News

It was one of those projects that takes years to get off the ground, then there's a flurry of activity and suddenly it seems like it's almost finished.

On Thursday, land that sat vacant for more than 40 years off Coffee Road just north of Stockdale Highway became home to a concrete shell that by November will be turned into condominiums.

The Stockdale Office Building is part of a complex that will include a Hyatt Place hotel, filling station, food market and restaurant or retail space. The building's first floor has been entirely sold out, leaving 20,000 square feet available on the upper floor.

"Pretty amazing thing to get done in one day, and not typical for office buildings built in Bakersfield," Andrew said by email.

Bakersfield's still quite a bargain, just a little less so.

Rents in Bakersfield are up 2 percent year over year, with median two-bedroom apartments going for $940 a month in June, according to new data from San Francisco-based rental marketplace Apartment List.

The state as a whole is up 2.2 percent over the last 12 months. Among California's 10 biggest cities, rents were least expensive in Bakersfield; the priciest were in San Francisco, where the median rent for a two-bedroom place is $3,070.

Bakersfield's $940 median compared favorably nationwide, below Phoenix's $1,040 and above Detroit's $890.

Urner's Z's Please is opening a second location June 9 in northwest Bakersfield.

The 6,000-square-foot showroom at 5400 Knudsen Drive, between Olive Drive and Hageman Road, will feature 60 different mattress choices.

The company opened its first Z's Please store seven years ago in southwest Bakersfield.

Be careful with pesticides, Kern County.

Newly released data from the state Department of Pesticide Regulation show that only Fresno County had a higher incidence of agricultural pesticide illness in 2015:聽102 cases to Kern's 98.

The number of cases statewide increased by 50 percent to 397 between 2014 and 2015. More recent figures were not available.

Drift is to blame for most pesticide exposures, according to the Delano-based Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment.

Exposure to pesticides can cause lifelong health problems. Young children are particularly vulnerable.

A correctional lieutenant at Kern Valley State Prison has been appointed to become an alternate to the state Commission on Correctional Peace Officer Standards and Training.

Bakersfield resident Timothy Sheldon Jr., a 41-year-old Republican, has worked at the prison since 2006. Formerly a correctional officer at California State Prison, Corcoran, he is supervisory vice president of KVSP's chapter of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.

The position offers no financial compensation.

The Bank of the Sierra knows it's not wise to make kids with weak immune systems sit and wait next to children with contagious diseases.

The Porterville-based bank recently put up $5,000 to help remodel the pediatric waiting room at Kern Medical Center's outpatient clinic at 1111 Columbus Ave.