Showdown on Avenue A
A half-dozen residents blockaded the intersection of Avenue A and 190th Street West, protesting farm trucks they claim have destroyed the only roads in and out of an isolated rural community between Neenach and Rosamond.
Grimmway Farms had sent trucks to harvest fields just north of Avenue A, the dividing line between Los Angeles and Kern counties. A line of 20 big rigs stood idle for several hours while company representatives negotiated with residents. Kern County sheriff’s Deputy Ed MacKay eventually convinced both parties to settle it in court if they could not reach an agreement.
Several protesters were confident that the confrontation was enough to keep Grimmway’s trucks off 190th Street West, a road they say is their only connection to the rest of the Antelope Valley.
“Until this thing today, there was no interest on the part of Grimmway in our situation,” said Mike Houchen , who led the protest. He said the grower agreed not to use 190th Street West. “But it took this kind of action to reach this solution.”
Grimmway’s main office in Bakersfield referred interview requests to the company’s general counsel, who did not return phone calls by deadline Wednesday.
The paved section of 190th Street West ends just south of Avenue A. Los Angeles County maintains the road up to the Kern County line.
North of the county line, in Kern County, pools of brown water left over from this week’s rains surround the road, and some standing puddles lie in the middle of the road, which is pitted with tire tracks in the brown clay.
Houchen, a resident in the area for nine years, said locals have only two ways out of the area. They can drive east on Gaskell Road, which is private, or south on county-maintained 190th Street West to Highway 138.
Gaskell is the shorter route to the school bus stop and a mail drop-off, but that road is all but impassable now. When it rained, Houchen said, Grimmway’s trucks and heavy equipment drove through the soft dirt, leaving the now-dried road full of pits and tire tracks. Houchen won’t drive over the stretch between 180th and 170th streets west in his pickup truck.
From where Houchen lives — his house sits alone among the Joshua trees, at least a mile from his nearest neighbor — it’s a two-mile drive to get his mail at 170th Street West and Gaskell Road. If he goes over 190th Street West to the highway, it becomes a 10-mile drive each way.
“This is my only way out,” he said, looking down 190th Street West. “UPS, trash pickup, they won’t come across” Gaskell Road in its current condition, Houchen added.
Houchen estimates that around 25 households live in the vicinity. Students in the area attend Rosamond High School or Hamilton Elementary in the Southern Kern Unified School District.
“A lot of people move up here because it’s absolutely gorgeous,” he said.
“It’s nice and quiet, but now we can’t get out, and that kinda bothers people.”
Barbara Rogers is one of those who is bothered. She and her husband bought 10 acres of land near 200th Street West and Avenue A about six years ago, moving from Hesperia.
Rogers was retiring then, but her husband kept a job near Bakersfield and the move shortened his commute.
Now their property, which covers 40 acres, is surrounded by a wood fence with “No Trespassing” signs posted at regular intervals.
“This was about the only place with a house and a well and land that we could afford,” Rogers said. Phone lines don’t come out this far, nor do gas or water hookups.
Rogers’ house is on the electrical grid, but most of their power is obtained from a small wind turbine perched on an 80-foot tower in their front yard.
Rogers has plenty of reason to worry about the roads. “If you get off in that mucky stuff, your truck is liable to start fish-tailing and it’s likely you’ll end up in a telephone pole,” she said.
She remains skeptical of Grimmway, but holds out hope that the shaky deal holds.
“I’m hoping he means it,” Rogers said, “because if not, we’re going to have more trouble.”
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