How to resolve AdBlock issue? Letters to the Editor April 30
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- Published: Friday, 30 April 2021 08:53
So much to cheer about
SHELLY GRIFFEN — Ojai
There are great things happening in Ojai Unified.
Letters to the editor April 23
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- Published: Friday, 23 April 2021 09:08
Be careful!
J. THETFORD — Meiners Oaks
A cautionary tale to Farmer and the Cook jaywalkers:
Letters to the Editor April 16
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- Published: Friday, 16 April 2021 08:39
Wrong place for veterans village
BILL LOCEY — Oak View
Re: your March 26 article, “Seabee’s last battle for Veterans’ Village”:
My parents moved to Creek Road in 1967 — they’re gone now, but I live in their/my house.
Letters to the editor April 2: Homeless veterans and pickle ball
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- Published: Friday, 02 April 2021 13:49
Why sound walls for pickleball?
KAREN S. WILSON — Mira Monte
The taxpayers of the city of Ojai may be interested to learn that the city is in the process of erecting not just one, not just two, but three sound mitigation barriers on the City Hall/Community Garden campus. These permanent structures are going up because three individuals have complained about the sounds of people playing pickleball on the volunteer-financed and built courts next to City Hall — a gift to the city and all residents of the Valley.
Letters to the Editor March 26
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- Published: Friday, 26 March 2021 08:39
Thank you to Haady Lashkari
MIKE BEE — Ojai
I wish to publicly commend Haady Lashkari and the staff of Ojai Valley Community Hospital, the Community Memorial Hospital team, Ventura County Public Health and Nordhoff High School for the remarkable work being done to vaccinate the population of the valley and stop the spread of COVID-19. On top of keeping our hospital running, Haady and his team have taken on the huge challenge of running the vaccination site and are making it work efficiently with a welcoming smile and a caring demeanor. With more vaccine availability on the near horizon, I have every confidence they will rise to the challenge and get everyone who wants the vaccine through the process quickly. We are indeed fortunate to have such dedicated and capable people in our community.
Time to open Ojai schools
STAN HUBBELL — Ojai
Now that Ventura County is back into the red tier, we expect the powers-that-be who run the schools to effectively hit the ground running.
Reopening with a full schedule should have been well planned out in advance some time ago while parents, teachers and staff, board members and the
superintendent were waiting for this very moment in time to arrive.
Well, here we are, and I, for one, want to know the plan.
After one very messed-up year, we are ready for full time, five-day-per-week in-person learning.
Anything less would be very disappointing and not acceptable. The schoolteachers are vaccinated, (or should be), 3-foot distance waiver is in place, masks on, hands clean, on and on … it's all there.The kids are all ready and willing.
I am told by Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Morse that the back-to-school schedule is being negotiated with the teachers’ union. I am a big fan of teachers, and also their union.
Any teachers who are anti-vaccination-minded or immuno-compromised should not affect the reopening of school. Those few will just need to figure out their future. Those who have trouble with in-person teaching should not affect our kids coming back into class at all. Our children have been home for a year.
I hope the negotiations are quick and all parties involved can get it together, and fast.
Please get our kids back to full time in person five days per week. Get back to normal. Time is now.
Arts Commission budget described
MARCY TOSCHER — Ojai
I would like to thank artist Valerie Freeman for her passionate endorsement of arts education for children. Her March 5 Op-Ed, “Should city art educational program funding be used for landscaping?” needs to be clarified.
Funding is a complex process and it’s easy to misunderstand the tail end of a budget discussion. You can be confident that the Arts Commission is not considering using student arts educational funding for landscaping.
During our most recent budget discussions, the Commission simply floated the idea of requesting that a portion of unspent Student Mentor Program funding (canceled due to COVID) that is ordinarily returned to the city’s General Fund (the Commission no longer has access to these funds) instead be allocated to Ojai Public Works for the purchase of plants as needed for the base of the Trimpin Sound Arch to protect it. The city already has rocks stored at their storage yard.
Additionally, the program that the artist participated in — teaching art classes at the Beatrice Woods Center — was made possible through the Commission’s annual Grants Program. That program was not canceled due to COVID. The grantee did not reapply for a new grant. The program that was put on hold this year is called the Student-Artist Mentor Program. This program requires close contact between mentor and student, and COVID made this not safe.
We are as anxious as Ojai’s students and mentors to return to in-person arts education. We look forward to restarting the Student-Artist Mentor Program so that Ojai students have the opportunity to experience the work inside an artist’s or musician’s studio space.
As chair of the Arts Commission, I’m pleased that local residents tune in to our meetings. The Commission thanks Valerie for her suggestion that the public may want to donate toward the 12 or so plants needed to protect the Sound Arch. Contact Luis Gomez at City Hall if you would like to contribute. Several of the commissioners have already offered contributions.
— The writer is chair of the city of Ojai Arts Commission.
A town vision is forming
NICHOLAS OATWAY — Ojai
A town vision began coming through in the city-staff-sponsored “Zoom” meeting. Commitment to housing for people to live in without stress and strain. Housing they can enjoy, feel safe in, have easy access to the many issues of living 24/7, i.e., food, entertainment, work, recreation.
Housing is one of the central topics dealt with in the city’s General Plan. While listening to other participants sharing, I got the idea that housing without strain could become a powerful “driver” of significant beneficial change in the picture we have of Ojai going forward, going a long way forward into the vision.
I got a picture of a new Ojai resident group (call them the in-town “villagers” whose lives can be successful without getting in a car each morning, who can enjoy shared “commons” for view and recreation … who can actually revel in easy access to all that Ojai is … just open the front door and walk, bicycle or take the trolley (now with enough residents using it, passing by every 20 minutes) … to a coffee with a friend … to music, to a city meeting, to work. Maybe the work is just downstairs in one’s own spaces. Who may want to participate in a community garden, or watch and play with their children. “Housing without strain” and safe in the town center can be the driver to build on and create a stable in-town group of residents living and enjoying all that Ojai is 24/7.
A special note of thanks to Luis Gomez for doing such a good facilitation job.
— The writer is an architect.
Don’t overlook contributions of Ojai Trees organization
JEAN KILMURRAY MACCALLA — Ojai
It was great to read that Ojai has been recognized as a 2020 Tree City USA. I’m pleased that the city met the requirements laid out, but also want to give a tribute to “Ojai Trees” our local nonprofit organization headed by Garrett Clifford. Not only do they plant more than 100 trees in Ojai each year on public and private properties, but they remain intent on building up the aging canopy. This group (www.ojaitrees.org) deserves to be credited as well.
Letters to the Editor March 19
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- Published: Friday, 19 March 2021 08:40
OUSD not to blame
ANGIE GENASCI — Ojai
I am writing in response to the March 16 protest in front of the Ojai Unified School District offices and also after reading comments posted on the Peaceful Protest Facebook page.
Letters to the editor: Time for schools to reopen
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- Published: Friday, 12 March 2021 11:24
A flier posted on Ojai Parents Peaceful Protest Facebook.
OUSD parents: It’s time to take a stand
MARIEKIE QUINN — Ojai
I am a parent of two secondary schoolkids, and the lack of communication and transparency from the district is appalling. The district has given us a smokescreen to the community about being back on campus. One hour every other week (Matilija) or every week for one class (Nordhoff) is not enough!
Letters to the Editor March 5
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- Published: Friday, 05 March 2021 09:22
Great Plates changes are very frustrating
MEGAN TELFER — Ojai
The Expanded Great Plates reduction in reimbursements to $30 per a meal unit is frustrating to those who have worked hard over the past 10 months to protect seniors in the Ojai Valley by helping them stay home by providing healthy and nutritious meals.
Letters to the Editor Feb. 26
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- Published: Friday, 26 February 2021 08:48
Some changes unsafe
LINDA BAIN — Ojai
We live on Maricopa Highway and travel the road multiple times each day.
Letters to the Editor Feb. 19
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- Published: Friday, 19 February 2021 08:54
Votes, money not equal
JOSEPH GILBERT — Ojai
In a democracy, money does not equal votes.
Letters to the Editor Feb. 12
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- Published: Friday, 12 February 2021 08:51
Spring will come
JON CHRISTOPHER — Ojai
I was wrong, dead wrong, and ashamedly admit so.