Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Merchants Push for Access to Damaged Stores

Downplaying the aftershocks rolling through Fillmore’s rubble-strewn Central Avenue, merchants from the historic downtown district met with city officials to ask the same question, “When can we reopen?”

Fillmore officials, tired from almost three days of nonstop work since the 6.6 quake caused an estimated $250 million in damage, tried to calm the business owners’ rising anger over restrictions on entering their damaged buildings.

“On Monday and Tuesday we were heroes and now we’re the bad guys,” said Pat Askren, the city’s fire chief. A frustrated businessman yelled at Askren during a emergency meeting called Wednesday to explain safety concerns to business leaders.

“That guy just yelled at me and said we’re putting him out of business,” Askren said. “We’re just trying to make sure no one gets killed. Yeah, I’m angry too. I lost things in my home, but who are you gonna yell at, God?”

Some business owners complained to public officials about being prevented from retrieving their most essential business documents.

“The responsibility for that falls on my shoulders,” said Steve Stewart, a building inspector from Santa Paula managing Fillmore’s building inspection effort. “We’re interested in making sure no one gets maimed or killed.”

*

At another emergency City Council meeting held Tuesday night, members considered adopting, for the first time, minimal seismic building codes for the town’s unreinforced masonry buildings.

Business owners said they are worried that any newly required reinforcements would make rebuilding prohibitively expensive for the brick and masonry buildings constructed around the turn of the century.

“What is the new code going to mean?” asked Gary Creagle, a former mayor whose gun shop on Central Avenue was seriously damaged in the quake. “Is it going to cost a couple of hundred thousand dollars to bring them up to code? I might be able to afford it, but other businesses can’t. I just want a straight answer about what the new code means.”

In the mid-1980s, the City Council rejected adopting seismic safety codes for the unreinforced masonry buildings along Central Avenue for fear it would drive businesses away.

“We were opposed to passing the codes because we thought they were too onerous,” City Councilman Roger Campbell said. But the earthquake damage, he said, has provided an opportunity with the imminent infusion of Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster funds.

“What we’re talking about is requiring basically every business person to pay for this very expensive process,” Campbell said. “Even though I still don’t like the idea, now might be the time when we could get FEMA money to help pay the cost.”

The city planning staff recommended that the city adopt seismic safety standards immediately. The damage from the quake, said City Manager Roy Payne, should be enough to show the council the need for a standard.

“We have some of this damage today because in the past we weren’t willing to adopt a standard,” he said.

The council decided to hold off on a final decision until an emergency City Council meeting scheduled for Thursday evening. At Tuesday night’s meeting, council members decided to waive all fees for permits required during the rebuilding process, but that decision didn’t seem to placate frustrated business owners.

“We would at least like to go inside the building,” said Sam Sunner, owner of the Central Avenue Market. The force of the quake collapsed portions of the market’s brick walls into the store and onto the street. He estimates that the $500,000 he recently invested in refurbishing the building over the last three years will be lost.

Sunner spent part of Wednesday waiting for answers from a city building inspector about when he could go inside his building.

“I understand what the city is saying, but we need to get materials (from) inside the store,” he said. An inspector told him that would not be possible until repairs make the building safe for limited entry.

About 100 other merchants from Fillmore’s downtown gathered at Wednesday morning’s meeting, as city officials tried to devise a plan to allow some of them to enter their businesses to access damage and retrieve valuables.

City leaders abandoned the plan after Wednesday afternoon’s magnitude 5.1 aftershock further damaged Fillmore buildings.

Lt. Richard Diaz said Ventura County sheriff’s deputies so far had not arrested anyone for entering damaged buildings without permission. But after the 5.1 aftershock, he said, deputies will now enforce all limitations on structure deemed off-limits.

*

City officials said they are still wrestling with the issue of what to do about buildings that seem beyond repair.

Two historic buildings in Fillmore’s downtown, the recently restored Fillmore Theater and the Masonic Building, suffered major damage and may have to be demolished, city officials said.

While city leaders want to move as quickly as possible to clear the downtown area of potential hazards, they also want to preserve the character of their historic downtown.

“Once they’re gone, they’re gone,” Campbell said. “I want to make sure we look at all the alternatives, and I don’t just want a building inspector or other non-elected official to make the final decision.”