Every so often, benches are dedicated to the memory of a benefactor or a loved one who enjoyed a particular view or walk through town. But for 94-year-old Alta VanGenderen, a brand new wooden bus stop bench near the corner of 100th Avenue and N.E. 132nd Street in Juanita is a little different.

“I always considered that my corner,” she said. “It’s a very nice place for a bench.”

Since moving here from San Francisco, Calif. several years ago to be closer to her daughter, the sprightly VanGenderen takes regular shopping trips all around town on the King County Metro Bus. In particular, she’s fond of taking the Route 234 bus to Juanita for visits to her hairdresser and the Albertson’s supermarket store. But waiting for up to half-an-hour for the bus home with nowhere to sit was a little tedious, especially since the bus stop appeared to be landscaped with a small area created specifically for a shelter or bench.

“It must have had a bench there at one time,” she said.

Senior Metro Transit Planner Dale Cummings said the bus stop was landscaped in 1998, but no bench was installed because the number of boardings from the stop was too low.

“We’ve got 9,500 bus stops in our service area,” he said. “We don’t typically install benches at stops.”

So, in 2006, VanGenderen started sending occasional letters to Metro asking if they could install one, but never received a reply.

This January, she was overjoyed to find a bench had appeared at her stop.

But it turns out the bench was actually installed by the city’s Streets Department through a public improvements program – now suspended – called Neighborhood Connections.

Since 2000, the program has funded around $1 million worth of improvements around Kirkland’s neighborhoods. Three neighborhood associations administer improvement ideas and vote on projects each year, funding the highest-ranked projects with around $25,000 until the money runs out. But budget cuts last fall put the program on a temporary hiatus, scaling back the program to fund only one neighborhood, Norkirk, in 2010.

Neighborhood Connections coordinator Kari Page said the bus stop bench was selected through the program, but came with an unexpected twist.

“This one, interestingly, was from Moss Bay,” said Page.

VanGenderen’s daughter, Martha, put a request in for the bench and voters from the area approved it last year.

“I believe the kind-hearted neighbors of Moss Bay felt they should help her get that bench,” said Moss Bay Neighborhood Association co-chair Mark Eliasen.

Neighborhoods are allowed to pay for projects in other areas so long as the idea comes from the funded neighborhood.

The bench waited the typical lag-time of about a year, while permits and plans to install the bench were laid out by Page and city engineer Noel Schoneman. Finally built, the bench cost $1,084 to purchase and install.

“I’m so pleased there’s a bench there,” Martha said. “We’d just like to thank everyone involved.”