760 Fitness gym planned for Ridgecrest
Ridgecrest Daily Independent
A sign for 760 Fitness adorns the old Staples building on South China Lake Boulevard. The company’s website at https://760fitness.com/ announces “coming soon to Ridgecrest” and advertises a full-service open gym with LifeFitness and Hammer Strength equipment, a “state of the art cycle bar/spin studio,” yoga, weight lifting, an “active aging circuit” and child care.
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Jessica Weston column: Pandemic gratitude
Ridgecrest Daily Independent
“Let s really look at one another! … It goes so fast. We don t have time to look at one another. I didn t realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed.” Thornton Wilder, “Our Town”
After months of intractable sameness, things finally shifted in the last two weeks. The DI moved into our new office (119 S. Gold Canyon for those who don’t know) and I got my first vaccination.
Things are beginning to open up again. The sun is bright and some sort of return to normalcy seems if not assured at least likely. So I decided to take a minute to think about lessons learned from the past year while I can still remember them. And, if it’s not too much, I want to talk about what I am grateful for.
Ridgecrest PD hands out slew of awards
Ridgecrest Daily Independent
The Ridgecrest City Council meeting Wednesday was the scene of a slew of awards by the Ridgecrest Police Department.
Honorees for 2020 included Officer of the Year Detective Frank Mixon; Reserve Officer of the Year Reserve Officer Michael Rogers; Supervisor of the Year Antionette Agostinacci; Employee of the Year ACO Shawna Villa-Rodriguez; Explorer of the Year Explorer Jesse Torres; and Volunteer of the Year (Chief’s Award) Dean Laird.
Torres was not present at the meeting and will receive his award at a later date.
Sergeant Eric Clinton, Officer Daniel Pietrangelo, Officer Timothy Plunkett also received Life-saving Awards for working with the Kern County Fire Department and Liberty Ambulance and ultimately saving someone from a fentanyl overdose on Feb. 5.
Ridgecrest Daily Independent
High winds flipped an unloaded tractor-trailer Monday afternoon on southbound Highway 14 just south of the intersection with Highway 178 East. The driver sustained minor injuries. Traffic was diverted around the wreckage after the California Highway Patrol and Caltrans responded to the scene. Wind gusts as high as 45 mph were recorded Monday at nearby Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.
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Ridgecrest Daily Independent
Full-time city employees will receive a one-time $1,000 COVID-19 hazard bonus and part-timers $500 if the Ridgecrest City Council approves an agenda item at its April 7 meeting.
If approved the bonus would appear in the employees’ final payroll check in April.
The total cost to the city would be $111,418 and would come from the following funds: general fund ($79,822); gas tax fund ($9,476); gas tax/RMA fund ($1,809); TDA transit fund ($8,271); wastewater fund ($10,963) and the fleet maintenance/ISF fund ($1,077).
The funds may be reimbursable under American Rescue Plan funding, according to the staff report with the agenda.
The rationale for the one-time bonus, according to the report, is that city employees have not received a cost of living raise since 2008 and “have shown resiliency and perseverance during the Covid-19 pandemic.”