Group Raises Funds to Fight Radar Tower : Ojai: At a barbecue, people who want the weather-tracking station moved get together some cash and some ways to continue their campaign.

Pressing their underdog fight against the hated black orb, about 150 Ojai residents gathered at a barbecue fund-raiser Sunday afternoon, downing pasta and tri-tip as they sought to re-energize their long-running “Move the Tower” campaign.

Between bites of salad and spaghetti, the core anti-tower activists discussed their opposition to the weather-tracking radar tower, which they fear will emit harmful low-level radiation.

At a meeting last week, Deputy Commerce Secretary David J. Barram, whose agency oversees the National Weather Service and its 98-foot tower, said the government has no plans to move the tower.

But members of Citizens Against Radiation Exposure are convinced that they’ll eventually force the orb off Sulphur Mountain.

To speed up the process, they vowed to make as much noise as possible and amass as much cash as possible through events such as Sunday’s barbecue.

Hosted by actor Larry Hagman, the barbecue raised about $1,200, which will help pay for photocopying, telephone and legal bills.

“It’s amazing how expensive it is to have a cause like this,” organizer Kim Maxwell-Brown said.

But just as important as the cash, organizers said, was that the afternoon party at Boccali’s Restaurant on East Ojai Avenue brought the community together and showcased the Ojai Valley’s feisty determination.

Sweating from the 90-degree heat and searing barbecue, restaurant owner Dewayne Boccali summed up the fund-raisers’ philosophy with a shrug. “You can’t just do nothing,” he said. “You have to do something.”

So they anted up $15 apiece for the all-you-can-eat dinner, pulled out a few more dollars for a raffle and videotaped statements to send to President Clinton.

Some even dreamed up new anti-tower arguments as they listened to a lively band and passed around the latest press releases.

For example, Gerry Berry, a writer and actor new to Ojai, said he had determined that the gawky tower could be classified as a “geographic obscenity” because it clashes with the valley’s soft, serene hills. And he said the government conducted sneaky maneuvers, such as erecting the tower over the Thanksgiving holiday, which clearly violated Ojai’s tradition of friendliness.

“This (Ojai) has been a center of spiritual inquiry and consciousness not only for California, but for the whole country,” he said. “The reason people have been coming here for 100 years is because of the purity of nature, the purity of vibrations. That may be too airy-fairy for people to understand, but it’s true.”

To draw in more members, anti-tower activists are planning a series of low-cost fund-raisers, such as a Cajun Chili Cook-off in late July.

“If you had this in your back yard, you wouldn’t want to live with it either,” said Bruce Garber, hawking “Move the Tower” T-shirts and caps for $10 apiece.

“We don’t claim we’re all going to die of cancer--we don’t know,” Garber said. “We just don’t want to wait around 30 years to see. We don’t want to be the guinea pigs.”