High Twelve Club

On April 19, the Tehachapi High Twelve Club was honored to have Miles Muzio as its guest speaker. Muzio is the evening meteorologist at KBAK-TV, Bakersfield, where he directs weather operations. He is also meteorologist for KERN-AM radio and the president of a private company, which provides weather consulting for industry and expert testimony in forensics. The club is looking for-ward to having Muzio back sometime in the future for another interesting presentation.

High Twelve Club, number 698, has formed a committee to oversee the laying of the corner stone for the new Masonic Lodge, number 313, in conjunction with The Masonic Grand Lodge of California. The ceremony will take place July 15 at the building site on Steuber Road. More details on the ceremony will come later.

The date for the High Twelve annual picnic has been set for July 29, at Brite Lake. The attendance has increased by the year and another nice crowd is expected again. All proceeds will go to our scholarship fund.

On May 16, a group from Tehachapi High Twelve Club, along with a few members from the Bakersfield club, will tour the Bakersfield Californian production facility. We appreciate the effort of Lisa Baldridge, publisher of the Tehachapi News, in making this possible.

Ceremony to honor those touched by cancer

A special luminaria ceremony to be held during the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life of Tehachapi remembers those lost to cancer and honors those who have survived. Luminarias will be lit at the relay the evening of July 15 to represent these individuals.

Anyone desiring to purchase a luminaria may do so by contacting Betty Barnes at 822-3127.

“It will be beautiful when all the bags with candles are illuminated around the track,” said Tracy Lankin, the local Relay for Life chair. “We hope to sell enough to light the entire area.”

Relay for Life is a fun-filled, overnight event taking place July 15 and 16 at Jacobsen Middle School. Teams of eight to 15 members gather with tents and sleeping bags to participate in the largest fund-raising walk in the nation. Relay for Life brings together friends, families, businesses, hospitals, schools and places of worship – people from all walks of life. Teams seek sponsorship prior to the Relay, all with the goal of eliminating cancer.

Register your team today by calling Lori Fife at 822-8241.

It is important that all team captains start turning in the registration and sponsorship fees for their teams, as well as all participant forms, as soon as possible. The next team captains’ meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 10 at 6 p.m. at American Carriage, 1401 Goodrick Road.

Tehachapi’s cancer survivors will kick off the Relay for Life on July 15 with the official Survivors Lap; then, the rest of the participants join the fun.

The Relay for Life committee is currently looking for local cancer survivors to participate in the Survivors Lap. If you are a survivor, or know of one, please contact Susan Mueller at 822-8017.

Mueller encourages survivors to invite their caregivers, family and friends to participate in the Survivors Lap. The second lap will be in honor of the caregivers.

“It’s a day to reunite with other survivors and enjoy the relay, which is held in your honor,” said Lankin. “We sure don’t want to miss anybody.” There will also be a special Survivors Tent at the relay that will have refreshments and activities for survivors, who are encouraged to come out for the duration of the relay and enjoy the entertainment.

General information about the Tehachapi Relay for Life is available by calling Lankin at 821-1654.

The American Cancer Society is dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by saving lives, diminishing suffering and preventing cancer through research, education, advocacy and service. Founded in 1913 and with national headquarters in Atlanta, the society has 14 regional divisions and local offices in 3,400 communities, involving millions of volunteers across the United States.

For more information anytime, call toll free 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.

County offers information about tree removal project

An informational public meeting, regarding the proposed hazardous fuels removal project for Tehachapi Mountain Park, will be held on Thursday, May 11, at 6 p.m. in the West Park Activity Center located at 410 W. D St.

This important fuels project is designed to remove the dead and dying trees covering more than half of the park’s forested acres. The dead and diseased vegetation, the result of years of insect infestation, drought and heavy overgrowth, creates extremely hazardous wildfire conditions leaving the Tehachapi Valley vulnerable to devastation as severe as that seen in the San Bernardino wildfires of a few short years ago.

Elements such as slope, aspect and tree size cause the existing trees to fight for adequate nutrients and water. As in all of nature, the strong survive leaving the rest to languish and eventually die creating brittle kindling for a life-threatening wildfire event.

A healthy forest supports from 50 to 150 trees per acre — depending upon tree size, soil richness, water availability, climate conditions and the slope of the land.

Currently, Tehachapi Mountain Park boasts an average of 1,500 trees per acre with an average mortality of 50 —60 percent. With so much overgrowth, the park’s current condition has become a hazard to hikers and campers that visit this area.

The project, classified as a Timber Harvest Plan, is designed to improve forest health and prevent a devastating wildfire which could cause extensive damage to the brush and trees within the park’s boundaries. Conditions within the park mimic those seen in the Southland during the 2003 fire season where hundreds of homes and many lives were lost. It will take generations for that area to recover.

The Kern County Parks Department wants to be proactive in opening discussions regarding the project as they seek to protect the community and one of Kern County’s finest public park facilities. An overview of the project will be presented during the Thursday night meeting. A registered forester, a wildfire behavior expert and local fire personnel will be on hand to answer questions.

ALA announces Poppy Days

The Tehachapi American Legion Auxiliary, Unit 221, has received notice that the official 2006 Poppy Days will be May 14 through May 20. Members of the American Legion and the Auxiliary will be on hand to offer the hand-made poppies and explain the meaning of them.

For 85 years, the American Legion and the ALA have sponsored Poppy Days nationwide to remind America of the men and women in the military who have sacrificed their lives and health to keep the nation strong and free.

The red crepe paper poppy, hand-made by hospitalized veterans, was officially adopted in 1921 as the memorial flower of the American Legion and the Auxiliary. It was inspired by the red poppies which grew on the battlefields of Flanders and is a perpetual memorial to the brave men who fought there and on all other battlefields throughout the years.

Ninety percent of the donations received for the poppies stays in the community and is used for needy veterans. The other 10 percent helps pay the veterans in the hospital for their efforts in making the poppies. They receive five cents per poppy for their efforts.

Wearing a poppy during Poppy Days helps pay tribute to the nation’s honored dead and shows support for all veterans. Wear a poppy with pride.

Sing with old time fiddlers

An opportunity to sing old favorite songs accompanied by a string band will take place on Saturday, May 13, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Veteran’s Hall, located at 125 E. F St.

District three of California State Old Time Fiddlers welcomes all who would like to sing along as they play some “hand-clappin’ toe-tappin’” songs.

Fiddlers and guitar players are always needed at the fiddle jams which are held the second Saturday of each month.

Song sheets will be provided for singers and requests will be played. Families are encouraged to attend since this is an event for all ages.

Tehachapi’s 2006 Mother of Year

Anna Ostby smiles through the pain of osteogenesis imperfecta and continues to support and uplift her family.

For her love and devotion to her daughter, Lindsey Wells, her son, Andrews Hartman and her granddaughter, Arika Wells, the Tehachapi News is pleased to announce that she has been selected as Tehachapi’s 2006 Mother of the Year.

“It’s humbling,” Ostby said of the honor. “I don’t think I’m that special.”

Look for an extensive article about Ostby in next week’s Tehachapi News and learn just how special she is.

All nominated mothers will be listed on this website next week.

Law enforcement honored by Optimists

Senior deputy with the Kern County Sheriff Department and Optimist Club president, Jim Craig, presided as master of ceremonies for the Optimist Club sponsorship of the 16th annual Respect For Law recognition awards program held on May 2 at the Optimist’ regularly scheduled noon luncheon held at Kelcy’s Restaurant. Kern County commander Dan Leper of Mojave gave the welcome.

Top recipients were senior Deputy Jim Craig as Officer of the Year and senior Deputy John Money, who is now with the Lamont substation, as Optimist International Excellence in Education Award for his service to the community and area schools.

Optimist certificates of appreciation and other plaques were awarded by law enforcement officers to recipients for their dedicated work as a team with the various Kern County law enforcement personnel and agencies to the surrounding communities of Bear Valley, Mojave, Rosamond, Stallion Springs and Tehachapi.

Recipients and their substations included: Officer Sgt. Gary Watts of BVS; CHP officer Mike Patterson of Mojave; KCSD Deputy Dorinda Zubeck of Mojave; KCSD Deputy Richard Hudson of Rosamond; KCSD Deputy Tim Liszka of Tehachapi, who received the Kern County Award; KCSD technical investigator officer, Tom Rickels, who won the Perpetual Technical Investigator Officer of the Year Award; Kern County probation department, Matt Gomez; and senior Deputy Jim Craig, who received the Tehachapi City Award.

Young artist to play Symphonie Espagnole

The Tehachapi Community Orchestra’s 2006 Young Artist winner, violinist Cecilia Lay of Bakersfield, will perform Victor Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole with the orchestra at its next concert on Sunday, May 14 in the Jacobsen Middle School Cafeteria. Downbeat for the performance is 4 p.m.

Sixteen-year-old Lay is an emotionally explosive player, who beat out a number of talented musicians to win the orchestra’s annual Young Artist Competition.
The intensity of Lalo’s stirring composition showcases her outstanding technique and dramatic presentation.

Lay is just completing the 11th grade at Stockdale High School, where she plays in the school orchestra. She also plays in the Bakersfield Youth Symphony and the Kern County Honors Orchestra. She has studied violin for 10 years and is currently taking lessons from Jean Dodson of the Bakersfield Symphony. In addition to the performance opportunity with the orchestra, Lay will receive a $500 music scholarship, funded by Bank of the Sierra.

To round out the program, the orchestra will perform Richard Wagner’s Sigfried Idylls and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s romantic piece, Scheherazade.

All the music on this concert is from the Romantic Period and since the concert falls on Mother’s Day, it is a perfect opportunity to take mom to hear the Tehachapi Community Orchestra perform. In keeping with the orchestra’s long-standing tradition of free classical music for all residents of the community, this concert will be presented free to the public.

For more information, call Concertmaster Gayel Pitchford at 821-7511.

Local piano students honored, will perform

The piano students of Kathryn Errecart will perform in the awards recitals for the year on May 14. They will be presented with their certificates from the National Guild of Piano Teachers adjudication, held on May 12 and 13, the Certificate of Merit held on March 25, the Branch Bach Festival and the Romantic Festival.

Students performing in the 2 p.m. recital will include: Emily and Sarah Bowersox, Ethan Brill, Maggie Brown, Dallas Calais, Katie Chung, Jacob Cortez, Michelle Duval, Crystal, Renee and Tina Ellis, Melody Henderson, Haley Johnson, Ashley Kennedy, Faith Lopez, Madissan Parks, Casandra Miller, Grace Popelar, Carolyn Scott, Camille Searfoss, Annie and Kate Walker, Sharon Weaver, Bonnie and Conner Wilson and Ruby Lynn Zheng.

In the 4 p.m. recital, the following students will be included: Ethan Brill, Amanda and Andrew Borst, Dallas Calais, Katie Chung, Hannah and Stephanie Clare, Cindy Clark, Jacob Cortez, Travis Farewell, Courtney Hall, Katy and Kendra Harris, Cambria Hynes, Frida Martinez, April, Nathaniel and Sarah Mitchell, Vallarie, Vanessa and Vincent Neang, Abygail and Joseph Singer, Erika Soto and Sharon Weaver.

The recitals will be held at the First Baptist Church, located at 1049 S. Curry Street.

Tagging investigation continues

Kern County Sheriff’s Sgt. Joe Giuffre, of the Tehachapi substation, reported the tagging problem in Tehachapi has been curtailed somewhat, but the investigation continues.

“We have a good idea of the people involved,” he said. “We are currently pursuing all angles.”

Anyone with more information is asked to report it to the substation.

Bear Valley Police Department activity log: April 19 through May 3

The Bear Valley Police Department received 290 calls for service during the past reporting period. Twenty-nine traffic citations were issued. There were no reported traffic accidents during this period.

Arrests

Hector Chavez, 25, of Newhall, was arrested for driving without a driver’s license and an additional vehicle code violation. He was cited and released.

Gregory Graham, 45, of Caliente, was arrested for driving while intoxicated and possession of marijuana. Charges also included possession of an open container of alcohol in a vehicle and other vehicle code violations.

Jesus Ramirez, 58, of Fruita, Colo., was arrested for driving under the influence and possession of an open container in a vehicle.

Martin Gudin, 45, of Bear Valley, was arrested for possession of marijuana and three outstanding arrest warrants.

July 4 permits

June 12 to June 30 marks the period that we will be issuing “special” Fourth of July holiday passes. As always, large numbers of visitors are expected. So get your guest lists together and ready to bring to the police department during that time.The winter season has now passed and roads are finally dry, but you still need to drive safely.

Murals golf tourney entry deadline nears

Area golfers who wish to play in the fourth annual Main Street Tehachapi Historical Murals Golf Tournament are urged to submit their applications by May 15. The tournament will be held Saturday, May 20, on the links at Tierra del Sol Golf Club in California City.

Individual entries are welcomed and they will be paired with others to comprise a team to compete for the $200 first place prize or the $100 second place prize.

In addition, every golfer is guaranteed a prize. Through the generosity of PGA senior progressional Don Pooley, Golf Today Magazine and a multitude of local business people, a wide variety of gifts were made available to participants.

Included in this event will be the closest-to-the-pin contest on two designated three-par holes. The winners will receive a Cleveland sand wedge (valued at $150) donated and autographed by Pooley.

Following the tournament, the staff of Tierra del Sol will serve a delicious tri-tip dinner.

Entry fees are $325 for a four-person team and $85 for individuals. Tee signs are also available at $50 each. Proceeds will go towards the painting of two additional murals in downtown Tehachapi.

Tournament director Scott Johnson said the spots are rapidly filling and if there are more golfers out there, they should contact either him at his Johnson Printing office, located at 122 E. F St., or by calling 822-4223. Otherwise, visit the Main Street office at 122 E. Tehachapi Blvd. Suite F, or call 822-6519.

Prices still climbing

Gas prices posted at the Texaco in Capital Hills last week.

Beware, more scams on the rise

More and more sophisticated scams have been reported by residents of Tehachapi, who warn others not to be taken in.

For one Tehachapi couple, all it took was a simple request for further information after they had received a card from “Property Tax Assessor Record Corp” (with a post office box in Bakersfield), offering to reduce their property tax by up to $7,000 a year. Fortunately, the couple recognized something was not right early on.

“When my husband responded, he only wanted information. He was careful not to provide them with any personal information,” said the homeowner, who wishes to remain anonymous.

In December, the first form letter arrived, stating the homeowners’ application had been completed from the “Kern County Assessor records” and information provided by the homeowner. It also included information that appears to be similar to that of real estate multiple listing information as well as a “homeowners’ exemption information and instructions” sheet.

The unsigned letter requested their signatures, however, the homeowners did not respond.

“The following month we received a processing fee billing for $49,” the homeowner said.

The billing stated that the homeowner had submitted an application to obtain a tax exemption and the $49 was for the “exemption service and valuation service” the company provided.

In March, another unsigned form letter and an identical $49 billing arrived with a “copy” of the original card the homeowner had returned to the company requesting more information. The copy had been reduced in size and was, for the most part, illegible.

A statement in small print at the bottom of the card copy stated, “Send no money with this form.” Then it stated the homeowners’ account would not be billed until after the exemption claim had been filed with the county assessor. It went on to say that a one-time fee of $25 for the application and another one-time fee of $24 for the valuation information service (totalling $49) would be charged, evidently just for sending back the card.

After numerous unsuccessful attempts to reach a company representative at “Property Tax Assessor Record Corp.” by phone, the homeowners wrote a letter to the company with the notation that a copy was also forwarded to Kern County Treasurer Phil Franey.

In April, the homeowners received a letter from the Kern County Assessor-Recorder’s office, signed by the chief appraiser of the realty division, who said that “Property Tax Assessor Record Corp” is part of a scam that has been in operation for several years.

“They are attempting to charge you $49 for a service that is provided by the Kern County Assessor’s office for free,” the letter stated. “Please do not pay the requested amount to Property Tax Records Corp., as they have done nothing for you that you could not have accomplished yourself by simply phoning our office.”

Later in April, after receiving another billing for $49, and the day before the letter from the county assessor arrived, the homeowners received yet one more unsigned letter from the fraudulent company. This one, however, stated that the $49 fee had been cancelled.

The latest scam provided by the Bakersfield Police Department’s Crime Prevention Unit preys on the elderly.

The way it works

Armed with only their basic information, the perpetrator telephones elderly victims and tells them he or she is a relative who claims to have been arrested and incarcerated in Canada.

The “relative” then asks the victim to wire a large sum of bail money from a “money gram” site inside of a Walmart, usually between $3,000 and $4,000.

According to the press release, the perpetrator calls the victim again to let them know the money was received. In the most recent incident taking place in the Bakersfield area, the victim was asked to send an additional $4,000 to pay for a defense attorney.

More scams

Kern County Sheriff Senior Deputy Jim Craig, from the Tehachapi substation, said there are many scams afoot.

“There was even one in the Pennysaver asking people to send money,” he said. “The best way to protect yourself, if you’re concerned about the possibility of a scam, is check around first. Check with the Better Business Bureau. If something feels wrong, don’t do it. Talk to law enforcement personnel.”

Craig said, to complicate things further, many of the scams originate in other countries, making apprehension much more difficult. He also warned of on-line scams.

“Internet scams are far and above the most complicated,” he said. If concerned about fraud and scams online, Craig suggested visiting the Internet Fraud Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

Heavenly voice from the silence

“My body was fed and sated, my mind overloaded; but my soul was parched and fallow.”

Sacrificing silence in exchange for anonymity and stirred by an ageless passion, a Carthusian monk has agreed to reach out beyond the cloister walls and touch the world. I shall call him Ben Adam, meaning Son of Man.

It’s early morning. Before me, a steep expanse of granite rises against a pewter sky, dwarfing weathered ridges, dense forrest and narrow ravines, dominating the valley below. In this magnificent desolation, crowning a rocky bluff and seemingly untouched by calamity or the passage of time, stands the Monastère de la Grande Chartreuse.

In June 1084, on this stretch of wilderness in southeastern France, Saint Bruno, a canon from Cologne and six followers founded an order, the Carthusians, whose members share, in almost total solitude and virtual silence, a life syncopated by labor and study, marked by self-denial and eased by contemplation and prayer.

The monastery’s lean medieval geometry clings to time, a metaphor to its own immutability. Eight fires, some deliberately set by waves of marauding feudal landlords, self-exile, landslides, persecution and banishment have tested the faith and tenacity of the Carthusian Order. Its spires loom through the barren treetops but no one goes beyond the massive wooden doors. You may approach, but you cannot enter unless you are prepared to make, as Ben Adam did, the most solemn vow of all.

The monastery turns to the world an austere visage. Half-fortress, half-cloister, its stone walls and slate pepperpot towers soar skyward like hands fused in prayer. But what this edifice protects and upholds are silence and solitude — fragile, easily broken — and unwavering faith. Inside, starkness and parsimony reign. Introspection and worship suffer no distraction.

Called an hermitage and consisting of a four-room dwelling, living quarters are Spartan. On the upper floor is an anteroom and the cubiculum where monks spend virtually their entire life. Beds are rustic. There is an oratory, a rough-hewn narrow desk, a bookshelf, a pot-bellied wood burning stove and a dining table set against a window facing the surrounding mountains. The lower level consists of a small vegetable garden, a workshop and a wood shed.

Life at the monastery

Ben Adam is at his desk. I will not see his face but his voice is soft and firm, his laughter filled with grace and warmth. My questions, clumsy or overly solicitous, amuse him. But his answers are well-pondered and cogent, his arguments devoid of sophistry or equivocation.

Ben Adam is infinitely patient. Time is always on the side of those who need not measure it, who crave silence and solitude, who find strength in ascetisism and are energized by self-denial. For them, all time stands still. They have heard the voice, seen the beckoning light and exultantly rushed into God’s arms. Such are the choices and rewards of monasticism.

What draws some of us to such an existence? What ideal takes people away from the din and follies of society into the sepulchral shadows of solitude and silence? What irresistible voice calls men and women to give themselves to the strict routine, social isolation and sexual abstinence of monastic life?

“It is an unmet need for the spiritual love that only prayer can deliver,” Ben Adam murmurs.

To appreciate the eremitic life, it is helpful to see those who answer its call as they see themselves — men and women who seek and find God. Their destiny, their stated mission: to help bring world peace through the power of prayer.

“There is too much emphasis on doing and producing, not enough on the truth of being, on the need to be,” says Ben Adam. “Undernourished and abused by the torments of modern life, the soul shrivels and dies.”

To be human is to host the seeds of contradiction and ambiguity, to entertain paradox, to stroke the flames of incongruity. Most of us favor rich food and warmth, seek the company of our peers, raise families, feel happier when the sun is shining, exalt the virtues of peace (and make war), create sublime works of art, erect lofty monuments (and commit heinous crimes). Yet, there are men and women who disdain creature comforts, who are impervious to weather and who seek in solitude and silence the voice and light of God. They are the monks and the nuns, fastidious Christians who have returned to the “desert,” as the ancient Essences did before them, to live hidden from prying eyes as God’s servants.

The cloister is to hermits what the desert was to the prophets: a refuge, a vision of Jerusalem, a holy temple where monks and nuns are united by a pact of friendship and common charity, an epiphanic bond wonderful in its intensity. Engaged in an unspoken dialogue no one else will hear, these self-effaced denizens have been called “selfish and arrogant misanthropes.” They have been accused of being out of touch with reality, of shunning the world’s challenges and responsibilities.

Monastery life is often portrayed as sheltered, idyllic, offering an ambience in which monks and nuns live simply and comfortably, sustained by old traditions of spiritual and social support. Or we imagine trance-filled mystics preoccupied with daily prayer and meditation, emaciated men and women weakened by prolonged fasting, self-flagellation and other indignities against the body.

“Fasting and mortification are neither encouraged nor proscribed, though they can help appease the hungers of the soul,” Ben Adam insists. “These actions are strictly a matter of individual choice.”

No matter how strong their community, monastics must also interface with one-another, work to support themselves, living in colonies supplied by a common storehouse, wearing common vestments, drawing from a common treasury. And once alone in the cubiculum, they must confront inner struggles, ponder the interplay between faith and humanness, between transcendence and mortality.
“Life is a parenthesis in eternity,” Ben Adam suggests. “It opens at birth, closes upon death. The sentence it circumscribes is both chronicle and epitaph. We are free to choose the words of which it is composed.”

Solitude is the mainstay of traditional monastic life

“Only within the cloister walls can inner solitude find safety from a world driven by noise. Solitude yields exquisite inner peace. Every spiritual step that leads deeper into the silence helps touch and tap into out soul.”

“What is silence,” I ask.

“Silence has two faces. External silence, or the absence of noise, is that stillness which is perceived by the ear. If you listen carefully, you can hear it resonate all around you. Inner silence is absolute. It leads to meditation and prepares the soul to receive God. Without silence, undernourished and buffeted by the storms of life, the soul can atrophy.”

“What is the difference between meditation and prayer?”

“Meditation empties the mind, puts it in neutral and readies the body for the inner silence the body craves. Prayer is an idiom of silence. Prayer is the last line of defense against the ravages of faithlessness.”

“The world is gravely ill, physically, morally, intellectually. Does this encourage or discourage people from entering the orders?”

“Moral degeneration, war, global discontent, and ego have all advanced the cause of spirituality, increased the craving for a mystical life.”

“One last question. What induced you to become a monk?”

“What induced you to become a journalist?”

“I can’t remember ever wanting to be anything else. It was, shall I say, preordained. I just obeyed the call.”

Ben Adam must have smiled, though I couldn’t tell. I had answered my own question, spared him extra words and, at last, returned him to the silence from whence he came.

We are all mystics under the skin. We crave silence but once exposed we are discomfited by it. We feat it, shun it. We don’t know what to do with it. We have been conditioned against it. Only a chosen few accept its hospitality.

The 21st century has killed silence. Modern technology has overwhelmed the earth with noise. The frenetic pace of life has intensified the clamor. Some find comfort and safety in the teeming throng. For others, there is sanctity in silence, resonance in seclusion.

It is comforting to know that amid the mindless cacophony, the crowded spaces, the aimless motion and the empty rhetoric that animate the world, silence and peace and harmony prevail in monasteries and covenants. They are the world’s last refuges of stillness. Perhaps they are what the world needs. Because silence is said to be God’s abode, God’s future may well depend on the lost, the found and the reborn who give it shelter.

W.E. Gutman is a veteran journalist on assignment in Central America since 1991.

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