Caretaker Needed to Make Gardens Grow Near Civic Arts Plaza

THOUSAND OAKS — A new 1,000-square-foot apartment directly across from the Civic Arts Plaza may come with the ultimate incentive: free rent.

Organizers of Gardens of the World, a privately built park under construction on Thousand Oaks Boulevard across from City Hall, will soon be searching for a couple to live on the premises and for one of them to act as caretaker of the six-acre facility.

The Hogan Family Foundation expects to conduct interviews early this year and hopes to hire someone by late spring. The multimillion-dollar gardens are expected to open to the public by late summer.

“We’re talking about somebody who is going to contribute to the success of operating a $5-million facility. That’s a big job,” said Dale Cowgill, spokeswoman for the foundation created by Ed and Lynn Hogan of Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, who made their fortune selling package tours to the 50th state.

“It’s going to be a position that carries with it a great deal of responsibility,” she said. “We need somebody who is going to be committed and take pride in it.”

The caretaker’s duties will include overseeing the park’s operation and maintenance, managing its budgets and coordinating special events and school visits, Cowgill said.

Ed Hogan says he prefers hiring a retired public servant, such as a police officer, firefighter or military veteran. People in such professions are used to being in the public eye and have experience dealing with stressful situations, he said.

Such a person, Hogan said, would be “used to a regimen that is necessary to operate a park like this. I think that type of person could be excellent, because they’re going to have the vitality.”

The park and botanical gardens, designed to feature examples of flowers from around the world, are expected to attract thousands of visitors annually, including schoolchildren on field trips who will come to learn about the gardens.

The facility will include a French-style garden with cascading pools and a clipped-hedge maze, as well as Japanese, Italian and rose gardens. Weeping cherry trees, maple trees and bonsais will fill the Japanese garden, while cypresses and red roses will adorn the formal Italian garden. There will also be a “California mission walk” with miniature replicas of the state’s 21 remaining missions.

The caretaker’s apartment will be above a resource center that will be used for community groups, school functions and other purposes. It will be surrounded by red roses and other colorful plants, said Wendy Harper, the Moorpark-based landscape architect who designed the park.

“To wake up and be able to stroll through all these wonderful gardens--to me, that’s the ultimate,” Harper said. “It’s like traveling without having to leave your own property.”

Ed Schneider, president of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, knows the feeling. The 53-year-old has lived with his wife in an on-site house for eight years.

“How many people get to live on a 65-acre park? At night, the park’s closed and it’s our place,” said Schneider, who oversees the facility.

Gardens of the World will be much smaller, but there shouldn’t be any trouble finding interested applicants for the caretaker position, Schneider said.

“I think they’ll find a very long and qualified slate of people who have all kinds of experiences that will be deemed valuable,” he said. “It will probably be a very tough selection process.”

Salary will be an important factor, Schneider said. While the entire scope of the job is not yet defined, a caretaker who just serves as a watchdog of sorts could expect to earn about $45,000 annually, he said. If the job includes administrative oversight, such as developing programs and other major responsibilities, the salary could reach $80,000, he said. Hogan said the salary would probably be about $50,000.

Hogan may be right that a former public servant would be a good fit for the job, said William Cornell, a retired Ventura County sheriff’s deputy from Fillmore. Cornell, 62, said some retired deputies are itching to keep busy.

“It would be good, mentally, to get back into the stream of things,” he said. “Retirement can be a blessing or a tremendous burden. If you’ve had a lifetime of activity and all of a sudden you’re doing nothing, it can kind of build up on you.”

But Norman Stafford, a 56-year-old retired Ventura County firefighter, said that while retirees do enjoy staying occupied, a full-time job might be too much.

“I don’t know of any guys who would want to go back full-time like that,” the Thousand Oaks resident said. “I think most of the guys who retired kind of want to retire.”

Among others who might be interested in the job are area seniors, said Roberta Baskerville, chairwoman of the Thousand Oaks Council on Aging.