PEST-CONTROL BALLOTS TO BE SENT IN MAIL PROPERTY OWNERS TO VOTE.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

QUARTZ HILL - Election ballots will go out in the mail Friday to ask property owners in Quartz Hill, Rancho Vista and west Palmdale if they want to join the Antelope Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District.

Only property owners, rather than registered voters, will decide whether to levy $6.40 to $9 a year on themselves, starting with the tax bills that arrive in December, to pay for combating mosquitoes, which may be carrying West Nile virus, and other pests in their neighborhoods.

``If it passes, then we will start providing service this year. We won't wait until next year to do it,'' district manager Cei Kratz said.

Ballots must be returned by July 12. Results are expected to be announced at a July 26 district board meeting. The votes will be weighted by the amount of each property owner's assessment. A majority is needed.

The votes will be counted in two zones, essentially separated by the Palmdale city limits. The assessment could be approved in one area and rejected in the other.

There are about 7,000 individual pieces of property in the Rancho Vista zone inside Palmdale city limits, and there are about 6,000 parcels in the Quartz Hill zone outside city limits.

The assessment could be increased yearly by an amount equal to the consumer price index, officials said.

This is the second vote in two years among property owners in the area. They rejected joining the district in the last election, which occurred before the mosquito-borne West Nile virus arrived in Southern California.

No human cases of West Nile virus have been reported in the Antelope Valley, but two horses were sickened last year. The virus has been detected in birds this spring in Rosamond and at Edwards Air Force Base.

The virus last year infected more than 300 Los Angeles County residents, including 190 who became ill enough to be hospitalized and 13 who died. The human case closest to the Antelope Valley occurred in Saugus.

Run by a board appointed by county supervisors, the mosquito abatement district was established in 1958 to finance inspection for mosquito- breeding sites and killing of mosquito larvae in a 280-square-mile area covering most of Lancaster, parts of Quartz Hill, central and eastern Palmdale and farmland east of Lancaster.

Officials said they do not know why Rancho Vista was not brought into the district when the area - then farmland - was annexed to Palmdale more than 20 years ago. Rancho Vista is the most heavily populated of the areas proposed for annexation into the district.

Charles F. Bostwick, [phone]

chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com