Designers and work crews have completed the flag park on the southeastern corner of Main Street and Highway 75.
The $35,000 project features four flagpoles — for an American flag, Minnesota flag, POW-MIA flag and a Luverne flag.
The Highway 75 edge of the park has a grass berm along the west edge, and the north side has a raised flowerbed that has Sioux quartzite boulders, perennial and annual flowers and shrubs and a sturdy center pipe that will be used to secure seasonal arrangements.
For example, a shock of cornstalks is the current focal point. This winter, a Christmas tree will be secured to the post, which is wired for electricity.
Along the east edge of the flag park are several autumn blaze pear trees, which produce white blooms in the spring and red leaves in the fall.
Luverne horticulturalist George Bonnema, who serves on the flag park design committee, said the trees are fast-growing and will reach a height of 30 feet. The same species is planted in the sidewalk in front of Sterling’s downtown.
Bonnema said he’s enjoyed being part of the planning process for the flag park.
“If you think about it, everyone who comes to town will stop at this corner at some point, and this is what they see,” he said.
“My role was to select plants that would convey the aspect of a prairie look, using plant material that would tolerate the deicing salt used by the highway department. I chose shrubs and herbaceous perennials that will give interest and color for the entire growing season.”
Bonnema and a local committee worked with LIFT (Luverne Initiatives For Tomorrow) and Confluence, a professional landscape architecture firm in Sioux Falls on the flag park design.
“The motive was to make the corner say, ‘Welcome to Luverne,’ without a sign that said ‘Welcome to Luverne.’ I feel we have accomplished that goal,” Bonnema said.
“The park also gave a place to display our patriotism on a year-round basis, not just a holiday emphasis.”
Certain features of the flag park corner (circled colored concrete, green space, Sioux quartzite boulders, bronze benches and waste receptacles) will be carried out in all four corners of the Main Street and Highway 75 intersection.
The design committee worked with the affected four corners businesses — W-2 Meats, The Laundry Room and Remmedez Hair Salon — on plans for their respective corners.
A sign at W-2 Meats will be double-sided and back-lit with the opportunity for branding on each side to direct traffic to Luverne’s downtown retail district.
The flag park and four corners improvements were a cooperative venture between LIFT (which paid for the consulting work) and the city of Luverne.
The cost of the four corners improvements is still an estimate, but the cost of the lighted sign, which has not been formally approved, would be $25,000 to $30,000.
The flag park alone costs $34,962.
That includes:
$7,500 for flags and poles,
$6,400 for three benches and a waste receptacle.
$17,500 for the rounded, colored cement and textured cement within the park
$500 for the raised flowerbed structure
$1,260 for trees and shrubs, and
$1,800 for sod.
The Sioux quartzite boulders belong to the city, which acquired the stones when it purchased the Kruse property on the west edge of Luverne.
Julia and Burdell Kruse had operated Rock County Prairie Stone, and a major part of their inventory was sold to the city along with the 6.59 acres of land west of their home for $80,000.