Hometown Heroes Park takes shape

Tucumcari now has a visual plan for its proposed Hometown Heroes Park, and all it needs is about another $13,000 to begin construction on it.

Connie Loveland, executive director of Tucumcari MainStreet, and Anthony Kent, who proposed the Hometown Heroes Park more than two years ago, in early October received renderings of the proposed park from Anthropopulus Design & Planning of Albuquerque.

Anthropopulus formerly is Groundwork Studio, which facilitated the city's wayfinding plan.

The renderings show a mural on the east-facing wall of Sands Dorsey Park at Second and Main streets. It also shows a freestanding steel cutout panel that shows a likeness of the person being honored, plus a shade structure and bench memorial. All three concepts would be on a circular path within the park.

"I liked it," Loveland said. "I was having a hard time envisioning it before this. But this is a high-impact, visual project."

Kent said he and Loveland went through several designs before settling on the ones that will be used.

"They're awesome," he said of the elements in the final version. "It's beautiful. It's going to be very, very nice."

During a Quay County Commission meeting Monday, Loveland said the mural design has evolved into a sort of large billboard instead of the using the wall. She said concerns arose about having to obtain permission from the building's owner and maintaining the mural on it.

Tucumcari MainStreet received a $12,000 grant from Union Pacific Railroad for the project. Loveland estimates the Hometown Heroes Park will need about another $13,000 to complete it, though it could be completed in phases.

Loveland said she is investigating the possibility of other grants to cover the remaining cost. Tucumcari MainStreet also is accepting donations at its website, tucumcarimainstreet.org, for it.

In May, the Tucumcari City Commission approved the park initiative where New Mexico MainStreet would cover the estimated $20,000 cost of research, planning and design.

The first honoree of the Hometown Heroes Park will be prominent New Mexico civil rights activist Alice Faye Kent Hoppes, a Tucumcari native who died in 2003.

Kent, noting the city had no plaque or memorial to honor his groundbreaking aunt, initially suggested to the city commission in the spring of 2022 a park or a bench for such a purpose.

Loveland has taken other suggestions for future honorees at the Hometown Heroes Park, including former NFL player Stan David and the late character actor Paul Brinegar, best known for his role on the "Rawhide" television series.

"We want this to be something the community is proud of," she said.

Kent said once the park is finished, he hoped it would be inspirational to children in the area.

"I want them to know of these great people who grew up in Tucumcari and Quay County," he said.