Did you know?: KernLife.com

Kern County's Top Employers

Kern County public schools: 27,000

Edwards Air Force Base: 11,285

County of Kern: 9,339

Grimmway Enterprises: 6,300

China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station: 6,192

Giumarra Vineyards: 4,000

Catholic Healthcare West: 2,952

Esparza Enterprises: 2,915

Wm. Bolthouse Farms: 2,350*

Sunview Vineyards: 2,000*

Sun World: 1,600

City of Bakersfield: 1,420

Bear Creek Production Company: 1,250

Chevron USA: 1,200

San Joaquin Community Hospital: 1,100

Paramount Citrus: 1,096*

Cal State Bakersfield: 1,069

State Farm Insurance: 1,020

Community Action Partnership of Kern: 924

U.S. Borax: 900*

Kaiser Permanente: 900

Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream: 853

Aera Energy LLC: 850

Sears Logistics: 725

Frito Lay: 706

Target Distribution Center: 653*

*2006 data

Source: Californian research and Kern Economic Development Corp.

Kern County's Oil and Gas Facts

Kern County is a major oil producer. In fact, most of California’s oil production comes from Kern County — 76 percent as of 2006, to be exact.

Here are some highlights of the local oil industry:

• The industry has a long history. The Sunset portion of the Midway-Sunset oil field was discovered in 1890, followed by McKittrick in 1898, Kern River in 1899 and the Midway section of Midway-Sunset in 1900. All three fields, and dozens of others in Kern County, continue to churn out oil, helping fuel the region’s economy, as well as the cars and trucks we drive.

• The top five oil-producing fields in the state are all located in Kern County. Midway-Sunset leads the pack, followed by South Belridge, Kern River, Cymric and Elk Hills. Elk Hills is also the largest natural gas field in California.
Regional activity in 2006

• Crude oil produced: 170.2 million barrels.

• Natural gas produced: 170.7 billion cubic feet.

• Number of producing oil wells: 39,883. (That’s out of 49,879 statewide.)

• Number of producing natural gas wells: 183.

• Number of wells drilled: 1,811.
As of 2006, the top five oil producers in this area were Chevron, Aera Energy, Occidental of Elk Hills, Plains Exploration and Production and Berry Petroleum. They produce most of the oil in this area.

• Most of the oil that comes out of the ground in Kern County is characterized as heavy. It has the consistency of molasses. Steam is injected into the ground to loosen the oil and make it easier to retrieve.

• Bakersfield is home to three oil refineries: Flying J’s Big West of California refinery on Rosedale Highway, San Joaquin Refining Co. on Standard Street and Kern Oil & Refining Co. on East Panama Lane.

• The deepest onshore oil well drilled in California was drilled in 1987 in Kern County by Occidental of Elk Hills. It reached a depth of 24,426 feet.

• Taft Union High School is home to an oil and technology academy, designed to prepare students for a career in these industries.

You can learn more about the local oil industry, including its history, at the West Kern Oil Museum in Taft and “Black Gold,” a permanent oil exhibit at the Kern County Museum in Bakersfield.

Sources: California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources; California Energy Commission; Californian research.

WarmLine - Another Parent to Talk To

WarmLine is a parenting helpline offering free telephone support for parents of children from birth to 6 years of age.

WarmLine offers a confidential listening ear, helping parents and care-givers deal effectively with the crucial and often difficult situations that occur when raising children. We are here to provide support and guidance to anyone who needs it.

It's not only parents who benefit from WarmLine's services. Callers also include grandparents and other relatives who care for children, as well as Day Care providers and community childcare professionals. All callers are listened to with respect and objectivity by trained volunteers.

Look what WarmLine callers are talking about now!

temper tantrums aggression picky eating difficulty sleeping discipline teething bedtime crying pre-school sibling rivalry napping new baby returning to work feeling overwhelmed breastfeeding separation anxiety potty training postpartum activities emotions nutrition normal development support groups behavior backtalk

Call WarmLine today to talk about your child!

Monday - Friday
8:30 am to 4:30 pm PST
(excluding holidays)

661-323-3531
or 1-888-955-9099
outside Bakersfield California

e-mail support: warmline@earthlink.net

WarmLine is a not for profit organization of trained volunteers that serve as a telephone outreach to families in Kern County, California.

Love Football?

The Bakersfield Flag Football League runs year round and provides an exciting avenue for adults to play organized flag football. The league provides stats, quality equipment and a full schedule. Players and teams will experience highly competitive games of flag football with opponents that show great respect for each other and the sport. The age demographics range from 18 to 40, with the majority of players being in their mid 30's.

The games are played at Liberty Park in Bakersfield, California. The league fees break down to approximately $20-25 per player.

For more information, click here.

The Bakersfield Theater Addict

If you enjoy the arts, check out Theater Addict's Blog about the Bakersfield Theater scene. Find out about performance calendar and theater listings.

The Bakersfield Californian

The Bakersfield Californian is the premiere source of local news, events and the issues that shape the lives of our city's residents. From local columnists who address all aspects of city life, to our investigative reporting on topics affecting our daily life, The Bakersfield Californian is the definitive guide to life in Kern County.

NEWCOMER SPECIAL! If you are new to Bakersfield, please call us for a special offer that's just for you! You can receive a FREE 4-week trial of The Bakersfield Californian! Some restrictions apply. Please mention promotional code NEW2BKFD.

Sign up for your subscription today by calling (661) 392-5777 or (800) 953-5353.

Land area occupied by Bakersfield

The total land area occupied by Bakersfield is 224 square miles.

PFLAG (Parents Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)

Meets 7 p.m. the first Thursday of each month at First Congregational Church, 5 Real Road.

P.O. Box 42135, Bakersfield, 93384, www.pflag.org.

PFLAG offers support for loved ones of people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. Advocates for people in the gay community to foster a safer environment.

DId you know?

With a size equivalent to 13 football fields and by many accounts the world's largest ice cream plant, Dreyer's in Bakersfield churns out some 70 million gallons of ice in nearly 100 different types of frozen treats per year.

Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE)

SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" is America's premier source of free and confidential small business advice for entrepreneurs.

Take advantage of SCORE's unbiased, confidential and FREE one-on-one business counseling each Wednesday. SCORE volunteers can help you target your business plan, improve your marketing or increase your cash flow.

Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE): Golden Empire chapter, located within the Small Business Development Center, 2100 Chester Ave., 861-9249,
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10 Things to Know About Bakersfield

1. We’ve got mountains. They run down the middle of the county and across the southern border. You can’t actually see them, so you’ll have to trust us.

2. In the mid-1960s most people around here (as well as several prominent farm animals) had bit parts in a reality TV show starring Buddy Ebsen. That’s why the towns have names like Weedpatch, Pumpkin Center, Greenacres, Buttonwillow and Pixley. There’s not actually a Hooterville here, but some of us are still holding out for a Hooters.

3. Virtually everybody here plays the banjo. A few people were able to get the accordion exemption.

4. Learn the local pronunciations if you don’t want to stick out. DELL-uh-no is the middle name of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Duh-LAY-no is the name of the town just south of the Kern-Tulare (too-LARRY) county line. Wasco is pronounced WAH-sco, not WAY-sco, and Oildale is pronounced OIL-dale unless you drive a pre-1970 truck, in which case it is pronounced OLL-dale. Tehachapi is pronounced Teh-LOO-luh-bell.

5. Buck Owens is dead. Country music has been canceled until further notice.

6. There is not a moving body of water wider than 30 feet within 100 miles and yet we have surf shops. No one has been able to explain this.

7. No one actually eats the pickled tongue served in local Basque restaurants. It’s only prepared for the benefit of out-of-town visitors, who are invariably dared to try it. No one actually knows what it is. No one actually knows what this so-called “Basque” ethnicity is, either, but we like the food so we’ve all agreed to keep quiet about it.

8. The Bakersfield City Council selected the city slogan, “Life as it should be.” Coming in a close second was “We like to think we’re better than Fresno but we don’t have much evidence.”

9. Spring lasts about 31⁄2 hours on the afternoon of April 23. Autumn lasts about 15 minutes just before noon on Oct. 16. By “fall colors” we mean the sunburn on your kid’s neck that starts to heal about that time.

10. The official headwear of Bakersfield is a foam trucker’s ballcap. Get yourself one.

Youth Services, Child Development and Family Services

Kern County Superintendent of Schools
2000 24th St., Bakersfield, 861-5200

Under this umbrella are:

KCSOS Child Development Services
1100 Ming Ave., Bakersfield, 835-7284.
Operates 16 sites, serving more than 1,200 children throughout the county. Offers full- and half-day preschool with encouraged parental participation for some classes. Assistance is available for children whose families meet income-eligibility requirements. Also offers private- and employer-sponsored child care at the Downtown Development Center.

Community Connection for Child Care
2000 24th St., Suite 100, Bakersfield, 861-5200, 877-861-5200.
Free referrals and information for parents seeking child care. Partner in the CalWORKs welfare-to-work reform, provides assistance with child-care payments. Also coordinates the county¹s child-care waiting list, trains child care providers, offers a resource and lending library, sponsors children¹s concerts and other community events, and participates in other programs benefitting children and families.

Kern County Network for Children
2000 K St., University Square, third floor, Bakersfield, 636-4488

Other Services

Bakersfield Police Activities League
301 E. Fourth St., Bakersfield, 283-8880

Boys & Girls Club of America
801 Niles St., Bakersfield, 325-3730
Offers after-school enrichment for individuals ages 5 through 17. Operates 22 locations around Kern County.

Haven Counseling Center
730 Chester Ave., Bakersfield, 327-4711

Head Start
336-5236, 800-701-7060

Henrietta Weill Memorial Child Guidance Clinic
3628 Stockdale Highway, Bakersfield, 322-1021

La Cresta Foundation Counseling Program
3308 La Cresta Drive, Bakersfield, 323-0055.
Provides support, therapy and counseling to enable parents to interact with their children of all ages. Also a therapeutic play group for children.

Bakersfield Speedway

The West’s Fastest 1/3 Mile High Banked Clay Oval Track is located right here in Oildale, at 5001 N. Chester Ave.! Races feature a variety of stock car and open-wheel racing from March to November. Admission varies. 393-3373, www.bakersfieldspeedway.com.

Pick up the latest race results, get schedule information and more at the Bakersfield Speedway website.

Riverlakes

Offering a family-oriented atmosphere, Riverlakes is a desirable neighborhood located in Northwest Bakersfield. The Riverlakes Ranch golf course, boating facilities, water views, shopping, and schools make this a popular neighborhood.

Building of the Riverlakes began in the late 1990s. Riverlakes is a popular neighborhood, since as its name suggests the homes are built around small man-made lakes. The community also features community pool.

Riverlakes offers single family homes and villas built in the 1990s to 2000s. Prices are affordable, starting in the $350,000s to the $500,000s.

View a virtual tour

The Best of Local Salons and Spas

Your hair isn’t something to mess around with, especially when it comes down to finding a salon that will make you look and feel like a cover model. There’s nothing wrong with wanting the best, and over the last 20 years salons have become more than hair and nails – they’ve morphed into the pampering palace known as the day spa.

By 2010, it’s estimated we’ll make over a billion trips to our salons each year. So if you’re searching for the perfect salon in Bakersfield, there are three that set themselves apart and each for different reasons.

Tucked away in an upscale corner of the Marketplace is Essentiels Spa & Beaute, owned for the past 16 years by Dee Dee Todd. She says her salon’s forte is the high caliber of product lines offered to their clients. “We spend a lot of time researching these product lines, normally products you would have to drive to L.A. or any larger city to purchase,” says Todd. “The lines we carry are truly exclusive like the Creed fragrance, a Neiman Marcus line, Bumble and Bumble, Kerastase, that’s one you’ll find in less than 1,500 salons worldwide.”

Essentiels has the look of a Beverly Hills salon, with a staff in matching black smocks, a contemporary yet elegant interior and a special bar to select your choice of juice, tea or wine while you wait. That’s by design, says Todd. “We definitely wanted something different. We wanted people to feel like they’re not in town, to make this feel like a retreat away.”

Essentiels also offers the types of services you’d pay hundreds of dollars for in Los Angeles. Todd says in addition to hair, manicures and pedicures, there are a variety of facials, “Our estheticians are just excellent,” plus body treatments including massage. And Essentiels is courting male clients as well.

“The first Sunday of each month, we call Gentlemen’s Sunday,” says Todd. “We open our doors for men who aren’t comfortable in a salon setting.”

What Todd is most proud of is her staff. “They’re definitely not snooty,” she says, and the entire staff is always looking to make the Essentiels experience better. “Every time someone comes in, we want to be able to offer them something exciting, something new and not to ever become stagnant,” says Todd.

Pam Oscars, owner of Concept Elite Salon on Stockdale Highway, is proud of her staff as well. “My husband says we have no staff turnover because everybody loves coming to work here and it’s just comfortable,” says Oscar. She’s owned Concept Elite for 14 years and is now commuting from San Clemente. “My husband was transferred two years ago so I’m here two days a week,” she says. Oscars says she and her husband originally opened a salon looking for a comfortable place for her to work and for her clients to visit. “I was clueless when I opened my shop, but I’d been in the business since I was 19, so I just took all the things (I’d learned) from the great salon owners I’d worked for and that was how I started.”

Concept Elite is conveniently next to Albertsons and a few steps away from Trader Joe’s, says Oscar. “When appointments are running behind, our clients can get in a little shopping.” There are 18 stylists and seven manicurists with a compact storefront shop always humming with activity and buzzing with small talk from clients. It’s the epitome of a Main Street shop. “We don’t want people to feel like they have to get dressed to come to a salon,” says Oscar.

“We’re like one big family.” And that family works hard to stay atop trends in an industry famous for them. “Our staff is constantly going to shows and looking into new product lines that make (services like) manicures and pedicures last longer to make our clients feel like they’re getting their money’s worth.” Oscars says her stylists are always happy to work around busy schedules to accommodate everyone’s needs. She also urges clients to experience Concept Elite’s esthetician, Marianne. Oscars raves about her facials and permanent makeup. “She does a lot of permanent makeup and she’s such a perfectionist. Everybody here has now had it done.”

Alongside Truxtun extension you’ll see the copper dome that sits atop Paragon Salon and Spa. Owners Carol and James Wood designed the building with help from David Milazzo and Greg Bynum. This stylish salon boasts a chandelier in the reception rotunda that’s marked with elegant marble columns and bathed in natural light. From the spacious manicurist cubicles, to the slate waterfall in the pedicure area, to the hushed elegance of the day spa, Paragon showcases a unique atmosphere of which Wood is understandably proud, yet she modestly says, “Our facility is beautiful, but there are many beautiful salons in town.”

Each area is separate and Paragon’s 38 staffers and clientele love the layout. “Especially the day spa area,” says Wood. “That way our clients don’t have to walk through the salon in a gown and there are no children allowed in the day spa,” she says, which probably accounts for the peaceful, almost Zen feeling within those halls.

Paragon offers a full array of salon and day spa services with the exception of tanning. “The girls will do a bronze glow treatment, a rub on tan lotion,” says Wood “because we’re trying to keep people from destroying their skin. We research skin care treatments, facials and peels thoroughly because some should only be done by well- trained doctors. There are limits on what an esthetician can do. We make sure that their treatment is something that we can do and the client can continue at home.” Wood firmly believes in regular visits to trained and qualified estheticians. “They know what they’re doing,” she says. “A trained esthetician is a woman’s best friend…and her hairdresser,” she laughs.