GRAVE SITUATION: As Ventura County cemeteries prepare...

GRAVE SITUATION: As Ventura County cemeteries prepare for their busiest day of the year today, planning continues for the county’s first Jewish cemetery. Mt. Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles expects to submit final plans for the 125-acre cemetery to Simi Valley officials in six to nine months, General Manager Arnold Saltzman said. . . . To smooth the way for the project in northeast Simi Valley, Mt. Sinai officials are meeting with residents to win their approval for an adjacent housing development.

Burial Grounds

Number of people interred at active cemeteries in Ventura County.

Ivy Lawn Memorial Park, Ventura: 36,797

Santa Paula Cemetery: 13,132

Santa Clara Cemetery, Oxnard: 10,277

Conejo Mtn. Memorial Park, Camarillo: 7,000

Bardsdale Cemetery, Fillmore: 4,591

Assumption Cemetery, Simi Valley: 1,457

Simi Valley Public Cemetery: 1,115

Source: Cemetery logs

UPHILL BATTLE: Is the Conejo Grade really the state’s steepest stretch of freeway? Street Smart knows (B1). In any case, the grade’s 7% climb is a Sunday drive contrasted with the gear-grinding slopes of some surface streets in Ventura County. . . . Among the steepest are Calle Contento in Thousand Oaks and the south end of Hudspeth Avenue in Simi Valley, according to city officials. The winner: Palm Street in downtown Ventura, with a grade of 31.3%.

HANGING ON: A threefold increase in welfare clients in Ventura County (B1) will come as no surprise to Pacific Bell and GTE. Both phone companies report steady growth in the number of Ventura County customers with reduced-rate “lifeline” phone service. . . . About 12% of the county’s Pacific Bell customers--or 13,000 users--are getting lifeline rates, which can be as low as $2.23 per month. To qualify, a couple must earn no more than $15,300 per year.

POP FOWL: That lost duck in Camarillo has been reunited with its owner--and none too soon. Seems the wayward mallard--which was taken in by a couple who saw it waddling down Ponderosa Drive--was ducking out on his duties toward 12 newly hatched offspring back home. “He’s just an ornery old cuss,” said owner Victor Nero, who calls the duck Mad Max. “He was a bachelor for quite a while.” Now Max is a widower: A dog killed the mama duck while Max was away, Nero said. “He’ll probably mother the chicks now.”