A ‘lady’s’ touch

As part of a growing movement to update the town’s Main Street, a group of Lenox women lead the charge for the development of a pocket park.

“The Leading Ladies of Lenox got its start about a year ago in March. There had been some setbacks on our main street,” said Cindy Cox, organizer. “The Sweet Side closed, the hardware store closed for a period of time, the steakhouse closed. It seemed we took a large hit on main street last winter.”

The Leading Ladies of Lenox started with the simple idea of improving the town with the hopes of inspiring others to follow suit.

“A group of us ladies got together and decided to do something that would make a difference,” said Cox. “It snowballed from there. We had no idea what we were going to do at that point, we just knew we wanted to do something.”

Getting started

Fifty women pitched in $100 to start and explored ideas such as a Main Street mural and nautical road signs.

“Along the way, there was an idea about doing something with the valley between the Bunn building and the hair salon,” said Cox. “The Lenox Development Corporation is currently renovating that alley. We started talking about it and the idea came out to renovate the alley.”

The Leading Ladies of Lenox did a walk-around and asked members of the community what things they would like to see improved. The group coordinated with community development programs such as Healthy Hometown and observed what projects other towns had done to update their main street.

“Between the Healthy Hometown, the Leading Ladies of Lenox and the city council, we came up with the idea of renovating that area and creating a pocket park in the alley. We then would do a bump-out for the curb to ensure safe passage across the street.”

Pocket park project

Pocket parks are small-scale urban open spaces that provide a safe and inviting environment for surrounding community members. Features of the project include a compass rose marking near-center of town, architectural steel header with signage, vintage-style pedestal clock that will be visible up and down Main Street, three stone planters for green space with seating, a bike rack and sitting walls in the back of the park. The ground surface will be paved and new lighting will be installed. The stone planter at the entrance of the Pocket Park will be flanked by steps on the south side and a ramp on the north side for handicapped accessibility.

Support

Once the idea for the pocket park gained traction, Cox said the ladies were all in.

“We stumbled into that project and everything fell into place,” said Cox. “We recently applied for a Healthy Hometown grant and will be applying for a Taylor County endowment grant later this week. We’re all excited to see this project through.”

The estimated cost of the entire project is $90,000. Construction of the project will be handled in two phases, with the first phase being the pocket park and the second being the curb bump-out. The pocket park is currently in the design stage, with the group having gone through the proper steps to get the project approved.

“The property owners with adjacent properties are on board, the city council is on board. Lincoln Lawn Care that helped design the space is ready to go,” said Cox. “It’s just a matter now of getting the rest of the funding we need.”

As for community support, Cox said it was overly positive and she felt as if the group had done a part in leading the Lenox community down the path toward improvement.

“Everything I’ve heard has been very encouraging,” said Cox. “I think people are very excited about things that have happened on main street after last year. There’s a new Mexican restaurant getting ready to open, businesses have been redoing the fronts of their buildings... It’s amazing how in a span of one year several different projects have happened, so I think the pocket park fits in with these improvements.”