The town of Hope is nearly finished with the first phase of renovations and improvements to the Town Square. That comes after the installation yesterday of a new decorative clock on the north side of the square.
The entire project is costing about $172 thousand dollars and includes new electrical power capacity throughout the town square, terraced seating around the town bandstand and concrete pads for the display of artwork around the square in the future. $50,000 of the funding came from a state matching grant, while the rest came from donations by businesses, residents and organizations, grants from the town’s economic development fund and the sale of decorative bricks around the new clock.
The project is a partnership between the town, the not-for-profit Heritage of Hope and the new Hope Main Street organization.
Michael Dean, CEO of Heritage of Hope, said that the new clock stands just over 15 feet tall.
On its four sides, it will honor four Hope community leaders and their accomplishments in the community: Lowell Miller, Buck Meek, John Baute and John Norman.
Michael Dean on the four families
Organizers of the Town Square project credited Larry Simpson with kicking it off and his vision of how the town could improve. Simpson, the former owner and editor at the Hope newspaper, the Star-Journal, died last year on the last day of Hope Heritage Days, before the grant was approved.