TVRPD to apply for revitalization grants

Last month, Cristin Lassen was appointed to the Tehachapi Valley Recreation & Park District Board by the Tehachapi City Council. The March 12 TVRPD Board meeting was Lassen's first meeting as a member of that Board. Michael Biglay of Sand Canyon argued that as far as he knew, the two County appointed members of the Board had not been reappointed when their term expired so there was no quorum. Chairman Laura Lynne Wyatt assured him that he could check the minutes of the February Kern County Board of Supervisors meeting during which they were reappointed. Ian Steele was unanimously elected the new board chairman with Laura Lynne Wyatt as vice chairman.

General Manager Michelle Vance said that TVRPD is planning to apply for four grants that could be financed through Proposition 68 (Parks, Environment and Water Bond) which was passed by voters in June of last year. The grants can be applied to one project only and must have three partners – a nonprofit, a health partner and a neighborhood partner. A district can apply for as many grants as they wish so TVRPD could, in theory, be competing against itself for a project grant.

One grant application would be for the revitalization of West Park, one for Central Park, one for Meadowbrook Park and one for the development of new park facilities in Sand Canyon. Before the August application deadline, there will be five public meetings for each of the applications, which all district residents can attend. As the park district does not have any staff engineers, the TVRPD Board approved the hiring of MNS Engineers, who already have a track record with the City, to engineer the projects following the public meetings.