Happy Campers : With the arrival of resident managers, visitors cheer the reopening of Crystal Lake facilities. But officials warn that the government has no money to make major repairs. : CITY SMART / How to thrive in the urban environment of Southern California

When Lee Squire placed a campground parking permit on the windshield of one of a handful of cars headed toward Crystal Lake on Wednesday morning, the fisherman at the wheel beamed at him and said: “I am sure glad to see you. “

Squire glanced toward his wife, Bobbie, and replied: “Well, we’re glad to be here.”

Since the U.S. Forest Service turned over all daily operations Nov. 18 to L & L Inc., a Utah-based company that employs the Squires, the couple has moved to Crystal Lake and handle all light maintenance and recreation services at this Angeles National Forest campground.

Now that the Squires are on site, overnight camping is being allowed at Crystal Lake for the first time since November, 1993.

Campground visitors have welcomed the couple with smiles of relief.

“Anything that needs to be done here, that’s us,” Bobbie Squire said assuredly.

Campers became unhappy with the conditions around Crystal Lake after the Forest Service was forced to scale down most of its operations at several Angeles Forest camping spots in 1993 because of budget constraints.

The move eventually required closing the cherished Crystal Lake campground--which featured the only natural lake in the San Gabriel Mountains--to overnight visitors, eliminating a service that accommodated up to 1,200 campers per night.

Cutbacks in maintenance also led to the deterioration of the Crystal Lake area and to the decline of other recreation facilities nearby that were previously well-kept by Forest Service rangers.

And when those signs of neglect began to show, frequent visitors who have become attached to the campsite over the years grew irate.

“With 18 million people living less then two hours away, letting this place stay closed and become so run-down is sheer stupidity,” complained Armand Denis, who owns the Crystal Lake Store, which had to be closed after overnight camping was eliminated.

Denis now spends his time voluntarily clearing dead trees and brush from the campground area.

“If you look at government spending on the larger scale, it takes peanuts to run this campground,” he said.

“Camping is a timeless tradition,” added Rick Wilkerson, the fisherman who greeted the Squires earlier in the day. Areas such as Crystal Lake need to be well-maintained, he said, because they are among the few things left that “get the family closer together.”

Wilkerson, an Alhambra resident, has caught government-supplied trout and bass at Crystal Lake for years with his young son, Jamie. It frustrated him to see his favorite fishing spot grow thick with algae and mottled with graffiti.

“We’ve lost a lot of hooks in that algae,” he said. “Maybe somebody will clean this place up now--and regulate who comes in here. This used to be a family spot.”

In attempts to salvage the area, the cash-strapped Forest Service solicited bids in July from private campground managers such as L & L to assume the year-round, day-and-night management of the Crystal Lake Campground area.

Beating out its competitors, L & L stepped in as the area’s new manager for a minimum of five years--barring a permit cancellation by the federal government.

During that period, the Utah company, which manages more than 500 campsites throughout the country, can collect parking permit and camping fees at Crystal Lake.

In return, L & L agreed to pay the federal government at least 6% of its gross revenues and to maintain the campsites and provide hiking and wildlife information.

“This will be a real challenge for us,” Lee Squire said about fixing scores of weathered picnic tables and rusted fire rings. “We’ve got our work cut out for us. We want to make this a place more suitable for families.”

He added that, when the campground begins to attract more visitors in warmer weather, L & L will send more live-in managers to help deal with additional burdens placed on the area by crowds.

“There are so many beautiful trees and critters up here, lots of people are bound to come,” said Bobbie Squire. “This place will be going in no time.” But Denis and others who know the area and its problems more intimately remain skeptical.

Glancing at the few cans of soup, the scattered bottles of condiments and the two boxes of diapers that have sat on his otherwise empty shelves since the Crystal Lake Store closed two years ago, Denis said it will take more then light maintenance to rejuvenate the campground.

“They don’t know what they’re in for,” he said. “There are some serious problems up here. Bathrooms need to be fixed, roofs are falling off other buildings and some of these trees are real hazards to campers.”

The 67-year-old Denis pointed to a withered Jeffrey pine standing near an empty campsite. “You see? That could fall on someone’s tent. It needs to go down, but there’s no money.

“Nobody will want to come up here now. Things have gone so downhill,” he said.

Tom Spencer, the Forest Service recreation officer for the portion of the forest that includes Crystal Lake, acknowledged that greater maintenance problems will probably not be addressed with L & L managing the campground.

According to Spencer, it would take between $2 million and $3 million to make all the heavy-maintenance repairs needed in the Crystal Lake area. Those include fixing badly cracked roadways, replacing old water pipes and repairing sagging log storage cabins, he said.

“L & L is not responsible for those repairs and we can’t do them,” Spencer said. “If everyone thinks it’ll be OK here again with a new manager, it’s not.”

Denis sighed at the memory of better years at Crystal Lake. After trying to sell the store when it closed two years ago, he and his family have thought about opening up again.

“Ah, geez, what a time we had up here,” Denis said, standing in a concrete amphitheater once used by campground guests for weddings. “It was great. I’d like to get this place open again in the worst way possible.”

Right now, though, he said the risk isn’t worth the financial effort.

“I’d have to come up with about $8,000 to get this place restocked and insured,” he said. “I have to wait and see if more people will come.”

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Camping Tips

Maintenance staff workers Lee and Bobbie Squire have these tips and rules for forest etiquette:

* Bring plenty of food

* Dispose of trash properly. Food wrappers and anything edible attrack bears to campgrounds.

* Never feed a bear. Once a bear gets food from someone, it will associate all humans with food.

* Store food and toiletries in one of the campsite’s bear- resistant storage bins.

* Do not run from a bear. Running provokes a chase. If one approaches, yell, whistle or honk a car horn.

* Bring warm clothes and a good sleeping bag for overnight stays.

* Hike with a companion, or tell a campground manager where you plan to go and when you expect to return.

* And lastly, do not deface rocks or trees with writing.