Ventura, CA – Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) is happy to announce that one of its own residents has been chosen to be an inspirational speaker at the national Rural LISC conference in Washington DC on June 6, 2013. Angelica Amezcua, who lives at CEDC’s Fillmore Central Station Apartments in Fillmore, was chosen as one of three motivational speakers from across the country to speak and share their personal story about how affordable housing has transformed their lives to affordable housing advocates in Washington DC.

Angelica came to the U.S. from Mexico with her family in 2000 when she was only 11 and entered the seventh grade not knowing a word of English. Before moving into Fillmore Central Station Apartments, her family (two parents and four siblings) lived in substandard housing moving six different times -- always living in one room. She often had to continue studying even when the rest of her family went to sleep in those one-room homes. She says, “My parents and siblings were very understanding and would not mind sleeping with the lights on.” Despite these challenges, she went onto not only learned English, but also went on to graduate among the top 10 students in her high school.

Angelica has learned a lot from her family. One day, when Angelica was young, Thomas, her father, and Concepcion, her mother, took her with them to work in the fields to pick lemons. “My father told me, in Spanish, that he had taken her to work not to help, but for her to realize how difficult life is for someone who does not have an education,” she says. “My father had only graduated from third grade, and my mother graduated from high school in Mexico. They wanted their children to have a better life than they have had as immigrants and agricultural workers. These two individuals instilled in me the values of hard work, determination, and most importantly, the value of education,” she says. This spurred her on to pursue a higher education.

Angelica applied to college CONTINUED »

Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice is pleased to announce the opening of their additional office in Ojai at 202 Canada Street . This new Ojai office joins Livingston’s corporate office in Ventura and their branch office in Thousand Oaks. Livingston remains the trusted provider for skilled and compassionate professional home health and hospice care in the Ojai Valley. Now with their Ojai office, they will be able to fully meet the increased need for home health and hospice care for all residents in the Ojai Valley.

In addition to home health and hospice, Livingston also provides a vast array of community benefits including a full spectrum of free health classes plus several bereavement support groups. Livingston has been serving Ventura County residents for over 65 years and is the only full service not for profit home health and hospice agency in the county. Their mission is to provide care for all, regardless of one’s ability to pay. Livingston is honored and proud to be part of the beautiful Ojai Valley and invites you to stop by their new office, from Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Or call Livingston at 642-0239 or 272-8593 anytime.

Fillmore High School Concert Band entertained the ladies.
Enlarge Photo

At the May luncheon Meeting the Fillmore Ebell Club installed their officers for the 2013/14 year. The installing officer was Margaret Haskell who did a magnificent installation. Officers for 2013/14 year are: President Charlene Smith, 1st VP Marlene Schreffler, 2nd VP Beverly Brisby, 3rdVP Judy Dressler, 4th VP’s Venita Bloxham and Trisha Armstrong-Roberts, Recording Secretary Melodie Stitch, Corresponding Secretary Glenda DeJarnette, Treasurer Mary Ford and Parliamentarian Margaret Haskell. Also at this meeting a check for $300. was presented to Neva Pickets for the Senior Art Program. After the installation the group of ladies were entertained by the Fillmore High School Concert Band which was wonderful as usual.

Fillmore McDonald’s will be hosting a Fillmore Middle School (FMS) fundraiser on June 5th with 20% of food sales going to the school. The FMS ELAC (English Learners Advisory Committee) is a group composed of parents of bilingual students and Nora Toledo, ELAC President, and Norma Pérez-Sandford, Guidance Counselor, have organized this “Catch Kids Doing Good!” event which will be held on June 5th from 4-7 p.m.

The fundraiser is geared to providing rewards to students who do random acts of kindness, have good grades, show signs of respect to their peers and school authorities, make improvements in their grades and behavior, or transition from ELD (English Language Development) classes to higher level English classes.

Fillmore Middle School administrators, teachers, staff and parents will be serving food to McDonald’s clients between 4 and 7 p.m. Other FUSD employees are welcome to support this good cause.

Should you have any questions, want to join in, or donate, please contact Norma Pérez-Sandford, Fillmore Middle School Guidance Counselor, at 524-6074, or email at npsandford@fillmore.k12.ca.us.

There are awesome kids in Fillmore and Piru. Please help us recognize some of them for the great job they are doing! We invite everyone to come and purchase your meals on this day to make this a successful event for this excellent school and its students.

The Fillmore Library will have it's Summer Reading Program Kick-off, Monday June 3rd at the Youth Building 511 Second Street. The program will start at 3:30 p.m.

Nifty Balloons artists, David and Shana, will delight the audience with their silly and outrageous antics! Find out why "Reading is So Delicious!"

Learn more about this exciting summer reading program at your Ventura County Library at: www.vencolibrary.org
Hope to see you!

The 2012-13 Ventura County Grand Jury’s completed investigations to date appear in published reports on-line at the website: http://grandjury.countyofventura.org. There are other pending investigations that may result in additional reports. If more reports are published before the end of the 2012-2013 term, those reports will be available on-line as well.

June 28 is the last working day of the term for this current Grand Jury, at which time applicants for the 2013-2014 Grand Jury will attend an orientation meeting presented by the 2012-2013 Grand Jury. The official photograph of the 2012-2013 Grand Jury panel is attached. The new Grand Jury will be selected and sworn in on July 1, 2013, at a ceremony in the Hall of Justice at Government Center.

The civil Grand Jury is charged with the oversight of all aspects of the county and its ten city governments, special districts and agencies to ensure that the best interests of Ventura County citizens are being served. To find out more about the mission of the Grand Jury, to download complaint forms, and to view previous years’ reports, visit the website.

Premiering at the California Oil Museum on Thursday, June 27, How it Works: Hydraulic Fracturing, will explore the technology of hydraulic fracturing: from what it is, how it works, to the equipment and processes used. Diagrams, models and products used for hydraulic fracturing will be displayed. With this topic being so prominent in the news today, this exhibit will provide insight for those interested in learning more about the production process. Museum hours Wed – Sun, 10am to 4pm. Admission is $4 Adults, $3 Seniors, $1 Students, 5 years old and younger are free. Members are free.

Hydraulic fracturing is not a new concept. The first commercial application of hydraulic fracturing as a well treatment technology designed to stimulate the production of oil or gas likely occurred in either the Hugoton field of Kansas in 1946 or near Duncan Oklahoma in 1949. In the ensuing sixty plus years, the use of hydraulic fracturing has developed into a routine technology that is frequently used in the completion of gas wells, particularly those involved in what is called “unconventional production,” such as production from so-called “tight shale” reservoirs. The process has been used on over 1 million producing wells. As the technology continues to develop and improve, operators now fracture as many as 35,000 wells of all types (vertical and horizontal, oil and natural gas) each year.

Hydraulic fracturing has had an enormous impact on America’s energy history, particularly in recent times. The ability to produce more oil and natural gas to develop new sources once thought impossible has made the process valuable for US domestic energy production. With hydraulic fracturing, as much as 20 percent of unconventional production from formations such as gas shales is now, on a practical basis, possible.

California Oil Museum
1001 E. Main Street, Santa Paula, CA
805-933-0076
www.oilmuseum.net
Museum hours: Wednesday - Sunday, 10am to 4pm. Admission is $4 Adults, $3 Seniors, $1 Children over 5. Children 5 years old and younger are free. Members are free.

With the approach of the 100th anniversary of the Fillmore High School Alumni Association, I thought that a photo from the early 1940s would be interesting to the graduates. We believe this photo was taken after WWII began because of the number of men in uniform seated at the tables. Note the use of orange field boxes, boards and sawhorses used for seating and tables - a very common practice at the time. J.M Horton, Fillmore High School's first principal-1909, is seated towards the center of the photo.

The Board of Directors of the Fillmore Historical Museum congratulates the alumni on their anniversary. We hope that all graduates will be able to visit the museum, 340 Main St., where there are more photos and stories of Fillmore High School on display.

The Museum will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 15th.
Martha Gentry
Executive Director

FARM WATCH: SPECIAL ALERT

A message from Detective Ray Dominguez:

Sheriff's Office Sexual Assault Investigators are asking for your assistance in solving two recent sexual assaults. Please see the attached media releases for further details.

The following advice is always wise if you suspect illegal activity on your property:

· Call the Sheriff’s Office immediately at 911.

· Be a good witness

· Note suspect descriptions such as age, height, weight, facial hair, clothing, and shoe type.

· If a vehicle is involved, obtain a license plate number and note vehicle color, body damage, bumper stickers, camper shell, after market tires and wheels, etc.

· Provide the dispatcher with information about the time and last known direction of travel.

If you are not sure of how to address the problem or would like additional crime prevention tips please contact your local Sheriff’s Office substation or me directly at (805) 384-4726 or by email at ray.dominguez@ventura.org.

Contacts:

Camarillo Detective Robert Arthur, robert.arthur@ventura.org

Fillmore Detective John Fox john.fox@ventura.org

Ventura Detective Dennis Smith dennis.smith@ventura.org

Agricultural Crimes Detective, Ray Dominguez at Ray.Dominguez@ventura.org

As always, we would like to thank Sheriff’s Crime Analyst Karen Brown and Det. Ray Dominguez, for this issue’s great crime and alert update.

Be alert and stay safe!

Ray Dominguez

Geoff Dean - Sheriff

John Crombach and Gary Pentis - Assistant Sheriffs

The Fillmore Ebell Club will be welcoming the Concert Band Tuesday, May 28th at the Veterans Memorial Building.

Lunch will be served promptly at 12:30pm, Cost only $12.00 for a delicious lunch. Followed by a short business meeting and then the 99th installation of officers for the 2013-2014 year. After the installation the ladies will adjourn to the big room for a wonderful concert under the direction of Mr. Greg Godfrey. The ladies look forward to the band concerts yearly and are always amazed at the talent of the youngsters.

For more information and reservations please call Glenda at 524-4949.

Fillmore Family Coalition in partnership with the Ventura County Public Health, Tobacco Education Program is excited to announce its completion of the tobacco merchant education campaign for retailers in the City of Fillmore. With support from the Fillmore City Council and Fillmore Sheriff’s Department, Fillmore Family Coalition members along with Tobacco Education Program staff visited all tobacco retailers in Fillmore and Piru.

Did you know? According to Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (2012) 90% of smokers began at or before the age of 18. Given current smoking rates, 596,000 youth alive in California will ultimately die from smoking*. The best way to prevent this is to limit the access youth have to tobacco products. Regardless of the fact that for over 100 years it has been illegal to sell tobacco products to minors, youth still state they find it easy to purchase tobacco products.

These educational visits CONTINUED »

Vision 2020, Civic Pride Committee presented a certificate of appreciation to Kennedy Smith for participating in our Central Avenue planter refurbishing project.

Kennedy is a senior at Fillmore High School where she also participates in playing softball on a team. She plays both catcher position and outfield.

She already knows that she will be attending Colorado State University at Pueblo in the fall where she will continue to play softball and major in psychology.

As vice president for her Piru 4 H group, Kennedy said she focuses on community service projects rather than raising animals and this fit perfectly with her response to the question, “Why did you want to be involved with this Central replanting project?”

Her answer, “I think it is important for the community to come together and take pride in how it looks!” displays this focus.

Fillmore is fortunate to have young people like Kennedy putting their studies and ideals into action with community service projects.

Grad Nite Live had its 'Giant Yard Sale' which netted us $834 . We now will continue to sell our "Tri-Tip sandwiches, chips and a soda at SUPER 'A' MARKET (available week-ends only) The seniors are selling the tickets now until the 7th of June - Graduation is the 13th of June. We will be having a CAR WASH (watch for the date) also we will be selling LEIS at the Festival. We are $8.000 short, and the checks have to go out by the 25th. help if you can. thanks Mrs Chaney.

Fillmore High School is raising money for the Make-A-Wish foundation on May 21, 2013! We encourage the community of Fillmore to come support. It will be held on the Fillmore High School track from 8am-5:30pm. There will be face painting there for $0.50, bracelets for $1, and t-shirts for $12 to help raise money for the make a wish foundation. Also any donations are accepted!
Jordyn Vassaur and Savannah Bullard

Fillmore FFA is holding its annual May festival Pancake Breakfast. Fillmore FFA 2nd annual Pancake Breakfast this Saturday parade day May 18th, 7:00am - 9:30am. Fillmore Veterans Memorial Bldg. $5.00 donation.

Greetings Farm Watch Readers, I was asked by Commander Tim Hagel to share this information with you reference a telephone scam:

Utility Customers Being Targeted by Phone Scam

The Sheriff’s Office is investigating several cases involving Southern California Edison customers who have been the targets of a telephone bill payment scam. The suspects have been calling SCE customers telling them they must make immediate payment on past due bills or have their electric service disconnected. The callers are also demanding that payment be made through a prepaid cash card, such as a PayPal or Green Dot card.

SCE officials have confirmed there have been similar reports from customers throughout Southern California, and they are working closely with law enforcement agencies to identify the suspects.

The primary targets have been minority-owned small businesses.

“We ask our customers to CONTINUED »

On a quiet Saturday morning, before the Fillmore Library opens to the public, members of the Artists Guild of Fillmore were waiting at the doors. Their purpose for being there was to mount a new mini-show of art works. They were catching up with each others news when the doors opened. Carrying one painting, each one turned to enter the building. This event occurs four times each year in order to decorate the Library walls. It also gives the public an opportunity to consider owning and hanging an original piece of art in their own home. All the artists live in Fillmore and meet together monthly.

Painting titles from the top row, left, "Edge of Town - Rothenburg, Germany" by Luanne Hebner Perez; "Walk in Beauty" by Lady Jan Faulkner; "Autumn Afternoon" by Karen Scott Browdy, "Intent" by Joanne King; and the bottom row: "Sheep in Orchard Sun" by Virginia Neuman; "Flora and Fauna" by Lois Freemen Fox; "Santa Inez Oak" by Judy Dressler; and Untitled by Wana Klasen.

Livingston Hospice conducts several adult bereavement support groups to help those who have experienced a loss. Explore and express feeling, understand the grief process and receive emotional support. Open to the public, free of charge, all are welcome. The groups are held at

The First Presbyterian Church, 850 Ivywood Drive, Oxnard; Every Wednesday, (May 15, 22, 29); from 3:00 – 4:30 pm

Livingston Memorial VNA, 1996 Eastman Ave (#112), Ventura; Every Wednesday, (April 15, 22, 29); from 6:30 – 8:00 pm

Help of Ojai, 370 Baldwin Road, Ojai; On 2nd & 4th Tuesday, (May 14 & 28); from 10:30 am – 12 noon

Call 642-1608 for more information.

In observance of the Memorial Day holiday, employees of Santa Clara Valley Disposal will be taking the day off on Monday, May 27. As a result, Fillmore city residential customers will have their trash and green waste collected on Saturday, June 1, one day later than usual.

The regular Friday collection schedule will resume the following week.

For more information, call 647-1414.

Ventura, CA - May is National Stroke Awareness Month. Community Memorial Health System encourages the community to better understand the risk factors and symptoms of stroke, a leading cause of death and serious long-term disability in the United States.

“Time is crucial in the treatment of stroke, as on average, every 40 seconds someone in the United States has a stroke and roughly every four minutes someone dies from a stroke,” said Stephanie Lara-Jenkins, RN, Stroke Coordinator at Community Memorial Hospital. “The earlier a stroke is recognized and the patient receives medical attention, the greater chance of recovery.”

Strokes occur when CONTINUED »