Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Youths Help Clear Park for $250,000 in Improvements : Recreation: California Conservation Corps members are helping prepare North Oaks site for the makeover.

Teen-agers are demolishing playground equipment at North Oaks Park in Canyon Country, but it’s for a good cause.

The young members of the California Conservation Corps. are clearing the way for $250,000 in new equipment and parking improvements, made possible by a 1992 voter-approved bond measure expected to provide about $540 million for park improvements in Los Angeles County.

Santa Clarita has only 10 parks to serve 140,000 residents, and some of the park areas are in need of extensive repairs. Improvements to North Oaks, where some of the playground equipment is three decades old, have been in the planning stages the past five years.

“A number of the parks in the valley have been identified as needing improvement,” said Wayne Weber, city park development supervisor. “We are currently at a park deficit. All of our facilities are being used heavily.”

Hundreds of Santa Clarita residents use North Oaks, situated on Camp Plenty Road, each week for city-run softball, swimming and other recreation activities. Hundreds of children cross the park weekdays on their way to and from nearby public schools.

*

The park will be receiving lighting improvements, an expansion of the parking lot from 20 to 36 spaces and new playground equipment, including slides, swings and a sand pit. New benches will also be installed for adults supervising the children at play.

Planned for another section of the park is a ski swing that simulates downhill skiing and other equipment expected to be used by teen-agers.

“What we’re trying to do is provide an area that the young adults will want to go to,” Weber said. “It’s trying to bridge that gap, that’s always difficult to do, to keep teen-agers interested.”

Installation of the new equipment is scheduled to begin in late January and take about two months. Sections of the park will be fenced off during construction.