Moorpark, Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru businesses will be able to access up to $242,821 in services for small business development through technical assistance/consulting services and business loans beginning Nov. 15, thanks to the County of Ventura and the Economic Development Collaboration-Ventura County.

In October, the County Board of Supervisors and EDC-VC’s board approved the recommendation to create the Moorpark and Santa Clara River Valley Business Assistance Program from the county’s and city of Moorpark’s share of the federal Community Development Block Grant funds.

Investment in our local businesses is essential for the overall economic health of Ventura County. Working with these communities will open doors to create jobs and strengthen businesses, which is something we can all be proud of,” said Supervisor Kathy Long.

In partnership with the county and cities of Moorpark, Santa Paula and Fillmore, EDC-VC's Small Business Development Center will provide free business consulting services and low-cost workshops to small- and medium-size companies in the region. It's expected that more than 40 companies will receive intensive business consulting services, resulting in at least 26 new jobs and saving four at-risk positions by the end of this fiscal year on June 30.

Business loans of up to $25,000 are available to businesses in Moorpark and the entire Santa Clara River Valley area. The loan program is aimed at helping business owners overcome some of the hurdles to successful entrepreneurship. It’s expected that nine loans will be funded through the program, resulting in at least nine new jobs this fiscal year.

“The city has been very strategic in its economic development and has been working toward creating a loan program for a few years,” said Janice Parvin, mayor of Moorpark. “Having the program come on line now is great news for the city and its businesses as well as those in the Santa Clara River Valley area.”

EDC-VC will provide credit analysis and underwriting services for the loan program, assisting firms in accessing to new capital to support business growth.

For more information, contact Kelly Noble at 805-384-1800 x 21, or kelly.noble@edcsbdc.org.

EDC-VC is a private, nonprofit organization that serves as a business-to-government liaison to assist businesses in Ventura County by offering programs that enhance the economic vitality of the region. For more information about the Small Business Development Center, loan programs, the Manufacturing Outreach Program, Global Entrepreneur Training in Trade (G.E.T. Trade) program, or other services available to small businesses through EDC-VC, contact Stenslie at 805-384-1800 ext. 21 or bruce.stenslie@edc-vc.com. Or visit www.edc-vc.com.

Ventura County Sheriff's Department

On November 26, 2011, at approximately 10:00 PM, a helicopter was requested for two hunters who were lost and stranded on a rock out cropping in Piru Creek near Hardluck Campground in the Los Padres National Forest. Initial information received from the hunters whom had limited cellular service stated they were unable to move off a sheer cliff about one and one half miles south of the Hardluck Campground.

Ventura County Sheriff Lockwood Valley Deputies were staged at the campground but were unsuccessful in locating the hunters due to the remote location and darkness. The Sheriff’s Department helicopter, piloted by Jim Dalton, responded with a rescue crew consisting of Crew Chief Don White and Crew Chief/Paramedic Jeff Golden. Upon arrival to the area, an aerial search was initiated with the assistance of night vision goggles worn by the aircrew.

After about forty-five minutes into the search, the hunters regained cellular service and were able to contact Sheriff’s Dispatch. Utilizing a satellite telephone in the helicopter, a conference call was initiated between the helicopter, dispatch and hunters. The hunters were advised to hold the face of their cell phone in the direction of the helicopter, which they could hear but not see. With the assistance of night vision goggles the rescue crew observed the light from the cell phone face within several minutes after the request was made. The hunters were discovered clinging to a steep canyon wall south of the campground.

Due to the remote location and rugged terrain, the only option to contact and evaluate the hunters was through a hoist operation. Crew Chief Golden was lowered via hoist approximately one hundred feet into the canyon. Once on the ground, Golden determined both men were uninjured. The hunters were safely removed from the location via a hoist rescue and flown to awaiting deputies at the Hardluck Campground.

It was later learned that the hunters were prepared for their trip by having proper clothing, water, flashlights, GPS and a cell phone. However once it became dark, the hunters were disorientated and quickly lost track of the trail. Both then fell down the steep canyon and became separated from their flashlights, GPS and other equipment.

The Sheriff’s Aviation Unit would like to let others know that should they find themselves in a remote location after dark, the illumination of a cell phone face or other light source can greatly assist rescue crews in the search when night vision goggles are being utilized.

Report Number: 11-26936
Location: Piru Creek near Hardluck Campground, Los Padres National Forest
Date & Time: 11/26/2011 @ 10:00 PM
Unit Responsible: Sheriff’s Aviation Unit
(S)uspects, (V)ictims, (W)itnesses (D)ecedent City of Residence Age
Leonard Unger
Juvenile - Male Los Angeles
Los Angeles 49
17
Deputy Preparing Media Release: Senior Deputy Don White
Media Release Date: 11/27/2011
Follow-Up Contact: Senior Deputy Don White
805-388-4212
Approved by: Capt. Ross Bonfiglio

Jillian Morris
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Jillian Morris
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Lexington, Kentucky - The United States Pony Clubs, Inc., (USPC) announces the recognition of the Kings Corner Training Stables, located in Fillmore, CA, as a USPC Riding Center. As a recognized Pony Club Riding Center membership to Pony Club is available to youth 25 and under who join the Kings Corner Pony Club Riding Center. For adults interested in the program, there is also a Horsemasters Program.

Members through a Pony Club Riding Center do not have to have their own horse and will have access to the full Pony Club program. This includes learning to ride on the flat, over jumps, and in the open. In addition, members will be able to “rate” their riding ability and horse management skills against an established standard of proficiency and be able to participate in center, regional, and national activities.

Each of the ten Pony Club ratings is more difficult than the preceding one, and requires Pony Club members to learn more about horses and their care and to become increasingly accomplished riders and teachers of riding and horse care to younger members. The top rating, ‘A,’ is reached by fewer than one in 300 and denotes throughout the international horse industry a highly competent and knowledgeable horseperson.

There are approximately 10,000 members of Pony Club in over 625 clubs and centers throughout the country. Along with an emphasis on helping its members learn to ride and care for horses, Pony Club promotes teamwork, a sense of responsibility, safety, good moral judgment and self-confidence.

The United States Pony Clubs, Inc. (USPC) was founded in 1954 as a nonprofit national youth organization to teach riding and horsemanship through a formal educational program. Many of the nation’s top equestrians, including most of our Olympic Equestrian team members, have Pony Club roots. Members range in age, from as young as 4 through age 25. Activities are English-riding based, with a new western riding curriculum being introduced this year. Members ride both horses and ponies, depending on the size of the rider and the discipline in which s/he is competing.

All Pony Club competition is team competition, much like the Olympic Games, where members learn the importance of cooperation and teamwork.

Taurie Banks of Fillmore is the Center Administrator and Instructor for Kings Corner Pony Club Riding Center. Taurie is a graduate Pony Club member and is certified as an Instructor by the United States Eventing Association. She is also certified in Equine Sports Psychology.

For more information on the Kings Corner Pony Club Riding Center, please contact Taurie Banks at (805) 727-3444 or by email at kingshorses@hotmail.com.

Burt Davis

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On this Thanksgiving I have so much to be thankful for. I have the four greatest kids in the world. I know all of us who have kids can say this, but I feel strong that they are just that--great. I also have the greatest mother of all time. When it is her time to go (not for a very long time), God will open the gates of Heaven and say "Shirley come right in."

I always love the last Thursday in November. We get to come together with family and friends, break bread together, catch up on what is going on in our lifves, and watch a little football. What a great day!

I was also thinking the other day about what makes me thankful. I am so lucky and blessed with my family. And I am lucky to have a job where I get to come in contact with some great people at work everyday, Fillmore High School. Not only the staff, but some of the greatest young men and women go to school there. I get to see how hard they work in what they do at the school everyday. It could be in art, woodwork, F.F.A., drama, band, sports, and most important good old fashion school work.

Most of you may know that I am a proud Fillmore High School alumni. I am and forever will be a Fillmore Flashes! I would like to tell you about the number one and oldest Flashes still with us, and why we should all be thankful for him.

From the class of 1935 Burtis 'Burt" Davis. On December 28th this year Burt will turn 94 years young. On the 28th of December 1917, on Olive St. here in Fillmore, Burt was born in the home of Nelle and Phad Davis. He went to school Fillmore with some good old friends like Richard "Toolie" Palmer, Roy Hays, and Aaron Myers, just to name a few.

When Burt went to Fillmore High School he played basketball and tennis. He always wanted to play football but mother Nelle said no to that . So he was the manager for the football team. He was also trusted by the great County and High School Hall Of Fame Coach Eugene "Red" Kennedy to have a set of keys to the gym. This gave him and his friends a chance to go into the gym to play all the basketball they wanted.

In the days that Burt played sports for Fillmore High School, the tennis team would all hop in a car or truck and drive themselves to the matches. One day on the way to Santa Barbara, when the road was right on the beach at the county line, you had to wait for the tide to go out so you could dive on it. Burt was in the back of a truck with some of his teammates when they got into a traffic accident. The boys that were in the back of the truck flew out. Two of the kids needed to go to the hospital. Burt was on of the lucky ones who brushed himself off, and still played tennis that day.

In 1935 after graduation from Fillmore High Burt was asked by Red Kennedy to become an Official for football games. Little did he know at the time that this was the start of a very long career. Burt would go onto be an Official for basketball, football, baseball, softball, track and field, volleyball, water polo, and swimming until 1986. That adds up to 51 years folks.

Burt was always known to be loud, straight down the line, fair and knowledgeable of the game. And he did it all with that great big Burt Davis smile that he still has to this day. He always felt that to make a good Official you needed to be in the background and let the kids play the game. It always upset him when the Official wanted to be the center of attention. The game and the players should always be the story, not the Official and his calls.

On June 19th, 1941 Burt married the love of his life Phyllis Higgins. They spent 69 wonderful years together util Phyllis past away last year.

Burt went into the service during WWII. While in Germany Red Kennedy needed someone to be an Official for football games so he got hold of Burt. Burt said that he loved doing it. All the special treatment came his way with all the boy's over there. Good food. Good places to stay. He got the royal treatment. They wanted him to stay in the service, but all he wanted to do was to come back to Fillmore and his loving wife Phyllis.

Phyllis and Burt have three daughters; Lynn Cook from Waco Texas, Laurie DeAlejandro from Ventura, and Valerie Newland from Fresno. He also has 10 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren. That is what Burt Davis is thankful for.

After the service Burt went into being an Official. In 1949 he was a charter member of The Channel Coast Official Association. He and still great friend and Ventura County Hall of Famer Cal Houston worked together on the playing fields all over the state and beyond, and behind the scenes. They still call and talk to each other almost every week, even though Cal has moved Montana.

Burt worked at high school, junior college and college level sports over the years in places like the L.A. Coliseum, Anaheim Stadium, and the Shrine Bowl at the Rose Bowl. He was known as the number one "White Hat" Official in football. Burt also worked for the Dallas Cowboys in Thousand Oaks in the 1970's and 80's when they had a training camp at Cal Lutheran. He had a good friendship with Pro Football Hall Of Fame Coach Tom Landry.
In 1987 The Ventura County Hall Of Fame opened the doors and made Burt a member of the Hall Of Fame. And in the first class of the Fillmore High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2010 the doors flew wide open for Burt to walk right on in.

Any one of us who know Burt can say if there ever was a Hall of Fame for just being a great person, Burt would see the doors open up for him there also. He is sharp as a tack, and still has all the time to say hello to everybody he comes in contact with. He will always tell you a story with a gleam in his eyes and a smile on his face. And to me this is one more great thing I will be thankful for on this Thanksgiving. God Bless and Happy Thanksgiving Fillmore!

Ventura County Sheriff's Department

On 11/8/2011, members of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Bureau, West County Street Team, and the
Sheriff’s Air Unit conducted a reconnaissance flight in the Alamo Mountain area of North Eastern Ventura County near Pyramid Lake. Investigators located growing marijuana surrounding a makeshift campsite on a hillside a short distance above Piru Creek. The hillside had been terraced and large tracts of brush and trees were removed. Plastic irrigation hose ran from an adjacent canyon where water was gravity fed to the plants.

In the campsite and surrounding area, detectives found an estimated 130 lbs. of manicured marijuana drying on tarps under trees. The camp had sleeping equipment for several people and a large store of food and supplies were found. It appeared to investigators that the camp had been used that day and they believed the suspects were possibly still in the area. A footpath with fresh footprints was located heading into a rugged canyon above the campsite. Detectives followed these tracks for approximately one half mile when they came upon seven subjects: Jose Inzaunza 40, Bruno Mata 24, Luis Diego 27, Jesus Chavez 20, Juan Hernandez 30, David Aispuro 20, all from Losa Angeles, and Miguel Martinez 42, Compton. These subjects were trying to elude deputies and had come to a dangerous cliff area with nowhere else to hide. The detectives assisted the exhausted men up the steep hillside to a location where they could be airlifted out. It was determined these subjects were involved in the marijuana cultivation discovered in the area. They were all arrested and subsequently booked into the Sheriff’s Main Jail.

The Sheriff’s Office encourages those who frequent the Ventura County backcountry to report any suspicious activity to authorities.

I remember when you brought me home. You thought I was adorable and you couldn't get enough of my sloppy kisses! I wagged my tail endlessly, jumped as high as I could and ran in circles chasing my tail when any of you came home. I heard the family discussing what they wanted to name me, but since I was a girl the names were limited to sweet and clever ones. There were no suggested Butch, Sergeant, or Mac so I was destined to be a Peanut because of my size and brown coat. The kids argued over who would sleep with me. There was even discussion of a rotation schedule so that it would be fair and evenly distributed. Everyone promised to take care of me by feeding me and cleaning up after me. I had it made! You really loved me then. I was your little Peanut.

I know when your love started to fade. It was when the big one we all called Dad stepped on a pile of my poo on his way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I did that before we all went to bed knowing one of you would clean it up on your way to brush your teeth just before you scooped me up and took me into your room to snuggle with me under the covers. I know you saw it because you said something to me about being a bad girl. That was the beginning of breaking the many promises you made to care for me. Soon Dad was losing his temper and threatening to get rid of me if everyone around the house didn't start chipping in and taking care of me.

It was the teenaged girl with the pretty blonde hair that made the final mistake. She was running late and she left the house still talking on her cell phone without giving me a thought. She forgot to let me out into the backyard for the day. It wasn't my fault because I tried to get her attention by barking and scratching at the back door, but she just kept talking on the phone. She got into a waiting car and drove away. After she was gone I thought what the heck and began to nose around the house and enjoy myself. After all I am still a puppy! I first tore up a favorite doll in the baby's room given to the baby by a now departed grandma. While there I felt the urge and left a real cool amount of liquid on the hardwood floor that could hardly be seen, but unfortunately it soaked in and left a stain on the wood, then into Dad's room and into the closet. Oops another urge, having learned my lesson I hid this one in a shoe and chewed on another shoe because I was getting bored. How could I have known these shoes were Dad's favorites, and of course I have now ruined two pairs of shoes!

After about four hours of such fun things as unrolling the toilet paper in all the bathrooms, dragging underwear, ties and socks everywhere, I decided to take a nap. I was soon rudely awaken by Dad when he came home saw the mess and discovered I had been left in the house. Dad scooped me up and soon I was in the car and going for a ride with him. I loved riding in the car and eagerly got onto his lap so I could see out the window. I was happily surprised that he still wasn't mad at me, but was trying to bond with me by driving me out to the country. We went to a dead end road near the creek where he got me out and set me on the ground. What fun I was having! I romped around running in circles and chasing every lizard I could scare up until soon I realized Dad had driven away and forgot me. I ran after him down the road barking, but he was going faster than I could run to keep up and other cars were now coming up the road and swerving to miss me. Scared I was going to be hit I quickly turned back to where Dad forgot me and hid under a tree barking to let Dad know where I was when he realized his mistake and came back for me. I was sure that he would turn right around when he realized it, but soon my bark got weaker and I began to whine because my throat was now sore.

Night started to fall and it was getting cold. I was getting hungry, but there was nobody around to feed me, love me, or argue who gets to sleep with me tonight. There were other dogs howling down near the creek and they scared me with their yelping. I had never heard a dog yelp that way and it seemed as if there were thousands of them just a few yards from where I was waiting! They didn't sound very friendly so I didn't call out to them. After dark had fallen fully a car pulled up and I could hear loud music and laughing. They are back I thought outloud and I ran from the brush where I had been hiding from the howling dogs. I ran towards the car. The young people in the car were now outside of the car and throwing bottles into the creek and laughing loudly when they heard the glass break on a rock and fall into the flowing creek. When one of them saw me he threw a bottle at me and laughed louder than before! I ran towards where I had been hiding and when I looked back I noticed the teenaged girl with the pretty blonde hair. I thought she saw me! I wondered if she still loved me and came to take me home! The man she was with threw another bottle towards me and they all laughed and got back into the car. They drove away fast, throwing gravel into the brush as their tires spun in the loose dirt shoulder. I was alone again. Me a small female Chihuahua left at the end of a road to fend for myself. How did this happen when all of them promised to care for me and love me. I never stopped loving them. Why did they stop loving me?

The next day another dog, a mix of some sort, was left by the side of the road just like me. His name was Mike and he promised to care for me. He said we would be just fine if we stuck together. Days passed and many people came to the end of that road. Some left food for us, but we were so afraid of people by now we didn't realize some were trying to help us so we hid until they left. Together we learned to survive, but each day we were there at the end of the road we got weaker and more skittish of humans. The howling dogs were getting closer each night and the cars came and went leaving behind their messes. We were both so defeated! As determined as we were to survive, we both could see our days were numbered. Why did our families stop loving us? We never stopped loving them! Why did they abandon us?

There has been and increase in the “dumping” of small dogs in the rural areas surrounding Fillmore in the past couple of months. One single dumping included five young small dogs! Three were rescued by caring residents and either kept as pets or taken to Dog Rescues. The fate of the other two is not known. Rather than dumping these loyal pets you are encouraged to call, stop by, or email the Humane Society of Ventura County, 402 Bryant St, Ojai, 805-646-6505, animals@humanesocietyvc.org. They will care for these loving creatures until they are found good homes. Another resource is AM Pet Supply and Grooming, 341 Central Ave, Fillmore, 524-7387. AM Pet Supply and Grooming has been very generous in rescuing and placing abandoned pets. As of this writing Peanut and Mike are still living at the end of that road and residents are trying to care for them so that they can be taken into good homes. That is if they become trusting enough to be rescued! A cold rain has started to fall in and around Fillmore as Peanut and Mike snuggle to stay warm and dry under the brush. Please don't abandon unwanted pets!