Ojai Valley News Blog

School board drops opposition

By Sondra Murphy
The next chapter in the Ojai Skate Park chronicles is complete. On Tuesday, the Ojai Unified School District board approved the city’s plans for downtown skate park construction, but not without some adjustments.

During his presentation, Ojai city manager Jere Kersnar asked the school board to approve plans and specifications for the expanded Ojai Skate Park. The site location is where the temporary skate park is currently housed, in the downtown Park & Ride lot, which is on OUSD property and leased by the city. The lease agreement requires school board approval on designs, then City Council, before it may advance to bids.

“This has been, as you know, a long process to get to this point tonight,” said Kersnar. “It’s been well more than a decade that we’ve been collectively working on this project.”

The sluggish pace in which the project appears to move prompted a special committee of city and school district representatives that has been hammering out the specifics since summer and led to the creation of dated goals.

The city committed to $100,000 toward rebuilding the Skate Park. Skate Ojai, an independent group, helped raise the remainder of the $361,000 in the  summer of 2008 through a series of benefits and donation requests.

This is considered a small budget when compared to other skate parks throughout the county and Southern California, but the group worked closely with city recreation officials in coming up with plans that would build a permanent, in-ground skate park at that cost.

Negotiations between city and OUSD have been cautious at best, and committee meetings brought up issues that the city hoped to address during Tuesday’s presentation.

Kersnar explained that the plans were scheduled to go to the City Council next week, but first needed OUSD approval. He presented documents that addressed four outstanding issues: fencing, drinking fountain, benches and a rest room.

Originally, fencing along the front of the skate park was to be low, while benches and plumbed features were expected to be added in a future phase as more funds were raised. In response, the city agreed to extend the fencing around the park to 8 feet. Because the other three features were not reflected in construction plans, the city included them as bid alternates during that process, meaning construction companies were encouraged to include the features in their bids.

Kersnar and Ojai Public Works director Mike Culver were hopeful that the competitive construction market would allow for the inclusion of the features.

The rest room as approved by the Ojai Planning Department, is a vault rest room with multiple stucco and tile roofing options, as dictated by the city Redevelopment Agency ordinance. “It is a prefabricated rest room facility, not a port-a-potty by any means,” said Kersnar. “The concern is cost. It is a considerable expense.” Including installation, Kersnar estimated the rest room would run in the $30,000 to $40,000 range.

“I think it’s very exciting that we have reached this point,” said President Linda Taylor. “It’s going to be a beautiful facility.”

Board questions ranged from operational to liability issues. Vice President Kathi Smith asked what the plan would be for rest room maintenance. “We have a schedule where, on a daily basis, we check all bathrooms and this will be on that schedule,” said Culver.

There were also concerns voiced about the side effects of loitering. “We recognize this is a city facility and we need to assume responsibility as if we were owner,” said Kersnar. “I can’t say we’ll never have any problems, but I hope we will find a way to reduce incidents significantly.” He said police patrols of the current facility would continue.

Kersnar also suggested the special construction operations committee “morph” into an operations oversight committee to assure that the park continues to meet community standards.

“I think it would be important to have clearer, more specific language than what’s in this as to what we would be approving,” said Steve Fields, board member. “In essence, more descriptive language of these areas.” Fields then circulated a copy of text changes that required the bid alternates be mandatory features in the first phase of construction. His concern was that if OUSD gave oral approval this week, the City Council might amend it next week.

Clerk Rikki Horne concurred. “I think that as specific as we can be serves everyone,” she said.

Kersnar said that, without City Council direction, he was unable to assure specific amendments.

Smith said that she liked the vagueness of the language. “It depends completely on the accuracy of what Jere said tonight, so if anything changes down the pike, we haven’t approved that.”

“I don’t like the term ‘bid alternates,’” said Horne. “I wish the other members would be willing to amend the language.”

“I don’t see how the city can have a facility that doesn’t have a bathroom and a water fountain,” Fields said.

“It would be ludicrous for the public sector to think these two bodies are hung up over a bathroom,” said superintendent Hank Bangser. “I don’t think that’s where we want to be. In concept, we need to make this work.”

Member Pauline Mercado commented that she was concerned that discussions were degenerating. “I think the city heard what we were saying and yet I see us regressing back to points and demands discussed months ago.”

Mercado asked for a friendly amendment. After much discussion, language was agreed upon:

“Approve the city’s submitted plans and specifications for the Ojai Skate Park, including the items described in Mr. Culver’s memo and subject to approval by the Ojai City Council; specifically, an 8-foot fence to completely surround and secure the skating area, a drinking fountain, benches and a rest room.” The vote was unanimous to collective sighs by city and Skate Ojai representatives in attendance.

“Skate Ojai is happy that the Ojai Unified school board has approved the plans for the Skate Park,” said Wendy Hilgers, longtime skate park supporter. “City staff will be working with them to resolve the remaining issues as the project continues to move forward.”

The plans will be heard at the Ojai City Council meeting Tuesday. If approved, a formal agreement will be brought back to OUSD. To view Ojai Skate Park design plans, go to ci.ojai.ca.us and click on project update on the right side of the home page.

Bryan Haley and Erik Mason on a recent hunting trip.

By Nancy Gross
Two close friends who have known each other since kindergarten, have fished together and hunted together from their youth, are now together toughing out the tragedy that came when they had a day where nothing was quite as usual, and nothing went just right.

Erik Mason, 29, and Bryan Haley, 30, are accustomed to spending time all around the Haley Ranch, but their time together as outdoorsmen included visiting other places. They had just gone on an elk-hunting trip in Lone Pine in early October.

For their Oct. 25 outing Haley had talked Mason into showing him his secret destination for hunting mountain quail north of Ojai, near Portrero Seco Road. Haley was not familiar with this territory.

And then Mason, who also usually wore a hat, didn’t. He normally never takes off his sunglasses, but when he felt the urge to take off his long sleeves, he took off his shades as well. Mason’s wife, Heather, says, “Pretty much everything they normally did, they didn’t do, and they did everything different than they normally do. ”They typically holler at each other. where they are, and they didn’t do that. They were just kind of losing each other.”The panic that was to come clouds either man from having an exact memory of what came next.

After Haley fired at some birds, Mason came over a ridge right as Haley was firing at another group of birds. Somehow Haley accidentally fired in close range of, or right in Mason’s direction, and birdshot pellets from the 12-gauge shotgun struck Mason on his head, neck, shoulders and arms. Heather says, “They were large size pellets; a higher upgrade that are supposed to shoot further and harder in a way that keeps them all together more.”

Both Heather and Haley’s wife, Lindsay, are angered by online comments that have appeared after the Ventura County Star ran a short article about the accident. Lindsay says, “They were safe, experienced hunters; they have been hunting together all their lives.”

Both of the men and their wives have stated that “It was a total accident,” and the friends are getting counseling both together and separately as Mason recovers from the harrowing ordeal.

Heather says “I’ve seen so many men cry lately. I can’t handle this. Bryan feels terrible. I’ve never seen him like this, sobbing. He never left Erik’s side. Bryan was at UCLA from Sunday to Tuesday. Now that Bryan has been home for a week, he came over and mowed our lawn. I’ve had to tell him, ‘We’re not mad at you. If you had killed him, I might be a little bit mad at you. Sit down Bryan, you’re going to pass out.’”

Heather tells the story as she has heard it that Mason “thinks he got shot at 9:15 or 9:30. Bryan said,’Let me call 911,’ and Mason kept saying, ‘No, just get me the hell out of here,’ and he made Bryan walk the mile or more to the truck holding him and guiding him. He kept saying, ‘Just get me to CMH.”

Mason wouldn’t let his friend call 911 because he thought they would send an ambulance and it would take too long to get to them. He didn’t think a helicopter would come. The two hiked about an hour to get to the truck, and Mason’s eyes were swollen shut while Haley led, and then it was 35 minutes to Community Memorial Hospital.

Mason had been treated at CMH four years prior when he had a stroke brought on by a chiropractic treatment, and he wanted to go back there. At CMH he was taken in immediately and put on an IV drip and given some light pain medication, but physicians otherwise did not know what to do. They didn’t have a specialist on hand, and began calling all over the state.

“We got a bunch of ‘I don’t knows,” says Heather of that first long day when even the University of California at Los Angeles’ Medical Center said they were too full to accept her husband. Somehow that changed, and at 9:30 p.m. Mason was taken to UCLA by helicopter.

“Once he got into UCLA we had such a great experience. The specialist, Dr. Amelia Shah, met him in the ER and has been seeing him all the way through. They are trying every option possible, trying to save his left eye,” Heather says.

One pellet went right through the center of Mason’s left eye, and another through the white of the eye. “He had a pellet go under his right eye and fracture the bone. He was in a pretty big panic and thought he was going blind,” Heather said.

“One is stuck in his sinus cavity. He has three stuck in his forehead, one stuck above his ear, two stuck in the left side of his neck. His whole entire face, his arms and his neck, we’ve lost count.” Mason’s right eye will be OK, and he may have to have several surgeries on his left eye to restore some sight. An ultrasound on Monday was promising about some recovery in his left eye, but the pellets cannot be removed from many locations because the removal might cause more damage. In addition, the stroke Mason had four years ago makes it a little hazardous for him to receive anesthesia.

Mason and his wife met at Chaparral High School and have been together for 12 years, as Heather says, “attached at the hip ever since.” They have two children, Devin, who turned 2 on Oct. 15, and Addison, who was born July 30.

Heather says of Mason’s employer, West Coast Air Conditioning, “Oh my gosh, they’ve been amazing. They’ve taken care of all his disability paperwork. Everyone from the office has been bringing us meals, which is good because he doesn’t want to eat if I have to cook. He’s always been the cook. Erik has a recipe for everything. He’s also a baker.”

Lindsay Haley says, “we have had so many calls, e-mails, texts from people who want to donate or help, a tremendous outpouring  from the community. Lindsay has set up a fund at Rabobank, Erik Mason’s Benefit Fund, and she can be reached at  lindsaylhaley@aol.com.”