MORE SLIDES: Returning to their mud-ravaged homes...

MORE SLIDES: Returning to their mud-ravaged homes before rains return to the region, La Conchita residents salvaged what they could carry Monday from their landslide-stricken community (B1) . . . As emergency crews braced for more showers and slides as early as tomorrow, county officials announced that federal and state aid would be coming to area residents. And the prospect loomed for another part of the hillside to collapse. As Robert Anderson, the county’s geologist, warned: “This is an unstable site.”

PUTTING OUT FIRES: It’s taken almost two years to finalize, but today the embattled Ventura County Fire Department will unveil a plan to correct its financial and administrative woes (B1) . . . The report is designed to serve as a road map for the 440-member department to overcome problems outlined in an independent audit. Among the recommendations: finalizing an affirmative action plan, studying the hiring of civilians for some jobs and upgrading the department’s communications network.

MORTAL BELOVED: The Conejo Valley Symphony’s beloved conductor and founder, Elmer Ramsey, has resigned after 30 years with the symphony (B1) . . . “It will be hard to imagine the symphony without him,” said Dorothy Schechter, who chairs the music department at California Lutheran University.

TALES OUT OF SCHOOL: As if some Simi Valley parents are not upset enough about the closure of one local elementary school, now comes word that an area realtor may have tried to cash in on the anxiety by telling parents of Mountain View students to sell because officials already decided that school will be closed . . . “THIS IS NOT TRUE!” Mountain View Principal Karyn Cryster told neighborhood residents in a recent newsletter. It is true, however, that the local school board will hear reports tonight at 6:30 on closing one of three elementary schools--Mountain View, Sycamore or Simi--because of budget woes and sagging student enrollment in the district.