Meet your new neighbors

Joan Cote’ is glad to be back in Tehachapi where she grew up and went to high school. She still has family and friends here and always loved the natural beauty of the area. When she retired from her job as an export compliance officer for an aerospace company in San Diego, she knew she wanted to retire here. She said that she wanted to be here for last year’s Mountain Festival and managed the move about one week before the festivities.

Joan was born in Trona, California, a little town of around 3,000 people in the desert east of Ridgecrest. Her family moved to Tehachapi where she and her four brothers grew up. Her family lived in a house in town that is now the Tehachapi SENIOR CENTER. Joan left Tehachapi at the age of 19, went to Bakersfield College and then moved on to the San Francisco Bay area where she completed her Bachelor’s Degree at the University of San Francisco.

Over the years she has had the opportunity to live all over the western United States. She lived in the Bay Area for about 25 years and then moved on to Santa Barbara, the Tri-cities area of Washington state and Phoenix, Arizona. She said that Phoenix was the one place that she really didn’t enjoy. She spent ten years in San Diego before making the circle back to Tehachapi.

For the time being, she is housesitting for one of her brothers who spends much of his time traveling. This gives her the time to pursue some of her favorite things like hiking and bird watching. She has been an active member of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and would like to get involved with the local Tehachapi chapter. Not one to sit around the house, Joan loves to go line dancing and was delighted to learn about the local venues. Also, she has recently acquired a new passion – Bunco.

Joan will never be bored. She said that she is looking for volunteer opportunities to help promote her hometown. Welcome back, Joan. I guarantee that we will put you to work.

Luke Stankiewicz and Adriana Cerda had moved to Santa Clarita from their prior home in Corona. They had been there about a year when the house they were renting was sold. They felt that rents in that area were much too high so they began to search for areas that would be great to live in and still be convenient to Luke’s work as a safety and environmental consultant in Safety Management Systems working with the Los Angeles County Department of Water and Power. It is his responsibility to work with operations and maintenance of the California Aquaduct pumping plants.

They had visited Tehachapi a few times and really liked it. They found their house in Bear Valley online on Craig’s list, fell in love with it. The location was perfect.

Both of them were raised in Southern California. Luke grew up in Fullerton with a brother and two sisters, all older. He is a ham radio operator and likes to go backpacking and camping. He has also taken up beer brewing. Adriana said that Luke is also quite the musician. He used to play piano, bass, guitar and violin but has not done much of it lately.

Adriana grew up in Glendora and has an older brother. She told me that she met Luke in high school and they have been together ever since. She said that she once worked as a barista for Starbucks but now she enjoys reading and photography as well as being outdoors. She often goes hiking with Luke.

The couple shares their home with a couple of cats named Annie and Goldie and a dog named Bruce. Of course, the animal’s believe that they are the ones sharing their home.

Welcome to Tehachapi to Luke, Adriana, Annie, Goldie and, of course, Bruce.