For SaleThe first month of summer was...

For Sale

The first month of summer was popular with home buyers, who pushed up the median home price in Ventura County to $210,000 (B1). . . . Last month, 1,069 homes were sold countywide, an increase of 15.7% from June 1996.

Security Measures

Sheriff’s officials in Thousand Oaks want the city to consider an ordinance requiring all banks operating in the city to install metal-detecting doorways to prevent crime (B1). . . . “It does provide more of a sense of security for our customers and employees,” says the president of a local credit union with such a system.

Branching Out

A Ventura cable company is offering more than TV programs (D15C). Avenue TV, which operates in the western portion of the city, has joined with a Los Angeles-based Internet service provider to offer Net access via cable lines at a greater speed than other providers. . . . “A few of our customers did not have cable before and they have gone to cable to have this option,” says Avenue TV’s Cindy Mastri, above.

Across the Pond

Kinko’s Inc., the Ventura-based photocopy shop with an attitude, is branching out in the United Kingdom (D2). Joining forces with flamboyant British entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, Kinko plans to open the U.K.’s first 24-hour copy, fax and business-service office in London by year’s end. . . . Kinko’s currently operates branches in Australia, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea.

Happening Today

“Ocean Blue and Rocks Too,” paintings by Barbara Newman at Live Oak Gallery, 118 S. 8th St., Santa Paula, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Information: 525-6114.

Weather

Partly cloudy to mostly clear. Highs to the low 90s. B7