Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Pacific Palisades resident Al Werker has provided the latest example of how ‘the squeaky wheel gets the grease’ when it comes to dealing with government bureaucracy. After four years of dogged determination, he has facilitated a site cleanup and landscaping at Castle Rock beach, the northernmost beach at Will Rogers State Beach, just north of Sunset Boulevard. After extensive beach-site renovations along Will Rogers in 2007, L.A. County officials said that the strip of land at Castle Rock was completed. Werker disagreed, pointing out that the original entry to the parking lot had been left vacant, broken up and eventually filled with trash. The lifeguard tower had a doorway that opened blindly onto the stairway below. There was no signage on the bathrooms and the dirt pathway from the pedestrian bridge to the bathrooms was overgrown with weeds and strewn with litter. Weekly, Werker called County officials, who told him the land didn’t belong to the County, but after a map proved it did, County workers cleaned up the area and changed the door to the stairs. Two years later they added a sidewalk that ran along PCH from the Castellammare overpass to the new bathrooms. Werker still insisted upon landscaping, but the County told him there was no money. So he contacted local landscape architect Kelly Comras and asked her to design a planting plan. The Palisadian told him, ‘Who will take care of it? You first need a maintenance plan.’ After weekly calls from Werker, who wouldn’t take no for an answer, Comras not only created a plan, but wrote grants (with Doug McCormick) and received $750 from the Junior Women’s Club and $2,000 from the Garden Club. Comras met with County officials in the spring of 2010. They told her, ‘We have no money, no men and no supplies,’ and then added, ‘We can’t help you at all.’ Comras, who had recently worked with McCormick on a landscaping project at Fire Station 23 (corner of Sunset and Los Liones Drive), was undeterred. She asked the retired Panavision executive to take charge of maintenance at Castle Rock and he agreed to volunteer one or two hours a week for the next 10 years. McCormick a group of fellow volunteers, including John Stabley, Lew Whitaker, Muriel Janes, Reuell Sutton and, of course, Werker, began meeting every Tuesday at 10 a.m. to weed and plant. Although the County had said it couldn’t help, District Manager Carlos Zimmerman arranged for some supplies (including bags and tools) and scheduled site visits by County workers to coincide with the volunteers. He also found a way to apply men/women signage on the bathrooms, paint necessary areas, repair the limited irrigation system and clean up graffiti. ’In these dire times it was amazing the response we got from the County,’ Comras said, and McCormick added: ‘It seems that when they saw we were willing to volunteer to work there, it had an impact on them. They knew how important it was to us.’ ’Everyone has put in a little time, money, planning or equipment,’ Comras said. ‘All of a sudden we have a garden that hasn’t cost that much, but is a tremendous benefit.’ The planting plan was not easy, Comras said, because ‘It’s not what I would have designated if I had started in the beginning.’ For example, a few flax plants had already been planted around the bathrooms. An additional problem arose when she discovered that the sand dunes immediately north of the bathrooms were clay fill. The County has agreed to scoop out the fill and replace it with sand. Additionally, the landscaping plan needed to take in account that most people viewing it would be driving at 40 mph on PCH. ’The area needed to be designed to be seen at that speed, to determine its success,’ said Comras, who added bright magenta colors of rock purslane to contrast with the bold texture of the flax. The volunteer group will also plant a bank of prostrate acacia in the area once the fill is replaced, along with agave and dymondia. Comras also designed the area so that it can be maintained by workers who are not trained as gardeners. ’When our group’s donated money runs out this fall,’ Comras said, ‘we’ll re-assess.’
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
