PIRU : Historic Ranch Seeks Funds for Renovation

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote today on whether to submit an application for a Caltrans grant on behalf of Rancho Camulos.

The $250,000 grant would be used to renovate the ranch’s earthquake-damaged Del Valle Winery, said Shirley Lorenz, who co-owns the ranch.

The 142-year-old ranch, situated near Piru, was severely damaged during the Northridge earthquake. Since then, its owners have been searching for grants to renovate the ranch’s adobe and turn it into a museum.

Since the Lorenzes founded the Camulos Ranch Museum and turned it into a nonprofit organization, employees with the office of the county’s chief administrative officer have been applying for grants on behalf of the museum as well as administering the grants.

Mary Ann Krause, a senior analyst in the CAO’s office, said the county stepped in to help the museum because the owners “did not have the technical staff to handle the administration of the grants.”

So far, the Camulos Museum has received $493,520 from the state Historic Preservation Partnership for Earthquake Repair. Additionally, the county has allocated $275,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds to the museum.

If the Board of Supervisors agrees to apply for the grant, and if the California Department of Transportation awards the funds, the museum would receive the money in the summer of 1996, Krause said.

The ranch, located along California 126, qualifies for the Caltrans grant because it will be substantially affected by the widening of the highway, a project scheduled to begin in December, Lorenz said. More than a mile-long portion of the highway already cuts through the ranch’s land, she said.

To reduce the impact on the ranch, Caltrans has agreed to move the roadbed farther north than originally planned, and is constructing an underpass for visitor traffic driving westbound to enter the ranch, Krause said.