OjaiNews.com

This just in from the City of Ojai: We’ve received word from VC Fire Chief Bob Roper who is closely monitoring the Zaca Fire that a Ojai Community Meeting is being set up for this coming Friday. Currently the fire is in a heavily-vegetated area—where no fire has burned in recorded history—and it is headed our way. There is little concern that it will be a real threat to the Valley, in fact, firefighters say that movement in this direction will make it easier to fight. But we could get even more smoke and ash. (thanks to Paulette Matheson Whiting for the info)

SB County Fire Dept. has good information, including Highway closures, Evacuation warnings and orders, and Health Advisories. Also, a link to a map of the Zaca fire perimeter (PDF).

Inciweb, like the Day Fire most of the time, is down. When its back up, here's the Zaca Fire incident page.

The US Forest Service has some information, including a map of the Los Padres National Forest Zaca Fire closure area (PDF), which dips down to about five miles north of Ojai on Highway 33.

Lots of people travel out of the Ojai Valley on business or pleasure, and we sometimes are the beneficiaries of the insights that they gain upon their returns. Since i live, work, and - to a large extent - shop here, i seldom need to leave the nest, and when i do it's not for very long or far. But i've been away from the Goddess Moon for nearly a week as my wife and i gave birth to our beautiful daughter Noa at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, connected to Ojai only by the ash that rained gently down onto both places. We're glad to be home, and i noticed a few things upon our return:

• Someone (presumably the City) painted nearly all our sewer covers white. When i suggested that it might help City workers find them better, Jessie countered that it simply might have helped them find something to do.

• The new development going in at Ojai Avenue between Cañada and Blanche Streets has been named E' Bello, which my state-of-the-art language translating widget says means "Beautiful E'", whatever that means. At any rate, the current list of businesses who've staked out spots in the new building is as follows:
- Jim & Rob's Fresh Grill
- Curves Fitness for Women
- Troop Real Estate
- Tobi Redlich, DC (currently the resident Chiropractor at the Day Spa of Ojai)
- John Maggio, Allstate Insurance (also sits on the Advisory Council of the Ojai Valley FireSafe Council)
- Noah's Apothecary
- Body Essentials
- Ojai Business Center
- Ojai Valley Directory
i'd heard some time ago that Jim & Rob's wanted to move so that Sea Fresh could expand into that adjacent spot, and i spoke with the folks at OBC yesterday who confirmed the move not for a bigger space, but for better location (specifically, according to one young copyist, next door to Jim & Rob's). The phone-answerer at Curves also confirmed a move, not an additional location. Putting all of these diverse services and products into one building sounds convenient, but i'm left wondering if it's very "Ojai", and just what may fill all the vacancies left by the businesses that move there. Check out my map to see where the holes will be. be mindful also that Ojai Creates! is moving into the former location of Cardinali Brothers Music, and the Brothers are moving into the Smart Start building in Meiners Oaks.

• The Zaca Fire continues to rage, although the Valley doesn't appear to be in imminent danger as such. even so, an Ojai Community Meeting will be held this Friday the 10th to discuss the particulars. There's also a kiosk outside Starr Market with maps and in-your-hands info printed on actual paper.

* More after the jump! *

Although our air quality rests today at a cool 64 in the particulates department, registering a "Moderate" rating from airnow.gov, the Zaca Fire continues at our back door, having burned over 215,000 acres (nearly 1,000 of them in the last 12 hours alone) with over 3,000 firefighters working on it and at a price tag of over $87 Million. All that, and it's 77% contained.

There are many sources for updated fire info, including the free-standing kiosks that the County Fire Department has set up throughout the valley, mostly at grocery stores and gas stations. Online, your best bet is the Ojai Post's Zaca Fire Information & Resource Page, which features websites and phone numbers of all the relevant organizations, including the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, National Forest information center, road conditions, weather, media, and evacuation information.

Also, check out the Ojai Post main page for daily updates and community-driven breaking news and information! Check out this morning's thread for the most current info and comments as of this writing.

In the "The Story Everyone Knows About But Nobody Knows" Department, the Ojai Valley News is reporting that Victor Keith Stolz, 46, was found dead last Thursday the 16th in front of Ojai's public library. An autopsy has been performed, but the cause of death is being withheld pending further investigation. A commenter on the Ojai Post suggested that the man was beaten to death, but that is unconfirmed.

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The Editor's Journal is cross-posted at the Ojai Post, where you can make comments and generate dialogue!

About this time last year, Jessie and i were grumbling all the way to Vegas. We were on our way to celebrate the combined birthdays of some dear friends with some college-style shenanigans, drinking, costumed theme nights, and general foolishness in a neon-lit adult playground in the desert, but we were ALSO missing Jack Johnson playing literally down the street from our home at Locally Grown 1. So this year, with the bill of Perla Batalla and Brett Dennen to lure us, we had our brown paper tickets nice and early. Vegas can wait (and it helps to have a newborn).

We arrived just in time to hear MC Claud Mann welcoming everyone, and Battle-of-the-Bands fourth place winners The Imaginative Clams took the stage as we found a good spot to sit in the elite (as designated by the colored bracelets and plastic chains) "Front Lawn" section. i gazed sadly backward at the row of faces that made up the front of the "Back Lawn" section with the Five Man Electrical Band's "Signs" playing in my head over whatever Avant Garage or The Philosophy were sharing from the stage. And then it happened: Emy Reynolds began to play.

A Report from Tonight's City Council Meeting

The Ojai City Council met tonight per their regular schedule (second and fourth Tuesdays of every month, at City Hall), and i arrived just a few minutes before the published start time of 7:30pm -- just enough time to fill out my speaker card and find my seat.

After most in the room pledged their allegiance under god, the first order of business was Public Communications. i rose to ask the Council to issue a proclamation for the City's recognition of and support for the International Peace Day on September 21 and the local efforts being made to celebrate it. Council agreed to add this as an agenda item to their September 11 meeting. Dennis Leary had submitted the only other card, and used his 3 minutes to submit a Formula Retail Ordinance of his own drafting, using what he considers to be the best of the original City draft, the Planning Commission's recommendations, and the 600+ signature Citizens' Initiative drafted by Kenley Neufeld.

The Consent Calendar (a-h of rather mundane items such as payment of warrants, approval of past meeting minutes, and authorization of projects) was approved in total in one motion, and we leapt right into the Public Hearing on the Ordinance for Formula Retail Businesses which had been held over from the Council's August 14 meeting. Since that time the Planning Commission, in a meeting still celebrated for its integrity and length (just over three hours), rejected the City staff's proposed ordinance, which prominently features the controversial Historical Commercial District.
(Get caught up on the whole issue - complete with maps - at the Ojai Post's Chain Stores Resource Page)

i'm certain that someone more well-versed on this issue and with more logged Council Chambers time than myself will flesh out the subtleties and projected outcomes of the hearing (i'd keep an eye on the OVN blog and the Ojai Post), but here are the main points as i saw and heard them (not necessarily in chronological order):