Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy and leaders of several local public agencies met with residents of Home Acres last week to discuss matters affecting the 255 families who live in the unincorporated area west of the city of Moorpark.

"(The meeting) gives people an opportunity to hear about local issues directly from the experts," said Foy, who has organized several town hall meetings in the unincorporated parts of the county he represents.

This was the second time that Foy hosted a town hall meeting in Home Acres since he took office in late 2006. About 25 people attended the event at the home of Renee and Bryan Peace last week.

"Foy was great, and he brought us all the resources to answer all our questions, Renee Peace said.

The biggest issues for Home Acres residents remain traffic on the rural 118, and on Hitch Boulevard, and road maintenance matters.

"Collectively we are concerned about Highway 118 and the turn onto Hitch Boulevard. We want to get a street light for that intersection," Peace said.

Many accidents have occurred at the bend of the twolane highway where cars turn into and out of the Home Acres neighborhood, said Peace, who suggested flashers should be installed at curve to reduce danger.

"If arrow signs were flashing they would really get people's attention and get them to slow down," she said.

Local authorities are working to address these safety concerns, but longterm solutions, such as widening the highway, need to come from Caltrans, said Butch Britt, transportation director for Ventura County.

Ongoing concerns over Hitch Boulevard were also addressed. Residents want the road repaved, but county leaders said that probably won't happen until a water project slated for Home Acres is resolved.

The county's plans to construct water tanks on a hill in the middle of a ranch were stalled earlier this year because two members of the Board of Supervisors opposed the use eminent domain to acquire the site.

Negotiations with the property owner are ongoing since other sites are not readily available. Tanks are necessary to increase water storage in the area in the event of fires.

Residents and representatives also discussed a proposal by Southern California Edison to build new transmission lines through Home Acres, the Santa Rosa Valley and on to Newbury Park.

Rudy Gonzales, regional manager for SCE, gave a brief presentation on the proposed project. He said the new transmission lines will have lowered emissions and they will be located about 45 feet away from the existing power lines.

Although service improvements for this project will primarily benefit residents in Newbury Park, the extra power supply will be good for the whole region as well, he said.

Safety concerns about fire and access were also addressed. A Ventura County Fire District representative said the district plans to host a meeting in the neighborhood early next year to educate people about fire prevention and inform them about what to do if they choose to stay and defend their homes.

Residents were also reassured that the gates in the buffer zone that links Moorpark to Home Acres would be opened in the event of an emergency.

The gates are managed by the city of Moorpark, and they can only be opened if there is an emergency, Moorpark Police Captain Ron Nelson said

"The meeting was interesting because there was a wide range of departments represented," said Steve Ramseyer, who attended the event.

However, county leaders seem unable to offer practical solutions for most of the issues that affect residents in Home Acres, he said.