Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Park’s Neighbors Are Asked to Chip In : Santa Clarita: City has leased the Bouquet Canyon site from the county. Now it is urging residents to play an active role in its maintenance.

A $1-a-year lease on 10 acres with a view may seem like a deal. But Santa Clarita officials were wary when they agreed to acquire Bouquet Canyon Park for that price.

After all, a park is not just a park. It’s also a potential nuisance, said Rick Putnam, the city’s parks, recreation and community services director.

But rather than allow the hilly expanse to be closed, city officials agreed to lease the park from Los Angeles County. Now they are asking the public to help maintain it.

At a meeting Wednesday, city officials will ask neighbors of the park for their ideas on what to do with the acreage, officially transferred to the city Nov. 22. Along the way, they will ask residents to perform some basic tasks of running the park, from patrolling the grounds to trimming the grass.

“We want the community to feel that it’s theirs,” said Adele Macpherson, Santa Clarita’s emergency preparedness coordinator and organizer of the meeting. “We want them to feel that it is an extension of their back yards.”

Bouquet Canyon Park at the northeast edge of town was one of 10 parks transferred from the county to local jurisdictions last fall. The county said it needed to cut down on park maintenance costs.

The transfers were part of the county’s gradual shift toward providing only the most essential public safety services in the wake of recent fiscal problems. But several cities were lukewarm, at best, to the prospect of shouldering the county’s financial cast-offs.

Elsewhere in the state, counties have found that parks were items they couldn’t even give away as local cities sought to deal with their own fiscal problems.

Despite a widespread perception that parks are lacking in Santa Clarita, city officials weighed the drawbacks for months before finally agreeing to lease Bouquet Canyon Park.

The city has a $2-million annual budget for maintaining its 10 parks, Putnam said. That budget has not changed substantially since the city agreed to take over the Bouquet Canyon site, which alone costs about $50,000 a year to run.

So far, Putnam said, the city has stretched its funds to include upkeep of grounds, lights and irrigation at the park. But to ensure that the park doesn’t fall into disuse, city officials say neighbors need to take action to start their own beautification and recreation programs.

Public enthusiasm for keeping the park open has been high, Macpherson said. At a public meeting before the transfer, more than 50 people turned out to say that they supported keeping the park open.

Putnam said city officials are hoping that the meeting will, at the very least, promote interest in the park. A park that is well-used is easier to maintain and less likely to fall victim to vandals, he said.

Beyond that, the city wants to extend its “Park Partners” program to Bouquet Canyon. The program was begun by neighbors of Begonias Park six months ago after that park was marred by graffiti. It recruits neighbors to walk the grounds and become acquainted with the youngsters who use the park.

Wednesday’s meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room of Bouquet Canyon School, 28110 Welston Drive.