Squashing the Opposition

Agoura Hills proved in less than a second Saturday that its city officials are no pumpkinheads.

In a no-gourds-barred race against Calabasas and Malibu, Agoura Hills Councilman Ed Kurtz and City Manager David Carmany maneuvered a wheelbarrow filled with 10 pumpkins about a nanosecond faster than their opponents through an obstacle course that featured a 3 1/2-foot-high tunnel and wading pools.

The first annual Great American Pumpkin Race was part of Calabasas Days, a festival sponsored by the city and the local Chamber of Commerce that continues next weekend with a pumpkinseed-spitting contest and other events. Proceeds will benefit 30 local charities and organizations.

Officials of Calabasas, whose very name is derived from the Spanish word for pumpkins , challenged four nearby cities to the race. But Hidden Hills and Westlake Village “wimped out” and did not participate, said Calabasas Mayor Pro Tem Marvin Lopata.

“This is regionalism gone crazy,” said Agoura Hills Councilwoman Louise Rishoff, as the cities’ teams prepared to take hold of the wheelbarrows loaded with 50 pounds of bright orange pumpkins and steer them through the course in the dirt parking lot off Calabasas Road near Valley Circle.

“Go Calabasas, go!” yelled a few among the 40 spectators, some of whom wore two-foot pumpkin hats.

“Go Agoura Hills!” yelled others.

Actually, officials said, the five cities cooperate and are not rivals. About 40 residents also competed after the cities completed the course.

The Malibu team, composed of Mayor Walt Keller and Councilman John Harlow, trailed in third place with a time of 1 minute, 25 seconds. The Agoura Hills team of Kurtz and Carmany finished in 1 minute, 1 second, barely beating the Calabasas team of Lopata and Councilman Dennis Washburn, who stopped to pick up a pumpkin that fell off while they were slaloming around the plastic cones. Calabasas fans groaned.

The race may have seemed undignified to some, said Lopata, sweating from the ordeal. But it shows “we’re real people, who haven’t gotten to the point of not being fun anymore.”