Pier Campaign Starts Solidly : Preservation: A Ventura civic-business organization gets a 10th of the way to its $1-million goal for endowment during its first week.

A community effort to set up a $1-million endowment for the preservation of the historic Ventura Pier has brought in nearly $100,000 in its first week of fund raising, officials said Thursday.

Pier Into the Future, a fund-raising group of Ventura civic and business leaders, got off to a fast start with a fund-raising party Wednesday night that attracted more than 100 donors to the endowment that will subsidize maintenance of the 121-year-old pier, once it is refurbished.

“It’s a community effort and everybody wins from this,” said Monty Clark, chairman of the fund-raising group that hopes to reach its $1-million goal by October. “The city did not approach the community to get this going. The community came forward.”

The Ventura Pier, built in 1872, is the longest wooden pier in California at 1,958 feet long and 60 feet wide. It is undergoing a major $3.2-million renovation project after being partially closed in 1986 when it was ravaged by a winter storm.

Three years ago, the Ventura City Council decided to take over the pier from the state and received $3.5 million in grants to renovate the landmark.

Once restoration is completed, possibly as early as December, the pier will have a new snack bar, bait shop, a 5,000-square-foot restaurant and a copper “Wavespout” sculpture that will create a small blowhole driven by the force of the waves. Work crews have already finished replacing the pier’s pilings and decking.

City officials have estimated that the continued renovation of the pier will cost close to $150,000 a year. With the city strapped for funds, several leaders in the community decided to form a group to offset the costs.

Community leaders have joined with members of the Greater Ventura Chamber of Commerce, the Ventura Visitors & Convention Bureau and the Ventura County Community Foundation over the past few months to help set up the endowment fund.

The group adopted its name, Pier Into the Future, from a previous pier-restoration campaign started in 1986 that urged city leaders to take control of the pier. City Councilman Tom Buford, who was the city’s Chamber of Commerce president at the time, spearheaded the campaign to preserve the pier.

City and business leaders said the pier is one Ventura’s main attractions and helps attract a sizable portion of the city’s $127.8 million a year in tourism money. It has also been a popular haven for fishermen.

Guy Wysinger, the chamber’s current president, said the community had to rally around the effort unless it wanted the bridge to deteriorate from a lack of maintenance.

“It became clear that the city could not pay for the future renovation of the pier,” Wysinger said. “It’s attractive, it’s a draw and it does help with the tourism. It adds to the ambience of the city.”

To entice donors, the group is offering to engrave names on a planned granite monument in front of the Ventura Pier and a variety of other commemorative items. Contributions are categorized in six levels, ranging from $100 to $10,000.

Don and Edna Mills, longtime Ventura residents, were the first to donate money to the campaign. They both spent $100 to become “Deck Hands,” the least expensive category. Each will get their names engraved in half-inch lettering in granite. Bigger donors will be featured more prominently on the monument.

“I used to fish at the pier when I was in grammar school,” said Don, who has lived in Ventura all of his life. “It’s an interesting landmark and we’d like to keep it.”

The fund-raising group is very similar to one that was started in Huntington Beach when it was forced to replace its pier. The group raised nearly $1.3 million by selling sections of concrete to the public. The Ventura group will give contributors special “suitable for framing” deeds to wooden planks on the pier.

“We hope this is going to have a snowball effect,” Clark said. “We’re going to look at people who have been active in the community before.”

FYI

For information on the “Pier Into the Future” fund-raising campaign to establish an endowment for maintaining the Ventura Pier, call (800) 880-PIER.