Mountain View is still closed but work looks close to completion.
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Q: Do I have to purchase flood insurance? Didn’t FEMA postpone the insurance requirement?

A: Many Fillmore residents are being told by their lenders and insurance carriers that they must purchase flood insurance even though they are not required to. Effective January 21, 2010, FEMA adopted a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMR) that effectively postponed the requirement to purchase flood insurance for about two years.

If you are being asked to purchase flood insurance and you do not want the insurance, you can obtain a copy of the LOMR by downloading it from the City of Fillmore web site (www.fillmoreca.com) or pick up a copy at City Hall during regular business hours. The send the LOMR to your lender or insurance agent and it will provide them the information they need to see that you are not required to purchase flood insurance.

There are two small areas of the City that are still required to purchase flood insurance. These areas have been required to have flood insurance since 1984 and include the easterly section of the El Dorado Mobile Home Park and an area in the vicinity of C Street and River Street.

Q: What are the purple pipes for along the railroad and bike path?

A: The purple pipes are a temporary irrigation system to water a tall fescue grass that will be planted this month along the railroad corridor from B Street to Central Avenue. After the grass is established the above ground sprinklers will be removed and the grass will be irrigated with a subsurface drip system.

The subsurface drip system is an important part of the winter time disposal system for surplus recycled water so it is not discharged to the river. During heavy rain events the drip system will percolate water into the soil. During the summer it will keep the grass green. The tall fescue will be mowed about twice a year.

Q: When will the Mountain View railroad crossing be opened back up?

A: The Mountain View Railroad crossing was opened up to pedestrian traffic on Tuesday March 2nd and will be opened to vehicle traffic on Sunday evening March 7th. The work to install concrete railroad pads is about a week ahead of schedule. In about four months Mountain View will be repaved and the street will be like new.

If you have questions regarding our public infrastructure please send them to: Bert J. Rapp, P.E., Public Works Director at City Hall, 250 Central Avenue, Fillmore CA 93015, or leave a message 24 hours a day at 524-1500 x 231 and he will address them in a future column.

Public Works Director Bert Rapp.

The Fillmore Water Recycling Program has been selected the Ventura County American Public Works Association (APWA) project of the year in the Wastewater and Water category. In addition APWA selected the Fillmore project to represent all Ventura County Public Agency projects as the Project of the Year at the National Engineers Week Banquet at the Reagan Library on Thursday, February 18th. “It is very wonderful that the American Public Works Association has selected the Fillmore Water Recycling Program to be Project of the Year out of 10 excellent projects around the County,” said Bert Rapp, Fillmore Public Works Director. Some of the other candidate projects were the Toland Road Sludge Drying Facility and the Thousand Oaks Photo Voltaic system at their Sewage Treatment Plant.

“The Fillmore project was selected because of an innovative management approach and due to its many unique characteristics,” said Chris Hook with APWA. For example the "Design-Build-Operate" procurement process helped assure that the plant was as efficient and economical as possible. It also included an exacting quality assurance program so that the plant would have low maintenance costs for 20 years.

Another unique aspect is CONTINUED »

Gold Coast Champions
Approximately 30 young men, ages 6 to 14 years, filled the council chamber Tuesday night to receive a Proclamation, presented by Mayor Patti Walker, in recognition of Fillmore Youth Football League’s winning season. The boys are all part of the 2009 Gold Coast Youth Football Champions. Coaches Ram Medina, Val Pillado, John Ortiz and John Grove were present for the honor; Eddie Ortiz was not present.

Boys & Girls Club Donations
Also, a presentation of donated checks was made on behalf of the Santa Clara Valley Boys & Girls Club. Interim Chief Executive Officer Sheila Tate thanked the community for their efforts in raising funds for the Club, “The Boys and Girls Club Board, staff and members are deeply touched by the generosity of the City employees, Cops Running for Charity and the Ventura County Sheriff's Association. We are working hard to provide critical services to the children of this community and we appreciate the confidence and commitment that the City staff and Sheriff's Department have shown by their generous contributions. This is a great community and we are proud to be a part of it.”

Check amounts totaled $2,350; $500 from Cops Running for Charity, $600 from the City of Fillmore employees and City Council Members; and $1,250 from the Ventura County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.

Housing Element
Community Development Director Kevin CONTINUED »

FUTA / CTA / NEA Memo dated February 17th, 2010.
Bargaining Update #3.
In preparation for bargaining, the FUTA bargaining team examined the district documents that they submitted to the county. The team also poured over the detailed budget analysis provided by CTA. Our analysis shows a very different picture than the information that has been presented by the district.

One of the sound bites from the district site presentations is that FUTA is over 70% of the budget. While we recognize that salaries are a large portion of the district budget and that certificated is the largest employee group, we can not find any information that supports this claim. Our budget analysis shows that salaries for our bargaining unit are 43% of the budget. When we include statutory payroll benefits and health and welfare benefits for our bargaining unit, this equals approximately 58%.

We plan to meet with the district to begin negotiations on Tues Feb 23. Pertinent financial information has been requested from district. In order to represent our members at the bargaining table, it is imperative that we have all necessary financial data provided in a timely manner. Repeated requests have been made for documents including the three page document Mike Bush presented at the Feb 2nd board meeting during the budget update. Over the past two weeks, four requests have been made for this data. The district has failed to cooperate. FUTA has filed a grievance and is currently working with CTA legal services to file an Unfair Labor Practice since this is a clear violation of the law under the Educational Employment Relations Act.

We work for a non-profit organization. Fillmore CONTINUED »

Fillmore Unified School District

The District and FUTA teams met today. The District proposed to use the session to respond to FUTA’s many data requests, and to provide important information about how the ongoing state fiscal crisis has impacted the 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and the 2010- 2011 school year. By law, districts are required to certify solvency for the current fiscal year and the next two fiscal years.

The District asked to begin negotiations on two time-sensitive items immediately:
Shortening the instructional year by 5 days, beginning in 2010-2010 with a corresponding 5 days of per diem reduction of the salary schedule. FUTA’s share would provide $390,659 in savings in 2010-2011; and

Modifying health coverage to provide that beginning in 2010-2011, the District will pay the cost of the lowest HMO single, two party, or family health plans. PERS now offers an alternative plan with 100% alignment to Access Plus, meaning no additional employee cost, no change in plan design and no change in doctors. FUTA’s share would provide $205,496 in savings in 2010-2011.

If these savings can be negotiated soon, CONTINUED »

Deputy City Manager Bill Bartels

Deputy City Manager Bill Bartels, submitted a letter of resignation to Fillmore’s new City Manager Yvonne Quiring, Monday.

In an interview with the Ventura Star Bartels stated that he had been considering the move for more than a year. Reflecting on his appointment to deputy, he thought it “the highest honor to have been paid in terms of municipal government [having] support of the council during that transition period.”

A consultant to the city for 14 years, and deputy for nearly three, Bartels was appointed interim city manager following the resignation of City Manager Tom Ristau last year.

Bartels also stated that his time as deputy “has been an incredible, amazing experience. It reaffirms my belief in municipal government.” He also stated that he “hoped that my service has provided stability and continuity during this period of change.”

He had high praise for the city’s new city manager.

Bartels has accepted a job offer to teach music part time, and will be busy managing the family ranch in Bardsdale which they have farmed for more than a century.

Both City Manager Yvonne Quiring and Fillmore Mayor Patti Walker expressed their gratitude for Bartels’s work, Walker remarking that she appreciated his “stepping in to the thankless job of interim city manager."

Once a Marine always a Marine was never more true than it was on Friday, February 12th at Britt Park in Piru at the meeting of the Piru Petroleum Club! I was invited to the meeting by Jerry and Lynda Edmonds to represent the Fillmore Gazette because it was a special day for not only the Piru Petroleum Club, but also for the 1st Marine Division Association and the Bodfish Chapter. As a veteran Marine it was also a special day for me and I was honored to be present!

Today marked the first time the 1st Marine Division Association's Bodfish Chapter has met at a different location in over 40 years when the Chapter was formed by the late John Loomis and approximately five other veteran Marines in the 1960's! The 1st Marine Division Association is made up of active, retired and veteran Marines and Fleet Marine Force (FMF) Navy Corpsman. The Bodfish Chapter was at their first Campout, of what is hoped to be the first of many future Campouts at Britt Park.

The Bodfish Chapter Campouts began in the 1960’s at the CONTINUED »

The day after a heavy winter rain, the Sespe Oil field is shown steaming from an underground “hot spot”, a thermal anomaly, according to Ron Oatman, spokesperson for the Ventura County Fire Department. This picture was taken January 23rd by photographer Jeff Muth. Geologists and firefighters have surveyed the area, located in the Sespe Oil field, an active landslide zone with a history of shifting for more than 60 years. Pockets of gas, tar and oil lie several hundred feet below its cracked surface. Cracks along the landslide’s slope allow oxygen to enter the earth, and those natural hydrocarbon materials (gas, tar and oil) to “seep out” of the fine-grain shale. Underground combustion is a possible result, and could be as deep as 100 feet. Since 1987, high heat levels have been recorded in the area as many as five times. “Hot spots” are not uncommon in areas around the world with high concentrations of hydrocarbons. Temperatures have been registered in the low 800’s, about a foot below the surface. Firefighters have cleared brush, and cut a fire line around the area as a precautionary measure. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management owns the acreage (near the Sespe Oil Field), and leases it to Seneca Resources Corp. The rugged, steep terrain is devoid of buildings and equipment, and gated off from public access. The 3,000 acre Sespe Oil Field, producing nearly 50 million barrels of oil since its discovery in 1887, contains more than 300 oil wells, of which 210 are active.