EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : Fillmore Expediting Building Permits in Bid for Quick Recovery : Construction: City officials, businesses respond to disaster with urgency as cleanup crews begin work. Red Cross will begin finding temporary shelters for residents.

Brick by brick, cleanup crews started removing the rubble littering Central Avenue in Fillmore on Thursday as residents struggled to bring their town back to normal.

“It’s not just me; everybody wants to get back in business,” said Don Duddy, whose Central Avenue sewing-machine store was heavily damaged in Monday’s earthquake.

Duddy and other residents were already applying for construction permits at the city’s temporary building office at 340 Fillmore St.

“We’re moving at a pretty good pace,” said Stephen Stuart, disaster coordinator for Fillmore’s building and safety department. “It’s difficult and some people think it’s slow and they’re frustrated with the process, but we’re already in the recovery stage and it’s only Thursday.”

A quick recovery seemed to be on everybody’s mind.

City officials said they were expediting permits to rebuild and setting up temporary shelters for displaced businesses. The Red Cross said that by today they would start finding temporary homes for people still crowded into the two temporary shelters in town.

“That’s the way this town is,” said City Councilman Roger Campbell, pausing to clear the emotion welling up in his voice. “I’ve lost everything like a lot of other people. I’ve already had a contractor and architect to take a look at it and we’re going to start next week to rebuild. That’s the kind of resolve you have here.”

Businesses in town have responded with the same urgency, hiring contractors and builders to assess damage and make plans for rebuilding.

“Actually, I was retained Monday morning right after the quake,” said Bill Crouch, a structural engineer working with the Saticoy Lemon Assn.

“Right now we just want to make some temporary repairs so we can get goods out. We’ve got several million dollars worth of lemons in there and they’ve got to be processed in the next 30 days or they’re no good.”

Fillmore officials seemed most concerned about how much federal money will be available to help put their town back together.

“We can’t do it on our own; there’s got to be federal money or we won’t be able to do it,” City Manager Roy Payne said.

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Hundreds lined up at the federal disaster center at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church for loans to rebuild. Some came up with interim ways to reopen their businesses.

A destroyed medical clinic for the poor on Central Avenue will start seeing some patients today out of a 33-foot trailer that was expected to be parked along Santa Clara Street downtown. The trailer has one examining room and will be staffed by two doctors and two nurses.

Health officials said they are worried about the spread of infectious diseases in shelters, chronically ill patients who need regular treatment, and injuries as people sift through debris.

“I think some of the first patients at the trailer are going to be expectant women. That’s an extreme emergency at this time,” said Roberto Rojas, manager of Centro de Salud Familiar de Fillmore.

Clinic officials said that the trailer is only a temporary solution while they search for a short-term home and decide whether to rebuild their Central Avenue site.

The clinic sustained an estimated $750,000 in structural and equipment damage, city officials said.

While businesses and residents coped with disaster, a television crew kept to their schedule and filmed an episode of “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.”

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Men dressed in chaps and cowboy hats strolled to the set where horses and camels stood for the next scene. Rick McCallum, the producer, said he and his company had been through worse in their grueling film schedule, and only one day of shooting was missed since production began Monday.

For Fillmore, the quake is much more of a setback.

“It’s going to take some time,” City Manager Payne said. “The disruption in people’s lives and even some of their misery might continue. Our job is to get through this as fast as we can.”