Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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I wanted to take a moment to welcome our new Chief of Police Richard Standridge to the City of Tehachapi. Chief Standridge brings 25 years of law enforcement experience. He is a U.S. Navy veteran and a family man. His ability to lead is well demonstrated with the past two years as the Chief of Police for the City of Bishop and 23 years as an officer, sergeant and lieutenant at the City of Porterville Police Department. Chief Standridge will be attending community events including the Farmers...
Budget season is undoubtedly a crucial time each year. With the City of Tehachapi operating on a July 1-June 30 fiscal calendar, we must work to adopt a new five-year budget in the month of June. While fiscal responsibility has served us well over the last few decades, the budget process this year is especially difficult thanks in part to the rising costs of basic contract services, including critical fire safety from the County of Kern, and a slew of unfunded mandates by the State of...
If you are a city resident, you have received some information via a resident newsletter explaining some challenges forthcoming in the City of Tehachapi. While our budget is currently balanced, our reserves and financial position strong, the nature of our municipal government is one that requires proper long-term planning. As part of that process, we project our budget out five years each time it is adopted by the City Council. As you may be aware, we are facing some large increases for...
We are here on the verge of our Independence Day, grateful for the opportunity to celebrate once again with our community. While COVID-19 forced the cancellation of last year's All-American 4th of July Festival, I am pleased to be preparing for this event once again. There have been a few changes. We have made the festival a little smaller, focusing our efforts on only one location, Philip Marx Central Park, but we have managed to cram an entire day's worth of activities into that park for all t...
As we pursue a sense of normalcy, our business at City Hall continues down that road with all the expected highs and lows. Whether that work involves taking a state agency to task over unfulfilled promises, or finding ways to invest in our quality of life, we remain steadfast in our commitment. Many of you caught our response to the latest environmental documents for the California High Speed Rail project and the section of track scheduled to come through Tehachapi. This has been a reality for...
The City of Tehachapi has been blessed to be able to assist in the continued economic vitality of our region. It has been a busy month or so as we have made several decisions to help support our friends and neighbors. A few weeks back, the Tehachapi City Council approved the Small Business Loyalty Program, an initiative that will reward customers that shop at independently owned small businesses in the City of Tehachapi. Shoppers that bring $100 or more worth of receipts to City Hall will...
We arrived, we saw, we survived 2020. If this were the Scouts, we would receive a badge. I guess one day we will all look back at living through this year and wear it like a badge of honor, much like our ancestors did the Great Depression or the Spanish Flu pandemic. This was not the start to a decade we envisioned 12 months ago. But we are here, a little more broken, a little more scarred and maybe even in some cases a little more confident in our ability to live through trials and tribulations...
While COVID-19 has taken up plenty of time and resources from the City of Tehachapi, our team still has other goals and objectives that must be completed, as is our duty to the taxpayers. There is still a community to help build, maintain and operate. Those tasks do not fall by the wayside due to the fallout from a virus. Where do we go from here? Well, that's a question that was answered almost immediately back in March when the first set of COVID-19 restrictions were placed on our community. T...
Congratulations Class of 2020, you made history. Probably not in the form you had hoped, but make no mistake, your class will never be forgotten. Your social sacrifices will forever be a measuring stick for future conversations. Simply put; you have changed the world. I'm certain that this was not your intent at the start of the school year. Your senior year is supposed to be exceptionally special. The classes, the competitions, the graduation and the time with friends before everything is...
It's beginning to look like the state mandated stay-at-home orders and social distancing protocols instituted at the outset of COVID-19 are working, we're seeing a flattening of the curve so to speak. The City of Tehachapi had requested and worked with Kern County Department of Public Health for more detailed data than the number of cases they were providing; they obliged by launching a new online portal last week that tells a more complete story of the impact of this virus in our community. It...
As we continue this modified version of life during the Coronavirus pandemic, it's important to note that we're working on two fronts simultaneously here in the City of Tehachapi. What I mean by that is obviously we're working through a variety of issues as related to COVID-19 and dealing with those on a daily basis. This is work with a variety of partners, our fellow cities, our law enforcement agencies and health care leaders; all of whom are doing incredible work as we adjust to the...
The interaction within the City of Tehachapi is as unique as the day is long. Working with and talking with community volunteers, citizens, visitors and residents means interacting with people from all walks of life. Nothing served as a reminder of this more than an experience a few weeks ago. Myself and a few other members of the City staff were invited as guests to witness President Trump sign in new federal guidelines aimed at helping Kern County farmers receive more water from the State...
One of the benefits of being City Manager is interaction with the public and more importantly with the local organizations that support our City with their work and services to the residents. One of those groups is the Tehachapi Senior Center, an organization that provides a multitude of services to our senior citizen community. Through a partnership with the City of Tehachapi they operate the Senior Center located at 500 E. F St. The first Wednesday at noon every month they have a board...
The City of Tehachapi is proud to present our 2019 Year in Review. The annual printed publication recaps the accomplishments and major initiatives by the various departments within our organization. It's a top-level view of what is being done on your behalf. We unveil the report this week to the entire City staff before we open our regular tour, so to speak, of various community groups and meetings beginning with the Greater Tehachapi Chamber of Commerce. We address service organizations,...
One can understand, given today's climate, the desire for many to leave the state of California. The issues have been well noted and continue to be so daily in the news media. Just read the Los Angeles Times and you'll see things unfathomable for those of us in Tehachapi. These examples are a few reasons why the U.S. Census Bureau estimated 600,000 left the state last year, while only around 500,000 came in, a net loss of 100,000 residents. But many of us in Tehachapi also relate to the desires...
It's certainly the holiday season as our public works team completes one of my favorite tasks, putting up the Christmas decorations Downtown. We reinvested in new decorations a year ago with LED snowflakes along with illuminated garlands adorning each Downtown light post. This year we purchased a few more for Mill Street and the new transit center so the entrance to our City off of Highway 58 and the heavily-used parking and ridesharing facility had the same dose of Christmas cheer. Thanks once...
The City of Tehachapi received electrical power in 1915 when the municipal lighting system went into place. Sooner than many neighbors due to our proximity to the Monolith Cement Plant which was making the cement for the nearby Los Angeles Aqueduct project, as a result we received electricity. Since 1915, even during the rudimentary stages, I can't recall a downed power line starting a wild fire, and that's both in the City and in the surrounding community. The wind has blown in Tehachapi since...
I, along with some members of the City staff and Council, attended the League of California Cities Conference last week. Always an informative time of learning best practices, community engagement tips and networking with fellow city leaders in our state. While it had been a few years since we've attended this event, I was impressed with one takeaway principle: what we're doing in the City of Tehachapi is right on par, if not above what others are considering or just taking the initiative to...
Thomas Jefferson said, "I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past." He was referring to the early stages of our Nation no doubt, but there is still plenty of application to that sentiment when we think about our own community in 2019. The past is not our future here in the City of Tehachapi. The past is not who we are becoming. It's a respectful remembrance of our core values and the historical efforts that got us here today. The past will certainly not define this...
Tehachapi continues to drive conversation in Kern County, especially among visitors and those that spend time in our community as a quick weekend getaway. The GranFondo, completed a few weeks back, was a great example. Over 1,000 riders, their supporters and community members flooded Downtown on an unseasonably warm September day to enjoy the festivities and the physical challenge. Many of these riders were returning to our community as they have made the ride an annual tradition. GranFondo,...
Our City Clerk came across something interesting during a search of our archives last week. They were minutes from a 1935 City Council Meeting. As still is the case today, public presentations and concerns were raised. This particular concern centered on a Mr. Guthrie, who based upon a few other searches revealed he was quite the regular guest and appears in the minutes on numerous occasions during that time period. Mr. Guthrie was a local baker, and on Sept. 15, 1935 he was bringing to council...
Tehachapi has become a place of opportunity for all. We can't promise you the "American Dream" but we've certainly taken plenty of steps to make it far more attainable in our City. Last week was a great indicator of that, we celebrated the opening of several additions to the City of Tehachapi. Of course, Walmart was the most notable, releasing a pent-up demand for general merchandise and grocery shopping locally. By the turnout and the crowds at the store, I'd say Walmart's decision to come to...
Every once in a while Mother Nature likes to prove to us just how small we really are. The latest series of earthquakes in Ridgecrest, that started on July 4, were that harsh reminder. We of course felt and continue to feel them here in Tehachapi, ourselves no stranger to major earthquakes given our location to active faults in the area. Ridgecrest, Trona and the Searles Valley took the brunt of the hit and the resulting damage. We continue to work with Ridgecrest city officials as we exercise o...
Civil societies are those in which ideas are explored openly with the intent of discovering truth. This is done through the process of public meetings, community workshops and other engagement tools offered by the City of Tehachapi. Recently some have taken issue with the three minutes that are limited to each speaker at Tehachapi City Council meetings. This time limit certainly isn't new, but recently with the increased amount of public business and disruptions, it was necessary to enforce...
The Tehachapi City Council last Monday night approved a balanced five-year budget for the City of Tehachapi. During my tenure as City Manager the budget has always been balanced, that is a theme that has been ingrained in my staff as they prepare their departmental budgets and set their goals each year. The budget is a reflection of those goals, their accomplishments, projects and initiatives to better the City. It is the playbook by which we plan the coming fiscal year as well as the...
