Ojai Teacher Bound For Peace Corps

By Nao Braverman
Throughout her life Janelle Matzdorf has taught handicapped children from different cultures around the country and overseas.
This February she heads for Eastern Europe where she is looking forward to surrounding herself in a new cultural environment, learning what it means to educate handicapped children in the former Soviet bloc.
It’s more complicated than you might expect, said Matzdorf.
She remembers teaching in Kunming, a Chinese city about 200 miles from Vietnam, where she was forced to accommodate an entirely new definition of being handicapped. Among the 4 million Kunming residents being “handicapped” included having any noticeable visible scar, she said. Among her pupils, were people who had strong mental and physical capabilities but couldn’t get jobs because of their physical appearance, she explained. Such students had an entirely different speed and capacity for learning than American handicapped students that Matzdorf was accustomed to, who had severe disabilities such as Down’s syndrome and autism.
Full of adventure, with her 60th birthday just around the corner, Matzdorf decided to fulfill an old dream and join the Peace Corps. Though she first became interested in the program which sends American volunteers to other countries when she was in college, she got married and had children and was forced to put her traveling bug on the back burner.
Now that her children are grown and her husband, Rotarian Tony Matzdorf, passed away in December, she has no ties keeping her in the country, she said.
She learned that the Peace Corps, which has traditionally accepted mostly college-age students, is also recruiting retirees.
With more than 10 years teaching severely handicapped children, Matzdorf had skills that could be helpful to educators in many other countries, and her application to the Peace Corps was promptly accepted.
She is now putting her four bedroom Meiners Oaks home up for sale and is preparing to set out to some place in Eastern Europe in February. Though she hasn’t been told which country they will send her to yet, she is looking forward to the new experience. Whereever it is she is headed, she has been assigned to train teachers in educating handicapped students for two years.
After an orientation in San Francisco or Washington, D.C., she will spend three months in the country where she will teach, learn some of the language and acclimate to the culture. Since childhood Matzdorf was raised an adept traveler. She spent some time at a German school and her father who taught English to foreign students was always inviting them into their home. But Matzdorf expects the most interesting part of her Peace Corps experience will be the exposure of to a different perspective on education and disability.
Peace Corps volunteers work in a wide variety of areas including HIV/AIDs awareness, technological advancement, agriculture and education. Volunteers are sent to areas in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, South America and the Pacific Islands.
For more information see the Peace Corps web site at www.peacecorps.gov.

Sanitary District Raises Rates 20 Percent

Board passes increase to cover sewer costs
By Sondra Murphy
It costs more to irrigate, fill our gas tanks and, now, dispose of gray water. An Ojai Valley Sanitary District rate increase goes into effect today, a change that was passed by the board last week. The basic monthly rate of $40.50 will increase to $48.43 for customers in Meiners Oaks, Oak View and the Ventura Avenue areas. City of Ojai rates will increase to $50.31. Individual customer fees will vary depending on several factors, such as the size of connective pipes and type of structure being serviced.
According to notices of the public hearing at which the new rates were decided, the increase is due to “fiscal requirements for operating and maintaining the systems in compliance with the increasingly rigorous environmental regulatory requirements for treating the water discharged into the Ventura River.” Inflation and new mandated standards in maintenance of collection and treatment facilities have also contributed to the increase.
In the OVSD notice, customers received information to calculate their new rates using ERU ratios from two tables. ERU stands for Equivalent Residential Unit, a standard for measuring system usage based on fixture unit counts for the average residential, commercial or institutional customer. On average, a house is equivalent to 25 fixture units, or one ERU.
The area serviced by OVSD has “a myriad of water companies,” said OVSD general manager John Correa. “We can’t use water meter readings to base our sewer charges on, so we use ERU.”
The new fees were determined by the budget. “After the budget is all worked out, we divide it by the number of ERUs and figure out what to charge,” Correa said.
The reason customers in the city of Ojai pay a slightly higher rate is due to debt from infrastructure. “There used to be four different sanitary districts,” said Correa. “When we consolidated in 1985, each area had different debt issues associated with it.” Correa added that the debts will eventually be paid off, reducing the cost to customers.

Food For Thought Raises Awareness

Students at Mira Monte Elementary School go through the Thursday salad bar, which is sponsored by the Food for Thought program. Several hundred students at three local schools eat at the salad bars.

By Daryl Kelley
The fund-raising fields were fallow for Ojai’s Food for Thought through the winter and spring, but now this nonprofit program to feed and educate local students is planting the seeds to raise a cash crop for next school year.
Last weekend, Farmer John Peterson, a national icon of community farming, showed up in his floppy farm hat and pink boa to promote Ojai’s efforts to serve students fresh, local fruits and vegetables, while teaching them good nutrition and how agriculture is an integral part of this community.
Founded in 2002 in partnership with the Ojai Unified School District, the program now reaches from kindergarten through junior high school, serving a salad bar to hundreds of students on Thursdays and sponsoring field trips to farms and wormy gardens on campus.
“Any community that weaves farming into itself is close to my heart,” said Peterson, whose documentary, “The Real Dirt on Farmer John,” filled the Ojai Playhouse on Sunday. “The fact that agriculture plays such a role in this community is a beautiful thing. And one of my most joyous experiences was coming to Ojai.”
Farmer John’s visit from northern Illinois to six local farms and his presentations to movie-goers on Saturday and Sunday were the beginning of a two-month effort to replenish Food for Thought, itself a locally grown effort of volunteers — parents, educators and growers.
The campaign will culminate Aug. 25 with the Locally Grown 2 concert at Libbey Bowl, which will feature local, but nationally known, singer-songwriters Perla Batalla and Brett Dennen. Also appearing will be the three winners of Battle of the Bands concerts at the Matilija Junior High School Auditorium on Aug. 4 and 5.
The first Locally Grown concert in 2005 was headlined by surfer musician megastar Jack Johnson, who donated his time and stays in close touch with the Ojai group. The event grossed $90,000 and netted $70,000, officials said.
And it has provided the no-strings-attached funds that have underwritten the program’s administration, said organization President and grower Jim Churchill, who founded the group with ecologist Marty Fujita and grower and school board member Steve Fields.
“The Locally Grown concert is our primary source of fundraising,” Churchill said. “These unrestricted funds are very important. They pay for our small staff, our overhead.”
Foundations regularly donate to Food for Thought, but they want their contributions to go straight into a specific program, said Fujita, the group’s vice president and main organizer of its fund-raising events.
“We get grants, but most foundations don’t like to pay for staff or overhead,” she said.
The group has a budget of about $60,000 a year and a part-time staff of three: program coordinator Lori Hamor and garden coordinator David White, along with garden assistants and about 40 volunteers.
Specialists may also be hired as consultants on specific projects, such as the $40,000 donation received last week from an international foundation to study how the school district can recycle its solid and green waste.
While Food for Thought’s salad bar gets the most public attention, the program also includes four other educational components:
• Kindergarteners and first-graders do a garden-based learning project, and fifth-graders supplement the U.S. history class by planting a colonial-era garden to learn how pioneer families depended on home gardens for food and medicine.
• Second-graders learn how to reduce trash through recycling lunchtime waste, and using green waste from the salad bar to maintain worm bins to produce topsoil for their gardens.
• Third-graders are taught three nutrition lessons throughout the school year that focus on different food groups, while sixth-graders receive lessons on making healthy choices within those groups.
• Fourth-graders take field trips to local farms to learn directly about how food is produced, sampling fruit and vegetables while learning about the history of local agriculture.
Officials say several hundred youngsters eat at salad bars on Thursdays at the three local public elementary schools with kitchens — Topa Topa, Mira Monte and Meiners Oaks.
Junior high students were a harder sell: only a handful were interested in the salad bar at Matilija at first. Then, this year, the program took off with extra effort from both the school district and Food for Thought volunteers.
For one, Churchill volunteered at Matilija each Thursday, and school district nutrition services director Suzane Lugotoff was there too.
“Suzanne was there getting students into line,” said Tim Baird. “I think sometimes the impression is that nutrition services is just concerned with the (financial) bottom line. But Suzane is very concerned about quality too.”
Baird was addressing the push-and-pull that’s part of the salad bar program: Food for Thought continually lobbies for the highest quality local fruits and vegetables, while the school district also must function under severe cost constraints and sometimes uses cheaper commodity products. The food service budget ran a deficit of more than $100,000 last year and that is projected to increase this year.
“We don’t think that the food offered to the children is great stuff,” Churchill said. “We think that all American diets, including the school lunch programs, are not optimal. Our goal is to make it better and to work with Suzanne and her staff to do that,” he said.
And school nutrition is certainly better than it was a few years ago, he said.
Overall, said Baird, the Food for Thought program is a success.
“The curriculum and garden stuff have all been very positive,” he said. “Kids are learning more about where food comes from and the kind of food that is healthy for them to eat. The program has succeeded in a number of areas.”
For more information about the Locally Grown 2 concert call 640-5044 or check the web site foodforthoughtojai.org.

Help's West Campus Taking Shape

By Linda Harmon
First of a three-part report:
It’s been almost four years since Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett proposed the conversion of the county-owned vacated Baldwin Road Honor Farm into a property with three different but compatible uses: the home for an expansion of Help of Ojai, use of its riverfront property for a sediment deposit area in the Matilija Dam removal project, and a proposed recreation area under control of the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy.
Bennett favors the plan because Help of Ojai has proved “a tremendous commitment to provide services to the needy and elderly in the Ojai Valley and the preservation of the riverfront property creates a valuable, valleywide asset.”
“These three uses of the Honor Farm make a great combination for the citizens of the Ojai Valley,” Bennett said.
The 117-acre property was the subject of protracted negotiations when the Honor Farm jail facility closed in April 2003. Several proposed uses were rejected in favor of the current plan, including a county treatment center for the mentally ill, which drew heated opposition from many local neighbors.
Under director Lisa Meeker and administrative assistant Laurie King, Help of Ojai’s West Campus is the first occupant to make its impact felt at the old Honor Farm location while awaiting the issuance of a conditional use permit.
“Today plans are well under way,” said Lori Baker of the Ventura Planning Department in charge of the project. “Basically we are working on getting a conditional use permit in place for Help of Ojai to operate on site,” said Baker. “They didn’t need any physical expansion, just some minor demolition. They’ll be running their Meals on Wheels Program so we have to make sure they are in compliance. Our biggest holdup has been the transportation issues.”
Baker feels the project is close to approval now that the transportation document is complete. An environmental impact report is not required and it may be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act. “The next step is to go before the Ventura County Planning Commission and that meeting is scheduled July 15,” added Baker.
Meeker’s nonprofit organization strives to combine community and individual resources to provide services to seniors, youngsters and other at-risk populations in Ojai. In return for making million-dollar improvements to the 42-acre parcel in the next five years, Help of Ojai officials signed a long-term lease last July for a token $100.
“It’s become a social issue for me,” said Meeker touring the site. “We’re transforming a place that has been used for locking people up into a place of service.”
Meeker said Bennett and past executive director of Help of Ojai, Marlene Spencer, met at a senior luncheon they attended and came up with the idea. Help has been so successful it needs to expand but has no room at its current site next to Ojai City Hall.
“Help has taken over the county’s Senior Nutrition Program,” said Meeker, “and with the growing senior population projected to double by the year 2020 the opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time.”
After clearing debris and brush from a large portion of the property, painting and installing electrical and communication systems, Meeker said they are well on their way to reaching their goal of opening the West Campus site that includes more than 11 acres of agricultural land and 80,000 square feet of building space. All of the work thus far has been done with a limited paid staff and thousands of hours of volunteer labor.
The newly renovated support building, with donated furnishings keeping expenditures for equipment to under $1,000, already holds a staff of rotating volunteers with big smiles ready to be part of the West Campus. Still, she is eager for any and all help.
“We’ve been able to do so much because of the help of our volunteers,” added Meeker. The walls of one of the renovated buildings hold a photo exhibit of the smiling members of the Senior and Retired Volunteer Program: “Faces of Help of Ojai” by Fred Rothenberg.
The facility has already begun functioning as a space for general outreach, meetings for Ojai Valley Community Connections, and for a valleywide emergency support center used during the last year’s Day Fire.
Along with the physical rehabilitation of the site Meeker explained volunteers have been busy building a business model as well. According to Meeker they are defining their organizational needs in both short and long terms to best serve the community. Plans now include leasing a large agricultural parcel to Steve Sprinkel for organic farming, housing the Ojai Raptor Center for raptor recovery programs and education, and Concerned Resource and Environmental Workers (C.R.E.W.), a nonprofit youth employment and environmental program.
Meeker said any programs considered for the site will need to benefit the Ojai community.
“We are developing a multi-tenant nonprofit center,” said Meeker, walking through one of the main buildings being used today for local helicopter training by Ventura County firefighters. “The place already has a different feeling about it.”
Meeker used the San Francisco Presidio as an example of reusing an existing complex for shared uses. Standing in the center of the building she pointed to surrounding walls, saying, “These slanted walls are coming out and I’m envisioning this as a day-lit rotunda where visitors will be met and greeted.”
When Meeker first looked at the site she thought many of the buildings would have to be demolished because they were in such bad repair, but she feels differently now.
“Now the longer we look the more we realize we can reuse. I’m so excited. There is so much open space,” she said looking out across the rolling hills and mountains beyond. “We’re working toward a green site.”
Meeker ended her tour telling a final story about the project. “On one of our work days out here I had a young girl in charge of a work crew removing brush,” said Meeker with a gentle smile.
“I found out later that she was the daughter of a former deputy who worked here as a guard. It also turned out that two of the volunteers working with her that day were former inmates. I love what we are doing out here.”
Meeker will arrange tours of the site by appointment. Those interested should call 649-9218 or send an e-mail request to westcampus@helpofojai.org.

OUSD Cuts Costs, Approves $111,000 Snack Bar

By Sondra Murphy
After hours of discussion over the district’s wellness policy last week, Ojai Unified School District board members declined to consider adding several items to its nutritional menus that could help reduce the deficit in the food services program. Just two agenda items later, the board approved the purchase of a concessions trailer to be installed at Nordhoff stadium that would serve the very foods the wellness policy has banned from school cafeterias.
Allowing parent and student clubs to profit from unhealthy fare, such as french fries and sodas, while its fiscally struggling nutrition program cannot serve such items was a double standard acknowledged by the board members. Still, they supported Nordhoff administrative and Parent Association requests for the $111,000 facility to serve as snack bar during extracurricular events.
“There are support groups that don’t have to follow the wellness policy,” explained superintendent Tim Baird. “The parent association is one of those groups.”
Debate took place about whether teachers and parents should comply with the wellness policy during events and parties. Examples of reward lunches featuring chips and soda were given. Despite lively discourse, the question remained: If the district is willing to spend money for a concession stand that defies its wellness policy, should it not then continue subsidizing healthy meals in its food services program?
The boardroom was full, as parents in support of eliminating unhealthy food from schools came to voice their concerns. The dangers of milk and foods containing additives or high fructose corn syrup were listed as particular items that should be removed for the sake of all student consumers. References to childhood obesity and diabetes were given to the board as warnings of the dire impact their decisions will have on society.
Several speakers said that many parents do not make informed decisions about what their children eat and so, regardless of cost, schools must shoulder the responsibility of feeding children healthy meals. Opinions of what qualified as healthful varied. “We want to produce a meal every day that attracts kids and turns a profit,” said Ojai Food for Thought president Jim Churchill. Food for Thought works to raise community awareness about the importance of using nutritional practices that reduce health-related problems.
Some speakers were worried that three-ounce bread portions would increase calorie contents to unhealthy levels. Others felt that it was unwise to allow less healthy foods to solve a financial crisis. Parent and chef Claud Mann agreed that budget issues are troublesome to overcome and proposed that the district might consider focusing on one ingredient at a time. “High fructose corn syrup is, essentially, crack. It is the devil,” said Mann. “If you concentrate on one thing, concentrate on that.”
District child nutrition services director Suzanne Lugotoff presented OUSD sample menus and details of federal and state standards that conflict with Ojai’s policies and have made ordering difficult and breaking even a losing battle. Just as textbooks are written to school standards, educational food suppliers create products to meet government requirements. The OUSD wellness policy is stricter in some of those requirements.
Lugotoff itemized daily losses of the district’s meal program, with numbers that emphasized what cooks have known for centuries: fresh fruits and vegetables require more time, money and resources to serve. Board vice-president Steve Fields took offense at Lugotoff’s presentation.
“I have no trust in these numbers,” Fields told Lugotoff. “I believe they were skewed to discredit the salad bar. I think they are way out of line.”
Lugotoff replied that her figures had no specific motivation towards the salad bar. “I’m very proud of the choices we’ve put together as far as the menus are concerned,” she said. Her statistics have shown that participation in the nutrition program is strong in elementary grades and dwindles as students advance to secondary sites.
“We have to recognize that high school and junior high students have really already formulated their opinions,” said board clerk Linda Taylor. “We have to educate our elementary students. I feel that Suzanne has that in mind.” She pointed out that the $160,000 deficit in the nutrition services budget is the equivalent to three teachers. Taylor added that, if they think about the amount as going towards educating students district-wide, the subsidy might appear less alarming.
The board agreed to consider in next month’s wellness policy update the addition of ala carte items to its elementary cafeterias, as all school foods are ordered based on stringent nutritional standards. Rejected for consideration were three-ounce breads, snack choices with up to 35% calories from fat, vended sodas, beverages with artificial sweeteners and Gatorade in 20-ounce containers that fit vending machines that previously dispensed sodas. Replacing the machines with new ones that dispense wellness policy-compliant beverages has proved cost prohibitive.
In hopes of offsetting some of the food services deficit, the board approved price increases for school breakfast and lunches for the coming school year. The cost for meals will increase by 25 cents and Lugotoff will evaluate ala carte items for similar changes. The last meal price increase occurred three years ago.
The next school board meeting will be held July 24 at 7 p.m. in the district office boardroom.
don’t have to follow the wellness policy,” explained superintendent Tim Baird. “The Parent Association is one of those groups.”
Debate took place about whether teachers and parents should comply with the wellness policy during events and parties. Examples of reward lunches featuring chips and soda were given. Despite lively discourse, the question remained: If the district is willing to spend money for a concession stand that defies its wellness policy, should it not then continue subsidizing healthy meals in its food services program?
The board room was full, as parents in support of eliminating unhealthy food from schools came to voice their concerns. The dangers of milk and foods containing additives or high fructose corn syrup were listed as particular items that should be removed for the sake of all student consumers. References to childhood obesity and diabetes were given to the board as warnings of the dire impact their decisions will have on society.
Several speakers said that many parents do not make informed decisions about what their children eat and so, regardless of cost, schools must shoulder the responsibility of feeding children healthy meals. Opinions of what qualified as healthy varied. “We want to produce a meal every day that attracts kids and turns a profit,” said Ojai Food For Thought President Jim Churchill. Food For Thought works to raise community awareness about the importance of using nutritional practices that reduce health-related problems.
Parent and chef Claud Mann agreed that budget issues are troublesome to overcome and proposed that the district might consider focusing on one ingredient at a time. “High fructose corn syrup is, essentially, crack. It is the devil,” said Mann. “If you concentrate on one thing, concentrate on that.”
District child nutrition services director Suzanne Lugotoff presented OUSD sample menus and details of federal and state standards that conflict with Ojai’s policies and have made ordering difficult and breaking even a losing battle. Just as textbooks are written to school standards, educational food suppliers create products to meet government requirements. The OUSD wellness policy is stricter in some of those requirements.
Lugotoff itemized daily losses of the district’s meal program, with numbers that emphasized what cooks have known for centuries: fresh fruits and vegetables require more time, money and resources to serve. Board vice president Steve Fields took offense at Lugotoff’s presentation.
“I have no trust in these numbers,” Fields told Lugotoff. “I believe they were skewed to discredit the salad bar. I think they are way out of line.”
Lugotoff replied that her figures had no specific motivation toward the salad bar. “I’m very proud of the choices we’ve put together as far as the menus are concerned,” she said. Her statistics have shown that participation in the nutrition program is strong in elementary grades and dwindles as students advance to secondary sites.
“We have to recognize that high school and junior high students have really already formulated their opinions,” said board clerk Linda Taylor. “We have to educate our elementary students. I feel that Suzanne has that in mind.” She pointed out that the $160,000 deficit in the nutrition services budget is the equivalent to three teachers.
The board agreed to consider in next month’s wellness policy update the addition of ala carte items to its elementary cafeterias, as all school foods are ordered based on stringent nutritional standards.
In hopes of offsetting some of the food services deficit, the board approved price increases for school breakfast and lunches for the coming school year. The cost for meals will increase by 25 cents and Lugotoff will evaluate ala carte items for similar changes. The last meal price increase occurred three years ago.
The next school board meeting will be held July 24 at 7 p.m. in the district office board room.

How New State Laws Affect Ojai

By Sondra Murphy
Several new state laws went into effect as of July 1 that may impact our daily lives. Most have to do with traffic, but a few venture into other arenas.
Markets are now required to collect, label and recycle plastic grocery bags. Bags must display that they are recyclable to avoid any doubt in the mind of the consumer. Besides recycling plastic bags, stores statewide are required to offer reusable bags. Since Ojai markets already have such procedures in place, the impact is minimal.
“The only thing that affects us is the trash cans at the front of the store to put bags in,” said Starr Market owner Terry Starr. “It’s more work. We have to keep a record for three years, so it’s more paperwork for us. I don’t know how many people are going to use the bins. I think most people reuse the bags in their trash cans at home.”
Health clubs are now required to keep automated external defibrillators on site. The heart-starting machines range in cost from $1,000 to $4,000, so it is a significant investment for an exercise facility.
“We’ve known it’s been coming for a long time,” said Bryant Street Health & Fitness Center owner Tressa Kahler. The defibrillator requires a short training by a person certified in CPR, who then performs in-house staff trainings on using the unit. “It’s really easy to use,” Kahler said. “It tells you exactly what to do.”
Kahler said that everyone at the fitness center has to know CPR and first aid techniques and only those certified in CPR may operate the defibrillator. Kahler said she researched a lot of models and checked with the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association for recommendations. “You want to make sure it works. You don’t want to get something that’s the cheapest that won’t work.”
Don’s Gym owner, Don Williams, is not certain the financial burden is a fair one for small facilities like his. “The difference between the amount of people in the course of the day that come into my gym vs. a 50,000-square-foot gym is significant,” said Williams. “I’ve been here 27 years and have only had three people give me symptoms to worry about. I got them to the hospital just fine.”
Williams said that he can understand the motivation behind the defibrillation law, but said, “You’ve got to pay some large money for the equipment.”
Stricter enforcement of carpool lane use, incorrect lane changes and passengers over 18 who do not secure their seat belts while the vehicle is in motion are newly on the books. Now, drivers and passengers will both be ticketed for seat belt infractions.
State laws have also been modified for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. First-time offenders may expect to spend at least 96 hours in jail for a DUI conviction and the time could be as long as four months, depending on other factors of the arrest. Additionally, there are fines, driver’s license suspension, driving school and DMV penalties.
According to Ojai attorney Paul Blatz, Ventura County may continue to allow work release to count as some of those hours. Blatz has not yet represented a client on a DUI arrest since July 1, so was uncertain as to how the county will handle the modifications to the statute. Court prosecution of DUI offenders vary by county and depending on blood-alcohol levels. “Previously, a person’s first DUI resulted in a four-month license suspension, of which 30 days has to be absolute suspension,” Blatz told OVN. “For three of those months, a person can receive a restricted license.” A restricted license allows driving to and from work and drunk driving school only.
“That suspension period goes up with the degree of alcohol in your system,” said Blatz. “If it’s greater than .20, then your driver’s license is suspended for 10 months.” In Ventura County, there are additional penalties for greater blood-alcohol levels. “Even for first time DUI offenders with levels of concentration at .15 or above, the court can order you to have an interlock device put into your car.” This device has a type of breathalyzer to measure sobriety before the car will start.
Blatz explained that there are two paragraphs in the drunk driving statute, 23152, from which law enforcement choose when prosecuting chemically impaired drivers. “The ‘a’ paragraph states that it is illegal for anybody to drive on the streets of California if they are impaired to the state that they are unsafe. Paragraph ‘b’ states it’s a crime to get behind the wheel at .08 or above, even if you’re not necessarily impaired.”

Long-awaited Caltrans Truck Study Released

By Nao Braverman
Ventura County 1st District Supervisor Steve Bennett released a long-awaited Caltrans study on the mountainous section of Highway 33 earlier this week.
To the disappointment of local critics of truck traffic through Ojai, the Caltrans engineers concluded that State Route 33 is maintained to provide safe travel for all motorists, and is designed to accommodate large trucks.
The Stop the Trucks! Coalition disagrees and has already hired an expert to do a more thorough study, said Jan Chatten-Brown from Chatten-Brown & Carstens.
Coalition member Michael Shapiro added, "It reached the conclusion that Highway 33 was safe for truck traffic without any serious engineering or traffic analysis."
The study of the portion of Highway 33 from the five points intersection at El Roblar Drive and Maricopa Highway through Pine Mountain and its descent into Lockwood Valley was commissioned by Bennett in February.
It was motivated by the concern of many Ojai residents, department heads and business leaders that the expansion proposals of sand and gravel mines off of Highway 33 could more than double the existing truck traffic through the Ojai Valley. Citizens and decision makers have stated that increasing truck traffic would be detrimental to the safety, economy and quality of life in Ojai.
Caltrans agreed to take on the study at their own expense and began planning it in mid-March. Slightly more than three months later, Caltrans District 7 investigators turned the report in to Bennett, concluding that the highway can be traveled safely by trucks and all other motorists.
According to the report, a study of the roadway geometry in April found the roads to be in very good condition.
A study of a structural segment of the pavement on Route 33 determined that the road was under-designed to carry existing traffic loads. However, that could be remedied by rehabilitation and reconstruction to address future increases in traffic loading, according to the report. An off-tracking study determined that roads could be traveled safely on the route without off-tracking into the shoulder or the neighboring lane as long as they traveled at reduced speeds. Caltrans officials examined the traffic accident data to find that in a study period of more than two years, there were 502 accidents, seven of which were fatal. Their study data showed that of the 502 accidents, only 13 were related to large trucks, according to the report.
Shapiro said that Stop the Trucks! Coalition Members believe that the outcome of the Caltrans study was predetermined in order to support sand and gravel mining companies such as the Ozena Valley mine, of which Caltrans is a frequent customer.
The coalition gained access to an email from Richard Pool of Associated Transportation Engineers to Doug Failing, director of Caltrans District 7, in February, asking Caltrans to support the proposal for the Diamond Rock mine, another proposed sand and gravel mine in Cuyama Valley, because it would increase the much needed supply of aggregate.
"There is a material supply project being processed in Santa Barbara County," wrote Pool. "The haul route for the project is via 33 through 101. Ojai and other Ventura County residents are fighting the project as it will add to the truck traffic. If Caltrans is serious about developing additional material supplies, then Caltrans needs to be a proponent and supporter of this project ... Here is the opportunity for Caltrans to assist in the development of additional aggregate supply for Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles Counties."
Maria Raptis, public information officer for Caltrans DIstrict 7, denied any conflict of interest between the agencies frequent use of aggregate from the mines.
"We don't have any direct relationship with any gravel suppliers," she said. The materials come through a fair bid process. "We don't dictate the source of the materials or the provider," she said.
The continued hearing for the Diamond Rock proposal will be in Santa Maria Wednesday.

Double Murderer May Be Outpatient In 2008

By Lenny Roberts
It was reported Friday that Ventura County Superior Judge Edward Brodie has ordered double-murderer Miguel Hugo Garcia transferred from San Bernardino 's Patton institution for the criminally insane to a mental health rehabilitation facility in Sylmar. If Garcia does well there by completing a one-year rehabilitation program, he could be eligible for Ventura County's outpatient mental health program in 2008, effectively returning him to society.

Describing the man who murdered the elderly Upper Ojai cancer patient and his care-giving daughter as a time bomb waiting to go off, Ventura County Superior Court Judge James P. Cloninger sentenced Garica to the San Bernardino maximum security mental facility in October 1997. Garcia, a Glendale businessman, was sentenced just five months after he fired six rounds into 42-year-old Helen Giardina moments after killing 83-year-old Albert Alexander in a flurry of destructive Black Talon bullets. The crimes were committed in the presence of Giardina's 3-year-old son in an Ojai-Santa Paula Road home adjacent to property owned by Garcia.

Do you agree with the judge's decision to transfer Garcia to a rehabilitation center; should he remain locked up in the maximum security facility; or should Garcia have been given the death penalty when convcted of the crime?

Olivia Gandy Named Miss Ojai 2007

By Nao Braverman

As outgoing queen Jackie Van Etten applauds, Miss Ojai 2007, Olivia Gandy, steps up to receive her crown at Saturday’s Ojai Valley Pageant.

Even tomboys can be Miss Ojai.
This year’s winner of the Ojai Valley Pageant, Olivia Gandy, is a stellar athlete. Though she looks stunning in a sparkling blue evening gown, Gandy was playing sports right up until the contest, said the pageant coordinator, Nancy Hill-Hinz.
“Even tomboys clean up real nicely.”
Contestants work for two and a half months learning about wellness, how to care for their skin and bodies, and they even get training in etiquette. Hinz learned her etiquette skills when she was training to be a flight attendant and borrowed techniques to pass on to pageant contestants.
In its 55th year the Ojai Valley Pageant proves to be a good old-fashioned traditional pageant, she said.
The contestants paraded across the stage, smiling brightly for a packed Libbey Bowl audience with the backdrop of an American flag and red, white and blue streamers.
“These girls were all really fabulous,” said Hinz. “It was a really hard one to call.”
Gandy, outgoing and talented, impressed the judges with a great interview, said Hinz.
Gandy said she looks forward to serving the community.
“It should be a good year,” she said.
Judges for this year’s Miss Ojai pageant were Buddy Wilds, Robert McNeal, Lori Creiton, Phil Long, Ron Rowe, Tre Bernstein, and Shannon Gilmore.
Jack and Paul Jacobs tabulated the votes.
The preteen winner was Megan Kauer, preteen first runner-up was Bobbi Shane. Teen contest winner was Emily Diamond, first runner-up teen was Crystal Zelenka, Mandy Rhodes won the Little Miss Ojai contest, Madison Miller was the first runner up Little Miss. First runner-up for the Miss Ojai contest was Joanne Mascon. Anthony Andre won the male model contest and Joshua Bonitas won first runner-up.

Ojai Ready For Old-Fashioned Fourth

By Sondra Murphy
Bring family, friends, appetites and portable chairs. Ojai Independence Day 2007 offers something for everyone.
Beginning Tuesday, events start with the St. Thomas Aquinas Teens to World Youth Day barbecue at the Libbey Park fountain. It runs from 4 to 7 p.m. A patriotic show honoring Wendy Hilgers, parade grand marshal, starts at 7 p.m. The free concert features Joe Boccali and the Ojai Band, the Diz Mullen Swing Band, and singers Eileen Bertsch and Marcus Kettles. The Ojai Art Center is sponsoring the Best Decorated Chair contest and judging takes place along the parade route Tuesday at 8 p.m.
Wednesday, Teen Challenge is offering a pancake breakfast from 6 to 10 a.m. at Chaparral Auditorium. The Youth Freedom Run sponsored by the Ojai Rotary Club and Ojai Unified School District begins registration at 8:45 a.m. at Libbey Park. Participants receive flags and ribbons. An optional $1 donation is requested.
The Independence Day parade down Ojai Avenue begins at 10 a.m. This is the final year to see the award-winning kindergarten kazoo band. Meiners Oaks teacher Jim France retired this year after 27 years with the district and sending hundreds of kazoo players out into the world. The parade awards ceremony will be held at the Libbey Park gazebo at 1:30 p.m.
The Fourth of July concert and fireworks show will take place at Nordhoff High School stadium, presented by the Ojai Independence Day Committee. Gates open at 5 p.m. Boy Scout Troop 503’s flag ceremony is at 5:45 p.m. and the concert by Studebaker begins at 6 p.m. The fireworks start popping at 9:15 p.m. Presale admission is $8 for adults, $4 for children and family passes cost $15 for two adults and children under 18. Presale tickets may be purchased at the Ojai Recreation Department, Oak View Liquor, Attitude Adjustment at the “Y” or Tottenham Court in the Arcade. Adults pay $10 and children $5 at the gate. Family passes will not be sold at the gate. For more ticket information or phone orders, call 646-4295 or e-mail ojai4th@ojai.net. Please see inserted parade lineup and details on festivities.

Event Schedule
July 3
4 to 7 p.m., St. Thomas Aquinas barbecue dinner at Libbey Park fountain
7 p.m., Concert and show honoring parade grand marshal Wendy Hilgers
8 p.m., Best Decorated Chair Contest judging sponsored by Ojai Art Center

July 4
6 to 10 a.m., Teen Challenge pancake breakfast at Chaparral Auditorium
8:45 a.m., Youth Freedom Run at Libbey Park
10 a.m., Independence Day parade follows Ojai Avenue from Country Club Drive to Park Road
1:30 p.m., Parade awards at Libbey Park gazebo
5:45 to 10 p.m., Fourth of July concert and fireworks show, Nordhoff High School stadium. Gates open at 5 p.m.; concert begins at 6 p.m.; fireworks start at 9:15 p.m.

Backhoe Blamed For Phone Outage

By Sondra Murphy
Internet, telephones, landline 911 calls come to a halt

When telephone lines go down, it can be bothersome to most people. It often means no Internet and businesses have to take credit card payments the old fashioned way. But for emergency services personnel, phones are their primary link to people in need.
Ojai Valley residents experienced sporadic phone service from the Upper Ojai area on down to Seaward Avenue in Ventura Thursday for more than six hours. With many people using cell phones during the land line disruption, connection was intermittent and dropped calls were common.
For hours, no one, not even the phone company, knew the source of the major glitch. As late as 3 p.m., AT&T media relations were unsure of the cause. AT&T service technician Loren Bright was on location on Santa Clara Street in Ventura where backhoe work had disrupted phone lines.
“We’re mostly concerned about emergency services and getting them back,” said Bright.
Ojai Police Administrative Sgt. Maureen Hookstra was informed by people at the Ventura County Emergency Operations Center of the outage. Her personal cell phone was the main line in for business calls. “We have sheriff dispatch and fire dispatch routed into the office,” said Hookstra. “We can receive calls from the city, take the information and dispatch personnel.”
Extra precautions were taken to keep in contact with local agencies. “The Fire Department has gone out to make contact with extended care facilities in Ojai,” Hookstra said. Ojai Valley Community Hospital was informed of the situation.
Double fire crews were called in to ensure emergency needs were available. Capt. John Tucker and his crew from El Rio were manning Ojai Fire Station 21. “We were moved up here to cover,” said Tucker. “I’m carrying my cell phone with me to receive information as it’s known.” He said extra fire engines were brought into all stations in the Ojai Valley, just in case.
Both county agencies agreed cell phones helped agencies maintain contact with the community. “And everyone’s behaving themselves,” Hookstra added.

Famed Cartoonist Earns Lifetime Achievement Award

By Nao Braverman
Ojai resident Sergio Aragonés is the creative mind behind cartoon images that have been viewed by readers and comic book aficionados around the country and abroad.
Though Aragonés’ humorous illustrations have been seen by millions, he can still sit comfortably at his favorite local coffee shop without being recognized.
“I’m fortunate to have a very anonymous career,” he said.
Though comic book fans have seen his “Marginal Thinking” illustrations in the margins of Mad Magazine pages, or followed the catastrophic mishaps of his comic book antihero Groo the Wanderer, they know Aragonés by name and not by face, and that’s how he likes it.
The Ojai cartoonist never imagined he would be so successful, nor did he aspire to do much more than simply publish his work. But more than 50 years into his illustrating career, Aragonés has won almost every major award offered to a cartoonist including the Will Eisner Hall of Fame Award and the National was due to an error by the post office he said.
After years of contributing to Mad, Aragonés teamed with Mark Wordsworth in the early 1980s to create Groo the Wanderer, one of the few creator owned comic books, about a barbarian who was never able to get anything right.
Groo the Wander was one of the few humorous comics in an American market full of adventure heros. No one had yet written about barbarians, said Aragonés.
Though Aragonés has a degree in architecture from the University of Mexico to satisfy his parents he never thought of becoming anything but a cartoonist.
Fortunately, talent and circumstances worked in his favor and he has been able to lead a comfortable life doing what he loves.
But there are some small changes to his work routine with advancing technology. Though now scans his images into a computer before sending them to a colorist, he has essentially been doing the same job for 53 years and enjoys every moment of it.

Agencies Prepare For Major Fire Threat

By Nao Braverman

This summer marks the 13th year efforts by the C.R.E.W. have helped keep the Ojai Valley safe from wildfires

Since the end of May a team of about 12 young people ages 14 to 21 have been hard at work clearing away brush to protect Ojai during what has been predicted as one of the worst fire seasons the valley has ever seen.
With a grant from the U.S. Forest Service through the California Fire Safe Council, and $50,000 in matching funds from the City of Ojai, the Ojai Fire Safe Council is constructing the Ojai Valley Last Defense Fuel Break.
The fuel break, a safety zone with highly flammable growth patches cleared away serves as a buffer to slow down advancing flames, giving fire fighters more leverage, said Wally McCall, a co-founder of the Ojai Fire Safe Council.
Stretching 4.7 miles from the citrus groves north of Meiners Oaks to the eastern end of Gridley Trail, the fuel break will range from 20- to 100-foot wide clearances, depending on the terrain.
Members of C.R.E.W., an Ojai non-profit benefitting at-risk youth, have taken on the laborious task of removing the brush in the scorching summer sun. Crew members from Ojai, Santa Paula and Fillmore, half of them under 17 years old, have begun cutting and clearing areas under the supervision of CREW staff and the Ventura County Fire Department.
This fuel break is being cut in a mosaic pattern rather than a linear path, said McCall, also the chief executive officer of CREW. The C.R.E.W. members will leave all riparian plants and growth that stabilizes the hillside to prevent erosion. All plants that don’t burn well will be left alone, leaving a more visually pleasing landscape than a linear fuel break, he said.
All clearing will be done by hand without any ground disturbance. The team of local youth are working together to cut away decadent brush and using a small chipper to chop it into mulch which they spread over the patches of bare land as ground cover.
In addition to fire safety, fuel breaks can become excellent places to view wildlife, said McCall. Clearing away dry brush and dead plants leaves room for new growth which, in turn, attracts deer, birds and other wild animals, he said.
Teams are currently working at two sites, one at the top of Foothill Road and another at the Gridley Trail gate. McCall expects the entire project will take at least a year to complete.
With funding from the city, cooperation from local land owners and labor provided by C.R.E.W. youth, the fuel break has been a true community effort, said William Castagna, grants manager of the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council.
After the Day Fire, too close for comfort, and with the upcoming fire season, U.S. Forest Service recognized the importance of the project, said Castagna.
The fuel break is intended not only to protect Ojai homes but also the multitude of orchards which have sustained the valley’s economy for years.

Bennett Announces Re-election Plan

By Daryl Kelley
A full year before the 2008 primary election, Steve Bennett announced Monday that he is running for a third term as the Ojai Valley’s representative on the county Board of Supervisors.
Bennett, 56, said he decided to start his campaign early to deter potential opponents in the June, 2008 primary.
“I have heard that opponents are trying to send a message that they are going to come out against me,” Bennett said in an interview.
“Well, I want to send a message early that I’ll have the resources and the endorsements to counter their negative campaigning.”
Bennett, a Democrat, said his campaign already has $110,000 in the bank, more than he spent in both the primary and general elections in 2000, when he won an open seat against two well-financed Republicans.
Bennett won that general election with about 63 percent of the vote, and then won re-election in 2004 with nearly three-quarters of the vote.
First indications that he might face a stiff challenge in next year’s primary came in early March, when an anonymous phone message circulated that accused Bennett of harassing county employees and causing costly lawsuits.
That prompted a district attorney’s investigation, since such anonymous messages are against the law. The inquiry is still underway.
Bennett said he might have been a target of an opponent for his nonpartisan supervisor's seat, because some Republicans consider him a potential candidate for higher office.
The chairman of the Ventura County Republican Party, Mike Osborn, said then that neither he nor his party were behind the phone messages.
But Osborn said this week that Bennett is a political target not only of Republicans but of Democrats.
“A number of people have expressed interest, but none has said they’re actually going to run yet,” Osborn said Monday. “I have heard there are two Democrats thinking about it and maybe three Republicans.”
He said he expects at least one of the Republicans to announce in the next couple of weeks. “You should give yourself a year to run an effective race, to be able to meet everybody in the district,” he said.
Like presidential races, the length of county campaigns has been increasing. And Osborn noted that a two-year effort by a Simi Valley candidate in last year’s race for a superivsorial seat.
Bennett said he’s taking the potential challenge seriously, raising more money than ever and securing the endorsements of numerous elected officials, including Supervisor Linda Parks, who appeared at his Monday morning press conference at a Ventura mobile home park.
Bennett said he has not yet sought the endorsements of other board colleagues. He and veteran Supervisor John Flynn, also a Democrat, have fought over several issues.
And Flynn said this week that there had been much discussion in political circles about strong candidates to oppose his board rival.
Flynn also criticized Bennett, author of a law that limits supervisors’ campaign spending to $175,000, for raising so much money so quickly.
“In the spirit of his campaign fund-raising law, he ought to give that $110,000 advantage up, so everybody could start out at the same place.”
In addition to his bankroll, Bennett said he has received early endorsements from four politically potent employee groups – the Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs Assn., the county firefighters union, and the city of Ventura police and firefighters unions.
He has also been endorsed, he said, by the Ventura Citizens for Hillside Preservation, a group that killed a huge development.
Indeed, Bennett’s support in District 1, which includes Ventura and the Ojai Valley, has been strong among environmentalists and growth-control advocates.
A former Nordhoff High School government teacher, Bennett was coauthor of the county's agricultural land protection S.O.A.R. measures. He is also a former Ventura city councilman.
Bennett said he’s running on his success as a fiscal watchdog in county government.
“When I came into office, county budget reserves were zero; now, they’re at nine percent and that’s after going through some tough times.”
Another cornerstone of his campaign will be promoting “sustainable envirnonmental policies,” he said.
He’s also campaigning on several key Ojai Valley issues: demolition of Matilija Dam to revive the Ventura River, change of state law to protect mobile home owners from soaring rents, and stopping gravel trucks from using states highways 33 and 150 as access points to the Ventura County coast.
“Certainly, those trucks are a threat to our quality of life,” he said.

Would You Welcome Schwarzenegger-Shriver

Rumors are flying that California's first family is looking to purchase property in Ojai. Would this be good or bad for the community?