Category Archives: Featured News

Ventura Music Festival appoints Susan Scott as Executive Director

stuff VMFThe Board of the Ventura Music Festival has announced the appointment of Susan Scott as Executive Director. Scott served as consultant to the Festival last year and is well known to the arts and general nonprofit communities in Ventura County. Among her other accomplishments, Scott directed the three-year ArtsLIVE project of the Ventura County Community Foundation, served as Managing Director of Theater 150 in Ojai, and was founding Executive Director of the Bell Arts Factory in Ventura which is celebrating its ten year anniversary.

 

New West Symphony music director Marcelo Lehninger leads orchestra in Masterpiece Series concert

New West Symphony music director Marcelo Lehninger will lead the orchestra in a Masterpiece Series concert featuring the music of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.   Cellist Andrew Janss returns to the orchestra to  perform Franz Joseph Haydn’s Concerto No. 1 in C Major for Cello & Orchestra. The program also includes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Overture to Il re pastore, K. 208 and the Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major, Opus 60 of Ludwig van Beethoven. Mr. Janss last appeared with the Orchestra during the 2011/2012 season.

The first performance will take place on Friday, February 26, 2016 at 8:00 pm at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center located at 800 Hobson Way in Oxnard. The program will be repeated on *Saturday, February 27 at 4:00 and 8:00 pm at the Performing Arts Education Center on the campus of Agoura High School, located at 28545 W Driver Avenue in Agoura Hills and on  Sunday, February 28, 2016 at Barnum Hall in Santa Monica located at 600 Olympic Boulevard in Santa Monica.

Tickets priced from $29 to $102 are available by phone, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday at 1-866-776-8400.  Tickets are also available in person at the New West Symphony office, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday and through the Symphony web site at newwestsymphony.org, 24/7.   Tickets are also available at the respective concert hall box offices.

Ask Event benefitting Step Up Ventura Feb. 19th

Come enjoy a little wine, a little cheese, a little chocolate,
And do a whole lot of good….
It’s an Ask Event benefiting Step Up Ventura

Take this opportunity to learn about an exciting new organization that provides homeless children and their families with much needed preschool and child care.

This is a fundraising event and your support is appreciated at any level you choose It’s being held on Friday, February 19th from 5:30 to 6:30 pm at 499 Arnett Ave in Ventura.

Ventura City emergency personnel respond to mini-van with 5 victims into a building

On Feb. 9 Ventura City Fire Personnel responded to a reported vehicle into a building in the 300 block of Ferro Dr. The first arriving engine company found a mini-van that had left a hillside roadway, collided with exterior portions of a residence and a concrete pillar, coming to rest with the front left portion of the vehicle hanging over a steep embankment with other residences below, damaged electrical wires tangled in the undercarriage. A total of 5 victims were located and quickly triaged, three of which were children, one with facial trauma and one still inside the vehicle with a femur fracture. Utilities were controlled, the vehicle was stabilized and secured by the arriving truck company using heavy rescue rigging equipment. The severely injured child was stabilized and successfully extricated from the vehicle, all 5 patients were then transported to local area hospitals, requiring the use of 3 total ambulances.

Ventura firefighters respond to vagrant encampment fire below Union Pacific Train Trestle

A vagrant encampment fire that started in a confined space below the Union Pacific Train Trestle Sunday afternoon extended approximately 40 feet and significantly damaged a portion of the rail line on the bridge. Firefighters requested Union Pacific to stop all rail activities in order to make access to bridge. Ventura Police assisted by placing spotters up and down the rail line to warn firefighters if any trains were to about to cross the bridge.

Ventura Police located a subject, Joseph Duran (37 years-old), nearby who had been seen fleeing from the scene of the fire. Upon further investigation, it was learned that Duran is a vagrant who had set up camp in the river bottom.  He lit an illegal warming fire that quickly got out of control when the winds picked up.

The fire severely damaged nearly 20 wooden supports and engulfed an area under the trestle. The fire was deeply seated in the creosote lumber and was extinguished within 80 minutes. Union Pacific representatives estimate that structural damage would exceed $10,000– and fiber optic communications lines, housed in the under portion of the bridge, were being evaluated for damage. At the time of this press release it is unknown the extent of damages of the communication network and if train activity could safely resume, engineers are currently assessing the damage.

A makeshift living area in the catwalk under the bridge was consumed by fire. Union Pacific Rail officials had contacted the occupant numerous times over the past few months but had failed attempts to permanently remove the individual who eventually started this fire.  Joseph Duran was arrested and booked at the Ventura County Jail for 452(c) PC – recklessly starting a fire.

 

 

Applications now being accepted for City of Ventura Planning Commission position

City of Ventura residents are encouraged to apply for a vacancy on the Planning Commission that advises the City Council on issues related to planning, development, and beautification of the City.  The special recruitment process is now open and applications are available online at www.cityofventura.net/involved/advisory or from the City Clerk’s Office, Ventura City Hall, 501 Poli Street, Room 204. The application deadline is 5:30 p.m. on Monday, February 8.

Qualified applicants will undergo interviews with the City Council Appointments Recommendation Committee in February. The recommended appointee will be considered by the City Council and confirmed in late February. Volunteers must be willing to serve a four-year term.

Applications may be submitted by e-mail to [email protected], by fax to the City Clerk’s Office at 641-1046, by mail to the City Clerk’s Office P.O. Box 99, Ventura, CA 93002, or hand-delivered to the City Clerk’s Office at City Hall.

For more information call the City Clerk’s Office at  658-4787.

Harbor entrance may open soon

According to Harbormaster John Higgins the Ventura Harbor entrance (closed because of high sand build –up) could reopen shortly if dredging can be performed to remove the sand build-up. The Harbor entrance was closed Jan.22 which meant that the tall ships had to be moved to the Channel Islands Harbor. Dredging equipment will hopefully be arriving in the next few days and if weather permits will start dredging work.

Both the fishing industry and merchants were hurt financially by the closure. Fishing boats couldn’t go out to fish and the Harbor merchants were hurt when the tall ships had to leave. The ships  bring a large amount of people to the Harbor visit the ships.

Financial assistance might become available for the losses suffered.

Ventura College hosts Financial Aid Super Saturday

Ventura College will host free hands-on workshops to assist students with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and California Dream Applications.

The workshop event dates and locations are:
Saturday, February 6, 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Ventura College Santa Paula, 957 Faulkner Road.
Saturday, February 27,  8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Ventura College main campus, MCE-341 & MCE-343, 4667 Telegraph Road.

Applications for FAFSA or California Dream may be submitted through March 2. Please visit www.fafsa.gov, www.caldreamact.org, and www.venturacollege.edu/finaid for the financial aid checklist of required documents to bring to the workshop. For additional details, you can also call the Ventura College Financial Aid Office at 289-6369 or email [email protected].

 

2016 Ventura County Fair announces poster contest for county youth

2015 Poster Contest winners: 1st Place Annie Sun, 14, of Newbury Park; 2nd Place Anna Sorensen, 11, of Simi Valley;  and 3rd Place Emma Fong, 11, of Newbury Park.

The Ventura County Fair has announced that the 7th annual Fair poster contest will be held for the 2016 Ventura County Fair.  The contest is open to young artists in grades 5 – 12 who reside in Ventura County.

The theme of the 2016 Fair is “A Country Fair with Ocean Air” and will serve as the guideline to the imagery.  Artwork may be created in any medium but may not include the use of glitter, metallic paint, or 3 dimensional objects attached to the artwork. Designs must be 17″ tall and 14″ wide.

Poster designs will be judged on Theme, Originality, Composition and Skill.  Entries will be accepted until the entry deadline, Friday, April 1. Entries can be brought to the Fairgrounds administration office at 10 W. Harbor Blvd. Office hours are Monday through Friday,  8am until 5pm.

Prizes will be awarded to the top three entries. First prize: $500, Second Prize: $250 and Third Prize: $100

The winning design will be used to advertise the Fair on posters, souvenirs, advertisements and other applications. Second and third place winning designs will also be used in various applications. All entries will be displayed in the Youth Expo at the Ventura County Fair.

The Ventura County Fair will begin its annual 12-day run Wednesday, August 3 through Sunday, August 14.

Rules, deadlines and other information can be found on the Fair website, www.venturacountyfair.org.  For more information about the contest, call 648-3376 or send an email to [email protected]. (please put “Poster Contest” in the subject line).

 

Hazardous conditions in Ventura Harbor’s entrance.

214,000 additional cubic yards of sand have accumulated in the entrance. Photo by Ventura Harbor Patrol

By Stan Whisenhunt

Ventura Port District officials are waiting anxiously to find out if there will be additional funding for dredging at Ventura Harbor which is to begin any day now.

Heavy shoaling due to recent storms and high surf has caused hazardous conditions in Ventura Harbor’s entrance.

Richard Parsons, dredging program manager for the district, said that 214,000 additional cubic yards of sand have accumulated in the entrance since Dec. 28.

Ventura Port District officials, working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard, have launched a two-phased program to address safety issues and to ensure that the upcoming dredging operation that is already scheduled can be expanded to address this safety issue.

Pleasure craft boaters have been warned by the Ventura Harbor Patrol to not venture out of the harbor, while commercial fishermen have been advised to proceed at their own risk.  The year’s first sailboat race at the harbor, Ventura Yacht Club’s PHRF Regatta 1, was cancelled and will be rescheduled. The second race of the year, Pierpont Bay Yacht Club’s Spring Series 1, scheduled for Feb. 13, will be delayed if necessary.

Harbormaster John Higgins has met with the managers of the harbor’s marinas and local yacht clubs to brief them on the situation and to advise their boaters to stay out of the entrance. He is working with the U.S. Coast Guard to issue warnings to commercial fishermen, going so far as to prepare warning fliers in Vietnamese to be sure that local fishermen in the area understand the safety issued posed by heavy shoaling.  Boats, which by necessity need to leave or enter the harbor, have been escorted by the harbor patrol.

Meanwhile, Parsons, General Manager Oscar Pena and Port Commissioners Ev Ashworth and Greg Carson have been meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who are responsible for the dredging of the harbor, to help secure an additional $2 million for dredging.

Pena said that California Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congresswoman Julia Brownley “fully support the Port’s requirements” and have reached out to the Corps of Engineers on behalf of the Port District.

The Corps of Engineers recently issued a dredging contract to Manson Company, which was scheduled to start dredging the harbor on Feb. 9. In light of the safety issues posed by the heavy shoaling, Manson Company operators hoped to have the dredge in place as early as Feb. 1, depending on sea conditions. The dredge was in Long Beach undergoing repairs.

The depth of the entrance channel, normally about 40 feet, is now 14 feet or less and narrow to the point that two boats could not safely pass one another in the entrance, said Higgins.  The entrance channel width is normally 300 feet, but now because of all the sand, it is about 40 feet wide. The district estimates there are 900,000 cubic yards of sand in the harbor sand trap and entrance.

“While the situation will continue to deteriorate,” Parsons said, “our team is putting everything is in place to get this remedied as soon as possible.”

The Corps contract calls for dredging 460,000 cubic yards of sand. If the district is successful in gaining the additional $2 million, 340,000 more cubic yards of sand could be dredged.

“The challenge is to get that additional money into the contract very quickly,” Parsons said.  Port District officials and commissioners have been meeting with senior personnel and staff of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District to coordinate the response to this emergency.

Higgins said three factors are making the entrance very dangerous – unusually large waves and swells from the El Nino condition, shoaling and a strong current – sometimes as fast as 10 knots – running along the inside of the breakwater.

The Tall Ships, Hawaiian Chieftain and Lady Washington, which had been at the harbor as a visitor attraction, left for Channel Islands Harbor on Jan. 21.  “We think it is in everyone’s best interest for the Tall Ships to leave now to avoid the potential of having them stuck here through early February,” said Port District General Manager Oscar Pena at the time.

Pena noted that although the Harbor is experiencing entrance problems, all the businesses in the harbor are open.