SOD FARM STARTED NEXT TO PITCHESS.Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer A portion of the dry and rocky county land surrounding the Pitchess Detention Center A detention center or a detention centre is any location used for detention. Specifically, it can mean:
A sod grower is leasing 400 acres of arid county-owned land next to the Castaic jail complex near the Golden State Freeway The Golden State Freeway is a north-south freeway running through Kern County and Los Angeles County, California. Originally built as U.S. Highway 99, it was re-signed as Interstate 5 in 1964. , and already it has transformed part of the site into an expanse of green. ``It offsets the bleak reality that we have to have a prison in our community,'' said Andy Ross Andy Ross (born March 8, 1979), is currently the guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist for the American rock band OK Go and is also co-founder of Serious Business Records. Biography Ross was born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts. , director of outside sales for Turfgrass America/Summit Farms, a company with sod farms throughout the Southwest. The sod will be sold to developers for landscaping in the vast developments around Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, , and to nurseries and private buyers as well, Ross said. The county will receive 7.5 percent of the farm's gross income, or a guaranteed monthly rate, said Chuck West, director of real estate for the county. The money will go to the county's general fund. But the sod farm contributes more to county interests than profit - it brings ``aesthetic beauty'' that the publicly visible jail's surroundings now lack, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Chuck Jackson
Chuck Jackson is an R&B singer who was one of the first artists to successfully record material by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. , chief of the corrections services division. ``Pitchess is right off the freeway - that was kind of desolate barren land,'' Jackson said. ``Now as you drive by Pitchess there is a substantial acreage of green grass.'' ``It will be a beautifully manicured 400-acre plot of land,'' Ross said. And more agriculture is in the works for the 1,400 acres of land around Pitchess. The corrections services chief plans to plant grape vines, a sapling farm and a nursery complete with greenhouses, all projects that could be worked on by inmates of the detention center. ``It's got the aesthetic properties of turning (the site) into a garden plot,'' Jackson said, ``and you can get cost recovery by selling these products to governmental agencies.'' According to Jackson, the saplings could be sold to reforestation Reforestation The reestablishment of forest cover either naturally or artificially. Given enough time, natural regeneration will usually occur in areas where temperatures and rainfall are adequate and when grazing and wildfires are not too frequent. projects, and the grapes and vegetables used in the inmates' food. No inmates will work on the sod farm, Jackson said. Land around the Pitchess has long been used for farming. Jail inmates formerly ran a hog farm The Hog Farm is an organization considered to be America's longest running hippie commune. With beginnings as an actual collective hog farm in Tujunga, California, the group, founded in the 1960s, by a group of people including Wavy Gravy, evolved into a "mobile, there as well as a dairy and nursery. Turfgrass of America has 15 other farms across the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and has approximately 9,000 acres of grass in production at any one time. Nicholas Grudin, (661) 257-5255 nicholas.grudin(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color -- ran in SAC edition only) Andy Ross, outside sales director for Turfgrass America/Summit Farms, checks a sprinkler on a Castaic site the firm leases from the county to grow sod for developers and landscapers. (2 -- ran in SAC edition only) Turfgrass America has substantial improved the view for those driving near the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic. Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer |
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