Tehachapi News

larger view

A short stretch of Commercial Street in Old Towne that begins at Santa Lucia Street, crosses South Street, and until recently stopped several hundred feet short of Woodford-Tehachapi Road - much to the consternation of area businesses and shoppers - has finally been finished.

“It's easier to come in and out now,” said Art Schaefer, owner of Ranch Supply, which is located at the corner of Commercial and South streets. “We lost business in this area because of it.”

The new access also has created an easier, safer way to exit Highway 202.
Schaefer said the effort to finish off the short stretch of road, which passes through one contiguous parcel, began long ago.

“We've been working with the county for eight years to get this accomplished and they finally got it done,” Schaefer said.  It took a petition, a Chamber of Commerce committee and a political push, he said, saying Kern County Supervisor Don Maben “is the hero involved.”

Maben said he started working on the project four years ago.

Maben declared that the road “makes a whale of a difference. You don't have to fight to get onto 202 anymore.”

The county resorted to exercising prescriptive rights to build the short portion of Commercial Street, he said.

The absentee owners of the property, Maben said, “would never respond.”

People have driven across the property on a makeshift dirt road for years, he said, opening the owners to prescriptive loss. If a property is used by the public without objection by the owners over a period of time, it becomes a right, he said.

The county engineered the road, graded it, smoothed out what used to be a dropoff at Woodford-Tehachapi Road and installed base and pavement. The construction took six weeks.

The cost, Maben said, was $85,000.00.

“And it came in a little under budget. It was a nice fix. I love those kinds of projects. The people benefit.”