High Price of Free Shelter

A Los Angeles firm offered to build bus shelters in the Ojai Valley free of charge--but there was a catch.

The plexiglass walls to shield bus riders from wind and rain would also be used for advertising.

That didn’t sit well with Robert MacNeal. So he and other Oak View residents put their heads together and found a way to get the covered stops built without ads plastered on the sides.

Ten forest-green bus shelters will be installed, starting this week, along California 33 between Casitas Springs and Mira Monte.

Ventura County supervisors are expected to approve the $85,000 project Tuesday.

“We’re very happy that it’s finally happening and that we didn’t get steamrolled into accepting the advertising,” said MacNeal, a certified public accountant.

“They were willing to listen to the residents,” he said.

It took the citizens committee two years to wade through government bureaucracy and find the money needed, said Leanna Kennedy, chairwoman of the grass-roots group.

Working with Supervisor Steve Bennett’s office and other county officials, they secured a $75,250 federal grant.

The county will contribute the remainder, about $9,700, from Highway 33 road funds and contract the job to a builder. Trash hauler Consolidated Industries agreed to empty trash bins attached to the shelters at no cost.

Bennett called the group’s work “a classic example of a community pulling together to get something done.”

“They thought there was already too much commercialization,” Bennett said. “So they found a way to provide the shelters without the visual pollution.”

Buses regularly carry people between Ventura and Ojai. Some stops have benches, but there have never been any shelters, Kennedy said.

“When it rains, we really get it,” she said. “It also gets very hot. So this will be a welcome addition.”