Serving the community since 1970
Serving the community since 1970
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 25
This week for Couch’s Corner, I would like to spotlight a very special group of young Shafter/Buttonwillow residents and football players at Shafter High School. Every year before Buttonwillow’s harvest festival and parade, the community led by a local farmer, organizes a clean-up event. This year was no different. A large majority of our local volunteers are the Shafter High School football team (Go Generals!). Community clean-up events are a great way to make a difference in our nei...
This week our District 4 staff had the pleasure to visit three facilities in Kern County that are trying to address our local homelessness problem. Homelessness is on everyone’s mind these days as the problem seems so intractable but the good news is that work is being done to correct this. The three facilities we visited were the M St. Navigation Center, the Brundage Lane Navigation Center, and the Recycling Lives facility. All of these are relatively new and are part of the community s...
Next Tuesday, March 8, at 7 p.m., the Kern County Sheriff’s Office Crime Prevention Specialist Lorie Meza will be presenting at the Old Courthouse Building in Wasco, 810 8th St. She will be discussing community oriented policing to members of the community. I will be joining her to speak at this event. District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer has been invited as well. Representatives from the Sheriff’s and the District Attorney’s Office will be there to speak. With the recent shooting in Wasco, on Fe...
Kern County has many jewels, places and things for which we can be proud. Two of them are the Buena Vista Aquatic Recreation Area (BVARA) and Kern River Parkway Bike Trail. Back in 2013, when I was a new Supervisor, BVARA was in District 4 as was much of the bike trail. It seemed appropriate to try to connect them and to enhance both assets. So I discussed this with the Public Works Department, they started the conversation with the other stakeholders, most notably the Kern Council of...
Can you believe it has been one year since the opening of the Delano Recovery Station? This past week, Telecare opened the doors to the public to celebrate the one-year anniversary. Since the facility began operating in June 2020, the voluntary sobering program plays an integral role in District Four reducing substance abuse in Kern County’s second-largest city. The five-client, short-stay (4-10 hour) program provides screening, access and linkage to care for individuals with co-occurring m...
Last year, state and local governments nationwide encountered a once-in- a-generation global pandemic. Our community remained resilient, and the Kern County Department of Public Health ensured combating the virus was a top priority with the successful implementation of the state’s vaccination schedule and outreach to our most vulnerable communities susceptible to covid-19. In March of 2020, the CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Fund provided Kern County the ability to invest relief dollars in a f...
One of the most rewarding experiences of serving as Fourth District supervisor is working with young adults that share an idealism and belief that no limits can stop what they can accomplish. I was reminded of this when I met with some of the youth leaders at Transitional Youth Mobilizing for Change, a local nonprofit that creates opportunities for young people 16-24 years of age to identify and take on issues of concern in their community. Back in the fall of 2019, these youth were inspired to...
I love it when Ag and energy work together in Kern County to show the world how to do things better and this week, it happened again. The two industries worked together in Arvin at Tasteful Selections, a pioneer producer and distributor of the world’s bite-sized potatoes. On March 24, District 4 staff was on hand to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for an innovative microgrid energy technology created by Concentric Power, Inc. that will help Tasteful Selections maintain production while w...
Spring is around the corner, and with it, spring cleanups. That’s why I’m pleased to announce that this month the Board of Supervisors approved the bylaws and the formation of the Keep Kern Beautiful Committee, of which you can be a part. With the official formation of this committee on Feb. 9, the county becomes an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, the national organization, in its effort to increase awareness of the problem of litter and the need for beautification, but it also con...
This week I want to share a program available in north Kern that may be just the thing your family needs to deal with an adult family member experiencing a substance-abuse crisis. If you have an adult family member or know someone who is acutely under the influence of alcohol and/or other substances and willing to accept services on a voluntary basis, the Delano Recovery Station may be just the thing your family, and this adult individual needs. Opened recently at 629 Main St. in Delano, this...
It’s 2021, and with 2020 in the rear view mirror, let’s all hope these vaccines, our social distancing, and our personal protective measures help eradicate this pandemic in the New Year. As we look back upon some of the heroes from 2020, I can’t help but recognize the work of the California Farmworker Foundation and their executive director, Hernan Hernandez, who has been working most of the year out of the spotlight making sure his farmworkers are protected and that the farmers have a healt...
After a tumultuous year, we as a community will hopefully get to relax and enjoy Christmas with our loved ones. During this Christmas season, I am thankful for the opportunity to reflect and contemplate about the negative and positive aspects of this year. Although communities in Kern County are not holding large gatherings with friends and family members, we are still finding ways to make adjustments to enjoy this annual holiday. Whether it is reading a new book, singing Christmas carols,...
District 4, we now have a vaccine that offers us hope that we can finally begin to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, but we still have a stay-at-home order we need to follow, at least for a while, until the vaccine starts to make a difference. At the beginning of this month, Acting State Public Health Director Erica S. Pan announced a Regional Stay-at-Home Order that supersedes the state’s tier based “Blueprint for a Safer Economy.” In an effort to reduce the rise of test posit...
Recently the City of McFarland opened a new animal shelter with 15-20 kennels. The facility is equipped with several amenities including a medical room, laundry room, and food sorting area. McFarland, like many cities throughout the district, remains resilient in the midst of an economic uncertainty from the pandemic. I am thankful for City Manager Maria Lara and the Community Development Department working tirelessly to obtain the USDA Community Facility Loan/Grant funds for the development of...
As Fourth District supervisor, I work with Kern County Animal Services on efforts to reduce the euthanasia rates in our county. Recently, KCAS announced for the first time on record, that the shelters operated by the department reached no kill status. No-kill shelters prevent the killing of animals based on arbitrary criteria such as color, age or breed. Furthermore no-kill shelters find a placement for 90% of their population. Reaching this important community achievement took unified...
In recent months, Kern County has taken measures to reopen the economy and support small businesses with CARES Act stimulus funds. In May, the Kern County Public Health Department rescinded the local emergency health order to coincide with California’s transition to reopening the economy. That same month, Governor Newsom modified the states’ stay at home order to allow county variance in economic reopening. This step allowed counties to reopen at their own pace provided they abide by public hea...
In light of the ongoing battle against covid-19, Kern County received a surprise visit from the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams. As the nation’s doctor, Vice Admiral Adams oversees the 6,000 member U.S Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and guides public health officials through general advisories and action reports on issues regarding advancing the health of the nation. During his visit, Dr. Adams encouraged our community to follow public health guidelines to maintain the p...
One of the great things about being your county supervisor is the chance it gives me to hear your ideas and help implement them, when feasible. Three current examples of this come to mind, which I will share with you here. We can’t always implement these ideas, and I won’t promise you something I can’t deliver, but the door to my office is always open, and your ideas are always important to me, even if sometimes for one reason or the other, we can’t make them happen. One recent idea we were ab...
The united effort between the community and county officials to bend the curve and combat COVID-19 continues to make substantial progress. The Board of Supervisors, public health officials, and key county agencies are working around the clock to ensure the Kern County’s Emergency Operations Center functions at full capacity and that key stakeholders are updated on the county’s emergency preparedness. The EOC is tasked with ensuring local hospitals are preparing for possible surges in pat...
By now, I’m certain that all of us have been impacted by the COVID-19 virus, and I’m also certain that you are keeping informed so I will not use our weekly Couch’s Corner to provide you any “breaking news,” as it changes so fast. But I would like to keep you informed on what’s going on at the county, how to find out what services are still available, and how your District 4 office can help you with matters concerning the county. In compliance with the state emergency shelter-in-place guidelines...
Much thanks to the Valley Ag Voice for their article “Local Leaders React to Passage of USMCA,” in their January issue. For those of you who may not know, USMCA is an updated NAFTA, and stands for United States Mexico Canada Trade Agreement. It was passed by the House of Representatives on Dec. 19 in a very bipartisan vote (385-41). Its impacts on the Central Valley -- and especially Kern County -- are profound, and it seemed appropriate to share parts of their story here. According to Val...
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great 2019 and am looking forward to 2020. It’s that time of year to look back at what we’ve accomplished, and look forward to things we can do to make things better in all of the communities of our district. Accordingly, here are our resolutions for 2020: One, I promise you will see me or my staff at as many events as possible. If you went anywhere last year, you probably saw us, trying to meet with constituents and understand your needs and see how we can...
On Nov. 15, a group of us traveled to Fresno to testify at a hearing of the California Transportation Commission. I was in attendance with Councilmember Cathy Prout of Shafter and Councilmember Olivia Trujilo of Arvin. Also, in attendance was Ahron Hakami, who is the executive director of the Kern Council of Governments. We were there to testify about the importance of funding Highway 46 that Caltrans staff recommended be cancelled along with 2 other widening projects on Highway 99. The commissi...
This week I would like to remind the community about different steps being taken to prepare for the 2019 wildfire season, especially power outages. Even though you may not be near a fire, the possibility exists that power could be shut off where you live due to the interconnectivity of the power grid. Being prepared for power outages is always your best defense. The California Public Utilities Commission ensures consumers have safe and reliable utility services at reasonable rates. By...
This week I wanted to discuss what seems to be the most controversial issue in our nation at this moment: immigration. It's important for all of us to understand the roles of all the different jurisdictions of government so that we can better know where one goes to get the results we want. As part of that, I have made it a goal of our office to better understand immigration law and policy and to understand where the county fits in this equation. As part of that education process, District 4...
