Oildalians are sick and tired of having their town being considered a stigma by many of the Bakersfield community. This frustration led to a great turnout at the Oildale Visioning Workshop at Beardsley Junior High Nov. 7-8.
Since Oildale is an unicorporated suburb, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mike Maggard, the Kern County Third District Supervisor. The Third District includes Oildale, Rosedale and a large section of east Bakersfield.
Maggard, having grown up in east Bakersfield near Edison Highway, feels a connection with Oildale.
“I didn’t know it when I ran for office, but this is where I came from,” said Maggard.
He believes both communities strive to improve their part of town but are not sure how to go about it.”The idea is to give them the gift of opportunity,” said Maggard.
Along with the Kern County Planning Department, Maggard believed that having members of the community create a 20-year vision would be the best way to find what is best for Oildale.
To make sure a vision was formed, Maggard’s office brought in PMC, a community planning and design company. “Our biggest fear is that people wouldn’t dream big,” said Cheryl Casdorph, a PMC representative.
The two-day event started by having the attendees creating a “Vision” wall, putting a few words on a piece of paper describing what they see for Oildale’s future. Then, the attendees were broken up into groups and given a map of Oildale to modify, showing the changes they would like to see in the future. This was accompanied by brainstorming ideas of improvements to make, such as building low-income housing, water parks, bike paths and even a town square.
Both days included a live polling exercise where attendees were given remotes and voted yes or no on a series of project goals.
The workshop was held in honor of Oildale’s 100th year, 2009. There is a demographic of Oildale that has great pride in the uniqueness and history of their town.
This being the case, there was a large backing for the idea of creating an Oildale museum, focusing on the history of Oildale’s early days and the famous names, such as country artist Merle Haggard, that have come from “the 08.”
Results from the live polling as well as a vision plan will be released in January 2009. Along with the release of these results, Maggard hopes to hold another workshop pertaining to more short-term goals for Oildale.