[0] POPULAR PARK DIRECTOR RESIGNS.

Byline: Mary Beth Alexander Daily News Staff Writer

Studio City Recreation Center Director Jon Klay resigned Friday, just two months after neighbors rallied to keep him at their park.

Officials said Klay will be replaced Monday by Stonehurst Recreation Center Director Randy Kelly - the man with whom he was supposed to swap jobs in January. Protests by Studio City community members had prompted city parks officials to reconsider.

``I'm very sad,'' said Sandy Lavet, a parent who urged the city to allow Klay to remain at the park. ``My concern is, will the park ever be the same?''

Klay could not be reached Friday for comment.

City Councilman Mike Feuer, who also had urged parks officials not to go through with the transfer, said Klay had resigned voluntarily.

``We spoke. I think he feels as though the atmosphere under which he was working was getting more and more difficult, and it was a good time for him to seek other opportunities,'' Feuer said. ``It is a decision he has made he is not going to change.''

Klay had done a good job, Feuer said, expressing disappointment over the resignation.

``I think he's created a sense that the park is a center of community life,'' Feuer said.

Klay, who had headed the park for nearly six years, had been scheduled to switch jobs Jan. 22 with Kelly at the Stonehurst facility in Sun Valley.

But parents and children who use the Studio City facilities organized petition drives and phone campaigns asking city officials to allow Klay to remain at their community park. Parks officials agreed to review the transfer.

``It was all working so well. We wanted to fight for something that was working so well and felt so good,'' parent Shelly Gelber Sheiner said. ``Everyone that I have spoken to, they're very saddened by (Klay's resignation).''

Residents credited the 33-year-old director with developing a new roller hockey league, a summer day camp program and an expanded summer baseball program.