Hope plans grant application for Town Square upgrades

The area in and around the Hope Town Square would be spruced up, if the community gets approved for a grant from the state.

The Hope Town Council decided this week to allow Main Street of Hope to continue working toward the grant application, focused on replacing all the aging street lights in and around the square, new sidewalks, better looking benches and cigarette catchers along with new trash receptacles. The town is also looking at ways to make the paths inside the Town Square itself ADA compliant.

A major part of the grant application would focus on the streetlight replacements. Susan Thayer-Fye, head of Main Street, said that the town has more than 40 street lights around and inside the square. They were all originally installed by Duke Energy about 25 years ago, and not only do they not meet current energy saving goals, they also are so old that there are no parts for them. When a light was destroyed in a crash in front of the Yellow Trail Museum, it had to be replaced with a completely mismatched light pole from the rest in the town.

Thayer-Fye said that the Custer-Nugent Foundation recently made a $25,000 donation to the town toward the matching part of the grant. The town can apply for up to $600,000 in funds from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs by May. There is expected to be serious competition for the state grants.