No one will ever accuse Mark Hopkins—owner of Hopkins Ace Hardware in Downtown Chesterton—of thinking small. Or of speaking softly. Or of beating around the bush.
More than four years ago, on July 7, 2020, Hopkins pitched a bold idea to the Chesterton Park Board: His vision of what Coffee Creek Park—that diamond in the rough tucked into a corner of the Downtown—could become, with the sheer will to make it so. The Chesterton Tribune quickly dubbed Hopkins’ vision the “Reimagining of Coffee Creek Park.”
The previous year Hopkins had already led volunteers on two separate expeditions into Coffee Creek Park, to remove invasives and deadfall and litter. Both were hugely successful campaigns and with the help of the Street Department vast quantities of debris were cleared from the park. But Hopkins wasn’t content. In a town whose residents seemed scarcely aware of its existence, he wanted to put Coffee Creek Park on the map and make it a destination.
So Hopkins spoke to the Park Board of an amphitheater for community events, a supersized sledding hill, a trio of paths winding gently down the east slope of Lois Lane into Coffee Creek Park, and—most ambitiously—the conversion of the alley just north of Ancillaerie into a pedestrian walkway and public art gallery. For Hopkins the project was a no-brainer. A revitalized Coffee Creek Park would give folks a reason to visit the Downtown or to visit it again.
“I’m surprised how many people live here and never come Downtown,” Hopkins told the Park Board at the time. “Why don’t they come Downtown and hang out with us?”
About a year later, in 2021, virtually all of Hopkins’ vision—plus amenities which he hadn’t pitched—had found their way into a Coffee Creek Park masterplan designed by SEH Inc. and approved by the Park Board, whose members then set about the task of choosing an apt first project.
They selected what Park Superintendent Tyler McLead would dub the “pond loop enhancement project,” and—on the strength of a 50/50 grant provided by the Lake Michigan Coastal Program and a contract awarded to Chesterton’s Berglund Construction—work began early this year: The construction of three overlooks/piers, on the north, west, and south sides of the pond; a semicircular aggregate trail connecting them; and a limestone outcropping at the southwest corner.
On Wednesday morning, Oct. 16, all of the principals in the project celebrated its completion with a ribbon cutting on the west overlook/pier: McLead; Park Board members Paul Shinn, Bruce Mathias, Wendy Marciniak, and Bob Cohn; Town Council members Dane Lafata, D-3rd, and Erin Collins, D-2nd; Katherine Balkema of the Lake Michigan Coastal Program; and Louise Crumpacker of the Crumpacker Memorial Charitable Fund, whose most generous donation of $10,000 has been used to purchase benches for placement on the overlooks/piers and along the trail as well as interpretive signage.
Hopkins was there too, the Idea Guy, also the Action Guy, as committed as anyone in Chesterton’s long history to its quality of life.
“Our approach to implement the masterplan has been to start on the east side of the park around the pond,” McLead noted in his brief comments. “We will now turn our attention to the improvement of the existing infrastructure in the park, mainly the boardwalk.”
McLead also expressed his deep gratitude to the Lake Michigan Coastal Program, whose commitment of $200,000 to the pond loop enhancement project made it possible in the first place; Glenn Peterson of SEH and Jon Ruble of Planned Environment Associates, who collaborated on the preparation of the masterplan; Berglund Construction, whose crews completed the job on schedule; Louise Crumpacker and the Crumpacker Family, whose benches are already being used; and of course Hopkins himself.
Park Board President Bob Cohn, for his part, said that the pond loop enhancement project and recent cleanup operations are only the beginning of a multi-year effort to fulfill Coffee Creek Park’s potential, and to that end he’s looking forward to working with Rebuilding Together Duneland and other local partners. Cohn also remarked that he’s been delighted by how well liked and appreciated in the community the new amenities are.
For the record: At 2:35 p.m. today, Thursday, Oct. 17, a mother and her young children were resting on the benches on the west pier/overlook, while an angler with a line in the pond was enjoying the gorgeous October weather on the north one.
