Happy New Year! It’s the time of year when the FHS Alumni starts planning for class reunions coming up in 2018! Many classes are planning to have their reunion the weekend of June 9th at the 105th Annual Alumni Dinner/Dance. The FHS Alumni website has been updated. Alumni Dinner reservations can be purchased now online at http://www.fillmorehighalumni.com/events/2018/1/15/105th-annual-fillmore.... You can also print out the reservation form and mail it in. Last year’s event was sold out, so let’s get those reservations in! This is the event of the year in Fillmore. Don’t miss out!
Mark Ortega, FHS
Alumni President

VENTURA, CA - District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that David Kenneth Beech (DOB 8/8/1959), of Simi Valley, has been charged with four counts of solicitation to commit murder while in custody at the Ventura County Pre-trial Detention Facility awaiting trial on multiple charges of lewd and lascivious acts against a child under the age of 14 and possession of child pornography.

Detectives discovered that in October 2017, Beech began soliciting other inmates to murder the two victims in his case as well as one of the victim’s mother and her friend. Ultimately, in December 2017, Beech offered an undercover officer posing as the “hitman” $10,000 to have those individuals murdered. The solicitation to commit murder counts were added to the original counts of lewd and lascivious acts against a child and possession of pornography, which Beech had been charged with in January 2015.

Beech faces over 60 years to life in the prison if convicted of the charges.

There have been many graduates of Fillmore High School who have gone on to achieve great things and have made major contributions to the world we live in. These Flashes are and should serve as constant reminders of what Fillmore High School has and continues to turn out to society. To that end, the Fillmore High School Academic & Career Hall of Fame has been established.

Fillmore High School is currently accepting nominations for the Fillmore High School Academic & Career Hall of Fame (FHSACHOF). The 2018 FHSACHOF inductees will be selected from a combination of service clubs and general public nominations. It is our hope to identify 25-30 viable candidates to induct into the FHSACHOF in its inaugural year. This year’s inductees will be recognized at the 2018 Fillmore High School Open House in the Spring Semester. The deadline to submit nominations is March 2, 2018.

District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that defendant Mario Adan Arjon (DOB 12/18/1990), of Ventura, was sentenced to seven years eight months in state prison, following his November 2017 conviction for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.15 percent or higher, driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury to multiple victims.

In the early morning of June 15, 2017, defendant was driving at a high rate of speed on Central Avenue outside Rio Mesa High School in Oxnard, when he rear-ended a vehicle that had slowed to stop at Vineyard Avenue. The car defendant stuck was being driven by Fernando Buenrostro, a senior at Rio Mesa who had just returned from a sober graduation night at Disneyland. The impact of the collision forced Mr. Buenrostro’s car into a car stopped in front of him, and rotated Mr. Buenrostro’s car into the intersection. Mr. Buenrostro was transported to Ventura County Medical Center where he died three days later. Mr. Buenrostro’s passengers, two high school students also returning from “grad night,” were also injured, along with the driver of the third vehicle. An investigation by the California Highway Patrol determined that the defendant’s blood alcohol concentration at the scene was 0.15, almost twice the legal limit.

Bob Crum

When on assignment, I'm a photojournalist. Other days I fancy myself as a 'fine art photographer'. For example, it's now widely known that my specialty is, ahem, mermaid boudoir photography. Fine art indeed.

Besides photos, I make prints. To wax philosophical, a photo is better enjoyed as a print. A family photo album is a treasure. A photo on Facebook... here today gone tomorrow. Where's the value in that? But I digress.

We are 18 years into the 21st Century & the photo paper, frame & mat industry still isn't producing products designed for digital images. Of my 2,374,716 readers (if only I got paid by head count!) I'll bet only two of you—three at most—are shooting film! Yet, the only frames & mats made are for the likes of Rip Van Clodhopper who refuses to give up his Konica range finder film camera and only wants 4X6” prints.

It's about aspect ratios. In its simplest form, aspect ratio describes the relationship between two sides of a rectangle. The aspect ratio of 35mm film is 3:2. Aspect ratios for most digital cameras is 3:2, 4:3 for point-and-shoots. Why if the 3:2 aspect ratio has every logical reason going against it, as you'll soon see, does it dominate? Perhaps because it happens to have the closest proportions to the Golden Rectangle of any other major film format which presents the most aesthetically pleasing composition? The ratio 3:2 is great if ONLY the paper, mat and frame industry provided 3:2 products accordingly.

My Canon 7DMKII aspect ratio is 3:2. Fine, if like Clodhopper all I want are 4X6” prints. No cropping required. For other sizes like 5X7, 8X10, 11X17, 3:2 is problematic. Example: Mathematically, a 3:2 aspect ratio relates to an 8X12” print not 8X10”. If the lab doesn't make 8X12” prints, your 8X12” digital image will get cropped... loosing a full 2 inches of the original image. Furthermore, no math will make 3:2 equal to 7:5 but cropping for a 5x7” image isn't quite so severe. It's all a mess!

Not only don't photo paper sizes directly relate to 3:2 digital photos, go to Michaels or Aaron Brothers for a mat and frame and good luck. Is wanting to fulfill our digital needs expecting too much?

On a more pleasant note, I'm venturing into... ahem... art. It's contagious you know. Being a proud member of the Fillmore Artist Guild, (email me for Guild info) I got the itch! Big time! But my medium is different as you might expect. I thought: Why not combine 'art' and photography? So I did!

The Photo of the Week is of my first artistic creation—my Art Nouveau 'masterpiece' titled “The Blonde Lady”. I photographed it, imported it into Adobe Lightroom to process the 'RAW' image. Exported the photo from LR to Photoshop Elements as a .tiff image for a touch of NIK Viveza 2. Saved the image & exported to Topaz Labs Impression program where I applied a touch of artist Jim LaSala's style. Viola! Digitized art from my painting. Now I can resize my digitized painting from 4X6” to poster size to satisfy any art collector's preference. I also have 9X12” and 11X14” 200g/m² (90 lb.) cold press watercolor paper for collector's that prefer a genuine textured print! Oh what FUN! What do you think???

My process needs a name so please email me your suggestions. Of course I'm working on my next creation, another masterpiece! An itch must be scratched you know!

Happy photoing!

Send suggestions, comments or questions to: bob@fillmoregazette.com

At Tuesday night’s city council meeting volunteer Firefighters (l-r) Mike Salazar, Claire Morgan and Jordan Castro received badges to become fulltime Fillmore Fire Fighters for the City of Fillmore. Photo courtesy Fillmore Fire Department.
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Three Fillmore Fire Volunteers were presented with badges at last night’s city coucil meeting, becoming fulltime firefighter with the department.

New Fillmore Fire Fighter Michael Salazar, has worked in EMS since the age of 19 starting as an EMT. He went to paramedic school in 2005 and started working in Ventura County as a Paramedic. Mike currently works at Fillmore Fire and American Medical Response, one of Ventura County’s Ambulance provider. He worked his way up the ranks becoming a level 2 Paramedic, Preceptor, Field Training Officer and now a Field Supervisor as EMS 48 covering the west side of Ventura County. He was also selected to become one of the few Community Paramedics in the State of California. He has received extensive training in the areas of Hospice and Tuberculosis, to better service the citizens of Ventura County.

He started with Fillmore in 2012 as a Firefighter Paramedic and has promoted to Engineer. Mike has taken advantage of many training opportunities to make himself a valuable member of the Fillmore Fire Department. He is part of the training cadre and has been in charge of setting up and instructing EMS and Fire ground training drills. Mike began a mentoring program for the new firefighter and recruits during out academy. He always strives to pass on what he has learned from his success and more importantly his failures. To help other grow and become more confident in themselves.

But all this would be meaning less without the love and support of his wife of 7 years and his son.

New Fillmore Fire Fighter Clarie Morgan a NCAA Division 1 Collegiate Athlete in Track and Field. ER Technician at Cottage Hospital Santa Barbara and Goleta. EMT on PRN Ambulance out of Los Angeles County. Firefighter 1 Academy .And began volunteering at Fillmore Fire in Spring of 2017.

New Fillmore Fire Fighter Jordan Castro Graduated high school in 2010 from Santa Paula high school. Hired for 2 wild land seasons with CCC/CAL FIRE hired with Fillmore as a volunteer firefighter in 2012, worked for Cole Schaefer ambulance from 2012-2016. And worked in Santa Paula Hospital Emergency room from 2016-2017.

California Highway Patrol

On January 8, 2018, at approximately 4:07 P.M., a multi-vehicle traffic collision occurred resulting in a fatality in an unincorporated area of Ventura County. The collision was on SR (State Route) 126, east of Sharp Ranch (approximately 2 miles West of the Los Angeles County Line).

The driver of a Mercedes-Benz was driving westbound SR 126 at an unknown rate of speed. For reasons still under investigation, the driver of the Mercedes-Benz appeared to have lost control of her vehicle. The Mercedes-Benz spun into eastbound lanes of SR 126 where it set off a chain of collisions involving four other vehicles in both the eastbound and westbound lanes. There were a total of five vehicles involved. The driver of the Mercedes-Benz received fatal injuries as a result of the collisions. The drivers of two other vehicles were transported with reportedly minor injuries.

Both of the westbound SR 126 lanes were closed for approximately two hours. The shoulder of Westbound SR 126 was eventually opened to allow traffic to safely continue westbound. Eastbound SR 126 traffic was able to proceed through the scene by using the right shoulder during the entire investigation. Several deputies from the Ventura County Sheriffs Department responded to assist with traffic control. The Ventura County Fire Department (VCFD) responded and provided aid to the parties involved. VCFD also assisted with getting traffic safely through the scene. American Medical Response transported two parties to local hospitals to be treated for injuries.

There were no arrests made and there is no indication at this time that alcohol and/or drugs were a factor in this collision.

This information is preliminary and the collision is still under investigation. The adverse weather conditions at the time of this incident appeared to have been a partial factor in the cause for this fatal collision. Media can call CHP Moorpark Public Information Officer Marin during normal business hours at 805-553-0800.