VENTURA : Beach Wheelchair Ramp Is Removed

Less than four months after it was put in place, a popular beach wheelchair ramp that allowed users to roll right up to the Pacific Ocean in Ventura has been temporarily removed.

City workers removed the 200-foot-long plastic ramp from Harbor Cove Beach near the Channel Islands National Park headquarters to make way for a major construction project involving the nearby port, officials said.

Heavy equipment needed for the construction job could have damaged the ramp if it had been left in place, said Mary Lou Schill, a recreation supervisor in Ventura.

Although the ramp was envisioned as a way to help those in wheelchairs get over the sand to the surf, many parents with strollers have also used it to get from the parking lot to the ocean, Schill said.

“Considering the popularity of the ramp with both able and disabled users, we would have preferred to at least keep it there until after the Labor Day weekend,” Schill said. “But we also understood the damage that could have been done to the walkway by the heavy equipment that will soon be operating in the area,” she said.

The plastic ramp will be put back in place by April, she said. It is the first of its kind in Ventura County and among only a few in the state.