Pedestrians in residential Riverside will soon have somewhere new to stop and rest their feet.
Riverside trustees approved an application Sept. 5 for a memorial bench to be installed at the triangle park at Audubon and Southcote roads. The bench will face east toward Southcote Road and will likely be installed in the spring based on how long it takes to get delivered, Public Works Director Dan Tabb said at the village board meeting.
According to documents from the board meeting agenda, former Riversider Nancy Dvorak applied for the bench to commemorate her family’s 47 years of residence on Audubon Road.
Tabb said the bench will match the design of benches in Riverside’s central business district downtown. He told trustees the applicant and public works department have not yet finalized the wording for the bench’s plaque; however, the village’s park bench donation policy only permits plaques that read “in memory of” or “in recognition of” alongside a person’s name and dates of birth and death.
At Village President Doug Pollock’s request, Tabb gave trustees and the audience a quick rundown of the process to donate a bench in Riverside. Anyone interested in donating a bench should reach out to the public works department to fill out an application, Tabb said; then, he presents the application to the village’s preservation and landscape advisory commissions before it goes before the village board for final approval.
“We try to at least offer existing [undedicated] benches that are in disrepair for replacement,” Tabb said. “Normally, that’s not a popular option, because when people approach us for a park bench that they’re looking to donate in memory of whatever it might be, they have a certain spot in town that means something to them. Most of those, for whatever reason — it might just be coincidence — don’t have an existing park bench that needs to be replaced.”
Tabb said each park bench takes around six to nine months to be installed from the submission of the initial application due to the time it takes to get the bench approved and spent waiting for it to arrive after ordering it from the manufacturer. He said the cost to donate a bench, which includes the price to make it and to install it, is about $3,000 to $3,500.
Before the board voted to approve the application, Trustee Elizabeth Kos took the opportunity to speak about her personal connection to the new bench.
“As somebody who spent almost as much time at the Dvorak house as my own house growing up, this is where I used to meet my friend. When we’d go halfway between each other’s houses to meet, this is where the bench is going to be. I’m really excited about this bench and really happy that they’re doing this,” she said.
