By MARTY SUGARMAN Special to the Palisadian-Post One heart, one way. Jacob Berl Schwartz led a good life and will always be remembered as a person who never created harm or problems to others. He died March 15 at his Pacific Palisades home at the age of 78. A truly wise man who realized that true happiness came from a peaceful and calm disposition and abiding by a clear and definite moral code, Berl led a good and productive life and made every precious moment count. He always appeared content and happy; he was grateful for what he had instead of being unhappy for what he didn?t have. Born on May 5, 1926, in Los Angeles, Berl spent his childhood years in the Los Feliz area and attended Marshall High School. He served in the Army during World War II, but was physically discharged after one year. Later he received a B.A. in history from the University of Southern California. Last May, Berl lost his loving wife of 50 years, Brenda. Her depature left an enormous gap in his life. They had shared many happy years together, and, most importantly, both underlined the importance of instilling a strong moral conscience in their five children (Jeff, Margie, Susan and twins Karen and Lulu) and eight grandchildren. After Brenda?s death, all of Berl?s children stepped in to insure his well being. Besides reading history books, Berl?s other passions in life included playing the piano, strumming the ukelele, doing crossword puzzles, and participating in beach volleyball games. He loved going to Will Rogers State Beach, notwithstanding the weather. He said repeatedly, ?Once you get sand between your toes, you?ll never entirely get it out.? His love for the beach was inherited by all of his children. Berl?s knowledge of music was staggering. He was truly an amateur musicologist. He knew every song title and its lyrics prior to 1960. I recall on many occasions when he gave me a lift somewhere, he would be listening to some scratchy recording of music from the ?40s. A longtime Palisadian, Jacob Berl Schwartz will be deeply missed by all who knew him as an honorable person who was mindfully aware of other people?s feelings and needs. He did not live exclusively for himself. He gave himself first to his family and circle of friends. Bill Plant, a close friend for 48 years, can never recall hearing a negative word spoken about Berl. Another old friend, Shap, added: ?Berl was always there when I needed someone to talk to. He was a very good listener and had the knack of putting you back on the right road.? Funeral services were held Tuesday at Hillside Memorial.
David Ferguson, a resident of Pacific Palisades since 1997, died on March 8 at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica after a short but valiant battle with colon cancer. He was 53. Born in the Highlands of Scotland, David grew up in Inverness and attended Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and South Bank University in London. He graduated as a Royal Chartered Surveyor, then moved into architecture and became partner at Peter Bell & Associates in London. In 1980, while touring the United States, David visited Aspen, Colorado, where he met his wife, Barbara. By 1983, he had moved to Los Angeles and was quickly making an impact in the real estate world. His architectural work at Kamnitzer & Cotton Architects and D2 Designs, his role as vice president of development at Thomas Safran & Associates and his leadership as executive director of the Corporation for Better Housing enabled him to design and create nearly 4,000 affordable rental units throughout Southern California during his 22-year career. Always ready with a joke and a wink, David was at all times charming, patient and humorous’traits that earned him many hearty friendships and lasting business associates. Honoring his European roots, David worked and played hard and could occasionally be found wearing a kilt. His fond memories of Aspen recently inspired the family to purchase a vacation home in Park City, Utah, where he spent a few wonderful seasons skiing, hiking, and befriending all who met him. He is survived by his wife, Barbara; daughter Emma and son Kyle; his father Adam; brother Donald (wife Annette) and sister Catherine (husband Alan). To honor his love of the beach and Southern California in particular, and in place of a funeral service, David’s life was celebrated at the Jonathan Beach Club in Santa Monica on March 15.
Writer Jacqueline Brody and her mother Cindy wave victoriously after reaching the summit of 12,945-ft Banner Peak in the Sierra Nevada.
By JACQUELINE BRODY After five months of training, running with my parents at 6 a.m. before school, and long hikes on weekends in the Santa Monica Mountains, we were ready. My mom and I were on our way to climbing Banner Peak. Banner Peak is near Mammoth Lakes, California, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Our first day, we started at the Agnew Meadows trailhead in Devil’s Postpile National Monument. We hiked seven miles through the San Joaquin Valley up to Ediza Lake, our campsite. Since our campsite was so close to the lake, mom and I could sit by the water, draw pictures and whittle wood. We also made sundials, moon-dials and compasses. Did you know you could make a compass out of a straight pin, pocketknife, water and hair? At 4 a.m., with cold winds and a full moon, we set off up Ediza Creek towards Banner. Our headlamps helped us see where to step. We started by hiking up huge boulders that went on and on. During this time my mom realized she had lost her GPS that my dad had given her. That was good for me when later I lost my new pocketknife and sunglasses (I didn’t get in as much trouble). We finally got to one of the three glaciers on the mountain. As we got closer to it, I got more worried about having to climb it. Of course we would. Anyway, it was extremely windy on the glacier. It was like a huge wind tunnel. We had to wear a harness and climb up with crampons and ice axes. A couple of times the wind made us lose our balance and we had to dig our ice axes into the snow to keep from slipping down the glacier. At the top of the glacier, the saddle, we patted ourselves on the back and started our final climb to the peak. I thought we had finished the big boulder climbing earlier, but no, there were more boulders. At 12,000 feet I was getting really worn out. The higher we went, the bigger the boulders got. Soon we had to wear our harnesses and rock-climb a bit. My mom said it was only Class 3 climbing, which seemed pretty nasty to me. After a long time through rocks, rocks and more rocks, we made it to the summit! We were on the top of Banner Peak at 12,945 feet. Wondering on the way up if it would be worth it was pointless; the view was beautiful. I’m normally not afraid of heights, but at the top I wouldn’t stand up. My mom had to convince me to stand up for a picture. But you shouldn’t blame me; you probably would have felt the same thing. We wrote our name, date, age and inspirations in the Sierra Club ledger stashed in a metal ammunition box. I was anxious to start down the mountain because we were technically only halfway done with the day. On our descent I got my energy back. I also got a little hyper. We belayed down the glacier. My mom and I were so scared we found that singing Sheryl Crow songs helped distract us from our fears. We took a different route on the way back with fewer boulders. Yeah! It was fun to walk down and across the slippery rocks along the creek. Once I slipped and landed on my bottom. Other than that, it was probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. There were mini-waterfalls, moss and pretty yellow flowers. Just below the creek was a small glacier. Time for butt glissading! That was really fun. After getting back from our big trip we had hot cocoa and dinner; we read and then went to sleep. I learned a lot of things while climbing the mountain. I learned about sun cups (depressions in the snow surface casued by sun or warm, gusty wind), crevasses and berkshrund (a larger crevass). I learned that you don’t stink too badly after five days with no bath. I also learned how to work very hard towards a goal and how wonderful it is to accomplish that goal. I can’t believe I did it. I climbed Banner Peak!!! (Jacqueline Brody is 12 years old. She lives in the Palisades Highlands with her parents, Cindy and Mike, and her three sisters, Katherine, Madeline and Caroline. She is in the sixth grade at Calvary Christian School and is continuing her love of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by skiing on the Mammoth Mountain Ski Team on the weekends.)
Author Harriet Wyre poses with Litang chieftain in Tibetan Szechuan.
By HARRIET KIMBLE WRYE This trip was a pregnant combination of awe-full and its close cousin awful. After returning from three peripatetic years traveling the globe, my husband and I had settled into our beloved Castellammare home of over 30 years and expunged the vile vibes of the Tenant from Hell by burning a lot of sage, refinishing floors and repainting. Forever uncured, though, the travel bug bit us once again when we heard about a wild tribal horse festival in the remotest corner of Tibetan Szechuan China, and so in July off we went. We flew from L.A. to Hong Kong to Kunming province in Southwestern China to spend a few days exploring the region’s fantastic geology and ethnic richness. Then heading north to Szechuan with our plane’s wings dipping dizzyingly close to the peaks, we dropped into the enchanted hidden Himalayan valley of Dzong Zhien, reportedly the mythical Shangri La of World War II fame. Several bumpy, winding days of four-wheeling took us onto the Himalayan plateau to witness an awesome annual Tibetan tribal gathering, the Litang Horse Festival. In this remote Tibetan area annexed by Red China, feudal costumes hidden from the Red Chinese takeover were donned for days of dancing. Men and women wore fur boots, tiger skin wraps, pendulous coral beads and hammered gold medallions while hundreds of gaily decorated Tibetan ponies and their fearless riders thundered across the plain, competing in races, stunts and archery feats, all at recklessly high speed. We saw more than one near-fatal accident, and one man dragged to death by his pony. Caught in a groundswell of Tibetan spectators, I was nearly clubbed to the ground by Chinese militia as the ages-old antipathy of the Chinese for the Tibetans surfaced. Following the festival, Jim and I set out with our Tibetan guide on a week-long trek into the remote Gorge of the Dongwang River, a tributary of the Yangtze. In this isolated but breathtaking part of Tibetan Szechuan, it turns out, adventure trekking is still practically unheard of, so we basically donned our hiking boots to become our guide’s outback guinea pigs. The first day’s ill-planned trek covered over 20 precipitous miles along a narrow gorge, with an altitude gain of over 5,000 feet. After 11 hours on the rugged trail, we were so done in when we reached the village where we were to pitch our tent on the flat roof of the village headman’s house that we begged just to fall into our sleeping bags sans supper and crash for the night. It occurred to me, however, to ask where the toilet was. (In China that means ‘Where’s the slit in the floor?’) Our host motioned to an anteroom off the roof. We went to check it out, Jim leading the way. I watched helplessly as the earthen roof collapsed under my husband and he fell three stories into, yes, the Tibetan toilet. Terrified that he might have been killed, I screamed out to him’and in vintage humor, Jim moaned back from the bottom of the pit, ‘Well, now you can really call me shithead.’ The fall netted three broken ribs, a badly torqued foot and no ordinary means for evacuation. After he was rescued, codeine allowed him fitful sleep, and in the morning we got to see how a true village works. Our host summoned all the strong young men for a pow-wow that resulted in a rather comically rustic litter. Fortunately we had more codeine, as broken ribs are very painful, especially as Jim had to be roped onto this litter of unplaned saplings. Twelve men formed three teams of four to take turns carrying him back out the same rugged 20 miles, while I begged for a mule which was only reluctantly proffered. (I later discovered why. No one in the village’s memory had ever dared ride an animal along that sheer gorge.) Eleven hours of alternating rain and sun later, our guides, the 12 men carrying Jim on his litter, and my mule and I dragged to the trailhead. From there we jostled seven hours by Jeep through the night to the ‘hospital’ in Shangri La’and the only available treatment of prayer and poultices, a noble tradition except when you require more. It took us another week for Jim to be able to tolerate the 23-hour plane trip home, where an orthopedist and an MRI diagnosed the trauma as a serious ‘Lis Franc’ dislocation requiring surgery to freeze the joints on the top of the left foot. Literally screwed, he spent 12 weeks on crutches. God doesn’t close a door without opening a window, and this catastrophe has opened our pores so wide we feel the whole universe coming in. We’re more grateful for our lives and medical care here, yet still uncured of the venomous bite of the travel bug that brings the awful and the awesome so poignantly into our lives. Initially the prognosis for hiking again with this rare injury was bleak, but Jim has been granted another of his nine lives which we recently celebrated with a five-mile hike in Temescal Canyon. (Dr. Harriet Wrye, a psychologist/psychoanalyst practicing here, and her husband Jim Wheeler, a retired commercial banker, have lived in Pacific Palisades for around 30 years. Their son, Gabriel, is a filmmaker in L.A., and their daughter, Ariel, is a bilingual elementary teacher in Echo Park. Both graduated from Palisades High. Harriet and Jim are inveterate adventure travelers, having climbed Kilimanjaro and peaks in the Andes and Himalayas, and immersed themselves in remote tribal cultures in Borneo, Irian Jaya, and the Amazon rainforest. Dr. Wrye is the author of ‘The Narration of Desire’ and numerous psychoanalytic articles.)
Actress Mary McDonnell Throws First Pitch of Season
Even at 19 months, Rose Morris ate her fair share of pancakes while actress Mary McDonnell, forced inside by rainy weather, tossed the first pitch of the Palisades Pony Baseball Association Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
The threat of rain last Saturday morning forced the Palisades Pony Baseball Association’s opening day pancake breakfast to be moved indoors, but that did not dampen the enthusiasm of the event one bit. Hundreds of players and their families packed the small gym at the Palisades Recreation Center to celebrate a local tradition that began 51 years ago and remains as strong as ever thanks to countless volunteers, coaches and sponsors’many of whom were recognized by Mike Skinner, who is in charge of fundraising for maintenance of the ‘Field of Dreams’ complex that the PPBA used for the first time last season. ‘I want to give a big thanks to Lisa St. John, who organized this entire event,’ Skinner told an attentive audience in his opening statement. ‘I also want to recognize Bob Benton, who has been our Commissioner now for 15 years now. He has given this organization an unbelievable amount of his time and and is a huge asset to the community.’ Shortly thereafter, ticket coordinator Mary Elizabeth Lutz announced that PPBA players raised $500 more than last year. With the help of his brother, Ryan, Chase Pion raised $775 and earned a week’s worth of lessons at the Pepperdine Baseball Camp this spring. Other players who raised significant amounts were Jacob Parria, Chris Murch, Evan Green, Brett Elder, Drew Pion, Tyler Newman, Max Margolis, Oliver Levitt, Joe Rosenbaum, Jack Hurst, Preston Clifford and Charlie and Chad Wyman. Lutz also thanked PPBA’s corporate sponsors for their support and David Kloser, author of the recently published ‘Stepping up to the Plate,’ who is donating 50 percent of the book sales to the organization’s field maintenance fund. A brief introduction by Skinner brought actress Mary McDonnell to the stage for the first pitch. After tossing the ball right down the middle to Bronco Oriole Evan Abraham, McDonnell threw her hands in the air, earning a thunderous ovation from the crowd. ‘It is such an honor and a thrill for me to do this,’ said McDonnell, who currently portrays a President on the show ‘Battlestar Galactica’ but is best known for her role opposite Kevin Costner in the movie ‘Dances with Wolves.’ ‘One of the coaches, Hugh Dodson, coaches my sons’ flag football and basketball teams and he asked if I wanted to do it.’ McDonnell and her husband, Randle Mell, have lived in the Palisades for 13 years, ever since they rented a home here for four months during the filming of the movie ‘Grand Canyon.’ ‘What I love most about living here is that parents take care of each other’that’s gold,’ McDonnell said. ‘That makes such a difference. This community is so special. Sometimes I don’t leave for days.’ Brett Elder’s brother, Patrick, sang the National Anthem, after which players took to the fields for their first games of the 2005 season. Although rain cancelled games in the afternoon, Pinto and Bronco games were completed in the morning. In the Pinto Division, the Dodgers beat the Phillies 9-4 and in the Bronco Division, the Braves and Cardinals tied 4-4. Kevin McKenzie of the Braves scored the tying run in the sixth inning on a double to center field by James Ondaatje. Cardinals pitcher then threw a strikeout to end the Braves’ threat. Evan Meister held the Cardinals scoreless in the fourth and fifth innings and Matt Demongenes did the same in the final inning.
Canyon Charter School students sprinted into Spring Break with the annual Olympics Day held last Friday. Despite the gray skies, the mood was jubilant. An opening ceremony kicked off the event. This year’s theme was sportsmanship. Each class paraded around and shared their colorful banners with such ideas as ‘unity’ and ‘there is no ‘I’ in team.’ According to Principal Carol Henderson, one family actually changed their vacation plans because their children could not think of missing Olympics Day. ‘It was really awesome today,’ she said. ‘The gods were looking out for us because we beat the rain. Once again, the spirit and enthusiasm shone through reflecting our theme of sportsmanship and working as a team.’ After the pep rally, it was time to run. The object is for the children to do their best, while running around the grass field in 10 minute intervals. ‘Let’s Get It Started’ by the Black Eyed Peas and other loud rocking beats blared across the playground to keep the energy level pumping. Three classes participated at the same time on two different tracks. One was 90′ x 40′ for grades K-2 while the other was 120′ x 60′ for grades 3-5. On average, those on the smaller track run nearly 20 laps, while the upperclassmen hit stride at 15. Coach Joey Medaglia worked really hard to train the student body. ‘I had less time to prepare them this year,’ he explained. ‘Olympics Day came along sooner and we lost valuable practice because of all of the rain. The kids gripe about running for time, but that is how they learn what is expected of them at an event like this.’ Everyone got an Olympics Day t-shirt, a No. 1 medal to take home along with a Popsicle and water to cool off. Of course, sometimes the kids got silly with the bottled water. One teacher had to tell her class to stop squirting it over their heads and Medaglia told them to move that action to the field. ‘We had so much fun, but the next day my friend Casey and I were so sore’our necks and backs hurt so much that we could barely walk,’ shared fifth-grader Warner Hiatt. His mom, Debbie, added, ‘They were like two little old men complaining, but they said it was worth the pain.’ Olympics Day is not only about physical fitness. It is also a successful school fundraiser organized by a committee of a dozen parents chaired by Judy Bennett. ‘Olympics Day is always a huge success because the kids really enjoy it,’ she observed. ‘They are out there running their little hearts out. Joey really trains them well and they love the friendly competition.’ Miss Miyake’s kindergarten class brought in the most pledges and won a Jamba Juice Party. Plus the engraved Olympics Day Cup gets to reside in her classroom until next year. The top three pledge earners which have not been determined yet will receive an iPod mini for first place, a Schwin Stingray Scooter for second place and a $75 gift certificate to Broadway Gymnastics for third place. ‘Everybody is a winner for participating,’ Medaglia said. ‘Many of the kids found it within themselves to do better than they ever thought they could. That makes me really proud of them.’
Pitching and defense figured to be the elements that would carry the Palisades High baseball team to its second consecutive Western League championship this season and both were on display in Woodland Hills last Tuesday when senior David Bromberg threw the first no-hitter of his high school career in the Dolphins’ 11-0 rout of Taft. Bromberg (1-0) struck out seven and walked one in a game shortened to five innings by the 10-run mercy rule. Palisades also played quality defense behind him’something it had failed to do in Bromberg’s previous start at San Fernando, where errors led to each of the Tigers’ runs. In addition to his stellar outing on the mound, Bromberg had two hits and drove in three runs at the plate. Short stop Dylan Cohen singled, doubled and tripled as Pali poured it on in the middle innings. Palisades (4-3) followed its shutout of Taft with a 13-1 rout of Crenshaw at George Robert field the next day. Cohen hit a three-run home run in the fourth inning, and Bromberg hit a three-run homer of his own in the sixth. Cohen added a single and a double and finished with five RBIs and three runs scored while Bromberg singled in a run and scoring twice himself. Turhan Folse struck out nine and walked three over four innings to earn the victory. Palisades played in the Fresno Tournament Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and opens league play Monday against University.
Two local girls earned All-Olympic League first-team honors for their contributions on the Brentwood varsity soccer team this season’freshman forward Amanda Lisberger and senior midfielder Nicki Maron. Lisberger set a new school record for freshmen by tallying 17 goals and eight assists in 21 games while Maron, a four-year starter and two-time team captain added six goals and eight assists as the Eagles reached the CIF playoffs. Friends and neighbors, Lisberger and Maron are both products of the local AYSO program (Region 69) and subsequently became charter members of the Westside Breakers Soccer Club. Maron stayed with the Breakers through her under-17 year, earning most valuable player honors in the 2001 Celtic Cup. Two years later, her team finished atop the gold division of the Coast Soccer League. Lisberger scored 41 goals in two seasons with the Westside Breakers before joining FRAM, a Palos Verdes-based Coast Soccer League team that went on to reach the semifinals of the Walt Disney Showcase in Orlando, Florida.
Bob Benton, embattled owner of Bentons, The Sport Shop, with his general manager/buyer of 20 years, Dottie Henkle, who raised her four children here in the Palisades. Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
After nearly a year of warnings from the landlord, Swarthmore merchants began learning the grim reality Monday: If they elect to renew their leases this spring, their rent will nearly double. Three representatives from Palisades Partners, a multi-family trust that owns 18 of the 22 retail and commercial properties on the 1000 block of Swarthmore, met with four of the business owners at one-hour intervals Monday to announce terms of the new five-year leases (which replace month-to-month leases). Most rents will jump from about $2.50 to about $4.50 a month, plus about 50 cents a month for ‘triple net’ (a payment for all utilities plus a percentage of property taxes, insurance and maintenance costs). Trustees John Wilson, Bob Stelzl and John Watkins held their meetings at a table outside Mort’s Deli, close to the front window of the vacant Billhauer-Sato Chiropractic office, one of their properties. The window was plastered with 50 ‘SAVE OUR VILLAGE’KEEP THE RENTS REASONABLE’ signs that had been hand-colored by shoppers at Sunday’s farmers market. Asked why they chose to meet in such a public location, one of the trustees told the Palisadian-Post: ‘We were trying to make a statement, loud and clear, that we’re not intimidated.’ The trustee, who spoke for publication only on the condition that he not be identified, added: ‘We talked to the tenants last year and told them this was going to happen. We thought it was fair to let them them know things were going to change, and give them a year to determine if they could adjust to the higher rents.’ On Monday, the trustees met with Katie O’Laughlin of Village Books, kids’ clothier Ivy Greene, and Marice McCrory-Irwin, her sister Anne and her brother Martin of Michelle International and Palisades Beauty Supply. Meetings with other Swarthmore merchants will resume next Monday. These businesses include Mort’s Deli, Palisades Playthings, The Prince’s Table, Bentons Sporting Goods, Roy Robbins, Baskin-Robbins, Wells Fargo and three restaurants’Dante’s, Terri’s and ‘ la Tarte. Owners of the new Boca Woman store, who paid for a complete remodeling of the former Video 2010 space, already have a five-year lease. Three other storefronts owned by Palisades Partners remain empty, including the former Emerson-LaMay Cleaners and Palisades Camera. ‘They have every right to be businessmen,’ said O’Laughlin, who opened her popular bookstore in July 1997, ‘but this is a significant jump’a pretty dramatic change in the situation with no change in everybody’s shopping habits. They didn’t put any deadline on signing the lease, but I assume they are not going to sit around now that they’ve got the ball rolling. I have to get out my calculator and figure out what it would mean [to renew].’ Ivy Greene, a Palisades resident who has owned her 950-sq.-ft. store since 1995, said: ‘It’s scary, but I’ll find a way to come up with the money. I think the owners really do want to make the street look nice [with upgraded storefronts and new paint jobs], so I’ll figure out a way to stay here. My customers are very supportive.’ Martin McCrory said he and his sisters face ‘a major problem’ with the new lease figures”with triple net, we’re talking about a doubling of our rent. But I’m hopeful that further negotiations can be held and an amicable agreement can be reached.’ He added that all the other businesses ‘will be seriously affected by the situation. Whether they will all be in a position to stay, I can’t say.’ Meanwhile, Bob Benton, owner of Bentons Sporting Goods since 1981 and a former Chamber of Commerce president, continues to await a resolution of his lease negotiations. After Palisades Partners rejected his latest proposal on March 8, he told the Palisadian-Post: ‘If we can’t resolve this, somehow, and I can’t find another location in the Palisades, I guess I will go out of business.’ This unanticipated admission by a popular and successful local businessman triggered the SAVE OUR VILLAGE signs and an outpouring of letters to the Palisadian-Post in support of Benton’s position. But Tuesday night, he admitted the situation remained rather discouraging. ‘So far, it looks like they’re playing hardball. But I’m still hoping they will make me a deal. After 23 years here, you would think they would want to keep some semblance of the town’s tradition on this street. Business is business, and the owners have a right to increase the rent, but it should be reasonable. They shouldn’t make good people go away. Nobody has ever heard of rent increases like this.’ Benton is seeking a lease in the $4 area, up from $2.50. Said one of the three representatives of Palisades Partners on Tuesday: ‘Our position with Bob is that our offer is there, he knows what we want. If he’s smart, he’ll stay there and try to adjust. He has a tremendous business and if he spent more time on his business plan, he could expand that business. He has put a lot of effort into the store and he’s built a tradition. I would hate to see it end.’ The spokesman continued, ‘I like to see the same old thing on Swarthmore, day and in and day out, but the reality is, times change, the community changes. You have to have a good mix on the street, and the mix is not dictated by the store owners’it’s dictated by the people who consume the product. We offered Bob a downsize, and we offered him another good location at about the same rent, but the issue still comes down to money. That’s just an unfortunate aspect of life today.’
For decades, park agencies have looked with envy at the coastal valley stretched between the Santa Monica Mountains in Calabasas, a 588-acre parcel that until now has eluded public purchase. Now owing to the confluence of a willing seller, unanimous government support, and a herculean fundraising effort, the property will be acquired as parkland. In a turnabout last year, the present owners, Soka University, agreed to sell, setting the price at $35 million with an April 15 deadline. Called by many the heart of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the site is unusual because so much of it is so flat, says Steve Harris, Mountain Restoration Trust executive director’the agency that coordinated the community-support part of the funding puzzle. About 100 acres have no more than a 5 percent grade, according to Rorie Skei, chief deputy director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, who helped negotiate the sale. With existing buildings, including dormitories and the historic Gillette ranch house, the possibilities for public amenities are broad. ‘The park agencies will not have an immediate opening to the general public,’ Skei said, adding that Soka University will lease back the property for three years while transferring activities to its campus in Aliso Viejo. ‘Through the planning process with all the parties we can flesh out what kinds of permanent uses will be in place, who will manage what, and if there will be a transfer of ownership from the Conservancy to State Parks or the National Park Service.’ In discussing the ownership question, Skei was referring to the complex mix of federal, state, county, city and private money that was cobbled together in just six months. The chief negotiating agency, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, contributed $10 million from Los Angeles County, followed by funds from state parks, the state wildlife conservation board, coastal conservancy, the cities of Calabasas and Agoura, Proposition A funding, plus significant support from over 100 individuals and 18 community organizations, including the Temescal Canyon Association which committed $5,000. ‘It’s amazing how all these bureaucrats came together,’ Harris said. ‘It’s a credit to the Conservancy, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavky, Senator Sheila Kuehl and Assemblymember Fran Pavley.’ Down to this week, the negotiating parties were still on pins and needles. Thursday morning Conservancy Executive Director Joe Edmiston and Skei were scheduled to join Pavley in Sacramento in securing approval from the Coastal Conservancy Board. ‘We arrived at the Burbank airport for our early morning flight, only to be delayed for three hours because of fog,’ Skei told the Palisadian-Post. ‘We missed the meeting altogether.’ Fortunately the Commission approved the purchase, followed the next day by approval from the California Public Works Commission, which authorized the state park’s purchase of 102 acres. ‘We worked out just about everything in putting together the funding sources and anticipated any question that these agencies might ask,’ Skei said. Skei had every reason to be cautious, for this property had slipped through the state’s fingers twice before. In 1978 a State Parks planner was eager to press to purchase. ‘The ponds, the grassy areas, the Gillette Mansion, and numerous substantial seminary structures would provide a wide variety of recreation facilities,’ he said. But the Department of Recreation and Parks’ attempt to buy the ranch failed when the department fell short of the funding needed. In 1986, the National Parks Service attempted to buy the ranch for use as public parkland, but was outbid by Soka University. That same year, the National Parks, State Parks and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy made a futile attempt to purchase the property. ‘Acquisition of the King Gillette Ranch has been a top priority of all the area park agencies for many, many years,’ said Assemblymember Pavley. ‘Once Soka came to the table as a willing seller, we simply couldn’t let the opportunity slip away.’
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