Chatsworth Ca

As a wildfire headed toward Mountain View Estates mobile home park near Chatsworth several years ago, the emergency response of the park's manager and assistant manager was simple, Gary Gibson recalls: They left, leaving him and hundreds of other residents to fend for themselves. "They abandoned the park knowing the fire was bearing down on us," said Gibson, 62, who was later evacuated by sheriff's deputies. "It was a terrible thing to do, leaving the elderly and infirm behind to face that risk."

Beverly Mosely left a bad marriage in Florida, boarding a Greyhound bus to California with her two daughters and a single suitcase, hoping for a fresh start. In the 24 years that followed, it seemed to her loved ones that she had created a good life for herself. Mosely, 57, worked her way up from a vocational nurse who worked nights to become the ombudsman at Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center.

As federal authorities prepare to close out a 16-month investigation of the deadly Chatsworth Metrolink disaster, a key issue remains in dispute: What color was the fateful final signal? The only eyewitnesses to come forward publicly have maintained that the light was green as Metrolink 111 barreled toward a head-on crash with a Union Pacific freight train. And the conductor of the train told investigators that he radioed the Metrolink engineer before leaving Chatsworth station that the signal was green and the train was clear to proceed, records show.

Native Americans once built a thriving village in the shadow of the jutting boulders in what is now Chatsworth. Later, Californios raised adobe homes. Then came the stagecoaches, rattling across steep and rocky roads. Now, about 670 acres of grassy trails and sandstone bluffs tucked in the hills above Chatsworth are set to take on their next role: the state's newest historic park.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to appeal a court ruling that handed Chatsworth residents a victory in their battle to block a housing project by Airport Commission President Ted Stein. "It was a bad court decision," said Councilman Hal Bernson, who was been criticized by some residents for pushing the 21-home development for Stein, a close friend. After a half-hour closed session, the council voted unanimously to appeal the May decision.

A City Council panel recommended Tuesday that the city deny an appeal by a group of Chatsworth residents who are trying to block Airport Commission President Ted Stein from building 21 homes on a small parcel in their equestrian-oriented neighborhood. The full City Council is scheduled today to review the recommendation of its Planning and Land Use Management Committee to approve a subdivision on the northeast corner of Chatsworth Street and Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

Washington Mutual Inc. on Wednesday told 1,000 employees who work at a call center in Chatsworth that it would move their jobs to Texas and Costa Rica to cut costs. The positions will be phased out starting in two months, with some employees offered work at a new Washington Mutual center in San Antonio -- where most of the jobs are being moved -- and others given job-search assistance, the Seattle-based thrift said.

They have approval from Metrolink and other appropriate government agencies. Councilman Hal Bernson even supports the idea. But with Veterans Day approaching, the 80-plus members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9266 have raised only half the money they need to build a simple flagpole and small granite memorial they would like to place at the Chatsworth Metrolink Station.

Santa Claus will headline a holiday gala Sunday in Chatsworth, an event that organizers hope rekindles a sense of civic pride in the northwestern San Fernando Valley. Sponsored by the Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce, the event will begin at noon at the intersection of Old Depot Plaza Road and Devonshire Street with the dedication of a garden of plants native to the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains, said chamber member Jay Berger.

Pam Campeau has replaced Alison Hakeem as executive director of the Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce. Most recently, Campeau was chief executive officer of the Encino Chamber of Commerce and director of administration and membership with the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce. She has also worked in human resources in the computer and electronics industry.