In March, resident Molly Werth purchased the plot of land, knowing the corner was dangerous for kids and cars alike because the property’s woodsy nature blocked drivers from seeing around the corner.

“Somebody had approached me and said, ‘You know, this is almost like a dangerous corner,'” Werth said.

In October 2021, a vehicle struck a child at the intersection, sending the child to the hospital.

One of Werth’s two grandsons goes to school at nearby Thunder Bay Junior High School and the other goes to nearby Alpena High School, so she had extra motivation to purchase the land.

News Photo by Mike Gonzalez The back of a bench is seen Tuesday at Hope Park on the corner of 3rd Avenue and South Bagley Street.

She asked one of her grandsons to take a look at the lot and call her to decide whether Werth should buy it.

He said yes.

“So my mission was to clear that out for those kids, so no kid would be hurt,” Werth said. “That was number one. So we cleared out as many trees as we could.”

She said she hired a friend to help at first, working eight to 10 hours a day for the first week, but Werth said the process was too slow.

She went on to hire more people, such as Matt Roskey, landscape company Kish’s Custom Care, and other workers to help. She also rented equipment to help speed up the process.

Werth said Roskey was a key worker who helped make the park what it is.

A little ways into clearing the lot out, Roskey found something that shocked Werth: a rock that had the word “hope” painted on it.

“I had just that day come home, got the mail, in the mail was a necklace,” Werth said. “It had the Virgin Mary and a little charm with ‘hope’ on it. I thought that was kind of cool and I went to the park. Two hours later, Matt said, ‘Look, I found a stone, it says hope.’ So we always felt that this was part of the park.”

She never officially gave the park a name, but Werth thinks Hope Park is fitting.

Later, Roskey realized some of the trees going down were good for reutilization and went to a local Amish community to have them milled.

Roskey later made furniture out of the milled wood and set the furniture up in the park.

“By clearing it out, the place just happened to look beautiful,” Werth said. “It was just like, ‘Wow, this is really cool just sitting here,’ and so that’s when we learned we needed benches. Matt built five benches for the park.”

The park opened in late August as a place for anyone to relax. Werth said there are no nearby places to park vehicles, but the park is meant to be a place for anyone who passes by.

“I just hope people enjoy it,” Werth said. “I do. I hope it keeps the kids safe, number one. I hope that, if they realize they can go sit there, they can.”

Werth said she’s thankful to all the people who helped make Hope Park a thing and the people who have complimented her for the hard work her team put in.

She hopes to bring a power source to the park so she can decorate and light it up for the Christmas season.

“It’s a park,” Werth said. “And I don’t have any intentions of changing it, just maintaining it. Enjoy it.”