"If you're going to have seating along a road, you may as well make it beautiful," the artist Melissa Cole told the Inlander while painting hers.
Her bench now sits at the corner of Government Way and Hayden Avenue. It is one of nine benches the City of Hayden installed along those two streets this year, each one cut from a retired wind turbine blade and painted by local artists. The Coeur d'Alene Press reported on Sept. 29 that all nine were in place. The project is called "Come Together," and the name fits. The benches connect pieces of public art the Hayden Arts Commission has been adding to this corridor for years, and they give people a reason to stop on a road they usually drive straight through.
Eight years of trying to put art on a seat
The bench idea is older than the blades. According to the Inlander, the Hayden Arts Commission had been working on an "artistic seating" concept since 2018, but several calls for artists drew little response. The project finally moved after a phone call nobody at City Hall had planned for.
"I received a cold call out of the blue from the company, asking if we'd have any interest in their benches," Hayden City Clerk Abbi Sanchez told the Inlander. The caller was Noblewins, formerly Canvus, an Ohio company. Noblewins takes the "roots" of retired blades, which are made of glass fiber reinforced polymer, and turns them into benches. Blades are hard to recycle and poorly suited to landfills, so this gives the material a second use.
The money came from several places:
- The benches themselves were funded by the Hayden Urban Renewal Agency.
- The concrete pads were covered in part by a donation from Hayden Homes. The city's project page also thanks J-U-B Engineers.
- Painting was budgeted at $2,500 per bench in the City Council minutes, which approved $12,500 to paint five of them. Community sponsorships paid for artist stipends, and the city still lists open sponsorship opportunities.
According to a May 26, 2026 council memo, six artists submitted nine designs. The commission picked eight and contributed the ninth itself. The blank benches came in three configurations. The artists painted them in a warehouse behind the City Hall complex, using only colors from a Sherwin-Williams paint line that bonds well with the blade material.
The nine benches, and where to find them
The city places the benches in Hayden's Central Business District along Government Way and Hayden Avenue. The Inlander describes the stretch more narrowly: Government Way between Hayden Avenue and Centa Avenue, and Hayden Avenue between Government Way and U.S. Highway 95.
| Bench | Artist | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| "Stream of Conscience" | Christina Villagomez | Hayden Surgery Center, 8552 N. Government Way |
| Untitled | Christina Villagomez | Jiffy Lube |
| "Salt & Spruce" | Hayden Arts Commission members | Public parking lot directly north of Hayden City Hall |
| "Live + Play" | Ryan Dalke | Kaffee Meister, 9212 N Government Way |
| "Birds and Bees" | Melissa Cole | Government Way and Hayden Avenue |
| "Stay Awhile" | Amber Shirts | Along the corridor |
| "Hayden" | Amber Shirts | Along the corridor |
| "Honeysuckle" | Anne Hedin | Along the corridor |
| "The Run" | Michael Fellegy | Along the corridor |
The city's Arts Commission page links to a separate page for each bench.
What's painted on them
Each bench draws on Hayden Lake, its wildlife and the ground around it. That makes the corridor work as a walk rather than a set of separate stops.
"Stream of Conscience" is the first bench drivers see coming into Hayden from the south. It stands more than 9 feet tall on the east side of Government Way. Villagomez, who has lived in Hayden her whole life, painted it along with the untitled bench at Jiffy Lube.
"Birds and Bees" is a field guide on a seat. "The flowers are all local wildflowers: phlox, lupine, camas, arrow leaf balsam root as well as western bumblebees," Cole told the Coeur d'Alene Press. "The birds are mountain bluebirds, Idaho's state bird." She added blue swirls as a nod to Vincent van Gogh. The benches weigh more than a ton, so she painted much of hers lying on a yoga mat underneath it. Cole's work is already familiar in Spokane, where it appears on highway pillars along the North Spokane Corridor and as "Riverdance," a 25-by-25-foot piece in the Spokane Convention Center.
"The Run" follows the life cycle of the Kokanee salmon, according to the Inlander. One side shows a person and a dog fishing off a dock on Hayden Lake. Fellegy told the Press that fitting the two sides into one picture was the hardest part: "you want to be able to walk around and see it from all sides." He also named Bob Ross as an influence.
"Live + Play" is Dalke's "ode to Hayden's history as an established community with strong ties to an outdoor-focused lifestyle." It sits outside Kaffee Meister, which makes it the obvious spot for a coffee break.
"Stay Awhile" and "Hayden" are both by Amber Shirts, who told the Inlander her inspiration comes from "the natural beauty and welcoming spirit of Hayden and North Idaho."
"Salt & Spruce" was painted by the Arts Commission's own members: Chair Nancy Jones, Vice Chair Shana Wright, Terry Lee and Shiree Wilder. Its city page lists the sponsors as donors giving in remembrance of Roger Saterfiel.
The benches join art that was already there
The benches add places to sit to a corridor the Arts Commission has been decorating for years. Utility boxes along the same stretch are wrapped in local artists' work:
- Government Way at Hayden Ave: "Dual Roast" by Mary Jo Rawlsky, plus historic Hayden Lake Elementary School sports pictures
- Government Way at Dakota Ave: "Floral Macro" by Mary Jo Rawlsky
- Government Way at Orchard Ave: "Collage of Mountain Goats" by Mark Vogt
- Government Way at Honeysuckle Ave: "Pink Skies" and "July Vibes" by Christina Hull
- Government Way between Honeysuckle and Nita: "Collage of Eagles" by Mark Vogt
- Government Way at Nita St: "Osprey Carrying Salmon" by Mark Vogt
- Government Way at Prairie Ave: "Eagle Photo" by Mark Vogt
The cluster around City Hall adds three more stops. David Clemons' sculpture "Balance" doubles as a bike rack in McIntire Family Park next to City Hall. Its figures stretch outward and join hands at the center. Carol Gardner's stained glass window has been in the City Hall clock tower since the 2008 renovation. In the City Hall lobby, the Hayden Art Gallery changes its featured artist each quarter. For November and December 2026, it features City of Hayden employees, elected officials and their family members.
Together, a bench at Hayden Avenue, a painted box a few blocks south and a sculpture beside City Hall make the corridor walkable as one route. The Arts Commission has been building toward that for years. The city is also working with the Hayden Urban Renewal Agency on early master planning for a Civic Center and has asked the public what amenities they want there.
Two dates when this stretch fills up
The corridor has two public events coming up, and both use the same blocks as the benches.
- Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 11 a.m. Hayden's Veterans Day and 2026 Distinguished Veteran ceremony takes place at the McIntire Family Park stage behind City Hall. "Balance" and "Salt & Spruce" are both within a short walk.
- Hayden Lights Parade and Christmas Tree Lighting, Saturday, Dec. 5, 5 p.m. The parade runs south on Government Way from Hayden Avenue to Honeysuckle Avenue, then the tree lighting follows at McIntire Family Park, 8930 N. Government Way. The route starts at the corner with "Birds and Bees" and the "Dual Roast" utility box, and it ends near Christina Hull's wraps at Honeysuckle.
Details for both are on the city's special community events page.
The project is still taking sponsors. The city's page says more sponsorships are available to help fund the remaining artist stipends, and Abbi Sanchez at Hayden City Hall is the contact at (208) 772-4411.
I've spent my career watching how Hayden's core along Government Way gets planned, funded and built, from urban renewal projects like these benches to the early Civic Center planning. If you want to talk about what's changing on this stretch and what it could mean for the blocks around it, Darren Miller is glad to walk it with you. Let's Connect.
