Many Fillmore residents didn’t know a man named Roy Arnold who worked to serve them for the last 18 years. He was a quiet man who enjoyed bike riding, hiking, planting oak trees and serving Fillmore. Roy passed away on Wednesday December 22nd at age 85 after suffering a major stroke a year ago that left him partially paralyzed and never again able to walk or ride a bike. Fortunately Roy was able to stay at the Fillmore Convalescent Center where he was well cared for by the caring staff and his extraordinary wife, Luisella.

Roy began working for Fillmore as a part time engineer in 1992 after retiring as a wind tunnel test Engineer for Lockheed. His favorite project in Fillmore was building bike paths. Roy designed the Sespe Creek bike path from E Street north to 7th Street and most of the Railroad bike path. A special feature Roy added to Sespe path was the picnic table in the nook upstream of the railroad. He planted cottonwood trees around the picnic table for shade.

You may have seen Roy riding his bicycle down the sidewalks of Fillmore with a clipboard on the handle bars. He was looking for broken sidewalks to add to the repair list. Fillmore has 64 miles of sidewalks and about every four years, when the City could find the money, Roy would survey the sidewalks and prepare plans and specifications for their reconstruction. Then he would make sure the contractor would fix them correctly along with lawns and sprinklers that would get damaged by the construction.

Another specialty of Roy’s was running the City’s Pavement Maintenance computer program. Roy would ride his bike down the City streets and document the condition of the pavement noting how many cracks there were or if the pavement was failing. He would then enter that information into the Pavement Maintenance program along with the amount of traffic on each street including how many buses or trucks used the street. Then Roy would run the program and it would tell him which streets should be slurry sealed or paved first. Then Roy would put together the plans and specifications for the paving project and make sure the contractor did a good job during construction.

With Roy’s help Fillmore was the first city in Ventura County to install handicapped access ramps on every street corner. He also designed parking lot behind the Theater and prepared multiple contracts for replacing fire hydrants, water services, water valves and pipes throughout the City.

One of my greatest pleasures was riding bikes around Fillmore at lunch time with Roy inspecting the various projects underway or just enjoying beautiful Fillmore. Roy did exceptional work for the City and his quiet presence will be greatly missed.

Bert J. Rapp. P.E. Public Works Director