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.

Bako Bits: CSUB gets ready to honor five alumni and a diaper story you're not going to believe

 * ... CSUB HONORS: Hats off to four well deserving local folks who have been chosen to enter the Cal State Bakersfield Alumni Hall of Fame. It's remarkable how many community leaders have come out of CSUB and this is a stellar group. It includes Ben Stinson ('79), owner of Stinson's Stationers; Jon Van Boening ('92), president of Bakersfield Memorial Hospital; John Hefner ('85), retired from the Fruitvale School District; and Christine Frazier ('84), Kern County Superintendent of Schools. A dinner will take place at the Petroleum Club of Bakersfield Saturday, February 19. Call (661) 654-3211 for tickets.


  * ... FRENCH VISITOR: Ever consider hosting a foreign student in your home? If so here's your chance. Susan Peninger is local coordinator for Horizon's du Monde, a French company that brings French students to the United States for home stays. She's looking for a family willing to house a 16 or 17 year old for 10 days between February 15-25.  The student needs a place to sleep or can share a room with a like gender. The students want to experience life with an American family and are expected to follow your house rules. If interested call Susan at (661) 332-7147.

 * ... IVY LEAGUE: Always happy to pass along some good news about our high achieving local youngsters. Alicia Mathur, a senior at Stockdale High School, has been accepted to the University of Pennsylvania school of engineering and will be starting her studies in the fall. Her brother, Neil, is a senior at Princeton University. Two local kids in the Ivy League making us all proud.

 * ... DID YOU KNOW? Did you know that the pair of huge lion statues that once graced the steps of the old Kern County Jail were sold to a fraternity at the University of Nevada in the early 1960s when the building was torn down?

  * ... DIAPERS: Sick of hearing me rant about those in our community who so casually discard their diapers in our parks and on our streets? Well this story will really make you sick. Kyle Estle, a partner in Dallis Higdon and Associates, told me about finding literally dozens of used diapers on the roof of a rental on 33rd Street. "I don't really enjoy the diaper entries but I'm glad you are raising awareness so maybe some will change their behavior. Anyway, one of our appraisers was doing an apartment inspection in Bakersfield and took the attached picture. (go to www.bakersfieldobserved.com to see the picture) Apparently the former tenants were too lazy and disgusting to throw their used diapers in the trash and instead used their neighbor’s roof." The picture is almost too graphic for a family newspaper, but it shows what must be three or four dozen diapers, piled up, on a flat roof. Apparently the tenants next door just tossed their used diapers out the window onto the roof next door.

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: You know you're from Bakersfield when you have to explain Tule fog to others.