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Wind energy gets boost with major transmission line

Wind turbines can capture the wind and turn it into electricity, but without a way to send the power to users far away, it is just hot air. The blades might as well be giant fans cooling off the horses in Wild Horse Canyon.

Southern California Edison, spurred by unshakable mandates from the state to purchase 20 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2010, is building a transmission line that will carry as much as 4,500 megawatts of “green” power from the wind-rich Tehachapi hills south on 250 miles of new and upgraded equipment to the termination station in Ontario.

It is one of the largest renewable energy transmission line projects in the United States.

The line is called the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project (TRPD). Its northernmost outpost will be on a 20-acre property east of Tehachapi Willow Springs Road on the rural extension of Highline Road.

The transmission substation is named Highwind. Another new substation, named Windhub, is to be built on Oak Creek Road near Mojave.

Wind power will flow into the Highwind substation, move along 9.6 miles of new transmission lines to Windhub, travel to the Antelope distribution station in Lancaster and sent from there south to the population centers “down below.”

In the mysterious way of the power grid, some of that power will flow back to Tehachapi to light our homes and offices.

After years of planning, Edison is poised to get California's OK to begin construction on the local segment in a month. The segment should be operational by the first quarter of 2010.

In documents tracing the progress of the $2 billion project, which is one part of Southern California Edison's current $5 billion upgrade, the line originally was called the Antelope Transmission Project. No one seems to know why the name was changed, except perhaps someone in the Southern California Edison Department of Naming Things. Apparently the person recognized that Tehachapi has the cache and, in the world of wind energy, the history and the spirit.

The local segment of the transmission line will snake through the bucolic turbine-covered hills from Highwind to Windhub. In California fashion, the gatekeeper Public Utilities Commission decreed that the structures must be pleasing to the eye and must fit the terrain.

“The poles are a unique design that we've never used before,” said transmission line Segments 1-3 Project Manager Don Johnson in an exclusive interview with the Tehachapi News. “They are kind of in the shape of a 'Y.' The visual consultant at the PUC said they should blend in with the wind farms. They were chosen for their aesthetic design. It was one of the mitigation measures.”

The PUC granted overall project approval in the form of a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity March 13, 2008, for segment 1 (Antelope substation in Lancaster to Pardee substation in Santa Clarita) and segment 2 (Antelope substation to the Vincent substation south of Palmdale).

The majority of required reports that will have been submitted for Segment 3, from Lancaster to Tehachapi's Highwind, Johnson said.

“We expect approval within the next 30 days,” he said. Approval means construction can begin.

Edison is negotiating with some landowners who own property over which the transmission is engineered to go.

“We are acquiring easements,” Johnson said. “We compensate the landowners. Most of the time there is an agreement. If we cannot reach an agreement, Edison has the power of eminent domain. Sometimes we exercise that right.”

The only federal land the transmission line will cross is the Angeles National Forest, south of the Antelope Valley.

Cathy Hart, Southern California Edison's region manager, public affairs, said that Edison is arranging a “marshalling yard” in the city of Tehachapi to stockpile material and equipment for the substation and the transmission lines.

The substation itself will look similar to several smaller substations that already are in place in the Tehachapi valleys, only a bit bigger. The Highwind substation, where the electrical power coming in from the turbines will be stepped down to a manageable 220 kilovolts, will feature steel support structures, electrical equipment, transformers and circuit breakers.

The Lehigh Southwest Cement plant has its own substation not far from the site of the new Highwind.

Edison currently purchases from 700 to 1,000 megawatts of power from Tehachapi wind farms. To help meet its renewable energy mandate, Hart said, “Our goal is to pull 4,500 megawatts out of the Tehachapi wind parks.”

While it has made sizeable contracts with wind energy companies, Edison needs to purchase more. Wind energy companies are responding by planning expansion, which is slowed by the lengthy environmental reports.

Oak Creek Energy Systems has partnered with Terra-Gen Power to form Alta Innovative Power Company, which has a contract to provide as much as 1,500 megawatts of power to Southern California Edison.

Ed Duggan, executive vice president of Oak Creek Energy Systems, said the company has 58 megawatts of wind turbines installed, an application pending with Kern County for 600 megawatts more, and “We hope ultimately to develop the whole 1,500 megawatts.”

The application process, he said, takes one to two years, and must be done “in an orderly fashion.”

Hart explained that one megawatt - which is a million watts - will power 650 homes.
“Times that by 4,500 and you see what it means,” she said. [answer 2,925,000 homes].

Southern California Edison is closer to the meeting its renewable energy component than the other two large California Investor Owned Utilities, at 15.7 percent in 2007. Pacific Gas & Electric is at 11.4 percent and San Diego Gas & Electric is at 5.2 percent.

Almost half of Edison’s renewable energy is from geothermal sources at Mammoth Lakes, Hart said.

Candidates for three different boards face the public

Eleven candidates running for board openings at three different public agencies took on the issues -- some with a bit of controversy -- during a public forum last week at the Stallion Springs Community Center.

Heeding organizer JoAnne Huckins’ admonition to “refrain from excessive exuberance for or against any particular candidate,” an audience of 60 people heard statements from candidates for non-partisan board positions at the Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District, the Stallion Springs Community Services District and the Tehachapi Unified School District.

Flashes of controversy emerged from candidates for the boards of the Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District and the Stallion Springs Community Services District, while candidates for the Tehachapi Unified School District Board of Trustees did not raise contentious issues.

Retired aerospace engineer Jonathan Hall, an incumbent candidate for director of the water district board, held up a flier from candidate Adrian Maaskant and said, “It’s just scurrilous.”

Maaskant, a retired math teacher, has raised the issues of agricultural water rates and the cost of water supplies to the California Correctional Institution at water board meetings. He was not present at the forum. His flier said the water district’s “agricultural water rate is a means of giving $4 million of local property tax dollars to farmers, including large corporate growers, every year.”

Hall and fellow water district incumbent candidate David Hadley rejected Maaskant’s assertions. They said the district is establishing parity between the agricultural and M & I (municipal and industrial) rates.

“Over the next five years the ag rate will be equalizing with the M & I rate,” Hadley said. “It will be over the next five years gradually.”

Hall said that 15 percent of the water that goes to farmers is reclaimed as ground water and that currently the difference in charges between ag and M & I “is only one and a half percent.”

Hadley said, “You as a customer are paying 20 cents more than the ag rate. It amounts to $20 a year or so.”

Former Tehacahpi City Manager Jason Caudle filed papers to run for the water district board but was not in attendance at the forum.

Transportation planner Marilyn Beardslee, a candidate for the Stallion Springs Community Services District board, who was asked if she was satisfied with the present board, said, “I think there’s a lot that can be done. There is not as strong a sense of community that there could be. Our crime statistics are going up and up. We don’t have a neighborhood watch – we do it informally.”

Stallion Springs has activities for children, Beardslee said, but “The average age is more than 41 years old. There are a lot of older people in Stallion Springs. Their interests should be addressed and provided for.”

Stallion Springs CSD candidate Dave Burt, a building inspector, said, “We have a good board in there now.” He said he was strong supporter of the Stallion Springs Police Department and its PAL organization “to keep our kids occupied and away from the streets.”

Retired college professor of human development and psychology Irene Gunshinan, incumbent candidate for the Stallion Springs CSD, said, “It is a wonderful board.”

A six-year member of the board, she said, “I work for the people.”

Gunshinan said the board has been able to get a new fire station, funding for the community center, retain the police department, is now building a new administration and police building and is seeking “the wherewithal for a building for the kids.”

Stallion Springs CSD candidate Glenn Simpson, a retired businessman, said he had been a resident of Stallion Springs since 2000, served on the board of directors of the Horse Thief Golf Club, was a volunteer at the Tehachapi Relay for Life, a member of the Tehachapi Hospital Foundation and Smart Growth Tehachapi.

A member of the audience challenged the Stallion Springs candidates to address the issue of the Meadows development, saying, “It’s starting again, you know.”

Gunshinan said, “I can’t address it because it’s not encompassing us.”

The questioner said, “How many of you buy what the lawyers say?”

Simpson said, “I call it the Meadows Fiasco.”

A questioner said, “The three of you who get elected have to vote on whether or not to annex. Do you care to say now?”

Three candidates said “no,” and Burt said, “Until I see the whole proposal, I can’t say.”

Jackie Wood, Tehachapi Unified School District incumbent for Seat D, a graduate of Tehachapi High School and business owner for 23 years, said that her active family “has helped me have better insight.”

Wood invited everyone to attend a school board meeting, citing new programs and praising the Superintendent of Schools, Richard Swanson, PhD.

“Everybody is thinking out of the box,” she said. “It’s so exciting to be part of this team. We’re going to go from good to great with him as superintendent.”

Wood’s challenger, Brenda Wright, was an elementary school teacher for 31 years, with experience in Orcutt Union, Rescue Union, Elk Grove Unified and Tehachapi school districts. According to her flier, she is a member of the Principal’s Advisory Board and School Site Council and a teacher in migrant education.

Referring to a program at Serreno High School in Phelan that helps students plan for and get into college – 100 percent of the last graduating class going to higher education – she said, “This has really been lacking in this school district.”

John Foster, who also filed for Seat D, was not in attendance at the forum.

Judy Walsh, incumbent candidate for Tehachapi Unified School District Seat “F,” focused on the district’s finances.

“We are faced with great challenges,” Walsh said, noting that the Cost of Living increase of 0.68 percent covers a portion of the budget, and that class sizes are back up to 28 to 30 students.

“You can’t have 10 to 12 students more and do as good a job as with 20 students,” Walsh said. “It’s always the children who suffer with our cuts in the budget.
Walsh suggested utilizing 25 acres adjacent to the high school to install wind turbines.

“There are districts in the Midwest that are paying all their bills through wind energy,” she said.

School district candidate Steve Miles, challenging Walsh, said that his extensive experience in business taught him how to benefit his clients. As a member of the school board, he said, “You are my client.”

A U.S. Marine who was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant, Miles was an air traffic controller in the Marines and for the FAA, and worked for the Wrigley Gum Company in consultative sales.

He said that Cumming Valley Elementary School had maintained test levels above the crucial 800 mark even with loss of funding and the classroom aides it paid for.
“We have to find other sources of funding,” he said.

[Editor’s note: in the interest of public disclosure, we note that Miles works for TheTehachapi News in the advertising department].

Diana Osbrink, also challenging Walsh, said she is the daughter of two educators and mother of four, and “I care very much about the Tehachapi Unified School District.”

Osbrink said that “changes must take place” to ensure that every child has an opportunity, and that decisions must be made in cooperation with parents and members of the community.

She vowed to “dedicate my life to giving children a chance. I am not in this for politics but for the children. The school board needs someone with good communication skills.”

Editor's Note: The photos of Diana Osbrink and Brenda Wright were transposed in our print edition and have been corrected in this online post. The Tehachapi News regrets the error.

Tehachapi Planning Commission Regular Meeting

A G E N D A
TEHACHAPI PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING
KERN COUNTY VETERANS HALL
125 EAST “F” STREET
ROOM 2
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2008
6:00 P.M.

Persons desiring disability related accommodation should contact the Planning Secretary no later than ten days prior to the need for the accommodation.

A.    CALL TO ORDER:

B.    ROLL CALL:

C.    PLEDGE TO FLAG:

D.    APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

1.    REGULAR MEETING, 05/29/08    RE:    ACTION

E.    ORAL COMMUNICATIONS:
    THE PLANNING COMMISSION WELCOMES PUBLIC COMMENTS ON ANY ITEMS WITHIN THE SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION OF THE COMMISSION. WE RESPECTFULLY REQUEST THAT THIS PUBLIC FORUM BE UTILIZED IN A POSITIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE MANNER. PERSONS ADDRESSING THE COMMISSION SHOULD FIRST STATE THEIR NAME, THE MATTER OF CITY BUSINESS TO BE DISCUSSED, AND THE ORGANIZATION OR PERSONS REPRESENTED, IF ANY. COMMENTS DIRECTED TO AN ITEM ON THE AGENDA SHOULD BE MADE AT THE TIME THE ITEM IS CALLED FOR DISCUSSION BY THE CHAIRPERSON. NO ACTION CAN BE TAKEN BY THE COMMISSION ON MATTERS NOT LISTED ON THE AGENDA EXCEPT IN CERTAIN SPECIFIED CIRCUMSTANCES. THE COMMISSION RESERVES THE RIGHT TO LIMIT THE SPEAKING TIME OF INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS AND THE TIME ALLOTTED FOR PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS. COMMENTS SHOULD BE LIMITED TO THREE (3) MINUTES. PLEASE TURN ALL CELLULAR PHONES OFF.

1.    GENERAL PUBLIC REGARDING MATTERS
NOT LISTED AS AN AGENDA ITEM

F.    WORKSHOP:

        1.    DOWNTOWN MASTER PLAN CONSISTENCY ZONING    RE:    ACTION

G.    COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT REPORTS:

H.    COMMISSION MEMBER AGENDA ITEMS:
    This portion of the meeting is reserved for Commissioners to present information, announcement, and items that have come to their attention. No formal action will be taken by the Commission. A Commissioner may request the Recording Secretary to calendar an item for consideration at a future meeting or refer an item to staff.

I.    ADJOURNMENT:    TO:    THURSDAY,
        OCT. 23, 2008
        6:00 P.M.

Special City Countil Meeting Sept. 29

The Tehachapi City Council will hold a special public meeting Monday, Sept.
29, at 6 p.m. at the Veterans Hall, 125 East F Street, to discuss revoking the business license for the High Mountain Apartments, which is the subject of lawsuits by tenants and citations by the city for uninhabitable conditions.

Tehachapi Community Theatre Offers Three Classes for Fall

Monica Nadon, a member of TCT, will teach her popular children’s class, Acting for the Theatre, for children aged 8 - 14 years old on Tuesday afternoons from 4:15 to 5:15 in Room 507 at Jacobsen Middle School. Class dates are Oct. 7, 14, 21, 28, Nov. 4 & 18. The fee for this six week course is $60. The class will cover the basics including theatre and improvisation games, stage direction, blocking, auditioning, monologues and scene work. In addition, diaphragmatic breathing will be taught to help the actors project their voices.

Monica Nadon has a degree in Theatre Arts from CSU Fresno and has been a member of TCT for over six years. She has performed in and directed numerous plays for TCT, including favorites such as Little Women and The Adventures of Robin Hood. Nadon is also the director of TCT’s improv troupe, Comedy Under Construction.

TCT President, Karl Schuck will teach Beginning Acting for Adults (high school and up) in an eight week session on Thursdays, Oct. 2 to Nov. 21 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Room 507 at Jacobsen Middle School. Tuition is $60 which includes the text.

Schuck is a graduate of San Jose State University’s Theatre Arts Department and has directed and performed for non-profit and professional theatres. His career with TCT began with a comic role in Barefoot In The Park and has included roles in The Diary of Anne Frank and Sweeney Todd, as well as appearing with TCT’s improv troupe, Comedy Under Construction. Schuck’s directing assignments have included My Three Angels, 6 Rms Riv Vu, and his own adaptations of Miller’s Tale and A Christmas Carol.

A Playwright’s Workshop, led by TCT member Tanis Galik, will be held on Monday evenings in a five week session on Oct. 6, 13, 27, Nov. 3 & 10 from 6:00 to 8:30 in Room 507 at Jacobsen Middle School. The workshop is free of charge and open to anyone interested in exploring the craft. Some work from the class may receive a public reading staged by TCT as resources allow.

Tanis Galik is an experienced writing instructor and is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild, a member of ALAP (Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights) and a member of the Academy for New Musical Theatre in Los Angeles. She has a Master’s in Playwrighting from CSU Dominguez Hills and was recently awarded the Winner of the International Mystery Writers’ Festival 2007. She is proud of the many plays she has written which have been produced throughout the country.

To register for any of these classes please call the TCT Hotline at 822-4037.

VFW honors local POW/MIA

Members and guests of the local VFW paid their respects in honor of POW/MIA Day, on Friday, Sept. 19 with the presentation of a Prisoner Of War flag to Survivor Steve Mitchell. Mitchell was held prisoner by the Germans during WWII. He escaped once and was caught again.

Also attending the presentation were two additional survivors of the Battle Of The Bulge, U.S. Army Sergeants William Jasper, and Emery Hubbard, both members of the 5948th VFW and 221st American Legion Posts. Both men contributed to a display including vintage uniforms, medals and other, historic WWII items, including a photo of Hubbard’s 75th Infantry Division with a captured Nazi flag. Hubbard said his CO ordered the flag destroyed after the picture was taken.

Jasper recalled being quartered in a single room in France with a family he still keeps in touch with, three generations later.

Observances of National POW/MIA Recognition Day are held across the country on military installations, ships at sea, state capitols, schools and veterans' facilities. This observance is one of six days throughout the year that Congress has mandated the flying of the National League of Families' POW/MIA flag. The others are Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day and Veterans Day. The flag is to be flown at major military installations, national cemeteries, all post offices, VA medical facilities, the World War II Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the official offices of the secretaries of state, defense and veterans affairs, the director of the selective service system and the White House.

Tehachapi Police Department

Tehachapi Police Department
Activity Summary
Sept. 7 - Sept. 13
Dispatched calls for service:101
Officer initiated traffic stops:56
Officer initiated - non-traffic: 162
Hazardous citations issued: 3
Non-hazardous citations issued:3
Parking citations issued: 39
Traffic accident reports: 4
Felony crime reports: 5
Misdemeanor crime reports: 20
Information reports: 3
Adult Arrests: 21
Juvenile Arrests: 1
Arrest Summer
Adult Arrests: (1) Possession of Controlled Substance for Sale, (2) Felony Assault, (1) Rape & Sexual Battery, (1) Felony Child Endangerment, (1) Misdemeanor Hit & Run, (1) Possession of Narcotics Paraphernalia & Prescription Drugs, (1) Possession of Narcotics Paraphernalia & Marijuana, (2) Possession of Narcotics Paraphernalia, (2) Possession of Marijuana, (1) Drunk in Public & Battery on a Peace Officer, (1) Drunk in Public, (6) Misdemeanor Warrants, (1) Suspended License

The following Tehachapi Police reports were prepared by
Chief of Police Jeff Kermode

Father and son arrested for felony assault

On Friday, Sept. 12, at 4:55 p.m., Tehachapi Police Department officers were dispatched to a report of an injury traffic collision in the 200 block of East J Street. Upon arrival, officers discovered that a 21-year-old Tehachapi man had been hit and injured by a pick up truck.

After interviewing the victim and several witnesses, officers determined that the traffic collision had actually been a felony assault. Juan Ledesma and Andres Juan Ledesma, father and son, had allegedly gone to a residence in the 200 block of East J Street to confront the victim about an incident involving another family member.

While at the residence, the Ledesmas allegedly threatened the victim with a knife and struck him in the head with a shovel before the victim was able to run away.

According to witnesses, one of the Ledesmas then allegedly chased the victim through nearby alleys with a pick up truck before hitting him with the truck near North Davis and J streets. The victim was able to run back toward his home, still being chased by the pick up. The driver allegedly made a second, unsuccessful, attempt to hit the victim with the truck. When the victim returned home, the Ledesmas left the scene in the truck.

While the investigation was still underway at the scene, other TPD officers located the Ledesmas at their home, where they were taken into custody. After being interviewed at the TPD, both father and son were booked into the Kern County Jail in Bakersfield.

The victim was treated at Tehachapi Hospital for complaint of pain to his waist and head.

Arrestees: Juan Ledesma, 57, Tehachapi, Booked at Kern County Jail, Charges: 1 Count of Assault with a Deadly Weapon.
Andres Juan Ledesma, 20, Tehachapi, Booked at Kern County Jail.
Charges: 3 Counts of Assault with a Deadly Weapon.

Tehachapi man arrested on rape charge
On Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 9:52 p.m., Tehachapi Police Department officers were dispatched to a report of a possible rape that had occurred at a residence on East E Street. Upon arrival, officers spoke with the 25-year-old female victim who said that she had been raped earlier that evening by an acquaintance.

Based upon further investigation that night and on the morning of Sept. 11, TPD officers developed probable cause to believe that Adam Jorge Hernandez had forced the victim into sexual acts against her will. TPD officers spent much of Sept. 11 attempting to find Hernandez, finally locating him at about 7:30 p.m. in the 300 block of West C Street, where he was taken into custody on felony charges.

After being interviewed at the TPD, Hernandez was booked into the Kern County Jail in Bakersfield.

Arrestee: Adam Jorge Hernandez, 28, Tehachapi, Booked at Kern County Jail, Charges: 1 Count of Rape by Force or Fear, 1 Count of Sexual Battery.

CHP locates two men wanted for Tehachapi Robbery

On Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 6:41 p.m., California Highway Patrol officers investigating a traffic collision on westbound Highway 58 at Comanche Drive, discovered that the vehicle and persons involved were wanted for a robbery that had occurred in Tehachapi about 30 minutes earlier.

At 6:13 p.m., the Tehachapi Police Department received a report of a “strong arm” robbery that had just occurred at Summit Chevron, at E. Tehachapi Boulevard and Higyway 58. Upon arrival, officers learned that a 27-year-old man from Sun Valley, Calif., had been assaulted and robbed in the gas station bathroom. After the victim had entered the bathroom, two men forced their way inside, knocked the victim to the ground, kicked him in the head, and stole the victim's wallet and wedding ring.

The two men then fled eastbound on Tehachapi Boulevard in a red compact vehicle. Gas station security cameras captured some footage of the suspects and suspect vehicle.

Based upon the information available at the scene, TPD issued an area broadcast with the suspect information. At about 6:41 p.m., a CHP officer monitoring highway construction on Highway 58 near Comanche Drive saw a red Honda Prelude enter the construction zone at 96 mph. The Honda struck a construction worker and went out of control, coming to rest in the eastbound traffic lanes. After approaching the vehicle, the CHP officer recognized that the vehicle and occupants matched the robbery broadcast description and contacted TPD. Tehachapi officers responded to the collision scene and arrested two men for the robbery and assault. The victim's wallet and wedding ring were recovered from the Honda.

The robbery victim was treated at Tehachapi Hospital for minor injuries and released. The 35-year- old highway construction worker was treated for minor leg injuries.

Arrestees: David Allen Young, 32, Lancaster, Booked at Kern County Jail.

Charges: Robbery, Felony Assault, Felony Driving Under the Influence.

Alfie Ashmore, 41, Lancaster, Booked at Kern County Jail.

Charges: Robbery, Felony Assault, Drunk in Public.

Working like dogs to find survivors

Kern County Fire Department Cpt. Danny Solis, of Tehachapi Valley’s hand Crew-81, had just completed his shift for the day when a westbound commuter train collided head-on with an eastbound freight train in the Los Angeles county area last week.

Solis and his Search and Rescue dog, Sandi, are one of the 225 teams currently trained and certified by the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (NDSDF).

Under a mutual aid agreement with the LA County Fire Department, Solis and Sandi were dispatched along with two other K-9 rescue teams, to the scene of the fatal wreck to assist in the search for survivors.

Solis and Sandi boarded Kern County Fire Helicopter 408 in Keene for the flight down to Los Angeles. KCFD Crew Chief Shane Reed was also asked to pick up LA County firefighter Captain Billy Monahan and his S&R dog, Hunter, at Bear Valley Fire Station-16. Monahan and Hunter are both full-time Bear Valley Springs residents. They were joined by a third, LA area team at the scene.

“I’ve been with search dog foundation for 10 years now. We’re the last dog team left in Kern County,” said Solis, who is also a spokesman for the NDSDF.

After nearly 12 hours of searching the twisted train cars for survivors, three teams of cadaver search dogs from the Orange County Sheriffs Department replaced the local K-9 rescue teams.

As of Sept. 17, 26 passengers had been confirmed dead.

“It was one of the most tragic things I’ve seen in 20 years of working in emergency services,” said KCFD Helicopter Crew Chief, Shane Reed.
But the dogs aren’t phased by the carnage, sometimes balancing atop wreckage concealing 8-12-foot chasms of twisted metal and debris below.

Sandi, a 9-year-old, male Border Collie, and his handler have perfected their disaster search routine on numerous local calls, as well as having assisted with rescue efforts following Hurricane Katrina.

“These dogs are rewarded for finding people who are hidden,” Solis said. “They won’t bother with someone standing still. They’ll put a face to the scent and move on to look for a hidden scent of survivors.”

It’s only fitting that Sandi helps to find survivors — because he is one.

“Someone from the Orange County shelter where he had been taken in, called the foundation and they tested him. He was about a day away from being euthanized,” said Solis.

According to the NDSDF, “Guide Dogs and Canine Companion Dogs have a calm and gentle personality. Disaster Search Dogs are asked to perform amazing feats of courage, strength and tenacity, requiring high energy and bold abandon!”

The team were paired up by the Foundation in 2001, after Sandi had completed an initial 6-month training program. The new best friends put another year of training in together before they were certified to work large scale disasters anywhere in nation.

“The best rescue dogs are pretty much the unruly dog. That’s why they go to the pound [to recruit]. Many dogs are given up because of their disposition,” Solis said adding that although the dogs are high energy, they are put through a “battery of tests to try to make sure the dogs are good candidates for search dogs.”

The most important criteria?

“The ability to focus on one thing, and one thing only,” said Solis.

“All he wants to do is search for people. He doesn’t get his feelings hurt working around dead bodies, he just ignores that aspect and keeps searching for survivors,” said Solis.

Their motivation?

Search dogs are rewarded with special toys and playtime. Sandi loves to play with his rubber fire hose.

Finally, when a disaster search dog’s heroic work and the playtime rewards are over, the working dogs are given a well deserved rest.

Although...KCFD Crew Chief Shane Reed noted that Sandi slept peacefully, tethered safely inside the helicopter on both legs of the trip south.

Budget means relief

Tehachapi school cafeterias and the hospital budget will receive financial relief now that the California legislature Friday passed a budget - after a tortuous gestation - that made no one happy.

The legislature did not renew funds to battle drug operations in rural areas.

Twenty-third Assembly District representative Jean Fuller, who voted “no” on the first budget version that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger flatly refused to sign earlier in the week, changed her vote on one of the two revised measures on the table Friday.

According to a spokesperson from Fuller's office following the late-afternoon vote, she was willing to accept technical alterations to the state's rainy day fund, changing her vote to “yes” on that measure.

However, Fuller and the Republican Caucus rejected the amended accelerated revenue collection bill, SB28x.

“The bill still frontloads personal income and estimated payments,” the spokesperson said.

But the amended version was OK with the governor, he said.

“The budget passed. The governor will sign it and it will be enacted,” he said.
Fuller's budget vote included “yes” votes on trailer bills on education, she told the Tehachapi News last week from Bakersfield.

At that time, members of the Assembly were exhausted as they awaited word to return to Sacramento on a three-hour notice. Some of the legislators, she said, had been putting off personal plans during the then 78 days of budget negotiation, including one who was expecting to leave for his own wedding in Greece and another who had surgery scheduled.

The agonizing budget impasse was a result of two sides standing firm, not willing to budge, she said, and negotiations this year were hard.

“It was taxes/no taxes,” she said. “The groups stared at each other until they both blinked. One side said 'no taxes' and the other side said 'more borrowing.' They came up with withholding. Nobody liked it.”

Fuller, chairman of the Rural Caucus, said she fought unsuccessfully for a renewal of the funding that enables rural law enforcement agencies to combat drug operations.

“Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood called me personally about that,” she said.
Fuller said the California legislature found $6 milllion for a “Hydrogen Highway” in Southern California but “There is not $7 million for rural sheriffs to take meth off the streets. We had it last year but it wasn't funded this year.”

Community Close-up: Local resident won’t just walk away

Many people would prefer to just walk away from mental illness. Even many of those among the one out of five families in the US who are affected by mental illness — that’s approximately 760,000 people in Kern County alone.

Almost exactly a year after her young son’s tragic death, Alpine Forest resident Betsy Gillard will walk to help raise awareness and funds for National Alliance on Mental Illness of Kern County at the Oct. 11, NAMI Walks.

“Joe is now deceased but I cannot walk away from the organization that has done so much for us,” said Gillard, who has been involved with Tehachapi’s representatives of NAMI ever since her son started showing signs of mental illness.

“I can state with all honesty that NAMI saved my son by teaching him coping skills and getting him to the resources to help him medically and financially through the difficult years,” Gillard said. “NAMI taught my husband and myself how to cope as well and more importantly, to understand the illness and what Joe was dealing with day-to-day,” said Gillard.

With NAMI’s support, Gillard’s son Joe was making great progress toward managing his illness before he was fatally injured in a car crash last year. She wants to make sure that others like her son have access to these life changing services.

“I just want to raise awareness and funds so that NAMI can continue to grow and help others like my son and my family,” she said.

Gillard said that fear often keeps families from seeking the kind of support that NAMI can provide.

“Because I was so terrified of mental illness, it took me two years just to accept my son’s diagnosis,” said Gillard. “The education and support from NAMI helped us to face our fears and not feel ashamed.”

NAMI Kern County is a grassroots, family and consumer self-help support and advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of people with severe mental illnesses, i.e., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (manic depression), clinical depression, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and PTSD.

“I cannot say enough about this organization. They have created a wonderful service to the community of parents, sons and daughters trying to help a loved one who suffers from mental illness,” said Gillard.

NAMI Walks
Location: Yokuts Park (Truxtun & Empire ) Bakersfield
Date:Oct. 11
Distance: 1 Mile
Check-in: 7:30 a.m.
Start Time:9 a.m.
Pledge your support of NAMI Kern’s local programs today. You’ll be helping to educate and support one of those 760,000 people in Kern County, like Betsy and her son Joe, who are affected by mental illness. Visit www.NAMIkerncounty.com or contact Joanne Martin by email at joanne@joannemartin.net, or by phone at (661)334-1001.

For information on local NAMI services contact Jane at (661) 822-5391.

Hospital Guild equipment fund nears 1/2 million

When the financial bond to build a new Tehachapi Hospital passed in 2002, the volunteer fund-raising Guild of Tehachapi Hospital vowed to raise $250,000 for equipment to install in the facility.

As the project dragged on and recently was stopped and re-started following the dismissal of the design/construction company, the Guild's war chest met the original goal and kept on growing…and growing.

At the Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District board meeting Sept. 17, Guild First Vice President Joan Newman said that recent deposits brought the equipment fund to $460,000.

The Guild has re-calibrated its goal upward to $500,000 by the end of the year.

“Alan would love to see us give a million,” said organization Treasurer Eve Geisler,
speaking of Healthcare District Chief Executive Officer Alan Burgess.

The Guild has reached and surpassed that particular goal, in donations separate from the new hospital equipment fund. Since its founding in 1975, Geisler said, the Guild has donated more than $1 million.

Items the Guild has purchased for the hospital in the past few decades range from bedspreads to a blood gas machine to respiratory equipment, she said.

A current increase in Guild income is the result of an unfortunate correlation, “The funds are mostly from the Guild Thrift Shop,” Geisler said. “We have seen a rise in Thrift Shop sales as the economy has slowed. More people are shopping there.”
Other income arises from raffle ticket sales at the Mountain Festival.

According to Guild President Kandi Smith, the organization has 138 members. Their average age is 70 and, Geisler said, most are women. (“Men are welcome, too.”).

In addition to running the Thrift Shop, Guild members provide vital, regular volunteer help at the hospital.

The Guild employs two men to handle the heavier work at the Thrift Shop and to take care of items in the storage sheds next to the shop at 115 West E Street. The Healthcare District owns the Thrift Shop property. The building, originally a drug store, sits on the corner of West E Street and Green, near restaurants, the museums, the Hitching Post movie theater and the soon-to-open BeeKay Theatre. It is on the same block as the hospital.

In her Guild report at the board meeting, held at the Golden Hills Community Services District building, Newman said new signs are being posted in the thrift shop parking lot.

“There has been trouble in the parking lot at the gift shop,” she said. “There have been kids partying and throwing beer cans around. We are having signs made saying, “No Loitering” in English and Spanish. When the signs are posted, we can ask the Police Department to cruise by.”

The Guild will help present the annual health fair Oct. 4 and will have a booth at the craft fair Nov. 1.

The volunteer organization meets on the first Monday of every month at 10 a.m. at the Community Church on the corner of Green and E streets, diagonally across from the thrift shop.

In other Tehachapi Valley Healthcare District board of directors business, Burgess said that the contract for pharmacist and pharmacy at the hospital received only one bidder, apparently the current contract holder (the bid was to be opened the next day) and “It's pretty pro forma.”

Board member Gary Olsen, M.D., moved to recommend fellow board member and board President Sam Conklin, M.D., to the Kern County Board of Supervisors as the appointee for his own vacant, un-opposed seat on the healthcare board.

The supervisors must approve any appointee before the November election. The board voted for the motion 4-0, Conklin abstaining. Conklin had missed an election filing deadline.

Kiki Nocella, PhD., said the linking of data among providers and healthcare facilities can help in emergency situations, in preventing prescription mistakes and in assessing community health needs. She and board member Kim Horowitz, M.D., - using a hypothetical patient “Don Duck” - illustrated the secure system developed and maintained by the East Kern County Integrated Technology Association (EKCITA) to share patient health information in a confidential manner.

“Even a doctor can do this,” said Horowitz, pointing out elements on the Power Point presentation. It works in real time and involves, he said, “Actual functionality. It's where the rubber hits the road.”

The system, he said, is updated daily.

“That's the accuracy point,” he said.

Healthcare District Chief Financial Officer Joe Demont said that since “In July we made aggressive price changes,” three major payors are paying at higher rates. He said the hospital had been “far underpricing” some services and “We strive to do prices at competitive parity.”

The board gave a go-ahead to Norm Clendenin, project manager for the new Tehachapi Hospital, to authorize a “space programmer” to prepare a study of square footage, equipment needs, the size of rooms and their relationship to each other - that is, Clendenin said, “Looking for what we want to build.”

The study will take two months and cost from $100,000 to $150,000.

Board member Bill Steele said, “Why are we going through this again? I thought we were trying to expedite…when we [already] have this intelligence from the community.”

Horowitz said, “Those [former] plans were based on data that is woefully inadequate.”

Burgess said the jettisoned design/construction company claimed their data was proprietary and there was no way to validate it.

“We have no intermediate steps,” Burgess said. “We do not know how to get to the conclusions they did.”

The board decided to leave the selection of the space programmer to Clendenin.

No quick fix for Valley Boulevard crossing hazard

Advocates for the blind urged the Tehachapi City Council to move quickly to make the section of Valley Boulevard between Tucker and Curry safer for pedestrians.

City council members and staff said street improvements on that part of Valley Boulevard can start in the spring, and that the city - wary of creating new problems on the road -- will not install a temporary fix.

Speaking at the council's Sept. 15 meeting at Veterans Hall, representatives from Kern County's Independent Living Center in Bakersfield and others conveyed the emotion they have experienced since an accident on Aug. 23 seriously injured their legally blind friend Diane Deutsch, 62, and killed her guide dog Aki.

“What is the cost of a stop sign?” asked the living center's Executive Director Lou Lopez several times after challenging council members to explain the city's disposition of more than $1.7 million in special government street, road, bike trail and transit funds from the last three years.

Deutsch, he said, had been active on the board of directors of the center.

“She'd been asking for years for a stop sign,” Lopez said to the Tehachapi News. “It's hard for people who are able-bodied to walk there [the site of the accident.]

A car struck Deutsch and Aki as they crossed Valley Boulevard southbound at Mountain View Avenue. The car, headed westbound into the sun just before 7 p.m., was driven by a l9-year-old local resident who was neither speeding nor reckless, according to police reports. The guide dog, walking in harness on Deutsch's left, took a heavy blow and died later of internal injuries at a veterinary urgent care facility in Bakersfield.

Public speaker Cherrill Gragg said to the council, “We don't have time to wait any more. This needs to be done now.”

Socorro Schmidt said, “There are other people at risk,” pointing out that between Curry and Tucker on Valley Boulevard is a one-mile distance. If you are in the middle, she said, “You have to walk half a mile to get to a cross walk.”

Jimmy Estes said, “Children from the Cherry Lane Apartments cross by the Mexican market, going to Kmart or to the library. The children get halfway in the middle of the street and freeze up. What if it were a mother and child? It's not about money. It's about responsibility to humans, especially old people and children.”

Other speakers were critical of rescue procedures that separated the guide dog and its injured partner as they were treated and transported - a situation, advocates said, that contributed to the dying dog's anxiety and stress as well as Deutsch's.

Tehachapi Mayor Deborah Hand called for a moment of silence for Aki.

“He was a precious member of the community,” she said.

Hand said the city had inherited that former section of State Route 202, calling it “the hodge-podge of a road that goes in and out,” that is now Valley Boulevard.

She said, “We are starting to get funding a little at a time. We do have a plan.”
Councilman Phil Smith said, “No matter how we got the road, we need to take some action.”

But, he said, “We don't want to put in a cross walk and the pedestrians think someone is going to stop. The engineering for a signal at Mountain View and Aspen is complete.”

City Manager Greg Garrett said the city has plans engineered for a three-way offset intersection that will include a signal, widening of the road and through lanes.

A temporary stop sign, he said, “Could potentially create another issue. We want to go forward with a full, safe, signalized intersection.”

He said, “It's a very complex issue. Stopping and not stopping is habit forming.”
Garrett and Tehachapi Police Chief Jeff Kermode took another look at the intersection the morning after the council meeting.

“Jeff Kermode and I went out there to look at the traffic patterns and flow,” Garrett told the Tehachapi News. “There is no interim fix. We will move forward with the designed, fully functional signalized intersection. We'll be moving aggressively in that direction.”

The city will not attempt to align the roads to create a “cross” intersection, he said.

The signal at the offset intersection of Valley Boulevard, Mountain View and Aspen will be unusual, requiring motorists to stop at the first feeder street, far back from the second feeder street coming in on the opposite side, and proceed through the lengthy intersection when the light changes.

“It will be a large, long intersection,” he said.

Garrett said some of the parcels of property involved in the intersection improvement are privately owned, and negotiations with the city are still going on.

'They know he's gone'

Two guide dog pals of the late Aki played on the grass outside Veterans Hall after their humans slipped off the canine harnesses, a sign they could have a few minutes downtime. Golden Retriever Brenda and Golden Lab Ubanks had attended the Sept. 15 Tehachapi City Council meeting with their humans.

Jimmy Estes, who had known Aki since the young dog arrived in Tehachapi as a fresh graduate of Guide Dogs for the Blind training school, watched the dogs romp.

Something was amiss.

“They know he's gone,” Estes said.

Diane Deutsch, who is undergoing rehabilitation therapy for her injuries in the Aug. 23 accident that killed her guide dog, was partnered with Aki 2 _ years ago.

The outspoken Deutsch, 62, had been a reading specialist at the California Correctional Institution for 17 years until a mysterious retinal malady slowly stole her vision. Her sight began to deteriorate in 2001. She drove until early 2003, and she had to retire in 2004.

After training with Aki at the Guide Dogs for the Blind school at San Rafael, the two graduated as partners on March 11, 2006.

Aki gave her the power and freedom to be part of the world again.

“I would tell him where we were going and he would take me there,” she said. “He knew where everything was.”

At the time of the accident, Deutsch was close to completing a course at the Pain Management Institute in Bakersfield as a massage practitioner.

She and Aki would leave her home on Beech Street every day at 5:30 a.m. and cross Valley Boulevard to catch the Kern Regional Transit bus in front of Kmart for a ride to Bakersfield's GET downtown transit center. From there they would catch a bus to Valley Plaza, where they would take bus No. 11 to Ming and Stine, where they would walk another half mile to the school.

After class, they would retrace their steps to return home to Tehachapi by 3:30 p.m.

“We've been doing it since June,” Deutsch said. “We would cross Valley Boulevard twice a day.”

Deutsch and Aki were a team.

“He was part of me,” she said. “It was like losing my left arm [the arm that held Aki's harness]. It was like losing my sight all over again. Having a dog makes you free. It makes you independent. I can't go anywhere alone.”

Deutsch said she met with the young man who struck them that day as they crossed Valley Boulevard on their way home from mass at St. Malachy's Catholic Church. He was driving into the sun and, the police concluded, was not speeding. Afterwards, his grandfather sought out Deutsch because the distraught college student wanted to talk to her.

“He said he saw silhouettes that shouldn't be there and hit the brakes,” she said.

“Alex [Hughes, 19] is a really nice, nice kid,” Deutsch said. “We spent two and a half hours together Friday [after the accident]. He bought sunglasses.”

Deutsch is not so sanguine about her long-time hometown.

“I am not sure I want to continue living in Tehachapi,” she said from her son and daughter-in-law's house in Sacramento, where she welcomed a new granddaughter Sept. 16. “I don't feel safe there.”

After the accident, she said, “He’d lay on top of me. He was lost without me.”

Deutsch, under sedation, was not exactly sure what happened then.

Her injuries, including head trauma, were serious enough to evacuate her by medical helicopter to Kern Medical Center. At that point she became separated from Aki, who - no one realized - was fatally injured but mobile. He showed no outward sign of trauma but was bleeding to death inside.

“He was walking around the police station. All I know is what I've been told. I remember waking and asking for Aki. I wasn't coherent enough to tell them I needed Aki.”

The dog -- trained to put the welfare of its human above all else -was looking frantically for Deutsch.

Estes said, “For the most part people thought he was just a dog. They did not know how important it is to be a guide dog.”

A police officer called urgent care veterinarian Cindy Holloway, who drove up from Bakersfield to pick up Aki.

Estes drove to the animal urgent care center with a mutual friend Robin Woodhouse of Bear Valley Springs.

“We spent a few minutes with Aki,” Estes said. “He was fading so fast. I got to lay down in the kennel with him.”

Estes said Aki used to grab his baseball cap “and run around like a little horse.” When the veterinarian staff was preparing to take the dog to surgery, Estes put his baseball cap under Aki's head.

“He could smell the baseball cap. He could smell me and Diane on it.”
Estes said they all knew there was not much chance that Aki would make it. Estes and Woodhouse said goodbye to Aki.

Deutsch can't talk for long about Aki without choking up.

But she is looking forward to qualifying to get another guide dog, perhaps a Yellow Lab like Aki. They are not easy to come by, and are valuable - each is worth about $86,000 - and although they are lifelong companions for their humans, they remain the property of Guide Dogs for the Blind.

“Theoretically we should have been able to work together for 10 years,” Deutsch said. “We were together two and a half years.”

Only 60 percent of the dogs who begin the rigorous training graduate to become guide dogs, she said.

“They are the smartest of the smart and the most intelligent dogs there are.”
Aki, she said, “Was a part of me. My best friend. There will never be another like him.”

County keeps custody of seized cats and dogs

Kern County Animal Control officers will control the care of more than 40 cats and dogs they seized from accused animal abuser Anita Gilbert.

Superior Court Commissioner Linda Etienne on Tuesday denied a request from Gilbert, made through her attorney Clayton Campbell, to bar Kern County Animal Control from killing any more of her animals.

Campbell argued that the county has a history of putting down large numbers of animals in their care and that it should be required to consult with a veterinarian of Gilbert’s choosing before fatally injecting her animals.

Since animal officers took 33 cats and 18 dogs from Gilbert on July 16, only four cats have been euthanized, said Animal Control Director Guy Shaw.

Two were put down on the day of the raid and the other two have been put to sleep over the last two months.

Campbell said Gilbert’s lawsuit against the county will continue. She is asking the court to force Kern County to release all her pets to an animal rescue group.

“I’m just pleased to see the court granted the preliminary injunction,” county attorney Charles Collins said.

Gilbert, who is on the run from two felony warrants for her arrest, has said she will turn herself in if the county releases her animals to a Lompoc rescue group called VIVA.

But VIVA founder and treasurer Shirley Cram said in an interview this week that VIVA has repeatedly told Gilbert it could not take her animals.

“It’s kitten season. Our shelter is full,” Cram said. “My sympathy is with the animals.”

Cram said the signature of VIVA President Gwen Francis on a declaration promising that the rescue would take Gilbert’s animals was forged.

Cram also said she has never heard of Kim Maggio, a Frazier Park rescuer who appeared in court as a representative of VIVA, and asked the court to release Gilbert’s animals to the Lompoc rescue.

Maggio said she is a volunteer for VIVA and was acting on behalf of the rescue.

Hooks Anderson, Master Woodworker

One of the most unique and talented men that the Tehachapi Valley will ever know left us at 10 a.m. on Friday morning when Hooks Anderson, 91, died peacefully in his chair at home with loved ones close beside him. Hooks had recently had heart surgery and succumbed due to complications.

Services will be held at Woods Family Funeral Home on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 11 a.m. with viewing from 5-7 p.m. the preceeding day.

Both Hooks and Tootie, his wife of 71 years, grew up in Tehachapi and raised their ever-expanding family here. Their given names are Lester and Leatta, but most people know them as Hooks and Tootie and to many of us they are Nana and Papa.

Hooks grew up dirt poor and like many impoverished Americans from the early part of the 20th century he learned to work hard and be self-sufficient. But he didn’t stop there — with his innate talents and observant mind Hooks was able to excel in so many different areas of life. He was a successful gardener, a fantastic cook, a master mechanic, a skilled welder, a keen fisherman and hunter, was good at carpentry, plumbing, painting, electrical wiring. . . . the list goes on and on.

But the finest work he did with his hands was evident when he worked with his favorite material: wood. Hooks was a master woodworker with a deep and abiding love for many kinds of trees and the wood that they produced. Ponderosa Pine, Valley Oak, Incense Cedar, Black Walnut, White Fir and others were transformed into beautiful and useful objects with Hooks’ patient skill.

Everything from clocks and furniture to totem poles and Native American flutes were born in Hooks’ humble woodshop that he built in the old garage at he and Tootie’s home on Cherry Lane.

The smell of fresh sawdust and the sight of newly-created wooden objects greeted me and other friends and family members who stopped by. My visits with Hooks almost always started in the woodshop because I was anxious to see what he had finished most recently.

When he was a boy, Hooks used to ride a yellow mare to school sometimes — in those days Tehachapi Elementary School actually had a small corral where kids who rode to school could leave their horses while they attended class.

At an early age, Hooks met Tootie, the love of his life. He took an old pair of English riding boots with fine quality dark leather and he cut the boots into leather thongs, which he then square-braided into beautiful supple reins as a present for Tootie. At the time, he was seventeen and she was fifteen.

Such was his affection for her that he walked — that’s right, walked — all the way from Tehachapi to Johannesburg on the desert to see her. He would also help Tootie’s mother, Ola Mae, cook dinner until one of the kids spotted her father, who didn’t approve of Hooks, as he returned home from working in the mines. Then Hooks would have to run out the back door.

Hooks and Tootie eloped with the help of Hooks’ uncle and aunt, Brick and Laura Jones. Grandpa Ford eventually came to realize what a great decision Tootie had made when she married Hooks.

As I mentioned earlier, Hooks was a worker and he didn’t know how to be lazy. He worked harder as a boy than most guys will as men. He used to hand dig cesspools (also called dry wells) around Tehachapi for $1 a foot. These were square holes that were typically 5-foot by 5-foot or 8-foot by 8-foot. When he reached ten feet deep Hooks would raise his price to $1.50 because he could no longer throw the dirt out with a shovel, he had to use a windlass and a bucket to get the dirt out of the hole.

The deepest one he dug was for a Tehachapi judge, Ferd Snyder, and Hooks dug that one 45 feet deep, with Hooks down in that unreinforced shaft digging with a shovel and bar while a friend on top worked the windlass bucket. Hooks was only 16 years old at the time.

Hooks went to work for the Monolith Portland Cement Company and spent over 40 years there, retiring as a repair foreman. His knowledge of many different mechanical skills served him well at the plant.

Hooks had a very playful side to his nature and he and Tootie often hosted gatherings of family and friends. On the 4th of July, two days after his birthday, Hooks used to don his bathing suit, run off the diving board and jump into the air firing two black powder pistols he had made, and then plunge into the swimming pool he made and concreted using cement sweepings from Monolith.

I was glad when Papa retired from Monolith because then we had him on Cherry Lane all the time. My own grandfathers were both gone before I was six months old, and Hooks was the only I grandpa I knew. As our closest neighbors, Hooks and Tootie were always among my family’s dearest friends and their grandkids are cousins to me.

Hooks has been the single most influential person in my life. He not only taught me many practical life skills and how to use tools, but I also learned to have confidence and strive for high standards in the things I make or do.

With little formal education, Hooks was able to learn and be good at so many different things. He was an astute observer of the natural world who knew weather, where different birds were nesting, when the trees leafed out early or late, how much good the last rain had done, etc. We formed a permanent bond based on a shared love of the outdoors and the joys of being creative.

Many people stopped by Hooks and Tootie’s place to get advice or help on a project from Hooks. He was like the Wizard of Cherry Lane, who could cut the riflings inside the barrel of a black powder gun, tan buckskin, rebuild an engine, make a lamp, put up jars of pickles and a hundred other skills.

Hooks spent the summer of his 75th year building a small sawmill from scratch, using his own design. At a time when most people have long since retired, given up and geared down, Hooks was cutting steel, welding, fabricating and painting a sawmill capable of cutting logs ten feet long and four feet in diameter.

He then logged insect-killed trees from his property in the mountains south of town and milled them into lumber, which he then used for his many woodworking projects. He also carved cedar trees from the Benz family’s Cedar Canyon Ranch into totem poles, two of which he donated to Tehachapi High School.

I’ve left so much out but I hope it’s now plain that Hooks Anderson was an amazing, incredibly knowledgeable and inspirational Tehachapi man. He loved his country, his home, his friends and most of all his family. Even at 91 he never became irrelevant or stuck in the past. He still worked nearly every day and his sharp mind and clear memory were intact.

Papa had a special fondness for babies and children and his ready grin put them at ease. Generations of little kids have looked forward to going to Nana and Papa’s on Cherry Lane and as you were leaving Hooks would always call out his familiar farewell greeting: “Come back.”

So now despite knowing that Hooks lived a full, exceptionally long life and passed away peacefully in his own beloved home, the tears streaming down my face right now tell me that we weren’t prepared to live in a world without him and I want to say “Come back, Papa.”

Thank you to Hooks Anderson for gifts beyond measure and the lessons of your beautiful life.

Captions:

Hooks and his cherished 1935 Chevy truck, which he and Tootie bought new here in Tehachapi and still have to this day.