Two gyms continue to defy court orders to stay outside
Gym owners in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties have refused to shut down even as courts continue to issue orders against them.
BSF Fitness, a gym in the city of Ventura, has refused to comply with state and local health orders banning indoor operations, and on Sept. 4 that refusal turned what was a temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction against the business.
Andrew Reid, a deputy district attorney, described the injunction as a more permanent step to get the gym to stop indoor operations. With the injunction, BSF is now prohibited from operating indoors until state and local health orders allow it.
Earlier in the summer, the city of Ventura took several actions to ask the gym to stop indoor operations on its own, including warnings from the city and from the county’s health officer, Dr. Robert Levin.
At press time, all three Central Coast counties are still in the “widespread” tier under the state’s COVID-19 monitoring system, which means gyms and fitness centers can only operate outdoors.
“The goal for us was always to obtain voluntary compliance,” Reid said. “Extraordinary measures were taken to work with people in the spirit of community, but we’ve had to take steps to uphold the law.”
While BSF’s social media has been quiet since the end of August, when it lead a march against the health order
–Contact Amber Hair at [email protected]
