Ask TBC: What's the big tower behind Sam's Club?
| Sunday, Oct 25 2009 12:00 PM
Last Updated Sunday, Oct 25 2009 12:00 PM
Q: What is the tall concrete structure standing approximately five stories tall and located behind the Sam's Club on Gosford and Harris Road? It looks similar to a Fire Department training tower.
- Bill Kostner
Q: What is that tall tower structure in the business behind Sam's Club?
- Jamie Benavides
A: It's a 120-foot-tall Verizon wireless antennae, according to Paul Hellman, city of Bakersfield principal planner.
Q: Does the city of Bakersfield have a regular street sweeping schedule? If so, where can we find the schedule for our part of the city?
- Ritchie Murrell
A: The city does not post a schedule online but is working on doing so, said Ernest Arriola, street cleaning supervisor for the city. For now, if you want to know the schedule for street sweeping in an area, call 326-3111.
Q: Is there any new information concerning the suspicion that the convicted murderer (Christopher Charles) Lightsey had something to do with the disappearance and death of the young girl in the '80s? The girl kidnapped from the apartment complex on Belle Terrace?
I have not seen any other mention of it. I remember being transfixed by that case, as at the time we lived in that neighborhood.
- Michele Ramos
A: The Bakersfield Police Department is not commenting on the Lightsey case, which is still under investigation.
The victim was 4-year-old Jessica Martinez. She was abducted May 10, 1990, from a complex in the 5000 block of Belle Terrace.
Lightsey moved into that complex a week before the abduction. Her badly decomposed body was found about two weeks later in a field.
Police announced in July 2008 that they took a DNA sample from Lightsey in connection with the case. Police are not releasing the results.
Lightsey is on death row for the stabbing death of a 76-year-old cancer patient in 1993. That was also the year he pleaded no contest to lewdly touching two girls, ages 4 and 10.
He was sentenced to three years in prison.
Q: What is the status of the mining permit needed to start building the Golden Queen Mining Co. mine near Mojave?
- Pete Petrofsky
A: A supplemental environmental impact report on the project is still being worked on, said Scott Denney, a supervising planner in the Kern County Planning Department. The permit was originally anticipated to go to the planning commission in January but that may need to be pushed back to February, he said.
Q: There is a beautiful building with a fantastic dome on top of it on Stockdale Highway right behind PF Chang's Restaurant. It looks completed. What is this?
- Jean Gutierrez
A: It's a commercial building by Castle & Cooke that's occupied by Occidental of Elk Hills.
Ask The Californian appears on Mondays and Thursdays. Submit questions to asktbc@bakersfield.com or to The Bakersfield Californian, c/o Christine Bedell, P.O. Bin 440, Bakersfield, CA 93302.
