COUNTY PARK WORKERS PUT ON NOTICE.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - More than 50 employees at Castaic Lake and the Placerita Canyon Nature Center were notified this week that they could face layoff or reassignment as early as July 1 if the county cannot cover their salaries while the state budget is settled.

However, according to Los Angeles County officials, funding has already been set aside to keep the North County parks running - for Castaic Lake through mid-July, and for Placerita through August.

The notices came as activists completed a mailing campaign meant to pressure the Board of Supervisors to keep Placerita under county control, instead of relinquishing the park to the state in the face of a budget crisis.

``The notices are procedural as a part of County Code. The employees must receive these notices even though the funding is in place,'' said Tony Bell, a spokesman for county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

``We already know that Castaic and Placerita are going to stay open longer, but we needed to get the notices out timely,'' said Sheila Ortega, spokeswoman for the county Department of Parks and Recreation.

Officials for parks and recreation have recommended that the operation of the state-owned Castaic Lake and Placerita be turned back to the state due to a $4 million county budget shortfall. The total budget of the department is about $95 million.

Castaic Lake is one of the largest recreation lakes in the state water system and is used by more than 800,000 people a year. Placerita Nature Center has the largest list of programs for any natural area in the county system and hosts more than 40,000 visitors and 16,000 schoolchildren a year.

Placerita costs the county $300,000 per year to operate, while Castaic Lake costs the county about $2 million.

County officials say Castaic Lake and Placerita should be first in line to be cut because they are not on county land.

``Where you have ownership is your priority - we've been paying the way for those facilities for many, many years,'' Ortega said. ``Faced with today's realities, we have to go the direction that we have to go.''

But until the state budget is determined, the county cannot know the status of the parks, and thus Placerita and Castaic will be in limbo.

``We're continuing to work with the state to secure revenue to operate Castaic and Placerita,`` said Kathryn Leibrich, senior deputy for Antonovich. ``If they don't have the budget approved (by late July), we're going to have to cross that bridge when we come to it.''

Employees at Castaic Lake and Placerita were shocked by the notices, which they did not expect to come so soon - especially after hearing last week that Antonovich had secured funding for Placerita to remain open through August.

``I thought everything had been at least put on hold by two months and then I get this notice hand-delivered by two officials from the county,'' said Darrell Wanner, one of two full-time employees at the nature center. ``I think they're just covering their backsides.''

At the same time that county officials delivered the notices, the Santa Clarita chapter of the Sierra Club was busy distributing 5,000 fliers urging people to contest the county's decision to relinquish Placerita.

Activists worry that such action would make it virtually impossible to continue programs offered at the nature center due to the state's budget crisis, and that $1.9 million in grant money set aside for Placerita would be diverted to other county parks instead.

Ortega contends that, regardless of who operates Placerita, the grant money will be directed toward purchasing property adjacent to Placerita. And Steve Capps, a spokesman for the state Department of Parks and Recreation, said the state is hoping to keep Placerita open if it regains control of the park.

But Karen Pearson, founder of the local Sierra Club chapter, doesn't buy it.

``You know the state is not going to run Placerita; they have so many burdens already. They're running a horrible deficit - why would they take on an additional cost at this juncture?'' Pearson said. ``That's what's foolhardy about their plan to give it back to the state. It's like condemning it to death.''

Wednesday, about 150 students from elementary school to college tromped through the nature center, learning about the ecosystem of the pristine hills of oaks.

``It gives the kids an experience to be out in the mountains and see animals that they have never seen before,'' said Consuelo Beltran, a first- and second-grade teacher at Broadous Elementary School in Pacoima. ``It's the closest nature that there is to the San Fernando Valley.''

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color -- ran in SAC edition only) Kids from Broadous Elementary School in Pacoima examine a turtle shell at the Placerita Nature Center Wednesday. The center is in jeopardy of closing.

(2 -- ran in SAC edition only) The kids from Broadous stroll along one of Placerita's nature trails.

(3 -- ran in SAC edition only) A line forms for the kids from Broadous for the tour of the Placerita Nature Center.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer