OXNARD : City OKs Path to Ocean for Disabled

Ed Hunt isn’t allowing Oxnard’s budget woes to stop a construction project that would allow him and other people in wheelchairs to get closer to the ocean.

Hunt has received permission from the Oxnard Parks and Recreation Department to build a concrete path down to the water’s edge at Oxnard State Beach. The path will allow people in wheelchairs to get closer to the shoreline than they can anywhere else in the county, city officials said.

Oxnard Parks and Recreation Director Gary Davis said the city doesn’t have the money to pay for such a project, but Hunt is heading an effort to collect donations for the needed materials and labor. So far, he has received $1,000 worth of concrete from area businesses and has worked with city landscape architect Dave Gorcey on the path’s design.

Hunt, who sits on the rehabilitation board at St. John’s Regional Medical Center, said the proximity of Oxnard State Beach to the hospital would make the site an ideal place for rehabilitation patients to gather.

People coming out of the hospital in wheelchairs for the first time would also appreciate shoreline access, he said. Hunt wants to have beach umbrellas installed, and even hopes to organize weekend music for group events.

Hunt, a member of the Ventura County chapter of Handicapables, a social organization for the disabled, said the group is always looking for places that can accommodate wheelchairs.

Access to the water’s edge would bring Hunt closer to the ocean than he has been since being confined to a wheelchair in 1988, when a stroke left him paralyzed on his left side. “I like beaches. I used to walk the beaches,” Hunt said.

City officials at first pointed out that people in wheelchairs could use county piers to get close to the ocean. But Hunt has argued that it isn’t the same as actually reaching the water’s edge. “I have a friend who told me he always wanted to be able to dangle his feet in the water,” he said.