OJAI : Man’s Bequest Is 1st Gift to Conservancy

A fledgling land conservancy has received its first donation of property to be preserved for open space in Meiners Oaks.

Richard Handley, director of the Besant Meadow Preservation Group, said that Pekka K. Merikallio, who died April 23 at his Meiners Oaks home, left the group nine small lots that were zoned for residential development.

Merikallio’s will allows a family living on the lots to remain there but prohibits the parcels from being sold, said Pat Baggerly, an estate trustee.

She and her husband, Russ Baggerly, an aide to Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, were neighbors and close friends of Merikallio, 70.

He never married or had children, she said.

Santa Paula Councilman Les Maland, who had known Merikallio since the 1940s when they were engineering students in Ventura and Berkeley, said he was not surprised at the donation.

“Pekka had the idea that you get to use land, but you never really own it,” Maland said. “His approach was a little different than the norm.”

A captain in the Merchant Marine, Merikallio obtained a master’s degree in public administration from Pepperdine University, worked at Point Mugu and was an active member of the local conservancy, the Citizens to Preserve the Ojai and the Environmental Coalition of Ventura County.

Banding together six years ago to successfully block a 150-condominium project proposed for the 26-acre meadow along Besant Road, the conservancy received its nonprofit status last year and now has 300 names on its mailing list, Handley said.

While seeking grants and other donations, group members are working to place a state bond measure on the 1992 ballot that would give Ventura County $1.5 million to buy the meadow and other properties.

Handley said a reception to raise funds and gather signatures will be held at 6:30 p.m. May 21 in The Ranch House restaurant at Besant Road and South Lomita Avenue. It will feature a presentation by naturalist John Christianson, exhibitions by photographers Timothy Teague and Ron Seba and music by jazz pianist Theo Saunders, all of Ojai.