Ojai Parents Seek Special Fund for Added Recreation Activities for Teens : Initiative: Group wants election to authorize money for building a skateboard park, renovating the community swimming pool and creating other facilities.

Frustrated that Ojai’s leaders have shelved plans for a skateboard park, a group of parents has launched an effort to boost city spending on recreational facilities for teen-agers.

“You look at Ojai and we’ve got great programs for small kids and great programs for older seniors,” said Craig Walker, chairman of the recreation commission and a backer of the skateboard park. “But this element (teen-agers), which I think is the most at-risk, they really need our attention.”

Walker and others want city officials to pour $125,000 a year into a special fund, supplementing what Ojai already spends on recreation. The fund would be used to build a skateboard park, renovate the community swimming pool at Nordhoff High School and create other recreational facilities.

The group plans to circulate petitions to force a special election on the issue. To do so, the group must collect signatures from more than 700 registered voters in Ojai during the next six months.

City Council members, meanwhile, say they are opposed to the initiative, which would increase Ojai’s recreation budget by nearly 25%.

They say the initiative, if passed, would require the city to cut other services or raise the hotel occupancy tax for the second time in two years.

Councilman Robert N. McKinney said he worries that raising the tax could ultimately backfire and hurt the city’s tourist-dependent economy.

“We may wind up getting less revenue,” he said.

Councilman James Loebl was more blunt in his opinion of the initiative: “This is stupid in the extreme.”

Moreover, council members defend Ojai’s recreation program, saying it has been well-funded in recent years. This year’s budget is $522,167, which pays salaries, maintenance and the cost of running programs.

Last year, the city spent $649,776 on recreation.

Several council members have also voiced concern about using city funds to build a skateboard park that undoubtedly will be used by teen-agers outside Ojai.

And Loebl said he wonders how long the skateboard park would remain in vogue.

“Is this a fad? Is this something that’s going to sit idle in six months? I don’t have an answer for that. But somebody should ask the questions,” he said.

Emily Welch, the youth representative on the city’s recreation commission, said she does not think that the popularity of skateboarding is likely to fade.

“Right now, it’s just increasing, if you think about it,” she said. She has organized a fund-raiser in Libbey Park, starting at noon Saturday, to pay for designing the skateboard park.

Plans for the park have evolved during the past two years through meetings between recreation commissioners, avid skateboarders and parents.

When the proposal was submitted to the council in January, council members decided to postpone funding because of a drop in city revenue. The council agreed, however, to consider the park again as part of the 1995-96 budget.

Walker said the ballot initiative was prompted, in part, by that delay. But he said closure of the city’s only bowling alley and the decaying condition of the Nordhoff High swimming pool also point to the lack of activities for youths.

“I feel we’re entering into an era where we need to put more into our youth, especially now that other programs are starting to close down,” Walker said.