Terry Scott, the chair of the Art & Culture Commission (left) poses with Bill Gian who completed the first design in the city’s Public Art Initiative on a traffic control box at the corner of Southampton and Military. The painting of traffic control boxes is the first step in a much larger project which hopes to have designs on benches, trash cans and even the sides of buildings within the next few years. It’s been an 18-month process to create and now execute a public art program that will enhance the city’s overall look and artistic flair but hopefully help enhance the efforts to make benicia a art destination,” Scott said of the project. “The decorating of the signal boxes is the first phase of a planned – year plan that includes city entrance beautification, murals and sculptures that add to the Benicia ecosphere.” This week, Benicia High students Jiana Lyons and Samantha Johnson began work on painting another traffic control box near the Benicia Public Library. Additional boxes are slated to be painted by Cody Frisinger, Liisa Kankkunen and Kerry Lee Laird throughout the summer. (Photo courtesy of Terry Scott)