City Clerk Tory Marsh began the Jan. 6 City Council meeting by announcing that the City had received a letter of resignation from Councilman Kenneth Hetge. Mayor Susan Wiggins stated that as the letter was received too late to be addressed at this meeting, his replacement will be discussed at the Jan. 21 meeting.

Development Services Director Jay Schlosser announced that the City is asking for public input for possible non-motorized projects. The Development Services Department has been very successful in prior years in receiving grants from the Active Transportation Program and would like public input for their Cycle 5 application. Projects must involve non-motorized transportation only like sidewalks or hiking and biking trails. Ideas can be submitted to projects@tehachapicityhall.com.

The City Council voted unanimously to enter into a three year contract with 4-Creeks, Inc. to be on-call for City engineering services related to any federal and state grant-funded and budgeted transportation projects. 4-Creeks, Inc. was the engineering provider for the City’s Downtown Regional Park & Ride.

City Manager Greg Garrett announced that the City of Tehachapi will be receiving two Regional Awards of Merit for 2019 from the Kern Council of Governments (KernCOG). The Downtown Regional Park & Ride and Transit Center will be receiving an award in the Transportation category.

KernCOG also recognized the City for a second time with an Award of Merit in Journalism for their community video series created by Community Engagement Specialist Key Budge.

The two awards will be presented as part of the KernCOG annual awards ceremony on March 5.

For more information see City of Tehachapi article on page 5.

City Manager Greg Garrett said that during the recent snowstorm, the City’s main concern was keeping the major connector roads open before getting to other streets and parking lots. According to Public Works Director Don Marsh, there are about 165 miles of streets within the City and four snow plows so it took several days to clear most of the Downtown streets. Garrett said that it has cost the City tens-of-thousands of dollars to deal with snow and ice removal, as well as the hundreds of damaged trees following the Dec. 26 snow storm.

Tehachapi City Council meetings are held the first and third Monday of the month at 6 p.m. in the Wells Education Center, 300 S. Robinson St., Tehachapi.