Residents share local memories of 30 years





By Sophia Fischer
sfischer@theacorn.com

Before The Acorn, there was the Agoura Valley News. In 1965, that paper was established by Bill and Dorie Poremba in response to what they saw as one-sided reporting by the only other local paper, the Calabasas Enterprise.


"We would get so incensed reading that paper because it only supported one side of the fence," Dorie Poremba recalled. "We had no newspaper background, but we decided the other side needed to be heard."


The couple had moved to Old Agoura from Woodland Hills in 1964. They started the paper out of their home and delivered it themselves with the help of their two sons and a local liquor store owner named Kim Coffin. The Porembas later divorced. Dorie, 70, still lives in the Old Agoura house. Bill has since passed away.


"I think the paper opened up some eyes. It was welcomed with open arms," Poremba said.


In 1974, the paper was renamed The Acorn. Bill Poremba sold it in 1989.


"Frankly, I did not expect it to grow into what it has become. We just thought it was a tiny local rag. At least I didn’t have big aspirations. Maybe Bill did," Poremba said. "I still read it and enjoy getting it."


In those early days the area was quiet and beautiful, recalls Poremba. In fact, it took the Porembas a year to complete their home. Construction was held up because there was no water. A building permit couldn’t be obtained until a water system was in place.


"There was nothing between Woodland Hills and Thousand Oaks," Poremba said. "It was wonderful. You could ride horses and do whatever you wanted."


When developers began buying up property, there wasn’t a lot of public outcry. That was simply because there weren’t many people living in the area, according to Poremba and Ernie Dynda, a former resident and chamber of commerce director who helped Agoura Hills fight for cityhood.


"There was no real drastic opposition, just behind-the-scenes talk. People wanted to make sure new development would complement what was already built and that a lot of open space was preserved," Dynda said.


Strong opposition to development didn’t begin until the 1,200-plus-home tract known as Morrison Ranch was proposed, according to Dynda.


"People thought it would be too dense," Dynda said.


But he adds that he is proud of how Agoura was developed


Dynda and his wife, Carole, who passed away last year, moved from Venice to the Hillrise section in Agoura in 1972. Their daughter, Allison, was about to start school and they’d heard positive things about the Las Virgenes school district. In 1988 they bought a house in Oak View Gardens and in 1992 sold it to their daughter and her husband, Frank Sain, whose two sons attend Las Virgenes schools. Dynda, 70, is retired from his job as a sales representative and district manager for a division of General Motors and serves as a taxpayer advocate and volunteer for the United Organization of Taxpayers.


Dynda recalls that there was no Thousand Oaks Boulevard in the early years, just a short street from Kanan Road to Agoura High School. There were no shopping centers, and Morrison Ranch and Fountainwood were not built yet. Chumash Park was the only park.


"Taxes started to double in the mid 1970s. Proposition 13 came along. We decided to go for cityhood to be able, as a city, to protect our tax revenues," Dynda said.


Dynda was on the first city council in 1982 after residents voted to incorporate the city. He recalls that The Acorn provided an important community service.


"A lot of the stuff we did appeared in The Acorn, so the public knew what was going on," Dynda said.


He says he’s proud of how the city developed and proud of its additional parks and attention to landscaping and construction quality.


"If you drive down Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Kanan and Reyes Adobe and you look at what’s there, it’s beautiful," Dynda said.



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