Bottle Village Backers Plan Fight for Funds

Supporters of Bottle Village vowed to battle onward Monday, saying they will appeal FEMA’s decision to withdraw $505,999 in federal and state earthquake-repair funds for the junk-art fantasyland.

The 1994 Northridge earthquake badly damaged most of the 22 buildings that Tressa “Grandma” Prisbrey spent three decades cementing together from donated beer bottles and junkyard findings before her death in 1988 at age 92.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency initially labeled Bottle Village a “folk-art environment,” giving it the same status as the quake-damaged Watts Towers, and providing more than half a million dollars in repair funds. Ten percent of the amount was to be paid by the state, which had declared Bottle Village a historic landmark.

But Simi Valley Councilwoman Sandi Webb and U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) led a grass-roots petition drive against the funds, arguing the money was being spent on trash.

And on Friday, FEMA Director James Lee Witt pulled the funding and ordered the Preserve Bottle Village Corp. to pay back the $18,900 it had spent so far, saying that the whimsical site had been closed for years.

Daniel Paul, curator of the Bottle Village project, said he intends to write a letter of appeal to FEMA.

“It was open to the public,” Paul said Monday. “We were definitely open by appointment, but if somebody came to the gate, we’d let them in too.” He said he would call a news conference Wednesday to announce further plans to save Bottle Village.