Acton News Index"We're really excited about it; we think it's just more customer-service friendly," said Cid Morgan, ranger for the Angeles National Forest's Santa Clara-Mojave Rivers district.
The U.S. Forest Service has an option to purchase land at Crown Valley Road and Sierra Highway. Officials hope to open escrow this summer and begin the design work this year and construction next year, for an opening in fall or winter 2006.
Acton was picked because it is the geographic center of the ranger district, which runs from Pyramid Lake to Wrightwood. Morgan said the proposed office would be a 45-minute drive to either end.
The present district headquarters are a collection of modular buildings near the district's far southwestern edge, about five miles up winding Bouquet Canyon Road from Saugus.
The large district was a result of a 1999 action in which five ranger districts were consolidated into three, combining the former Saugus and Valyermo districts and closing the Valyermo headquarters.
Money for the new station will come from the sale of outlying parcels of forest land now surrounded by homes in Glendora and Sierra Madre. Bids for the land came in at more than $2 million, Morgan said.
Forest officials have been promised additional money for the station, but the exact amount won't be known until the design is done.
Morgan said the new ranger station is intended to be a "green" building -- with a low environmental impact -- including features like solar and wind power and low-thirst native plants as landscaping. She said the building would also fit into Acton's community-design standards, which encourage western-style architecture.