College Festival Helps Kids, Irks Some Residents

It was about 1:30 in the morning when residents along Kernvale Avenue, one block from the southern boundary of Moorpark College, say they were roused from their slumber by the rumble of diesel trucks and the crash of shifting cargo.

At daybreak Tuesday they discovered that a village of tents and trailers had sprung up 300 feet from their backyards, on the other side of Campus Park Drive. Farther up the hill, a concert stage and carnival rides now packed a corner of the campus.

The Ventura County Children’s Awareness Festival, being held Thursday through Sunday at Moorpark College to raise funds for the Port Hueneme and Moorpark Boys & Girls clubs and the Moorpark College Foundation, has drawn an angry response from homeowners in a nearby housing tract between the campus and the Simi Valley Freeway.

Kernvale Avenue residents said they are upset about noise from the festival’s sound system, what they call a lack of timely notification that the event would be held near their homes and the clouds of fine dust kicked up by heavy equipment bearing such rides as the “Zipper” and the “Ring of Fire” up the hill to the carnival site.

“We’re all for the Boys & Girls clubs, but there are other places they could have picked,” said Amy Kahdeman, whose house sits near the dusty lot where the carnival’s staff has been living since Tuesday, wedged between dozens of trailers and other equipment.

College President James Walker said that in response to complaints, the festival workers will move out during the day on Monday, instead of at night. And before they do, the field where their equipment is parked will be sprayed with water to cut down on dust.

As for allowing the fund-raising festival on campus, Walker said the college has an obligation to help community organizations when it can.

“We feel very strongly that since the taxpayers paid for this college, they have a right to use it,” he said.

Nearby residents also complained about the habits of the carnival ride operators who, residents say, are using adjacent Paul E. Griffin, Sr. Park as a kind of public bath. “Today I came home at noon, and at the park restroom there was a line for showers--people were taking a bath in the sink,” Kernvale Avenue resident Bill Estrada said.

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“This is a residential area, not a fairground,” added Estrada’s wife, Ellen. “There’s a campground across the freeway. They don’t need to sleep here under their vehicles.”

Other Kernvale Avenue residents were displeased that sanitary facilities for the festival’s workers were not delivered until Thursday.

“A couple days ago there was a man relieving himself behind his green pop-up tent and he was looking at me like it’s normal,” Kahdeman said.

Bill Estrada added that festival coordinator Terry Warren did not notify nearby residents about the event until two days after the trucks had arrived. The festival has also roused the ire of a few students still on campus for the summer.

Erin Rafferty, 27, was on campus Thursday afternoon to take a math placement test while a worker below was adjusting the festival’s sound equipment. “I think it goes without saying that your concentration is going to be broken a little with this going on,” Rafferty said.

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As he spoke, a disembodied voice rang up from the stage, echoed off a row of houses looming on a hill above the campus and bounced down the hall of the Humanities Building, where his exam was to be held.

“There’s an English test going on there right now,” he said.

But not all area residents seem unhappy about the festival.

“I don’t understand why they’re complaining, because when they have ballgames and playoffs [at the college] there’s noise and there’s dust,” said Carole Eustice, who lives at the corner of Kernvale Avenue and Beragan Street. “It can’t be much worse than the noise from that damn field hockey.”

Eustice also said she received a letter notifying her of the event a day or two before the trucks rolled in.

Warren said the festival is part of Children Awareness Week, running through Sunday and designated by the county Board of Supervisors. He also said that he and his staff have done their best to respond to complaints from nearby residents.

“They called me, and what I did was go around door to door and hand out a letter explaining what we were doing and the purpose of the event,” Warren said, adding that an earlier attempt to deliver notification letters was hampered because some residents were not home.

He said money raised by the festival would help local Boys & Girls clubs implement new programs that would offer at-risk children and teens an alternative to joining gangs, selling drugs and committing acts of violence.

Warren said the festival features family oriented entertainment, including country western music, gospel and jazz, as well as a forum focusing on the problems faced by youths growing up in today’s often brutal world.

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Chuck Muncie, the festival’s executive director and a former All-American running back who played for the San Diego Chargers and the New Orleans Saints, also downplayed any difficulties with nearby residents.

“Only one gentleman had a problem that I know of,” Muncie said.

Bill Estrada believes his problem, and that of at least seven other Kernvale Avenue residents who have voiced complaints, is far from over, at least until the festival and its entourage pack up and leave town.