Ventura – United Blood Services is issuing an urgent appeal for Type O-Negative Blood. Increased usage in recent days has caused supplies of this blood type to drop to critically low levels. Those with Type O-Negative blood are urgently needed to donate today or tomorrow.

The Ventura Center will be open for special hours today and tomorrow:
Today: 10 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 31: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Donations may be made at the UBS Center in Ventura at 2223 Eastman near McGrath. Appointments are appreciated, but not necessary. Walk-ins are also welcome.

You may donate blood if you are over age 16, weigh at least 110 pounds and are in good health. Additional height/weight requirements apply to donors 22 and younger. Donors are asked to make an appointment by contacting United Blood Services at 800-715-3699 or online at www.unitedbloodservices.org/centralcoast.

This yard sale sign has been hanging on the tree at the corner of A St. and Hwy 126 for two weeks. Another sign advertising the same sale has been on the No Parking sign at River St. and Grimes Canyon for two weeks along with a yard sale sign for 102 Surrey Way, which has been there for six weeks. The Gazette spotted eight signs between A St. and C St. this afternoon, Tuesday, Dec. 29th. City Ordinance (see below) allows a fine of $50 per sign. Maybe this would be a good way to 1. Make some city ca$h, and 2. Clean up a trashy eyesore. If the city averaged five a week, that could mean $13,000 by year’s end.

11.20.030 Sign Display—Permission Required. It is unlawful for nay person, firm, company or corporation to paint, post, put up, maintain or display any sign, bill, or poster, picture, lithograph, map, plat, sample or other device or advertisement of any kind upon any wall, window, billboard, fence, post, pole, tree, building or other structure within the city limits without express permission from the occupant, owner, or lessee or person having charge or possession thereof. (Ord. 70 % 3, 1922)

11.20.040 Sign Display Unlawful on Certain Poles.
It is unlawful for any person, firm, company or corporation to paint, post, put up, maintain or display any sign, bill, poster, picture, lithograph, map, plat, device or advertisement of any king, or any slot machine or receptacle for merchandise upon any telephone pole, telegraph pole or electric pole within the city limits. (Ord. 70 % 4, 1922)

Where: Piru Community Center
When: Tuesday, January 5th, 2009 from 6:30-8:00pm

Please join us to answer any questions about our proposal, to hear from enthusiastic local parents who have visited a local charter school, and to hear from parents who have their children currently attending charter schools. Come hear why these parents are fully committed to charter schools!

CHOOSE CHOICE FOR YOUR CHILD
CHOOSE TO SUPPORT PIRU CHARTER SCHOOL

For more info go to www.pirucharterschool.blogspot.com or send us an email at pirucharterschool@earthlink.net

ESTAN INVITADOS
Junta Para Escuela Charter de Piru
Para Padres y la Comunidad
Centro de Comunidad de Piru
martes, enero 5o del 2009 6:30-8:00pm
Los esperamos para poder contestar sus preguntas sobre nuestra propuesta, y para que puedan escuchar a padres que están entusiasmados después de haber visitado una escuela charter de la zona y también a padres que ya tienen a sus hijos en una escuela charter. Vengan a escuchar porque estos padres están tan felices de cooperar en la educación de sus hijos en escuelas charter.

We hope you have enjoyed a restful holiday and are now ready to think about plans for the New Year! One of the most important choices you have for the months ahead is your child’s education. We hope you are joining with us in supporting Piru Charter School, and have planned a meeting in the Piru Community Center on Tuesday, January 5th from 6:30 to 8 p.m. to answer any final questions about this proposal, and to hear not only from enthusiastic local parents who have visited a local charter school, but from visiting parents who are excited to have their children attending a charter school right now. Come hear why these parents are fully committed to charter schools!

The goals for Piru Charter School continue to be:
Keep Piru School Open
Lower Class Sizes in the Upper Grades
Make Better Choices with Our School Money
Provide for a Possible K-8 Learning Opportunity
Continue Piru School’s Path to Success!

It is our belief that only by choosing to convert to Piru Charter School, can Piru parents be given the choice of schooling options they need in order to assure that every Piru student be given a high quality learning opportunity as they begin life.

Misinformation has been spread about charter schools. Come hear for yourself, the facts in a quiet sharing of information. Next week Piru Elementary will have a chance to choose not be guided by the continued attempts of Fillmore Unified School District , but by the Ventura County Office of Education and Success. Choose choice for your child. Choose to support Piru Charter School!
Tuesday, January 5th 6:30. We hope to see you there!
pirucharterschool@earthlink.net

The Ventura County Public Health Department has expanded the list of who is eligible to receive the H1N1 vaccine once again and now includes all people, healthy or high risk, 6 months of age and older. This list has been updated and includes those adults aged 25-64 who are healthy; they are the last group to become eligible to receive the vaccine in Ventura County. “This basically opens the eligibility for H1N1 vaccine to everyone in our county,” said Public Health Officer, Dr. Robert Levin.

Infants (under 6 months of age) are ineligible to receive the vaccine. Scientists believe the vaccine will not be effective in this age group.

This new dictum was arrived at due to the following factors:
The amount of vaccine that has arrived in the county since September has increased to adequate levels
25 to 30% of the high risk population in Ventura County has now been vaccinated against H1N1
There has not been an unmanageable increase in the length of lines at clinics where vaccine is being offered
“This vaccine isn’t going to do anyone any good if it sits on the shelf,” said Dr. Levin. “The more people we can get this into in our county, the better.” The novel H1N1 (swine) vaccine is available for Ventura County residents only. Sites where the vaccine is available can be found on the Health Care Agency Public Health website: www.vchca.org/H1N1.

Since both Christmas and New Year’s Day fall on Friday this holiday season, Fillmore city resident customers of Santa Clara Valley Disposal will have their trash and recyclables collected on Dec. 26 and trash and green waste collected Jan. 2, one day later than usual both weeks.

The regular collection schedule will return on Friday, Jan. 8, 2010.

As a special holiday feature, residents may put out twice the amount of trash at no extra charge during the two weeks following Christmas. Please make sure the trash is in bags. We will also collect extra recyclables, but please make sure to flatten all boxes.

Also, Santa Clara Valley Disposal is making it easy for their customers to recycle their Christmas trees. All customers need to do is remove the ornaments, hooks, lights, tinsel, bows, nails and tree stand, then cut the tree into sections no more than 4 feet long and place in the yard waste barrel on their scheduled pickup day.
Please note, however: Flocked trees cannot be recycled.

For more information, call 647-1414.

The programs for Rotary Sun Risers are: December 29: Mario De La Piedra Jr will talk about his recent “Semester at Sea” traveling around the world during a University led cruise.

January presentations will focus on “Service Clubs: Who and What they are” Jan. 5th: Features a David Forman Video, “Historical Review of Rotary International”. Jan 12th: Soroptimists. Jan. 19th: Scott Lee, Past President of Lions will do a presentation on Lions International; January 26th: Don Gunderson will lead a Club Assembly
mid-year review.

Conway Spitler

1. Throw out non-essential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. An idol mind is the devil's workshop. And the devil's name is Alzheimers.

4. Enjoy ;the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next country, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them at every opportunity. AND ALWAYS REMEMBER; life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
-- George Carlin

These names were received from December 16 to 21, 2009.
A light is shining on the Hospice “Light Up A Life Tree” at the Fillmore Plaza,
251 Central Avenue, Fillmore.

IN MEMORY OF:
Ruby Riesgo
Modesto Cardona
Michael Patrick Askay
Mark Anthony Reyes
These names were received from December 22to 23, 2009

IN HONOR OF:
Sean Morris
Veronica Morris
Ian Morris
Jackson Morris

The Senior Center will be hosting a training class for using your new electronic equipment on Saturday, January 16 and January 30 from 10a.m.-noon. A group of Fillmore teens will be there to instruct you on using your new camera, iPod, phone and any other electronic item you received as a recent gift. Although the classes are designed for seniors, anyone is welcome to attend.

Vision 2020 Civic Pride Committee decided to try something new and decided to select a “Yard of the Month” for December, based on the Christmas decorations. There were many beautifully decorated homes and yards and even neighborhoods this year, making the selection difficult.

Linda and Eddie Haro’s home at 910 Taylor Lane was chosen as the winner. The yard and front porch are full of animated bears covered with lights and surrounded by a candy cane fence of lights. Music can be heard softly playing in the background.

Linda does all the decorating herself, starting at the beginning of November and doing a little at a time. These decorations began simply in 2002 with just Christmas house lights and then each year, the Haro’s have added to the effect with more bears. (This adds an extra $50.00 to the electric bill for December, in case some of you are wondering.)

And why the focus on bears? Bears were a natural for Linda because she collects bears and her home is full of bear planters, bear pictures and bear frames and statues. Bears, bears are every where, even the bench on the front porch is a “bear”.

Other beautiful Christmas displays worthy of an honorable mention and an evening tour may be found at 993 Meadowlark Dr., 568 Finch Ct ( many homes on Finch Ct.), the corner of Sespe and “C” St., 421 Price, 11651 Lora, and 812 Woodgrove.

Otto & Sons Nursery generously continue to support the Vision 2020 Civic Pride effort to encourage members of the community to beautify and maintain their neighborhoods, one yard at a time! The award is an Otto & Sons gift certificate of $25.00.

Following up on our article A Little Change Can Make a Big Change, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Clara Valley feels it is important for the community to know how the kid’s coin bank project is working. As readers may recall, the kids of the Las Piedras Clubhouse of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Clara Valley, in response to the inaccurate news that the Clubs may have been closing in late November, chose to take the matter into their own hands and started a coin bank to ‘help keep their Club open.” Fast forward now to last Friday, December 11th, when Mari Juarez, the site director at the Las Piedras Clubhouse, took the coins collected by the Club’s members to a local coin counting machine and discovered that in a short 10 days the kids had collected $78 in pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters! What a great success story for the members! They took matters into their own hands and gained the satisfaction that they were able to help keep “The Positive Place for Kids” open for their use.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of America, our National Affiliate, has a acronym B.U.I.C, its stands for Belongingness, Usefulness, Influence and Competence and Mari tells us that through this coin collection our kids feel that they Belong to the club and something special, they are feeling Useful because they are able contribute, they feel they are influential and can make a difference and they are empowered by the thought that they are competent because they have the ability to help! Taking their cue from this fine example, the other four Clubhouses in the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Clara Valley system, the Santa Paula Clubhouse (on Harvard Blvd.,) the Fillmore Clubhouse on First Street in Fillmore, the North Fillmore/Neil C. Schmidt Clubhouse in Fillmore and the Rancho Sespe Clubhouse at the Rancho Sespe Apartments between Fillmore and Piru, have adopted this project at each of their own sites. We encourage readers to look forward to another coin collection update from this and the other sites of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Clara Valley. Individuals and businesses that are interested in starting their own coin collection for the Clubs are encouraged to contact the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Clara Valley at 805-525-7910 to obtain a collection bucket for use are home or at work.

The Piru Cemetery, a special district with its operations located on Center Street in Piru, met December 17, 2009 with a full agenda of action and planning matters for the new year and beyond. This district won overwhelming voter support in November of 2008 to impose a $25 per parcel tax for a 20-year period. This tax, known as Measure M, will allow for the cemetery to plan and make needed improvements for nearly 200 new gravesites and place columbarium’s, or vaults, for cremated remains of departed loved ones.

The Piru Cemetery is nearly 100 years old and reaching its capacity. It is also in need of very much desired site improvements for maintaining this local institution. In addition to the expansion these funds are dedicated to site improvements, such as fence and driveway repairs, irrigation system upgrades and other operational systems to maintain this local cemetery of nearly 1,000 gravesites.

The Board of Trustees also elected new officers for 2010. This includes new President Andy Arias, Vice-President Cecilia Boschee and Secretary-Treasurer Richard Ramos. John Avila, who has served the district for nearly 50 years, will continue as a valued resource in many aspects of our cemetery operations.

In related action, the board presented a new set of By-Laws and their Strategic Plan for community review and comment. The board has held a series of workshops under the guidance and support from Supervisor Kathy Long’s office and the professional services from the County Executive’s Office. These two individuals, Martin Hernandez and Jeff Burgh, were incredible assets in providing important operational enhancements. These by-laws and plan will be adopted at the board’s January 21, 2010 meeting.

The programs for Rotary Sun Risers are: December 29: Mario De La Piedra Jr will talk about his recent "Semester at Sea" traveling around the world during a University led cruise. January presentations will focus on "Service Clubs: Who and What they are" Jan. 5th: Features a David Forman Video, "Historical Review of Rotary International". Jan 12th: Soroptimists. Jan. 19th: Scott Lee, Past President of Lions will do a presentation on Lions International; January 26th: Don Gunderson will lead a Club Assembly mid-year review.

Ventura, Ca: The Ventura Family YMCA will be hosting a FREE Open House for members of the community from January 4th to January 10th.

Unlimited Open House gift certificates are available at the YMCA, online and at multiple local businesses. The certificates will allow anyone in the community to have full access for the entire week to use the facility and participate in adult and youth classes including Tae Kwon Do, ballet, parent/child swim classes and more.

The week of Open House will also feature an array of activities and events. Along with facility usage and free classes, there will be complimentary programs and wellness seminars like “How to Help Avoid the Flu” with Dr. Kay Larson as well as free cholesterol screening and body composition testing. Children will be able to participate in a variety of arts and crafts during the week while their parents enjoy working out.

Open House will wrap up on Saturday, January 9th with a member appreciation barbeque which will include a free food, jolly jump, live performance by “The Calamity” a softball tournament between staff and members as well as other community building events.

Open House will reveal the newest additions to CONTINUED »