Banking on small-town traditions

As the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce honorary mayor for 2006 and branch manager for California National Bank, Ira Hart is quickly becoming a familiar face among residents and local business owners.

While juggling his responsibilities at the bank and as a father to his 3-year-old son, Cristian, Hart still finds time to attend most of the chamber's monthly mixers and volunteer for the Air National Guard.

Hart always finds time in his busy schedule to help people, said Jean Maluccio, the chamber's executive director.

"I don't know anyone who doesn't like him," Maluccio said. "He even took the time to respond to a letter from a second-grader ? nothing is ever too small for him to do and we are really lucky to have someone like him working with us."

Hart, who was inducted as the chamber's honorary mayor in January, has been branch manager of California National Bank for nearly five years.

Originally from New York, born and raised in the Spanish Harlem neighborhood, he joined the Marine Corps and was stationed at El Toro Air Station in California.

Since then, he has worked up and down the West Coast, from Orange County to Long Beach, but he wouldn't want to work anywhere else but La Crescenta.

"It's a very friendly neighborhood," Hart said.

"It has a small-town feel, which is atypical in Southern California. People were born and raised here, they get married and have their children here. Even if they go away for college, they always end up coming back."

In this third month as honorary mayor, Hart has been busying himself with monthly chamber mixers, ribbon-cutting ceremonies and certificate presentations. And, in the midst of all this, he is still on call for the 163rd Air Refueling Wing.

Last September, Hart and other members of the wing provided airport security in New Orleans and helped evacuate residents after Hurricane Katrina.

"I find I work most efficiently when I have a full plate," Hart said.