New benches approved, while others are renewed and donations discussed.

Benches in The Village were in the hot seat at the Enhance La Jolla Oct. 17 board meeting, as donations for some were accepted while another was declined.

Enhance La Jolla is a nonprofit established by the La Jolla Community Foundation to manage the Maintenance Assessment District, or MAD, for The Village, taking on landscape maintenance, street and sidewalk cleaning, litter and graffiti abatement and additional trash collection.

The city of San Diego has empowered MADs to enhance city services like those mentioned above; Enhance La Jolla is also able to fund and execute projects from adding or upgrading signage to larger initiatives like the forthcoming Village Streetscape.

Bench renewal program

An Enhance La Jolla program to refinish benches throughout the MAD is making good progress, said Enhance La Jolla President Ed Witt.

Enhance La Jolla has contracted with Japhet’s Painting Company, run by Japhet Perez, also President of the La Jolla Village Merchants Association, to strip and stain the benches.

More than 45 benches have been completed so far, Witt said, thanking Perez.

Memorial bench donation declined

Though several of the Village benches have memorial plaques funded by individuals through a previous program, the board however denied a request to add a plaque to an unmarked bench.

Enhance La Jolla and the MAD is in no way involved in the memorial bench program, Witt clarified, adding the organizations are only refreshing existing benches.

“The memorial bench program is … defunct,” he said, with the leftover money from the previous program transferred to Enhance La Jolla for cleaning only.

The funds do not allow for new plaques on benches, as recently requested by a resident who wants to donate $800 to have a memorial plaque installed, Witt said.

He asked the board members whether they wanted to resurrect the memorial bench program and take over responsibility for it.

“We’re not going to be responsible,” board member Tony Gild said,  expressing concern that accepting this offered donation would set a precedent. 

“Having people invest in the wellbeing of our assets is not a terrible thing,” said board member Ann Dynes, but then having to fund maintenance and upkeep “is not adequate.”

Dynes and other board members discussed the merits of instituting a policy for future requests like this. 

“It’s a wonderful thing to be able to do,” Witt said, adding donations are always appreciated but ”I’m very hesitant to get involved in the memorial bench program with continual response coming in.”

Others noted the $800 amount wouldn’t go far for a bench with ongoing maintenance.

Board member Phyllis Pfeiffer added the current Streetscape plan is offering an “adopt-a-bench program. It is a $15,000 contribution. The bench is approximately $10,000” for high-quality materials.

A motion to decline the donation offer passed with Dynes’ abstention.

New bocce benches

The board then passed a motion to add three new benches adjacent to the bocce court at the La Jolla Recreation Center. 

Resident Chas. Dye, also a member of a few La Jolla organizations, represented a group of bocce players to the Enhance La Jolla board, requesting the nonprofit install the three benches abutting the Draper Avenue side of the Rec Center.

The benches would be on the sidewalk and not on the grass for stability and the ability to see the surface of the court, Dye said.

The benches would match ones currently placed around The Village, made of wood with metal armrests at either end and in the center. The benches will not have plaques. 

“There are benches all over the sidewalks identical to that,” Witt said.

Dye said the three benches will cost a total of just under $5,602, and installation will be about $300. 

The project will be funded entirely by private donors, bocce players at White Sands senior community and the Kiwanis Club of La Jolla, Dye said.

As to a question whether a city permit is needed, Emily Lynch, representing San Diego City Council President Pro Tem Joe LaCava, whose District 1 includes La Jolla, said she believes a right of entry permit is needed, but will look into the matter further.  

Some board members expressed concern that approving these benches would detract from the Streetscape fundraising efforts.

Though the bocce bench proposal is “well considered,” board member Kathryn Kanjo said, the Streetscape is a “major effort” being underwritten in part by its adopt-a-bench program.

“I wouldn’t want certain projects to get … somehow damage our more ambitious projects,” she said.

Dynes said to approve the proposal without seeing what the benches would look like is “not the way to do business.”

A motion to install the benches, contingent on Lynch’s answer about city permits, passed, with Dynes and Kanjo abstaining.