HOPE — When it comes to the Fourth of July holiday, Hope residents like to get a jump on celebrating.

Many of the town’s 2,100 residents gathered around the town square Friday for the five-hour Old Fashioned Independence Day Celebration — six days before the actual holiday.

"That allows us to come together as a community tonight to celebrate with each other, but still focus on their families at public or private events on the Fourth (of July)," said Lizzie Flora, director of the Yellow Trail Museum, which sponsors the annual event.

Residents and the board members of the Yellow Trail Museum welcomed the return of volunteer and the event’s organizer Barb Johnson, who missed last year’s celebration because she was hospitalized.

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Kid-friendly

One of the appeals of the Independence Day celebration is that most activities are meant to attract children, said Susan Thayer Fye, executive director of Main Street of Hope.

For example, Friday’s festivities started with the crowning of Azlyn Whittington, 8, and Mason Morrow, 7, as Little Miss Sparkler and Mr. Firecracker.

In the penny vote competition, Azlyn and Mason raised a combined $313.55 that will go to the Yellow Trail Museum.

As their reward, Azlyn and Mason were allowed to join President Abraham Lincoln (aka actor Danny Russel) in leading 23 children on a parade of decorated bicycles, tricycles, wagons and strollers.

While the children proudly made their way around the town square, two popular songs blared across the town square: the traditional "Battle Hymn of The Republic" and Woody Guthrie’s "This Land is Your Land."

While Mason pulled his little brother, Ryder, in a flag-covered wagon, Azlyn pulled a wagon with a stuffed Boxer dog named Grant. Created with the help of her grandmother, the wagon was meant to honor her real pet that died last year, Azlyn said.

Throughout the evening, some of the youngest participants seemed to have the best time. 

Rayner Kern had two bags filled with ping pong balls attached to his belt. The 3-year-old could not stop laughing as he frantically jumped up and down until all the balls fell on the ground.

And then there were brave older youngsters such as Allyson Baxter, 6, who accepted the challenge of walking on stilts.

"It was like really, really hard," Allyson said. "But I was able to stay up for almost a minute — without my parents’ help."

Personal interaction

As they sat on a bench watching children at the playground, both Josh and Amanda Gates of Hope said they were enjoying the serenity of watching kids play with each other, instead of with their cellphones or smartphones.

Other adults said felt the same way, saying they preferred the old-fashioned human interaction.

Nevertheless, two Hauser graduates used modern communication devises to help unify all the activities. Back after a year’s absence, Bobby Waddle and Mike Asher served as masters of ceremonies by taking wireless microphones to all the different festivities around the square. Together, they broadcasted their conversations to those in attendance. 

"When we talk to folks, it’s not about us," Asher said. "This is about everyone visiting the town of Hope. We want to mingle with them while trying to to help the vendors sell their food. But most of all, we want to help everyone put their troubles out of their minds for a few hours and have fun."

Tasty treats

The longest food line led to the Yellow Trail Museum booth, which was serving fish fried by members of the Hartsville Volunteer Fire Department.

But another popular food stop was the Kappa Kappa Sigma booth, where homemade ice cream and apple, peach and cherry crisps were provided to an appreciative crowd.   

Chapter president Carolyn Dailey said the Independence Day celebration is an important fundraiser for her organization.

"We almost do as much business here as we do during the Hope Heritage Days," Dailey said.  

Money raised by Kappa Kappa Sigma goes to nonprofit causes and projects such as Dollars for Scholars, the Hope playground — and even for life-saving equipment needed by the Hope Volunteer Fire Department, Dailey said.

Exceptionally popular was the cake walk. Reminiscent of musical chairs, cake walkers step from one numbered circle to another. As soon as the music stops, the person standing on a randomly chosen number earns the right to go to the dessert table and pick an item of their choice.

At one point, 22 people — an almost even mix of adults and children — walked in the circle, with another 10 waiting in line for their opportunity to win cakes, fudge, cookies and muffins.

When visitors needed a break from the warm temperatures, they cooled down with air conditioning and ice cream floats at the Yellow Trail Museum.

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2019 winners

Little Miss Sparkler: Azlyn Whittington, 8

Mr. Firecracker: Mason Morrow, 7      

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Grand prize winners for the Apple pie baking contest:

Child: Addie Dailey

Adult: David Wiwi

Both received $25 prizes.  

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Confusion and frustration among some elected Bartholomew County officials, highway personnel and even private contractors has occasionally surfaced after a grant program from the Indiana Department of Transportation debuted in 2016.

From their perspective, the awarding of INDOT’s Community Crossing matching grants for road improvements seem to come later each year. There were two instances when money awarded in one year did not arrive until the next.

Long delays in receiving grants carry the risk of contractors rescinding bids if material costs rise substantially above what was originally calculated, Bartholomew County highway engineer Danny Hollander said.

But INDOT spokesman Scott Manning said he doesn’t agree with opinions expressed at recent county meetings that INDOT fell seven months behind on providing Bartholomew County with grant funds for the county overlay program.

Manning said there were legitimate reasons for delays that were not always INDOT’s fault. Those reasons range from shifting funding sources and unexpected demand to bureaucracy and even a disappearing email.

After debuting in 2016, the popularity of the Community Crossings matching grants program for roads skyrocketed in 2017, Manning said. 

"INDOT received total funding requests that significantly outpaced dollars available, making the grant truly competitive for the first time," he said. 

Due to the overwhelming response, the 2017 grant announcement wasn’t made until late September, and the money wasn’t received until four months later.

In 2018, INDOT began receiving long-term funding for road and infrastructure repair through a hike in the gas tax and an increase in vehicle registration fees.

Nevertheless, INDOT had to wait until late November to announce grants because the agency needed 11 months to build up a balance in a new fund from new revenue sources, Manning said.

Hollander said he also understood the state wanted to see how much money would build up during that time period before making grant decisions.

"This is also part of the reason we awarded only $100 million in the 2018 call for projects," Manning said. "By reducing the total grant award and delaying the awards in 2018, we were able to ensure a fund balance to cover the disbursement of funds."

In response, the Bartholomew County Highway Department authorized seven additional projects with its own money for late 2018, and agreed to reimburse itself when the grant came it, Hollander said. 

Those funds announced last November still hadn’t arrived by June 3, when the Bartholomew County commissioners agreed to hire Milestone Contractors to do this year’s overlay work. That prompted Hollander to temporarily reduce the planned 25 miles of new blacktops to 19.5 miles.

While that stirred up emotions among a few people at the county commissioners meeting, there was relief four days later when the funds were finally received.  

It turns out that about two months of the delay was the result of a missing email. State records show the grant contract was emailed by INDOT to Bartholomew County on Dec. 11. However, it took until Feb. 8 for Bartholomew County officials to inform INDOT that email was never received, Manning said.

After the contract was resent on Feb. 11, the paperwork was returned to Indianapolis on Feb. 25, Manning said.

But it took most of March for INDOT’s Central Office to finalize the grant, he explained. In April, the grant award had to make the rounds to get required signatures from four different state agencies.

"There is an awful lot of bureaucracy involved in these grants," Hollander said. "Lots of hoops to jump through."

INDOT didn’t receive the state-issued purchase order for the grant until May 2, Manning said.  

That same day, INDOT informed Bartholomew County that the money would be deposited into their account within the next 35 days, Manning said.

Now that the Community Crossings program has finally achieved funding certainty, INDOT will be able to hold calls for projects and award funds on a much more consistent schedule, Manning said.  

"We will hold a call (for funding proposals) in July, score in August and early September and plan to announce awards in late September," Manning said. "That will be the cadence moving forward."

Hollander says he’s hopeful there won’t be any more snags, adding his department has developed a strong relationship with INDOT that is in everyone’s interest to maintain.

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Launched in 2016, the Community Crossings Matching Grant Program provides funding to cities, towns and counties across Indiana to make improvements to local roads and bridges.

Projects that are eligible for funding include road resurfacing and preservation, bridge rehabilitation or replacement, and road reconstruction. Material costs for chip sealing and crack filing operations are also eligible for funding.

How much a local community or county has to match depends on population. For example, counties such as Bartholomew with a population of greater than 50,000 will receive funds using a 50/50 match.

But towns like Hope with a population of fewer than 10,000 will receive funds using a 75/25 match.

Since 2016, the state has awarded $400 million in state funds to support local road and bridge projects around the state.

— Source: Indiana Department of Transportation

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The inaugural gathering served as something of a passionate tent revival for Columbus’ creative vision among Modernist meccas.

Such was the first Exhibit Columbus opening party two years ago in Mill Race Park, where a capacity crowd of 700 people from all over the nation gathered under a tent to celebrate a three-month public exhibition that eventually garnered worldwide attention.

Now Exhibit Columbus leaders have announced that it’s time to get the latest party started — or at least publicize it and get ticket sales moving, all a month earlier than the timeline for the 2017 festivities.

“I don’t think I can personally remember any other event where so many people looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves,” said Jeff Baker, a co-organizer of the 2017 event and now in the same role for the upcoming gathering. “And the sense of unity I felt there was so incredibly strong.”

He and John Pickett, the other co-organizer, aim to build the Aug. 24 opening party into something equally memorable. The $175-per-person event will feature a cocktail reception, dinner, and live entertainment by Chicago-based rhythmic quintet, Dos Santos.

People began buying tickets within the first hour they were available online a week ago, according to Baker.

The Exhibit Columbus exhibition, titled “Good Design and Community,” will be Aug. 24 to Dec. 1 with 18 temporary installations. The free event, held every other year, focuses on art, architecture and design, and uses new, pop-up installations from the world’s leading designers to highlight existing structures and landscapes in a city known globally for its Modernist legacy.

For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.

Paul Walorski remembers staying up all night on July 20, 1969, with his eyes glued to the television set, watching news coverage as Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin took a giant leap for mankind.

At 4:30 a.m. the next morning, Walorski, a young college student at the time, hurried to his early morning shift as a copy-runner at the South Bend Tribune where he caught a peek of the first photos to come in from the newswires of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

“I came in and saw the stories and pictures in the South Bend copy room to get ready for the editors coming in,” Walorski said. “I got to see more than most in the pictures.”

Dubbing himself a “space freak” growing up, Walorski said he remembers sitting in his father’s basement listening to Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite that orbited the Earth for three weeks, on his dad’s shortwave radio. He would even sneak a radio into high school to listen to NASA’s space walks.

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Fifty years later, Walorski is one of many people spreading their fascination of space with younger generations. Walorski will present at the Bartholomew County Public Library on July 15 as part of the library’s 50th anniversary celebration of the Apollo 11 Mission.

Using his models of the Earth, sun and moon, Walorski will illustrate just how big the universe actually is from the relative sizes of the moon, sun, planets and galaxies to the distances in between.

“With the sun model I use, the solar system would expand out to Mill Race Park and Pluto expands out to Donner Park,” Walorski said. “I also use coins and other things people are familiar with to show where the solar system fits in the scheme of the Milky Way galaxy. On that same scale, I show how far away we can actually observe the universe at its furthest distance.”

His own mission in sharing this information extends beyond his love for astronomy. Walorski said the moon landing was really an “amazing technological feat.” Reflecting on the last 50 years, he said it’s interesting to know how people were willing to accept the challenge and risk their lives to accomplish the mission — something that America found important outside of the normal everyday existence.

“If there’s something people can learn from that, that’s my hope,” Walorski said.

Commander Neil Armstrong will also make a special appearance at the library on July 16 when actor Terry Lynch comes to town from Illinois to present his portrayal of the cosmic legend.

For more than 10 years, Lynch has brought history to life through one-man interactive performances of historical figures, ranging from Mark Twain to Paul Revere. He started portraying Armstrong this year as a way to commemorate the historical mission to the moon.

“I was young at the time,” Lynch said, recalling where he was the day Armstrong and Aldrin took their first steps on the moon. “It’s very cool. There’s tons of information on these guys. Let’s go with Neil.”

When Lynch presents to a room of youths, he said younger kids are able to learn more about the whole process — rocket ships, space shuttles, unknown facts.

“My whole goal is to make them believe this is actually someone involved,” Lynch said. “That’s the best part — if I can get people so involved that they want to know about the person or the subject matter and start asking questions as if I’m actually that person.”

It takes about two months of preparation to fully get into a character, Lynch said. That involves reading books, brainstorming a performance outline and locking away information in his brain so he can answer any questions the audience may have.

Lynch must also look the part if he wants to play the part. That means shopping at what he calls “unimaginable places” to find the perfect costumes. He discovered an astronaut suit at a brick and mortar costume shop that was going out of business.

What he hopes to convey most in his July 16 presentation is that Apollo 11 wasn’t just about Armstrong and Aldrin, although those are the names most everyone knows. Lynch said more than 400,000 people worked on getting a man to the moon, and even Armstrong and Aldrin made that clear.

“These guys knew they were the ones there but they didn’t get there by themselves,” Lynch said. “In reality, if you do something amazing, people will find out. These people showed that. It was a time where people really worked together. That’s the message I’d like to get across with it. Although they were the astronauts, they wanted people to know it wasn’t just them.”

Mary Clare Speckner, programs coordinator at the Bartholomew County Public Library, said incorporating the anniversary of the moon landing fit right in with the library’s summer reading theme, “Universal Stories.”

Showing the creativity and intelligence of America’s scientists, mathematicians and all the other men and women who made the mission possible is one reason why Speckner decided to bring presenters such as Walorski and Lynch to the library.

“It’s important,” Clare said. “How do you even think that way? To figure all this out, to land somebody on the moon? It’s beyond me.”

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Bartholomew County Public Library events:

Dawn of the Space Age

When: 10 to 10:45 a.m. July 13

Where: L.S. Noblitt Planetarium at Columbus East High School

What: The program follows the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and the competition between the U.S.S.R. and the United States to conquer space and continues into recreational space travel.

Who: Ages 5 and older

To register: mybcpl.org.

Apollo 13 Film

When: 6 to 8:30 p.m. July 13

What: The 1995 film is based on the true story of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission bound for the moon.

Who: All ages

Celebrate NASA’s 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11’s Historic Moon Landing

When: 4 to 5 p.m. July 15

What: A live webcast from the American Museum of Natural History will feature a guided recreation of the Apollo 11 voyage

Who: All ages

How Big Is The Universe?

When: 6 p.m. July 15

What: Presenter Paul Walorski will use models and pictures to help illustrate the relative sizes and distances to the moon, sun, plants, stars and galaxies.

Who: All ages

Apollo 11: One Great Leap, A Series of Firsts

When: 6 p.m. July 16

What: Actor Terry Lynch will portray astronaut Neil Armstrong as he recounts the lead up to the first moon landing.

Who: Recommended for Grades 5 and up

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To learn more about NASA’s Apollo 11 mission to the moon, visit nasa.gov.

[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”What you didn’t know about the moon” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

1. The moon isn’t round. It’s actually shaped like an egg.
2. The moon is bigger than Pluto.
3. The moon is moving away from Earth.
4. The sky always looks black on the moon because the light coming from the sun doesn’t pass through the molecules that make the Earth’s sky appear blue.
5. There’s no sound on the moon because of the moon’s virtual lack of atmosphere.
6. It gets unbearably cold — and unbearably hot.
7. It would take 26 days for a commercial airplane to reach the moon. It took Apollo 11 about three days.
8. The moon and the sun look the same size because the sun is about 400 times farther away from the Earth, but the sun is actually about 400 times bigger than the moon.
9. Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong also left an olive branch-shaped gold pin, messages from 73 world leaders, a patch from the Apollo 1 mission and medals in honor of two of the first Soviet astronauts who died in flight, along with a flag and plaque on the moon.

Source: Parade

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