Feb. 22—A proposed public green space downtown that included doing away with a one block stretch of a downtown road is not going forward as originally proposed.
Last year, the Tribune reported the county was considering purchasing and demolishing the old Firestone building to create additional parking.
Part of the plan included vacating and tearing up the stretch of East Mulberry Street between North Main and North Union streets to create a one block public green space.
In October, Kokomo Mayor Tyler Moore told the Tribune the city was willing to pay for tearing up Mulberry Street if it received support from the community and downtown businesses.
But Howard County Commissioner Jack Dodd, R-District 2, said Monday that Moore has since poured cold water on the idea of tearing up the aforementioned stretch of Mulberry Street.
A message left for Moore on Tuesday seeking comment was not returned.
Mulberry staying as is has no bearing on the county’s plan to acquire the Firestone building and tear it down to create more parking for county employees, Dodd said.
The commissioner said the county is still planning on using economic development funds to purchase and demolish the building, located 219 N. Union St., and in its place, install 25 parking spaces on the north side of the property and a smaller green space area on the south side that would connect to the adjacent Artist Alley.
The building is owned by Fortune Companies Inc., which bought it in a sheriff’s sale in 2023 following a lengthy legal battle over ownership of the property.
Dodd said the parking is needed for county employees at the Jeff Stout Government Center, but the spaces could also benefit patrons of the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library.
A time frame and estimated cost for the project is still up in the air.
The green space could also be the home of the planned Opha May Johnson monument, Dodd said.
Jerry Paul, president of the Howard County Memorial Corporation, was in attendance at Monday’s Commissioners’ meeting and implored the board to move as quickly as possible.
The monument to Johnson is being headed by Howard County Memorial Corporation, which was also behind the Women’s Legacy Memorial located on the northeast corner of the courthouse. The nonprofit raised $50,000 for the Johnson memorial and received another $50,000 in a matching grant from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.
Johnson was a Howard County Native and the first female U.S. Marine.
The Johnson monument was originally proposed to be located on the northwest corner of the courthouse square, but that idea was nixed by the commissioners in November after opposition from the county’s courthouse security committee.
The committee cited its long-held preference that the courthouse’s secured entrance, located on the west side, be unobstructed and free from as many pedestrians as possible for safety reasons.
Tyler Juranovich can be reached at 765-454-8577, by email at tyler.juranovich@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @tylerjuranovich.
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