OXNARD / VENTURA : Bridge Is Dedicated to Civic Leader

The white paint--slapped on to cover the graffiti--was still wet on the Victoria Avenue Bridge when local officials gathered Tuesday to formally change the structure’s name to honor longtime self-appointed political adviser Carroll W. C. Lorbeer.

“We were out here last night painting everything and then somebody came and sprayed graffiti and we had to come back and do it all again this morning,” assistant county road maintenance engineer Chuck Burton fretted. The two paint jobs left white patches up and down the bridge, which gets such treatment “once a ceremony,” Burton quipped.

But a little wet paint did not seem to bother Lorbeer, 85. A former celery farmer and real estate agent, Lorbeer is known for his wit and wisdom at meetings of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and Oxnard City Council he attended for more than 30 years.

Dressed in a navy blue suit, red tie and baseball cap, his trademark broomstick cane at his side, Lorbeer grinned.

As sea gulls circled overhead and waded in the thin sheet of brown Santa Clara River trickling below, Lorbeer stood proudly in front of a plaque bearing his name at the center of the newly widened bridge he helped plan. The bridge is between the Oxnard and Ventura city limits.

“I’m quite pleased,” he told the small crowd, his voice barely audible above the roar of dump trucks on their way to the nearby Bailard Landfill. “During all my years of troublemaking in this county, this is something I never expected.”

About 32,000 vehicles pass daily over the 1,300-foot-long Lorbeer Bridge, making it one of the busiest bridges under county jurisdiction.

Although he held no political office, Lorbeer helped plan bridges, change street names and bring commercial jets to the airport in Oxnard.

“Carroll is just a delight,” said County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, whom Lorbeer helped orient during her first days on the board. “This is something he really deserves. For the first time he’s getting something back for all the work he’s put into this county.”