Los Gatos Weekly-Times


Mayor Joanne Benjamin	Vice Mayor Linda Lubeck

Benjamin named mayor

Council appoints Lubeck vice mayor

By Clarence Cromwell

Longtime Town Council member Joanne Benjamin became Los Gatos mayor for the fourth time at last week's Town Council meeting.

After councilmembers promoted Benjamin from vice mayor to mayor, they made Linda Lubeck the new vice mayor.

Councilmembers pulled together to show unanimity after a divisive election. Steve Blanton seconded Lubeck's mayoral nomination of Benjamin; he also nominated Lubeck for the vice mayoral post.

Benjamin has been a councilmember since 1982. She's served three one-year terms as mayor; they started in November 1984, 1988 and 1992.

Blanton opposed Lubeck's re-election efforts this fall, instead endorsing Egon Jensen and Frank Jones. Longtime tensions between Lubeck and Blanton finally surfaced in the form of election bickering.

But Blanton sent a conciliatory letter to Lubeck and other councilmembers before last week's meeting, calling for peace on the home front.

In other business, the council enacted the northern parking plan and hired a contractor to restore the J.W. Lyndon Carriage House Cupola.

Parking plan accepted

The council approved the plan for charging parking fees to businesses north of Highway 9 with insufficient parking. The town will forgive their parking shortages for the fee, and landowners will be able to improve their properties, which they are currently banned from doing because of their parking shortages. The council will decide the amount of the fee at a future meeting.

The proposed $4,000 fee would cover construction of the parking lot, plus 25 years of maintenance. Walgreens drug store and six other property owners complained that the fee is too high.

Cupola Restoration

Historical contractor Tim Lantz got the job of restoring the Lyndon Cupola for $35,000.

The 20-foot wooden cupola used to top a carriage house on John Lyndon's Wood Road estate, and it stood for a while at the southwest corner of Santa Cruz Avenue and Main Street.

The contract will include replacing some broken woodworking, painting the sides of the structure and topping it with a new sheet-metal roof and a 7.5-foot spire.