New park facilities subject of public meeting

About 150 people attended the first of four public meetings held by Tehachapi Valley Recreation and Park District on May 3 at the Aspen Builders, Inc. Activity Center. The meeting was to explore community priorities should the district decide to invest in a new recreation facility.

"However, you first need to take care of what you have," said TVRPD General Manager Michelle Vance, assuring everyone that upgrading existing facilities would be the first priority. She said that the area has experienced 28% growth since 2000, creating a need for new facilities. A survey held in 2013 when Recreation and Park developed their Master Plan, showed that a community center was at the top of the list of desired improvements. In order to finance the project, the TVRPD Board of Directors is considering placing a bond on the November ballot. The purpose of the public meetings is to discover the community priorities and how much they would be willing to spend for the improvements.

The first meeting focused on the development of a community center. Daniel Matoba of Barker, Rinker, Seacat Architects spoke to the group with a slide presentation of possible amenities to consider for a new community center, adding that this would be after the update of existing facilities.

On the walls of the activity center were posters of possible amenities. He asked everyone to wander around, look at the pictures, and place dots or sticky note comments on the posters that showed what they would most like to see in an activity center. The posters that received the most attention were an indoor lap pool, a community/conference center large enough for weddings and business meetings with catering kitchen facilities, and a gymnasium.

Attendees were then asked to answer three questions by writing sticky notes on three other posters. They were asked to (1) write down their personal favorite place or event that most exemplifies what is unique about Tehachapi, (2) what place or event would they want an out of town guest to experience that defines Tehachapi and (3) what are the area's unique characteristics that they could identify as reasons to live here. The answers focused around the festivals, Brite Lake, trails, rodeo, wineries, wildlife and a great place to raise children.

Tehachapi resident Mike Nixon commented to the group that he was glad to see they were taking the project in steps. Vance said that the next public meeting will focus on the revitalization of existing facilities. It is scheduled to be held June 13 from 6-8 p.m. at 410 W. D St.