12 Acre Park in Lebec, New Sheriff, Fire and Library Facilities Among Projects
By Gary Meyer
A sweeping plan for 11 new and replacement facilities in the Mountain Communities will be presented by the Kern County Resource Management Agency (RMA) on Monday, July 30 in the Frazier Mountain Park Community Center at 6:30 p.m.
The public is requested to attend and offer input on the county’s Revised Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), which is available at www. MountainEnterprise.com [under Community FYI in the left column]. The plan proposes $48 million worth of local area improvements to meet the infrastructure needs brought on by developments planned in Lebec.
Fire Stations
Two new fire stations are planned for Tejon Mountain Village at a cost of $10,068,000. [to be removed from plan, see update at top of page]
A new fire station for Frazier Park Estates, at a cost of $3,924,000, is proposed to replace the existing Station 56 in Lebec, which would be closed.
Pine Mountain’s Station 58 is to be replaced at a cost of $3,097,000 and Frazier Park’s Station 57 replaced at a cost of $2,947,000.
Sheriff’s Substations
A new Sheriff’s substation is proposed for Tejon Mountain Village at a cost of $3,358,900.
A new Sheriff’s substation in Frazier Park would be built on county owned land at a cost of $3,200,900 and the existing substation would be closed.
Libraries
A new 10,800 square foot library would be built in Tejon Mountain Village at a cost of $7,463,900. [to be removed from plan, see update at top of page]
The new library already scheduled to replace the existing Frazier Park facility will be 10,000 square feet at a building cost of $5,449,200.
Public Health Facility
A 3,200 square foot public health facility is proposed to provide medical and preventive health care services, to be built on county-owned land in Frazier Park at a cost of $1,450,200.
General Government Facility
At a cost of $1,820,000, a general government facility is planned to house board of supervisors, assessor, recorder, county clerk/elections, treasurer/ tax collector, general services, information technology, environmental health and personnel. The planned facilities will provide additional office space, maintenance space, storage space and land to accommodate future general government needs.
Public Park
A 12 acre park is planned for Lebec at a cost of $5,394,400. According to the draft plan, the park "will include a community building (assumed to be 4,000 square feet) with a commercial kitchen, one dining room, a lobby, and two meeting rooms. The park will also have a restroom, a playground, lighted basketball courts, a picnic shelter, parking lot and open fields with trees and turf."
Resource Management Agency personnel will present the proposed plan and ask for the public’s comments and questions.
Asked whether this Capital Improvement Plan is connected in any way with the Kern Council of Governments (KCOG) workshop last April, in which community members played "planning games" to provide survey numbers for planning to the year 2050, Resource Management Agency’s Special Projects Manager Tina Burke said, "We used some data from Kern COG, but this is not their project."
Burke urges the public to attend and participate.
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UPDATE: This report, published in The Mountain Enterprise on July 27, was based on information provided by the Resource Management Agency (RMA) in their Draft Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The RMA’s Special Projects Coordinator Tina Burke has since indicated two significant items that will be removed from the Draft CIP and, therefore, should be noted as you read the article above. Here is an excerpt from her email:
"…since the CIP development projections are based on
currently adopted projects/plans, you should know that some of the
facilities in the Draft CIP will be removed from the Final document
proposed to the Board because they did not meet that criteria. These
facilities are:
Category: Fire
* Tejon Mountain Village, two new stations.
Category: Library
* Tejon Mountain Village, new branch."
Removal of these items from the plan effectively reduces the dollar amount of improvements in the CIP for the Mountain Communities to just under $31,000,000. It is possible, however, that these items could again appear as capital improvements in the future, since they involve projects which hold a possibility for approval.
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WHAT: $48 Million Capital Improvements Meeting.
WHEN: Monday, July 30, 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Frazier Mountain Park Community Center.
WHY: To give public input on proposed construction of county facilities.
READ: Full Draft CIP at www.MountainEnterprise.com [under Community FYI section in left column].
This is part of the July 27, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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