Genoa unveils downtown park
By ELENA GRIMM egrimm@daily-chroncile.com
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| Barb Briscoe of Hampshire walks through the new Main Street Park in downtown Genoa on Friday. Briscoe and her husband, Bob, donated the land for the new park. Beck Diefenbach – bdiefenbach@daily-chronicle.com |
GENOA – Dave Glaum wears a piece of pride on his hat.
Though he couldn't avoid the drizzling rain on Friday, a button on his hat that reads "I heart Genoa" showed just how he was feeling as he looked at the new Main Street Park from a distance.
Even soaking wet, the wooden benches and landscaped patio looked warm and welcoming.
"It's going to be a focal area for everything we do in the future," said Glaum, who grew up in Chicago and moved to Genoa six years ago, never looking back.
Glaum, who is on the Genoa Main Street board of directors, was joined at the park's grand opening by others in the organization, volunteers and people who work nearby. The group admired the park from the sidewalk, where they stood under a tent awaiting grilled hot dogs.
The bulk of the park was donated labor and materials. It sits in the 200 block of Main Street where a vacant lot sat before.
"It shows what happens when people get together," Glaum said. "In Genoa, we get things done instead of whining."
Bob Briscoe, who owns the property, said he bought it primarily for the parking spaces in the back.
"They approached us and I said, 'Absolutely,'" he said.
Now, wooden benches, a wooden arbor, a patio and landscaped boulders and flowers invite people "to come, sit and eat a bagged lunch, or relax," said Gordon Jones, Genoa Main Street vice president.
Genoa needed a park in the downtown area. Mim Evans, Genoa Main Street's executive director, said that it was one of the few downtowns with no green space.
Downtown workers like Mirna Swineheart say they'll use the park to eat lunch or get away from the office.
"We've always needed a place to go that's not too far away," said Swineheart, sales manager at Citizens First National Bank of Genoa.
Genoa Main Street began making improvements to the downtown about three years ago, Evans said. The organization has installed an information kiosk and on one Saturday, painted more than a dozen businesses.
"This is different from any other project we've done because the public is being granted use of a private property," Evans said.
The park will be open year-round, and Evans imagines brightening it up with Christmas lights to welcome holiday shoppers in.
Main Street board president Pattie Marx pictures another scenario.
"The husbands will be here next summer," she said, "waiting for their wives to finish shopping."
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