Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Funding Near for East Newhall Sheriff’s Station : Budget: The City Council tentatively OKs $148,000 for a substation. Final approval is expected June 28.

East Newhall residents, who have long complained about increasing crime and the scarcity of police services in their area, will probably get a sheriff’s substation soon.

The City Council has tentatively approved funding for the station, which will handle smaller incidents and coordinate local community policing efforts, said Michael Quinn, captain of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

“For the last couple of years we have been told that the people in the east Newhall area feel that they need more attention,” he said. “We have seen a rise in peddlers in the area, some gang activity (and) some drug activity.”

Many residents there don’t have cars, making it difficult to get to the main sheriff’s station about four miles away, Quinn said. Access to Spanish-speaking personnel has also been a concern.

The City Council allocated $148,000 to fund the salary and benefits for a deputy at the station, plus patrol car costs, record-keeping and supplies. The funding is contained in a draft of the city’s 1994-1995 budget approved Tuesday. The budget is scheduled to receive final approval June 28, and officials say it’s unlikely that revisions will be made to the law enforcement expenditures.

Bob Martin, owner of an auto parts store for the past 25 years in what is now a deteriorating business district, said many residents are afraid to go outside at night in east Newhall.

Recently, he said, a gang of youths smashed windows and burglarized stores for months in the area before sheriff’s officials finally arrested them.

“There would have been no such thing 10 years ago,” Martin said. “And (the youths) are all local people. At least the names I heard are local people.”

Martin said sheriff’s patrol cars in the neighborhood respond quickly to emergencies such as burglar alarms, but “the radio cars aren’t the same as someone you can stand on the street corner and talk to.”

A bilingual staff of one deputy, a community service officer and a handful of volunteers would be assigned to the substation if funding is approved, Quinn said. It would probably be open five days a week, including at least one weekend day.

“The community service officer and the volunteers would work in the station, and the deputy would use that as a base,” he said. The deputy would, he continued, “hopefully spend most of his time doing Neighborhood Watch, business patrols (and) minor investigations.”

The budget also allows for adding another deputy to the current four-member Career Offenders Burglary Robbery Apprehension (COBRA) team, which investigates gang crimes in all parts of the city. Sgt. Lee White, head of the COBRA team, said this would allow him to put anti-gang deputies on the street two nights a week.

“Lately, I haven’t had them out there probably more than an average of once or twice a month,” he added.

The city is trying to lease an abandoned furniture store near the intersection of Lyons Avenue and San Fernando Road for the substation. The building would eventually also house a community center, featuring such youth activities as a boxing program, a Head Start program and the Santa Clarita Valley Boys & Girls Club, said City Manager George Caravalho.

He said if the furniture store is leased, the substation could open within 30 to 60 days. The building would then undergo further renovations for the community center.

Caravalho said if the city is not successful in obtaining the furniture store, the opening of the substation and community center could be delayed for several months.