Ojai May Lose Its Bowling Alley in Bid by Pay Less

Ojai’s only bowling alley faces closure if city officials approve an application to convert the aging lanes into a Pay Less Drug Stores outlet.

Pay Less executives already have submitted preliminary plans and expect to present their proposal at a public hearing before planning commissioners next month, said city Planning Director Bill Prince.

Owners of the property have reached an agreement to sell the 6,000-square-foot building to Pay Less if the city agrees to let the retail chain move in, Prince said.

Pay Less spokeswoman Dana Vanderzanden confirmed that an agreement had been signed to buy the property but had no other details.

Merchants opposed to the move have banded together with the bowling alley’s operators in an effort to stop the plan.

About 40 members of the Ojai Valley Retailers’ Assn. met Thursday to plan a campaign aimed at preserving the bowling alley, said Joy Grove, who owns a surplus store on the city’s east end near the bowling alley.

O Grove said many of the merchants are concerned that the loss of Ojai Valley Bowl will leave the small tourist town with few family recreation opportunities. Ojai Valley Bowl has operated for 30 years and draws scores of enthusiastic bowlers for league competition, she said.

“A bowling alley is a traditional thing to have in a small town,” Grove said. “It’s a community gathering spot.”

Grove, vice president of the merchants group, said some store owners also are afraid their businesses will be hurt by the presence of a chain drugstore.

Pay Less, which has 545 stores in 11 Western states, buys merchandise in quantity at steep discounts, so it can undersell nearly anything being sold in a small drugstore, Grove said. And the chain recently merged with Thrifty drugstores, with 487 outlets, boosting its buying power even further.

Small, quaint drugstores have their own allure, Grove contended.

“You go into them and it’s like Mayberry, R.F.D.,” she said. “The druggist knows your name, or if you’re new, he learns it real fast.”

Joey Borgaro, who has run Ojai Valley Bowl for the past seven years, said he learned only this week that Pay Less may take over his building. Borgaro said a still-soft economy and recent changes in Ojai’s smoking ordinance have hurt profits in the past six months.

A tough anti-smoking ordinance enacted in February forced Borgaro to trim back hours at the bowling center’s coffee shop because many patrons who smoked stopped coming, he said.

Although the bowling lanes remain his biggest moneymaker, the loss of business from the coffee shop ate into his profits and he fell behind on rent, Borgaro said.

He sensed that the property’s owners, Carol and Winfred Boersch, were becoming impatient, Borgaro said. But he had no idea that they might sell the building until he read about the Pay Less proposal in a local paper this week, he said. His business has a month-to-month lease, he added.

“We’re determined, at least, to let the public know that we want to stay,” said Borgaro, 40, of Santa Paula, who runs the lanes with his 37-year-old wife, Cherie.

“If the public doesn’t want to keep the bowling lanes, there’s no sense fighting (the Pay Less proposal),” he said.

Planning Director Prince said Pay Less executives first approached the city a few months back about opening a store in Ojai. They settled on the Ojai Valley Bowl site after looking over several properties, he said.

“Pay Less is thinking they can make a success of the conversion of the bowling alley to a drugstore,” he said. “I’m sure they’ve done all the marketing studies to prove they are right.”

As for the merchants’ contention that Ojai cannot afford to lose a family recreational facility, Prince disagreed.

“People can ride bicycles, and there are facilities for swimming and tennis,” he said. “Only the dedicated bowling groups will see a loss.”

“The property owner has a right to sell the building,” Prince said. “The city doesn’t try to interfere with the private enterprise system. It just supports whoever comes up with the best plan.”

One concern of City Council members and planning commissioners is the appearance of the building and its parking lot, which have fallen into disrepair over the years, Prince said.

“The property hasn’t been well-kept,” he said. “I think it’s fair to say that.”