The state of the county
A capacity crowd was on hand Jan. 25 as Second District Supervisor Zack Scrivner, Chairman of the Kern County Board of Supervisors, delivered the annual State of the County Address.
The 14th annual "State of the County" event, presented by the Kern County Board of Trade and sponsored by Rio Tinto Minerals, was held at Bakersfield's Marriott Hotel at the Convention Center before a capacity crowd more than 400 political and economic leaders gathered from across the county. Dave Hook, Interim Executive Director of the Board of Trade, served as master of ceremonies.
The text of Chairman Scrivner's remarks follows:
2012 State of the County Address
By Zack Scrivner, Chairman
Kern County Board of Supervisors
Every year, we take a moment to assess where we stand and where we're headed as a county. As county supervisors, we're concerned not just with governing the county but with our broader charge to help make Kern County the best possible place for us all to live and work.
With our diverse geography and natural resources, our challenge is to make the most of these advantages while looking for new opportunities to move forward. As Second District Supervisor, I am a little biased about where I see many of Kern's opportunities coming from, and I'd like to mention some of them tonight.
East Kern
For decades, Borax - now Rio Tinto - was the name that most people identified with the Mojave Desert. But then someone lifted his gaze from the minerals below to the pristine desert sky above and realized this was a perfect place to fly airplanes. I'm proud of the national history of flight that has unfolded over the past 75 years out on the desert of East Kern. That legacy began in Mojave with a Marine training airstrip that opened in 1935. Today, we know it as the Mojave Air and Space Port.
Currently home to more than 60 companies engaged in everything from flight development to light industry to highly advanced aerospace design, flight testing and research, and even heavy rail equipment manufacturing, the Mojave Air and Space Port and industrial park is unique.
Its runway can handle the biggest aircraft flying today or in the future. In 2004, it became the only private airport in the U.S. with an official commercial spaceflight license. It hosts a huge range of aerospace activities, from rockets to spaceships, to civilian aircraft.
Mojave is also home to the National Test Pilot School where more test pilots are educated than anywhere else in the world.
The airport is also seeking diverse industries that can take advantage of its unique location. It lies beneath a wide-open airspace, at the hub of California's renewable energy industry, and near a major railroad. With this kind of access, it has become a materials and equipment hub for the area’s rapidly growing wind industry.
When you look at wind turbines, it's no mystery why wind and aviation complement each other. Both rely heavily on composite fabrication using carbon fiber and fiberglass technology- and both reside at Mojave Air and Space Port.
Lots of airports try to attract industry, but what has always made Mojave unique is the value it places on flight research and testing. As one aerospace pioneer put it, Mojave is the world center of odd-looking airplanes that do amazing things. Airplanes like Voyager and Spaceship One, which put Mojave on the international map a few years ago.
These amazing aircraft are the forerunners of more innovation, and there is always something new happening out in Mojave. The next big thing - and I do mean big- will be an aircraft designed to launch a large space vehicle into low earth orbit. Working with Stratolaunch Systems, Bert Rutan is building the largest aircraft ever, a giant plane powered by six 747 engines with a wingspan over 380 feet. It will be built at the Mojave Air and Space Port, which has one of the few runways long enough to accommodate this mammoth aircraft, and it will operate from a spaceport.
The airport recorded another milestone last year when it hosted the first meeting of the Kern County Board of Supervisors outside of the county seat. All five county supervisors toured the future home of the Stratolaunch aircraft and we learned about other exciting projects that will help our economy to grow and diversify.
Road work
One of the best ways for the county to help grow our economy is to build a transportation system that speeds the flow of goods and people within Kern County and to major markets elsewhere.
In 2011, the roads department completed a 10-year project to widen and grade separate Seventh Standard Road from the airport to west of Santa Fe Way, creating a transportation corridor that should have excess capacity for the next 30 years. The next step, of course, will be to find the local, state, and federal funds to push these improvements all the way to Interstate 5.
Construction got started on the Hageman - Allen - Santa Fe Way grade separation. When it's finished next year, a major traffic artery will open to the northwest Bakersfield area, eliminating a very dangerous rail crossing that was also a huge bottleneck.
2011 also saw most of the remaining County road bond projects completed on time and under budget. We addressed several long standing problems from Mojave to Edison, Oildale, and Holloway Road, making for a much safer system of roadways heading into 2012.
For all of these projects, I want to offer my thanks to the Roads Department and its director, Craig Pope. Craig, your people are doing a fantastic job.
The county also made progress on some other public works projects last year. We completed Phase 1 of Oildale streetscaping that will enhance North Chester Avenue with green belts, pathways, benches, and streetlights above Norris Road. We used federal energy funds to install solar panels at the Administrative Center and Lerdo Jail to save taxpayer money on our utility bills.
And we finally cut the ribbon on a beautiful new library at Frazier Park; and broke ground on the new Camp Owen mess hall, and on Fire Station 65 in northwest Bakersfield.
Wind and solar
One of the most exciting building programs in 2012 will be the wind and solar projects that are helping to make Kern County the energy capital of California.
Last February the Board of Supervisors adopted an ambitious renewable energy goal of having 10,000 megawatts in production by 2015. When this goal is achieved, it will have created 8,000 construction jobs, 1500 operational jobs, $25 billion in new investment, and $150 million in new property tax revenue for Kern County. These projects will generate enough power for over seven million people.
We're ahead of schedule on meeting that goal. In 2011 we approved an additional 1,333 megawatts of wind-generated electricity and 1,570 megawatts of solar photovoltaic electricity.
With our very productive 2011, Kern County has now approved over 7,000 megawatts of solar and wind projects throughout the county with 3,900 megawatts now online. For renewable energy, 2012 will be a year of building as approved projects move into the permitting phase and begin construction during the summer and into next year.
Construction has continued on existing wind turbines, 306 turbines were permitted and constructed in 2011, and several new solar projects totaling more than $5 billion in potential investment are also on the drawing boards. The largest of these, Maricopa Sun, would place 1,000 megawatts online upon its completion. Maricopa Sun is going through the final stages of environmental permitting and we hope it will begin construction this summer.
Even with the Southern California Edison Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project nearing completion, we're doing such a good job of developing renewable power that we could very well face transmission constraints as our largest wind and solar projects come online over the next few years.
To get ahead of this curve, Kern County is partnering with the cities of Lancaster and Pittsburg, Calif., to develop a new 2100 megawatt transmission line to carry electrical output from eastern Kern County's wind and solar generating facilities.
To ensure a minimal footprint on the desert, the line will be built underground. Under the newly-formed High Desert Power Authority, this line would benefit Edwards Air Force Base and could eventually serve as the platform to expand transmission into the Ridgecrest area and Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.
Jobs
The county recognizes that these economic projects carry other impacts, so we have pre-zoned areas away from residential development where wind and solar projects will have less visual and traffic impact. And when we consider these projects, we understand that we need to balance the competing needs of new development with the rights of neighboring landowners and the need to preserve prime farmland.
But as Supervisors, we also know that the best social program is a job, and we need jobs in Kern County. The close of 2011 brought some welcome news on that front.
Bakersfield ranked fourth nationally among cities in the rate of new jobs created between November 2010 and October 2011. Bakersfield saw an increase of 6,613 jobs over the past year, up almost five percent.
Strong prices for many crops propelled Kern County agriculture to another great year. We kept our spot as the third-ranking farm county in the nation and improved on our 2010 crop value of more than $4.7 billion.
Construction employment in Kern County rose seven percent between October 2010 and October 2011 as Kern gained 800 construction jobs. That seven percent gain was the second largest gain among California metro areas, topped only by San Jose. We ranked 32nd nationally among 337 metropolitan areas. Nationwide, nearly 150 metro areas lost construction jobs, so we're heading in the right direction.
When we do turn the corner, our board wants to make sure that county services follow.
During these past three and a half years of layoffs, restricted hiring, and restricted purchasing, our departments have done just about everything possible to keep the impacts from hurting service to the public. Budgeting austerity and outstanding management have resulted in carryover balances to enable us to build on preceding years' budgets.
That, together with continued strong oil prices, has yielded sufficient revsuperiority anywhere in the world.
In addition, China Lake and Edwards employ thousands of people and comprise about 80 percent of the local economy of eastern Kern County. They've contributed some critical advances in national defense and aerospace over the decades, and they are far from finished. I'm proud that the Second District is home to one of them.
Edwards is the second largest base in the Air Force, employing over 10,000 military, federal civilian and contract personnel.
The Air Force Flight Test Center conducts research and flight testing on all Air Force aircraft. The Dryden Flight Research Center does the same for NASA.
Top priority at Edwards right now is testing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It's going to be a workhorse for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, so getting this aircraft problem-free and combat-ready is a critical mission.
The Global Observer unmanned aircraft system has completed its first flight powered by the aircraft's hydrogen-fueled propulsion system. This milestone marked the beginning of high altitude, long endurance flight testing for this program.
The Dryden Flight Research Center has been at the heart of Edwards' long reputation for innovation in flight, and last year marked the end of Edwards' nearly 40 years of involvement in the Space Shuttle program.
But Dryden is about looking ahead, and it's already playing an integral role in developing the next-generation spacecraft that will replace the Space Shuttle, the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.
Dryden is also testing the Mars Rover’s Landing Radar for a planned NASA mission. They do it by flying FA-18 jets mounted with the radar in a series of controlled dives straight toward the ground to simulate what the Rover’s radar might see when it enters Mars' atmosphere for a landing.
Unmanned aircraft that can be remotely flown by skilled operators located safely within our own borders are expected to play a growing role in military aviation, and Dryden is testing both the Phantom Ray, a fighter-size unmanned aircraft, and the Phantom Eye, an unmanned, hydrogen-powered, high-altitude, long-range aircraft.
I also want to highlight the role the Naval Air Warfare Center at China Lake has played in defending our nation since World War II. All aerial weapons deployed by the Navy since then, as well as other weaponry and countless advanced combat aircraft, have been developed and tested at China Lake.
Some of the base's current R & D efforts are focused on electronic warfare systems, rocket propulsion systems, and projects to defeat chemical and biological weapon attacks. It's also developing munitions for unmanned aerial vehicles including the Global Hawk, Predator and Scan Eagle. On the ground, they're developing countermeasures to combat the threat to our troops of improvised explosive devices that emerged in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Edwards and China Lake continue to write new history each day, just like the rest of Kern County. We have always been a can-do kind of place, and it goes back to making the most of what you have. When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. If the wind blows all the time and the sun beats down, you make electricity. If cotton prices go south, you plant pistachios.
And if the county budget is tight, you find new ways to get the job done.
Fiscal austerity
As we look ahead, I won't deny that 2012 is filled with challenges and with sacrifice for County government. We will again ask our employees to do more with the same, or with even fewer resources. We may need to ask our customers for greater patience until we have the money to put service levels back where we know they should be. And we will all watch hopefully for signs that Sacramento can mend its ways so Californians can get back to work again.
I believe we can meet these challenges if we're responsible with our county finances, if we stay on a path of fiscal austerity, and if we remember that above all, we are here to serve.
