The Kern County Sheriff’s Office in eastern Kern County will receive some new equipment, including two new drones, courtesy of a donation from a solar company with operations near Mojave.
“Patrol’s going to benefit from this donation,” Chief Deputy David Kessler said during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. “It’s going to bring proactive tools out into the eastern Kern area that allows us to search infrastructure very quickly and efficiently with this new technology.”
The drones are part of a donation from Terra-Gen, a New York-based renewable energy company with a massive solar array, part of which sprawls onto Edwards Air Force Base.
The donation was the only item on the supervisors’ action agenda Tuesday morning.
Terra-Gen’s donation of two drones, four ballistic shields and other miscellaneous equipment was valued at $82,489.
Simon Day, Terra-Gen’s head of solar development, said the company employs more than 120 people at its facility in Mojave.
“Our company and staff are very appreciative of the stellar work of the east Kern police department and we are pleased to provide this in-kind donation for public safety equipment,” Day said at the meeting.
The only other item supervisors took action on Tuesday was a motion from District 1 Supervisor Phillip Peters concerning growing numbers of gray wolves in California and their threat to livestock.
Peters asked staff to draft a motion affirming the county’s support for livestock producers and opposing the establishment of further wolf packs in the county. He also asked that the motion include language that Kern County be included in future conservation plans.
“This resolution would send a clear message that we support conservation but not at the expense of the rural economy, public safety or the families that have depended on ranching for generations,” Peters said.
The motion passed unanimously.
According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, a pack of gray wolves known as the Yowlumni Pack has its home range in eastern Tulare County and includes the lands of the Tule River Tribe.