SANTA PAULA : Owner to Reopen Spring to the Public

Now that he’s retired and has time to keep a watchful eye over the litter bugs, a Santa Paula resident is reopening a natural spring water source on his property for free public use.

Ozzie Osborn met with California Department of Transportation officials this week to make sure that a new pump and faucet he plans to install at the side of the Santa Paula-Ojai Road will not interfere with highway safety.

If all goes well, the roadside water supply, which Osborn is building at his own expense, should be open by the new year.

Ozzie and Rhoda Osborn bought the Spring Water Ranch in 1971 and he used his skills as a plumber to install pipes transporting natural, spring water from the source to the side of the road where passersby could more easily stop and fill their containers.

Osborn said it didn’t bother him that some people showed up with 40-gallon jugs, leaving other thirsty folks, often including Osborn himself, waiting in line. But when visitors started holding small parties in the nearby creek and littering the property, the Osborns decided to nip the problem at its source.

So in August, 1987, they blocked the spring.

The Osborns said the main reason they are reopening the spring is to provide free, healthy water for the area’s older population.

“Water is scarce and money is tight, especially for the oldies,” Rhoda Osborn said. “Plus some of these people grew up drinking this water. They get accustomed to something and then they don’t want a change forced on them.”

This isn’t the first time that Ozzie Osborn, 70, no relation to the rock star with the same name, has played a Samaritan’s role.

Osborn received national attention last year when he adopted Grunt the Pig, an 800-pound porker that had been abandoned in the Los Angeles area and almost beaten to death by some men who wanted to eat him.

“Oh, he’s doing fine,” Osborn said. “We just finished building a house and pool for all the pigs. We have about 20.”