Vote for New Bandstand in Park Is Music to Her Ears : Ojai: Move to replace gazebo is a dream come true for Sara Beeby. She still must raise $50,000.

Since her visit to the quaint Cape Cod town of Chatham, Mass., four years ago, Sara Beeby has dreamed of bringing the ambience of Chatham’s summer evening concerts to Ojai.

She formed the Ojai Band in 1991 and has campaigned ever since for a large bandstand in Libbey Park to replace the small gazebo, where the band has played in cramped quarters for the last three years.

Now, after months of haggling with the Ojai City Council, Beeby has permission to build her dream.

But some city leaders have complained that the new bandstand will be only the latest man-made structure in the small downtown park, consuming yet another chunk of its ever-dwindling green space.

“I think you can end up with all building and very little park,” City Councilman James Loebl said in a recent interview.

Beeby said the new 593-square-foot bandstand will be tasteful and will complement the city’s rustic atmosphere.

“I think it will be very quiet, and very well done, and very Ojai,” she said. “It will be artistically and aesthetically a source of pride for our community.”

The bandstand, which was narrowly approved by the council last week, will become the most recent in a series of new structures built in the 13-acre park.

Amid controversy in 1991, the city allowed an 800-square-foot wooden multipurpose building to be built near the park’s tennis courts to serve as an administration center for the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament and other events.

Last year, council members authorized a new and larger children’s playground to be built near the park’s entrance.

Concern over Libbey Park’s diminishing green space led the City Council to update the park’s master plan in 1992, City Manager Andrew Belknap said.

“The multipurpose building was the genesis,” he said. “About that time, the city was wondering if it wasn’t appropriate to update it, try to strike a balance between all the competing uses.”

It was at that time that Beeby started rallying for a new bandstand.

“There must be a compromise,” she said. “All green space wouldn’t attract people. I do think there should be a limit, but keeping attractive things in the park draws people.”

Councilman Steve Olsen agreed.

“I understand the need to keep open space in Libbey Park,” he said. “But I think we should use the park to accommodate the people of Ojai.”

And the band has been popular among Ojai residents, who have packed the park by the hundreds during the summer for the free Wednesday night concerts, spreading their blankets and lawn chairs under the sprawling oak trees to hear Sousa marches and Glenn Miller favorites.

Opponents of the new bandstand say the Ojai Band could just as easily play in the nearby Libbey Bowl, home of the Ojai Music Festival and Bowlful of Blues.

But Beeby said the bowl is unsuitable for the 32-member musical group. “A band of our sort just fits in a bandstand. It’s a coziness. Children can dance and feel very close to the musicians.”

Loebl remains unconvinced.

“Although it gives many people pleasure and is a fine thing for the community, (the bandstand) is not desirable or necessary,” he said during Tuesday’s meeting.

Beeby still needs to raise about $50,000 to build the bandstand, and is negotiating with a local service group for the funding, she said.

She hopes to have the new facility constructed by this summer, but said it is unlikely that it will be completed by the band’s first concert July 6.