Ojai Red & WhiteConsidering the popularity of...

Ojai Red & White

Considering the popularity of Sunday’s Ojai Wine Festival at Lake Casitas (F1A), you wouldn’t guess that Ventura County’s wine industry is a mom-and-pop affair. There are just five small wineries and three tiny commercial vineyards here. “We’re in a couple of tiny barns in Oak View,” said Adam Tolmach, who opened a winery with wife Helen Hardenbergh in 1983. “We make about 5,000 cases a year, which is 60,000 bottles. That sounds big, but is microscopic in the scale of California winemaking.”

Gotcha

Camarillo will soon join the local corps of stealth cops on bikes who slip quietly up on thieves while in the act. Officials say bike patrols are just the thing to throttle smash-and-grab thieves in the city’s new shopping centers. . . . Three bikes will arrive within a week to help fight Camarillo’s growing crime, up 43% last year. “It’s going to get our guys out of their cars and right on the scene with mobility they wouldn’t have just walking through the crowds,” City Manager Bill Little said.

First Year

As Lin Koester approaches his first anniversary as Ventura County’s top administrator, the former Simi Valley city manager says a key achievement is improved relations between the county and local cities. Squabbles over money have stopped. Koester now meets with city managers each month. . . . “We didn’t have a good working relationship historically,” he said. “We’re looking at ways to cooperate more fully.”