Forde Shorts

You need to know about the High Speed Rail – The California High-Speed Rail (HSR) Authority will hold five community open house meetings, Sept. 30 to Oct. 7, 2015, to explain the 75-mile-long Bakersfield to Palmdale section of the project, which is routed through the Tehachapi Mountains and the city. The meetings will be held at Bakersfield (Edison) on Sept. 30, at Tehachapi on Thursday, Oct. 1, Mojave on Oct. 5, Rosamond on Oct. 6 and Lancaster on Oct. 7. The meetings begin at 5:30 p.m. and the presentations at 6:30 p.m. are identical. The one in Rosamond will be in English and Spanish and will feature a live webcast. The Tehachapi meeting will be at the West Park Activity Center. Forde Files urges Loop readers to attend one of these meetings, as the HSR is coming through our community and will bring significant impacts. The Authority has sent cards to residents with details on the meetings. For more information, go to Project Sections at http://www.hsr.ca.gov.

Kern County can help – Public Health Nursing Services nurse Karin Urso, speaking at the Sept. 23 Kiwanis Club of Tehachapi, said the 70 nurses of the Kern County Public Health Services Department collect information on diseases, finding sources of sexually transmitted and other diseases and reporting cases of food-borne illness. Outreach includes counseling, testing and treatment. Cases of AIDS have increased among teens and the elderly, Urso said. "Teens don't care about it – with the new drugs, people aren't dying," she said. "The older people are not using birth control." By teaching people to access urgent care or primary care, the department has accomplished a "50- to 70-percent" reduction in trips to the emergency room.

The department can help with head lice, obesity, tobacco cessation, frail elderly, teen pregnancies, travel vaccinations and mental health and can act as advocate for people with multiple problems. The Bakersfield office is 661-868-0502. Download referral forms at http://www.kernpublichealth.com.