{"id":50038,"date":"2022-01-06T00:10:36","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T00:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=50038"},"modified":"2022-01-06T00:10:36","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T00:10:36","slug":"town-presents-spectacular-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=50038","title":{"rendered":"Town presents spectacular image"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 I got a major surprise early this afternoon as I arrived in this Hopkins County community on a story assignment for KETR-FM radio.<\/p>\n

It was the appearance of what I consider to be one of the most spectacular small-town squares I ever have seen.<\/p>\n

Sulphur Springs is a town of about 16,000 or so residents. It is the Hopkins County seat. I visited for a time with County Judge Robert Newsom about the impact that Cooper Lake is having on the county. What we didn\u2019t connect was how the city and the county have combined to create a gleaming downtown district that is utterly brimming with activity, with color and personality.<\/p>\n

The highlight of what I saw involved the massive veterans memorial in the middle of the city square.<\/p>\n

The city has erected a memorial with specific exhibits remembering and honoring those who served \u2014 and died \u2014 in battle in virtually all the conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries. I was drawn \u2014 quite naturally \u2014 to the Vietnam War segment of the memorial.<\/p>\n

Once I took my eyes off the veterans memorial, I scanned the surrounding businesses and was struck by the absence \u2014 at least what I could see of it \u2014 of any empty store fronts.<\/p>\n

Newsom told me about the courthouse, which the county renovated through a historic preservation grant that is a popular method of financing that counties have used for the past two decades or so. I mentioned to him how Randall County in the Panhandle acquired a grant to fix up the exterior of its 1909 courthouse building, but then left the interior of it empty. It is unused. Newsom couldn\u2019t believe it. It\u2019s true, I told him. The exterior looks fantastic and it has drawn many new businesses to the square in downtown Canyon.<\/p>\n

Newsom said\u00a0with emphasis<\/em>\u00a0that Hopkins County intended to make full use of its courthouse \u2014 which was built in the 1890s \u2014 when it was done. \u201cIt\u2019s expensive to maintain,\u201d he said, adding that it is worth the expense. Indeed, the Hopkins County Courthouse is a beautiful structure \u2026 that fits right in with what Sulphur Springs has done to its downtown district.<\/p>\n

Readers of this blog perhaps know of my love for vibrant downtown districts. I have written about it many times here and when I worked for newspapers in Beaumont and Amarillo.<\/p>\n

Man, oh man! Sulphur Springs has hit a grand slam home run with its downtown district.<\/p>\n

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n

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SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas\u00a0\u2014 I got a major surprise early this afternoon as I arrived in this Hopkins County community on a story assignment for KETR-FM radio. It was the appearance of what I consider to be one of the most spectacular small-town squares I ever have seen. Sulphur Springs is a town of about 16,000 … Continue reading Town presents spectacular image<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9834,8436,3777,3823],"class_list":["post-50038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-downtown-development","tag-ketr-fm","tag-public-radio","tag-randall-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50040,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50038\/revisions\/50040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}