Former county department head Dave Price dies, Campbell Soups sells Bolthouse Farms, cleaner air leads to fewer "fog days" in Kern County and spring in Bakersfield ...

 Monday, April 15, 2019

 Welcome to Bakersfield Observed. Our mission is to celebrate life in Kern County by focusing on newsmakers and events and the local characters who make this such a special to live. Send your tips to rsbeene@yahoo.com.

 * ... DAVE PRICE: RIP to Dave Price, one of the great citizens of our community who died last

Thursday at his Tennessee retirement home. Price retired as director of the county Resources Management Agency and left California for Kingsport, Tennessee, where his jovial manner and quick wit quickly endeared him to the locals. I knew Dave well and was proud to call him a friend, as did many. His wife, Liz, said he died of a cardiac event.

 * ... BOLTHOUSE: Bolthouse Farms, one of Kern County's powerhouse carrot and juice producers that was sold to Campbell Soup Co. a few years ago, has become a private company again. Campbell was looking to unload Bolthouse because, according to the Wall Street Journal, it proved difficult for the company to handle fresh food. Former Bolthouse CEO Jeff Dunn was leading a group of investors who purchased the business. No word yet if Bolthouse will return to Bakersfield as its corporate headquarters.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "No matter how nice I ask random people, nobody will take me to Funkytown."

 * ... WEEKEND: If it is spring in Bakersfield it is time for outdoor events and celebrations. This weekend alone we saw downtown Rotary's Havana Nights, the Stars Dinner Theater Dancing with the Stars (congratulations to Robin Mangarin-Scott for placing first), the Coconut Cup pickle ball tournament at the Bakersfield Racquet Club, the 4th Annual Sikh Peace Parade, a community trash cleanup day and more. Spring in Bakersfield.

 * ... RIG CITY: Congratulations to the Rig City Coffee Roasters on its one-year anniversary downtown. The popular coffee and pastry shop is part of a downtown renaissance of small businesses that are breathing new energy into our downtown.

 * ... TULE FOG: Remember a few years back when the tule fog was so think you could hardly see the car in front of you? Well, those days are largely behind us and we can thank lower levels of air pollution for it. That's according to a new study by scientists at the UC Berkeley who analyzed meteorological and air pollution data from the Central Valley reaching back to 1930. They reported this: "The results help explain the puzzling decades long rise and fall in the number of 'fog days' affecting the region, which increased 85 percent between 1930 and 1970 and then decreased 76 percent between 1980 to 2016. This up and down pattern follows trends in air pollution in the valley, which rose during the first half of the century when the region was increasingly farms and industrialized, and then dropped off after the enactment of air pollution regulations in the 1970s."

* .... MEMORIES: Take a look at this, the before and after of 20th Street downtown.

Bakersfield shines during the Tour of California but it doesn't stop some folks from embarrassing themselves

 * ...ONE FINE DAY: Our city was at its best last week when Stage 5 of the Tour of California bike race ended with an impressive sprint in front of Bakersfield College. Beautiful day, great crowd, hundreds of volunteers and a thousands cheering a terrific sports spectacle. The scene reminded me of the old Bakersfield Business Conference events out at Cal State where folks saw old friends, enjoyed the food and made new connections. It certainly has the potential to become one of those iconic Bakersfield events like the business conference, the Cal State Jazz Festival and barbeque or even the Thanksgiving Day pie run at Hart Park. Hats off to so many volunteers who made it happen. Sam Ames over at Action Sports was in charge of the Local Organizing Committee hospitality tent, a huge hit, and store owner Kerry Ryan worked tirelessly with tour officials to get the stage to end up on the Panorama Bluffs. Local lawyer Jay Rosenlieb and Don Cohen, head of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, worked for months as did Earl Norcross of the Kern Wheelmen bike club. Those are just a few of the hundreds who made this happen. Let's hope we get it back next year.

 * ... OVERHEARD: The wife of a prominent local businessman, without credentials to enter the VIP tent at the bike race but who managed to talk her way into it anyway, was heard complaining loudly and angrily that she couldn't get a good view of the race because other folks were standing in front of her. Never mind that everyone else in the tent was there because they were either volunteers or had written substantial checks to help sponsor the bike race.  She threw a fit anyway. Bad form.

 * ... ONE COMES HOME: Reader Maripat Ermigarat wrote to tell me about Curtis Cornelson, another in a long line of successful local kids who have returned to Bakersfield. Curtis played football at Centennial High School, went to Bakersfield College for two years and transferred to Colorado State on a football scholarship, graduating last year. He returned to Bakersfield and is pursuing his Master's Degree in History to teach at the high school level. "What's cool about this kid is that he is now the JV football coach at Centennial High School, working with his former coach, Bryan Nixon.  I think it's pretty neat!  Football just started at all the high schools once again, so he's back on familiar turf, being very comfortable back at CHS.  His parents are Chad  and Joan Cornelson and Curtis is still with his high school girlfriend of 7 years, Emily Ermigarat.  I am Emily's Mom." Thanks for sharing.

 
 * ...  DRAKE GRAD: Nice to hear from the parents of Frances Lopez, a Garces High graduate who went on to Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, to study pharmacy. (Frances was a pal of my daughter Lauren at Garces). Turns out she recently graduated with a Doctorate in Pharmacy and is returning to Bakersfield to start her professional career. Said her mother: "It's been a long traveled road for her ... the holiday visits, the summer returns, the cold snowy  winters in Iowa, the school load, new and old friends, the late night calls to mom, the calls to daddy for money and many more." Nice to see the kids turning out so well.

 * ... BOLTHOUSE CARROTS: When you live in the heart of carrot country brands like Bolthouse and Grimmway are household names and reasons for local pride. Which is why I enjoyed the following email from reader Jackie Bushby:  "Hi, I received an e-mail from a cousin who was visiting England. They bought a bag of carrots to snack on and they got a surprise. The carrots were from Bolthouse Farms in Bakersfield...!!!!! They visit here often and thought it odd that the carrots came from so far away. I enjoy your blog." Thanks for writing Jackie.

 * ... EAST BAKERSFIELDISM: You know you're from East Bakersfield when "you remember McCarthy's yogurt and Kevin who served you there."