Ojai Unified Going Green

School district looks to save money, planet

By Sondra Murphy
With funding challenges facing Ojai Unified School District, most staff members are finding themselves with increased duties. Superintendent Tim Baird took it one step further and helped start the Ojai Valley Green Coalition.
Baird’s interest in forming the coalition was from the perspective that Ojai Valley businesses could make fundamental changes that have a collective and positive impact on the environment. With new environmental policies being developed, OUSD hopes to be saving more than the planet.
Over the summer, changes have been made districtwide to more effectively manage its resources while saving money. The school district has had recycling policies in place for many years, but has been implementing new, environmentally friendly practices that address growing concerns about our global climate.
Expanding its recycling program is one goal of the district. “We are putting together a plan to improve on our current recycling at the district office and out at different schools,” said Baird. “We recycle but it’s not as clean as it could be.
“As we speak, we have lighting upgrades going into the Matilija Gym, and the Nordhoff Gym and cafeteria,” Baird said. The district will be meeting with vendors about different options in day lighting, sky lighting and other more efficient systems. Topa Topa Elementary already has new day lighting systems in some classrooms. Besides being more green, “Studies show students do better with these kinds of lighting systems,” Baird said.
Transportation is another area of concern to the school district. “We currently have two natural gas buses and are looking at adding to our fleet. There’s a hybrid bus out there, but it is cost-prohibitive to our district,” Baird said. “We are working on a plan to increase bus ridership and also car pooling, biking and walking for students and staff.”
Starting this school year, the nutrition services department will no longer purchase Styrofoam trays for its meals. “They will use sugar cane-based trays that break down in landfills,” said Baird.
Purchasing greener supplies is just one way the district can improve. “We’re working on a grant with Food for Thought that will allow us to do a study on composting,” said Baird. With an increase in OUSD gardens being grown and harvested, composting would be one way of reducing waste that could prove fruitful.
Many of the green changes, like biodegradable lunch trays, cost more to purchase. With the district losing enrollment and funding each year, administration finds itself having to pay a little more to do the right thing, but it is hoped that some of the savings in other areas will help offset the higher cost of green products.
Ojai Unified began taking advantage of an energy-saving agreement with Southern California Edison this summer. Called SmartConnect, customers install special meters that allow the energy company to turn off district air conditioners for limited periods during brown-out conditions in exchange for reduced rates. “That saved the district $50,000 over eight weeks,” Baird said.
“There is a lot of promise here and I believe the school district is the largest energy user in the valley,” said Baird.
The district is exploring solar energy options, but since a significant, up-front investment is necessary, OUSD must first determine whether or not they can afford it.
With so many different ways to go green, the district has appointed Jim Berube its new “energy czar.” Among other duties assigned by the district, Berube has come out of retirement to focus on two tasks: to help save on energy costs and be more environmentally conscious.
Timers now manage the irrigation stations at Nordhoff High. The system has been redesigned to operate with fewer stations at lower volumes for longer periods of time. “It may appear that we’re using more water, but we’re really using less water more efficiently,” said Baird.
“By cutting down on needless waste, it’s better for the planet and better for the checkbook,” said Baird. Sometimes this is accomplished by installing high-tech devices, such as heating or irrigation timers. Simply making sure all computers are turned off at night is another way to cut waste. Additionally, “We’ll go low-tech on some things,” said Baird. Building more shade structures at district sites is an example of a low-tech strategy the district plans to implement.
In the short run, the changes are simple. “My goal is that I don’t want to walk into a classroom anywhere in the district where the lights, air or heat is on when no one is in the classroom,” said Baird.
After five to 10 years of implementation, Baird envisions a district that is thoroughly green. “It’s completely solar, providing all of our energy costs through solar panels,” he foresees. “In all rooms and offices we are on timers. We have centralized plans for composting at all schools. We have more kids taking the bus, and have more natural gas buses to transport them. We are just operating more efficiently and creating less waste.”

Cat Killed By Pellet Gun

Feline suffers slow death after being shot in nose at close range, reward offered

By Lenny Roberts
An adult male cat died after being shot in the nose at close range with a pellet gun Thursday afternoon, according to Ventura County Humane Society director Jolene Hoffman.
The neutered male animal, covered in grease, was brought to the Bryant Street shelter by a man who said he found it, dead, under his car in the 200 block of West Aliso Street.
“The poor thing must have slowly died,” Hoffman said. “I really can’t say how I feel. What a terrible thing. It looks like it was shot point-blank through the nose. The pellet hit his nasal passage and he appears to have suffocated.”
Hoffman said there were no other wounds on the buff- or light-orange-colored cat she described as being in good health at the time it was shot. The pellet was visible and confirmed by Hoffman as the cause of death.
Although it had no collar, tag or identifying chip, Hoffman leaned toward the cat being a pet rather than feral, but was not surprised that no one had called to see if it was at the shelter.
“I think a lot of people assume the worst and that’s never a good idea,” she said. “People should go looking for their pets. If they’re strays and brought here, they’re only kept for one to three days before being transported to Animal Control (in Camarillo).” She defined stray as any animal brought in by someone who says it does not belong to them.
Hoffman said the Humans Society is planning to offer a $500 reward for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who murdered the cat.
“I’m very sad,” Hoffman said. “This is a heartless person who would do that to an innocent animal. It’s just sick. “
Sheriff’s Sgt. Maureen Hookstra said there are no suspects. She urged anyone with information to call her at 646-1414. Tips may be left anonymously.

McConnell Resigns Help of Ojai Post

Executive director moves on as Help expands into West Campus. McConnell is pictured handing out an award to Debbie Thorne at Help of Ojai’s recent Walk2Help event,

By Nao Braverman
After a year and a half of hard work and getting the West Campus on its feet, Debbie McConnell, executive director of Help of Ojai, is resigning to focus on maternal responsibilities.
“With the eldest of my two children starting kindergarden this year, I really want to be there for my kids,” she said. “I’m sure any mother would understand.”
Though a perfect fit for the longtime Ojai nonprofit which serves the local needy and elderly, McConnell recently realized that she wanted more time to be with her family.
With 12 years as the executive director of the California Central Coast Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association behind her, McConnell was unanimously voted in to be director of Help of Ojai in March 2006, to take the place of former executive director Marlene Spencer, who had been with the long-standing nonprofit for 31 years.
Having worked in nonprofit management with the senior population for most of her working life, the position at Help of Ojai allowed McConnell to build on her previous experience while working within her home community. Instead of commuting to Santa Barbara every day, as she had during her tenure with the Alzheimer’s Association, her position at Help of Ojai allowed her to stay close to home and really invest in her work, she said.
And that’s exactly what she did. With the organization’s expansion onto the vacated Honor Farm property off of Baldwin Road, McConnell dove into preparation for the new West Campus, working late nights and weekends until she realized it was going to be too much to juggle with family obligations.
“It was really exciting, there are going to be a lot of incredible opportunities,” she said. “But it would also be a lot of time and energy on my part. More than I can spare.”
Though West Campus preparation for the organization’s expansion was an invigorating experience, McConnell knew that her responsibilities would only increase, leaving her less time to tend to her 5-year-old and 3-year-old kids.
What’s next for McConnell? A longtime Oak View resident, she plans to stay in the Ojai Valley.
“I’m just looking forward to spending more time with my kids,” she said.”I don’t want to miss this critical point in their lives.”
As for Help of Ojai, board members are in the process of deciding on how to fill McConnell’s position. Either a replacement will be elected or a search initiated, said Gene Daffern, president of the board of directors.
McConnell’s final day at Help of Ojai will be Sept. 30.
“She has done an outstanding job,” said Daffern. “She has really done a lot for Help of Ojai.”

Endeavor Astronaut Has Ojai Family

Nancy Radding watches her sister-in-law’s liftoff into space on Wednesday.

By Sondra Murphy
One Ojai family has been watching the space program very closely. Teacher Barbara Morgan, who is part of the Space Shuttle Endeavor crew that launched on Wednesday, is the sister of Howard Radding, a valley dentist for 20 years.
Morgan originally trained with NASA in the 80s when the agency was recruiting teachers, and she was backup for Christa McAuliffe in the 1986 Challenger mission. After the Challenger exploded, the Radding family was relieved that Morgan was not chosen for that flight, but disappointed when the civilian program was scrapped. Morgan’s getting a second chance to go into space has recharged the family with enthusiasm for the program.
Nancy Radding, wife of Howard and sister-in-law of Morgan, watched the Endeavor’s launch on television from her Ojai home on Wednesday. Her husband was accompanied to Florida by his daughters, Ava and Lauren, to witness Morgan and the shuttle crew launch into space. Other members of Morgan’s family met in Florida for the big event.
“The kids got to go to space camp and were given the whole VIP treatment,” Nancy Radding told OVN as she waited for the launch Wednesday. Radding noted how the news coverage is focused on Morgan. “She’s the big dog of this gig,” Radding said. At age 55, Morgan is the oldest person to go into space on a first mission. She retired from teaching to train with NASA and became a full-fledged astronaut in 1998.
Radding’s husband called several times with updates as NASA prepared for liftoff. “Howard said they basically put them in diapers before the launch,” said Radding. “He also said that, with pre-flight jitters, somebody already tossed their cookies.”
The Radding family hails from Fresno, but is now scattered about the western United States, so the Endeavor launch served as a type of family reunion for them. “When you don’t live in the same town, you sometimes get more involved with your friends than with your family,” Radding observed. “With their family all going to this, they’ve gotten caught up in the potency of the experience.” She said the family got a little choked up as they bid farewell to Morgan.
As the countdown progressed and the shuttle lifted, Radding also got caught up in the experience. “Gosh, my heart’s racing. Who’d have thought I’d be so excited?” At each successful step in the shuttle’s separation from its launch equipment, Radding celebrated.
“I told my husband that the biggest link I ever had with space travel was David Bowie,” Radding laughed. When Howard Radding called from Cape Canaveral a few minutes later, she put her ear to the phone. “You can hear everybody just screaming there,” she shared and then spoke into the mouthpiece, “Ground control to Major Tom.”
The Endeavor is expected to dock at the international space station Friday and will stay 11 to 14 days, depending on how long it takes the crew to complete its tasks of delivering a new truss segment and attaching a replacement gyroscope. Morgan has a specific job on the station. “She’s the robotic arm operator,” said Radding. Morgan will also teach two live lessons to students in Idaho and take a space walk or two during the mission.

Pedophile's Ex May Lose House

Property may go toward $5.25 million jury award for failure to protect victims

By Daryl Kelley
The former wife of an admitted Ojai pedophile is faced with losing her $1.2-million home near Ojai after a Ventura County jury found that not only her husband was responsible for the sexual assault of two young sisters, but that she was also negligent.
A Superior Court jury found late last month that Maxine Wiley, the third wife of former truck salesman Carl Wiley, had failed to protect the girls from being molested by her husband, who is now an inmate in state prison.
During the civil trial, attorneys presented evidence that Maxine Wiley had known of the assaults, which she denied, and that Carl Wiley had been a child molester for more than a half century.
The jury awarded $5.25 million in damages against the Wileys, although attorneys think their assets are far less than that.
“The jury found that Maxine was negligent in supervising the kids,” said attorney John Howard, who represents the two victims, now aged 21 and 10.
Carl Wiley, now 79, has admitted sexually assaulting both sisters when they were very young and visited the Wileys’ home in the hills near Ojai.
“The message here is that if you are a pedophile, or if you know something like this is going on, then you better stop it,” Howard said. “The effect on these kids is devastating.”
Both sisters are being treated for psychological trauma, he said.
Howard said he will now target Maxine Wiley’s assets, including the modular home on five acres near Ojai and a duck hunting preserve in Kern County, to satisfy the civil award. She had gained ownership of those assets in a divorce after her husband’s arrest.
“We contend that the distribution of assets was done to protect the Wileys from having to pay a civil judgment to these kids,” Howard said.
Moves to collect the award will not occur until the Wileys’ attorney, Howard Cho, decides what legal steps to pursue.
“There’s always an appeal,” Cho said this week. “And we’re looking at other options — a new trial, because I think there was an error in law here.”
Cho declined to discuss that purported error. But he added that his client was not negligent.
“Mr. Wiley was dead wrong, and he pled guilty,” Cho said. “But I did not think Mrs. Wiley was negligent. All of that was denied ... Carl always had good excuses, and he was good at covering up stuff. He had everyone snookered, including Maxine.”
Carl Wiley was arrested in July 2004 on suspicion of nine counts of molestation against the two sisters in the early 1990s and between 2001 and 2003. The arrest followed a year-long investigation by the Sheriff’s Department, which uncovered a string of allegations of molestation by Wiley dating back five decades, as he moved from Hayward and Livermore in the Bay Area to Santa Paula, Oak View and finally Ojai.
He is now in Soledad state prison after pleading guilty in 2005 to three felony counts, including “continuous sexual abuse” of children. During the recent civil trial, Howard presented evidence that Wiley had molested at least eight girls, including his own two daughters in his first marriage, since 1948.
One of Wiley’s daughters, who testified against him at the civil trial, said she’d told Maxine Wiley that her father had molested her and her sister when they were children. Defense attorney Cho said the daughter’s testimony was fabricated.
But Howard said that it was a key part of establishing that Maxine Wiley was negligent. Additionally, Howard said, the testimony of a Santa Paula father that his daughter had been molested by Wiley in 1988 was also persuasive.
But Cho said the Santa Paula father’s claims were inconsistent, and that the mother of a second girl who was there during the alleged molestation did not believe the claim and continued to allow her daughter to visit the Wiley home.
Another piece of strong evidence against the Wileys was that sheriff’s deputies found a book on sexual disorders in the couple’s dresser drawer when they arrested him in 2004.
In addition, the oldest of the two girls suing the Wileys testified that she had told Maxine Wiley of the molestation in 2001 or 2002, during the same time period when her younger sister was being assaulted by Carl Wiley.
The girls finally told their parents of the sexual assaults in 2003 after psychological therapy, Howard said. But it took a year to put the case together against Carl Wiley.
In the civil trial, the jury also found the two sisters’ parents had been negligent. But they were not defendants in the lawsuit, so were held responsible for damages.
How Wiley got away with molestation for six decades is a good question, Howard said.
“What happens is that when children do report the crime, it becomes their word against a responsible adult’s. So it doesn’t get filed,” he said. “And most children are even afraid to report it.”

County Gives Green Light To Traffic Signal

Caltrans plans to install a traffic signal on Highway 33 at Villanova Road. Signal would be fourth in Mira Monte

By Daryl Kelley
A fourth traffic signal will be installed on state Highway 33 in Mira Monte under an agreement approved Tuesday by the county Board of Supervisors. But construction probably won’t begin until next year, officials said.
“It’s a Caltrans project, and when you’re dealing with Caltrans, you never really know,” said county transportation director Butch Britt.
Indeed, Tuesday’s approval marked the second time county supervisors have signed off on the same traffic light at the junction of Highway 33 and Villanova Road, next to the Rite Aid store.
The first time around, Caltrans intended to erect the light by 2006. But the project was allowed to languish due to an “administrative error,” Britt wrote in a memo to the board.
And now the cost has skyrocketed from about $175,000 to about $750,000, with the state paying two-thirds and the county the rest.
While the costs are high, Britt said the county didn’t have much choice but to approve the project again, because traffic counts and rush-hour congestion show it is needed, and the county and state have the funding for it. So government might be held liable if officials failed to move forward.
“If somebody had an accident there, they’d probably end up going to court,” he said. “And we’d end up answering questions about how much a person’s life is worth.”
The fourth Mira Monte traffic signal — augmenting those at Woodland Avenue, Baldwin Road and and Loma Drive — costs more than four times as much today as when the project was when originally approved in 2004, Britt said, because material costs have exploded and federal construction standards have become more stringent. Labor costs are also up sharply, he said.
“Traffic signal costs are way up all over Southern California,” Britt said. And the principal cause is that the steel arms that hold up signals must now be designed to withstand 100 mph winds, instead of 80 mph.
“It doesn’t seem like much, but it means they have to use more steel and more concrete and more heavy welds, and that makes a big difference in cost.”
In addition, the price of copper for wiring the light has soared, as has that of asphalt because it is an oil-based product.
“We haven’t changed the project’s scope much,” he said. “It’s just that everything costs more.”
The project has been broadened to include a cable connecting the new light with the one at Baldwin Road, so the signals will be coordinated. It has also been upgraded to include a signal-controlled walkway across 33 to the Ojai Valley Trail.
Despite a relative lack of population growth, Britt said Caltrans keeps adding traffic signals in the Ojai Valley because traffic keeps increasing.
“There hasn’t been much new development out there,” he said. “But there has been more and more event traffic, because people like to see Ojai. It’s Shangri La, right?”

Social Host Law Earns National Award

Ordinance gets credit for drop in underage drinking

By Nao Braverman
At a recent award ceremony in Orlando, Fla., the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Underage Drinking Training and Enforcement Center acknowledged that, with Ojai as a role model, Ventura County has really toughened up on youths and adults who allow underage drinking in their homes.
Ojai’s Chief of Police Bruce Norris and Council Member Rae Hanstad accompanied 30 other Ventura County community leaders to the Orlando reception ceremony, Saturday, to accept an award for the county’s recent efforts to curb underage drinking.
Presented by the JJDUDTEC, the award was based on countywide enactment of the Social Host Ordinance, first adopted by Ojai in 2005 and enacted early in 2006.
Spearheaded by the local Substance Abuse Free Environment Coalition, the local ordinance gives law enforcement officers the authority to cite both juveniles and adult hosts of parties where minors are drinking. The the offense is civil not, criminal, but violators are charged an irrefutable $1,000 fine, regardless of their age.
Though some of the violators and their parents disagreed with the imposition of such a high fine, the new ordinance has already been enforced eight times in Ojai. While it is too early to reference official statistics, Norris told council members that local police officers had noted a recent decrease in local parties where underage drinking occurs.
That was the S.A.F.E Coalition’s goal, when they discovered that surveys showed binge drinking among high school students and youngsters who reported riding with a driver under the influence in Ventura County were higher than the state average.
But, most importantly, they also learned that an overwhelming number of youth were using alcohol compared to other drugs and gained access to it at homes or private parties, according to Ruth Cooper, program coordinator for the S.A.F.E Coalition. The latter gave community leaders the incentive to push forward an ordinance that targeted home parties with underage drinkers throughout the city.
Ojai’s ordinance was thus introduced on Jan. 24. Following Ojai’s lead, other Ventura County cities, one by one have enacted their own version of the Social Host Ordinance, charging violators between $500 and $2,500 depending on the local jurisdiction. So far Fillmore has issued one citation, Camarillo 12, Thousand Oaks nine, and Moorpark three.
“I’m very proud that Ojai’s was the leader in enforcing a countywide ordinance that helps deter underage drinking countywide,” said Hanstad who is also a S.A.F.E Coalition member.
Cooper said that after receiving media attention for the success of Ojai and Ventura County ordinances, the local coalition had been contacted by numerous representatives from other cities throughout the country looking to formulate a similar ordinance of their own.
“We are very pleased that our city can work as a role model to assist other communities in passing similar ordinances,” she said.
Part of the effectiveness of the ordinance, has come from all the media coverage which has prompted parents to warn their teens.
“It can’t work as a deterrent if parents and their children don’t know about it,” said Cooper.”

Ojai Pursuit Ends In Arrest Of Oregon Man

Clarence Darold Haws arrested by Ventura Police for local burglaries, failing to register as sex offender

In the early morning hours of July 28, Ojai deputies were involved in a pursuit of a vehicle that had committed a traffic violation.
During the pursuit, the pursued vehicle left the roadway and rolled several times on Creek Road north of Country Club Drive. After the accident, the driver fled the scene and the passenger was detained. Inside the vehicle, deputies discovered a large quantity of stolen property from recent burglaries in the Ojai Valley and identification information for a Clarence Darold Haws, 24, from Lincoln City, Ore. The Ojai deputies conducted a search for Haws, but were unable to locate him.
On Aug. 1, officers from the Ventura Police Department contacted Haws at a motel in Ventura regarding an incident unrelated to the vehicle pursuit on the 28th. The Ventura Police Department arrested Haws for failing to register as a sex offender, resisting arrest, and a misdemeanor warrant from San Bernardino County.
Ojai detectives were notified Haws was in custody at the Ventura County Main Jail and interviewed him regarding the vehicle pursuit, stolen property, and the recent reported burglaries. After the interview, Haws was arrested for five counts of residential burglary, felony evading with a vehicle, possession of stolen property, and resisting arrest. Haws was booked on the above charges at the Main Jail.

Ojai City Crime Report Shows Mixed News

Felony assaults drop in the first half of year, but Ojai crime rate highest in county

By Daryl Kelley
Serious crime in Ojai continued at last year’s high level during the first half of 2007 as thefts and residential burglaries increased again, but criminal violence fell as felony assaults were down more than half, according to a new police report.
“The news is mixed,” city manager Jere Kersnar said Wednesday. “But I think there has been progress, because I worry most about (violent) crimes, and those are down.”
There were 148 major crimes in Ojai from January through June, up nine offenses compared with the same six months last year, the Sheriff’s Department reported this week.
That follows a sharp hike last year, when crime in Ojai reached its highest level since 1995. Still, violent crime was down from 11 to eight for the first half of this year.
“Except for an increase of 12 thefts from last year, this report shows no alarming pattern,” wrote Sheriff’s Capt. Bruce Norris, who serves as Ojai’s police chief, in a report to Kersnar. “Detectives and patrol deputies continue to work to reduce thefts. Recent significant arrests of local thieves and drug users have curbed the thefts somewhat from the first three months of this year.”
The biggest spike was in grand theft, which is defined as a loss of property worth $400 or more. That more serious theft increased from 18 to 26, while petty theft was up from 84 to 89, and home burglaries climbed from two to seven.
In his report, Norris noted the same trends that prompted a dramatic increase in crime last year, the theft of valuables from cars and citizens’ relaxed attitude about securing their property.
“Theft from vehicles, theft of bicycles and theft of landscape equipment account for many of our theft cases,” Norris reported.
Kersnar said thieves had been particularly active in parking lots.
“There have been break-ins at trailheads,” he said. “People leave valuables on their seats when they go hiking, and that’s not a good practice.”
Conversely, the actual theft of autos and trucks were down from five to three and burglaries of businesses were down from 19 to 15.
The best news in the report was that aggravated assaults — a telltale sign of gang activity — dropped from nine for the first six months of 2006 to four this year. A spate of gang-related violence prompted the conviction of a dozen youths last year.
But a new sheriff’s anti-gang unit began operations this spring in western Ventura County, including the Ojai Valley, and authorities credit that with a sharp reduction in assaults. The most serious gang-related violence locally this year was a drive-by shooting in February, when a shooter from out of town wounded an east Ojai resident.
“In my opinion, a decrease in gang-related incidents has helped to keep that (assault) number down,” Norris wrote.
Overall, violent offenses fell by three, with no murders, one rape, four felony assaults and three robberies. The robbery number was up from one for all of 2006 to three for the first six months of this year.
“There seems to be an overlap from the increase in thefts to the robberies,” Kersnar said. “I know there are drug issues here, and I presume there is some relationship.”
When all eight serious property and violent crimes for Ojai are taken together, the number of crimes per resident — or crime rate — increased 7 percent for the first half of the year, from 17.06 to 18.20.
That’s more than twice as high as the overall crime rate for all five cities and the unincorporated area that the Sheriff’s Department patrols. By comparison, Moorpark had a crime rate of 6.86 crimes per resident, Thousand Oaks 8.59, Camarillo 9.27 and Fillmore 11.0 .

Planners Delay Decision On Chain-free Downtown

Staff presents plans to establish Historic Commercial District

By Nao Braverman
Eager to move forward on the issue, city staff members presented their first stab at writing a statute to keep chain stores from ruining Ojai’s small-town character, at Wednesday night’s Planning Commission meeting.
But after much deliberation, the planning commissioners, who had not participated in the six previous City Council discussions of the subject, decided that the issue was too complicated and delicate to rush into, and voted to consider the ordinance at yet another meeting.
City staff’s statute proposal included a prohibition of any new chains within the recently established Historic Commercial District, which runs roughly from Cañada Street to Drown Street along Ojai Avenue and from Aliso Street to Topa Topa Street. A second zone outside that district would be regulated by new policies that would limit formula retail establishments to one per lot less than 40,000 square feet, and one per 20,000 square feet for lots that were more than 40,000 square feet. Moreover, new developments in the second zone would be limited to a total floor area of 2,000 square feet and no more than 25 linear feet of frontage. Formula retail would be limited to one per building to prevent the standard “anywhere USA” strip mall look. This, according to staff, would limit formula retail outside the HCD and make it very difficult for them to open without prohibiting them entirely. However, parcels that front Maricopa Highway, north of the “Y” intersection, would not be regulated at all.
The latter was of greatest concern to the handful of community members who voiced their concerns at the meeting.
“I think it might be more fruitful to try a regulatory moratorium that covers the entire city limits,” said Steve Sprinkel, an Ojai Valley resident and small business owner. “It keeps me out of the car and spreads my money around town.” At least seven other residents echoed his desire for a citywide moratorium and Scott Eicher, CEO of the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce, said that a the majority of people who responded to a local chamber of commerce survey said they didn’t want chains in the city at all.
Though most commissioners said they were initially pleased with the proposed ordinance at first glance, many were swayed by the slew of public speakers who urged them to consider a citywide ordinance.
City manager Jere Kersnar said that though other cities had passed citywide ordinances addressing chain stores, none of those cities had prohibited them completely.
Planning Commissioner Cortus Koehler who had carefully researched the legal implications cautioned staff that he had discovered a national chain store association that had been contributing thousands of dollars to a legal defense fund for years, and would have a bottomless pit of money with which they could litigate.
Commissioner Troy Becker countered that it was somewhat misgiving to rely completely on the city attorney.
“I don’t think we should not do it just because it has never been done,” he said.
Commissioner Susan Weaver raised the concern of providing for local residents as well as tourists. With the high prices and small variety of small businesses, locals would have trouble finding what they need in town.
“I think we should keep Ojai a living city,” she said, referring to the streets of Solvang where locals are scarce. She and other commissioners were also concerned about already existing chain businesses such as Radio Shack and Exotic Thai, that would not be able to develop or expand, with the proposed ordinance .
“If you can’t expand or improve your business you’re on your way out,” said Commissioner Paul Crabtree.
Weaver suggested writing an ordinance similar to the one used in Sausalito which regulates chain stores to fit with local aesthetics, but does not prohibit them.
Local resident Leslie Davis said that as a local she was able to get her shopping needs met in Ojai.
“If locals are willing to make certain concessions they can get most of what they need here, though they would occasionally spend more money,” she said. “But I grew up here and I am willing to go to Ventura for some things. We are a small town and sometimes you have to go out of town to shop.”
Most commissioners expressed interest in an approach similar to that of Sausalito’s which would regulate chain stores citywide without prohibiting them.
Becker said, however that since Sausalito’s ordinance does not outright ban chains, the public might be displeased.
Kersnar agreed to continue the discussion and invite the city attorney to answer legal questions since legality seemed to be an overarching concern in the debate.
Though he said he was pleased to see the commissioners’ careful consideration, Kenley Neufeld, author of a similar chain store ordinance that has already received 600 signatures from registered voters, urged the Planning Commission not to take too long in approving an ordinance.
“On Oct. 13 I will be turning in my ballot initiative if the city hasn’t drafted their own,” he said. “Personally I would love to see the city pass an ordinance beforehand and I would love not to turn mine in,” he said.
If his ordinance is not handed over to the city on the Oct. 13 deadline, Neufeld will have to start the process all over again, according to procedural regulations.
As Kersnar explained at a previous meeting, if the city authors the ordinance it is more malleable. However, a citizen’s initiative must be voted on each time a variation is made, at great cost to the city.
Though he would prefer the city to pass their own ordinance, if one is not in place by the October deadline, Neufeld said he will turn in his initiative as a responsibility to his supporters.
The topic of chain stores will be brought back to the next Planning Commission meeting, hopefully with the participation of the city attorney, said Kersnar.

Kunkle Recalls 68 Years In Oak View

Zelda Kunkle, at home, arrived in Oak View during the Great Depression. She remembers when the community boasted two businesses, Thomas’ Grocery and the Hill Top Roadhouse.

By Laignee Barron
On July 19, Zelda Kunkle celebrated her 92nd birthday and 68 years in Oak View.
When she and her husband arrived in Oak View in 1939, it was a quiet town with only a few hundred residents. Little did they expect at the time that they would remain in the town for nearly seven decades and establish much of what residents today take for granted.
Kunkle was born and raised with her older sister Hildred in San Luis Obispo, where their parents owned and ran the local store, Del Monte Grocery.
“I never was into sports but I loved the outdoors,” Kunkle recalled. She discovered a passion for art while at school, particularly still life oil paintings, a love that has continued to this day. At the time she cherished ambitions of attending art college, but out of high school she ended up marrying her childhood sweetheart, Chris Kunkle, and they moved together to the valley.
The tiny town of Oak View had few merchants or stores when they arrived. In fact, Kunkle recalled just two; Thomas’ Grocery on Olive Street and the Hill Top Roadhouse, which remains today.
“We could’ve gone anywhere I guess,” she said. “But we liked the quietness here.”
Shortly after they moved here, Kunkle’s husband got a job working for the new water company. They counted themselves lucky for the opportunity because it was around that time the Great Depression started to affect the valley.
“During the Depression there weren’t a lot of the really nice homes like you can see now, but there were a lot of little shacks,” she said. “It dragged on for a while. It wasn’t something that you could just snap your fingers at and have fixed.”
When the Depression ended the Kunkles bought the Oak View water company. She recalled they were able to check the water tanks from their house by looking through a pair of binoculars. They also had an unorthodox method of billing customers, going door to door and asking how many dogs or chickens or other animals people had, and then adding the approximated cost of each to a flat rate.
One of the original 30 or so members of the Oak View Civic Council, originally United Neighbors, Kunkle has always loved the community spirit of Oak View and has looked for ways to help out. In 1947, the Kunkles saw the need for a post office when mail was often confused, coming to residents through both Ojai and Ventura. The Kunkles didn’t hesitate, but created the first Oak View post office.
“It was a challenge but always really interesting,” Kunkle said. “We started it and eventually hired two or three others to help when the town was growing.”
One of the big town changes occurred when Lake Casitas was built. “There weren’t too many homes destroyed down there, but there were a few,” she said. “The old Santa Ana School is in the middle of the lake now. We used to have to drive by it all the time and I still have a painting of it.”
In honor of their dedication to the community, in the 1960s the Kunkles had a street named after them.
Now, after nearly 70 years of service to the town, several members of the community have expressed that appreciation for the hard work Kunkle has put into the community

Ojaians Hoping To 'Fair' Well

Amy Duncan of the Mira Monte 4-H club prepares her hog for a fair showing with a feeding of goat milk. The Mira Monte 4-H group is entering 32 hogs in the Ventura County Fair, which opens today at the Ventura Fairgrounds.

By Sondra Murphy
For many people, the Ventura County Fair is more than just carnival rides and funnel cakes. The livestock buildings attract both sightseers and buyers wanting to look at the animals.
Two families in the Mira Monte 4-H Club have pooled their efforts to raise four fair pigs. The Duncan family lives on half an acre and shares space with Erika and Kayla Mandell. Besides care, feeding and cleaning, club members have to keep careful documents on their porcine projects.
“We got the pigs in Somis on April 21, 2007,” said mother and record-keeper Lisa Duncan. “They’re real sweet little animals and like to be around people.” The pigs weighed about 50 pounds at pickup and now range in weights between 230 and 250 pounds. “Each family gets a week of duty,” she said. The pig area of the property takes a lot of water to help the pigs stay cool in the summertime heat. “The pigs have made a big, giant mud hole,” Duncan said.
Caring for swine involves frequent monitoring. “They have three feeders, which means I don’t have to go out and feed them every day. They can feed whenever they want to, which is all the time,” said Sean Duncan, a freshman at Villanova, This is the second year he has been involved with a 4-H project. The young farmers put on their rubber boots to clean the pig pens and usually use a pooper-scooper to eliminate the waste materials and add clean wood shavings for warmth at night.
After checking the feeders and making sure to give the pigs fresh water, “I play with them and walk them around the cage to keep them in shape.” The pigs’ diet consists of pellets, fruit from the Duncans’ plum and apricot trees, scraps and goat’s milk. “Every month we de-worm them so they don’t get sick,” he added.
“My pig is a Hampshire,” Sean Duncan said. “He likes goat’s milk and it helps make him grow. I’ve also heard it makes the meat taste better. I’m told he has the nicest butt, or hams,” he said.
Fifth-grader Amy Duncan is raising a Yorkshire for her first 4-H project. “They like to blow bubbles in their mud holes,” she said. “When we first got the pigs, the biggest female knocked me down, so you learn how to walk with them,” she said. “We use PVC pipe and tap them to get them to go where you want.”
Getting the pigs to cooperate in the judging ring is crucial for maximum investment return. “They like to lay down when you’re walking them. They like you to rub their bellies.” Amy Duncan said that the pigs seem to like leftover bread the best, “But they’re not too big on zucchini.”
The families plan to take the pigs to the fair on Monday. In the meantime, they have more work to do. “We are practicing luring them into a trailer because they’re not used to it,” said Sean Duncan. “When they stress out, they lose pounds.”
Since livestock is sold by the pound, top weight is an important element to maintain.
After the trailer ride to the fair, they will place two pigs per pen and be watchful of potential buyers. “Every day you have to scoop out all the junk and waste products, then get a new bag of shavings and stay to talk to people walking by,” Sean Duncan said. “Last year, I just met someone who ended up buying my pig.”
The Ventura County Fair, “An Old-Fashioned Fair” starts today and runs through Aug. 12. Admission tickets and presale carnival ride tickets and wrist bands may be purchased online at venturacountyfair.org.
The many events and choices in entertainment may also be viewed at that web site.
For more information, call 648-3376.

New Owners Plan To Keep Playhouse Open

By Nao Braverman
With the proliferation of Century Theaters and Cineplexes, local movie goers know that Ojai’s old fashioned single screen movie theater is a treasure and anomaly.
Many locals who patronize the Ojai Playhouse have grown fond of the swank black-and-white portraits of great actors Omar Sharif, Robert Redford, and Elizabeth Taylor, among them, staring down from the theater walls. In contrast to the prodigious, modern and impersonal architecture of newer corporate establishments, the Ojai Playhouse is a cozy size with comfortable cushioned seats, and the same vintage velvet curtain that has been draped over the movie screen for years.
Despite the competition of bigger theaters in Ventura County and developments in the home theater industry, the local Al-Awar family has kept Ojai’s only theater running since 1983.
“But it’s time to pass the baton,” said Khaled Al-Awar.
Also owner of the Primavera Gallery and other buildings in the Arcade, Al-Awar not only kept the theater running, but also made the most of the central building on Ojai Avenue, hosting various community events and benefits.
“That won’t change with the new ownership,” he assured.
Al-Awar said that as the owner of a building in such a prominent downtown location he has felt like a custodian to the community. When he made the decision to sell it, he was careful to chose a proprietor that he was sure would take care of it properly and tend to the needs of the community just as his family has done.
And the Hartley family, owners of the Lavender Inn, are certain to do just that, he said.
Kathy and Mark Hartley, who opened the successful and tastefully decorated Lavender Inn four years ago, are purchasing the theater, and will put their son, Jamie, a recent business graduate of California State University at Northridge, in charge.
Al-Awar said that before he purchased the Playhouse 25 years ago, owning a theater was the last thing on his mind.
When he arrived in Ojai, the previous owners had shut down Ojai’s only movie theater, so he decided to get it going again, premiering with the memorable Dustin Hoffman flick, “Tootsie.”
Thanks to extensive community support, the establishment reeled in a reasonable profit for some time, he said. But with an increasingly competitive market, the theater is not doing as well as it once was. Currently in need of some fresh changes, a little refurbishing and remodeling, a change of ownership could do the trick, he said.
Mark Hartley, who has been in the entertainment business for years, managing prominent recording artists Olivia Newton-John and Dwight Yoakum also has an interest in keeping the integrity of old buildings, and has worked on several such establishments in Ventura’s historic downtown.
Kathy Hartley said that her family was excited about enlarging the movie screen, improving the theater and adding some more concerts and cultural events. The improvements will take some time, but they will happen, she said.
“I am positive that the Hartley family will continue to support the community, and they will need the community’s support, Al-Awar said.
The first movie screened under the Hartley’s ownership will be “The Simpsons,” which opens tonight.

Trout Kill Blamed On Dam Testing

Pictured are seven of the 11 trout killed below Matilija Dam during a seismic test of the dam that dried up a pool in the Ventura River.

By Daryl Kelley
Eleven endangered Southern steelhead trout, or their more common rainbow trout relatives, were killed in the Ventura River last month, when an earthquake safety test of Matilija Dam and dry weather conditions stranded the fish without water in the upper Ventura River, officials said this week.
“It was a combination of those factors,” said Steve Wickstrum, general manager of the Casitas Municipal Water District, which shut off the flow of water from the dam’s reservoir for a few hours on June 14, so a county agency could test it for structural safety.
It was the largest of kill of steelhead or rainbow trout in recent memory, Wickstrum said.
Seven dead fish were found the day after the dam water was shut off, and four more died after they were relocated to river pools.
Casitas has asked federal and state agencies to investigate the incident, and to determine whether the dead fish are actually the ocean-to-river southern steelhead, a unique form of rainbow trout, or the freshwater rainbow.
The fish look the same when the steelhead are young. And none of the dead fish — between 5 and 10 inches long — was large enough to be immediately identified as the larger steelhead. Lab tests of the dead fish’s earbones will show their type.
“They were just too stressed out to survive,” said Scott Lewis, fisheries program manager for Casitas, of the four fish workers had tried to save. Two did survive.
Lewis reported the deaths this week in a report to the Casitas board of directors, some of whom were concerned that they were not told of the incident before.
“This is significant,” said Director Richard Handley in an interview. “Here we are spending $9 million on a fish ladder and this happens. We need to be more vigilant about what we do in the river. These fish should have been trapped and moved ahead of time.”
In his report to the board, Lewis said: “The cause of the mortalities was most likely due to the lack of water as a result of the water flowing through Matilija Dam being shut off on June 14.”
The water was shut off at the direction of the county Watershed Protection District, Lewis wrote, so the agency could test the dam’s safety. Vibrations from flowing water near test points would have disrupted the procedure, he said.
Since the fish deaths, Casitas has asked county officials if they could move the test points away from the dam’s release pipe, so the water flow would be maintained at all times, Wickstrum said.
The water agency has also asked federal officials who oversee the southern steelhead recovery program for guidelines on whether to save stranded fish and how to handle the recovery, he said.
“We’ve asked for direction, but there has been no protocol to date for rescuing the fish when the river runs dry, or where to rescue them to,” he said.
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service oversees the steelhead program. And Casitas biologist Lewis said the federal agency is apparently attempting to address the rescue question on a regional basis.
“There’s a question of whether we can rescue (them),” Lewis said. Because of record dry conditions on the river, “we asked many weeks before this incident if we could do that, and they didn’t have a plan. It sounded like they wanted to work on a more regional approach.”
The southern steelhead was declared an endangered species in 1997, after its numbers dwindled from thousands to a few hundred from Santa Barbara south. Only about 100 adult steelhead remain in the Ventura River watershed, federal officials estimate.
A key question is whether the dead fish were, in fact, steelhead, officials said.
That is important, partly because the federal government has required Oak View-based Casitas to spend $9 million to build a fish ladder so the steelhead can migrate up the Ventura River and then return to the ocean. Casitas must also provide between $1 million and $2 million worth of water a year so the fish can migrate. A costly federal lawsuit to reimburse the water agency for the expenditures is before a federal court.
Considering efforts and money to save the steelhead, Wickstrum said federal government’s lack of a plan to rescue the fish when stranded “is ironic.”
As for county dam testing procedures, watershed protection director Jeff Pratt said he’d heard nothing about the fish kill, but would look into whether his staff can change procedures so water is not shut off during twice-a-year seismic testing.
“We’d do anything we can not to kill the fish,” he said. “We’re going to do anything in our power not to kill the fish.”

Arrest Request Enlivens City Council Meeting

Cooperative independence’ seen as best
approach to join in fight against truck traffic

By Nao Braverman
Ventura County resident Carol Dean Williams strutted to the City Hall podium at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting and told the City Clerk Carlon Strobel that he was going to arrest her, to the dismay of council members.
“Any person who reports to a police officer that a crime has been committed can make a citizen’s arrest and she has committed a crime,” he said. “I have a recording of it right here.”
But by the time Williams had exhausted his three minutes of public comment, he had not made clear the crime of which he was accusing her.
Ojai Police Capt. Bruce Norris came to the podium and clarified that no such arrest would be made.
Up until recently, the penal code mandated that law enforcement take any citizen’s arrest. Though the validity of the arrest would be determined in court, the initial arrest was required. But a supplement added in 2002 gives officers the discretion not to accept the citizen’s arrest, said Norris. In this case he did not find an appropriate cause for arrest.
Strobel explained later that Williams had visited the City Hall earlier regarding his concern about the flood control berm west of the San Antonio Creek that is currently being raised to safe guard Casitas Springs from flooding. He was concerned that raising the berm would endanger a nearby bridge, she said.
When he asked Strobel if the city would intervene, she told him to speak with the city manager to see if he would consider placing the item on the agenda, according to Strobel. Then he got very upset and pulled out his tape recorder, she said
“I think that’s when he got sidetracked.” she explained.
After an extended, slightly confrontational conversation at City Hall that day, Williams had been escorted out of the administrative office by Norris, said Strobel. That incident, she speculated, was the cause of his attempted citizen’s arrest at the meeting Tuesday night.
In other City Council news, council members directed city staff to continue to work on the issue of Ojai’s gravel truck traffic independently but in cooperation with the citizen’s group, the Committee to Stop the Trucks.
Council members had agreed that the city should get involved in the battled against increasing truck traffic in mid-June. On Tuesday they decided that “cooperative independence” was the best approach, to start.
Other ways to address the gravel truck issue would be to offer a cash contribution to the citizen’s group. Such a donation would not be considered a gift of public funds as long as the city could show that the gift would have a definite effect on the community. City manager Jere Kersnar explained that such an effect could be demonstrated.
Kersnar also offered the option of creating a consortium but warned that it might be difficult to administer and might require a long-term commitment from the city.
Also during the meeting S.A.F.E. Coalition representative Ruth Cooper announced that the percentage of local 11th-graders being very drunk went down 16 percent since 2002 and the percentage of 11th-graders being under the influence of drugs or alcohol at school went down by 10 percent, according to a California Healthy Kids Survey. Ninth-graders under the influence of drugs or alcohol at school went down by 6 percent. A 2007 survey of seventh-11th graders showed an overall increase in substance abuse among seventh graders however.
The S.A.F.E Coalition plans to focus on implementing and enforcing the new Social Host Ordinance which penalizes anyone hosting a party with underage drinkers and educate parents in substance abuse prevention particularly among young teens, said Cooper.