Santa Clarita’s Cityhood Becomes Official : ‘Dignified Hoopla’ to Inaugurate County’s 85th City

With a great deal of pomp and circumstance, Santa Clarita will officially become Los Angeles County’s 85th city at a ceremony tonight at College of the Canyons in Valencia.

More than 2,500 people are expected to attend the 7:30 p.m. festivities, featuring music by three bands and three vocal soloists, a parade, presentations from county and state officials and the inauguration of Santa Clarita’s first City Council members.

“It’s a historic occasion and something that people have looked forward to for a long time,” said Mary Spring, who heads the 12-member committee that organized the event. “We hope it will be dignified, uplifting and a nice celebration of cityhood.”

Waited 25 Years

Connie Worden, spokeswoman for the Santa Clarita City Formation Committee, noted that many residents have waited more than 25 years for cityhood. “So we’re getting started with as much hoopla as possible,” she said.

The formation committee worked for two years to get the cityhood proposal on the Nov. 2 ballot, and voters overwhelmingly approved it. The successful cityhood campaign was the fourth in the Santa Clarita Valley since 1962.

The new city is 40 square miles and includes Newhall, Saugus, Valencia and most of Canyon Country. It has about 110,000 residents.

About 1,900 invitations to the inaugural ceremony were sent to local dignitaries, elected officials and representatives of the county’s 84 other cities. The invitation’s cover features the silhouette of one of the area’s prized oak trees, which residents long have fought to save.

Spring said the ceremony was designed to include as many members of the community as possible. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Roger W. Boren, a resident of the new city who started his career in Newhall Municipal Court, will swear in the five City Council members.

The bands playing for the festivities will be from the three local high schools--William S. Hart, Canyon and Saugus. The parade will feature a variety of youth groups. The Canyon High School Air Force ROTC Cadet Squadron will present the colors and escort City Council members to the stage. The Rev. William Hilton, an unsuccessful council candidate, will deliver the invocation.

The stage for the event was borrowed from Masters College in Newhall. Masters College also has lent the new city a vinyl tarpaulin to protect the floor of College of the Canyons’ gymnasium. Magic Mountain amusement park will provide special lighting and equipment for the ceremony.

Clyde Smyth, superintendent of the William S. Hart Union High School District, will serve as temporary presiding officer. Smyth will turn over a ceremonial gavel to Mayor-elect Howard P. (Buck) McKeon. The gavel was carved from the branch of one of the area’s centuries-old oak trees by Newhall resident Al Ackerman.

A slide show of scenes from the new city will be shown as guests are seated.

Spring and her committee have timed the ceremony to last exactly an hour. To make sure there are no hitches, a dress rehearsal of the program will be held at 4 p.m., Spring said.

Act on Contracts

A short business meeting will follow the inaugural ceremony. But the City Council will act only on contracts necessary to continue county-furnished services until July 1, McKeon said.

The remainder of the 51-item agenda will be held over until Wednesday, when the City Council holds its second meeting at 7:30 p.m. at Hart High School. Among topics the new council will tackle then will be a proposed garbage dump that the City of Los Angeles wants to put in Elsmere Canyon, on the city’s borders, and whether the new city will reimburse the county for services it will provide until July 1.

City formation committee members agreed to repay the county about $2.7 million for the services, although, by state law, the reimbursement is not required. However, Carl Newton, Santa Clarita’s acting city attorney, appeared before the Board of Supervisors last week to announce that city officials would fight the repayment in court.