Fred Volz remembered
By Patricia Weinberger

Without Fred and the crucial 25 years of editorial precision he provided, the Ojai we know today would be vastly different.
Imagine the end result if Fred Volz had not used his "bully pulpit" to inform, to educate, to denounce, to sway and to rally. Without Fred, all the valiant, and mostly successful, efforts of so many to halt the ruthless, senseless exploitation of the Ojai's unparalleled natural resources would have come to naught.
For example, without Fred, we would have a freeway. It would have left 101 at Carpinteria, snaked over Casitas Pass, bisected the city of Ojai, roared its way toward Santa Paula, en route to Castaic Junction and Interstate 5.
Without Fred, there would be a complete four-lane Highway 33, continued from its present ending point at Foster Park, tearing the heart out of Casitas Springs, Oak View, Mira Monte, and on into and out of the city of Ojai. Goodbye, Arcade. Goodbye, Pergola. So long, Post Office.
Without Fred, such highway goings-on would have facilitated access to Ed Carty's grand-scale shopping center on the Maricopa Highway. Highway? Fred pointed out - repeatedly! - those four lanes emanating at the "Y" landed you not-much-of-anywhere except the Caltrans yard. However, with luck, political pull, much bucks and - without Fred - four lanes would have led, in a matter of minutes, to a multitude of retail stores, large and small, restaurants, large and small, plus an enormous Albertson's Market as its anchor store.
Well, as the saying goes: "They will come." The rest of the scenario is easy: no classy-looking "downtown" as we know it today; probably no Starr Market (née Bayless) or Safeway/Vons; no "Y" shopping center. That bit of real estate displacement is called a "demographic shift." Ask Santa Paula. Ask Fillmore (an earthquake helped them). It took a referendum election here. We won, 3-1/2 to 1. No outlying shopping center. Plus the formation of a downtown redevelopment district. Try all that without a newspaper on your side.
Without Fred - we would have open pit mining, large scale, on our flanks. U.S. Gypsum, armed with perfectly valid mining claims (the permitting law enacted in 1873 - never modified, never revoked) pitted a powerful and exceedingly rich corporate giant, as well as the U.S. government (Los Padres is a national forest) against we, the people. Without the Ojai Valley News sounding the rally cry, we would have, most assuredly, been overcome. U.S. Gypsum's operation included, among many horrors, 15 enormous open-pit mines, stretching for five miles across the forest ridgeline and the Pine Mountain-Reyes Peak campgrounds. Add an on-site chemical plant spewing noxious emissions, mix in double-rigged tanker trucks barreling down serpentine Route 33 on a 10-mile-apart schedule - a full-scale environmental disaster 11 air miles from the heart of Ojai was, as the Brits say, dead cert.
Without Fred, instead of the 3,200 pristine acres now known as the Charles M. Teague Recreation Area, which overlooks the hills and trees and deep blue waters of Lake Casitas, plans already in the works would have permitted construction of 10,000 single-family dwellings (density: 3.5 - go multiply). It took several years, countless hearings, a zillion studies and reports, and hordes of motivated citizens clamoring away before congressional funding enabled purchase of the land and the gradual takeover of ownership of 58 parcels, mostly owner-occupied.
As if that weren't enough, we then faced the specter of an operating oil refinery looming at the very mouth of our valley. Initial investments by a clutch of locals, incorporated as "Copco," soon became a part of a chain operation renamed "USA Petrochem." Smog alerts were commonplace in the '70s and early '80s. With Petrochem's toxic mix coursing up the natural route provided by the Ventura River and into Ojai, the air we all breathe took a turn for the worse. Summer months gave us a yellow haze which often obscured the mountains. Smog was more of a given before state and federal edicts cleaned things up somewhat and mandated health alerts, which purportedly sent the very young and the very old scampering indoors.
In the 25 years of Fred's stewardship of the Ojai Valley News, the Ojai was the staging area for a protracted series of environmental battles, all offered in the spirit of "good for the people." Wannabe contributions to the well-being and scenic improvement of our little valley included a proposed uranium mine, poised strategically on land directly above Lake Casitas; a Honda Motor Company motorcycle speedway on the 3,000-plus acres adjoining Dennison Park; a "ranchette" subdivision on the Flying H Ranch, also in the Upper Ojai; and a waterslide-motel extravaganza at Soule Park, fronting on Ojai Avenue. You don't see any of the above today, do you? Thank you, Fred.
Ojai simply would not be "The Ojai" without Fred Volz. He gave direction and spirit. He was the community guiding light. It was quite an environmental ride - those 25 years. We didn't miss a bump or a curve, and not one of us who wrote for his paper ever put on the brakes.
Godspeed, Fred.
Your forever friend, Pat

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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