Baker C. S. D. is a combination of
both types of districts. Under the enterprise function we provide
Water, Sanitary Sewers and Trash Collection services to the
community and charge for those services. Under our non-enterprise
functions we also provide Fire Protection, (in cooperation with the
San Bernardino County Fire Department), Television Translators, Park
and Recreation including a Public Park, a Community Center and a
public Swimming Pool, Road Maintenance and Street Lighting. We do
not charge a fee for our non-enterprise functions.
By law we are entitled to a very small percentage of the ad
valorem (property) taxes levied on real property within the
district. Those funds are used to help fund our non-enterprise
functions. However in Fiscal Year 2005 and Fiscal Year 2006 the
State of California stole that money from us and many other
districts and used the money for their own purposes.
In Calendar Year 2005 the businesses in Baker will produce nearly
$50,000,000.00 in taxable sales, not one penny of which comes back
to the district to help fund our services.
Our Resident Population is about six hundred persons, but our
actual population at any given time is several thousand persons. In
2002 an average of 11,000 vehicles a day exited Interstate 15 and
entered Baker.
Water is provided to the town from 6 wells pumping into a 400,000
gallon water tank and several miles of water mains.
Sanitary Sewers bring sewage to a central pumping station near
the corner of Baker Boulevard and Highway 127. It is then pumped
under the freeway to approximately twenty acres of wastewater
lagoons.
Trash collection is provided by a Community Collection Center and
two large refuse vehicles which transport the solid waste to the
Barstow Landfill.
Fire Protection consists of a single Fire Engine staffed by 10
paid call firefighters, all of whom work full time at other jobs.
When possible the County Fire Department assists us with calls in
Baker, but their primary responsibility is the surrounding area
including Interstate 15. They station two Fire Engines in Baker, but
have a fire responsibility area of 4,000 square miles.
We broadcast four television signals from translators in our
vault on top of Turquoise Mountain northeast of Baker, however most
television in Baker comes from satellites.
