OJAI : Child-Care Facility Gets Preliminary OK

A proposal to establish a before- and after-school child-care facility in a portable classroom in Ojai has met preliminary approval by the City Council.

The plan would use a combination of city funds and school facilities to establish the center at Topa Topa Elementary School. The project must now be approved by the Ojai Unified School District trustees.

“We saw a lot of children who were not being taken care of after school,” said Dana Huffman of Smart Start, the nonprofit agency that would operate the center. “There is a need for additional child care in the Ojai Valley.”

Several people spoke in favor of establishing the center during a public meeting Tuesday night of the Ojai City Council. But resident Ben Larner said tax dollars should not be used to fund nonprofit agencies and that the rates proposed by Smart Start were excessive.

Child care would cost between $175 and $223 a month under the plan submitted by Huffman.

The City Council, however, sitting as the Ojai Redevelopment Agency, endorsed the project unanimously.

“It really opens up cooperation between the city and the school district,” said Councilman Joe De Vito, who noted the city spent $3,500 to print a brochure explaining the recently adopted smoking ordinance for merchants to distribute.

“For us to support our business community and not do something to support the children, I think would be a sin,” De Vito said.

The city would spend up to $21,500 to help get the program established under the proposal.