GOOD HOPE — Lying within the city limits of Good Hope, the Exit 305 interchange at Interstate 65 already leads to one of the busiest and most well-traveled roads in Cullman County. But later this year, CR 222 will become an even higher-profile spot for getting off the interstate, thanks to an upgrade that I-65 drivers can’t miss — not even in the dark.

At its regular meeting Monday, Feb. 12, the Good Hope City Council passed a resolution authorizing Mayor Jerry Bartlett to enter into an agreement with the State of Alabama (and specifically ALDOT, the Alabama Department of Transportation), the official starting step toward the installation of pole-mounted interchange lighting at all four corners of the CR 222 exit off of I-65. It’s a significant milestone for the busy exit and for Good Hope, which has accumulated infrastructure in recent years to meet local leaders’ anticipation of the exit becoming the Cullman area’s next major interstate stop.

Does Bartlett consider a brighter, more visible interstate exit in his city a big deal? “You better believe it,” the mayor said. “We worked hard to get things to this point, and we feel like our talks with [Congressman] Robert Aderholt; going to Washington [D.C.] and doing the legwork — that it really helped us get this. The engineering work has already been done, and this just helps us clear the way to work with [ALDOT] to finally get it going.”

Under the agreement, federal funds will pay for most of the project’s estimated $1.08 million cost, covering $860,130 of the installation while the city taps its sales tax-funded economic development account to provide a required matching contribution of $215,003.25.

“‘The [city] council created our Economic Development Fund when we passed our half-cent sales tax, and it’s already grown to more than $400,000,” said Bartlett. “We’re going to take our matching money out of that fund to pay our part of the cost, because we feel like there’s nothing we could do that would help economic development better than a project like this. We have an interstate exit that is just primed for growth, and to have it lit up and visible makes it ten times more inviting to the public driving by. You can’t promote economic development any better than that.”

The CR 222 exit already serves as a gateway to industrial activity at sites like Topre America, as well as retail stops including a recently built Shell service station, Van’s Sporting Goods, the Mustard Seed Nursery, and a forthcoming microbrewery, wine shop and pizza kitchen currently under construction just west of the interstate. It’s also the stopping-off exit for the City of Cullman’s Park & Rec-operated Palomino RV Resort, as well as year ‘round recreational traffic heading toward Smith Lake.

Though he’s cautious about declaring a precise timeline, Bartlett said he’s confident that installation work will begin in time for the lights to be in place and operational sometime before the end of this year.