By Patric Hedlund

On Tuesday, Dec. 4 the long-awaited Pine Mountain fire station was nudged a little closer to becoming a reality.

The Kern County Board of Supervisors met in the afternoon "to agree in concept" to a plan to issue bonds for a list of capital improvements and road projects targeted as essential by the county.

District 4 Supervisor Ray Watson referred to the bond plan in an editorial meeting with The Mountain Enterprise on Friday, Dec. 7. [That interview, about the incumbent’s candidacy for another four-year term, will be published in the coming week.]

On Monday, Dec. 10, Leigh Ann Cook, a community liaison in Watson’s office, provided background information about what was termed "a bonding against general fund dollars" for two fire stations (Pine Mountain and Green Acres in Bakersfield), improvements to a county jail facility, a new information center for Kern County and several road projects. The maximum bond, according to the background report, is for $212 million.

The anticipated budget for the fire station that the Pine Mountain community has been seeking for nearly thirty years is about $3.2 million.

"In January the board plans to reconvene to examine more specific figures and to vote on the final plan," Cook said.

This is part of the December 14, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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