Crescenta Valley casts ballots

CRESCENTA VALLEY — Voters of the Crescenta Valley cast their ballots to elect Steve Pierce, Curtis Cleven and Bruce Campbell as town council members on Saturday.

Pierce took the lead with 304 votes and Cleven followed with nearly half that amount at 149. Campbell took a seat with 136.

Alternates, who will act as understudy for council members, were also named in this year's annual race.

Frank Beyt was voted as the first alternate with 133 votes, Dennis van Breman took the second alternate position with 128 votes and Virginia Choate squeaked by Roy Allmon with 5 votes over his 78.

Council members will keep their seats for three years while the alternates change seats annually. A total of 474 ballots were cast in the election.

"We had a lot more votes from Montrose than we had from previous years," said Grace Andrus, Crescenta Valley elections chair.

Andrus said the votes from Montrose, which increased by 16 over last year's election, made a difference. Both Andrus and van Breman voiced sentiments of excitement about Montrose residents' involvement in the council.

"It's exciting that La Crescenta and Montrose have a voice in the county and we can kind of be in charge of our own destiny," van Breman said.

Voters like Sharon and Steve Benoit cast their votes out of concern for an increase in development in the Crescenta Valley.

They have lived in the area for 30 years and said they had an issue with over-development.

"People are building way too many homes" said Sharon Benoit. "Mansionization is a huge problem."

Longtime La Crescenta resident Charlotte James is also worried about the same issue.

"I just love this area, I hate to see it grow too fast," James, a 50-year resident, said. "I'd like to see it stay a small town."

James found out about the election at the last minute and felt the council needs to do more to get the word out.

"I don't think this election is publicized enough."

It was the first time that 17-year resident Brigett Allard voted in the election.

Allard was also not aware that the elections were on Saturday until recently.

"Between five kids and working 12 hours a day, I can't keep up with everything," Allard said. "When I found out about this election, I made the effort to come up."

Allard felt it was important for her to cast her vote because she knew that two of the candidates were best suited to address the issues that concerned her the most, she said.

"At least two of the candidates are involved in education," she said. "The quality of the schools are good and I'd like to have it stay that way."

The new council members will be sworn in on Dec. 21, 2006. They will have their first town council meeting on Jan. 18.