Fillmore Public Works Director Bert Rapp

After nearly 20 years of engineering Fillmore’s public works, Bert Rapp has decided to resign and transfer his talents to the Ventura River County Water District, where he was offered a higher salary as their General Manager.

Starting as City Engineer in 1991, Rapp’s first major challenge was to plan and oversee the city’s water supply. The system was woefully inadequate due to a complete lack of redundancy. Reservoir No. 2 was also taken down, and new generators for each well were placed on line. Had the old system failed the city would have been without water. Reservoir No. 1 (built in 1917), was falling apart and was replaced with a new, post-tensioned concrete reservoir. Many homes under the old reservoir were endangered in the event of a structural failure. This work was accomplished with the help of grants from FEMA.

The list of Rapp’s achievements, particularly following the devastation of the1994 Northridge quake, are numerous. He had to slate dozens of homes for demolition. Rapp planned the reconstruction of the Towne Theatre, our new City Hall, and participated in the design of four parks (Delores Day, Two Rivers, Meadowlark, and Shiells Parks).

One of his greatest achievements was the construction of our heavily-used Class One bike paths. The innovative location of the Pole Creek debris basin adjacent to El Dorado Mobil Home Park has averted a deadly threat from Pole Creek overflow and “hydraulic jump”. Rapp also designed the extensive river levee system which made Fillmore dramatically safer from flooding.

His crowning achievement, however, was the completion (against unrelenting criticism from political candidates) of Fillmore’s new, state-of-the-art water recycling plant. His plant, constructed and operated by American Water, was chosen Ventura County APWA’s Project of the Year for 2010, and has won at least 8 awards for efficiency, function, innovation, and its DBO (Design, Build, and Operate) contract. The Design Build approach (also heavily criticized by political candidates) was adopted by the County of Ventura, the City of Santa Paula, and used in Piru, as a new and efficient method of structuring major works.

Numerous traffic control elements were Rapp’s ideas as well, such as the “speed table” in front of the Theatre, and the traffic circles on River Street, which eliminated speeding trucks almost immediately.

But the water treatment plant was most controversial, with critics alleging it was a “Cadillac” plant, urging a different design, different method of financing, and different location. All criticisms have proven to be bogus. In order to discharge to the river Fillmore would have had to install reverse osmosis at twice the capital and operating cost. All the criticism directed toward Rapp and the implementation of his innovative, holistic approach to engineering problems has been proven wrong, and politically motivated. Fillmore’s water treatment plant has become the envy of many other cities.

The residents of north Fillmore, and the shopkeepers on south Central Avenue, who no longer experience flooding during rainstorms like we are experiencing today, can thank our Director of Public Works, Bert Rapp, for his imagination and determination. Through years of often savage criticism he lost neither his focus nor his temper.
The City of Fillmore owes a debt of gratitude to this man who essentially rebuilt the City after the devastating Northridge earthquake, and who has met many difficult challenges with perspicuity and patience.