David W. Rowlands, Fillmore City Manager.

Porch Fest – 2018

The Bridges subdivision, located east of Rio Vista Elementary School, has been selected as the host location for the first ever Porch Fest. This is a community event that celebrates music and community. The event is an open invitation to whomever wants to drop by and enjoy the live music which will be performed on front porches, yards or driveways within The Bridges subdivision. Porch Fest will be held Saturday, August 4th from 5:00 pm to 7:00 p.m. Information on band locations and bands will be on the city web site www.fillmoreca.com and Twitter page. Parking is available on the street.

The “All Digital String Band” will be performing traditional Bluegrass with highlight performances from local Fillmore musicians.

Notable local blues festival favorite “The Kingfish” will stop by for a short cameo acoustic performance. Kingfish is a favorite at the Long Beach Blues Extravaganza where he performs with his band The Other Mules.

Fillmore Association of Businesses – FAB Up and Running

FAB is an association of downtown business owners, managers and property owners working together to bring innovative ideas and events to promote a sustainable, energized, and creative environment within Fillmore’s downtown business perimeter. FAB will work in sync with the City’s Downtown Strategic Plan focusing on business retention, expansion, and attraction. If you are interested in joining or have ideas to share please contact Ernie Villegas, Special Projects Manager at (805) 524-1500.

Entrepreneurs – Fillmore Now Allows Pop-Up Businesses

The City Council recently changed its laws to allow “pop-up” businesses to locate within the Commercial Highway, Central Business District, Commercial Neighborhood, Manufacturing/ Industrial and Business Park zones in the City if the business is a permitted use or allowed with a Development Permit in that zone. Businesses will be allowed for an initial time of 45 days and up to a maximum of 90 days without needing to seek entitlement permits. Allowing additional temporary uses in the zones will promote economic vitality by temporarily locating business and uses in buildings and structures which might otherwise remain vacant.

Fillmore Pavement Resurfacing Completed

Paving was recently completed on portions of B Street, C Street, D Street and Mountain View Street.

Let’s work together to keep Fillmore the “Best Last Small Town.”

David W. Rowlands, Fillmore City Manager

Bob Crum

I've been shooting the Fillmore fireworks show for about 87 years, so it seems. Normal camera settings are auto white balance, ISO locked at 100, aperture f/11 and 'bulb' mode. Bulb mode allows the shutter to be held open for a period of time. Assistant #1 holds the shutter open with a remote control until I yell CLOSE! Assistant #2 fetches another cold beer. Just kidding.

In years past, I noticed that bright bursts are, you know, too bright resulting in blown out highlights. No big deal considering there isn't any detail in bright light blobs. But super bright lights tend to overpower the image. Attempts to cool down the highlights in post processing just make the highlights an ugly shade of gray. I'd like a better balance of the bright light and colors while executing longer exposures. So what to do?

A Ventura friend photographer suggested installing an ND filter on the lens. Hmm. An ND filter reduces light coming into the lens like sunglasses for your eyes. Why do that? Because theoretically reducing light entering the lens allows for longer exposures without overexposure. BTW, works wonderfully for photoing mermaids frolicking in squally seas.

I decided to use a 0.6ND on my Tamron 16-300mm lens which will reduce the exposure equivalent to 2 f/stops.

One disadvantage of using an ND filter is that it darkens what you see through the viewfinder rather dramatically. Worse, depending on the filter used auto-focus may not work. However, neither issue was a problem regarding fireworks photography. I simply used the camera's live view (LCD screen) to initially compose the images and used manual focus with the lens set at infinity. The only problem is that live view goes dark the instant the shutter is actuated so can't tell what is being recorded. Hello guesswork!

The overall range of my firework exposures is from 3 to 14 seconds for a reason described below. Did the 0.6 ND filter accomplish the anticipated results? Yes with an unexpected benefit. The foreground is better exposed from the ambient light the result of longer exposures. A delightful bonus. Love surprises!

It's important because what are fireworks for if not to be observed? So, from my perspective, adding people in the foreground provides some 'show' context. Knowing that a train with people on open-air flat cars will be parked near the firing stage, I took a position between the train and Old Telegraph Rd. Viola... people and fireworks thanks to the ND filter.

Now, about the long 3 to 14 second exposures. A single firework burst is not by itself necessarily impressive. On the other hand, two or three bursts in a single frame... now that's exciting! I could shoot single bursts and create composites afterward. Composites are simply the blending of two or more images to create one final image. While this definition makes compositing sound quick and easy, it’s anything but, often times requiring several hours of editing work to complete. I don't have the luxury of time to create composites. So I go rogue and improvise. When the first firework is fired into the air, I open the shutter... and hold it open (in bulb mode) for the duration of two or three firework bursts. This is like creating a composite in the camera. Much quicker to do it in camera... another reason for the ND filter. Now you know a craft secret. Shhh.

See the fireworks slide show video featuring John Wayne and Kate Smith: https://youtu.be/aggnhfHH5Gk

Happy photoing.

Send comments, questions or suggestions to: photography@earthlink.net

The community of Fillmore was as ready as it could be for last week’s record-breaking heat wave. Water? Check. Shade for Fido? Check. Air conditioning? Check… except for 300+ homes at the El Dorado Mobile Home Park. Edison power went out at 6:45pm Friday and wasn’t restored until 7:40pm Saturday—25 long, hot hours at temperatures reaching 114-degrees in some areas of the city.

Three hundred homes without air conditioning in such high, humid temperatures is bad enough, but considering the park is still mostly senior citizens, the urgency to restore power was vital.

Edison’s online power outage reports at 12:11am Saturday morning read “Equipment Problems” as the cause of the blackout. The message changed several times: 9:58am and 2:36pm Saturday it read “Storm Conditions”. And at 6:34pm Saturday it read “Extreme Heat”.

Many residents lost all refrigerated and frozen food during the outage.

Fillmore Fire Department sprang into action on Saturday morning, coordinating with the City of Fillmore, Fillmore Unified School District, Fillmore Police Department, the Red Cross, Ventura County Health Care Agency and FATCO. A cooling center was opened at Rio Vista Elementary and FATCO bussed El Dorado residents to the location free of charge. Fillmore PD went door-to-door to check on the park’s residents, and EMTs also transported some residents to the cooling center. The Red Cross manned the center, offering water, cots and wheelchairs. And Fillmore Fire stationed rescue equipment in the park as a precaution.

Cooling centers for the general community were available at the Active Adult Center on Santa Clara, Fillmore Library on Second Street, and the Boys & Girls Club on First Street.

Temperatures remained high Friday and Saturday, with Sunday cooling slightly to the low one-hundreds.

Cindy Jackson, right, owner of Ocean Gold, listens to Raelene Chaney extoll the product’s benefits for arthritis and joint pain. Chaney uses the CBD for relief.

Dr. Greg Gillesie, Chancellor, Ventura County Community College District, addressed the council in a lengthy discussion concerning the District's history of expansion into the Fillmore area and future goals.

Fire Chief Keith Gurrola presented an up-date on fireworks booths and Fourth of July services. He reported that problems with the fireworks booths application system required some correction. Two booth applicants were found to be out of compliance within their filings and their permits were pulled. All non-profit applicants must show money received on sales stays in the City of Fillmore. One applicant was from Santa Paula, the other disqualified applicant was 3 months short of minimum time for activity in the city. One of the 3 applicants qualified and received its permit, which was Fillmore Christian Academy.

Chief Gurrola said the 4th was a busy night, which included two small fires. Sixteen citations were issued for illegal fireworks. The Chief recommended changes in the fireworks booth ordinance for next year.

The first amendment to the Franchise Agreement for Solid Waste Handling Services between the City of Fillmore and Santa Clara Valley Disposal was unanimously agreed to.

The recommendation to have Council adopt Resolution 18-3662 revising Section 6 of Resolution 18-3655 regarding deadline for filing arguments for and against a City Ballot Measure was passed 4-1.

Planning Commission's recommendation to adopt a Zoning Ordinance Amendment updating regulations for Commercial Highway (CH) Zone and finding an exemption from CEQA was approved.

New projects at Two Rivers Park were discussed.

Resident businesswoman Cindy Jackson promoted a medical marijuana product to be sold in the City. The product's beneficial effects were attested to by resident Raelene Chaney.

Resident Steve McKinnon addressed some long standing problems at the Fillmore Equestrian Center. In general, McKinnon stated that things at the Center were "going downhill" due to management deficiencies, also referring to unspecified "bullying". He asked the Council to investigate the problems.

An unusually lengthy presentation on the California Choice Energy Authority-Lancaster CCE-Program was provided, with question about whether to join. The decision was deferred for further study.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) announces scheduled overnight lane closures on SR-126 between the Ventura Co. / Los Angeles Co. line and the city of Santa Paula for a long-term pavement rehabilitation project. These closures are subject to change and are scheduled as follows:

Starting the night of Monday July 9, 2018:

• Westbound SR-126 from the Ventura Co. / Los Angeles Co. line to the city of Santa Paula the right lane of two will be closed each night from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday through Friday, re-opening each morning.
• Once the westbound lanes have been re-paved, crews will move to the eastbound lanes of SR-126. The project is expected to be complete by the summer of 2021.

Additionally, ramps will be constructed at the location of at least 19 intersections within the city of Fillmore to make them ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant and accessible for persons with disabilities. The right shoulder / parking lane at these intersections will be blocked for construction from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday until the ramps are complete. Travel lanes will remain open.

The total cost of this Caltrans pavement rehabilitation project is 25.01 million dollars.

Please go to our Planned Lane Closure web page for confirmation of each night’s closures at https://lcswebreports-new.dot.ca.gov/SearchPreAction.do?district=7. And also to: twitter.com/CaltransDist7.