The new town square

Posted 11/16/12

Anyone driving through the village of Hancock, NY (my home town), has undoubtedly noticed the fresh, green grass of the new town square. You’ll see the new bandstand and a new pavilion, too, and as …

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The new town square

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Anyone driving through the village of Hancock, NY (my home town), has undoubtedly noticed the fresh, green grass of the new town square. You’ll see the new bandstand and a new pavilion, too, and as of last week, the newly planted trees and a wrought iron archway, which proclaims “Town Square Hancock New York, Gateway to the Upper Delaware.”

Perhaps the greatest improvement of the new town square, however, is the stretch of green lawn that replaces the cracked pavement of what was the parking lot of the former Great American grocery store. That parking lot, plus another across the street, created a sea of asphalt that constituted the center of town throughout my childhood. The new park is a welcome antidote to the old Carly Simon song about paving paradise to “put up a parking lot.”

The construction of the town square has been a long and long-suffering project of the Hancock Partners, Inc., a community organization dedicated to revitalization of the village, with support from the Hancock Area Chamber of Commerce and local government.

The Hancock Partners worked to purchase the Great American lot, secure funding and mitigate unforeseen obstacles. An environmental review found underground contamination at the site that had to be remedied. Contention also arose when the property, now designated as a public park, was removed from the village tax rolls. The Partners and most people I’ve talked to, though, feel the improvements far outweigh any loss of tax revenues and will in fact contribute to economic stability.

The town square project, which has been underway since 2004, has been an even longer dream for town improvement. In fact, Jerry DaBrescia, a project leader, told me that my own father used to talk about the idea back when he was part of the town planning board in the 1970s.

Project cost is around half a million dollars primarily funded through a loan, county and federal grants and local charities. The square was designed by landscape architect David LePro, himself a 1962 graduate of Hancock Central School. The local engineering and surveying firm of Jacobs, Hunt & Associates was also central to the project.

This summer, the Hancock Partners also completed another long-planned project, the Hancock Fitness Trail. The mile-long hiking trail was developed to improve pedestrian safety and comfort as well as access to the downtown business district.

The community’s churches held a blessing for the town square on July 18. It is wonderful to finally see the project in the home stretch. It is a delight to see people enjoying the new park; there are little kids clambering on the steps of the bandstand and riding bikes on the new sidewalks. Concerts, barbeques and a farmer’s market are just a few of the events in the planning for the new town square.

The following poem is by Kristin Barron:

The Closing of the Victory Store

(Aka Charlie’s Great American)

It was a trick mirror

that made the towering peak

of oranges

I put my small, moist hand

on the abrupt glass

where the oranges left off

and the mirror began.

Touched the sleek eggplant,

grapes, melons.

There was a barrel of walnuts

to plunge my hands into.

Asparagus in spring, great beehive

Hubbard squash in fall.

I remember their colors

like a drink.

But best of all was the cardboard banana tree

golden and green

with silver hooks to hang the bananas

for the ladies to pick—

The store is gone now

I roamed the aisles

in its final days

for half-priced diapers and chocolate.

The defunct vaudevillian

shell of a store

with wincing lights

looted shelves

and the banana tree

still in its corner

so sad and stark

for all the world just Easter grass and crepe paper.

(May 2006)

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