The Farmer's Market starts up again this week and the forecast is great for its Thursday afternoon opening so there's no excuse not to go out and spend some of those hard-earned dollars locally.

I know I'm looking forward to some fresh veggies, plump cherries, and that great pomegranate juice they had last year. Yes, sometimes the produce is more expensive than you can find at the grocery store, but it's worth it. The money all goes back into our community, rather than into some giant corporate bank account. It encourages locals to be involved and continue the farming lifestyle that is a trademark of Kern County. And we all know there is no substitute for fresh produce.

Sure, a tomato grown in a garden may have a blemish, or be unshapely. But I guarantee it was picked in the last day or two, spent no time in a giant bin on a semi truck, and will taste 100 times better than the best "hothouse tomato" from Albertsons.

With this in mind I challenge everyone out there to grab a handful of cash, a reusable bag of some sort, and walk, pedal, or carpool down to Railroad Park this Thursday between 4 and 7 pm and take the first steps to becoming a Tehachapi locavore - consuming only what's local for at least one afternoon.

I attended the Mountain Meadows CSD meeting this week. Here's some of what happened:

The board received some grant money (around $70,000 worth) from the Air Pollution Control District for road maintenance. This money will be used to oil and compact some of the more utilized roads in the CSD  - like Cheyenne. You may have seen the road crew on their new (used, but new) equipment already. They've got a newer grader, loader and water truck and appear to have been working on some of the roads. Good for them.

The board is applying for another grant of something like $1.2million from the Air Pollution Control District (I think). Problem is that they have to put up about 10% of the amount of any grant money they request so this limits what they can ask for. Right now they are trying to scratch together $120k for this grant application. Too bad they spent so much on all that base rock that is still piled on many roads...

I asked about the plans for Dennison and as of the meeting there are none this year. According to the board, it will take more than $5 million to fix it. In the meantime they have been patching the bigger potholes and I believe a small Datsun what found in one.

It looks like they are working to improve the roads and get grant money for it. This is a good thing and hopefully will continue.

One issue that came up was drainage problems on the sides of the steeper roads. I guess ruts are forming on the sides of some roads that make it difficult for homeowners to cross from their property onto the road. I wonder if this is the responsibility of the CSD to put in V-ditches on private lots, or if the individual lot owners should deal with this as it is common sense that when you buy a lot on a hill there will be run-off. The $1.2 million dollar grant request is for funds to address this type of problem.

No news on the wind turbine development in Old West Ranch other than the fact that the wind company has not applied for a zoning change or variance yet.

Next meeting is June 18, 2008 at 6:00 pm at the CSD office on Summit.