Ventura mayor cannot sue Ojai Valley and run to represent us as supervisor
By Jeffrey Starkweather
On Jan. 12, I attended the Democratic Club of Ventura meeting at which Matt LaVere (Ventura mayor and candidate for Ventura County Supervisor, District 1 which encompasses the entire Ojai Valley) spoke and answered questions about Ventura’s recent legal actions against virtually all Ojai Valley water users. Ojai City Council member Bill Weirick asked LaVere why it was necessary to spend millions of dollars to take legal action against thousands of Ojai Valley water users to resolve the complaint by the Santa Barbara Channelkeeper that Ventura was endangering steel head trout and the ecology of the Ventura River by taking too much water from the river in the summer months.
Ventura tries to Mulholland theft of water
By Jerry George
Let’s get this straight, you pinhead mayor of Ventura! Ventura has been so wrong in past planning decisions for what could have been a beautiful city! Adjacent to the ocean, you had an opportunity to have a waterfront mecca! You see yourself as a Los Angeles of the early 1900s and your mayor is trying to pull off a sequel to “Chinatown”! You want to pull a Mulholland theft of water from all areas that feed down to Ventura!
County supervisors support greater autopsy privacy
By Steve Bennett, Ventura County supervisor
Regarding your Jan. 3 editorial, “Prevent death of the public’s right to know”:
For the Ojai Valley News to suggest that the county medical examiner and the five supervisors took the position to preserve medical record privacy in order to enable concealment of incriminating information is a disservice to these public officials and the citizens of our community.
A collaborative path forward to protect our water resources
By Matt LaVere, Ventura mayor
The future of the Ventura River Watershed is in our hands.
A vital water resource, the watershed serves many diverse interests in the region including agricultural users, businesses, individuals, water districts and cities that depend on it each day. Right now, this essential water supply is at risk, consistently being stretched to capacity as a result of changing climate conditions and prolonged periods of drought. It’s a serious challenge that requires timely action. That’s why the city is committed to establishing a balanced solution that protects this precious water resource now and moving forward.
Feel like a kid again — ride your bike!
By Suza Francina, Ojai City Council member
Recent letters to the editor on bicycling in Ojai brought up many important points. Ojai has the potential to be the Copenhagen of California, a bicycle-friendly city where students can safely ride to school and visitors come to our beautiful valley for a car-free vacation.
Steam-assisted oil recovery another risky proposition
By Marie Lakin
In June of 2011, a sinkhole of superheated earth opened up and swallowed an oilfield worker in Kern County. That field had been producing heavy oil for decades utilizing a high-pressure production technique of water heated by natural gas and injected into the earth.
Stopping a new generation from a lifetime of addiction
By Robert Levin, M.D., Health Officer for Ventura County
Daily news headlines of vape-related lung injuries and deaths are bringing the entire country to action on finding ways to stop youth vaping.
Summit Charter School: An urging to the Ojai Unified School Board
By Andy Gilman
Dec. 13, the Ojai Unified School District Board will vote on whether to approve the Summit Charter School petition for the creation of a new transitional kindergarten to eighth grade public school. The proposed location is the former Summit Elementary campus in Upper Ojai, but the location is a separate decision for the school board. I strongly encourage the board to consider the proposal, rise above misleading objections, work with the Summit Charter School Board, and approve the petition.
Ojai green-waste facility may close very soon
By Alasdair Coyne
A combination of irreconcilable circumstances is threatening to force the permanent closure, possibly in coming weeks, of the Ojai Valley Organics green-waste processing facility on Old Baldwin Road. This is likely to lead to an ongoing wave of illegal dumping of truckloads of brush across our valley’s back roads.
Help honor Ojai heroes on Veterans Day
By Nancy Hill
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” — Ronald Reagan
The amazing powerful grace of Laurie Walters Slade
By Susan Kelejian
Words are powerful. They can destroy with a syllable, or uplift spirits with thoughtful brevity.
I was witness among 100 people in a packed courtroom Oct. 24 to the sentencing of a man who took away the life of our beloved community member, John Slade. I was also witness to his wife, our friend, Laurie, deliver a statement of words which will forever be burned into my psyche and be a life-changing moment, a snapshot “memory postcard” which serves as a catalyst for personal transformation. Which is appropriate as if you knew him, John had alchemical qualities. Laurie does, as well.
Not only did she have the courage to walk from her seat and stand a few feet away from the person whose actions took away from her the love of her life, as she put so succinctly her “soul’s mate,” but was able to clearly articulate sans a single “um” or stagger through sobs to try to describe an encapsulated beautiful life of John Slade: singer, songwriter, actor, writer, director, advocate, educator, father, husband, friend.
She spoke slowly and carefully, with calm clarity. She spoke with softness, she spoke for John, for herself, and for us. It was honest and raw, transparent and intimate, moving and difficult, but without histrionics, without a drop of vengeance in its tone. She spoke so well, that it moved me in 15 minutes to not manifest the compulsion to cry out “MURDER!” when I sat in the courtroom corner, burning my eyes into the back of his head.
Laurie, who was granted by the thoughtful listening judge to be able to face and speak directly to the convicted, said: “I am angry at you, Mr. McVickers. But I don’t hate you, and I don’t know why.” She then went on, as only a Shakespearean would do to educate on the origin of the word “penitentiary,” whereupon she explained to him that during the time he will serve doing his penance, and be truly penitent, he then would be able to walk out of the prison and finally “be free.”
Her clear, honest directness moved the guilty party so profoundly that he asked the judge spontaneously to address the room. Whereupon in a brief statement, Mr. McVickers turned around to face 100 people, so angry, so hurt, so wanting more justice than a four-year sentence of a misdemeanor and was able to tearfully express a deep sorrow for his actions and ask for forgiveness from us. My rage was turned to compassion, and that was because of Laurie.
She gave us a gift of such profound example of forgiveness that was so very unexpected, which allowed a man who made horrific decisions to be able to heal. She gave the community seated behind her a gift that we don’t have to be angry and sad and hurt about the loss of this multi-gifted light-being in form of John Slade, but can now collectively and individually move forward because of what his partner stated so eloquently. She showed courage of a rare kind, and which gave a man the courage to face us, to face himself, and to face what lies ahead.
Courage is French for “le coeur” (heart) and “age” (age/time) — a translation to mean “time of the heart.” Courage is when we are afraid to do something, but do it anyway because our heart leads us in that direction. Because our heart wins out. Courage has the power of love at its foundation, not hate or fear.
— Susan Keljian lives in Ojai.