Featured Blog: Councilmember Leonardis Shows How It’s Done

“I hate peeling paint.”

, who lives nowhere near historic Fairview Plaza, decided to repaint the quaint flagpole at the center of little Fairview Park.

“It looked so bad standing there, and I thought, ‘What a shame.’ ”

As a new member of the Kiwanis Club, Steven found he could draw on lots of help, including students from the Key Club, and potential Kiwanis member Phil Burnett, an executive with Starbucks. Steve’s brothers, Brian and Glen, also pitched in.

Fairview Plaza was created in the 1880s as an unusual subdivision, with two dozen homes surrounding a modest park. The Campfire Girls created a fish pond and bird sanctuary in the park in 1927, but the simple benches and planted islands one sees today were installed in 1962. The one-third acre park appears to have belonged to the Town of Los Gatos since 1940. The flagpole likely dates to 1927 or earlier.

Steve found the 28-foot (8.75m) flag-less pole looking like an antique, with many layers of peeling paint. He drove Town Manager Greg Larson to Fairview and showed him the aging pole. Larson proposed a new metal pole, but Steve thought the original wood could be saved.

One day—around Labor Day—Steve and Phil Burnett simply removed the long through-bolts connecting the pole to its foundation. As they took the flagpole down, a few Fairview residents cheered them on. Apparently, the pole had been scheduled for maintenance some time ago. One woman told Steve that her husband had likewise taken down the pole, but that it sat in their carport for 20 years until the town reinstalled it.

Steve and Phil carried the flagpole down Turnstile Walk, the narrow pedestrian path that leads to West Main Street, to a house that Steve owns on Tait Avenue.

“We got a few looks,” Steve recalls. “Two guys carrying a 28 foot-long, antique flagpole down the street.”

Steve did the dirty, toxic work of stripping off the layers of paint himself. To his surprise, he found that the pole was made of redwood. A hundred years ago, the expensive, termite-resistant wood was plentiful in this area. Redwood is actually a surprising choice for a flagpole. Like pines, redwood trunks are straight and tall, but redwood is softer and more easily damaged than hardwoods like ash or oak.

Aware of the significance of the date, Steve scheduled a painting party on the 10th  anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Steve, Phil, and fellow Kiwanian Andy Tse brought their children and were met by five Key Club members and past Kiwanis president Mary Bartlett.  Steve had already primed the pole, and the work crew applied three coats of Kelly Moore Dura-Poxy. It looks white, but it is actually “Swiss Coffee.”

Steve bought the paint, restored the original hardware, and created a new raising mechanism. He plans to equip the pole with a solar-powered light so that a flag can fly around the clock. Los Gatos Aire built a copper shoe for the pole so that the wood will no longer be in contact with the ground. Phil Burnett bought new mounting hardware.

“Of course, you know it is easier to uninstall something than reinstall something,” Steve says. He and his brothers, Glen and Brian, carried the freshly-painted pole back up to Fairview Plaza and re-mounted it.

A flagpole needs a flag, preferably one with a special meaning. Kiwanian Paul Dubois suggested that Steve contact Congressman Mike Honda’s office, and Representative Honda provided a flag that had flown over the U. S. Capitol.

The flag will be officially dedicated on a Saturday morning yet to be determined. Steve plans to invite Key Club members, Boy Scouts, Fairview neighbors, and perhaps some of Steve’s fellow Kiwanians and councilmembers will be able to attend, as well.

“It became kind of an obsession of mine to complete the project,” Steve says. “I felt like an Eagle Scout.” The flagpole represents “a piece of Americana” that he believed was “potentially on the endangered species list.”

Steve is looking around for more outlets for his obvious civic pride. He names a couple of businesses that are currently tolerating peeling paint. They’d better watch out. Steve hates peeling paint.