Firms, Agencies Join in Drive to Find Child Care

More than a dozen Ventura County companies and public agencies have formally joined forces in a drive to provide better day-care services for their employees, although most are stopping short of actually opening children’s centers in the workplace.

One major focus of the consortium, whose first formal meeting was held Wednesday night at the Ventura Holiday Inn, is to locate and upgrade private day-care providers countywide.

The companies, which will pool information on available day-care services, also will try to zero in on facilities that care for children who are ill--a service that working parents find particularly difficult to find.

Ellen Coleman, project coordinator for the Ventura Child Care Consortium, said most of the companies are too small to establish day-care programs on their premises, but have joined forces to improve day-care options outside the business place.

A leading member of the coalition is Patagonia, a Ventura outdoor clothing business with a national reputation as a leader in providing day-care facilities for its workers.

As the consortium launched its countywide effort, another member company announced Wednesday that it plans to follow Patagonia’s lead by building its own on-site children’s center when it moves later this year from midtown Ventura to the city’s west side.

The company, Western Instrument Corp., which has 130 employees, said it hopes to join forces with Patagonia in the actual operation of the new center.

Formal contracts have not been signed, but Jean Halsell, Western Instrument’s administration manager, said she is hopeful that the child-care partnership will be formed and that Anita Garaway, director of Patagonia’s Great Pacific Child Development Center, will head both schools.

Halsell said discussions have been held about placing the younger children of employees of both companies at Patagonia and older children at the proposed Western Instrument facility. The companies and the children’s parents would share the cost of operating the centers, she said.

Halsell said Western Instrument, an ocean engineering firm, plans to move in late summer or early fall to the site of the former Mill Elementary School on Ventura Avenue. The company’s new children’s facility will open six to nine months later, she said.

Paul Tebbel, a Patagonia spokesman, said it is too soon to consider the deal completed.

Henning Ottsen, Western Instrument’s vice president, said, “We’d like very much to get the benefit of Patagonia’s expertise, but we’re definitely going to open an on-site center whether or not we reach an agreement with them.”

According to Coleman, a child-care partnership between the two companies would be an ideal example of what is needed in the county.

“This is a slow-growth area, but we’re still making children,” Coleman said. She suggested that because the county’s employers are relatively small, their assistance to working parents must be innovative rather than costly.

Thirteen employers--holdovers from the 65 that were represented at a symposium in April--signed up as founding members of the consortium. Coleman said another 40 employers are interested in working with the group.

The founding members include American Commercial Bank, Bank of A. Levy, First Interstate Bank, GTE California, J.C. Penney, Patagonia, Pemko Manufacturing, Pyramid Employment Agency, Turning Point Foundation, Ventura County National Bank and Western Instrument. Ventura County and Oxnard College are also members.

“One of our first responsibilities as we move into our second year is to draw those other 40 in,” said James W. Word, manager of the J.C. Penney store in Ventura’s Buenaventura Plaza. He was a member of the Blue Ribbon Committee that guided the child-care campaign through its first year.