Lake Forest May Start Bench Program To Honor Community Members

LAKE FOREST, CA — Lake Forest City Council may establish a new way to honor community members who contributed to the city's history and culture. The possibility of starting a memorial bench program for the city is on the council's agenda for their Tuesday night meeting.

If the city moves forward with the program, residents could start seeing new benches spread across local parks. According to the staff report, the benches would be fitted with an engraved placard honoring deceased community members who made important contributions to Lake Forest while they were alive.

Under this program, new benches would be installed in parks at $850 per bench. Existing benches at the Civic Center would be fitted with an engraving at roughly $100 per placard.

In order to qualify for a placard, the city has a few proposed criteria to be met, including:

• The resident must have served a minimum of 15 years on a city commission, committee or volunteer group.
• The resident must have served on the board of at least one additional organization based in or serving the Lake Forest community for a minimum of five years.
• The resident must have lived in Lake Forest for a minimum of 15 years.

Residents who served as city employees or city council members would not be considered for this program. The Lake Forest City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers at 100 Civic Center Dr.