Sponsorships to Aid Old Town Project

Calabasas city officials think they have the perfect gift for the person who has everything: a hitching post, a bench or a boardwalk plank.

At least that’s the theory behind the Old Town Sponsorship Program.

For $50, residents can have their name etched, along with other contributors, on a large plaque in Old Town Calabasas.

For larger contributions, residents can have their names etched on individual plaques affixed to a such items as benches, hitching posts and even street trees.

Work is expected to begin on the Old Town Calabasas street-scape improvements in early 1997, with the project intended to create a cohesive shopping and entertainment area that encourages people to get out of their cars and walk about.

State and federal grants will pay for the majority of the $1.8-million project. The sponsorship program was established to raise the estimated $20,000 that is not covered, city officials said.

In an effort to restore the area’s western theme, Old Town Calabasas was redesigned to include a wooden boardwalk connecting several storefronts and restaurants along both sides of Calabasas Road from Valley Circle to Park Granada Boulevard.

The plaques will be installed near the end of construction, about six months after the project is begun. The fund-raiser will continue indefinitely.

City officials said the program gives residents a chance to be a part of the long history of the area, which includes the Leonis Adobe Museum and Calabasas Creek, where horses in the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition were tethered when the group stopped in the area.

For more information, call the city at (818) 878-4225, Ext. 255.