Kern County park investments

Kern County operates and maintains over 5,000 acres of community and regional parks located across our 8,000 square miles. Each of these parks are unique in size, scope, function, location, geography, amenities and utilization.

Our parks range from small neighborhood spaces to massive regional recreational areas, such as Buena Vista, Hart Memorial and Tehachapi Mountain Parks. Each one of them is as important as the next. Together, they are a bell-weather of community well-being, quality of life, safety, economic development and upward mobility. Investments in our parks matter. The maintenance and care of our parks matter. Each of them, regardless of their location, size or use, are meaningful.

In that context, as your Second District County Supervisor, I am striving to enhance the quality of life for all the residents I serve. This requires regular investment in physical spaces, infrastructure and resources that elevate all people, all neighborhoods and all communities. I am working hard to ensure and sustain accessibility to well-maintained, safe open spaces throughout our county and the Second District.

In the last five years alone, the Board of Supervisors has approved nearly $13 million, county-wide, in major capital improvements in our parks. Amenities like new playgrounds, shade and picnic structures, lighting, courts and fields, skate parks, walkways, benches, splash pads, restrooms, parking lots and landscaping were built in 32 different parks located across our county in each Supervisorial District.

Prospectively, in the next two years alone, our County will invest nearly $34 million to further upgrade our parks. In the Second District, nearly $8.7 million will be allocated to park improvements. Funding for the Second District park improvements will come from several sources. Recently, the county secured $3,023,637 from the Clean California Grant administered by the Department of Transportation for Mojave East Park. The County Administrative Office has also budgeted $1,000,000 from the County's allocation of federal American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funding, $300,000 in discretionary park funds, and $991,424 for the renovation of the pool at Jim Williford Park in Rosamond. In addition, $3,364,063 from the East Kern Economic Opportunity Zone (RENEWBIZ) will be used to further bolster the park improvements in the Second District.

This funding does not include any budget allocations the Board of Supervisors may consider in future fiscal years. Work has begun. Several of our parks, like Mojave, Boron and Rosamond will be almost entirely redeveloped. Other parks, like Ford City and Frazier Mountain will see significant upgrades.

Through these renovations, our parks will be brought into the current century, and we'll be joining our national parks system, state parks system and contemporary cities and counties across this state and country by ensuring that each of our parks offers free, high-speed, broadband connectivity.

Thanks for your support as we work together to move our great county forward!

Supervisor Scrivner represents Kern County's Second District, which includes the oil-producing communities of Taft and Maricopa.