City shares meeting with local students

When a student attends a City Council meeting, it's usually because he or she is being honored or they have something they want to say to the city.

Last Tuesday, the council switched places with 15 high school students from Paul Ante's WHS government class, and the students sat on the podium, while Michael Drake conducted the meeting as mayor.

"This is a collaboration the high school used to do with the city," Ante said. "We used to do this program several years ago and stopped, but students requested we do the program again and now we are in the second year."

In fact, the object of this collaboration was to give students the opportunity to see what a day in the life of city elected officials and employees looks like. Michael Darby acted as mayor. He opened and closed the meeting as well as a public hearing held during the meeting.

Other students participating were Edith Vidales, Zonia Colmenares, Omar Montano, Cristopher Lopez, Rayanna Plazola, Evelyn Figueroa, Destiny Martinez, Zavier Sherman, Ayana Cordova, Genesis Pimentel, Karla Pimentel, Ashley Flores, Valerie Lucano and Briseida Cabanas. Earlier in the day, the students were given a tour of Wasco.

"I just moved to Wasco from Sacramento," Cristopher Lopez said. "I learned a lot today about the important jobs like the animal shelter." Lopez said that he loved being here.

Garcia complemented the students for the good job they did.

In other business, the council unanimously approved the purchase of a zero-emissions bus for $53,145.

Resident Rafael Castro commented on the homeless living on a large mound of dirt behind the Carl Jr's Restaurant on Highway 46. He added that he felt the number of homeless people has grown in the city.

Additionally, the City Council voted to establish an ordinance on illegal dumping that will allow code enforcement officers to have direct access to the Kern County Sheriff's Office's office law enforcement telecommunications system so they can look up the name and address of anyone who violates the ordinance directly without having to wait for the sheriff's office to help them. This is expected to speed up the process of illegal dumpers being cited.