At the May 28 meeting of the Rotary Club of Tehachapi, the club heard an interesting update from Kern County Supervisor Chris Parlier.<\/p>\n
Parlier was elected to represent Kern County, District 2 on the Kern County Board of Supervisors, and was sworn into office on Dec. 17, 2024. He previously served for eight years on the Bakersfield City Council, two of which he served as vice mayor.<\/p>\n
He is an honorably retired special agent with the California Department of Justice and a veteran of the United States Air Force.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Suzie Bervel shared a few interesting facts about Parlier, who prefers to be called \u201cChris\u201d instead of \u201csupervisor\u201d: 1) District 2 is huge geographically and makes up almost half the county\u2019s 8,000 square miles. 2) District 2 is bigger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. 3) During his first month in office, he put 1,300 miles on his truck.<\/p>\n
Parlier began his presentation by saying that last year was the largest budget for the county, totaling $4.5 billion. His priorities have always been public safety, especially given that he is a retired law enforcement officer. He also believes in the improvement of quality of life for all communities, road improvements and economic development.<\/p>\n
He called Tehachapi \u201cthe jewel of District 2.\u201d<\/p>\n
District 2 covers almost 3,700 square miles, encompassing the communities of Tehachapi, California City, Rosamond, Boron, Mojave, Taft, Maricopa, Frazier Park and parts of Bakersfield. Parlier sees Tehachapi as the \u201chub of East Kern\u201d due to its strategic location connecting mountain, desert and valley communities.<\/p>\n
It is a growing center for logistics, rail and clean energy, and the county has strong partnerships with city of Tehachapi leadership and the business community. He further said that Tehachapi is a key access point to regional healthcare, public safety and workforce housing, and serves as a model for rural innovation and quality of life.<\/p>\n
Parlier stressed that economic development is important, and that Kern County is \u201copen for business and strategically located.\u201d District 2 has demonstrated tangible results in business development and adding jobs in east Kern. He is concerned that state overreach has a negative impact in Kern County, so the county must prioritize protecting taxpayer dollars and continue to leverage strong relationships and strategize.<\/p>\n
Parlier is committed staying engaged with small communities and discussed the steps he has taken to stay connected in Tehachapi. He holds monthly Tehachapi Common Interest meetings to stay in touch with city leadership, county agencies and all the government entities in the area. He has supported various community functions, like Cheers to Charity, the Fishing Derby, Apple Festival and the Tehachapi Arts Commission.<\/p>\n
He also sponsored two local Tehachapi police officers to attend and receive specialized narcotics training at a national conference on how to write search warrants and handle drug-related issues.<\/p>\n
Parlier also talked about holding a community meeting in Caliente, which was attended by 85 residents, to learn about their needs. In addition to getting a resident deputy into the community, he learned there were no mileage markers along the roadways. This can create delays when there is an accident or incident in the community. He worked to get mileage markers installed and also has worked to improve communications by getting Starlink to the community for emergency services.<\/p>\n
Parlier also discussed some actions the county has taken to improve public safety. The county purchased a new fire helicopter for east Kern that can be used for both firefighting and rescue. He also has advocated for improvements in the communities that included strategizing with law enforcement, code enforcement and fire personnel, as well as enhancing community policing by expanding patrols.<\/p>\n
Another focus has been leveraging technology for crime prevention, and he showed some video footage of new drone technologies. Drones can be deployed quickly and in areas that are difficult for traditional vehicles to access. This enables first responders to determine where to set up triage pads and medical service, which is life-saving. He said these drones can also be used with wildfires to quickly and safely detect hotspots without fire crews manually traversing burned areas.<\/p>\n
Parlier also briefly discussed the benefits of Flock camera technology. On the day it was activated in Kern County, law enforcement was able to find a child who had been abducted within an hour, as well as detect multiple stolen vehicles. Flock cameras have now been installed in Tehachapi, California City, Rosamond and Mojave.<\/p>\n
Parlier closed out his presentation by sharing how to report a problem. The best way is to download the MyKern App, where a citizen can report graffiti, potholes, safety concerns, basically any issue, and that is the quickest way to get a response. Other options include calling his office directly or locating the appropriate place to report a problem on the Kern County website.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To thank Supervisor Parlier for his presentation, President Suzie Andreas-Bervel presented him with a certificate, and a donation will be made to the Rotary Foundation in his honor. The Tehachapi Rotary Club meets at noon every Thursday at Kelcy\u2019s, and can be found on Facebook at http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RotaryClubofTehachapi\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n Suzie Andreas-Bervel is president of Rotary Club of Tehachapi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the May 28 meeting of the Rotary Club of Tehachapi, the club heard an interesting update from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,7,735],"class_list":["post-350453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-california","tag-kern-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}