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Railroad park updates continue

CLOVIS — The updates at Clovis' Historic Railroad Park are still ongoing and Clovis MainStreet is now looking to get the public involved.

Members of the community are being asked to purchase engraved bricks and bench plaques, which will be on display at the park for years to come.

"We are just really excited for the project and we're really happy to be able to include the public into it," Clovis MainStreet Executive Director Lisa Pellegrino-Spear said.

For the bench plaques, the cost is $1,750 to sponsor a whole bench or $1,000 to split the bench with two plaques. With eight benches, Pellegrino-Spear said the maximum number of plaques available for purchase will be 16.

The engraved bricks are available for a $100 donation, with an initial limit of 220 though Pellegrino-Spear said if there is enough interest then Clovis MainStreet may explore different brick projects at the park in the future.

"You can have the brick engraved with a name, a statement, in memory of someone or just your family or business or organization," Pellegrino-Spear said. "Your name will be laser engraved on it and it will be at the railroad park itself."

She said those bricks will then be used to build the pillars, which will hold an entrance sign to the park and a sign detailing the community's railroad history.

Pellegrino-Spear said she is hoping to have all of the benches and bricks in place by the end of the year in order to host an event showcasing the project and the railroad park itself.

"Once we have the signage up and the bricks and the benches then we'll be doing a celebration, a ribbon cutting and dedication at the park and at that time we're hoping we'll be returning the bell back to the park," she said.

The bell is the original bell on the park's locomotive; the bell was stolen by schoolboys in 1959 and recently returned.

That celebration will be the culmination of over a year's worth of work building up the railroad park and eight years of restoring the old locomotive.

Kenneth Jones, vice president of the Clovis Area Trains Society, said he and former president Greg Jennings have been working to restore the old locomotive for eight or nine years, estimating that at least 4,000 man hours have gone into it.

Jennings said the locomotive was in "terrible" condition when they got their hands on it.

He said much of the exterior work has been completed, though the interior cab still needs to be renovated. Jennings estimated it will take another two years before the project is complete.

Jennings said the biggest challenge has simply been a lack of photos showing what the locomotive looked like back in the day.

Pellegrino-Spear said anyone looking for more information can email her at [email protected] and order forms for the bench plaques and bricks should be available on Clovis MainStreet's website and Facebook page in a few days.