Sheila Tate, Interim Chief Professional Officer for the Boys & Girls told the Fillmore City Council, at Tuesday’s regular meeting, that the First Street Club would stay open, but the North Fillmore Club would close due to financial challenges. The problem for the Club was a failure in fundraising.

Several independent fundraising activities are under way at the present time. These efforts include sponsoring by our Fire and Police departments, city employee donations, Marcoz Hernandez and “Chuy” Ortiz (owner of El Pescador Restaurant), and possibly others. I hope to receive information on these efforts in order to publicize them in the Gazette and online at fillmoregazette.com.

This club’s activities are a critical part of Fillmore’s youth programs. The kids love going there after school, where they complete homework and engage in a variety of activities. I urge everyone to donate to this cause which contributes greatly to the general welfare of our town.

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We received a comforting amount of rain this past week or so, but the weather folks say California is still in for a dry year. San Cayetano and adjacent mountains received considerable snow, which has remained for about a week. The recent storms, though welcomed (except for the mudslides in the LA area) fell short of expectations. It is good to see our rivers and creeks flowing again. I am always in awe of Sespe Creek. It can go from a dry creek bed to a raging torrent overnight due to the force of more than 30-miles of watershed. Never try to cross fast-flowing water. The force of even a couple of feet of storm water is tremendous.

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In answer to a question in this week’s Letters section, the late Clarence Freeman, an engineer (with vast hydrology, geology, and mining experience) repeatedly reminded Fillmore that it was built on an “alluvial fan” composed of ancient deposits of sand, gravel, and rock flow from Pole Creek. This makes us susceptible to liquefaction during a major earthquake. He also disputed the several engineering experts who approved the present Pole Creek debris basin, which was built at the end of the creek instead of further back, as is customary. He believed the basin would not work where located. So far, though not really challenged by a 50-year or 100-year storm, everything seems to be working well.

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One city council item bothered me: the Towne Theatre financials. The most basic number to be delivered in this annual report is attendance. How many customers has the Theatre taken in during the past year? The report, delivered by Deputy City Manager Bill Bartels, did not include this figure.

How is it that Theatre management could not produce attendance records? These are directly connected to ticket sales. This is remarkable. Hasn’t anyone been keeping tabs on ticket sales? How else can any financial information be presented?

After years of running in the red, the Theatre was finally able to break into the black, if weakly. Then, for the third time, the bad idea of showing Spanish language films became popular again. This was such a bad (and predictably bad) idea that the Theatre was again plunged into the red. Employees will tell you that during that time weeks would go by with no one at all attending. The Theatre never recovered.

But the building, which cost about $1.5 million to reconstruct and up-date after the Northridge quake, has been badly neglected and is in need of expensive rework. Maintenance has been terrible. Management has been incredibly bad. Why keep the same manager after so many years of dismal incompetence?

I’m glad to report that our state-of-the-art skateboard park was back in full use the day after the most recent storm. Debris had plugged a few drains.