The long-closed Bono’s Restaurant and Deli in Fontana, Calif., received approval Friday from the California Historical Resources Commission to move the landmark about 20 feet from Foothill Boulevard (aka Route 66) so the road can be widened.
Whether the owner, Joe Bono, wants to move is another matter.
According to an earlier story in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Bono opposed the move:
“We’ve been in this spot since 1936,” Bono said Thursday of his closed restaurant at 15395 E. Foothill Blvd. “Why do I have to move it now?” […]
He added he doesn’t want to see the family establishment moved.
“I must have been drunk or something” if a document was signed stating he would move, Bono said.
But Matt Englhard, vice president of the contractor of the road-widening project, said Bono did indeed sign the agreement to move the restaurant and its equally historic Big Orange.
Englhard said Bono “runs hot and cold” on the decision but the reason his company is moving the restaurant is because it “will allow us to construct a full intersection with improved access to the restaurant and protect it from being hit by cars and trucks in the future.”
Englhard estimated the road widening and restaurant move would be completed sometime in 2014 if everything goes through with Bono.
“He’s had a real estate guy helping him. It’s definitely gone through quite a bit of time and analysis with Mr. Bono.”
A story in the Daily Bulletin a few hours later announced the commission’s approval of the restaurant’s move. In it, it sounded as if Bono still was reluctant to move, but wasn’t as emphatic in his denial about signing the papers for it.
He declined to comment further other than to say, “Let me talk with my team.”
Jay Correia, a spokesman for the historical commission, told the newspaper that Bono still could object to the move within a 45-day period. But it didn’t seem likely.
“This is only the second time I’ve dealt with a request to move (property),” Correia said. “It’s very odd. It looks like the (request to move) is coming from him. ”
Additionally, Correia said that part of the process involved in getting approval for moving the building is submitting photos of the building at the new location.
“We want a record of the building as it is currently,” Correia said.
I’m not discounting the remote possibility of someone forging the documents or tricking him into signing them (the latter occurred many years ago regarding Lucille Hamons and the costly removal of underground tanks at her gas station, according to her daughter).
But one must remember that Joe Bono is 81 years old and may have simply forgotten about signing the papers. I’m considerably younger than him, and things slip my mind fairly regularly.
If nothing else, Bono can simply object to the project and put a halt to it — if he truly wants to do so.
(Image of Bono’s Restaurant and the historic Big Orange by “Caveman Chuck” Coker, via Flickr)