HOPE — The five-year relationship between the town of Hope and the Indiana Main Street program will reach its culmination Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the $437,500 completion of the Hope Town Square renovation.
The public is invited to attend the 11:30 a.m. event on the west side of the park’s shelterhouse. Matt Crouch, Interim Executive Director of the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, will be among the speakers.
Improvements made since July include the replacement of 43 streetlights with black posts and globes that utilize LED lights. Concrete pathways have been installed, as well as specially-designed park benches and receptacles. In addition, new roofs have been placed on both the shelterhouse and bandstand.
While these upgrades have been in development for three years, Wednesday’s event may seem a bit anticlimactic. Immediately after the ceremony, the town square will be closed again to the public and remain off-limits for the rest of the year, town council vice-president Clyde Compton said.
The council voted to keep the park closed to give new grass seed an opportunity to grow and stabilize, Compton said. Both the fall season, as well as unusually dry conditions, have made new grass extremely delicate, he explained.
For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.
