Invocation – Pastor Jeff Chandler
Flag Salute – Steve Sanders
Song – Jorge Barrientos
Sargent at Arms – Jimmy D.
Roving Mics – Eddie Payne and Ray Karpe
Greeter – Jon Sampson
Special thanks to Ken Beurmann for stepping in as our President in the absence of Prez Garro.
Ken reminded us that we need to help grow our club membership and by you participating and sponsoring new members, you will become eligible to earn the coveted Sheryl Beurmann award.
Getting Down to Business with Bernie Barmann – Born and raised in Missouri, went to college in Nebraska and graduate studies at Stanford. He taught college for a while and then went to law school and moved to Bakersfield. He and his bride have been married for 54 years, they have 2 grown children and 5 grandchildren. He has been a member of the Rotary Club of Bakersfield for 34 years and has 17 years of perfect attendance.
Program
Dixie Brewer, owner of In Your Wildest Dreams, consignment and antique store, presented on the Downtown Business Association’s Block to Block Program.
Dixie’s store was located across the street from the Padre’ for 17 years. In all that time, she experienced very little vandalism or crime. After moving to 19th and Q to support the growth of Eastchester, she began experiencing significant vandalism. After investing $20k to help improve security around her store, she nearly threw in the towel as nothing was helping. BPD was helpful however they couldn’t do enough. Dixie then began reaching out to anyone she could think of; Chief Lyle Martin, Councilman Andrae Gonzales and Melanie Farmer at the Downtown Business Association (DBA). The DBA knew there were issues in the downtown area for business and property owners, so they began visiting other cities to see what they were doing to combat the same problems we were facing. They decided to try the Block to Block Program.
The Downtown Bakersfield Block Captain program supports the heart of our city at a micro-level. Using the smaller, more commonly associated boundaries for downtown, our downtown covers almost 300 square blocks. This is a large area to manage well. The micro-objective approach provides a platform to serve each block in small-scale form, with small-group interactions.
For this program to be successful Block captains must fulfill the following responsibilities:
- Be accessible by cell and/or email.
- Visit each business monthly and handout information from DBA / DBDC
- Provide information to DBA / DBDC from your Block Businesses
- Discuss and find solutions at monthly Empowerment meetings to identify issues
- Bakersfield Police Department Downtown Beat officers will inform DBA of issues and DBA will inform Block Captains.
- Encourage block business occupants to communicate their events and news to the Discover Downtown Live coordinator.
- Frequently check the Block-by-Block, Downtown Community Watch Facebook Page
Dixie was the 1st Block Captain and has emerged as a leader in the Downtown area and has played a large role in the success of the Block to Block Program.
Visitors & Guests
Guests of Lynnette Zelezny included Michael Lukens and Samantha Martinko
Ken Beurmann’s guest was Samy Abiaoui
Michael Lightfoot’s guest was Eddie Zomora
Photos by Girish
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