By Tina Fisher Cunningham
The Forde Files No 74
Tehachapi dedicates state-of-the-art police station
The Forde Files No 74
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(Left to right) Mayor Phil Smith, City Manager Greg Garrett, Mayor Pro-tem Susan Wiggins, and city council persons Ed Grimes, Kim Nixon and Mary Lou Corpus-Zamudio.
The June 27, 2014 official dedication and open house for the new Tehachapi Police Department building on 220 West C St. drew dignitaries and members of the public eager to see the state-of-the-art facility. Retiring Chief of Police Jeff Kermode – who had the task of forming the police department in 2007 when the city chose to establish its own department rather than extending a contract with the Kern County Sheriffs Office – swore in the new chief, Kent Kroeger, whose father Joe pinned on his badge. The department, from cramped quarters on F Street next to City Hall, moved into the building a few blocks away in a classic urban infill success story. The renovated structure was built in 1956 as a children's sleepwear and playwear garment factory and subsequently was used as a research and development lab for respiratory therapy medical devices (Ray Johnson, director of operations for Salter Labs, who called the building the company's "Skunk Works" after the famous Lockheed facility, said the industry-standard nasal cannula was developed and designed in the building). The renovation inscluded reinforcement of the walls by creating an exoskeleton of carbon fiber and the construction of a raised roof area with clerestory windows that usher in natural light. The emergency operations center, which is also a community meeting room, is set up for disasters. The building is pre-wired to be a dispatch center should the city choose to end its dispatch contract with the Bear Valley Springs Police Department. The Tehachapi PD has 16 sworn officers, who have locker rooms, an exercise room and individual cubicles for writing reports. The city financed the $4 million project in-house.
Joe Kroeger pins the badge on his son, new Tehachapi Police Chief Kent Kroeger.
Interim healthcare CEO steps to plate
Newly-appointed Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District Interim CEO Eugene Suksi is taking on the challenge of guiding a district that is faced with hospital construction problems and rumblings of employee unrest. Suksi has overseen hospital construction and remodeling. The Tehachapi project, he said, would be “one of the largest in terms of dollar value.”
He served as CEO at Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City and CEO of Cascade Medical Center in Leavenworth, Wash. A resident of Crescent City on the far northern California coast, Suksi will go home every third week to his wife Nancy and their Australian Shepherd named Cash.
Former Interim CEO Evan Rayner, in a joint interview with Suksi June 26, said “My departure is purely a career move. I couldn’t resist [the offer].” He has accepted the position of President and CEO of the 106-bed Madera Community Hospital, a non-profit private hospital 20 minutes north of Fresno. He said the Tehachapi district board “is the best I have worked with. They are savvy, compassionate and have the best interests of the community in mind. They are making the right decisions.”
Forde Shorts
What goes around – A Tehachapi resident was so impressed with the concern and compassion of Tehachapi Police officers who visited her on a welfare check (done when a worried friend or family member requests the police check on a person, often elderly), she bought a heavy speed bag (punching bag) for the new police department exercise room.
Safe harbor – The new police department public entry is designed to provide a safe “safety room” for anyone who is being pursued and is in fear of being attacked. The glass entry will have a button to push that will lock a pursuer out.
Wow – More than 1,000 people attended the Tehachapi Valley Recreation and Park District summer’s first family-oriented Movies in the Park at Meadowbrook Park. The movie shown was Disney’s “Frozen.”
