$306,600 2015 East Kern Renewbiz Grants Announced

Second District Supervisor Zack Scrivner announced today the total amount of dollars granted to Eastern Kern businesses in 2015 through the RENEWBIZ program. RENEWBIZ is a community revitalization program, created by Scrivner and the Kern County Board of Supervisors in 2012, that offers $5,000-$10,000 grants to businesses in unincorporated Eastern Kern, with a local match from the business of 10% of the total grant. The money from the grants funds the refurbishment of the exterior of businesses in Eastern Kern communities to bring economic and aesthetic revitalization to the area. This year, a total of $306,600.30 is granted to businesses in Boron, Mojave, Rosamond, and Old Town Tehachapi. Project areas were defined by visioning projects in each community, conducted in 2011-2014, and grant recipients are selected by a design committee from those communities.

“I greatly appreciate the work our design committees did in selecting the grant recipients. Several of the projects chosen by the design committees give attention to areas where existing county-funded infrastructure projects are in the works. K Street in Mojave and Diamond Street in Rosamond, in particular, are great models of this. Mojave’s K Street is slated to receive $800,000 in improvements, and, in Rosamond, a $1.8 million project will be completed this year on Diamond Street. The business façade improvements from the RENEWBIZ grants will compliment these capital improvement projects nicely.” said Supervisor Scrivner.

“The design committees work to implement the vision for each community. This shows creativity and community engagement – a wonderful second year for this program!” said Kern County Planning and Community Development Director Lorelei Oviatt.

The total grants for each community are:

Boron: $73,883.00

Mojave: $81,246.12

Rosamond: $78,762.08

Old Town Tehachapi: $72,709.10