City Keeps Volunteers to Patrol Arroyo Simi

Volunteers--not a bridge--will keep children out of the Arroyo Simi during this winter’s storms, the Moorpark City Council decided Wednesday night.

Council members turned down a development company’s proposal to donate a temporary bridge across the arroyo, saying its installation would take too long and cost too much.

West Pointe Homes of Westlake Village had offered to give the city a 110-foot wood and metal bridge to span the arroyo near the spot where an 11-year-old boy drowned in January. The donated structure would have stayed in place until the city finished construction of a long-sought, permanent pedestrian bridge near the end of Liberty Bell Road.

But although the bridge itself would have been free to the city, its installation wouldn’t. The price for drawing up plans, moving the bridge and building abutments could top $50,000, according to Public Works Director Ken Gilbert. And the process of securing permits and property easements for the project could stretch on for months, meaning the temporary bridge wouldn’t be in place until the end of the current rainy season.

With volunteers now patrolling the arroyo during storms to ensure that kids don’t try to cross, council members said installing the temporary bridge would be an expensive and unnecessary step.

“It almost seems we should be able to take a bridge and plop it in place,” said Councilman Chris Evans. “But it’s not going to work. I just don’t see how a temporary bridge is feasible.”

Instead, council members chose to rely on the volunteers, many from the Moorpark Police Resource Center, who have stood at the arroyo during recent storms to turn away children attempting to take a shortcut through the rushing water.

“I think if we want to solve the problem, and we want something on the ground right now, the volunteers are the way to go,” said Councilman John Wozniak, who helped monitor the arroyo during Monday’s storm.

The council said the monitoring effort should be coordinated through the police resource center, a downtown storefront staffed by volunteers working for the Sheriff’s Department.

Volunteers can get involved in the effort by calling the center at 531-9113, said Capt. Mike Lewis, who serves as chief of the deputies who patrol Moorpark.

The city has long wanted a bridge across the stream near Liberty Bell Road, a popular shortcut for kids heading to and from Chaparral Middle School. Efforts to build a bridge bogged down in negotiations with Southern California Edison, which owns land along the arroyo’s southern bank.

With residents clamoring for action, the council last month decided to seize rights to the property in court and to solicit bids for construction of the permanent bridge. Council members are scheduled to select a construction company for the project at their Dec. 18 meeting.