OJAI : Phone Books to Come Out at Last

Advertisers threatening to sue an Ojai publisher have been told that a long-delayed telephone directory will hit the streets in mid-November.

Stanie Benz, owner of Glastonbury Press, said the Village Directory will make its debut about 18 months after it was originally promised.

“We deeply regret the delays,” Benz said.

Benz said many of the 300 advertisers should get advance copies of the publication by Saturday. The remaining 20,000 copies are expected to be mailed and hand-delivered by Nov. 17 to houses and businesses throughout Ojai Valley and portions of Santa Paula, Ventura and Santa Barbara.

Ojai attorney Philip I. Moncharsh is one of several dozen advertisers who besieged Benz with letters and phone calls begging for a publication date as one delay led to another. Moncharsh said he paid $600 for a listing in late 1988 when he was told the directory would come out in the spring of 1989.

Moncharsh said he called Benz a dozen times and sent her three certified letters without a response until he threatened a class-action lawsuit to recover an estimated $60,000 in advertisers’ payments.

But Tony Thacher of Friend’s Ranch in Ojai said he would rather have his $252 advertisement published than file a suit.

Benz said publication problems have ranged from losing staff to a family illness. “Developing the maps turned into a much larger process than anticipated,” she said.