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Vol. 10, No. 24 – Aug 30 – Sept 12, 2017 – Opinion/Editorial

•  KPPQ CAPS Radio (KPPQLP, FM 104.1) is hosting an open house and community information discussion on Wednesday October 4th at 6pm at the CAPS Media Center at 65 Day Road. Everyone interested in community radio is invited to tour the center and join the exchange of programming ideas and direction for the radio station. You may even end up with your own radio show.

My radio show, Face of Ventura, airs on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10am and some other surprise times. The shows can also be listened to on our web site at www.venturabreeze.com and clicking on “Face of Ventura” where you can also see a photo of my guests.

On my recent shows, we talked about the City Center and the Ventura Botanical Gardens. If you have suggestions of who I should interview, please let me know.

•  In our last issue, I explained why we weren’t revealing the name of the Ventura police officer who attempted suicide. Because his name (Aaron Drake) has been in many papers and other media, we have an article in this issue regarding this terrible tragedy.

•  Our Person to Person article in this issue asks people what they think of the new design at the Harbor Village entrance. Would love to hear your opinions also.

Congratulations to photographer Michael Gordon for this photo.

•  Congratulations to Breeze contributing photographer Michael Gordon for making the cover of the NTSB book (National Transportation Safety Board) with his photo of the grounding of the fishing boat Day Island in Ventura. Another one of his photos is included with the article.

•  Another email you should never open is: “John (or some other name) Urgent Your Pending Payment”. Hackers just trying to get into your computer.

•  The new wing at Ventura County Medical Center (VCMC) has opened. Hopefully the opening of the new CMH will be coming up soon.

The $305 million north tower includes an emergency room, intensive care, outpatient laboratory, surgery, labor and delivery, pharmacy and other departments. It was first unveiled in June with a celebration ceremony.

Glad to see Mayor Eric Nasarenko enjoying the concert at Music Under the Stars. He is the handsome one. Photo by Pam Baumgardner

•  A sold out crowd at the Music Under the Stars concert on August 12th heard the Motown tribute Blue Breeze Band. A great group, one of the very best to ever appear at these summer music concerts. I assume it was sold out because concertgoer’s thought that they were the Ventura Breeze Blues Band.

Only 2 concerts remain this summer: Fantastic Diamond and Lisa Haley. If not sold out, get your tickets and enjoy the wonderful music and venue. See Ventura Music Scene on page 20 for more information and other great music events.

•  The California State University system will no longer require intermediate algebra because “they might rarely use it in everyday life.”

Using this logic, why should students be required to take history or any other classes that they rarely use in everyday life?

•  Per an article in this issue, things might be looking up at the Museum of Ventura County regarding funding and keeping the facility it open. But just keeping it open really doesn’t mean much unless the museum can attract many more visitors on a consistent basis.

• The famous LA Fairfax area Canter’s Deli just received a C grade from the health department. Some patrons are shocked thinking that this is a food rating. This is not a food review, it is a health rating (like bugs, etc.).

• Ventura is in the process of exploring the cost of hooking up to state water and developing a water-reuse program (about time). Water officials are also recommending that the city remain in a Stage 3 Water Shortage Event, which requires households to cut water by 20%, or pay higher rates.

Part of that is driven by the Lake Casitas’ water level, which is at 40.2% and dropping — the lake was at 48% when the rates were adopted and groundwater supplies remain very low.

The Water Commission (an advisory body to the council) approved staying at the Stage 3 level.

Resident Dan Cormode, a frequent speaker at city council meetings about our water concerns, thinks that the supply is overly optimistic and “fails to address the potential impact of several issues adversely impacting the availability of various resources. ”All of the city’s water resources are threatened,”, he said.

I certainly do not like the way some Venturan’s are cutting their water usage by letting their front yards just get covered with weeds. I’d rather see dirt if they don’t want to plant succulents. I just think some folks are using it as an excuse to just not care what the front of their homes look like.

•  Because there was so much information available to print in this issue, a few articles didn’t make it in. You can read them at www.venturabreeze.com, plus lots of other things like weather and surfing reports.

Vol. 10, No. 24 – Aug 30 – Sept 12, 2017 – Person to Person

by Jennifer Tipton

I asked 6 Ventura residents familiar with the old Harbor Village entrance what they think of the new design …

Holly Hancock
age 61
retired manager at Target
“I don’t like it! I loved the stage and the grassy area, it was a good avenue to welcome people into the harbor. This just doesn’t “pop” – they were supposed to spray wash the ground with a blue resin. If you see the pictorial of how it was supposed to be, this doesn’t do it justice. At least plant King palms instead of these cheap ones!”

Havana Snyder
age 20
works at “Lost in Socks” in the harbor
“I think it’s really, really nice! It makes a big difference; all the improvements are bringing people in but it also helps that there’s no more construction!”

 

Chuck Russell
age 82
retired from television
“I think it looks really nice but I think they had to do it because of laws regarding the handicapped for entries and that type of thing. I think that’s why they did concrete work.”

 

Matthew Ficarelli
age 19
works at Copa Cubana in the harbor
“I think it brings more people in and makes it more accessible to the restaurants and shops. I like the decorations in the flooring, it’s more thematic for the area we’re in.”

 

David Wheat
age 65
retired handy man
“I’m disappointed because they played it off as some big beautification project and it’s fallen far short. Both my wife and I think it was a waste of money … and the amount of time it took!”

 

Cindy Cook
age 57
health program representative
“I really like the island layout but I miss the grass and the bandstand! It was welcoming to see people gathered around the live music on a beautiful afternoon. I do think this stuff (the kelp) will look much nicer with Christmas ornaments hung on it!”

Vol. 10, No. 24 – Aug 30 – Sept 12, 2017 – A View from House Seats

by Shirley Lorraine

Becky’s New Car offers delightful ride

Ready for a theater experience that will make you laugh, touch you and possibly even involve you? It is waiting for you now at the Santa Paula Theater Center in the form of Becky’s New Car by Steven Dietz. The engine is revving up and the lanes are clear.

Originally commissioned around 2007 by a Seattle realtor as a birthday gift for his theater-loving wife, this fresh offering is about real people, in real situations. The play is set in an unspecified city but is identified as “a town very much like Seattle”. No wonder, since author Dietz was a part-time resident there.

The satirical, out-of-the-box comedy offers insights into the complexities of middle class life which is predictably full of routines, angst, potentially life-changing decisions, and familiar expectations. The clever staging involves four settings, all contained in one set. Threading the living room, office space, car and terrace together are roads that converge center stage, symbolizing how easily lives can veer off course if the wrong road is taken.

Becky Foster (Cynthia Killion) is a middle-class woman holding down a demanding yet mind-numbingly routine job who has a college age son (Andrew Garrett) living in the basement, a blue-collar husband (Scott Blanchard) who works as a roofer, and wanderlust in her heart. She is presented with an unexpected opportunity by wealthy widower Walter Flood (Ronald Rezac) which has the potential to completely upend her life. How she copes with the increasingly complex quagmire she has allowed to form is the crux of the story.

Along this stretch of the road we meet the widowers’ daughter Kenni (Jennifer Skutley) as well as Ginger (Aileen-Marie Scott), an unskilled socialite who is in the process of going to the school of hard knocks. The play takes more turns than the Grand Prix in reaching a surprising climax.

The acting throughout is absorbing. The audience is immediately put at ease and the action continues as though a comfortable conversation is taking place. It just seems natural when Becky invites members of the audience to participate in small ways, adding to the feeling of just hanging out with the characters, particularly Becky. It also helps that actor Killion has experience in, and a knack for, improvisation and ad-libbing.

Ms. Killion is well matched by Rezac, a Ventura County theater veteran of deservable renown. Their scenes together are particularly authentic. Scott Blanchard as Becky’s husband of 28 years brings forth a solid, quiet and commanding voice of reason. Son Chris (Garrett) is a walking psychology term textbook which he handles well. Skutley is given little to do yet makes the most of it she can. Scott shines in her secondary yet important role.

Becky’s New Car drives off the lot smoothly and with a full tank of gas. Take a spin.

www.santapaulatheatercenter.org/805-525-4625
Friday & Saturday eves 8 PM, Sundays 2:30 PM through Oct. 1
Adults $24, Students and Seniors $22

Vol. 10, No. 24 – Aug 30 – Sept 12, 2017 – Harbor Patrol Blotter

8-17 5:50pm, received a report of a petroleum spill near Ventura Isle Marina L-dock. Officers responded and located a possible source for the spill. The responsible party was contacted and the spill was mitigated.

8-18 12:45pm, received a report from a village tenant that the captain of a commercial fishing boat was using some colorful language to discipline his crew. Officers responded and issued a warning for vulgar language.

8-19 1:50pm, received a report of a disabled personal water craft near the Ventura Pier. Officers responded and while en route were cancelled because the operator was able to restart the vessel and was no longer in danger.

8-20 1:08pm, received a dispatch to a fall victim at 1215 Anchors Way. Officers responded and assisted Ventura fire / AMR with an elderly female. She was eventually transported to local hospital for further evaluation.

10:05pm, received a report of a fuel sheen in the South Basin of the harbor. Officers responded and discovered a sheen in the area reported. After an investigation, officers were able to locate the source on one of the commercial fishing boats. The captain was contacted and the leak was mitigated.

8-21 11:46am, received a dispatch to a medical at 1559 Spinnaker Drive. Officers responded and assisted several agencies with a medical patient at the call.

1:30pm, received a report of a young female transient disturbing every person she comes into contact with throughout the village. Officers responded and searched the entire harbor, but were unable to locate the individual.

7:32pm, received a dispatch to a stroke patient at 1215 Anchors Way. Officers responded and assisted Ventura fire and AMR with the patient.

8-22 7:31pm, received dispatch to an ocean rescue, vessel sinking off of Emma Wood state beach. Officers responded with multiple agencies including Ventura Fire and State Parks lifeguards. When officers arrived on scene in the fireboat, they discovered 3 young males fishing on an anchored rigid-hulled inflatable in shallow water. Officers convinced the boys to move to safer water then eventually return to the Harbor.

 

Vol. 10, No. 24 – Aug 30 – Sept 12, 2017 – Mailbox

Sheldon:

Thank you again dear Sheldon & all of your crew that works so hard on our fabulous hometown paper, the Ventura Breeze!

For the second time this year you helped a lot of folks find our PD Support Group meeting including a wonderful lady from Sacramento who was visiting Ventura. She told us that she had picked up a Ventura Breeze, was so impressed to find our detailed article in print and decided to see how our support group worked as she coordinates one in Sacramento. We also had the second largest number of attendees this year with just over 60 folks. So thank you again for the generous space and support you give the Ventura Parkinson’s Disease Support Group! 🙂 We love the Ventura Breeze!!

Yours truly, Patty Jenkins
Volunteer Coordinator
Ventura Parkinson’s Disease Support Group

Patty:
And we love you.

Dear Sheldon,

I’m not sure I formally thanked you for our Kids’ Arts coverage in the Breeze. Soooo, thank you for the 4th of July & Surf Rodeo articles & pictures. We appreciate what you do to keep Ventura informed & in the know.

Lynne Thurston

In our last issue we had the article “Disaffected seniors are fighting for their mobile homes” by Jared Brewer. Some of the article got cut off. Computer’s fault I’m sure. Here is the rest of the article.

It’s not pretty for a bunch of seniors to be going down the street pushing shopping carts. But I’ve seen them out there. And government affordable housing is closed for 10 years. We’ll all be dead by then.”

Many disgruntled residents have turned to political activism to voice their concerns. Hence, the foundation of the Ventura Manufactured-Home Residents Council (VMRC), which assembles delegates from nine of the dozen or so mobile homes in the city of Ventura to confront salient issues. The council coordinates with the Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League (GSMOL), a statewide volunteer organization that promotes resident rights primarily through legislative advocacy. The VMRC convenes the third Wednesday of each month (barring August) at one of the nine mobile home parks. For more information, including the location of next month’s meeting, contact President Craig Hull at 223-5635.

You must push yourself beyond you limits, all the time.
~ Carlos Castaneda

Spencer Makenzie’s 8th annual End of Summer Throw Down

Spencer Makenzie’s 8th annual End of Summer Throw Down took place from Friday, August 25 through Sunday, August 27. Friday’s activities included live music provided by popular local band Rey Fresco.

Now in its 8th year, the Cornhole Throw Down has continued to grow into a national event, hosting incredibly skilled players of all ages from states across the country. This year’s competition included teams from: Alabama; Arizona; Florida; Illinois; Indiana; Iowa; Michigan; Nevada; North Carolina; Ohio; Kentucky; Texas and Virginia – and of course, California.

This California-classic multi-day party also featured the eatery’s award-winning food, ice cold drinks and craft beer, and a free concert with rockin’ local bands on Saturday evening, as well as DJs spinning great music throughout the tournament for players and spectators alike.

Spencer Makenzie’s 8th annual End of Summer Throw Down

Face of Ventura 011 – City Center

      FaceofVentura011_CityCenterMP3

Face of Ventura 010 – Botanical Gardens

      FaceofVentura010_BotanicalGardensMP3

Ventura Chamber members compete for a great cause

“Hand me a towel”

The Ventura Chamber’s Young Professionals Group (YPG) and Ambassadors recently participated in the 4th annual YPG Challenge – a contest in which members compete to collect donations for local non-profits. This year’s “Pillow Fight” challenge directed thousands of linen donations to temporary and transitional housing organizations and crowned YPG as the winning team.

The Young Professionals Group is comprised of members between the ages of 21- 40 who are interested in creating positive changes in self and the community. As part of their commitment to giving back, the YPG challenge was created to encourage friendly competitions between the chamber members in the name of charity.

“The YPG challenge is a great way to give back to our community and bring people together for some fun competition,” said Shelby Bishop, Chair of the Young Professionals Group. “Events like these spice up the efforts and motivate us to make a difference where we live and work.”

Chamber members surveyed local non-profits and determined the most need was for linens in the form of bedding, pillows, pillowcases and towels. Support from various local hoteliers was crucial in the success of the challenge. DKN hotels, parent company of Ventura’s Pierpont Inn, donated thousands of linens and pillows. Comfort Inn Ventura Beach and Crowne Plaza also donated items to the challenge.

Thousands of linen items were collected and delivered to local non-profits including Turning Point Foundation, The City Center, Project Understanding and Tender Life Maternity Home, Ventura Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, Casa Pacifica, Lighthouse for Women and Children, and Family Promise. The linens will be used at these facilities and will be given to families as they exit the programs and transition to permanent housing.