Two groups of college students are helping a southwestern Indiana county draft plans for a new park near the region’s Interstate 69 extension.
University of Evansville and Purdue University students are devising designs and funding plans for the Gibson County park.
The Evansville students completed five different plans that include adding a lake, walking trails and other features for the park’s initial 41-acre phase. The county parks board will choose Jan. 6 from among those plans.
The park also will encompass land that Gwen and Richard Hopkins are donating near the town of Francisco. Their family farmed the land for more than 150 years.
Purdue students are drafting a master funding plan and design aspects for 160 acres the Hopkins family will donate later.