At the West Ranch Town Council meeting on Wednesday night, a group of maybe 40 folks listened to the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority present its case to have an “at-risk youth” camp in Mentryville-Pico Canyon at the picnic grounds, aka Johnson Park. Did you know “at-risk youth” can be as old as 24?

All their words showed a wonderful program for city kids. Kids who didn’t know our mountains existed before. There was just one problem: The words fell on ears that listened but rejected them.

You see, the MRCA speaks trees, trails, critters and urban Los Angeles. Most of the folks in the room speak history, local community, and don’t really like Los Angeles. Remember, we are the place that wanted to break away from Los Angeles County and create Canyon County. The city of Santa Clarita was created to keep us from having to go to downtown Los Angeles for local government issues.

We like to be left alone and take care of our own. We really like to take care of our historic places and sites. Judging from some of the comments in the room, it was a case of, “The kids from urban Los Angeles would get to camp there; what about the kids from this valley?”

Don’t get me wrong. The program the MRCA has for at-risk kids is wonderful. It might even send them on a career path to work in parks and recreation or become a ranger. Almost everyone who spoke had the same thing to say: “Good program for anyplace but Mentryville.”

The MRCA has thousands of acres around this valley and around the San Fernando Valley that would be better suited for the program they proposed. Why not use that property?

Maybe Los Angeles County could keep some of the grant money and use it for our kids right here in the SCV. Imagine the Boys and Girls Club having a camping program in William S. Hart Park. Did you know there are six group campgrounds at Hart Park?

You know, before our county gives the MRCA – a state agency – grant money, maybe we should see a total accounting of funding for the entire MRCA. How do they get funded, and where does the money go? I know filming is a highly lucrative item for many folks here in the SCV. Heritage Junction charges $1,000 per day for buildings and grounds plus parking fees. I know the MRCA charges a lot more. How much? Where does the money go?

I had heard that if a film company uses the 13-room Pico Cottage and most of the parking lot in Mentryville, it costs about $8,000 per day. Last fall there was a production that was on site 21 days. Let me see: 21 times $8,000 equals $168,000. Where did it go? Malibu? Los Angeles River park project? Headquarters in Beverly Hills? It is our money, folks, and we have the right to know, and the MRCA has the obligation to tell us. One thing they’ve told us is that the money generated in Mentryville doesn’t stay there.

I’ve tried to find out the budget for the MRCA and for its lead agency, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, but alas, I can’t find it. Once again I have to say, as I’ve said before, “show us the real books,” folks. Every other state agency has to do so.

The MRCA has a lot of secrets. Budget? (They always claim they’re broke.) The kind of herbicide (aka weed killer) they use and deny they use in Towsley and Pico?

Those are just two of the questions we need answered. All of those plants on Mustard Hill in Mentryville didn’t die in such a pattern all by themselves.

If you want to know the budget for the county, you can get it on line. The same goes for the state of California. Stop by Santa Clarita City Hall and I’m sure they can show or give you a copy of the city budget.

MRCA web site … only lists grants to various parks. I couldn’t find income and sources of income.

Maybe those of us who heard the promises of the conservancy back in 1995 concerning Mentryville are just a little skeptical about what they say. You see, we were told Pico Cottage and the other buildings would be restored and opened to the public. Not many folks get to go into the buildings, excepting film crews.

If it weren’t for oil, our little valley wouldn’t have been much of anything but a huge farm for maybe another 50 years from when Newhall started in reality. Here are a few historical facts all y’all might not know:

The first commercially productive oil well west of Pennsylvania was Well No. 4 (CSO-4) in Mentryville-Pico Canyon. It also produced oil longer than any other oil well in the world. It furnished oil to the refinery on Pine Street in Newhall. That little relic of industrial strength, the Pioneer Oil Refinery, is the oldest surviving oil refinery in the world. Yes, the whole world. In fact, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers considers that little refinery one of the 10 best examples of pioneering engineering designs in the country. It comes in at No. 8.

So these folks from Los Angeles come up and have the unmitigated gall to tell us they are helping kids from urban L.A. in our California Historic Landmark. I don’t think they knew about the historic landmark status of Mentryville. I almost wonder if the people who came from the MRCA had ever been in Johnson Park.

The MRCA seems to do everything it can not to ask for help from us, the citizens of the SCV. They give us some parks and we thank them, but Heaven forbid we get to have any input as to what happens in those parks.

We want to help the MRCA. We want a say in what it is doing in our valley. If they won’t at least ask us, how can we know what they want? The MRCA is an agency of the state of California. It’s about time they acted like it and worked with us.

And the parking fee is stupid. The one in Pico Canyon and in Towsley, too. In case you don’t know, if you park on the east side of the MRCA lot in Towsley Canyon, you’re really on property of the city of Santa Clarita. Let your conscience be your guide in regard to the fee.

I hope they find another place for the camping program for the at-risk kids. Mentryville is just plain wrong. Maybe we can learn enough Los Angeles-Speak and hope the MRCA can learn enough SCV-Speak. Maybe a little communication would help a lot.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley, where he serves as executive director of the SCV Historical Society. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com. His older commentaries are archived atDManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].