Christine Schieferle, Fillmore Unified School District Superintendent

September 23, 2021

This is an exciting week for Fillmore Unified School District. We began Homecoming week on Friday September 17, with a Flashes Football win against Oak Park. Our students played great, demonstrated positive sportsmanship, and our community came out and cheered on our team. Our new Flashes Spirit Tunnel made its debut and contributed to the exciting atmosphere. We thank the Fillmore Athletic Boosters Club for their generosity! On Saturday, September 18, FHS hosted a well-attended, outdoor Homecoming Dance in the West Wing. On Sunday, Trustee Morris and I had the pleasure of supervising Float Building, and we all look forward to seeing the floats this evening in the Blue and White Parade starting at 6:00 p.m. Our amazing Fillmore High Alumni Association has a great evening planned to honor and celebrate Flashes pride and tradition. We will wrap up the week on Friday, hosting Santa Maria High School for our 2021 Homecoming Football Game. These traditions are one of the many reasons why we are proud to live in Fillmore and have our students attend FUSD schools!

On Monday, September 20, Trustees and District Staff had the opportunity to attend the Agriculture Administrator’s night at Otto and Sons. I would like to thank The Fillmore High Ag. Department for coordinating a beautiful evening for the Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ventura, and Carpentaria Agriculture Career Technical Education (CTE) programs.

We’re close to the finish line for the CTE Building construction. Landscaping installation is complete, and they have checked all the irrigation lines. There are 2 final pieces of equipment will be arriving by Friday. Staff is being trained to operate the equipment. We have a Haas Mini Mill, Rotary lifts and Hunter equipment training scheduled. They are also finalizing the date for the plasma table training. We anticipate that the students will be touring the new facilities and trained on procedures and starting to train on the equipment prior to fall break and will fully move into the building after fall break. Finally, Desks are in place, the new building is getting its final clean-up and waiting for students to arrive.

On Friday, September 17, all schools celebrated Constitution Day by participating in a variety of activities from AP Government Students reciting the preamble, discussions, and lessons on the significance of the preamble and constitution. Our teachers planned engaging lessons, and students had fun while learning.

Today is the 26th day of school and we will continue to celebrate our students back in school full time. Fillmore Middle School and Fillmore High are preparing mid-quarter progress reports and will mail home to families by the end of the week. We are completing our beginning of the year testing in English Language Arts and Math and have started reading intervention at 3 of our elementary schools. We are still recruiting for intervention teachers at Piru School.

I’d like to thank our staff for their dedication to our students and for the time they are taking to implement the many new health requirements and public health mandates. I would also like to thank our families for their continued support and patience as we work through this school year prioritizing student and staff safety, teaching and learning, and social and emotional wellness. We ask that you please continue to prescreen your children each day and keep them home if they have any COVID Symptoms. Working together, giving one another grace, and putting our students first will make this a great school year. Thank you!

Fillmore City Council Member Ari Larson

Fillmore lost a special person on Friday, September 17th Fillmore’s Ari Larson passed away suddenly in her sleep. In honor of Ari there will be a vigil, Mass and reception in the month of October, dates times & locations as follows: Vigil – Friday, October 29th, 10am – 9pm at Perez Family Funeral Home, 600 Central Ave., Fillmore, Ca. Rosary begins
at 6:30pm. Mass – Saturday, October 39th, 10am – 11am at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 23225 Lyons Ave., Santa Clarita, Ca. Reception – Saturday, October 30th, 12pm at Fillmore/Piru Veterans Memorial Building, 511 2nd St., Fillmore, Ca.

A Rainy Day with the Fillmore Billiard Parlor in the background in 1926.
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World Series Score Card at the Pool Hall in 1944.
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Centro de Salud circa 1983 in the former Pool Hall Building.
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Chili Franklins Pool Hall circa 1910.
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Earliest photo of a pool hall in Fillmore. One of the three one story buildings in the center.
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Jims Pool Hall circa 1940.
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Centro De Salud after the 1994 Earthquake.
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Courtesy Fillmore History Museum

Many years ago, long before equal rights for women, there was definite discrimination nationwide over “Pool Halls”. I don’t think that the girls or women really cared then that they were not allowed to spend their 5 cents for a coke in the Pool Hall. After all there were plenty of other places where cokes, candy and ice cream sodas were available.

Fillmore had four documented Pool Halls over the years.(We should first acknowledge that what we all called Pool Halls were at the timeand, in Fillmore, forever, consistently named Billiard Parlors and later Amusement Parlors. If you are familiar with the musical “The Music Man” you will recall that the major issue in the plot was the arrival of a pool table at the local Billiard Parlor.) In Fillmore, the first Pool Hall was built in the late 1880s or early 1890s. It was one of three buildings built shortly after the arrival of the railroad and the location where a broken oil lamp combined with an east wind burned most of the businesses on Main St. in the 1903 fire. Another Pool Hall was also a Public Bath house and was located on Santa Clara St. between Central Ave. and Palm St. One of the best documented Pool Halls was owned by Charles Cleveland “Chili” Franklin in 1910 and located at 340 Central just north of the theater. The sign above the entry said “Oasis, Sodas, Lunches”. Upstairs was the Odd Fellows Hall. In the 1920s a roller rink was installed upstairs where the Odd Fellows Hall had been located. According to Mose Fine, the rink was a popular spot for hockey games with locals and visiting teams from Santa Paula. It was also a popular place for weekly dances, but by the 1930s it was gone. This building became Briggs Hardware. The rink and dance hall were damaged during the Sylmar Earthquake in 1971 when a 70 foot chunk of the upstairs wall fell onto the roof and into the interior of Martha’s clothing store. The second floor was totally removed and reroofed as a one story building. The wooden dance and roller rink floor still remain under the reconstructed roof giving it a double ceiling.

The 1920s saw another pool hall in operation. Jim Ipswitch purchased the business, then known as the Fillmore Billiard Parlor, in 1923.It was located on the west side of Central Ave. in a building built in 1915 and originally used as an auto electric and parts store. This was the Pool Hall referenced in the story about the Bunion Race several weeks ago. The runner, “Whitie” Fitzsimmons, who won the race, couldn’t collect first prize but Jim took up a collection among the customers in the Pool Hall and provided candy, cokes, and milk shakes for him for the next three or four months. (This story is to be found in Mose Fine’s book.)

In 1940, Jack Ipswitch with a partner a Mr. Burrell purchased the pool hall from his dad, Jim. At about this time the Billiard Parlor name was changed to Amusement Parlor but it was still a pool hall.

According to Elaine McMaster Ipswitch, “cars would line up Friday and Saturday nights, and the men would come in and pick up shakes, malts, cokes and sundaes and deliver them to the women waiting in the cars while the men played pool. During the school lunch hour, they would have 50 malt containers full of ice cream and milk, waiting to be mixed with a chosen flavor and machine stirred., The flavors were vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, cherry, pineapple.” These were the days when the high school had an open campus. English teacher, Gladys Hackbarth, once told Ron Ipswitch “that the Fillmore High School teachers approved of the “Fillmore Boys going into the Pool Hall, as no alcohol was served and Jim would kick anyone out the cussed.”

“During the World Series a plywood board was set up with painted lines indicating bases and a scoreboard with runs, hits, strikes and balls and the score, as received by the radio. There were penny boards with 25 punch outs, punched out with a match stick. Youcould buy 1 to 25 and might win a pack of cigarettes.”

“Near the front of the Pool Hall was a potbellied stove with a big brass ring around it that always glowed red during the winter. Ranchers would supply the wood. On either side of the Pool Hall were two small businesses, a Barber Shop owned by George Palmer and a Shoe Repair Shop owned by “Doc” Maxwell.”

“In 1953, Jack sold the Pool Hall to Lewis Steelsmith who also owned a Pool Hall in Santa Paula.“ Steelsmith sold eventually to Kenny Rogers. And eventually it was owned by Dan Bowlin.

While girls were never welcomed into the Pool Hall, they often went into George Palmers’ barber shop where a “Dutch” door opened into the Pool Hall. From that opening they could order cokes or sodas without setting foot in the “forbidden” zone.

In 1983 Kenny Roger sold the building to El Centro de Salud Familiar. The 1994 Northridge Earthquake brought the end to the story when the building was badly damaged and had to be demolished.

Much of our information for this story was supplied by Ron and Elaine Ipswitch. As with much of our local history we are dependent on information from present and past residents. If you have stories to tell us, give us a call or an email and let us know. We would love to hear from you. Our email is Fillmore.museum@gmail.com

Fillmore City Council Member Ari Larson.

FILLMORE, CA – It is with sorrow that the City of Fillmore announces that Council Member Ari Larson passed away suddenly on September 17th, 2021. Our entire community mourns Ari’s loss. She was a woman who loved her family and saw the Fillmore community as an extension of that family. Ari was a longtime Fillmore Resident and was very active in the community. She was committed to numerous charitable efforts.

Ari was active in many local and county-wide organizations. Her ties with the community of Fillmore and County of Ventura were like no other. Ari served on numerous boards including but not limited to: the Fillmore City Council, Soroptimist International of Fillmore, Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clara Valley, Heritage Tourism Bureau, Santa Clara Valley Hospice, Rotary Club of Fillmore, Member of Civic Pride, Girls Scouts of Heritage Valley, Relay for Life of Heritage Valley, Ventura County Garden Club, and many others.

Elected in 2020, Ari quickly became a respected voice on the City Council. She served as the City’s representative on the Ventura County Area Agency on Aging and the Citizen's Advisory Committee and the Ventura Council of Governments. She was also named Fillmore’s 2019 Citizen of the Year. Despite her short time on Council, Ari made an impact on the community. Her connections to the community, her straight-forward manner, and her thoughtful approach earned her the respect of staff, elected officials, and the public. “We are devasted and in shock. Today we lost a great soul. Ari was loved by the entire community of Fillmore. She impacted many citizens lives and will be greatly missed,” said Mayor Mark Austin.

City Manager, David W. Rowlands expressed “our entire community mourns Ari’s loss. She was a wonderful person and an exemplary citizen; she will be greatly missed by everyone who admired her honesty and integrity.”

On behalf of Fillmore’s City Council and staff, our thoughts and prayers are with Ari’s family and many friends. Our deepest sympathies go out to them.

No information is yet available about a memorial service.

Ventura County Department of Public Health

Ventura County Public Health has extended the indoor mask order, requiring all individuals, regardless of vaccination status, to wear face coverings when indoors in public settings, with limited exceptions. The order will continue to be in effect until October 19, 2021 or until it is extended, rescinded, superseded, or amended by the Health Officer. “Our current case rate of 19.3 is still considered widespread community transmission by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health,” said Public Health Officer Doctor Robert Levin. “We need to see a continued decrease in the case rate and hospitalizations before safely lifting indoor masking requirements to help prevent future surges.”

The order directs that face coverings must be worn over the mouth and nose – regardless of vaccination status – in all indoor public settings, venues, gatherings, and workplaces, including but not limited to offices, retail stores, restaurants and bars, theaters, family entertainment centers, conference and event centers, and government offices serving the public.

Individuals, businesses, venue operators, hosts, and others responsible for the operation of indoor public settings must:
• Require all patrons to wear face coverings for all indoor settings, regardless of their vaccination status; and
• Post clearly visible and easy-to-read signage at all entry points for indoor settings to communicate the masking requirements to all patrons. Signage is provided by Ventura County Public Health at www.vcrecovers.org.

This health order aims to reduce community transmission of COVID-19. Health officials are concerned by the substantial levels of increased community transmission, especially among unvaccinated people. In part, this is due to the widespread COVID-19 Delta variant, which is substantially more transmissible than previous forms of the virus. Recent information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also indicates that even fully vaccinated individuals can in some cases spread the Delta variant to others, and so indoor use of face coverings provides an important added layer of protection.

More information about COVID-19 available at: www.venturacountyrecovers.org