RESIGNATIONS TO BRING NEW ELECTION.

Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer

AGUA DULCE - Soon after a town election, the resignations of two Agua Dulce Town Council members have prompted a special election next month.

Halfway through two-year terms, and just weeks since Agua Dulce's Dec. 8 town election, council members Jim Ducick and George Dyer resigned from the seven-member board, saying their decisions were unrelated to one another.

Dyer, who resigned several days following Ducick's Jan. 14 announcement, could not be reached for comment.

But Ducick said Tuesday that he stepped down halfway through his second term because of personal obligations to his family of three children, plus his aerospace instrumentation business.

``It came down to matters of priority,'' said Ducick, who also serves as president of the Acton-Agua Dulce school board in his second, four-year term.

Ducick said he plans to fulfill his school board term, but no longer is able to invest the time and research into the Town Council seat that the position deserves.

Santa Clarita Mayor Jo Anne Darcy, who also serves as field deputy to county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, credited Ducick with being instrumental in fighting an Azusa-based company's plans to mine 80 million tons of sand and gravel from nearby Soledad Canyon over a 20-year period. The county Regional Planning Commission in December issued a preliminary denial of Transit Mixed Concrete's project, but the project likely faces an equally tough appeals process before county supervisors and the federal Bureau of Land Management.

Ducick heavily researched the project on behalf of Agua Dulce and provided county and Santa Clarita officials with environmental information that aided them in opposing the project, Darcy recalled.

``I think that just shows you the intensity and dedication someone can give when they believe in something,'' Darcy said.

Ducick, who credited other council members with much of that research, said other priorities prevented him from again investing that time for the Town Council's fight.

The recent resignations leave five members - just enough for a quorum, officials said.

Agua Dulce officials said they expect to hold a special election for the Town Council vacancies around mid-February.

The election date, plus information on filing for candidacy, will be announced shortly, they said.

Located in unincorporated Los Angeles County territory, rural Agua Dulce is overseen by a Town Council that serves an advisory role to its governing agency, the county Board of Supervisors.