Photos by Ryan Cronk
City of King hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony March 23 for the city’s new entrance sign.
KING CITY — Community members gathered Friday afternoon to celebrate the completion of King City’s new entrance sign and landscaping project at the corner of Broadway Street and San Antonio Drive, one of the city’s main intersections.
“We have a lot of pride in our city, and it’s really nice for us to now have a new city entrance sign that reflects what we’re about here and reflects our community,” said Mayor Mike LeBarre during the March 23 ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The $100,000 project was part of the city’s ongoing beautification efforts and took more than a year to complete. It began after Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) needed to perform mitigation work underneath the former wooden sign at that location.
According to Eric Daniels of PG&E, the old sign sat on top of a major gas transmission line for the city and had to be removed for safety reasons.
“There’s been a major effort amongst the company to clear items off from above our gas lines, so that’s what prompted this project to happen,” Daniels said.
The electric company provided $25,000 in mitigation funds to kick-start the project, while California Water Service offered another $25,000 to cover the costs of landscaping, which includes a drought-tolerant demonstration garden.
“Drought tolerant is kind of the new way of life, the new norm for California, so we wanted to give something to the city for businesses and residents to come by and get some ideas for their own landscaping and show that drought tolerant does look nice,” said Marc Bloom, local manager for Cal Water King City District.
The City of King covered the project’s remaining costs, some of which came from the sale of a portion of the land to the adjacent Days Inn property owner for additional parking at the hotel.
The new sign, which is illuminated at night, features sculptured replicas of the Pinnacles to graphically portray King City’s role as a gateway to Pinnacles National Park.
Landscape Architect Gary Glandon designed the sign, which was constructed by father-son duo Phil and Jeremy VanderKraats of Signs by Van. Frank Lopez of Frank’s Gardening Service handled all the landscaping, while City Engineer Octavio Hurtado oversaw the project from start to finish.
“We’re all really excited with the design. It was really creative of the designer because it portrays that we’re a gateway to the Pinnacles without having to say it,” said City Manager Steve Adams, adding that the new sign is “an investment that will be here a long time.”
