I am concerned with an article in The Signal dated July 19 and titled “We have our founders to thank.” This is true, but it is all founding fathers and mothers who should be acknowledged, not just a few with their names on a street or building.
The weekly city column mentions nine people by name and says they were among “several key people who helped push our growing community into self-governance.”
Those mentioned are but a small token of those who also put in hours and money, money taken out of their own City Council campaign coffers and donated to the cause of cityhood.
A plaque in the back of the City Council Chambers does list the 184 founding fathers of the city, all being key members of the City Formation Committee.
Like all articles written by city staff, past and present, and credited to a City Council member, this one by Laurene Weste, are good, informative articles, but they lack a degree of substance.
I talked to Laurene about this article and made a point that by no means is this an attack on her highly respected integrity, but rather to raise this point: After 30 years of cityhood, is it not time for the citizens to know all who helped form and create our fabulous city?
And in the future, when it comes to naming a new road, library or building, how about choosing a face of the city’s real heroes – its teachers, its law enforcement, its firefighters.
Editor’s note, Ken Dean’s name is listed 12 times in Carl Boyer’s book “Santa Clarita,” a recounting of the city’s founding.
Ken Dean
Santa Clarita
