Piru’s Damaged Bank Will Not Be Reopened

Piru’s only bank, which has been closed since it was severely damaged in the Jan. 17 earthquake, will not reopen because repairs to the building are too costly, bank officials said Friday.

The board of directors of Citizen’s State Bank of Santa Paula had considered operating from a mobile unit in Piru, but they decided against it for fear that such a site could be easily robbed, said bank President Joseph C. Nesbitt.

“We have a great relationship with the community and they have indicated that they need a bank, (but) the board felt that the liability may be more than they can handle,” Nesbitt said.

The bank, which had operated out of a 77-year-old brick building on Center Street since 1984, suffered extensive damage. Like many other buildings in the tiny rural town of nearly 1,200, the building was determined to be too dangerous to enter until the repairs were made.

It would be at least six months before the building could be repaired, Nesbitt said. He did not have an estimate on the cost of the repairs but said it would be prohibitive.

Before the earthquake, Nesbitt said, bank officials had no intention of leaving the area. “We would have stayed there if it had not been for the earthquake,” he said.

The closure marks the second time since the early 1980s that Piru has been left without a bank.

On Friday, residents said they were disappointed and angry that now they have to drive either to Fillmore or Santa Paula for bank transactions, including withdrawing cash.

As it struggles to recover from the quake, Piru needs its own bank more than ever, residents said.

“It is the responsibility of the bank to come out now and help us,” said Patti Alexakis, 46, of Piru. “On top of the earthquake disaster, this is just one more disaster. It gives me the feeling that they (the bank) just don’t care about us.”

Alexakis said she plans to write a letter to the bank’s board of directors complaining about the decision, and plans to organize a petition drive among residents asking the bank to reconsider.

Although the bank’s board has approved the closure of the Piru branch, it still needs to submit a request that must be approved by the state and federal authorities, Nesbitt said.

Kenneth Creason, president of the Fillmore-Piru Citrus Assn., said the bank closing would cause enormous detriment to the community. “We are just on the edge of redeveloping the town and the bank is a key holder of that development,” he said.

He said the association and several Piru residents were planning to build about 150 new houses with the bank’s financial backing, but those plans must now be put on hold.

Creason said when the Bank of America left Piru about 15 years ago, he and other members of the association promised to do most of their business with Citizen’s State Bank if the bank opened a branch in Piru.

After the earthquake, Creason said, the association and the bank agreed that the bank would operate in a mobile unit to be located at the association’s packing facility in Piru while the bank’s building was being repaired, Creason said.

Creason said he was surprised to learn about the bank board’s decision and that he and other members of the association intend to address the bank’s board before they submitted a closure petition to state and federal authorities.

Jim Sanchez, who owns two businesses in Piru--Jim ‘s Video and Sanchez Grocery and Liquor-- said that since the earthquake when the bank closed, he has had to make two trips to Fillmore for banking transactions.

“A lot of people depend on me to cash checks,” Sanchez said referring to citrus workers who do not have a bank account. Since the quake, he said, many people have gone weeks without cashing their paychecks because he has discontinued the cashing service.

“I don’t want to be on the road from Fillmore to Piru with a lot of cash,” Sanchez said. “That is dangerous.”

Polly Bee, a Ventura County employee who has been helping residents in Fillmore rebuild their lives since the quake, said the lack of a bank in Piru will affect mostly the city’s large elderly community, many of whom do not drive.

“The community has been knocked down with the earthquake and now they are getting a punch on the stomach,” Bee said. “The community looks up to them (the bank) for support.”

Don Bourne, manager of Citizen’s State Bank’s Fillmore branch, said many customers from Piru have been doing business in the Fillmore branch, which was barely affected by the earthquake.

But driving eight miles to Fillmore just to cash a check is inconvenient to many residents, said Al Gaitan, president of the Piru Neighborhood Council.

After the earthquake, losing their bank is probably the most demoralizing event for Piru’s residents, said Alexakis. “Not having a bank to call your own is discouraging.”