The Loop Newspaper - Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide

On Saturday, November 15, 125 volunteers came from neighborhoods throughout Golden Hills to clean up, cut back, tear down, and stuff bags with fly-away litter and illegally dumped debris. This was the first Clean-Up Day of the former Golden Hills Country Club, located on the corner of Westwood Drive and Woodford-Tehachapi Road.

Littered with fly-away trash, overgrown with long-forgotten junipers and nasty Star Thistle; punctuated with tires, old wood with rusty nails, and broken fencing material, the property was in need of a facelift. A facelift it received.

This public service effort was organized by the Golden Hills CSD Land Development Committee, a team of residents working to guide the future development of this recent acquisition by the Golden Hills Community Services District (GHCSD). Along with district board members Larry Barrett, Ed Kennedy and Laura Lynn Wyatt, incoming board member Marilyn White, and most of the Land Development Committee members were on hand to join the volunteer work team.

Tree branches along Woodford-Tehachapi Road were cut off and hauled away; leaves and fly-away trash were raked and bagged; roofing material, discarded furniture and tires, and broken pieces of lumber with nails and screws were collected and legally disposed of, recycled or prepared for chipping by the Kern County Fire Department.

According to GHCSD Board President Ed Kennedy and Land Development Committee Chair, "I am very pleased with the turn-out, ecstatic actually. We were unsure of how many people would volunteer to help us, on a chilly Saturday morning, but the response was overwhelming."

Bill Fisher, General Manager of the GHCSD, added, "It was important to take these first steps to clean up the property. The limbed-up trees mitigate the fires hazard; the cut-back evergreens and weeds make the property more visually appealing; but the cleared away pieces of wood, nails, broken glass and concrete roofing tiles make the property safer and limit the district's liability. This was a critical first step in community ownership."

Plans are to eventually demolish the building but, because of limited funding, that may take months or years to come to fruition.

J. Torres Company Inc. provided a 40-cubic yard waste bin for the illegally dumbed debris and fly-away trash; the Kern County Waste Management Department waived landfill fees; and the Kern County Fire Department will chip the branches, junipers and evergreen boughs in the coming weeks.

Additional clean-up days will take place in the future. With more than 160 acres of land, there is still more work to be done but, from all appearances, Saturday was a great start.