said that the couple met at church and are really looking forward to their new life in our mountain community. She likes to spend much of her free time reading. David, however, enjoys baseball, basketball and refinishing furniture. He said he loves carpentry. He also has an impressive collection of 700 Hot Wheels.

Welcome Izabel and David. We know you will enjoy country living.

Dan and Carol Knipp had lived in Fair Oaks, Ca., for 22 years. For those unfamiliar, Fair Oaks is located near Sacramento. When it came time to retire, Dan and Carol knew that they wanted to relocate closer to their grandchildren who are living in Bakersfield. They also knew that they wanted a horse-friendly community and Bear Valley Springs filled the bill. The first thing Carol did on arrival was join the local horsemen’s group.

Carol is retired after fourteen years as a school counselor. She told me that she was born in Boone, Iowa, and raised on a farm with her 12 brothers and sisters. She is the third oldest. After high school she went to college and received her Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration. She went on to earn her master’s degree in counseling. Carol adores animals and it didn’t take her long to become a volunteer for Marley’s Mutts. Horses, however, are her true passion. She has two. Carmelitta is being used as a therapy horse and Duke is her riding horse. While they are not now on her property, she looks forward to the time when they will be.

Dan is not yet retired but will be soon. He is still commuting back and forth to Fair Oaks where he works for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. His work experience encompasses the fields of labor relations and human resources and he holds master’s degrees in Public Administration and Healthcare Administration. He has two brothers and three sisters and he is the second oldest. He lived in Africa for seven years while his father started a university in Ethiopia. After their return to the United States, the family settled in the Midwest. His mother still lives in Missouri. Dan enjoys backpacking and woodworking when he can find the time.

The Knipps have a son, Todd, who teaches and coaches football at West High School in Bakersfield. Todd and his family have been in Bakersfield for ten years and it is his two daughters, aged three and seven, that have lured the couple to Tehachapi.

A heart welcome to the Knipp household.

We also send a big “Welcome to Tehachapi” to Daisy Sanchez and her family. Daisy and her husband Lamberto Gonzalez moved here last November from downtown Los Angeles. Lamberto has family here and is a cook at a local restaurant. Daisy has her hands full with their two children, four year old Ryan and ten year old Ashley who is an aspiring singer. Daisy told me that she was very young when Ashley was born and she has always wanted to go back to school. She hopes to be able to make that a reality very soon. We hope so too, Daisy!

If you have moved to the Greater Tehachapi Area within the last six months and would like to know more about your new community, call 661-822-8188. We will be happy to make an appointment for a hostess to come by and give you lots of helpful information, some valuable coupons, gifts and much more. Many families and individuals who come to the area are pleasantly surprised with the amount of knowledge they gather about their new home. Publishing your welcome article is completely voluntary and is not a requirement of being welcomed.