Has anybody else heard about this?  I was talking to a local waitress last night.  She told me that Greg Garrett demanded that Las Palmas Restaurant close down during the restoration of the old BeeKay theater.  The city put up fencing blocking off the parking to Las Palmas and they blocked off their dumpster.  It was only after Las Palmas hired a lawyer that Greg Garrett started acting professionally towards them.  The city is now having to pay Las Palmas $1,000 per day when they are shut down because of the restoration.  She also said that the restoration is taking much longer than they thought it would because they found that Las Palmas and BeeKay share a common wall and the city has now called in an engineer to take a look see.  And they also found asbestos so now the restoration is taking even more time because that has to be cleaned up.

This is the way the city hall senior staff has always done business.  Bully the local small business people around, don’t plan out projects completely, and then call in a consultant or engineer when they get their butts in a crack.

The waitress also said there were two small fires at the train depot.  The fires were put out with the help of another waitress.  The fire department was called but they just drove by and didn’t even stop.  You don’t think the CCI work crews that the city is using to do the renovations here were having a bit of fun do you?  Or, maybe we just have an arsonist on the loose.  What the hell is going on in this town?

Is it just me or do I see a lack of serious reporting in our very own Tehachapi News?  I feel let down that our own Newspaper cannot report on the stories in our town that affect our lives.  Dear Editor please respond:

Dear Editor can you explain why I get more accurate accounting's of what happens in our City Council meetings from the Desert News than I do from our own city's newspaper?  I attend the meetings and what is reported in the Tehachapi News is not the meeting I attended.  Please clarify this for me Dear Editor.

Why was nothing reported in our paper about the Grand Jury Investigation of the Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District in the paper of March 3rd?  The report came out February 28th.  The Bakersfield Californian did a complete piece, the Desert News did a piece, albeit under the headline of Grand Jury Inquiry no doubt because Bill Deaver was a volunteer for the TVHD.  The Tehachapi News finally published the initial Grand Jury report on March 10th with not nearly the fanfare of the Women's History Month and the ever-so insightful questions posed to Mayor Hand and May Pro-tem Vernon. 

Dear Editor did you think the citizens of Tehachapi did not have a right to know that the TVHD had been over-billing Medicare to the tune of $500,000 and because they have to pay this money back this will perhaps cause another delay in starting the hospital construction?  And, the more delays the costlier the project?  Did you ask for comments?

Or, did you not report on this Grand Jury Investigation because in your heart of hearts you know this will give more credence to those of us who really wanted that Investigative Audit of City Hall.  You seem to have turned against us.  What about us Dear Editor?  We outnumber the Hand group by considerable margins, yet these are the only people you listen to.  What about our rights to know Dear Editor?  After all we are voters too!

What about the last council meeting Dear Editor?  You printed absolutely nothing about that.  Don't you think perhaps the public might like to know the outcome of a vote on Section 8 housing?  This was a pretty hot an heavy meeting, and yet you wrote nothing about this?  Why not Dear Editor?  You wrote plenty about Women's History month, a full page spread in fact, with your ever-so insightful questions of Mayor Hand and Mayor Pro-tempore Vernon.  Now which story do you think is more likely to impact our lives, Section 8 housing or the Mayor's wisdom on Women's History month?