Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Cully Plant was the first person in town to sign up for the Adopt-A-Bench program. She donated two of the three that now sit in front of the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Co.

Long-awaited benches arrive

By Shari Kaplan

Four new benches are now installed in downtown Los Gatos through the town's Adopt-A-Bench program, and several more will be installed as soon as they arrive from the manufacturers.

So far, three benches offer joggers, shoppers and coffee-drinkers a respite on W. Main Street in front of the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Co., and one bench sits in front of Lyndon Plaza at the corner of W. Main Street and S. Santa Cruz Avenue.

Other benches will pop up at the corner of Montebello Way and W. Main, in front of the Posh Bagel on W. Main and on the odd-numbered side of N. Santa Cruz Avenue between W. Main and Bean Avenue.

The program's genesis came two years ago, when the Los Gatos Downtown Association's Beautification Committee worked with the Los Gatos Redevelopment Agency to offer businesses and citizens this chance to add convenience and aesthetics to the town.

According to Michael LaRocca, director of parks, forestry and maintenance, there is still room for many more benches. Every block within the redevelopment area may have at least one bench. This X-shaped area ranges from S. Santa Cruz Avenue at Wood Road to N. Santa Cruz Avenue at Andrews Court, and from E. Main Street at Fiesta Avenue to W. Main Street at N. Santa Cruz.

Benches vary in length from 5 to 8 feet and come in wood or various metals. Prices, which include an engraved brass plaque, range from less than $300 to more than $1,000. LaRocca says some people dedicate their bench in honor or memory of a loved one, while some people just want to offer the town a thank-you gift.

Longtime Los Gatan and current Monte Sereno resident Cully Plant is one of the latter.

"I've lived in Los Gatos forever. I just wanted to do something, and I thought this was such a neat idea," says Plant, whose two teakwood benches with arms and curved backs are near the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Co. She was also the first person to buy a bench.

"The benches just sort of blend in and have an old-fashioned look about them. They look wonderful, and they're comfortable, too. They just fit the environment," she adds.

A substitute teacher, Plant says she was so excited to see her benches finally installed on Oct. 24 that she passed on a teaching opportunity that day so she could photograph the installation process.

To date, benefactors of one or more benches are: John and Lain Ehmann, Sandy and Roy Fiebiger, Teri Hope, James Kilkenny and Margaret Kilkenny, Cully Plant and The Posh Bagel. Donors pay 60 percent of bench costs, with the rest provided by the Los Gatos Redevelopment Agency. For more information on adopting a bench, call LaRocca at 399-5773.