Caltrans to Pay for Metrolink Station Guard : Moorpark: City officials applaud decision, saying they can’t afford to continue service that was started in March.

Caltrans will post a full-time security guard at the Metrolink train station in Moorpark for the coming fiscal year at no cost to the city, officials said Thursday.

The decision was welcomed by city officials, who said they could no longer afford to pay a security guard hired in March and credited with halting incidents of vandalism that occurred shortly after the lot opened last year.

“The timing is perfect, it couldn’t be better,” City Councilman John Wozniak said. “I think it gives the riders a much higher comfort level knowing that there is a guard there.”

The contract for the city-hired guard was scheduled to end next Wednesday. Despite concerns about keeping crime down at the station, City Council members had expressed reluctance to spend an estimated $50,000 a year on security at the station.

The council voted in March to jointly fund a security guard at the city’s Metrolink station with the Southern California Regional Rail Authority through this month, said Mary Lindley, assistant to the city manager.

The decision was prompted by vandalism attacks at the station starting late last year, when several cars were spray-painted and scratched.

However, the security agreement with the rail authority did not provide for any security funds after June 30, so the city was left to decide whether to absorb the cost for the coming fiscal year or discontinue the service.

Earlier this month, the council instructed Lindley to contact the California Department of Transportation to see if the state agency--which considers a portion of the Metrolink station a park-and-ride lot--would be willing to share security costs.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Lt. Geoff Dean, who heads up Moorpark enforcement, said that since the security guard began patrolling on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. there have been no reports of crime at the High Street station.

“The lots are very quiet,” Dean said. ‘I think that any time there is a presence of people, crime is reduced. Whether it be a security guard or anyone, the likelihood of crime being committed is reduced.”

Caltrans Senior Transportation Planner Terry Blank said the agency will pay to post a security guard at the Moorpark Metrolink station, and several other park-and-ride lots in Ventura and Los Angeles counties starting July 1.

Blank said the guards will be present eight hours a day and will carry radios to report any illegal activity to the Sheriff’s Department. The schedule for the Moorpark guard has yet to be determined.

The Simi Valley Metrolink lot is not considered a park-and-ride lot, and it will not be provided with security help from Caltrans, Blank said. He said security guards will be posted at two other city parking lots used more directly by Caltrans.

At Simi Valley’s Metrolink lot, where there have been incidents of vandalism and burglary, there has not yet been any move by the city to install security guards or any security other than making the lot a high priority with the Police Department, said Mayor Greg Stratton.

Since Jan. 1, there have been eight thefts from unlocked or open vehicles, 22 burglaries and six malicious mischiefs in the lot, police said.

“We have put special details on with the Police Department,” Stratton said. “We get . . . sporadic incidents. We’ll get a day or two of something and then send the guys out to watch and nothing happens.”

“It’s a pretty insignificant number, considering the volume of traffic,” Police Sgt. John Wilcox said. “We’ve worked it pretty heavily.”

That’s little consolation to David Schenefield, a Simi Valley resident who rides Metrolink to downtown Los Angeles about three times a week and has already had his Volvo burglarized twice.

Burglars smashed windows on Schenefield’s car in March and April, both times stealing the handset of his cellular phone and assorted other items. He says more security is needed at the station.

“It’s like a real weird, twisted relationship I have with Metrolink,” he said. “I love being able to sit there for an hour each way and not have to drive. But at the same time, there’s this pit that builds up in my stomach every time I have to get off the train and find my car.”