FILLMORE, CALIFORNIA - One Step a la Vez (OSALV), 421 Sespe Avenue Fillmore, CA 93015, will host a Press Conference Tuesday, February 18, at 10:00am with the purpose to inform the media and community of the environmental toxicologists scientific findings about health concerns surrounding the Superfund Toxic Waste Site located on the east side of Fillmore, following the Community Health Survey conducted from 2011 to 2013. The Press Conference will bring to light possible health risks and past health conditions caused by the Superfund site. The Press Conference will increase public awareness of Chevron’s Superfund clean-up process, report the environmental toxicologists scientific findings of local health issues, and identify possible health risks associated with the Superfund site. The Press Conference will allow a question and answer session with Dr. Dahlgren and an OSALV representative to answer pertinent questions. The OSALV will also host a Community Forum, Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 6:00pm, for a community dialogue and follow-up of the Press Conference.

The OSALV staff learned that the communities’ concerns about the Superfund Site surrounded water, air and soil contamination as well as health and medical issues in 2010. The OSALV began its research of the Superfund Site in 2011 by sponsoring a Community Health Survey developed by Dr. Dahlgren, an environmental toxicologist. The Community Health Survey developed by Dr. Dahlgren, M.D., was administered by his team along with OSALV youth, staff, and community volunteers through door-to-door interviews. The health survey findings will be announced at the Press Conference on Tuesday, February 18 at 10:00am at the OSALV Center.

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This years Board of Directors has voted on having the Monthly Fillmore Chamber of Commerce Board Meetings at different local businesses to support our local businesses. Below are the entire 2014 Board of Directors meeting dates, times and locations. In order to support our local businesses we will be conducting our meetings at the various businesses in town.

Thursday January 16th 6:30pm Fillmore Chamber Office
Tuesday February 4th 3:15pm Diamond Realty
Tuesday March 4th 5:30pm El Pescador (Outside Patio)
Tuesday April 1st 5:30pm La Fondita
Tuesday May 6th 5:30pm I-Hop
Tuesday June 3rd 5:30pm Central Station(Outside Patio)
Tuesday July 8th 12:00pm Margaret's (Outside Patio)
Tuesday August 5th 12:00pm Elkins Ranch (Outside Patio)
Tuesday September 2nd 5:30pm Taco Llama (Outside Patio)
Tuesday October 7th 5:30pm Vallartas
Tuesday November 4th 12:00pm Orange Rush Cafe
Tuesday December 2nd 5:30pm El Pescador (Outside Patio)

The Big Read is a cooperative effort of the City of Ventura Department of Parks, Recreation & Community Partnerships and the Ventura County Library. It is designed to encourage the community to read, discuss and participate in activities inspired by this year’s featured book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. In conjunction with this year’s Big Read event, the E. P. Foster Library is sponsoring a design challenge inspired by The Things They Carried.

The goal of the Art Tag Design Challenge will be to create a miniature work of art on a shipping tag using Tim O’Brien’s book as a starting point. Images may reflect war and/or the consequences, aftermath, or results of war. You can use any medium as long as it is contained on the shipping tag. Blank shipping tags will be given to participants who register at the E. P. Foster Library. Foster Library will have colored pencils available to use if you wish to create your tag inside the library.

The Art Tag Design Challenge will run March 3rd to March 28th. We hope this will invoke creativity and passion as we tap into our community. The library encourages reading as well as artistic expression and we believe in an involved and thoughtful community.

To sign up, please visit the E. P. Foster Library to register and pick up your blank tag. For additional information about the Art Tag Design Challenge, contact the E. P. Foster Library at 805-648-2716.

E. P. Foster Library is located at 651 E. Main St. in Ventura. Hours of service are Monday – Thursday 10-8, Friday & Saturday 10-5, and Sunday 1-5.

The Ventura County Library is available 24/7 at www.vencolibrary.org.

Oxnard, CA - Community Memorial Health System’s Healthy Women’s Program is hosting a Community Outreach Day which offers free mammograms and healthcare education to the first 35 women who qualify. This event will take place at the Center for Family Health in Oxnardon Saturday,Feb. 22.

The women will arrive early at the CFH office at 2361 E. Vineyard Ave. in Oxnardwhere they will be transported to The Breast Center at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, and then back to the Centers office.

In 2013, an estimated 234,580 new cases of breast cancer occurred in the United States, and early detection and awareness is the key to fighting this life-threatening disease. The Healthy Women’s Program provided through Community Memorial Health System benefits women in the community who are uninsured, under-insured or lack funds to pay for mammograms and follow-up treatment, if necessary.

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The Ventura County Library is pleased to announce a new Veterans Resource Center made possible by a grant administered by the State Librarian. The purpose of the grant is to reintegrate California veterans into the California workforce and community.

The Veterans Resource Center will open at E. P. Foster library in downtown Ventura on March 7th at 4:00. The opening ceremony will continue that evening at The Big Read kickoff held at Bell Arts Factory.

The centers, staffed by library volunteers trained by CalVet, will make it easier for veterans and their families to learn about the state and federal benefits they have earned through military service and how to claim them and about the local services available to them.

Recognizing the need to reach and serve more California veterans, in October 2012, the State Library, in coordination with CalVet, conducted a pilot project to create Veterans Resource Centers in public libraries. The project received grant funding from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services to open veterans centers in Bakersfield, Redding and San Diego libraries. Those libraries, now open for over a year, have served more than 4,000 veterans and veteran families.

California is home to 1.8 million veterans. An additional 40,000 veterans are expected to return to the state every year for the next several years. State and federal benefits can help veterans and their families move successfully forward in civilian life. Veterans’ benefits can help veterans begin or complete their education, care for their health, get job training, find employment, buy or improve their home, and live out their lives with the dignity and respect they deserve. Some veteran dependents qualify for benefits as well.

Unfortunately, many veterans are unaware of the benefits they are entitled to receive or how to claim them. The library Veterans Resource Centers have proven to be an effective way for veterans to get the information and assistance they need.

The library needs volunteers to operate the center. Training and materials are provided by Cal Vet. If you are interested in volunteering to help local vets, please contact Sara Roberts at (805) 641-4414.

For decades field biologists, researchers and animal care staff were the only people able to witness the development of a California condor family. Now viewers around the globe will be able to watch the growth of a condor, from caring for the egg to rearing the hatched chick, via the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Conservancy's online Condor Cam. This rare glimpse has only recently been available for public viewing with the hatching of the Condor Cam's very first star, Saticoy, in 2012.

More than 600,000 visitors watched Saticoy on the website's Condor Cam, and many read blog updates as he was released into the wild in November of 2013. Since his release, Saticoy has been observed perching and roosting in trees with other condors and field biologists have confirmed that he is doing well and integrating seamlessly into the wild.

Saticoy's is a success story many years in the making. In the 1980s, there were only 22 condors left in the world. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park has now hatched 181 chicks and released more than 80 birds into the wild as part of the California Condor Recovery Program. Having cameras in the nests has certainly played a part in the recovery programs success.

The cameras allow animal CONTINUED »

Join the Soroptimists for the annual Treasure Hunt as you help Keep Fillmore Clean!

Come to the Taco Llama parking lot at 9:00 on the February 22 to help clean up the bike path AND find hidden treasures! This is the special clean up . COME ENJOY THE FUN! All are welcome! For information, call Lynn Edmonds @ 907-6576.

“Neuropsychology Takes a Look at Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)” will be the topic of a free two-hour training presented by CASA of Ventura County on February 20th, from 6 pm to 8 pm. Dr. Ann Simun, PsyD, will be presenting new information about the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome and therapies to mitigate impacts on the growing child. Dr. Simun has been working professionally with children with learning and behavioral challenges since 1989. She is a licensed psychologist with a specialization in neuropsychology. Dr. Simun conducts neuropsychological and psycho-educational assessment, expert witness and consultation services, and formal observations.

CASA of Ventura County recruits, screens, trains and supervises community volunteers who become sworn officers of the Court and advocate for one of the children in Ventura County’s foster care system who has been appointed by the Juvenile Dependency Judge to the CASA Program. Each year over 500 children removed from their families due to child abuse or neglect. CASA’s 140 volunteers advocate for about 200 of the 1,200 children in the foster care system until a safe, permanent home can be found. CASA volunteers are required to complete at least 12 hours of In-Service Training each year to keep current on changing trends in child development, the legal system and other matters affecting foster care.

The training is free to CASA volunteers and the public. For more information contact Bernadette@casaofventuracounty.org or call 805.389.3120.

Livingston Visiting Nurse Association will hold the following Joint Replacement Class to prepare you for total knee or hip replacement surgery. Home preparation, exercises and rehabilitation information will be discussed. Open to the public and free of charge, the class will be held:

• 1st Thursday of the Month, March 6,from 1:00 – 2:00 pm @ Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association, Rm 109, 1996 Eastman Ave, Ventura, RSVP Diana Davis @ 642-0239 x 739

• 2nd Wednesday of the Month, March 12, from 10:00 – 11:00 am @ Pleasant Valley Hospital, 3rd floor Classroom, 2309 Antonio Avenue, Camarillo, RSVP Barrie Gilster @ 797-7699

• 2nd Wednesday of the Month, March 12, from 1:00 – 2:00 pm @ Thousand Oaks Library, 1401 E. Janss Rd, Thousand Oaks, RSVP Barrie Gilster @ 797-7699

• 3rd Wednesday of the Month, March 19, from 1:00 – 2:00 pm @ Sunrise Senior Living, Activity Room, 190 Tierra Rejada Road, Simi Valley, RSVP Barrie Gilster @ 797-7699

Moorpark, CA – The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) will close the northbound Moorpark Freeway (SR-23) connector to the eastbound Ronald Reagan Freeway (SR-118) at Los Angeles Avenue from 10 p.m. Friday, February 7 until 5 a.m. Monday, February 10.

The closure is required to implement emergency repairs of bridge joints on the Arroyo Simi Overhead structure.

Electronic freeway message signs will begin warning of the impending closure a week in advance. Caltrans is urging motorists to avoid the interchange if at all possible and to expect delays.

Eastbound SR-118 will be directed to exit northbound SR-23 at Tierra Rejada Road, travel eastbound and then turn left onto Madera Road to return to eastbound SR-118.
Motorists continuing on eastbound SR-118 from eastbound SR-118/Los Angeles Avenue will take southbound SR-23 to Tierra Rejada Road.

Work will take place around the clock and may generate noise and dust for residents adjacent to the freeway. Otherwise, the work is not expected to involve significant community impacts.

A second 55-hour closure will be required to perform the same work on the westbound Sr-118 connector to southbound SR-23, currently scheduled from 10 p.m. Friday, February 21 through 5 a.m. Monday, February 24. Additional information will be provided closer to that date.
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Santa Clara Valley Disposal will maintain its regular Friday trash and green waste collection schedule in Fillmore on Feb. 21, during the week of Presidents’ Day.

For more information, call 647-1414.

Mr. Harry Burns being honored. [A link to the video of the presentation is below.]
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Mr. and Mrs. Fauver being honored. [A link to the video of the presentation is below.]
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The Fillmore High Alumni Association wants to thank all the community members who attended our “Pack the House” night last Thursday and Friday evening at the High School Gym. On Thursday night we honored long time Teacher and Coach, Mr. Harry Burns. Alumni President, Mark Ortega and Vice-President, Corinna Mozley presented Mr. Burns an appreciation certificate for his 34 years of coaching and teaching with Fillmore High and Jr. High. On Friday evening, the community came out again and it was standing room only for Carmen and Jim Fauver’s presentation. Mrs. Fauver was honored for all her years of volunteering and chaperoning our Fillmore students, and Mr. Fauver for his years of dedication in Teaching and Coaching the Boys Basketball Teams. Many of his past players came to say Hi. Two special evenings indeed, and we say Thank You to the community for coming out to honor our Alma Mater, Mr. Burns, and Carmen and Jim Fauver. Go Flashes!!

Mr. Burns video: http://goo.gl/aOIQaH

Mr. and Mrs. Fauver video: http://goo.gl/lcAZtq

And don't forget to "Like" the Fillmore High Alumni Association's Facebook page located here: http://goo.gl/HFMPfQ

The sixth annual Fillmore Flower Show, will be held April 12-13, 2014, at the Fillmore Senior Center, 533 Santa Clara Street, Fillmore, California, 93015. In conjunction with Fillmore’s celebration of its centennial year, the theme will be, “100 Years of Flowers”. The Vision 2020, Civic Pride Committee, is proud to have been able to revive this well respected show that began so long ago, before WWI, continuing through the years until the early 1990’s.

This years’ flower show will be held in memory of Conway Spitler, who passed away in July, 2013. Conway had been a chairman of the flower show over many of the years, along with his wife, Tillie, and maintained a meticulous scrapbook which he allowed us to use for reference in that first year, 2009. He also met with us and offered his wisdom on planning and helped with the flower entries on the first day of the shows.

Another flower show scrapbook was located at the Fillmore Historical Museum and this book is brought to each show for people to look back at the history. Some people have found pictures of themselves as children in newspaper articles showing them as winners. Civic Pride will be offering a free class on grooming plants and flowers for entry, information on divisions and classes with classic styles, along with tips from judges’ comments during judging. Joanne King will lead the class. Location of this class, and date will be announced in a future newspaper

The show is free and open to the public from 1-4 pm each day. A Garden Boutique with plants and items attainable for a donation, along with door prizes, will be available.

Musicians will add the pleasure of live music on piano (Saturday) and guitar (Sunday).

Entry is open to all, but competitive entries are limited to residents of Fillmore Unified School District area which includes Fillmore, Piru, Bardsdale & west to the Little Red School House.

Entries will be received Saturday morning from 7:30am to 10:00am. Youth entries are free and adult entries (unlimited) for $5.00.

For more information, please contact Joanne King, 805-524-4904 or Linda Nunes, 805-524-3021.

The most dramatic period of construction is coming to an end – the erection of the steel structure of the new Community Memorial Hospital.

No other portion of the building process has had such an impact on the community as watching the skeleton of the new hospital rise from the ground. It brought a very tangible sense of reality that this new hospital will soon be open.

As they begin to leave the job site, we extend our heartfelt thanks to the ironworkers who daily entertained us as they wrestled and secured the iron into place, and then welded it together. Turn up the sound, and enjoy our tribute to the members of The Erection Company (TEC) – true, cowboys in the sky.

Thousands of participants will “Give Love” in full color as they celebrate life, friendship, fitness and fun

WHAT: Run or Dye, the world's most colorful 5k, is coming to the Ventura Ranch KOA in Santa Paula on Saturday, February 8th and bringing the colors of the rainbow with it. The color-blasted 5k will feature multi-colored showers of safe, eco-friendly, plant-based cornstarch dye at every kilometer for a day of full color fun. Afterwards participants will have the option to take part in the Run or Dye world-famous Dye Festival where they'll "Tie-Dye the Sky" with an explosion of colors in the ultimate celebration of life, friendship, fitness, and fun.

Run or Dye will be partnering with Ventura Family YMCA, a local organization striving to enrich the lives of kids, adults, families and communities through health, well-being and fitness programs, camps, family time, education and leadership. Run or Dye will donate a portion of the race proceeds to Ventura Family YMCA.

WHEN: Saturday, February 8, 2014… Detailed schedule is as follows:
• 9:00 am – Run or Dye 5k begins
• 9:45 am – Finish Festival
• 10:00 am – Tie-Dye the Sky (every 15 minutes)
*Times are subject to change

WHERE: 7400 Pine Grove Rd, Santa Paula, CA 93060